A Nation Descends into Violence

By Mathieu von Rohr

The Mexican government has been using the army to fight the nation’s drug cartels for about four years. It isn’t working. Some critics say the army is part of the problem, even if the occasional mission removes a kingpin. But President Felipe Calderón has no one else to trust.
Ivana García didn’t flee when two headless bodies were found in front of the city hall, nor did she leave when a body without arms or legs was hanging above a downtown square. But when fighting erupted on the street in front of her house, when mercenaries working for the drug cartels began firing their Kalashnikovs from armored vehicles, and when house-to-house skirmishes went on for hours, as if Ciudad Mier were a town in Afghanistan, not bordering the United States, she had no choice but to flee. In fact, almost the entire population, about 6,000 people, left Ciudad Mier. When they realized there was no one to protect them — no government, no army — they packed their belongings and left their homes.
Ciudad Mier used to be an inconspicuous Mexican municipality on the Rio Grande River, consisting of a colonial center and a few rectangular blocks of houses. Now it is known throughout the country as a ghost town — one of those symbolic places that exist all over Mexico. Each of these towns can tell the story of a nation descending into violence.
Horrific, but Commonplace
One of them is Ciudad Juárez, where more than 3,000 murders were committed this year alone, making it the most violent city in the world. Criminals battle each other in broad daylight in the resort town of Acapulco. In the village of Praxedis, a 20-year-old woman became police chief because no one else dared to accept the job. On a ranch in northern Mexico, a 77-year-old man shot and killed four of the gunmen who had been sent to kill him, only to be murdered by the rest. He was celebrated as a hero. Horrific news reports have become commonplace in Mexico. Some 29,000 people have died in drug wars within the past four years, and this year the number of killings doubled to about 12,000. An astonishing 98 percent of the crimes committed in Mexico remain unpunished.
It has been four years since President Felipe Calderón came to office promising to defeat the cartels, multibillion-dollar organizations that supply the United States, the world’s largest drug market, with cocaine, crystal meth, heroin and marijuana. Calderón mobilized 45,000 soldiers and federal police officers for his campaign. There was no one else he could trust, including local police forces and governors. The army is his only reliable tool.
There have certainly been many spectacular arrests. Famous drug kingpins were arrested or killed, including the leader of the “La Familia” cartel, who died earlier this month. But have these successes weakened the drug cartels? There are few indications that this is the case.
At first, many citizens saw the violent excesses as the beginning of a necessary evil. Recent opinion polls, however, show that a majority now opposes the government’s strategy. The newspapers are filled with reports of kidnappings, blackmail and beheadings. There are blogs that specialize in publishing photos of severed limbs taken with mobile phones.
It is easy to picture the savagery with which this war is being waged. But it is more difficult to understand why the violence doesn’t stop, what its causes are and what can be done about it. Could the legalization of drugs be the answer, as some experts suggest? Or maybe more border controls? Would a new national police force and a reform of the government solve the problem? Or is it best to simply leave the cartels alone, which for years was the government’s policy?
These are the questions that Mexico is asking itself in 2010, the 200th anniversary of the beginning of its war of independence. The filmmaker Luis Estrada has given his native country a bitter film for its anniversary: “El Infierno” (Hell). It is the portrait of a world consisting of nothing but narcos, whores and corruption. “We have a national problem, and it’s called impunity,” says Estrada, a soft-spoken man with glasses and a gray beard. “People who break the law aren’t punished. That’s why many believe that honesty doesn’t pay. We Mexicans are in hell, that’s for sure. I just don’t know which pit of hell it is at the moment.”

A Ghost-Town Census

It is a hot day in late November, and Ivana García has screwed up the courage to return to Ciudad Mier for the first time since she left. She walks through the abandoned streets of the town that was once hers, a 34-year-old woman in jeans, wearing gold-plated earrings and carrying a plastic purse. The army has hired her to count the number of people still living in the town, but there are few left to count. They offered her 700 pesos, or €42 ($55) a week. She was afraid to take the job, but she needed the money to pay the exorbitant rent for her apartment in Ciudad Alemán, the next town, where she now lives.
García and two other young women walk from house to house, knocking on doors that no one opens. The few people they encounter couldn’t afford to leave or are very old. The questionnaires the women have brought along in clear plastic binders include questions about income and the remaining residents’ opinions about safety. They represent the government’s clumsy attempt to demonstrate that it still exists. Two dozen soldiers follow the women, on foot and in pickup trucks armed with machine guns, securing the streets. Most of the houses they pass are riddled with bullet holes. Starving dogs slink across the dirt roads.
Some 400 people still live in a refugee camp in the next town. They have been there for more than four weeks, and most do not want to return to Ciudad Mier. They say that when the army withdraws, in a few weeks or months, the whole thing will start again.

‘Some States Remind Me of Afghanistan’

Ciudad Mier is in the northwestern panhandle of the state of Tamaulipas, a narrow strip of land bordering Texas. It is one of the areas some experts compare to failed states. One expert, Edgardo Buscaglia, who specializes in drug-related organized crime, is currently working in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In a telephone interview, he said he had stopped using the expression “Colombianization” to describe what’s happening in Mexico. “There are now areas in some states that remind me of what I see here in Afghanistan,” he said. Narcos, or drug dealers, control about 12 percent of Mexican territory, according to some estimates.
There are no longer any police officers or mayors in large sections of Tamaulipas and the northern part of Nuevo León, two states in northeastern Mexico. They were either killed or have fled, and now the narcos operate checkpoints on the streets.
The two drug cartels that are at war in Tamaulipas were allies until a year ago: The Gulf cartel and its paramilitary arm, the Zetas. Here, the term drug war isn’t just a metaphor for a series of gang murders, as it is in Ciudad Juárez. Instead, it describes a level of almost military violence between cartels, which send armies of adolescent “sicarios,” or killers, into battle, often better equipped than soldiers in the Mexican army.
A Code of Silence
The mayor of Ciudad Mier, a perfumed man who wears his shirt open at the chest, is standing in the town hall. He says he cannot give an interview, or else — and he runs his finger across the neck of this reporter to demonstrate what could happen to him if he did. The citizens of his town want to talk, but they also want to remain anonymous. There has always been drug smuggling here, they say, and the Zetas have always been in power. In a town where there was hardly any work for young men, the drug lords were able to entice recruits with the promise of fast money, cocaine and the prettiest girls.
Their villas, built in the ornamental narco style, with gilded railings and decorative columns, are still standing. The owners fled when the Zetas broke with the Gulf Cartel, and today they live in the United States or in Mexico City. There was a victory parade of sorts when the Gulf Cartel captured the town on Feb. 22. A motorcade of 60 SUVs and pickup trucks carrying heavily armed fighters drove into the streets of Ciudad Mier.
They killed five police officers that had worked for the Zetas, beheaded a police chief and a female drug dealer, and laid out the remains on the village square. After that, say local residents, the new gangs were friendly. Unlike the Zetas, they said hello to people on the street. But the fighting wasn’t over yet. In mid-October, Ivana García found a dead Zeta fighter on the street. She had never seen the man. He must have been a mercenary from somewhere else, she thought, a young man wearing brown trousers and with a muscular torso. He was lying in a pool of blood.
On Nov. 2, the Zetas returned, driving 40 heavily armored SUVs with gun barrels poking out of their sides. The ensuing battle wore on for days and nights, killing many, and leading to the departure of residents and the arrival of the army.
The soldiers stalking along behind García as she walks through Ciudad Mier hold their rifles at the ready, as if someone could shoot at them at any moment. They storm suspicious-looking houses. The hooded commander says that he doesn’t know whether all of the bandits were driven out. The government of Tamaulipas claims the town is now safe and has called upon the local population to return to their homes. By the end of her first day of work, García has counted six inhabited houses.

‘Narco Saints,’ Money and Girls

Almost no other business in the world is as lucrative as the drug trade. The United Nations estimates that $72 billion (€55 billion) worth of drugs are sold each year. Cocaine is the most profitable of all drugs. Cocaine paste costs $800 a kilo (2.2 pounds) in Colombia, and in Chicago a buyer pays $100 a gram. The price goes up by 12,400 percent along the way. Mexican cartels smuggle an estimated 192 tons to the United States each year.
There are seven drug cartels in Mexico. While alliances often change, almost all the groups have their origins in Sinaloa, a state on Mexico’s west coast known as the birthplace of the narcos. The area is home to Joaquín Guzmán, also called El Chapo, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel. He’s the world’s most glamorous drug lord, as evidenced by the fact that Forbes includes him on its list of the wealthiest people in the world. (No one, however, has access to his bank statements. Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, is the Rotterdam of the cocaine trade, the place where prices are set. It lies between the Pacific Ocean and the green hills of the Sierra, where farmers grow marijuana and opium poppies. It is a friendly-looking city of 600,000 with whitewashed homes, though Culiacán has the second-highest murder rate in the country.
For the past two years, El Chapo has been battling his former allies, the Beltrán Leyva brothers. It is a war of kings, and when author Elmer Mendoza tells the story, it sounds like a Greek tragedy. Mendoza, 61, is a bearded, soft-spoken man born in Culiacán, where his crime novels are set. He portrays this world so realistically that some accuse him of being a narco author.
“I’ve been hearing their legends since I was a child,” he says. “These people had bigger houses and the most beautiful girls, and sometimes songs were even written in their honor.” There is a folk hero in Sinaloa, Jesús Malverde, who is known as the “narco saint,” a Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor. Many believe that El Chapo is his revenant, a hero of the people. Mendoza says that what is happening to his country is terrible. “But as an author, I admire people who do extraordinary things. Isn’t there something epic about bringing a shipment of cocaine from Medellín to Los Angeles?”

Culiacán, Ground Zero

The gang war that originated in Culiacán and eventually engulfed half the country began on Jan. 21, 2008, when the army arrested the drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, known as El Mochomo, in a simple house in the Tierra Blanca neighborhood. Did El Chapo tip off the army? Convinced that he did, the Beltrán Leyva brothers brought Zeta mercenaries into the city and began killing everyone who worked for him, including police officers, judges, politicians and journalists.
These people had believed that El Chapo would protect them, but then the Zetas shot and killed one of his sons in a shopping center parking lot. “People began to doubt their hero. They were afraid,” says Mendoza. “Isn’t that beautiful, from a purely literary point of view?” The author stands in the cemetery of Culiacán, the narcos’ final resting place. The graveyard is a city of marble and domed mausoleums known as Jardines del Humaya. It’s the size of several football fields, and it continues to grow.
They’re all buried here, side-by-side — the drug lords and their rivals, their children and the 18-year-old killers who, at the end of their brief lives, were at least able to afford some measure of splendor. The larger than life-sized portraits of young men with hard features hang in giant, 10-meter-tall mausoleums, next to pictures of their girlfriends and their weapons.
Nowhere in Culiacán is the power of the drug cartels as palpable as it is here. This is their temple city, and anyone who desecrates their graves can expect to receive death threats from the scouts and guards before long.
The Absent Government
Why isn’t El Chapo, the most powerful of all drug lords, in prison? He’s been living in a secret location for years. Is the government incompetent, or is it protecting a cartel? Many credible people believe the government has an agreement with the drug lord. Some believe that it is trying to solve the violence problem by handing over the drug trade to one cartel. In a recently published book, investigative journalists Anabel Hernández claims that former President Vicente Fox allowed El Chapo to escape from a maximum security prison in 2001 in return for a payment of $20 million. According to Hernandez, the Calderón government knows his whereabouts, but instead of arresting him it is eliminating his enemies.
There are many rumors and conspiracy theories in Mexico. What is perhaps most remarkable about them is what people believe their government to be capable of. They have little faith in federal institutions, which are weak. Mexico has been a real democracy only for the last 10 years, after being controlled for 70 years by a single party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI protected organized crime, but also held it in check.
President Calderón declared war on the cartels, but he lacked the necessary tools. The police are corrupt at almost every level, and in some communities they’re identical with the ruling cartel, which helps to explain why so many municipal officers are murdered. The justice system is also viewed as corrupt. There are no independent prosecutors, and charges are never brought in many cases, because they are handled poorly or because defendants buy their way out.
The army is the only institution that Calderón can trust, although the story of Ciudad Mier reveals how ineffective it is. Soldiers can occupy a territory, but they cannot investigate or penetrate the structures of a cartel. According to security consultant Alberto Islas, a cartel is like a logistics company with a military arm. Instead of scrutinizing the structures, the government becomes embroiled in skirmishes with 18-year-old foot soldiers.

A ‘Decapitation Strategy’

The government has hardly any functioning investigative agencies. Mexico receives key information from US government agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Americans provide the army with information on the whereabouts of drug lords, allowing the Mexican soldiers to capture or kill them. This “decapitation strategy” produces reports of successes, but no real success. The cartels quickly replace their leaders.
The massive deployment of the military also poses a threat to society. Throughout Mexico, soldiers have been accused of hundreds of cases of human rights violations and torture, even murder. Critics say the large number of military operations is responsible for the violence in the first place, because it has destroyed equilibriums and triggered turf wars across the country.
The army cannot solve Mexico’s real problems — poverty, lack of education and weak government. Most experts agree on how Mexico ought to liberate itself. The only question is whether anyone has the political power to do it.
The country is a long way from being a stable democratic society, says Luís Astorga, a social scientist in Mexico City. The biggest challenge, according to Astorga, is to create a constitutional state strong enough to resist the power and money of the cartels. This requires nonpartisan political will; but Astorga says representatives of the three major parties all have their hands in the drug business. Astorga says he does not believe the government is cooperating with a cartel. But as long as there are no independent judges, he believes, there will always be rumors and speculation.
Many yearn for simple solutions; they believe in a return to the days when the cartels were allowed to do as they pleased. Even some high-level politicians say privately that the problem is drug consumption in the United States, and that it’s time to legalize marijuana. But the cartels are involved in up to 22 other types of crimes as well, including film piracy, human trafficking and extortion.
Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution in Washington says that bringing in the army was unavoidable, but that what is important now is to finally develop a functioning police force. Mexico does have plans for a national police reform, but they are making slow progress Edgardo Buscaglia, the expert on drug-related crime, and his team studied 17 countries that have successfully fought organized crime. He says that all of them took the same four important steps.
• First, says Buscaglia, comes a reform of the judicial system.
• Second, laws are needed to fight corruption in politics, because 70 percent of all election campaigns in the country are partially financed with drug money.
• Third, Mexico must investigate the flow of funds from the drug trade into the economy. According to Buscaglia, 78 percent of the Mexican economy has ties to the drug cartels.
• Finally, social programs are needed for young people, as the Colombian city of Medellín has demonstrated. Such programs are meant to turn young people’s attention away from a life working for the cartels — a life that can end quickly.

Taking Back Mexico, With PowerPoint

There are many ideas, but who is there to implement them?
Javier Treviño, the lieutenant governor of Nuevo León, has a plan that consists of a large number of PowerPoint slides. He wants to eliminate violence in Monterrey, the city where he lives, and in the surrounding state. Treviño, a short man with a moustache and glasses, speaks English with an American accent. He studied at Harvard, then worked as a diplomat and later in private industry, before he entered politics. He’s one of the few people in Mexico who have not lost faith in the ability of politics to shape the country.
Perhaps it is also a question of honor for Monterrey, Mexico’s wealthiest city. Located in the northeastern part of the country, 140 kilometers (88 miles) south of the US border and surrounded by mountains on three sides, Monterrey resembles an American city, with its glass and marble office towers. Many of the country’s most important companies are headquartered there.
It came as a shock to the city’s affluent citizens when, at the beginning of the year, members of the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel suddenly started shooting each other on their streets. The battle being waged in Ciudad Mier had moved to the middle of Monterrey, an economic center that was always immune to chaos elsewhere in Mexico. Many of the wealthy left town, or even the country — including the publisher of the country’s most important newspaper, La Reforma, who fled to Dallas.
Treviño is proud of the 29 slides in his presentation, which he shows to every visitor. His plan includes all the elements the think tanks have deemed necessary: social programs and reforms of the judiciary and the criminal code. The state of Nuevo León has also established a statewide police force that it hopes will finally be clean and effective. The officers will be required to take regular lie-detector tests. They will be paid well enough to end their dependence on bribes; they will receive scholarships for their children.
Nuevo León is to become a model for all of Mexico, says Treviño. It sounds like an effective plan. And who knows? It might even work. Once it is implemented, there might be at least one state in Mexico with a functioning police force. Treviño wants to make a start by strengthening institutions and society, and what better place to launch such an effort than Monterrey, the most advanced city in the country?
He continues clicking through his slides. The next one shows the country’s highway network. Two of the five main highways in the north are colored dark red, which means that they are safe for travel. The goal for 2011, says Treviño, is to make the three other highways safe as well.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

Source: www.spiegel online 23rd Dec. 2010

Amsterdam bans smoking of marijuana in some public places

AMSTERDAM – A majority of the city council in Amsterdam voted in favour of introducing a city-wide ban on smoking marijuana in public in areas where young people smoking joints have been causing public nuisance.
The decision comes after a successful trial ban in the De Baarsjes district of Amsterdam.
The experimental ban led to less public nuisance, city district De Baarsjes concluded after the year-long trial.
Source: Expatica.com Jan 2007

The State Government figures show that out of 4619 drivers pulled over, one in 73 tested positive to either cannabis or methamphetamines. This compared to an average of one in 250 drivers testing positive for alcohol. The results surprised police.

The results come just two days after research by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre showed 57 per cent of clubbers admitted driving under the influence of alcohol and 52 per cent under the influence of cannabis. The VicRoads-commissioned study reported that just under half of those surveyed admitted driving soon after taking other drugs.

43% said they had taken ecstasy and 42 % speed.

Source: Minister for Police & Emergency Services. Victoria. Australia. April 15 2005

June 28, 2004
Vol. 13, Issue 26

Nine behaviours and attitudes differentiate students who used marijuana before age 15 from those who had not, according to an analysis of data from the 2002 Maryland Adolescent Survey (MAS). Overall, one-fifth of Maryland 12th grade students reported using marijuana before age 15. A scale of 9 warning signs of early marijuana use among 12thgraders was developed from an analysis of the MAS data (see below). The scale also detected early use among 8th and 10th graders. The more warning signs a student had, the more likely he or she was to have used marijuana early . For example, approximately three-fourths of 12th graders with 6 or more warning signs were early marijuana users, compared to 3% of 12th graders with no warning signs. Students with more warning signs also reported using a greater number of other illegal drugs*and experiencing a greater number of serious problems **resulting from drug and alcohol use report, “Warning Signs for Early Marijuana Users Among Maryland’s Public School Students,” discusses the implications of these findings for intervening with youth and implementing prevention programs. Complimentary copies of the report can be ordered by contacting CESAR at cesar@cesar.umd.eduor 301-405-9770.

Behaviors•
Cigarette use before age 15
•Alcohol use before age 15
•20 or more unexcused absences
•Drug arrest
•Alcohol arrest
Attitudes/Opinions
•Smoking marijuana is safe
•Smoking cigarettes is safe
•My parents think it’s okay to smoke marijuana
•My parents think it’s okay to smoke

SOURCE: Maryland Drug Early Warning System (DEWS), CESAR, “Warning Signs for Early Marijuana Users Among Maryland’s Public School Students,” DEWS Investigates, June 2004. For more information, contact Dr. Eric Wish at ewish@cesar.umd.edu.

Steroid users appear more likely to commit crimes involving weapons and fraud, scientists in Sweden report.
Steroids are linked to manic episodes, depression, suicide, psychotic episodes and increased aggression and hostility, occasionally triggering violent behavior, including murder.
Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden studied the relationship between crime and steroid use in 1,440 Swedish residents tested for the drugs between 1995 and 2001 from clinics, including substance abuse facilities, as well as police and customs stations.
Of those involved in the study, 241 tested positive, with an average age of about 20.
The research team found those who tested positive for steroid use were roughly twice as likely to have been convicted of a weapons offense and one-and-a-half times as likely to have been convicted of fraud.
When the researchers excluded people from substance abuse facilities from their analysis the connection with armed crime remained, but the link between steroid use and fraud disappeared.
While steroids are linked with outbursts of uncontrolled violence known as “‘roid rage,” they did not appear to be connected with sexual offenses, violent crimes such as murder, assault and robbery, or crimes against property such as theft.
This investigation instead reveals that steroid use may be linked with premeditated crimes—those involving preparation and advance planning.
One explanation the researchers suggest for the findings is that criminals involved in serious crimes such as armed robbery or the collection of crime-related debts might benefit from the muscularity, heavy build and increase in aggression that comes with steroid use.
The scientists report their findings in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Source: Fox News Live Science Monday , November 06, 2006

Long-term alcoholics are running the risk of permanent brain damage, according a study published today.
Research has shown that while the brain can regenerate following damage caused by drink, it struggles more after longer periods.
Scanning technology and computer software was used to analyse how the form, function and size of brains in 15 patients changed over a period of six to seven weeks after they gave up alcohol. The researchers, from the UK, Switzerland and Italy, found that brain size increased by an average of almost 2 per cent 38 days after the start of the study.
Levels of chemicals that indicate how intact the brain’s nerve cells and sheaths are also rose significantly, by around 10 per cent to 20 per cent.
Only one patient appeared to continue to lose brain volume and he was the one who had been drinking the longest, for 25 years, the study found.
Dr Andreas Bartsch, from the University of Wuerzburg in Germany, who led the research, said: “The core message from this study is that, for alcoholics, abstention pays off and enables the brain to regain some substance and to perform better.
“However, our research also provides evidence that the longer you drink excessively, the more you risk losing the capacity for regeneration.” The results of such brain scans could be used to help keep alcoholics motivated on staying sober, Dr Bartsch added.
Furthermore, the findings, published in the online edition of the journal Brain, did not simply reflect rehydration.
“Instead, the adult human brain, and particularly its white matter [where nerve fibres are], seems to possess genuine capabilities for regrowth,” Dr Bartsch said.

Scotsman Source: www.aa-uk.org.uk Dec/ 18 2006

Research Summary

Fifth-grade students who took part in comprehensive, interactive school-based prevention programs starting as early as first grade were half as likely as their peers to use alcohol or other drugs, act out violently, or engage in sexual activity, according to a new study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
“This study provides compelling evidence that intervening with young children is a promising approach to preventing drug use and other problem behaviors,” said NIDA Director Nora Volkow. “The fact that an intervention beginning in the first grade produced a significant effect on children’s behavior in the fifth grade strengthens the case for initiating prevention programs in elementary school, before most children have begun to engage in problem behaviors.”
Researchers led by Brian Flay of Oregon State University studied students at 20 public elementary schools in Hawaii who had participated daily in Positive Action (PA), a comprehensive K-12 program focusing on social and emotional development. Students who had received the PA lessons the longest had the least amount of problem behaviors, the study found.
The authors will next look at whether the PA program had lasting effects on older students.

Source: American Journal of Public Health June 18, 2009

Media reports on illicit drugs “reduce acceptability and increase perception of risk” among young people, study finds.
Mainstream media reporting is far more likely to deter young people from using illicit drugs than encourage their use, a new Australian study has found.
But the study also found that types of reports most likely to have the strongest impact on young people – those on social and health consequences of drug taking – were underrepresented in the media.
The study by the Drug Policy Modelling Program at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW, and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, measured the impact of media reports on illicit drugs on the attitudes of over 2,000 young people aged 16 – 24.
The study also analysed 4,000 newspaper reports referring to illicit drugs and found that just over half focussed on criminal justice and legal issues, while only 24 per cent highlighted the health or social problems associated with drug taking.
Participants were shown eight different types of reports and their responses were measured.
Chief Investigator of the study Dr Caitlin Hughes, a Research Fellow at NDARC’s Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP), said that while drugs are one of the most common motifs in popular culture and one of the most frequently reported on there is very little research anywhere in the world on how media reporting on illicit drug issues influences attitudes or behaviour on illicit drug use..
“We know from related fields that media messages can influence people’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
“It is commonly assumed that news media can incite drug use,” said Dr Hughes.
“Our research has found that the opposite is the case. Most media portrayals appear to reduce interest in illicit drugs, at least in the short term.
“They increase perceptions of risk, reduce perceptions of acceptability and reduce the reported likelihood of future drug use,” said Dr Hughes.
”But the irony is that the messages that are most effective at deterring youth interest in drugs are currently under-represented in Australian news media,” said Dr Hughes.
News items which focussed on the health and social issues – for example evidence about cannabis and psychosis or cannabis and poor educational outcomes – were more likely to have a deterrent effect than reports on drug busts and arrests.

“Our results show clearly there is an opportunity to better harness the media to shape young peoples’ attitudes to illicit drugs.
We are not saying news media is the silver bullet in drug prevention, but given news media is so pervasive we do think it ought to be recognised, both within Australian and internationally, as a potentially powerful tool for preventing illicit drug use.”

Key points:
• A total of 2,296 youth aged 16-24 years completed the survey
• All youth were shown 8 different media messages about drugs (on the two most commonly used drugs in Australia – cannabis and ecstasy)
• 66.4% and 86.5% of participants had weekly or more frequent contact with television news, online news, radio news and/or print newspapers
• Most news media messages elicited moderate to large impacts on youth attitudes. Negative health or social messages elicited large impacts on youth attitudes.
• Messages on ecstasy had greater impact on youth than messages on cannabis
• Females more likely to be deterred from use than males
• People who have never used drugs more likely to be deterred than current users
• Reports on criminal arrests significantly less persuasive than reports about negative health or social consequences
• Across all drugs, criminal justice/law enforcement topics accounted for 55% of all topics
• 60% of articles emphasised that illicit drugs lead to legal problems. 14% health problems, 10% social problems, 10% cost to society and 6% other (4% neutral and 2% benefits)
• Tabloids were more likely to emphasise legal problems: 71% compared to 61% for broadsheet
• 11 newspapers, one national, seven major metropolitan, in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and three local in Geelong, Newcastle and Sydney were reviewed

What they said: (comments from the focus groups).
Re power of media to dissuade youth drug use:
“Media is probably one of the few ways that prevention message(s) can keep being pushed.” (20 year old female)
“When I was younger… the way that that was portrayed in the media totally shaped the way that I saw drugs.” (22 year old female)
Re fatal overdose of a young person:
“I think that would convince me not to take drugs. Just „cause……I feel sorry for her.” (17 year old male)

Source: Media reporting on illicit drugs in Australia: trends and impacts on youth attitudes to illicit drug use. Drug Policy Modelling Program, September 2010. It can be accessed through: http://www.dpmp.unsw.edu.au

Health and social services are facing a new challenge, as many illicit drug users get older and face chronic health problems and a reduced quality of life. That is one of the key findings of research published in the September issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
UK researchers interviewed eleven people aged 49 to 61 in contact with voluntary sector drug treatment services.
“This exploratory study, together with our wider research, suggest that older people who continue to use problematic or illegal drugs are emerging as an important, but relatively under-researched, international population” says lead author Brenda Roe, Professor of Health Research at Edge Hill University, UK.
“They are a vulnerable group, as their continued drug use, addiction and life experiences result in impaired health, chronic conditions, particular health needs and poorer quality of life. Despite this, services for older drug addicts are not widely available or accessed in the UK.”
Figures from the USA suggest that the number of people over 50 seeking help for drug or alcohol problems will have risen from 1.7 million in 2000 to 4.4 million by 2020. And the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction estimates that the number of people aged 65 and over requiring treatment in Europe will double over the same period.
The nine men and two women who took part in the study had an average age of 57. All were currently single and their homes ranged from a caravan, hostel or care home to social housing. Key findings from the study – by the Evidence-based Practice Research Centre at Edge Hill University and the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University – included:
• Most started taking drugs as adolescents or young adults, often citing recreational use, experimenting or being part of the hippy era. Child abuse and the death of a parent were also mentioned.
Some started taking drugs late in life due to stressful life events like divorce or death. Meeting a drug using partner was another trigger. One man started taking drugs later in life to shock his drug taking partner into stopping and ended up developing a drug habit himself.
• First drug use varied from magic mushrooms, LSD, amphetamines and cannabis to heroin and methadone. Alcohol and smoking often featured alongside drug use.
• Some increased their drug use over time, while others had periods when they tried to reduce or even abstain from drugs. All but two of the participants were taking methadone, either as maintenance or as part of a reduction strategy in order to give up drugs.
• A number of the participants said they were trying to use drugs responsibly and it was felt that their age and the influence of drug treatment services were factors in this. They also appeared more aware of the need to maintain their personal safety, based on previous experiences.
• Most recognised that their drug use was having detrimental and cumulative effects on their health, as they had developed a range of chronic and life-threatening conditions that required hospitalisation and ongoing treatment.
• Physical health conditions included: circulatory problems such as deep vein thrombosis, injection site ulcers, stroke, respiratory problems, pneumonia, diabetes, hepatitis and liver cirrhosis. Malnutrition, weight loss and obesity also featured, as did accidental injuries due to falls and drug overdoses.
• Common mental health problems included memory loss, paranoia and changed mood states, with anxiety or anger also featuring.
• All wished they hadn’t started taking drugs and would advise young people not to. A few were keen to give up, but others felt it was too hard. One man described his drug use as “disgusting and squalid” while another said that the older he got the worse his drug use got and that it was a “crazy” situation.
• All were single or divorced and drug use was a common factor in relationship breakdowns. Most lived alone, with three relying on carers who were also drug users. Pets were often important for some, providing companionship as well as a sense of responsibility and structure to their day.
• Drug use was often associated with chaotic lifestyles and relationships and some reported periods of imprisonment.
• Participants were positive about the support they received from voluntary drug services, but had mixed experiences of primary and hospital care. Some felt stigmatised by healthcare professionals, while others received compassion and acknowledgement of their drug use.
“Our population is ageing and the people who started using drugs in the sixties are now reaching retirement age” says Professor Roe.
“It is clear that further research is needed to enable health and social care professionals to develop appropriate services for this increasingly vulnerable group. We also feel that older drug users could play a key role in educating younger people about the dangers of drug use.”

Source: ww.news-medical.net/news 9th Sept 2010

The CDC announced the 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) found that 1 in 5 high school students have ever taken a prescription drug such as OxyContin (oxycodone, from Purdue), Percocet (oxycodone/acetaminophen, from Endo), Vicodin (hydrocodone/acetaminophen, from Abbott), Adderall (mixed salts of a single-entity amphetamine product, from Shire), Ritalin (methylphenidate, from Novartis), or Xanax (alprazolam, from Pfizer), without a prescription. Data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network show that in 2008, people 12–20 years of age accounted for an estimated 141,417 (14.5%) of the 971,914 emergency department visits for nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals, not including suicide attempts.

Source: http://www.empr.com June 2010

Montana and other states that have legalized medical marijuana are seeing a backlash, with public anger rising and politicians passing laws to slow the proliferation of pot shops and bring order to what has become a wide-open, Wild West sort of industry.
They are looking to avoid what happened in California, which allowed the pot industry to grow so out of control that at one point Los Angeles had more medical marijuana shops than Starbucks – about 1,000 by one count.
“Yeah, it’s out of control – and it needs control, if not extinction,” Montana Sen. Jim Shockley said Friday. “There’s no control over distribution. There’s no control over who’s growing it. There’s no control in dosage.”
Fourteen states have legalized medical marijuana, beginning with California in 1996, and the District of Columbia followed suit this month. The laws allow chronically ill people to buy marijuana with permission from a doctor.
But many of these states passed their laws without working out the details. And they weren’t ready for the boom in pot shops that occurred this past year after the Obama administration announced it wouldn’t prosecute medical marijuana users.
In some places, law enforcement officials and civic leaders are complaining that there are too many marijuana dispensaries, that buyers and sellers are falling victim to robberies and break-ins, that driving-under-the-influence arrests are on the rise, and that the pot is being sold indiscriminately and winding up on the black market.
Some state and local governments are now rushing to put regulations in place.
Colorado lawmakers passed sweeping rules this month for pot growers and the estimated 1,100 shops selling marijuana, creating a new state bureaucracy led by auditors and criminal investigators who would monitor the industry to make sure, for example, that the drug is being sold only to patients who have a doctor’s recommendation.
Regulators expect only about half of the state’s dispensaries to continue operating under the stricter rules.
The Billings City Council approved a six-month moratorium on new medical marijuana businesses in May after the violence against pot businesses the previous two nights. On Thursday, the city of about 90,000 people ordered 25 of Billings’ 81 pot businesses to shut down after discovering they were not properly registered with the state.

Los Angeles officials recently took steps to shut down hundreds of dispensaries and ensure that the remaining ones meet stringent new guidelines. Owners must undergo a background check, their stores must be 1,000 feet from schools, parks and other gathering sites, and their pot must be tested at an independent laboratory.
Montana’s medical board is considering curbing mass screenings and teleconferences that make it easy for people to get a marijuana card. Montana in recent days has seen “cannabis caravans,” mobile operations that pass through town, charging people $100 to $150 for a doctor’s recommendation to smoke pot.
The push for tighter regulation has infuriated medical marijuana users.
“They are creating ordinances and moratoriums that are blatantly against the law,” said Jason Christ, founder of the Montana Caregivers Network, the group that organizes the cannabis caravans. “They do not serve to protect the welfare of our citizens, and they do no good.”
In Colorado earlier this month, veterans in wheelchairs, college students and dispensary owners packed legislative hearings to speak out against the regulations. The hearings lasted eight hours and reached a fever pitch when several people had to be removed for shouting at lawmakers.
Medical marijuana has been around for more than five years in Montana, but the boom came this past year. The number of registered users in Montana, a state with a population of just under 1 million, has gone from 2,923 last June to about 15,000 today. The number of registered suppliers has increased from 919 to about 5,000.
DUI arrests involving marijuana have skyrocketed, as have traffic fatalities where marijuana was found in the system of one of the drivers, Montana narcotics chief Mark Long told a legislative committee last month.
Also, Montana confidentiality laws prevent law enforcement from knowing where most medical marijuana businesses are, and civic leaders complain they don’t know whether the shops are up to city and fire codes or close to churches, schools or parks.
During Colorado’s legislative debate, state Sen. Chris Romer quoted the Grateful Dead as he contemplated the spectacle of lawmakers actually passing regulations for the legal sale of marijuana: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

Source: The Associated Press Friday, May 21, 2010

Opiate addiction-treatment admissions have risen from 16 percent to 20 percent of all admissions in the last decade, and marijuana admissions have also ticked upwards even as cocaine admissions declined, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Marijuana admissions rose from 13 percent of total admissions in 1998 to 17 percent in 2008, while cocaine admissions fell from 15 percent to 11 percent. Admissions for addiction to stimulant drugs rose from 4 percent to 6 percent.
“Although the concurrent abuse of both alcohol and drugs has remained widespread, the proportion of treatment admissions for the co-abuse of these substances has declined gradually yet significantly during this period from 44 percent to 38 percent,” added SAMHSA. “At the same time there has been a steady rise in the proportion of treatment admissions attributed to drug abuse alone from 26 percent in 1998 to 37 percent in 2008, while the proportion of admissions attributed to alcohol alone fell from 27 percent in 1998 to 23 percent in 2008.”
Teen drug admissions dropped 10 percent between 2002 and 2008 after rising 13 percent from 1998 to 2001. Nearly 4 of 5 teen treatment admissions involved marijuana use, and about half were referrals from the criminal-justice system.
The National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment (TEDS) report is available online in PDF format.

Source: SAMHSA Report May 2010

Combining a randomised trial with a ‘real-world’ test, studies of the Dutch Drinking Less programme have gone further than any others to establish the beneficial impacts of web-based alcohol self-help interventions.

Abstract

The study was a ‘real-world’ test of a promising Dutch internet-based self-help intervention for problem drinking. A previous randomised trial employing the methodological safeguards possible in tightly controlled research (particularly the recruitment of a comparison group not given access to the intervention) had established that the intervention reduced drinking. At issue in the featured study was whether similar drinking reductions would be seen when the intervention was made freely available to the general public. If they were, then the assumption could be made that these too were caused by having access to the intervention.

Drinking Less is an on-line, interactive programme with no personal therapist input. Aimed at risky drinkers among the general adult population, the intervention is based on principles derived from motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural therapies and self-control training. Its home page offers links to alcohol-related information, treatment services, a discussion forum, and the Drinking Less self-help programme, the core of the intervention. Over a recommended six weeks (though this is entirely up to the user) the programme guides visitors in preparing to change their drinking, setting goals , implementing change, and finally sustaining it, preferably by drinking within recommended limits.
The earlier trial had found that six months later, at least 17% of adult problem drinkers randomly allocated to this intervention had reduced their drinking to within Dutch guidelines, compared to just 5% allocated to an on-line alcohol education brochure. Before the study, both groups had averaged about 55 UK units a week. At follow-up, the Drinking Less group had cut consumption to about 36 UK units a week, but the brochure group had barely changed.
The featured study monitored what happened when over 10 months spanning 2007 and 2008 the web site was advertised to the Dutch public. During this time round 27,500 people visited the site, of whom 1625 signed up for the self-help programme, accessing it on average 23 times. Typically they were well educated, employed, middle-aged men. On average they drank about 50 UK units a week, and nearly all who completed the on-line AUDIT screening questionnaire scored in a range indicative of alcohol abuse or dependence.
During the first seven of the 10 months, 378 of site visitors who signed up to the Drinking Less programme also agreed to participate in research to assess its impact. On average they drank roughly the same amount (95% exceeded Dutch guidelines) as all 1625 who signed up and were also similar in age, sex, employment, and motivation to change. Despite some statistically significant differences, they were also broadly similar to participants in the earlier randomised trial. Over 8 in 10 had never received professional help for their drinking. A few weeks later a survey suggested that after signing up, nearly 9 in 10 went on to use the programme, though generally only a few times.
Of the 378 in the baseline sample, 153 responded to an on-line follow-up survey six months later. Before signing up to the programme, just 4% had confined their drinking within Dutch guidelines; six month later, 39% did so. They had also nearly halved their average consumption from 50 UK units to 27. On the ‘fail-safe’ assumption that the intervention had no impact on people who were not followed up, still the drinking reductions were statistically significant; from 5%, the proportion drinking within guidelines rose to 19%, and consumption fell from 51 UK units to 42.
Next the analysts compared these results with those from the six-month follow-up in the randomised trial. Based only on respondents to the follow-up surveys, and adjusting for differences between the samples, in the ‘real-world’ test over twice as many (unadjusted figures 36% v. 19%) people moved to drinking within Dutch guidelines. When the assumption was made that in both trials the intervention had no impact on people not followed up, the figures still favoured the ‘real-world’ test (15% v. 10%), but the difference was no longer statistically significant.
The researchers concluded that the featured study had shown that the benefits established by the randomised controlled trial would be sustained when the intervention was made routinely and generally available to the public. The expected throughput of 3000 Drinking Less programme users a year would amount to nearly 3% of the country’s problem drinkers who would otherwise not have received professional help. Probably because they require the drinker to take the initiative and visit the site, such interventions reach people who, compared to the totality of problem drinkers, are more likely to be women, employed, highly educated, and motivated to change their drinking. Given its low cost per user, this type of intervention seems to have a worthwhile place in a public health approach to reducing alcohol-related problems.
Though only a minority of site visitors may sign up for web-based alcohol programmes, nevertheless the numbers engaged can be very large, and the risk-reductions seem of the order typical in studies of brief advice to drinkers identified in health care settings. In these settings screening programmes typically identify people who are not actually seeking help for drinking problems – ‘pushing’ them towards intervention and change – while web sites ‘pull’ in people already curious or concerned about their drinking. As such these two gateways can play complementary roles in improving public health and offering change opportunities to people who would not present to alcohol treatment services. However, in Britain and elsewhere, both tactics reach only small fractions of the population who drinking excessively, leaving the bulk of the public health work to be done by interventions which drinkers generally cannot avoid and do not have seek out, such as price increases and availability restrictions.
With its combination of a randomised trial and a ‘real-world’ test, the featured research programme has gone further than any other in establishing the beneficial impacts of web-based alcohol interventions. However, largely because many site users do not complete research surveys, it remains impossible to be sure that the results seen in such studies will be replicated across the entire usership of the sites. Details below.

Strengths and limitations of the featured study

The featured study’s combination of a randomised trial with all its methodological safeguards, and a ‘real-world’ trial approximating normal conditions, affords what seems to be the best indication to date of the contribution web-based self-help interventions could make to reducing heavy drinking and associated health risks. However, its twin pillars are weakened by the fact that many people either did not join the studies or did not supply follow-up data; those who did may not have been typical of all the people who might access such sites. In the randomised trial, 40% of the baseline sample did not complete the six-month follow-up survey, and in the featured study, nearly 60%. Though on the measures taken by the study the respondents generally seemed typical of the baseline sample, clearly something was sufficiently different to cause them to respond while the others did not. In both studies this problem was catered for by assuming that non-responders were also non-changers. Though this almost certainly underestimated the impact of the intervention, still in both there remained significant and worthwhile improvements.
What could not be catered for in either study was the degree to which people who join such studies differ from the much greater number who would use the web sites, but decline participation in research. This problem was especially apparent in the featured study, in which it seems that around 6% of site visitors signed up for the self-help programme. Of these, perhaps a third or slightly more of the people who signed up for the programme during the relevant period also agreed to participate in the research. In some important ways (including amount drunk and motivation to change) they seemed similar to the bulk of programme sign-ups, though the researchers suspect they were more likely to have engaged with the programme.

Opening more doors to change for more people

A review of computer-based alcohol services for the general public has rehearsed the advantages: immediate, convenient access for people (the majority in developed nations) connected to the internet; consequently able to capitalise on what may be fleeting resolve; anonymous services sidestep the embarrassment or stigma which might deter help-seeking; such services are available to people unwilling or less able to talk about their problems to a stranger; generally they are free and entail no travel costs or lost income due to time off work; very low operating cost per user if widely accessed; easily updated. In consumption terms, the drinking problems of web site users are comparable to those of drinkers who seek treatment, yet few have received professional help, perhaps partly because their higher socioeconomic status and greater resources have enabled them to restrict the consequential damage. People who actually engage with web-based assessments of their drinking problems have more severe problems than those who just visit and leave. Including the randomised trial which paved the way for the featured study, the review found eight studies which evaluated the effectiveness of computer-based interventions for the general public. In all but one the users significantly improved on at least one of the alcohol-related measures recorded by the studies.
A particular role for alcohol self-help sites may be to offer an easy, quick and accessible way to for drinkers to actualise their desire to tackle their problems, especially when that desire is allied with the resources to implement and sustain improvements without face-to-face or comprehensive assistance. After conducting the Project MATCH trial, some of the world’s leading alcohol treatment researchers argued that “access to treatment may be as important as the type of treatment available”. The implication is that in cultures which accept ‘treatment’ as a route to resolving unhealthy and/or undesirable drinking, having convincing-looking and accessible ‘treatment doors’ to go through may be more important than what lies behind those doors, as long as this fulfils the expectations of the client or patient. This is likely to be especially the case for people who retain a stake in conventional society in the form of marriages, jobs, families, and a reputation to lose. These populations – the kind the featured study suggests are attracted to self-help alcohol therapy web sites – have more of the ‘recovery capital’ resources needed to themselves do most of the work in curbing their drinking.

The British Down Your Drink site

The best known British alcohol self-help web site is the Down Your Drink site run by a team based at University College London, an initiative originally funded by the Alcohol Education and Research Council and now by the Medical Research Council’s National Prevention Research Initiative. In 2007 this was revised to offer set programmes from a one-hour brief intervention to several weeks, but also to generally give the user greater control over the use they made of the site. The approach remained based on principles and techniques derived from motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioural therapies.
The previous version had been structured as six consecutive modules to be accessed weekly. An analysis of data provided by the first 10,000 people who registered at the site after piloting ended in September 2003 revealed that most were in their 30s and 40s, half were women, nearly two-thirds were married or living with a partner, just 4% were unemployed, and most reported occupations from higher socioeconomic strata. As an earlier study commented, site users were predominantly middle class, middle aged, white and European. Six in 10 either did not start the programme, or completed just the first week. About 17% completed the six weeks. Of these, 57% returned an outcome questionnaire. Compared to their pre-programme status, on average they were now at substantially lower risk, and functioning better and living much improved lives. The sample had been recruited over about 27 months, a registration rate of about 4500 a year. By way of comparison, in England during 2008/09, around 100,000 adults were treated for their alcohol problems at conventional services. User profile and site usage had been similar during the earlier pilot phase. Results from surveys sent to pilot programme completers indicated that three quarters had never previously sought help for their drinking.

Source: Published in Findings 19 May 2010 Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research: 2009, 33(8), p. 1401–1408

Combining a randomised trial with a ‘real-world’ test, studies of the Dutch Drinking Less programme have gone further than any others to establish the beneficial impacts of web-based alcohol self-help interventions.
Abstract The study was a ‘real-world’ test of a promising Dutch internet-based self-help intervention for problem drinking. A previous randomised trial employing the methodological safeguards possible in tightly controlled research (particularly the recruitment of a comparison group not given access to the intervention) had established that the intervention reduced drinking. At issue in the featured study was whether similar drinking reductions would be seen when the intervention was made freely available to the general public. If they were, then the assumption could be made that these too were caused by having access to the intervention.

Drinking Less is an on-line, interactive programme with no personal therapist input. Aimed at risky drinkers among the general adult population, the intervention is based on principles derived from motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural therapies and self-control training. Its home page offers links to alcohol-related information, treatment services, a discussion forum, and the Drinking Less self-help programme, the core of the intervention. Over a recommended six weeks (though this is entirely up to the user) the programme guides visitors in preparing to change their drinking, setting goals , implementing change, and finally sustaining it, preferably by drinking within recommended limits.
The earlier trial had found that six months later, at least 17% of adult problem drinkers randomly allocated to this intervention had reduced their drinking to within Dutch guidelines, compared to just 5% allocated to an on-line alcohol education brochure. Before the study, both groups had averaged about 55 UK units a week. At follow-up, the Drinking Less group had cut consumption to about 36 UK units a week, but the brochure group had barely changed.
The featured study monitored what happened when over 10 months spanning 2007 and 2008 the web site was advertised to the Dutch public. During this time round 27,500 people visited the site, of whom 1625 signed up for the self-help programme, accessing it on average 23 times. Typically they were well educated, employed, middle-aged men. On average they drank about 50 UK units a week, and nearly all who completed the on-line AUDIT screening questionnaire scored in a range indicative of alcohol abuse or dependence.
During the first seven of the 10 months, 378 of site visitors who signed up to the Drinking Less programme also agreed to participate in research to assess its impact. On average they drank roughly the same amount (95% exceeded Dutch guidelines) as all 1625 who signed up and were also similar in age, sex, employment, and motivation to change. Despite some statistically significant differences, they were also broadly similar to participants in the earlier randomised trial. Over 8 in 10 had never received professional help for their drinking. A few weeks later a survey suggested that after signing up, nearly 9 in 10 went on to use the programme, though generally only a few times.
Of the 378 in the baseline sample, 153 responded to an on-line follow-up survey six months later. Before signing up to the programme, just 4% had confined their drinking within Dutch guidelines; six month later, 39% did so. They had also nearly halved their average consumption from 50 UK units to 27. On the ‘fail-safe’ assumption that the intervention had no impact on people who were not followed up, still the drinking reductions were statistically significant; from 5%, the proportion drinking within guidelines rose to 19%, and consumption fell from 51 UK units to 42.
Next the analysts compared these results with those from the six-month follow-up in the randomised trial. Based only on respondents to the follow-up surveys, and adjusting for differences between the samples, in the ‘real-world’ test over twice as many (unadjusted figures 36% v. 19%) people moved to drinking within Dutch guidelines. When the assumption was made that in both trials the intervention had no impact on people not followed up, the figures still favoured the ‘real-world’ test (15% v. 10%), but the difference was no longer statistically significant.
The researchers concluded that the featured study had shown that the benefits established by the randomised controlled trial would be sustained when the intervention was made routinely and generally available to the public. The expected throughput of 3000 Drinking Less programme users a year would amount to nearly 3% of the country’s problem drinkers who would otherwise not have received professional help. Probably because they require the drinker to take the initiative and visit the site, such interventions reach people who, compared to the totality of problem drinkers, are more likely to be women, employed, highly educated, and motivated to change their drinking. Given its low cost per user, this type of intervention seems to have a worthwhile place in a public health approach to reducing alcohol-related problems.
Though only a minority of site visitors may sign up for web-based alcohol programmes, nevertheless the numbers engaged can be very large, and the risk-reductions seem of the order typical in studies of brief advice to drinkers identified in health care settings. In these settings screening programmes typically identify people who are not actually seeking help for drinking problems – ‘pushing’ them towards intervention and change – while web sites ‘pull’ in people already curious or concerned about their drinking. As such these two gateways can play complementary roles in improving public health and offering change opportunities to people who would not present to alcohol treatment services. However, in Britain and elsewhere, both tactics reach only small fractions of the population who drinking excessively, leaving the bulk of the public health work to be done by interventions which drinkers generally cannot avoid and do not have seek out, such as price increases and availability restrictions.
With its combination of a randomised trial and a ‘real-world’ test, the featured research programme has gone further than any other in establishing the beneficial impacts of web-based alcohol interventions. However, largely because many site users do not complete research surveys, it remains impossible to be sure that the results seen in such studies will be replicated across the entire usership of the sites. Details below.
Strengths and limitations of the featured study
The featured study’s combination of a randomised trial with all its methodological safeguards, and a ‘real-world’ trial approximating normal conditions, affords what seems to be the best indication to date of the contribution web-based self-help interventions could make to reducing heavy drinking and associated health risks. However, its twin pillars are weakened by the fact that many people either did not join the studies or did not supply follow-up data; those who did may not have been typical of all the people who might access such sites. In the randomised trial, 40% of the baseline sample did not complete the six-month follow-up survey, and in the featured study, nearly 60%. Though on the measures taken by the study the respondents generally seemed typical of the baseline sample, clearly something was sufficiently different to cause them to respond while the others did not. In both studies this problem was catered for by assuming that non-responders were also non-changers. Though this almost certainly underestimated the impact of the intervention, still in both there remained significant and worthwhile improvements.
What could not be catered for in either study was the degree to which people who join such studies differ from the much greater number who would use the web sites, but decline participation in research. This problem was especially apparent in the featured study, in which it seems that around 6% of site visitors signed up for the self-help programme. Of these, perhaps a third or slightly more of the people who signed up for the programme during the relevant period also agreed to participate in the research. In some important ways (including amount drunk and motivation to change) they seemed similar to the bulk of programme sign-ups, though the researchers suspect they were more likely to have engaged with the programme.
Opening more doors to change for more people
A review of computer-based alcohol services for the general public has rehearsed the advantages: immediate, convenient access for people (the majority in developed nations) connected to the internet; consequently able to capitalise on what may be fleeting resolve; anonymous services sidestep the embarrassment or stigma which might deter help-seeking; such services are available to people unwilling or less able to talk about their problems to a stranger; generally they are free and entail no travel costs or lost income due to time off work; very low operating cost per user if widely accessed; easily updated. In consumption terms, the drinking problems of web site users are comparable to those of drinkers who seek treatment, yet few have received professional help, perhaps partly because their higher socioeconomic status and greater resources have enabled them to restrict the consequential damage. People who actually engage with web-based assessments of their drinking problems have more severe problems than those who just visit and leave. Including the randomised trial which paved the way for the featured study, the review found eight studies which evaluated the effectiveness of computer-based interventions for the general public. In all but one the users significantly improved on at least one of the alcohol-related measures recorded by the studies.
A particular role for alcohol self-help sites may be to offer an easy, quick and accessible way to for drinkers to actualise their desire to tackle their problems, especially when that desire is allied with the resources to implement and sustain improvements without face-to-face or comprehensive assistance. After conducting the Project MATCH trial, some of the world’s leading alcohol treatment researchers argued that “access to treatment may be as important as the type of treatment available”. The implication is that in cultures which accept ‘treatment’ as a route to resolving unhealthy and/or undesirable drinking, having convincing-looking and accessible ‘treatment doors’ to go through may be more important than what lies behind those doors, as long as this fulfils the expectations of the client or patient. This is likely to be especially the case for people who retain a stake in conventional society in the form of marriages, jobs, families, and a reputation to lose. These populations – the kind the featured study suggests are attracted to self-help alcohol therapy web sites – have more of the ‘recovery capital’ resources needed to themselves do most of the work in curbing their drinking.
The British Down Your Drink site
The best known British alcohol self-help web site is the Down Your Drink site run by a team based at University College London, an initiative originally funded by the Alcohol Education and Research Council and now by the Medical Research Council’s National Prevention Research Initiative. In 2007 this was revised to offer set programmes from a one-hour brief intervention to several weeks, but also to generally give the user greater control over the use they made of the site. The approach remained based on principles and techniques derived from motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioural therapies.
The previous version had been structured as six consecutive modules to be accessed weekly. An analysis of data provided by the first 10,000 people who registered at the site after piloting ended in September 2003 revealed that most were in their 30s and 40s, half were women, nearly two-thirds were married or living with a partner, just 4% were unemployed, and most reported occupations from higher socioeconomic strata. As an earlier study commented, site users were predominantly middle class, middle aged, white and European. Six in 10 either did not start the programme, or completed just the first week. About 17% completed the six weeks. Of these, 57% returned an outcome questionnaire. Compared to their pre-programme status, on average they were now at substantially lower risk, and functioning better and living much improved lives. The sample had been recruited over about 27 months, a registration rate of about 4500 a year. By way of comparison, in England during 2008/09, around 100,000 adults were treated for their alcohol problems at conventional services. User profile and site usage had been similar during the earlier pilot phase. Results from surveys sent to pilot programme completers indicated that three quarters had never previously sought help for their drinking.
Source: Published in Findings 19 May 2010 Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research: 2009, 33(8), p. 1401–1408

Abstract
California data on drivers involved in passenger vehicle fatal crashes using Marijuana were analyzed to determine the impact on traffic safety and to provide information on the possible impact of an initiative, the Tax and Regulate Cannabis Initiative or “TC2010” which is on the California ballot in November 2010 to reform and partially legalize Marijuana.

A total of 1240 persons were killed in the last five years in fatal motor vehicle crashes involving Marijuana. 230 were killed in 2008. Use has increase steadily in the last ten years and is now at 5.5% in fatal passenger vehicle crashes. The use in single vehicle fatal crashes where most drivers are tested shows an involvement rate of 8.3%.

The largest increases occurred in the 5 years following the legalization of Medical Marijuana in January 2004. For the five years following legalization there were 1240 fatalities in fatal crashes, compared to the 631 fatalities for the five years prior, for an increase of almost 100%. In 2008 there were 8 counties where more than 16% of the drivers in fatal crashes
tested positive for Marijuana. Five of the 8 counties had rates over 20%

Based on this experience, a use rate of 16% to 20% is very likely. A rate increase to only 16%, would result in 670 fatalities, and at 20% we would have about 840 fatalities annually. The 20% level would be more than triple the present level of 230 fatalities in 2008. At these levels, Marijuana would rival alcohol at 17.9%, as the top cause of traffic fatalities.

If “TC2010” passes, tax income on Marijuana is estimated at $1.4 billion annually compared to an estimated $4 billion or more economic loss from Marijuana related fatal crashes.
Over 80% of the Marijuana drivers are male, with a median age of 25. In addition, about half (48%) of the drivers using Marijuana also were legally intoxicated. About 75% of the drivers that used Marijuana did not use any other drug. About 1.2 fatalities were reported for each Marijuana involved driver.

Source: Sent by Ronald E. Brooks Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area June 2010

A TENFOLD increase in hospital treatment for cannabis poisoning or dependence among people in their 30s and 40s suggests the habit has run out of control for a hard core of long-term users.
Australian research shows that while cannabis consumption overall decreased during the past decade, the rate of hospital treatment rose. Treatment rates are highest among people in their 20s, but the steepest increase has been among older people, with those in their 30s only slightly less likely to seek help than younger people by 2007, the study shows.
Seven years earlier, people in their 30s were being treated at only half the rate of their younger counterparts, according to the findings of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW. Their faster rise in cannabis-related health problems coincided with greater frequency of daily use.
“These people started their use early and have [in some cases] then gone on to develop problems,” the study leader, Amanda Roxburgh, said. “They might not necessarily think that they have a problem with their use until it kicks into crisis mode.” People in their 20s were about 50 per cent more likely to have used cannabis during a one-year period compared with those in their 30s. But of those who did so, nearly 20 per cent of the older age group had developed a daily habit, against about 15 per cent of the younger adults.
Ms Roxburgh, whose results are published in the journal Addiction, said the rise in problematic use might reflect increased cannabis potency, though there was no formal evidence the drug had become stronger. Its falling price suggested it was being produced more efficiently – perhaps through indoor hydroponic cultivation – and this might have made it more accessible.
Jan Copeland, who heads the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, said older people were more likely to consider cannabis safe. “These people come from age groups where cannabis is a benign herb and natural,” she said. “But when you are doing something every day you don’t realise the difficulties when you try to stop”.
Cannabis use among people aged 14 to 19 more than halved between 1996 and 2005, but the study also found pockets of harmful use in that group. Nearly two-thirds of young daily cannabis users reported difficulties controlling their use.
Members of this group were also more likely to report smoking 10 or more cones or joints a day, and if they were treated in hospital for their cannabis use were more likely to be treated for psychosis than older users.
Professor Copeland said young people now understood cannabis could be dangerous, and fewer were experimenting, but dedicated treatment programs were still needed for young people with a serious habit.
Will Temple, chief executive officer of the Watershed drug and alcohol recovery and education centre in Wollongong, said his centre had gone from treating almost no cannabis users to in the past six months treating 30 per cent of clients for cannabis use.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald 29th March 2010

1. Executive Summary
Policymakers and other stakeholders can use cost-benefit analysis as an informative tool for decision making for substance abuse prevention. This report reveals the importance of supporting effective prevention programs as part of a comprehensive substance abuse prevention strategy. The following patterns of use, their attendant costs, and the potential cost savings are analyzed:
• Extent of substance abuse among youth;
• Costs of substance abuse to the Nation and to States;
• Cost savings that could be gained if effective prevention policies, programs, and services were implemented nationwide;
• Programs and policies that are most cost beneficial.

1.1. Costs of Substance Abuse
Studies have shown the annual cost of substance abuse to the Nation to be $510.8 billion in 1999 (Harwood, 2000). More specifically,
• Alcohol abuse cost the Nation $191.6 billion;
• Tobacco use cost the Nation $167.8 billion;
• Drug abuse cost the Nation $151.4 billion.

Substance abuse clearly is among the most costly health problems in the United States. Among national estimates of the costs of illness for 33 diseases and conditions, alcohol ranked second, tobacco ranked sixth, and drug disorders ranked seventh (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2000). This report shows that programs designed to prevent substance abuse can reduce these costs.

1.2. Savings From Effective School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention
If effective prevention programs were implemented nationwide, substance abuse initiation would decline for 1.5 million youth and be delayed for 2 years on average. It has been well established that a delay in onset reduces subsequent problems later in life (Grant & Dawson, 1997; Lynskey et al., 2003). In 2003, an estimated:

• 5.6 percent fewer youth ages 13–15 would have engaged in drinking;
• 10.2 percent fewer youth would have used marijuana;
• 30.2 percent fewer youth would have used cocaine;
• 8.0 percent fewer youth would have smoked regularly.

The average effective school-based program in 2002 costs $220 per pupil including materials and teacher training, and these programs could save an estimated $18 per $1 invested if implemented nationwide. Nationwide, full implementation of school-based effective programming in 2002 would have had the following fiscal impact

• Saved State and local governments $1.3 billion, including $1.05 billion in educational costs within 2 years;

• Reduced social costs of substance-abuse-related medical care, other resources, and lost productivity over a lifetime by an estimated $33.7 billion;
• Preserved the quality of life over a lifetime valued at $65 billion.

Although 80 percent of American youth reported participation in school-based prevention in 2005 (SAMHSA, 2004), only 20 percent were exposed to effective prevention programs (Flewelling et al., 2005). Given this level of participation, it is possible that some expected benefits already exist for these students, and the estimates in this paper are adjusted for these probable benefits.
These cost-benefit estimates show that effective school-based programs could save $18 for every $1 spent on these programs.

In a program targeting families with low income, intensive home visitation coupled with preschool enrichment reduced infant/toddler abuse (Aos et al., 1999; Karoly et al., 1998). As these toddlers reach adolescence and adulthood, visitation programs also can reduce a range of problems including substance abuse and violence.

Among indicated programs (targeted to individuals who have detectable symptoms), cost estimates that primarily focused on substance abuse were not available. However, estimates indicating good returns on the investment were available for several violence prevention interventions that address the roots of multi-risk behavior. Moral reconation therapy for adult and youth offenders, and multi-systemic therapy and functional family therapy for youth offenders returned more than $30 per dollar invested.

1.3. Conclusion
The cost of substance abuse could be offset by a nationwide implementation of effective prevention policies and programs. SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework should include a planning step that considers cost-benefit ratios. Communities should consider a comprehensive prevention strategy based on their unique needs and characteristics and use cost-benefit ratios to help guide their decisions. Model programs should include data on costs and estimated cost-benefit ratios to help guide prevention planning.

Source:
Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost-Benefit Analysis
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP)

Monitoring the Future survey shows that while marijuana continues to be the most commonly used illicit drug among teens in the USA, current use of marijuana has dropped by 25 also dropped by seven percent among all three grades combined. Teen use of amphetamines, particularly methamphetamine, dropped significantly in five years and year-over-year, between 2005 and 2006, with less than one percent of teens having used it in the past 30 days.

The survey also noted reductions in the following drug categories between 2001 and 2006, including:

** Marijuana use is down in all categories for all grades combined. Lifetime, past year, and past 30 day use decreased 18 percent, 20 percent, and 25 percent (from 35% to 29%; 26% to 22%; and 17% to 13%, respectively).

** Use of cigarettes is down since 2001 in all four use categories (lifetime, past month, daily, and more than one-half pack per day) in all three grades.

** Youth use of alcohol was also down across the board – in all five use categories (lifetime, past year, past month, daily, and more than five drinks in a row in the last two weeks) and in all three grades over five years.

** Lifetime use of steroids for teens declined among all three grades, with past year and past month use also down among 8th and 10th graders.

Source: Source: nyac@TheAntiDrug.com Dec 2006

Maoris have the world’s highest lung-cancer rate, and heavy marijuana use could be a culprit, the New Zealand Herald reported Oct. 10.
About one in five New Zealanders are regular users of marijuana. Researcher Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington, New Zealand, is working on a study that compares cancer rates between marijuana smokers, tobacco smokers, and nonusers. He recently released a research review concluding that marijuana smoking is more cancerous than tobacco smoking.
Beasley performed the research review for a Wellington coroner who has called for a tougher approach than harm reduction to marijuana use in New Zealand.

Source: New Zealand Herald Oct.l7 2005

HIV rates much higher among daily needle exchange users than those who do not use the exchange program, according to latest study
HIV incidence was 75 percent higher among daily users of Vancouver’s needle exchange program (NEP) than among drug abusers that did not use the program, according to a new study published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Medicine. Vancouver, Canada boasts the largest NEP in the Western Hemisphere.

Source: The American Journal of Medicine Volume 120, Issue 2, Pages 172-179 (

Brief skills training is effective to curb college drinking
A study in Swedish colleges, where over-use of alcohol is widespread, showed that a Brief Skills Training Program was effective in reducing alcohol consumption over a two-year period.

Students were randomly assigned to a brief skills training program (BSTP) with interactive lectures and discussions, a twelve-step–influenced (TSI) program with didactic lectures by therapists trained in the 12-step approach, and a control group. More than three quarters of the students were rated “high risk” on an alcohol consumption score.

At follow-up two years later, the high-risk students who had received the BSTP program showed significantly better outcomes than high-risk students who had undergone TSI. The TSI students did no better than the control group.

Source:The study results are in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental

Cannabis smoking may cause 5 per cent of lung cancer cases in people up to middle age, according to a New Zealand study which challenges international thinking on the drug.  Around 15 per cent of New Zealand adults under 46 use cannabis, drug-use surveys have found.
 
Researcher Dr Sarah Aldington, of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington, presented the new case-control study to the Thoracic Society conference in Auckland yesterday.
 
Cannabis users may have thought they were safe from lung cancer after a Californian study of more than 1600 people last year found no link between the disease and smoking the drug.  Dr Aldington said the evidence on cannabis and the risk of lung cancer was limited and conflicting. Her study found the risk rose more than five-fold among the third of users smoking the most cannabis.
 
“In conclusion there is a relationship between cannabis smoking and lung cancer in this study,” she said. “Approximately 5 per cent of lung cancer cases in those aged 55 and under may be attributable to cannabis…”   This equates to about 15 new cases a year – in 2002, 306 people aged 18-55 were diagnosed with lung cancer in New Zealand.  The study questioned about 60 people with lung cancer from eight health districts between Waikato and Canterbury and more than 200 “controls” – people randomly selected from electoral rolls in the same areas.
 
They were asked about risk factors, including cannabis and tobacco use.   The researchers calculated that the risk of developing lung cancer increased by about 8 per cent a year for people whose cumulative exposure equated to smoking one joint a day. This was about the same as the increase for someone with a one-pack-a-day tobacco habit.   The younger someone started smoking cannabis, the higher their risk of lung cancer.
 
“Long-term cannabis use increases the risk of lung cancer in young adults, particularly in those who start smoking cannabis at a young age,” the researchers conclude.
 
Dr Aldington said cannabis was the most commonly used recreational drug in the world, used by 161 million people, and its use was increasing in many countries. She said cannabis contained 50 per cent more cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco.  The study has found what the University of California researchers had expected to find but didn’t.   A researcher from that study, Dr Donald Tashkin, said in the Washington Post his group had thought cannabis smokers’ deeper inhalation and tendency to hold smoke in their lungs for longer than tobacco users would contribute to an increased cancer risk.
 
He said earlier work had shown cannabis contained cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco. But cannabis also contained the chemical THC, which might kill ageing cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.
 
Middlemore Hospital clinical director of medicine Associate Professor Jeff Garrett, a leader of the Thoracic Society, said the Aldington study was “a good pilot study. It’s early work, it’s interesting, but there needs to be more work done.”

Source:  New Zealand Herald
Tuesday March 27, 2007

________________________________________
.

Drug users who can’t kick the habit can blame a dysfunctional brain for their addiction, according to new research.
A study by the University of Melbourne has found long-term drug users have more difficulty controlling impulses because their frontal cortex is impaired.

The two-year study found opiate users needed to use more of their brains to resist impulses in a test of self control than those who were clean. The findings shed new light on why drug addicts find it so hard to quit, despite the health consequences.
“Drugs can capture and hijack some parts of the brain,” said Dr Murat Yucel, a lead researcher in the study. In this study we found the frontal cortex, an area that is essential for exercising control over thoughts and behaviours, was working inefficiently. These findings may help explain why it takes addicted individuals enormous effort to exercise control over their drug taking behaviour in the face of adverse consequences and why they are vulnerable to relapse back into uncontrolled, compulsive patterns of use.”
The study – published in the journal, Molecular Psychiatry, last month – also found drug users’ brain cells in the frontal region were less healthy than normal. The research shows drug taking is not a matter of choice for long-term users, who have a reduced biological capacity to stop, Dr Yucel says.
Researchers will next examine whether reduced brain function is a consequence of addiction or a contributing factor that makes some people more vulnerable to drug abuse. Co-researcher Dan Lubman said the study would likely lead to the development of new strategies for the treatment of addiction.
“These findings tell us that we need to provide a combination of pharmaceutical and psychological treatments that will help bolster the efficiency of the frontal cortex and hence the individual’s ability to stop their urge to use drugs,” he said.

Source: www.yahoo7News.com Aug. 2007

The Hague – Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin plans to criminalise the sale of merchandise designed for the cultivation of marihuana. The legislation is aimed at combatting ‘grow shops’ which trade throughout the Netherlands.

A majority of Dutch MPs favour banning ‘grow shops’ which sell everything necessary for growing cannabis plants. The outlets also often give advice on large-scale cultivation of the drug and on getting started in the marihuana trade.

Parliament is today debating the drugs issue and is expected to urge wide-ranging research into the effects of the Netherlands’ famously tolerant drugs policy.

Source: http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5672665 March 6th 2008

The Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) today called for a clear-cut policy for the government to help rehabilitated drug addicts who have turned over a new leaf to secure jobs. Its vice-chairman, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, said both the government and private sector should look into the employment of rehabilitated drug addicts and help them to be re-integrated into society so that they could settle down and not have to live a life of crime.

“The government should consider initiating a policy to help former drug addicts to seek employment just as it has a policy on the employment of disabled persons,” he said in a statement on Sunday. Lee said providing employment to former drug addicts to keep them away from crime was essential as unemployed former addicts had been identified as one of the primary causes of snatch thefts and other petty crimes in the country.

“Drug addicts who have successfully undergone drug rehabilitation and retraining need to be assisted to eke out an existence. “If they fail to seek employment, they will continue to be involved in petty crimes such as snatch thefts,” he said.

Lee said tackling the problem of snatch thefts required an integrated approach, including strengthening street patrols by the police in crime-prone areas.
Besides, he said, more severe punishment for snatch thieves should be provided as a deterrent to others.

Other proposals included installing more road barriers to separate the roads from the pedestrian paths to make it difficult for snatch thieves to grab the belongings of pedestrians, as well as enhancing crime prevention vigilance and awareness among pedestrians, he added.

Source: www.Bernama.com Malaysian news agency 28th March 2010

The Road Safety Monitor, a national telephone survey conducted each year involving Canadian drivers indicates that drug impaired driving is seen as second only to alcohol
impaired driving as a serious issue and that illicit drugs are seen as a more serious
problem than prescription or over the counter drugs1. Overall, 17.7%, or 3.7 million
Canadian drivers report driving within two hours of using illicit, prescription or over the
counter drugs.
Collisions remain a major cause of death and injury in Canada, and concerns about the
role of cannabis in road safety in this country date back many years. Much less is known
about the impact of cannabis on road safety than the impact of alcohol, in part because of
the much greater difficulty involved in measuring the presence and amount of
cannabinoids compared to alcohol. However, there is renewed interest in this issue
stimulated in part by proposed legislative changes on the part of the Government of
Canada to reduce substantially the penalties for possession of small amounts of cannabis.

Objectives
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of available research and evidence on
the potential impact of cannabis on road safety in Canada focusing on two areas: 1)
research on the prevalence of cannabis use in Canada; and 2) research on the prevalence
of driving after cannabis use in Canada.

Prevalence of Cannabis Use in Canada
Little information is available on the prevalence of cannabis use in Canada prior to the
1960s. However, in that decade, cannabis use increased substantially. While a variety of
possible sources of information on cannabis in the Canadian population have been used
over the years, including such measures as amounts of the drug seized by police and the
number of individuals prosecuted by the courts for cannabis offences, the most direct and
the most accurate measures of the prevalence of cannabis use are those derived from
surveys. Although cannabis is an illegal drug and there are concerns that survey
responses may be influenced by its legal status, research demonstrates that respondents
to anonymous surveys, where there are no adverse consequences involved, generally
provide valid responses.
Smart and Fejer presented one of the very first estimates of the prevalence of cannabis
use in a Canadian population, based on a survey of a representative sample of residents
of Toronto conducted in 1971. They found that 12.2% of males and 5.5% of females had
used cannabis at least once in the preceding year. The prevalence of use differed
substantially by age group and gender. Among males, 41.5% of those aged 18-25, 20.8%
of those aged 26-30, and 1.8% of those aged 31 and over had used cannabis in the
preceding year. Among females, 20.0% of those aged 18-25, 6.3% of those aged 26-30,
and 1.8% of those aged 31 and over had used cannabis in the previous year. These data
clearly demonstrate that, by the end of the 1960’s, cannabis use had become very
common among young people. Ogborne and Smart reported on cannabis use in the
general population of Canada aged 15 and over based on the National Alcohol and Other
Drugs Survey conducted in 1994. This survey was the largest representative survey with
information on cannabis use ever made in Canada, with a sample size of 12,155. Use of
cannabis at that time was relatively uncommon, but not rare. Only 7.3% of respondents
reported using cannabis in the preceding year, and 2.0% reported using it as often as once per week. However, nearly a third (29%) reported that they had used cannabis at least once in their lives. Substantial regional differences were observed, with the proportion reporting use
at least once in the past year ranging from a low of 4.9% in Ontario to a high of 11.4% in
British Columbia.
The data provide a valuable perspective on the use of cannabis across Canada,
unfortunately there is little information on other important issues, such as change in rates
of use over time. However, in Ontario a series of surveys has been conducted over the
past 20 years that allow a picture of current use and changes in use over time in that part
of the country.

The Use of Cannabis in Ontario
Repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted in Ontario by the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health provide the most comprehensive picture of the use of cannabis and other
drugs use in Canada. These surveys have been conducted among the student population
and adult population since the late 1970s.
A summary of recent data on the use of cannabis and other drugs (any
use in the past year) among students in grades 7 and 126, and among adults aged 18-29
(young adults), 40-49 (the middle-aged) and 65 and over (seniors). shows cannabis is the most
widely used illicit substance, with nearly half of grade 12 students reporting cannabis use
at least once in the past year. It is worth noting that by grade 12 most students will have
reached the age when they will be eligible to drive. Use of cannabis drops with increasing
age, however, and is used by less than 2% of seniors. Use of other illicit drugs is much
less common than the use of cannabis, with highest levels occurring for Hallucinogens and
Ecstasy among grade 12 students. Not surprisingly, alcohol is the most commonly used
substance. While cannabis is used by a smaller proportion of students than alcohol; it is still used
by a substantial minority of students. There have been important changes in the use of
cannabis over time. The general trend appears to have been one of reduced use of cannabis
and alcohol from the late 1970′s to the early 1990′s. The proportion reporting use of cannabis declined from a peak of 31.7% in 1979 to 11.7% in 1991. However, since the mid-1990’s self-reported use
of both substances has increased, with 28.6% reporting cannabis use in 2001.

Prevalence of Cannabis Use and Driving in Canada:

Survey data on the prevalence of driving under the influence of cannabis are available. In
the first reported data from the general population in Canada, the prevalence of driving after
use of cannabis at least once in the preceding 12 months. The
survey included 9943 persons aged 16-69, obtained through random digit dialling.
The prevalence of DUIC varied with age, while the prevalence of DUIC was relatively low,
it was higher in younger age groups. DUIC was significantly associated with a variety of other risk behaviours, such as driving after drinking, use of illicit drugs other than cannabis, and collision
involvement.
Information on the incidence of DUIC in a representative sample of the Ontario adult
population surveyed in 1996/97.
Among all drivers, 1.9% reported DUIC in the previous 12 months. Several factors influenced the likelihood of reported DUIC, including gender, age, marital status and education level. DUIC was most
frequently seen in younger age groups, with 9.3% of the youngest age group (18-19)
reporting the behaviour. DUIC was more common among men (3.0%) than women
(0.8%), more common among those never married (4.7%) than among those married
(0.9%) or previously married (2.1%). It was also least common among those with a
university degree. Among cannabis users, DUIC appeared to be a relatively common
behaviour; 22.8% reported DUIC, and the probability of the behaviour was significantly
influenced by gender and education level As well, DUIC and drinking-driving were strongly
related in this sample.
Prevalence of DUIC by Age among Cannabis Users in Ontario, 1996-97
Data derived from Walsh and Mann8.
The observation that DUIC was more common among younger respondents was recently
extended . Among students with a drivers licence in grades 10-13, 19.3% reported driving
within one hour of using cannabis at least once in the preceding year; this proportion was higher than the
proportion that reported driving within an hour of two or more drinks (15.0%). Males were
significantly more likely than females to report DUIC (23.8% versus 13.5%). DUIC was
more frequently reported than driving after drinking .

Prevalence of riding with a drinking driver, drinking driving, and DUIC by Gender
among Ontario students, 2001
Among respondents, 5.1% reported using marijuana, and 1.5% reported DUIC at least
once in the preceding 12 months. These authors also noted that males and respondents
under 30 were most likely to report DUIC, and also that there was a strong relationship
between DUIC and driving after drinking. Recently, the first report on trends over time in
cannabis use and driving in Canada appeared.

The proportions of Ontario adults reporting DUIC in a representative sample
of the Ontario population surveyed in 2002
A trend for an increase over time was observed, with the proportion of adult drivers reporting DUIC increasing from 1.9% in 1996/97 to 2.7% in 2002. The authors note, however, that this increase is not statistically significant and recommend further monitoring of this trend.

Conclusions
The data presented here indicate that cannabis use is relatively common in Canada,
particularly among young people. The prevalence of use appears to have increased
substantially in the 1960s and ‘70s, while since then some fluctuations have occurred.
Driving after cannabis use is less common, but among cannabis users it does appear to
occur with some frequency. In particular, young cannabis users appear more likely to
report DUIC. Among high school students, DUIC appears to occur as frequently, or more
frequently, than driving after drinking. These data provide grounds for concern about this
behaviour, particularly among younger drivers. Further research on the prevalence of
DUIC in Canada, including differences between provinces, is needed.

Source: CAMH Population Studies eBulletin, May/June 2003 No.20

A proposal to create medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii has gone up in smoke.
The idea is dead because the House Judiciary Committee refused to consider the measure before a legislative deadline Thursday.
Committee Chairman Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu says he was worried that marijuana dispensaries would fuel illegal sales of the drug. He’s also concerned about the state running up against federal drug laws.
Medical marijuana patients argue that Hawaii needs to reform its decade-old law allowing them to smoke and even grow the drug, but prohibiting them from buying it.
The bill passed the Senate and two House committees before stalling. Medical marijuana dispensaries will likely be considered again during next year’s legislative session.

Source: www.omaha.com, 1st April 2010

DRUG addicts using the controversial Kings Cross injecting room are taking advantage of the safe environment to test their tolerance to higher doses of heroin and other cocktails of dangerous illicit drugs.
The claims were made during interviews with the peak body Drug Free Australia and were repeated in Parliament by Christian Democratic Party MLC Reverend Gordon Moyes late on Tuesday night during debate over a possible four-year extension of the injecting room.
Mr Moyes told the Upper House the injecting room “has encouraged (users) . . . to try wilder mixes of drugs” after he read aloud a transcript of a recorded conversation between Drug Free Australia secretary Gary Christian and a former injecting room client.
During the interview, the man claimed there was widespread dangerous mixing of heroin and pills including Benzodiazepene, Normasin, Oxycodone and Xanax.
“I have seen that they are going in for one thing but really they are going in for two (or three), with the heroin on top of the pills, but they won’t (tell anybody that),” he said.
“They feel a lot more safer, definitely because they know they can be brought back to life straight away. They know . . . they can, like some people go to the extent of even using more. So in a way they feel it is a comfort zone, and no matter how much they use if they drop (die) they (might) be brought back.”
Drug Free Australia had sought answers as to why the injecting room had “massive” numbers of heroin overdoses, measured between 36 and 42 times higher than normal rates of overdose in the community.
“In 2003 our expert committee analysing injecting room data found that clients of the injecting room were recording a prior history of one overdose for every 4380 injections on average in their intake questionnaire,” Mr Christian said.
“But inside the injecting room, there was an extraordinary one overdose for every 106 injections, 42 times higher than the client’s previous history.”
The former injecting room client said the rife experimentation was done behind workers’ backs.
“You can hide anything from everybody,” he said.
“It is not the workers’ (fault) . . . they try their best, it is just (that we) are (all) sneaky people.”
Mr Moyes told Parliament a second former client revealed users were using the safety of the room “to get the biggest rush they can, even if there is the risk of overdose”.
“Consequently, far from combating the problem and helping these people to stop harming themselves, the injecting facility has actually encouraged them to try harder, to try wilder mixes of drugs, and to push themselves right to the point of death,” Mr Moyes said.
“For six years the NSW Government has funded a drug experimentation laboratory where users can push their boundaries and where they have medical help immediately on hand from a nursing sister if they go too far.”

Source: The Daily Telegraph (Australia)June 28, 2007 12:00am

The federal government is stepping up its fight against tobacco, with a promise to cut smoking rates in Canada from 19 per cent last year to 12 per cent by 2011.
Health Minister Tony Clement, in Vancouver today for the Canadian Medical Association’s annual general meeting, said the target is ambitious but not unrealistic. “Seeing the great progress we have made over the past few years, I am confident . . . we can achieve this goal,” he said in a statement.
Clement also reiterated a promise to get tough on illicit drug use, saying mixed messages about the acceptability of drugs – including marijuana – must end.
“Canada has not run a serious or significant anti-drug campaign for almost 20 years, and the messages young people have received during the past several years have been confusing and conflicting, to say the least,” he told delegates.
“We are very concerned about the damage and pain that drugs cause families and we intend to reverse the trend toward vague, ambiguous messaging that has characterized Canadian attitudes in the recent past.”
He sidestepped questions about whether the anti-drug strategy would include harm-reduction measures such as Vancouver’s safe injection site, saying enforcement and prevention can also be considered harm reduction.
Furthermore, he said there is conflicting research about whether the safe injection site has been successful, adding that Ottawa will review all the data before making the long-awaited decision about whether the site can continue to operate.

Source: www.canada.com/vancouversun August 2007

OTTAWA — By the time they’re 14, many Canadian youth have done it all — cigarettes, drugs and alcohol — so a new report on substance abuse and addiction should serve as a “call to action” to change that, the organization behind the research says.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse says Canadians need to pay closer attention to the facts that the average age when a child smokes a cigarette for the first time is about 12, 13 when he or she uses alcohol and gets drunk and 14 for first-time drug use.
In a report released Wednesday, titled Substance Abuse in Canada: Youth in Focus, the CCSA outlines gaps in Canada’s overall approach to dealing with these worrying statistics and it suggests several strategies to plug the holes.
The report paints an alarming portrait of drug and alcohol use by youth. By the time they are in their first year of high school, about two-thirds of students had consumed alcohol, according to one survey. Another survey of youth age 15-24 showed that 83% were currently drinking or had consumed alcohol within the past year. If it’s any comfort to parents, the students characterized their drinking as light to infrequent.
More than a third of students in grades 7 to 9 have binged on alcohol, meaning they consumed five or more drinks on a single occasion, researchers found. The same was true for 40% of 15- to 19-year-olds, while another survey showed that one-third of young drinkers drank at a hazardous level.
After alcohol, cannabis was the most commonly used illegal substance among youth. Cannabis use is reported by 17% of students in grades 7 to 9, about 29% of 15- to 17-year-olds, and almost half of 18- to 19-year-olds, the CCSA report said.
Pot smoking, in fact, now exceeds the rate of cigarette smoking among youth, the study found.
The statistics underline that new approaches are needed to prevent and treat substance abuse by youth, said Michel Perron, the CCSA’s chief executive officer.
In general, Mr. Perron said in an interview, there needs to be more funding for services, better co-ordination between all levels of government and non-governmental agencies, and better use of evidence-based research to evaluate which approaches are most effective. Specifically, Mr. Perron says, services need to be matched to the age and needs of certain kinds of youth, especially those at higher risk of substance abuse.
A universal prevention strategy that talks to youth about peer pressure, for example, can be effective up to about age 12, but beyond that, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work, he said.
“We know that beyond 12 years old, and because the age of initiation is dropping consistently in Canada, which is a concern to us, we need to start matching our services to the age of youth,” he said.
Prevention strategies should target youth as early as possible, said Mr. Perron, ideally at around age 10.
“The longer we stave off a young person from trying illegal drugs or the like, the better it is, the less likely that they’ll carry on into the future,” he explained.
Canada also needs to “professionalize” addiction treatment services to make them more effective, said Perron. There’s a shortage of knowledgeable workers and no consistency in training, his organization says.
There’s also room for improvement in schools, the CCSA report said. Prevention strategies would be more effective, for example, if teachers had better training to recognize youth with substance abuse issues, it states.
Mr. Perron said he is optimistic about the ongoing challenges of curbing substance abuse among youth. While addiction was not on the political or public radar five or 10 years ago, said Mr. Perron, encouraging signs are now emerging.
He’s eagerly awaiting the anti-drug strategy promised by the federal government and expected this fall, and the recently established Canadian Mental Health Commission is another move in the right direction, he said. Good progress is being made at provincial levels too, Mr. Perron added.
The CCSA report is a call to action for both levels of government and the general public, he said.
“We’re very much looking to mobilize Canadian attention that we need to address substance use and addiction by youth in Canada,” he said. “We can’t do this with government alone; we have to be willing to work together.”

Source: CanWest News Service Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Vietnam has targeted to lower the number of drug addicts to below 0.1 percent of its population by 2010, Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday.

Under the national anti-drug program by 2010 approved by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Tuesday, the country has eyed to have 60 percent of its communes without drug addicts, and reduce the rate of people relapsing into addiction.

To this end, Vietnam, with population of over 84 million, will intensify surveillance on trading kinds of drugs from abroad into the country, eliminate growing trees providing materials for drug production, and tighten control over additive substances.

It will also complete law systems on drug prevention, improve public awareness and intensify international cooperation on the issue.

As of late 2006, Vietnam had a total of 160,226 drug addicts, over 70 percent of whom are in the age bracket of 18-35, according to statistics from the country’s Ministry of Public Security.

Source: Xinhua Peoples Daily Online 26.09.07

By: Ross Goodridge, Sydney, Australia
This year I published a paper entitled “The Methadone Conspiracy – Can Addicts Sue?”, highlighting the fact that Australia currently has approximately 24,000 people on long-term methadone maintenance programs. Patients receive daily methadone, which is ultimately supplied by the Federal Government of Australia. The methadone is often provided without any attempt to control long-term use or to restrict the addict’s use of other illicit drugs. Most methadone is provided by way of “take-away doses,” and thus an estimated 29 percent of methadone in Australia is re-sold on the black market. Methadone has become a substantial primary drug of addiction.
Methadone is a synthetic opiate, developed in Nazi Germany in 1941, in an attempt to replicate heroin for relief of pain. Methadone acts upon the body in a manner very similar to heroin, attaching to the same brain receptors and creating euphoria by the same chemical process.
In Australia, like most western countries, there are often many views expressed as to how society should deal with illicit drug users. There are those who promote a tougher on drugs policy, while others promote legalisation.
Since releasing “The Methadone Conspiracy,” I have personally attracted much criticism by those who promote legalisation. They believe that narcotics should be available either freely or by prescription. They already have one drug available on this basis – methadone.
On receipt of this criticism I posed the question for myself, “Can methadone maintenance be considered a successful drug treatment program?”
The starting point in answering this question is, “What is meant by success?”
If one starts with the position that no drug addict will ever be cured, and there is no point in trying, then I suppose it could be considered a success to provide clinically pure amounts of narcotic each day to that addict each day. This will provide lower risk of harm to the addict of HIV infection, criminal behaviour, etc.
From my prospective, I cannot, and do not, accept that the best outcome that can ever be achieved for any one addict is a lifetime of addiction.
Australia has a rapidly rising number of drug addicts, a rapidly rising number of methadone addicts, and rapidly rising crime. Australia’s prisons are over-flowing, and it is estimated that 80 percent of all prisoners have a drug addiction, which was a cause of their criminal behaviour. The direction must be changed.
Methadone programs do little to reduce the demand for heroin. An estimated 72 percent of people on long-term high dose methadone programs are also frequent heroin users.
Methadone addicts regularly sell part of their take-away doses in order to obtain money for heroin purchase.
Trading in methadone occurs directly outside of the methadone clinics in Australia.
Nobody involved in the field can be unaware of this fact; it is obvious and patent.
Heroin addicts buy methadone because one “done” (usually 20 or 40 millilitres), will help sustain a heroin addict until he or she can buy more heroin. Teenagers use methadone because of a perception that it is a “safe drug.” It is less daunting to take a sip than it is to inject, and teenagers experiment with methadone as a first drug.
Notwithstanding that there are now over 24,000 long-term methadone addicts in Australia, the Government does not offer any programs to help people overcome their methadone addiction. Drug addicts are placed in jail or given free drugs, and historically almost no funds are available to overcome drug addiction!
I am not opposed to methadone per se. I am opposed to methadone as the first and only option provided to people who would otherwise achieve abstinence.
Ross Goodridge is a senior Barrister-at-Law practising in Sydney, Australia. He is credited with the Australian introduction of Drug Courts and was responsible for the endorsement of Drug Courts by the AMA, most political parties and the broad community. Mr. Goodridge has been a keynote speaker at a number of conferences and an active supporter of the Australian Cities Against Drugs movement.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to announce a $64-million anti-drug strategy that cracks down on dealers and offers more help for users.Harper is to make the announcement Thursday in Winnipeg, casting his Conservative government’s approach as a balanced one that relies as heavily on prevention as it does on punishment. The new plan includes stricter penalties for drug-traffickers while spending millions on rehabilitation and public-awareness programs. The government wants to avoid having the plan portrayed as a Canadian version of the U.S. war on drugs. “There are two aspects to this,” said a source familiar with the announcement. “How can you help the user? And the other thing is punishing the dealer. Funding for the initiative was set out in the 2007 federal budget. The plan is expected to include: -A border crackdown on drug smuggling. -$32 million on treatments like detox and rehab centres.-About $10 million for an awareness campaign aimed at young people. One of the key goals of the awareness program is to alert kids to the dangers of marijuana and remind them that it remains illegal. Since the Conservatives took office, the number of people arrested for simple possession of marijuana has skyrocketed. Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax all reported increases of between 20 and 50 per cent in 2006 of arrests for possession of cannabis, compared with the previous year. As a result, thousands of people were charged with a criminal offence that, under the previous Liberal government, was on the verge of being decriminalized. Police say those Liberal efforts to decriminalize pot sent mixed messages to the public. They say many pot smokers have been emboldened by the talk of decriminalization and are more apt to smoke in public – all of which has resulted in more arrests. Proponents of more liberalized drug laws have ridiculed the Tory approach to marijuana, calling it a waste of taxpayers’ money to prosecute pot smokers. Drug-dependency experts have also challenged the common notion that pot is a so-called ‘gateway’ to other drugs, and argue that it actually keeps people from experimenting with more dangerous ones.Health Minister Tony Clement, who will be one of three cabinet ministers present at the announcement, has said his government wants to clear up the uncertainty about marijuana. “There’s been a lot of mixed messages going out about illicit drugs,” Clement said recently. “We’re going to be back in the business of an anti-drug strategy. . . In that sense, the party’s over.”

The policy on cannabis use in The Netherlands is substantially different from that in many other
countries. It is based on the idea that separating the markets for hard drugs and soft drugs prevents soft drug users to resort to hard drug use. Over the years so-called coffeeshops emerged.

Coffeeshops are alcohol free establishments where the selling and using of soft drugs is not prosecuted,provided certain conditions are met. Many of the cannabis products sold in these coffeeshops originate from Dutch-grown grass called ‘nederwiet’. Critics of the Dutch drug policy have claimed that the THC-content of nederwiet has increased drastically over the last decades.

However,the THC-content of cannabis products as sold in coffeeshops has not systematically been
tested. On request of the Ministries of Health and Justice, the potency of cannabis products as sold in coffeeshops in The Netherlands has been investigated since 1999.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive compound in marihuana and hashish. The
aim of this study was to investigate the concentration of THC in marihuana and hash as sold in
Dutch coffeeshops. In addition we wanted to know whether there are differences between the cannabis products originating from Dutch grown hemp (nederwiet) and those derived from imported hemp. It is the eighth time that this study has been performed.

It might be that there are differences in potency of cannabis products in different seasons of the
year. For that reason, since 2001, every year extra samplings have been done in September. In
these extra studies only nederwiet was bought. The names and addresses of 50 Dutch coffeeshops were randomly selected. For the purpose of this study, 53 samples of nederwiet, 24 samples of foreign marihuana, 14 samples of Dutch hash and 42 samples of hash prepared from foreign hemp were anonymously bought in the selected coffeeshops.

In addition, 47 samples of the most potent marihuana product available in the coffeeshop,
were bought. As a rule samples of 1 gram were bought. The average THC-content of all the marihuana samples together13 was 14,2% and that of the hash-samples 17,2%. The average THC-content of nederwiet (16,0%) was significantly higher than that of foreign marihuana (6,0%). Hash derived from Dutch hemp contained more THC (29,1%) than hash originating from foreign hemp (13,3%). The average THC percentage of nederwiet was significantly lower than last year (16,9 vs. 17.5%).

Again, the THC-percentage in foreign marihuana did not differ from the previous samplings. The average THC-percentage of the marihuana samples that were bought as most potent (16,5%) did not differ from the average percentage of nederwiet. The potency of nederwiet bought in September 2006 was not significantly different from samples bought in December/January 2007. It was the first time that no seasonal influence in THC-levels was found. There seems to be a stabilization of the potency of nederwiet. Such stabilization was first seen in the cannabis samples bought in September. Most potent as indicated by the coffeeshop personnel. This is not corrected for in terms of relative contribution of number of foreign or Dutch samples.

Prices that had to be paid for foreign marihuana were lower than those for any of the other
cannabis products. The prices of nederwiet increased significantly the last year.
The most notable finding in the current investigation was a significant decrease in the potency
of imported hash (from 18,7% in 2006 to 13,3% in 2007). Climate factors in the countries
of origin seem to be the most logical explanation. Future monitoring has to show
whether this is an incident or a trend.

Source:THC-concentration in weed, netherweed and hasj in the Dutch coffeeshops (2006-2007)’, English summary.Trimbos Institute

For distribution to your contacts.
We are in agreement on the effects of ineffective international policies, political agendas and poor services.

We are requesting the Irish Government to take responsibility towards its Ministers as you will see from the article in our main National newspaper the Sunday Independent. [http://www.independent.ie/national-news/no-to-dail-coke-tests-minister-1
116996.html]
In the name of National security and especially as they are responsible
for national drug policy we feel it is imperative. This is similiar
for all other Governments.

If anyone is using it, means they are compromised in their position.
We did one hour on national radio yesterday discussing the effects of drug use on crime and the harm that our present national policy has
caused . Ireland has one of the highest rates of drug use in Europe.
When I work in Sweden we see the effects of a Drug Free Policy.
Less drug use, crime etc. Although they have a problem it is not in any way equal to that which we see under present ‘Harm Reduction’ – Harm Production policies internationally.

Source: Marie Byrne, Aisling Group International,Ireland. October 2007

The sale of hallucinogenic magic mushrooms is about to be banned by the Dutch Government in the latest sign of a conservative backlash against Amsterdam’s relaxed attitude towards sex and drugs.
A series of high-profile deaths and injuries linked to magic mushroom trips has proved too much for ministers, who are expected to discuss prohibition proposals from Ab Klink, the Health Secretary, at a Cabinet meeting today. The move follows growing official impatience with the unforeseen consequences of traditional Dutch tolerance, which instead of normalising drug taking and prostitution has drawn in people-traffickers, dealers and organised crime gangs from across Europe.
Mr Klink’s push for a ban on the mushrooms follows plans by the Mayor of Amsterdam for an upgrade of the city’s infamous red-light district, including the closure of many of its prostitute windows and coffee shops where cannabis is openly sold. Job Cohen, the mayor, has also proposed a three-day “cooling-off” period between ordering mushrooms and buying them, to put off Amsterdam’s many weekend tourists, but that did not go far enough for Mr Klink.
Fresh mushrooms — as opposed to dried fungi which are already banned — are legally on sale at so-called smart shops, about 40 of which have sprung up in the capital selling all manner of herbal and chemical compounds. The sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms is illegal in most other countries and the dramatic rethink in the Netherlands has followed a rise in medical emergencies in Amsterdam linked to mushroom use.
Ambulance call-outs rose from 70 in 2005 to 128 last year, with nine out of ten cases involving tourists. Britons were the largest group among them. In July an 18-year-old from Iceland threw himself out of a hotel window, breaking both his legs.
But what really caught the public imagination was the death of a 17-year-old French girl who jumped from a bridge over one of Amsterdam’s canals to her death in March, apparently under the influence of magic mushrooms. In May, Mr Klink ordered the national health institute to carry out a fresh study on the risks of mushrooms, following an earlier report that played down the health dangers and led to a continuation of the tolerant approach.
Magic mushrooms are not addictive, but can have severe psychological consequences. Over the past six years mushrooms in dried and fresh form have been banned in Britain, Denmark and Ireland. In Britain, freshly picked magic mushrooms have been classified as Class A drugs for two years. The Drugs Act 2005 brought the law on fresh mushrooms into line with dried specimens. Britain acted after a significant rise in the amount of imported magic mushrooms.

Source: Daily Dose 11th October 2007

Friday, October 19, 2007
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe, who has an office in the area, says the exchange is a neighbourhood nightmare of filth, confrontation and constant threats of violence.

I write out of concern that the desperation, exhaustion and fearfulness of the citizens who work and live near the Cormorant Street needle exchange has not come through clearly enough. Frustration can come across as insensitivity, a lack of compassion or a kind of NIMBY attitude, which would be very misleading.
Many of us who encounter the unhappy souls who struggle with addiction are not unsympathetic to their plight. I work regularly with the addicted, the homeless and the mentally ill in our province’s prisons.
For those of us who observe the devastation of a neighbourhood in the name of a social experiment, resentment is focused not on the unfortunates, but on those who planned and implemented this disaster, including our mayor and council. We are exhausted and outraged by their failure to deal with the unsurprising consequences of simply providing needles to a group of people who need much more.
It is the restraint of those who have tolerated this abandonment of civic responsibility that has kept things from getting out of control.
Let me provide one example, a mild one. Not long ago, a man barged into my office, demanding to use the washroom. Having been burned by acceding to a similar demand in the past that resulted in needles and blood in my washroom, I refused and asked him to leave. He did, walked outside and then urinated on my door, aiming at the door handle.
Consider my options. Should I call the police? Or physically push him off my property, risking being doused by urine or stabbed by a needle? Should I risk a shouting match and possible retaliation?
So he walked away smirking, with no fear of any consequences. I washed the door before my next patient arrived. This on a day that started with me scooping diarrhea embedded with needles off my front steps.
Used needles, human feces, discarded underwear, assorted condoms and other unsanitary byproducts of addiction are frequently deposited on properties in the neighbourhood. After earlier protests, the city installed a “porta-potty” outside the needle exchange. That lasted but a few days, apparently because of the refusal of those who have to clean the toilets to deal with the needles and other paraphernalia jammed into them.
Trained workers understandably refused to face the health risks, yet citizens are left to their own devices.
We have asked for toilets, increased policing, assistance in regular cleaning or tax relief so that we can hire our own crews and private security. Our pleas have gone nowhere and the mayor has not responded to my last letter.
In it, I have told him that if the lawsuit over the injection site fails, my neighbours and I will have no choice but to erect tall fences topped with barbed wire along our streets. This is what it has come to in our once-beautiful city; citizens are left to wall themselves off, prison-like, in a downtown area.
Since I spend a good part of my work week in prisons, it is not especially harsh for me, but for a 70-year-old pensioner who grew up in a city where she once walked fearlessly, it is utterly disheartening.
I am outraged by the complacency of those who seek power and responsibility and then do nothing when faced with a crisis.
I work here, but many senior citizens, some handicapped, live here. Many are unable to sleep at night, never mind take a walk. They are intimidated by the arguments and yelling, the confrontations and their increasing fears of violence.
The fears of those who bear the brunt of this disaster are not exaggerated or misplaced. The needle exchange is a gathering place for addicts and the predators that they inevitably attract. It is the latter group that is becoming increasingly prominent and more confrontational.
Drug dependence, especially on short-acting opiates, creates desperate cravings, often several times a day. There is a clear relationship between substance abuse and criminality, including acts of violence.
There are three broad ways in which alcohol and drugs influence crime and violence. The first is physiological, through a direct effect on mental functioning, when disinhibition of behaviour, including aggressive behaviour, is common. The second influence is due to the financial needs of the addict. Finally, there is the “business” aspect of addiction, the turf wars between dealers and others who prey on addiction.
By funnelling a large proportion of the city’s drug-related crime and disorder into a small neighbourhood, those responsible for this disaster have absconded from their responsibility for follow-through with services for the addicts, protection from the predators they attract and basic services for the citizens left to cope with the crime, filth and public disorder.
The “service” of providing needles ends before sundown when the needle exchange shuts down, leaving the addicted with no support, supervision, food or water, protection from predators, shelter or toilets.
Where do the politicians and planners think these people go to shoot up, steal money for their next hit or next meal, sleep, urinate, rant and rave, intimidate, vent their fury against the society they believe has abandoned them and destroy property and peace-of-mind?
Invited to bring their suffering and their rage to a particular spot, then left to their own devices, they inflict their despair and their frenzy on a small group of citizens who have been left to cope with the predictable consequences of “injecting” a crime-prone subculture into what was once a beautiful, pleasant and safe neighborhood.

Source: www.Canada.com 19th Oct.2007

Drug treatment works. How do we know? Today, there are millions of millions of Americans successfully recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. These courageous Americans are living proof that effective drug treatment can save lives and reduce our national drug problem.
That’s why it’s so troubling to see this:
“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — City health officials took steps Thursday toward opening the nation’s first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses.
Hoping to reduce San Francisco’s high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department co-sponsored a symposium on the only such facility in North America, a four-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 intravenous users a day self-administer narcotics under the supervision of nurses…
… Bertha Madras, deputy director of demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called San Francisco’s consideration of such a facility “disconcerting” and “poor public policy.”
“The underlying philosophy is, ‘We accept drug addiction, we accept the state of affairs as acceptable,’ Madras said. “This is a form of giving up.” [AP]
Indeed, no one proposes aiding and sustaining an alcoholic by providing a supervised site for alcohol use. At best, so-called “harm reduction” is half-way measure; half-hearted approach that accepts defeat. Pretending harmful activity will be reduced if we condone it under the law is foolhardy and irresponsible.
Need more proof that treatment works? Consider this:
• Nearly 10,000 clients in community-based programs in 11 cities were compared before and after treatment on a number of key outcomes. Depending upon treatment modality, the data showed reductions in weekly use of heroin (between 44 and 69 percent), cocaine (between 56 and 69 percent), and marijuana (between 55 and 67 percent); reductions in illegal behavior (between 36 and 61 percent); and improvements in employment status (between 4 and 12 percent).
• One year following discharge from drug treatment, use of the primary drug of choice dropped 48 percent; arrests dropped 64 percent; self-reported illegal activity dropped 48 percent; and the number of health visits related to substance use declined by more than 50 percent.
• Five years after discharge, there was a 21 percent reduction in the use of any illegal drug—a 45 percent reduction in powder cocaine use, a 17 percent drop in crack cocaine use, a 14 percent decline in heroin use, and a 28 percent drop in marijuana use. Similar reductions were reported for criminal activity: a 30 percent reduction in selling drugs, a 23 percent decrease in victimizing others, and a 38 percent drop in breaking and entering, as well as a 56 percent drop in motor vehicle theft.

Sources: Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study, National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study, and Services Research Outcomes Study.

Vancouver is a beautiful city – but they have a dreadful situation around Gas Town on the East side –
The needle exchange programme there attracts the most desperate of drug users. Now Victoria has very similar problems around their NEP.

Mayor promises to find homes for 50 of the most troubled homeless people; plan expected have ‘enormous’ impact
Published: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe promises the city will sweep off the streets 50 homeless people who are shooting up drugs and causing conflict downtown within four months.
The move, which makes good on recommendations contained in task force report released last week, should have an immediate and dramatic effect as the the group is one of the most visible symbols of the substance-abuse, mental-health and homelessness problems plaguing the city. Lowe said the first community outreach team called for in the report will be “up and running immediately,” and will find homes for the 50 “hardest to house” homeless people within 120 days.
One of the most visible examples of the city’s homelessness and addiction crisis is the needle exchange on Cormorant Street. Many of the most troublesome homeless people hang out there, leaving a trail of filth, faeces and needles.
Currently, the 50 people have nowhere to go, so often are sprawled outside the needle exchange on Cormorant Street or Streetlink on Store Street, amid feces, filth and scattered hypodermic needles.
The City of Victoria task force action plan unveiled last week aims to find 1,550 housing units over the next five years for the homeless. Within a year, the city plans to find accommodations, through rent subsidies, for 350 people.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority has kicked in $7.6 million toward the effort to deal with the homelessness and addiction crisis – more than $3 million of that going toward the creation of four outreach groups, dubbed “Assertive Community Teams,” to provide support to people on the streets, in shelters or supportive housing. Another $1.7 million is earmarked for adult detox treatment.
Victoria lawyer Stewart Johnston, who is leading a court action to shut down the needle exchange near his law office, said helping those individuals and finding them a place to live will change the entire look and feel of downtown Victoria. “If you take the worst 45 to 50 off streets, and then another 300, the difference would be enormous,” he said.
Police have estimated about 45 people are causing most of the problems around the needle exchange, Johnston said. Housing that group of people “would make all the sense in the world,” said Rev. Al Tysick of Our Place Society. A meeting on Friday should better clarify how the 50 people will be selected, he said.
Victoria police acting chief Bill Naughton agreed the plan will have an immediate and “very significant impact. It could also make easier the job of police, who continue to shuffle homeless residents from one doorway to another as business owners complain. Police can’t solve the housing piece of the puzzle but we recognize how important it is,” Naughton said.
Police estimate a group of 324 homeless, addicted and mentally-ill people were responsible for 23,033 police incidents over a period of 40 months, at a cost of $9 million. Some of the hardest to house will go to the soon-to-open Our Place Society drop-in street shelter and transitional housing complex, “but I don’t think it is a good idea to put them all in one location,” Lowe said. “They need to be dispersed, as long as there are support services available to follow the individuals.”
Victoria Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe said the plan is to use rent subsidies to place people throughout the region in existing housing. As long as there is “support wrapped around the individual,” and landlords have a housing team they can call around the clock, such placements are highly successful, she said.

Source Times Colonist Oct 2007
COMMENTS ON THIS STORY

Sylvia Oertel
Wed, Oct 24, 07 at 04:54 AM
There’s big talk about getting these poor souls off the street & I applaud that action. Now let’s not forget their greatest needs which are continuing health care, mental health care, rehabilitation programs, AA-NA,co-dependancy, abuse& anger mgmt programs ‘for all’ not just a chosen few & no endless wait lists! Then there’s self esteem courses, budgeting help, education & training… I could go on forever with the needs of these persons as they are obviously going to require a myriad of complex treatment to fully recover as it’s more than just addictions now….. There was a time when they thought “oh, I’ll never become an addict, I only do it when I party”, but that devils dust got hold of them and has had them in its grip for a decade or more! Maybe rather than a cheque each month (which at this date is generally being used to support addictiions),until they are stable they get Rent ‘paid direct’ & food credits, & laundry facilities, to assure that the $ are spent on essentials to help keep them healthy & clean…. After all the proof is in the pudding that so far the funds have been supporting habits. That wouldn’t change just because there’s a roof over their head. Not without some type of cautions in place. Maybe to encourage them to attend programs they could earn incentives… These ideas and insights come from the heart of a mother of 2 addicted daughters. Why do I care? Because I have a mother’s heart.When I counted their ten tiny little toes this wasn’t the dreams & hopes I had for my girls….. So when it comes to my girls I can only live 1 day at a time, no making plans with them for days ahead. I go to bed & wake up saying tpraying ‘ Serenity Prayer’, and dreading the knocks on my door or the calls that may be the time someone tells me they’re lost to me forever……….. Please just sign me :’Mom of 3 & Grandma of 6′

Nick
Wed, Oct 24, 07 at 03:57 PM
As a former long time Victoria resident, I think I should warn you that BC is THE destination for drug-loving lowlifes from the rest of the country. Build it and they will come, no sooner will you get rid of the current crop and the next batch will arrive from Ontario, Quebec, or other eastern provinces. BC should be petitioning the feds to make it possible to deport bad apples to their homes.

Nick 2.
Wed, Oct 24, 07 at 08:57 PM
Nick above has it right. Some people need to give their heads a good shake. Surely you must realise that if we citizens of Victoria start (continue) putting our taxes towards free needles, food, shelter etc for those who themselves put the needle in themselves, the flood gates will open. So let me see if I have the picture straight! If I shoot up, leave needles in the street, deficate publically, beg, sleep in someone elses doorway, or have a dog I don’t want to give up you are going to give me a place to live??? Sounds good to me, where do I start and can get a free dog please?

HEROIN is set for a devastating comeback on Sydney streets and could trigger a major surge in overdoses, drug experts warned yesterday.
While a recent heroin drought led to a drop in overdoses in Australia, an influx of pure heroin from East Asia is expected to flood the local market, sparking grave fears of more drug deaths.
The quantity of heroin imported to Australia has almost doubled in the past two years, jumping from 40kg in 2005-06 to about 70kg last financial year, the latest statistics show.
A dramatic increase in poppy production in Afghanistan and Burma due to favourable weather conditions has been blamed for the increased supply of pure heroin, which experts say is destined for Sydney, which is renowned as Australia’s heroin capital.
The Australian National Council on Drugs yesterday warned low grade heroin supplies were being supplemented by higher concentrations.
“The increase in purity has a potential problem for more overdoses,” the council’s executive director Gino Vumbaca said.
“Sydney is the market where it comes to and there’s an increase in usage patterns.”
The UN has recently confirmed Burma had dramatically increased poppy yields.
“They’re expecting a lot of heroin to be produced and sold and the destination will be Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Vumbaca said.
The trend has angered Australia’s leading drug support group which held a memorial service in Canberra this week – attended by more than 100 people – to pay tribute to family members lost to drug overdoses.
“We haven’t solved the problem, we haven’t done anything to make long-term solutions,” a Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform spokesman said.
The heroin issue was also raised at a national drug strategy conference on the Gold Coast yesterday with experts saying supplies were certainly on the rise.
National Drug and Alcohol Research Council spokeswoman Louisa Degenhardt said internal research showed drug users confirmed that heroin supply was increasing.
“A greater proportion said it was very easy to get compared to last year,” she said.

Source www.news.com.au Oct 2007

DRUG deaths soared from 111 to 162 in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area last year.
Heroin or morphine was the cause of 97 deaths and methadone was involved in 58 cases.
In Glasgow alone, there were 113 drug-related deaths, a sharp rise from 75 last year.
The rises in both areas were far higher than anywhere else in the country.
The figures, in a report from the General Register Office, revealed there were 421 drug-related deaths in Scotland, 85 more than last year.
They also show that there were 204,168 methadone prescriptions in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area at a cost of almost £4.7million Glasgow Tory MSP Bill Aitken said: “These figures are so bad they point to a loss of control over an already desperate problem.
“The message has got to get across that dabbling with drugs then becomes a serious addiction and frequently ends with the loss of a life.
“We have to react to these tragic statistics. There must be a no-tolerance approach to drug taking, strict and punitive enforcement on drug dealers and better efforts to rehabilitate those who are willing address their demons.”
Minister for Community Safety Fergus Ewing said drug abuse was “one of the greatest problems facing us as a nation”.
He added: “It’s a long term problem, we need long-term solutions – not quick fixes. We will launch a new drugs strategy next year that will be focussed on using resources more effectively to get addicts drug-free.
“Connecting people to the right services and integrated care to help them lead drug free lives should be the norm across Scotland rather than the exception.”

Source: Evening Times. 19/12/07

IT IS clear for all to see that Ireland has a growing cocaine problem which we must face in a sensible and coherent manner. But in the process of tackling the problem, we must steer a careful path between two major mistakes that would make the situation worse.
The first mistake is that of normalising the problem by hyping its prevalence. The recent Prime Time Investigates programme grabbed the headlines with its findings that cocaine traces can be found in most pubs and nightclubs. But that is a long way from showing that most individuals take cocaine. If we create the impression that “everyone” takes cocaine when they clearly don’t, and if we communicate the idea that cocaine use is now the expected behaviour for young people, we can make the problem worse because of the powerful effect of social norm perceptions on human behaviour.
The second, and even greater, danger is to indulge in poorly thought-out policy reactions that will have the ultimate effect of making the problem worse. That’s why arguments about legalising cocaine and other drugs, must be rejected.
One of the arguments for legalisation is that state controls would put the crime lords out of business. But there is absolutely no evidence for this. Do we really believe that the gangs who have made millions, and who are prepared to kill to protect their narcotic empires, will simply walk away and retire?
At what age should children be allowed to buy legal cocaine? One study released earlier this year indicated that 40 per cent of Irish 15-year-olds have dabbled in illegal drugs. Should cocaine be legal for kids of this age? Unless we make cocaine more freely available than alcohol and tobacco, and place no age limits on it, a black market for underage cocaine will remain. In such a scenario, what’s to stop our drug lords killing each other to capture the teen coke market? And what if the cocaine magnates diversify into other banned substances, creating a new, expanded market where they won’t have to compete against the local cocaine-selling pharmacy? Do we really want expert drug pushers pursuing our teenagers in this way? What about the cost of legal cocaine? What’s to stop the criminal gangs from undercutting the price of legal cocaine?
But even if, in some alternative reality, the decriminalisation of cocaine would reduce crime, we still face a choice between two major evils and must ask ourselves which of them is the lesser: gangs wiping each other out or the prospect of even greater drug abuse and death in the rest of the population due to decriminalisation?
Legalising cocaine would inevitably increase drug consumption levels and with them, drug-related tragedies because the law plays a significant role in influencing human behaviour. Of course, it is peers that have the most intensely powerful impact on our behaviour, precisely because friends help to establish the social norms. But if this potent peer pressure has already led to a significant cocaine problem, how much greater would our problem be if the State endorsed cocaine?
Britain, in taking a softer approach to marijuana, has seen a 22 per cent increase in hospital admissions of cannabis users. The Netherlands, with its enlightened drugs policy, has seen a dramatic rise in heroin use since soft drugs were legalised. Meanwhile, Sweden, with some of the toughest drugs laws has Europe’s lowest consumption rate.
After the recent cocaine-related death of Kevin Doyle, 21, of Waterford, his family said that they “sincerely hope that no family has to suffer the pain that we are going through”. Can we really believe that a dangerous experiment with legalised cocaine would help their wish to come true?

Source: Independent i.e. Sunday December 23 2007
Patrick Kenny is a lecturer in marketing in the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Czech pot smokers have breathed a sigh of relief after the government clarified a law on drug use, turning the country into one of Europe’s safest havens for casual drug users.
Under the more transparent and liberal law in effect since January, people found in possession of up to 15 grammes (half an ounce) of marijuana or growing up to five cannabis plants no longer risk prison or a criminal record, but can only be fined if caught. The new law replaced an ambiguous one that made it a penalty to be in possession of “a larger than small amount” of marijuana.
But Karel Nespor, a doctor who heads the addiction treatment centre at Prague-Bohnice psychiatric hospital, is concerned about impact the eased law may have on health. “One study found that the risk of heart attack is four times higher in the hour after someone smokes a marijuana joint,” he recently told the Czech daily Dnes .”Marijuana use also risks provoking ‘cravings’ for the drug,” he said.
Adopted after years of wrangling, the new drug law also allows people to possess less than 1.5 grammes of heroin, a gramme of cocaine, up to five grammes of hashish, and five LSD blotter papers, pills, capsules or crystals.
Czechs can also legally grow up to five cannabis or coca plants or cacti containing mescaline, and possess up to 40 magic mushrooms. If growers comply with the legal limits, possession is treated as a minor offence, while the possession of bigger amounts may result in up to six months in prison for hemp and up to a year for magic mushrooms, plus a fine. In neighbouring Poland and Slovakia, people possessing any amount of marijuana risk ending up behind bars.

Source Daily Dose 18.03.10

On March 1, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance had expressed pleasure that “Obama and his Drug Czar, Gil, have made it clear that they don’t want to talk about marijuana at all.” Nadelmann considered the silence to mean assent to his agenda of marijuana decriminalization and legalization. But just three days later, in a dramatic development, Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), came out in strong opposition to almost everything that Nadelmann and his “progressive” backers represent.

In a major speech on March 4, Kerlikowske denounced the use of marijuana, including its “medical” version, and cited facts and studies linking the weed to all kinds of health problems. “The concern with marijuana is not born out of any culture-war mentality, but out of what the science tells us about the drug’s effects,” he said. “And the science, though still evolving, is clear: marijuana use is harmful. It is associated with dependence, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor performance, and cognitive impairment, among other negative effects.”

This has to be perceived as a tremendous setback for Nadelmann and the rich liberals, led by George Soros and Peter Lewis, who have financed the drug legalization and “medical marijuana” movements. The Kerlikowske speech constitutes belated recognition that the drug wars south of the border are inexorably linked to the growing use of marijuana in California, where some of the same Mexican drug gangs are planting and harvesting their crop.
A report, Organized Crime in California Annual Report 2007-08, prepared by the California Department of Justice, states that “Mexican drug trafficking organizations [DTOs] command a large portion of the illegal drug trade in California.” Those DTOs, which “dominate the outdoor cultivation of marijuana in California,” are, in turn, linked to criminal street gangs and organized crime groups.

Maryland Considers Pro-pot Bill

Despite the wake-up call from Obama’s own Drug Czar, the well-financed movement to legalize dope continues on many fronts. On Thursday, March 18, Joyce Nalepka, former President of Nancy Reagan’s favorite charity, the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, will testify in hearings before the Maryland State Legislature in Annapolis. She says that Maryland Senate Bill SB 627 would allow use of marijuana under the guise of “medicine.”
Thursday will mark the ninth time Nalepka has testified on this issue in Maryland. “There is nothing new to say, except the marijuana that kids are using today is so much more potent, they refer to it as ‘Skunk.’ Eighteen nations, including the U.S., now link ‘Skunk’ marijuana to depression, psychosis and schizophrenia,” she says.

On the national level, supported by Soros and Lewis, then-candidate Barack Obama adopted the soft-on-drugs approach. As President, his Attorney General Eric Holder decided to withhold federal resources from the war on drugs in California, at least as they apply to the growing “medical marijuana” program. But that was before a psychotic pothead named John Patrick Bedell came all the way from California with a “medical marijuana” card and opened fire on the entrance to the Pentagon, wounding two guards before getting killed himself.

Ironically, on the same day that Bedell was preparing his assault, Kerlikowske was getting ready to speak to the California Police Chiefs Association Conference in San Jose, California. His topic: “Why Marijuana Legalization Would Compromise Public Health and Public Safety.” The speech was so powerful, in terms of the facts he presented about the problems associated with marijuana, including “medical marijuana,” that it is somewhat shocking to consider that he has a job in the Obama Administration.

The editorial board of the Christian Science Monitor was pleasantly surprised, saying that “The Obama White House has finally laid out its most thorough, reasoned rebuttal to arguments for marijuana legalization—countering a campaign that is gaining alarming momentum at the state level.” Its editorial headline highlighted that this position had “finally” been articulated, reflecting frustration with the silence and confusion on the matter of drug legalization coming from the Obama Administration. The editorial referred to the “well-financed, well-organized pro-marijuana effort,” without noting that billionaires Soros and Lewis, major Democratic Party donors, are behind it. Obama should be asked at his next news conference, when and if he ever holds one, if he agrees with his Drug Czar about the dangers of dope, which he smoked as a young man, along with snorting cocaine. But the President has apparently been too busy with national health care legislation to take an interest in the health impact of illegal drugs and the drug wars that are resulting in part from its cultivation and use in the “Golden State.” Pot Linked to Mental Problems

In its editorial, “Marijuana legalization? A White House rebuttal, finally,” The Christian Science Monitor made prominent mention of John Patrick Bedell’s marijuana use and mental problems, which gave urgency to Kerlikowske’s remarks. It said, “The recent ‘Pentagon shooter,’ John Patrick Bedell, was a heavy marijuana user. The disturbed young man’s psychiatrist told the Associated Press that marijuana made the symptoms of his mental illness more pronounced.”
There is a contrast, as noted by the publication, between Kerlikowske’s tough talk to the California police chiefs and the Holder policy of withdrawing from a big part of the war on drugs in California. Attorney General Holder insists that the Department of Justice just doesn’t have the “resources” to do anything about the “medical marijuana” problem.

Kerlikowske alluded to “the problems associated with medical marijuana dispensaries,” where people get their dope with the simple approval of a pro-pot doctor, and said that “We’ve seen the problems of medical marijuana here in this state but also in places like Colorado, too, where kids are given the message that since marijuana is a medicine, it must be safe.” Although he failed to say anything about the Administration having basically given up on doing anything about those dispensaries, his comments have put him on a collision course with Holder and perhaps Obama himself. In California, anti-drug activists are examining what can be done about the pro-pot doctors behind the “medical marijuana” scam.

The Warning

As the Christian Science Monitor pointed out, some of the best material in the speech came in a jam-packed footnote. The paper said, “As Kerlikowske pointed out, marijuana is harmful—and he has the studies to back it up. Read the footnotes in his speech; they’re sobering, especially No. 8.” That footnote describes the scientific studies linking marijuana to respiratory illnesses, lung injury, and mental illness, including psychosis. Little did Kerlikowske know that, as he was speaking to the police chiefs, a crazed California pothead was on his way to try to kill people at the Pentagon because he thought the U.S. military was involved in a conspiracy of some sort. Of course, this is just one aspect of the mental problems associated with marijuana use. Simply put, the weed reduces the ability of people to think and act clearly.

On the matter of why drug legalization will increase and not solve any marijuana-related problems, Kerlikowske said that “it is clear that the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied. In the United States, illegal drugs already cost $180 billion a year in health care, lost productivity, crime, and other expenditures. That number would only increase under legalization because of increased use.”
Regarding the claim that legalization would eliminate the black market, reduce crime and strike a blow against the drug trafficking organizations, he explained that the evidence indicates that there would still be a “profit motive for the existing black market providers to stay in the market, as they can still cover their costs of production and make a nice profit.” As a result, he noted, legalization would “saddle government with the dual burden of regulating a new legal market while continuing to pay for the negative side effects associated with an underground market whose providers have little economic incentive to disappear.”
In practical terms, he added, “Legalization means the price comes down, the number of users goes up, the underground market adapts, and the revenue gained through a regulated market will never keep pace with the financial and social cost of making this drug more accessible.”

Now Under Attack

Predictably, Kerlikowske is being attacked by the illegal drug lobby. The Peter Lewis-funded Marijuana Policy Project called his speech “supremely uneducated.” Like John Patrick Bedell, the potheads won’t rest until society recognizes their right to smoke, grow and even worship pot. Do they have an ally in President Obama? “Yes we Cannabis!” they say. But the public, concerned about a generation literally going to pot under a President who inhaled and liked it, may have something to say about that. With all the criticism of Obama’s various “Czars,” at least one of them, Gil Kerlikowske, has taken a bold stand that is out of step with what Obama’s “progressive” base has been demanding. It will be interesting to see how long he lasts.

Source Cliff Kincaid March 17 2010

Thank you for inviting me here today to address your conference. I especially want to thank Chief Rob Davis for that introduction.
Furthermore, I’d like to congratulate and thank your new President, Susan Manheimer.
I also want to acknowledge my friend, Barney Malekian, and congratulate him on his appointment as the COPS Director. I believe our appointments speak very clearly about the level of support and respect this Administration has for local law enforcement.
You have been at the forefront of some very controversial issues, and I appreciate your leadership. Other states look to California 2
for guidance, and your thoughtful and timely efforts on drug issues ranging from medical marijuana to pseudoephedrine are important for the health and safety of all Americans.
When President Obama asked me to serve as Director of National Drug Control Policy, he explained that one of my first duties would be drafting his Administration’s first National Drug Control Strategy, laying out the policies and programs best suited to curb drug use and its consequences.
But the President didn’t want a traditional policy paper, with a few people from Washington putting their ideas down and then submitting to Congress a plan that would be forgotten or disregarded by the field. Instead, he asked me to travel the country and sit down with people on every side of this issue.
Since my confirmation, I’ve visited 37 cities in 19 states, as well as 8 foreign countries, holding roundtable discussions and meeting with hundreds of drug prevention and treatment experts, local officials, law enforcement, parents, teachers, community groups, academics, and young people.
We also convened a working group made up of the 35 Federal agencies with a role in the anti-drug effort. The group’s task was to develop a coordinated approach at the Federal level.
These months of consultations across the country helped highlight an important truth – that public safety and public health are threatened by drug use and its consequences. Addressing these 3
challenges requires a balanced, comprehensive, and evidence-based approach.
The Administration’s Drug Control Strategy, which will be released soon, will build on the hard-won knowledge we already have, but it will also incorporate new information and new tools that experience in the trenches and our best research have provided us.
The scope of our country’s drug problem is disturbingly clear: drug overdoses outnumber gunshot deaths in America and are fast approaching motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of accidental death. It’s hard to believe since we seem to hear much more about H1N1, the Toyota recall, and texting while driving.
We are also deeply concerned about two relatively recent threats to public safety and public health: prescription drug abuse and drugged driving.
Prescription drug abuse harms the people who take these pills and those close to them. While we must ensure access to medications that alleviate suffering, it is also vital that we do all we can to curtail diversion and abuse of pharmaceuticals.
Past-year initiation of non-medical prescription drug use has surpassed the rate for marijuana.1 Moreover, between 1997 and 2007, treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 400 percent. The latest data from the Monitoring the Future study show that seven out of the top ten drugs used by teens are prescription drugs
.
1 Results from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 2009 4
2 Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Highlights – 2007, SAMHSA: National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services.
3 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), SAMHSA, 2010. Found at https://dawninfo.samhsa.gov/
4 See Supra note 1.
And between 2004 and 2008, the number of visits to hospital emergency departments involving the non-medical use of narcotic painkillers increased 111 percent.3
Because prescription drugs are legal, they are easily accessible, often from a home medicine cabinet. Further, some individuals who misuse prescription drugs, particularly teens, believe these substances are safer than illicit drugs because they are prescribed by a healthcare professional and sold behind the counter. This is not the drug that people buy behind a gas station wrapped in tin foil, and so people think it is somehow safer.
We know from the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health that most people who abuse these drugs are getting them from friends and family or from a doctor.4
As law enforcement professionals and community leaders, you can help spread an important message to parents and other adults: If you have unused prescription drugs in your home, dispose of them properly. I also know that many of you have initiated take-backs with the community to help this problem, and I applaud you for that. 5
Another priority for us this year is drugged driving.
A Department of Transportation study released in December showed that 16 percent of nighttime weekend drivers were under the influence of a licit or illicit drug.5

5 2007 National Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers: Drug Results, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2009. Accessible at http://www.ondcp.gov/publications/pdf/07roadsidesurvey.pdf

This study highlighted the alarming prevalence of drugged driving, and I’ve made anti-drugged driving efforts a top priority.
We will be assessing how we can help states deal with this issue, and I will be meeting with leaders – from trainers of Drug Recognition Experts (DRE), to police chiefs, researchers, and policy makers –to see how the Administration can engage with them to reduce this threat.
This evening I’ll be in Sacramento, meeting with 30 officers currently undergoing DRE training. I will encourage them in their efforts and sit down with them to better understand the issues they face in this area.
I know it is impossible to talk about drug policy issues ranging from prevention to policing, from drugged driving to treatment, without mentioning the role of the most commonly used illicit drug today – marijuana.
You all know the impacts of marijuana in this state– from the proliferation of marijuana being grown on public lands and indoor grows, to the negative effects of marijuana use among youth, the 6
increasing influence of violent gangs on the marijuana trade, and the problems associated with medical marijuana dispensaries.
As I’ve said from the day I was sworn in, marijuana legalization – for any purpose – is a non-starter in the Obama Administration. I’d like to explain why we take this position.
First, on the medical marijuana issue, I believe that the science should determine what a medicine is, not popular vote.
We’ve seen the problems of medical marijuana here in this state but also in places like Colorado, too, where kids are given the message that since marijuana is a medicine, it must be safe.6

6 “Doctor says medical marijuana laws hurt teens,” NPR. Talk of the Nation, Feb, 10, 2010. Accessible at http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=5&prgDate=02-10-2010
7 “Government to scale down coffee shops,” Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport, Sept. 11, 2009. Accessible at http://www.minvws.nl/en/nieuwsberichten/vgp/2009/government-to-scale-down-coffee-shops.asp. Also see “Dutch border towns to close coffee-shops,” Expatica, October 24, 2008, http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/local_news/Dutch-border-towns-close-coffee_shops.html. It is also worth noting that research from MacCoun, R. and Reuter, P. (2001; Drug War Heresies, Cambridge University Press) shows that, despite traditionally higher rates of marijuana use in the U.S., there was a tripling in lifetime marijuana use and a more than doubling of past-month use among 18- to 20-year-olds in the Netherlands from 1984 to 1996 – a time when the commercialization of Dutch coffee shops was rapidly expanding

But we’ve also seen how localities are dealing with this, with success, through zoning, planning regulations, nuisance laws, and other mechanisms.
I recently met with officials from the Netherlands, they are closing down marijuana outlets – or “coffee shops” – because of the nuisance and crime risks associated with them. What used to be thousands of shops have now been reduced to a few hundred, and some cities are shutting them down completely.7 7
This brings me to the issue of outright legalization.
The concern with marijuana is not born out of any culture-war mentality, but out of what the science tells us about the drug’s effects.
And the science, though still evolving, is clear: marijuana use is harmful. It is associated with dependence, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor performance, and cognitive impairment, among other negative effects.8

8 Moore and colleagues (2005) summed up the literature on respiratory illnesses and marijuana in the Journal of General Internal Medicine by stating that “the current literature of case reports and clinical samples suggests that marijuana-related respiratory problems may constitute a significant public health burden.” See Moore, B.A., et al, Respiratory effects of marijuana and tobacco use in a U.S. sample, Journal of General Internal Medicine 20(1):33-37, 2005. Also see Tashkin, D.P., Smoked marijuana as a cause of lung injury, Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease 63(2):93-100, 2005. Other evidence on the effect of marijuana on lung function and the respiratory system, and the link with mental illness, can be found in expert reviews offered by Hall W.D, and Pacula R.L. (2003), Cannabis use and dependence: Public health and public policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press., and Room, R., Fischer, B., Hall, W., Lenton, S., and Reuter, P. (2009), Cannabis Policy: Moving beyond stalemate, The Global Cannabis Commission Report, the Beckley Foundation. Room et al. write, “Cannabis use and psychotic symptoms are associated in general population surveys and the relationship persists after adjusting for confounders. The best evidence that these associations may be causal comes from longitudinal studies of large representative cohorts.” Also see Degenhardt, L. & Hall, W. (2006), Is cannabis a contributory cause of psychosis? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 51: 556-565. A major study examining young people and, importantly, a subset of sibling pairs was released in February 2010 and concluded that marijuana use at a young age significantly increased the risk of psychosis in young adulthood. See McGrath, J., et al. (2010), Association between cannabis use and psychosis-related outcomes using sibling pair analysis in a cohort of young adults, Archives of General Psychiatry.

We know that over 110,000 people who showed up voluntarily at treatment facilities in 2007 reported marijuana as their primary substance of abuse.9 Additionally, in 2008 marijuana was involved in 375,000 emergency visits nationwide.10 8
Several studies have shown that marijuana dependence is real and causes harm. We know that more than 30 percent of past-year marijuana users age 18 and older are classified as dependent on the drug,11 and that the lifetime prevalence of marijuana dependence in the US population is higher than that for any other illicit drug. Those dependent on marijuana often show signs of withdrawal and compulsive behavior.12

11 Compton, W., Grant, B., Colliver, J., Glantz; M., Stinson, F. (2004), Prevalence of Marijuana Use Disorders in the United States: 1991-1992 and 2001-2002, Journal of the American Medical Association, 291:2114-2121.
12 Budney, A.J. & Hughes, J.R. (2006), The cannabis withdrawal syndrome, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 19: 233-238.; Budney, A.J., Hughes, J.R., Moore, B.A. & Vandrey, R. (2004), Review of the validity and significance of cannabis withdrawal syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161: 1967-1977.; Budney, A.J.,Vandrey, R.G., Hughes, J.R., Moore, B.A. & Bahrenburg, B. (2007), Oral delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol suppresses cannabis withdrawal symptoms, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 86: 22-29.; Kouri, E.M. & Pope, H.G. (2000), Abstinence symptoms during withdrawal from chronic marijuana use, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 8: 483-492.; Jones, R.T., Benowitz, N. & Herning, R.I. (1976), The 30-day trip: clinical studies of cannabis use, tolerance and dependence. In Braude, M. & Szara, S. (eds.), The Pharmacology of Marijuana. New York: Academic Press, Vol. 2, pp. 627-642.
13 For a review of the evidence on marijuana and educational attainment, see: Lynskey, M.T. & Hall, W.D. (2000), The effects of adolescent cannabis use on educational attainment: a review, Addiction, 96: 433-443.

Travelling the country, I’ve often heard from local treatment specialists that marijuana dependence is as a major problem at call-in centers offering help for people using drugs.
Marijuana negatively affects users in other ways, too. For example, prolonged use is associated with lower test scores and lower educational attainment because during periods of intoxication the drug affects the ability to learn and process information, thus influencing attention, concentration, and short-term memory.13 9
Advocates of legalization say the costs of prohibition – mainly through the criminal justice system – place a great burden on taxpayers and governments.
While there are certainly costs to current prohibitions, legalizing drugs would not cut the costs of the criminal justice system. Arrests for alcohol-related crimes such as violations of liquor laws and driving under the influence totaled nearly 2.7 million in 2008. Marijuana-related arrests totaled around 750,000 in 2008. 14

14 Federal Bureau of Investigation (2008) Uniform crime reports, Washington, DC. Available at: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
15 Heron M., Hoyert D., Murphy S., et al. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD, National Center for Health Statistics, 2009. See http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf
16 For example, see: Williams, J., Pacula, R., Chaloupka, F., and Wechsler, H. (2004), “Alcohol and Marijuana Use Among College Students: Economic Complements or Substitutes?” Health Economics 13(9): 825-843.; Pacula R., Ringel, J., Suttorp, M. and Truong, K. (2008), An Examination of the Nature and Cost of Marijuana Treatment Episodes. RAND Working Paper presented at the American Society for Health Economics Annual Meeting, Durham, NC, June 2008. Jacobson, M. (2004), “Baby Booms and Drug Busts: Trends in Youth Drug Use in the United States, 1975-2000,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119(4): 1481-1512.

Our current experience with legal, regulated prescription drugs like Oxycontin shows that legalizing drugs is not a panacea. In fact, its legalization widens its availability and misuse, no matter what controls are in place. In 2006, drug-induced deaths reached a high of over 38,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control – an increase driven primarily by the non-medical use of pharmaceutical drugs.15
Controls and prohibitions help to keep prices higher, and higher prices help keep use rates relatively low, since drug use, especially among young people, is known to be sensitive to price.16
The relationship between pricing and rates of youth substance use is well-established with respect to alcohol and cigarette taxes. 10 There is literature showing that increases in the price of cigarettes triggers declines in use.17

17 See, for example, Chaloupka, F., “Macro-Social Influences: Effects of Prices and Tobacco Control Policies on the Demand for Tobacco Products,” Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 1999, and other price studies at http://tigger.uic.edu/~fjc and www.uic.edu/orgs/impacteen. Orzechowski & Walker, Tax Burden on Tobacco, 2006. USDA Economic Research Service, www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/tobacco. Farelly, M., et al., State Cigarette Excise Taxes: Implications for Revenue and Tax Evasion, RTI International, May, 2003, http://www.rti.org/pubs/8742_Excise_Taxes_FR_5-03.pdf. Country tax offices. CDC, Data Highlights 2006 [and underlying CDC data/estimates]. Miller, P., et al, “Birth and First-Year Costs for Mothers and Infants Attributable to Maternal Smoking,” Nicotine & Tobacco Research 3(1):25-35, February 2001. Lightwood, J. & Glantz, S., “Short-Term Economic and Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation – Myocardial Infarction and Stroke,” Circulation 96(4):1089-1096, August 19, 1997, http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/96/4/1089. Hodgson, T., “Cigarette Smoking and Lifetime Medical Expenditures,” The Millbank Quarterly 70(1), 1992. U.S. Census. National Center for Health Statistics.
18 See http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=399
19 Harwood, H. (2000), Updating Estimates of the Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse in the United States: Estimates, Update Methods and Data. Report prepared for the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.

Marijuana has also been touted as a cure-all for disease and black market violence – and for California’s budget woes. Once again, however, there are important facts that are rarely discussed in the public square.
The tax revenue collected from alcohol pales in comparison to the costs associated with it. Federal excise taxes collected on alcohol in 2007 totaled around $9 billion; states collected around $5.5 billion.18
Taken together, this is less than 10 percent of the over $185 billion in alcohol-related costs from health care, lost productivity, and criminal justice.19
Alcohol use by underage drinkers results in $3.7 billion a year in medical costs due to traffic crashes, violent crime, suicide attempts, and other related consequences.20 11

20 See Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), 2009, Underage Drinking Costs. Accessed on March, 1, 2010. Available at http://www.udetc.org/UnderageDrinkingCosts.asp
21 State estimates found at supra note 27. Federal estimates found at https://www.policyarchive.org/bitstream/handle/10207/3314/RS20343_20020110.pdf, Also see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/weekinreview/31saul.html?em and http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf; Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, see “Smoking-caused costs” on p.2.
22 The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States, 1992-2002, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President, Washington, DC: (Publication No. 207303), 2004.
23 Pacula, R. (2009). Legalizing Marijuana: Issues to Consider Before Reforming California State Law. Accessed at www.rand.org

Tobacco also does not carry its economic weight when we tax it; each year we spend more than $200 billion and collect only about $25 billion in taxes.21
Though I sympathize with the current budget predicament – and acknowledge that we must find innovative solutions to get us on a path to financial stability – it is clear that the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied. In the United States, illegal drugs already cost $180 billion a year in health care, lost productivity, crime, and other expenditures.22 That number would only increase under legalization because of increased use.
Rosy evaluations of the potential economic savings from legalization have been criticized by many in the economic community. For example, the California Board of Equalization estimated that $1.4 billion of potential revenue could arise from legalization. This assessment, according to a researcher out of the independent RAND Corporation is, and I quote, “based on a series of assumptions that are in some instances subject to tremendous uncertainty and in other cases not valid.”23 12
Recent testimony from a RAND researcher concluded that “There is a tremendous profit motive for the existing black market providers to stay in the market, as they can still cover their costs of production and make a nice profit.”24

24 Ibid.
25 Gruber J., Sen, A. & Stabile, M. (2003), “Estimating Price Elasticities When There is Smuggling:
The Sensitivity of Smoking to Price in Canada,” Journal of Health Economics 22(5): 821-842.
26 See Supra note 23.

Canada’s experience with taxing cigarettes showed that a $2 tax differential per pack versus the United States created such a huge black market smuggling problem that Canada repealed its tax increases.25
Legalizing marijuana would also saddle government with the dual burden of regulating a new legal market while continuing to pay for the negative side effects associated with an underground market whose providers have little economic incentive to disappear.26
Now that I’ve told you what the research says, let me tell you what this means in practical terms. Legalization means the price comes down, the number of users goes up, the underground market adapts, and the revenue gained through a regulated market will never keep pace with the financial and social cost of making this drug more accessible.
Now let’s talk about what will work to reduce drug use. 13

The Office of National Drug Control Policy is pursuing a combined, coordinated public health and public safety strategy.
This strategy recognizes that the most promising drug policy is one that prevents drug use in the first place.
We have many proven methods for reducing the demand for drugs. The demand can be decreased with comprehensive, evidence-based prevention programs focused on adolescence, which science confirms is the peak period for drug-use initiation and the potential for addiction.
Our young people must be made aware of the risks of drug use – at home, in school, in sports leagues, in faith communities, in places of work, and in other settings and activities that attract youth.
This is vital because an individual who reaches age 21 without smoking, using drugs or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so.
ONDCP’s National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign can reinforce these efforts by connecting with youth through popular television shows, Internet sites, magazines, and films. Community anti-drug coalitions can provide an environment conducive to remaining drug-free. Expanding early intervention services for drug users and treatment options for the addicted will also be major components of our effort to reduce demand for drugs in this country. 14
Surveys of prevalence show that these efforts work. Drug use today remains comparatively low. Annual marijuana prevalence peaked among 12th graders in 1979 at 51 percent. By 2009, annual prevalence had fallen by about one-third. Similar statistics can be found for other age groups. However, we are seeing some troubling signs that have bubbled up in the last year or two. The perception that drugs are dangerous is dropping, and that usually predicts imminent increases in use.
At the same time, we’ve learned that trying to manage drug-addicted criminal offenders entirely through the criminal justice system results in a costly, destructive cycle of arrest, incarceration, release, and re-arrest.
Together, we can transform this situation through new collaborations between the criminal justice system and the treatment system. Drug courts are just one example of how these systems can work together.
Re-entry programs that provide addiction treatment, combined with intensive monitoring and swift and certain sanctions for violations – as evidenced by Hawaii’s HOPE program – are another example of the kind of scientifically supported cross-system initiatives we seek to expand, especially in the probation system, which represents a highly important but often under-utilized and forgotten role in drug and crime control.
We advocate further research on pre-arrest diversion programs like the one piloted in High Point, North Carolina. These programs threaten dealers in a community with credible sanctions, but also 15
offer them other resources to change their lives. Research on these kinds of pre-arrest diversion programs is just emerging, but preliminary results have been positive.
We are also firm believers in the law enforcement techniques you employ every day, based on local assessments of needs and available resources.
A balanced approach based on a combination of public health and public safety strategies is the surest route to reducing drug use and its consequences. This approach employs best practices in prevention, treatment, and law enforcement with community partners. We know that working together has resulted in lowering crime and drug use.
Thank you for being on the front line of these issues. I look forward to supporting you to reduce drug use and its consequences.

Source: Statement from ONDCP Director R. Gil Kerlikowske
Delivered at the California Police Chiefs Association Conference
March 4th, 2010 San Jose, CA

Admitting an absence of credible data affording an insight into the drug abuse situation in the country, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik said he has suggested setting up of more drug de-addiction centres across India.

Wasnik said he has suggested to the union health ministry to consider setting up of centers, like “national drugs dependent treatment centre, which is functioning at All India Institute of Medical Sciences”, in different parts of India as it would be a big step in dealing with drug abuse.

He was speaking after releasing the International Narcotic Control Board ’ s (INCB) 2009 annual report here.

“I would have to admit that data available on drug abuse has not been of such a nature that can give us a total insight into the entire situation,” Wasnik said.

He added that his ministry has been coordinating with other ministries on the issue and a big network of about 350 voluntary organisations is involved in dealing with the situation.   The INCB report highlights that rates of drug abuse tend to be higher among teenagers and young adults.   Another new trend noted by the report is increase in young women using drugs – the gap with the level of drug use by young men has narrowed substantially.

It said: “Primary prevention strategies need to focus on the whole population, as such strategies can reduce demands for drugs as well as identify gaps or population that is not sufficiently served.”   “Primary prevention needs to begin with prospective parents, by raising their awareness of the harms caused by drug, alcohol or tobacco abuse during pregnancy,” it added.

“Drug education is an important prevention component in early adolescence. Nightclubs, discotheques, bars and music festivals are key locations for getting messages about drug abuse across the older adolescents and young adults, as well as colleges and universities,” the report said.

It said that besides other steps, there needs to be collaboration with NGOs and others to tackle drug abuse.

Source:Times of India 25th Feb 2010

Last week, it was announced that the Conservative government will soon unveil a new national anti-drug strategy. The plan is said to feature a get-tough approach to illegal drugs, including a crackdown on grow-ops and drug gangs. And while it will also (wisely) include tens of millions for rehabilitation of addicts and for a national drug prevention campaign, it is said to retreat from safe-injection sites and other fashionable “harm-reduction” strategies introduced by the previous Liberal government. To which we say: Good. This editorial column has long urged a softening of drug policy on marijuana and other non-addictive recreational substances. But heroin and similarly addictive drugs are a different story. Moreover, safe injection sites don’t work. And they send the wrong message, too, promoting disrespect for the rule of law by having government facilitating the consumption of illegal substances.

 Too bad most of the proof to back these positive claims come from SIS proponents or the academics who devise harm-reduction theories. Police here, and in Europe (where they have lots of experience with SISs) tell a very different tale.

 When Insite applied to have its three-year licence renewed last fall, the RCMP told Health Canada it had “concerns regarding any initiative that lowers the perceived risks associated with drug use. There is considerable evidence to show that, when the perceived risks associated to drug use decreases, there is a corresponding increase in number of people using drugs.”

Reports that the Harper government is preparing to announce changes to Canada’s outdated 20-year-old national strategy on illicit drug use should be reason for optimism.Source:Addiction & Recovery News May 2007

Source:Addiction & Recovery News May 2007

A new Australian study suggests that parental encouragement leads to alcoholism in teenagers. The latest MBF Healthwatch survey found that 63percent of Aussies in the higher income bracket approve of alcohol consumption by 15 to 17 year olds at home under the eyes of parents.
“Our survey suggests many Australians believe it’s acceptable to buy alcohol for teenagers and allow them to drink under parental supervision at home,” Bupa Australia Chief Medical Officer, Dr Christine Bennett, said.
Dr Bennett continued: “Some parents may think this is harmless; some may see this approach as a way to teach their teenage children about socially responsible drinking. But we want parents to understand that early exposure may actually be doing them damage. “Evidence suggests that the earlier the age that alcohol is introduced, the greater the risk of long-term alcohol related health problems.
“Binge drinking in young people is on the rise. Too much alcohol impairs young people’s judgement, which can lead to violence, injury and build a pattern of use that leads to lifetime dependence. “It’s shocking to think that one teenager a week dies of alcohol abuse. We teach children about the harmful effects of smoking, unsafe sex and taking illicit drugs, but we also need to teach them about the damage that alcohol can do.”
The survey also found that people’s acceptance of supervised underage drinking was closely related to their income levels. Nearly 63percent people earning over 100,000 dollars approved supervised drinking; 53percent people with incomes between 70,001 to 100,000 dollars were comfortable with the idea followed by 48percent people getting paychecks ranging from 40,001 to 70,000 dollars.
Dr Bennett added: “Given that social drinking is a common part of the Australian culture, our challenge is to help our young people learn how to enjoy alcohol in a socially responsible way and protect them from harm now and in the long-term.
“That will mean educating young people about the risks of underage drinking and, as parents and a community, being good role models.”

Source: Health News Dec. 3rd 2009

Children, whose parents allow them to have alcohol at home in a bid to teach responsible drinking, drink even more outside of home, a new study claims.
A study of 428 Dutch families has found that teens who drank under their parents’ watch or on their own were at a greater risk of developing alcohol-related problems. The researchers insists that the study puts into question the advice of some experts who recommend that parents drink with their teenage children with the aim of limiting their drinking outside of the home.
Dr. Haske van der Vorst, the lead researcher on the study, said: “The idea is generally based on common sense. For example, the thinking is that if parents show good behavior-here, modest drinking-then the child will copy it. Another assumption is that parents can control their child’s drinking by drinking with the child.” Every family, which was quizzed, had two children between the ages of 13 and 15. Parents and teens completed questionnaires on drinking habits at the outset and again one and two years later.
The researchers found that, in general, the more teens drank at home, the more they tended to drink elsewhere; the reverse was also true, with out-of-home drinking leading to more drinking at home.
In addition, teens who drank more often, whether in or out of the home, tended to score higher on a measure of problem drinking two years later.
Haske van der Vorst, of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands concluded: “I would advise parents to prohibit their child from drinking, in any setting or on any occasion. “If parents want to reduce the risk that their child will become a heavy drinker or problem drinker in adolescence, they should try to postpone the age at which their child starts drinking.” (ANI)

Source: Health News. Jan 28th 2010

Parents who try to teach responsible drinking by letting their teenagers have alcohol at home may be well intentioned, but they may also be wrong, according to a new study in the latest issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

In a study of 428 Dutch families, researchers found that the more teenagers were allowed to drink at home, the more they drank outside of home as well. What’s more, teens who drank under their parents’ watch or on their own had an elevated risk of developing alcohol-related problems. Drinking problems included trouble with school work, missed school days and getting into fights with other people, among other issues.

The findings, say the researchers, put into question the advice of some experts who recommend that parents drink with their teenage children to teach them how to drink responsibly — with the aim of limiting their drinking outside of the home.

That advice is common in the Netherlands, where the study was conducted, but it is based more on experts’ reasoning than on scientific evidence, according to Dr. Haske van der Vorst, the lead researcher on the study.

“The idea is generally based on common sense,” says van der Vorst, of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. “For example, the thinking is that if parents show good behavior — here, modest drinking — then the child will copy it. Another assumption is that parents can control their child’s drinking by drinking with the child.”

But the current findings suggest that is not the case.

Based on this and earlier studies, van der Vorst says, “I would advise parents to prohibit their child from drinking, in any setting or on any occasion.”

The study included 428 families with two children between the ages of 13 and 15. Parents and teens completed questionnaires on drinking habits at the outset and again one and two years later.

The researchers found that, in general, the more teens drank at home, the more they tended to drink elsewhere; the reverse was also true, with out-of-home drinking leading to more drinking at home. In addition, teens who drank more often, whether in or out of the home, tended to score higher on a measure of problem drinking two years later.

The findings, according to van der Vorst, suggest that teen drinking begets more drinking — and, in some cases, alcohol problems — regardless of where and with whom they drink.

“If parents want to reduce the risk that their child will become a heavy drinker or problem drinker in adolescence,” she says, “they should try to postpone the age at which their child starts drinking.”

Available at: http://www.jsad.com/jsad/link/71/105

Source: H. van der Vorst Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 71 (1), 105-114. Jan 2010

Amsterdam: – The alderman of Rotterdam, responsible for education, Leonard Geluk wants that all middle schools are going to perform drug tests among their students in order to track down traces of use. Geluk responded to the outcome of a test, done by the topicality show Netwerk on 12 different schools in Rotterdam. At half of these schools traces of cocaine were found. It is new and startling to find that cocaine is used at so many schools. I am really worried about this.

Netwerk had these tests performed in the same way the police and military police use to track down drug use. Besides traces of drugs, traces of marihuana use were found on 10 out of these 12 schools. At one school traces of heroin use were found. If you, as a parent, send your child to a school in Rotterdam, you can not and will not expect that your child encounters drugs, and especially not cocaine. The truth of the matter is very different and concerning.

Alderman Geluk pleas to perform drug tests on students who are allegedly drug users. Geluk is –by this plea- quicker than the minister of Justice, who has promised the Chamber a letter about the use of spray to track down traces of use. If there are any legal difficulties about using this spray, we have to check the other possibilities in order to be able to test on drugs.

Source: Renee Besselling Eurad Secretariat 15.01.08

OTTAWA — A new national program designed to prevent youth from using drugs received $10 million from the federal government Wednesday.

The money is slated to go toward the Drug Prevention Strategy for Youth, a new five-year plan led by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, the government-supported national agency for substance abuse. The strategy will target youth between the ages of 10 and 24 and will have several goals: to reduce the number of youth using illegal drugs, to delay and deter the onset of drug use, to reduce the frequency of drug use, and to reduce multiple drug use among those young people who do use.

The funding comes out of the government’s $64-million National Anti-Drug Strategy, launched last fall. Part of that plan includes a two-year mass media campaign by Health Canada aimed specifically at youth. Health Minister Tony Clement, speaking at the Ottawa-based CCSA, said there hasn’t been a “serious or significant” anti-drug campaign in almost 20 years, and one is long overdue. He said the CCSA’s national prevention strategy is key to the government’s plan.

“This project will reach out to young people and will provide them and their parents the plain truth on the harms of illicit drug use,” said Clement. “We will discourage young people from thinking there are ‘safe’ amounts, or ‘safe’ drugs. And we will highlight the fact that, for young people, having clear and unimpaired judgment is a safety issue,” the health minister said.

The CCSA’s strategy will complement Health Canada’s media blitz with a new consortium media corporations, marketing and advertising agencies, youth agencies and parent groups. It will reinforce many of Health Canada’s messages, but on a wider platform, and with high-risk populations targeted.

According to the CCSA, the average age a Canadian tries an illegal drug for the first time is around 14 or 15, so prevention messages need to start as early as 10 years of age. Sixty per cent of illegal drug users in Canada are 15 to 24 years old, according to the national substance abuse agency, and young people are the most likely to use and abuse substances, and to experience harm as a result.

Source: Canwest News Service January 31, 2008

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a9d26354-09a5-4fc0-a6aa-89d120ed22b1

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Canada’s “Prince of Pot” believes the Canadian government wants to punish him by blocking a plea deal with U.S. authorities, who want him to face charges of selling marijuana seeds from his Vancouver store to American customers.
Canada refused to go along with Marc Emery’s deal with U.S. prosecutors to plead guilty in return for the United States dropping charges against two co-accused and allowing him to serve most of the sentence in a Canadian prison, the marijuana activist said on Friday.
The B.C. Marijuana Party founder said Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is pursuing a get-tough policy on drug use and is upset by his long-running campaign for marijuana legalization.
“They want to make an example out of me,” Emery told CKNW radio in Vancouver. “They just don’t like me.”
Emery was arrested in 2005 at the request of U.S. officials for allegedly selling millions of dollars in seeds to U.S. buyers, mostly by mail-order, from the seed business he operated openly in Canada for years.
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency statement in 2005 hailed Emery’s arrest as blow to the “marijuana legalization movement” and cited his financial support of pro-pot groups in Canada and the United States.
Emery is also charged with money laundering, but he says he can prove he declared all his earnings to Canadian tax officials and gave most of the profits to charities and political candidates.
He is scheduled to appear in a Vancouver court next month, with an extradition hearing likely to start late in the year.
Source: Reuters Canada 28th March 2008

POLICE have raided 100 cannabis factories capable of producing more than £60m worth of the drug for home and export. More than 100 cannabis factories capable of producing nearly £60 million of a super-strong variety of the drug every year have been found in Scotland.

The Scotsman can reveal the alarming scale of cannabis cultivation in a country which has never before witnessed large-scale illegal drug production.It comes as Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, insisted he is determined to see cannabis upgraded back to a Class B drug in order to send a signal to young people that its use was “unacceptable”.

But a government drugs advisory panel appears set to recommend that it stays at Class C .

In Scotland about 43,000 plants – mainly a high-strength variety known as “skunk” – have been recovered from houses, garages, and disused factories since south-east Asian crime gangs began setting up illicit production plants in the summer of 2006. An explosion in cannabis cultivation has been witnessed over the past 18 months as organised crime, sensing massive profits from a previously non-existent drug export trade, has moved in after being forced out of England and Wales.

For an outlay of about £30,000, individuals can set up a cultivation capable of reaping more than £500,000 worth of cannabis every year. They rig up high-powered lighting and watering systems in order to grow the skunk plants quickly. Despite the high demand for cannabis in the UK, police suspect the operation has yielded so many plants that much of it is being exported into lucrative markets in Europe and beyond.

The phenomenon has alarmed police and prosecutors, triggering a massive operation to root out factories and causing a senior judge to take the unusual step of issuing sentence guidelines to ward off potential growers. The trade is fuelling a growing human trafficking problem. A number of illegal immigrants involved in running cannabis factories, mainly from China and Vietnam, have been arrested since a Scottish police crackdown – called Operation League – began in December 2006. Some are locked in properties 24 hours a day in temperatures exceeding 38C as the bosses threaten to harm their families back home.

Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Whitelock, head of intelligence at Strathclyde Police, said: “Within Strathclyde to date we’ve identified 70 cultivations and recovered over 35,000 plants. That equates to a maximum street value of £11million. More than 50 people have been arrested. “Across Scotland we’re talking over 100 cultivations and over 43,000 plants worth around £14million.”

Each plant is capable of producing four harvests every year, meaning the 100 factories smashed by police would have created an annual revenue of nearly £60 million had they gone undetected. More than two-thirds of the cannabis factories shut down by police have been found in Strathclyde, but others have been uncovered in towns virtually the length and breadth of the country, including Ayr, Thurso, Newmachar, Cambuslang and Livingston.

As well as the production of the illegal drug, police are extremely concerned about the risk of a fatality if a factory catches fire.

One officer told The Scotsman that the vast amount of heating equipment used to cultivate cannabis, and the fact that many of the factories tap straight into the electricity mains supply to avoid detection, meant it was “miracle” there have been no serious blazes. Each factory typically uses around 20 times the power used for a normal house to grow the cannabis. The cost to power companies is thought to be about £2 million a year.

Police, who say the number of officers on Operation League fluctuates depending on the amount of information they receive, have been known to monitor power supplies and even use infra-red cameras in spotter planes to identify areas of unexplained heat. Mr Whitelock said Operation League had been a huge success, revealing that most factories had been uncovered following tip-offs from the public.

“The main point of Operation League was to put it into the public arena, the threat of organised crime. We’ve had a great response from the public, speaking to officers and phoning Crimestoppers. “The public are generally aware what to look for – that gives us the eyes and ears of five million people in Scotland.

“They’ve had a significant impact on those involved in this area of criminality. But it remains a profitable concern for those involved. “They’re using Scotland as a base to cultivate cannabis for a market elsewhere that has yet to be identified. “Scotland is a consumer society for drugs. But we are now seeing cannabis being produced within our own shores.” He added: “We have identified the production sites, we have identified those involved in the manufacture and production of the plant. But there are obviously plants being cultivated and that is where our knowledge gap is: where do the plants go?”

Police believe the same crime network is involved because of similarities in electrical work and joinery they have found in their raids. Mr Whitelock appealed to landlords to help stamp out cannabis cultivation, insisting they have a responsibility to check what is going on in their properties.

He said police had a “better understanding” of the problem thanks to Operation League. “But it would be naive to say there are no other cannabis activities ongoing,” he added. “The primary people involved are south-east Asian organised crime groups. There are many links also with indigenous crime groups,” added Mr Whitelock.

Last November, Scottish judges were given tough new sentencing guidelines in an attempt to crack down on cannabis farms. Lord Hamilton, the Lord Justice General, said the move was needed to tackle a big increase in the farms, warning that even low-level cannabis “gardeners” should expect to face between four and five years in prison.

Source: The Scotsman.4.4.2008

Australia’s drinking, smoking and drug-taking caused a lot of sickness, disease, premature death, reduced productivity, crime and accidents in the year to July 2005. The report shows costs were up to $56 billion, from about $34 billion when the estimate was last made in the late 1990s.
The latest estimate puts the cost of alcohol-associated problems at $15 billion. It estimates Illicit drugs cost Australia about $8 billion. But by far the biggest problem is tobacco. The report says it cost $31.5 billion – 56 per cent of the total.
“The smoking rates are reducing but the delayed health effects of past smoking are still being seen,” Health Minister Nicola Roxon said. “So we do hope that in the future, pretty long term in the future, that the lower rates of smoking will see a decline in this social cost.”
Professor Simon Chapman from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney says Australia is a world leader in anti-tobacco campaigns, but more practical steps need to be taken to make smoking history. “We could begin by putting all cigarettes under the counter in the way that pharmaceutical, ethical drugs are not displayed,” he told AM.
“We could put them in plain packaging rather than the really enticing attractive boxes which are highly market researched to appeal to young people. We could put the price of cigarettes up a lot more and we could regulate the product itself. It’s the only product that is taken into the body which is not subject to, sort of quality controls, safety controls.”
The Labor Party says it is taking a different approach to the previous government in health policy, putting more emphasis on prevention. The director of the Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies, Professor Brian Oldenburg, says there is little detail so far.
“I think at least compared to the previous government, there is the expressed intent to really put more effort into prevention, but we are still waiting to see how that is going to work its way through the system,” he said. Ms Roxon will release the figures on the social costs of drugs and alcohol at the first ever national illness prevention summit, which begins in Melbourne today.

Source: ABC News April 9th 2008

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands (Reuters) – Sitting among the mellow smokers in a coffeeshop in Maastricht it is easy to forget that a plan to relocate half of the cannabis-selling outlets to the city limits has aroused fury. The southern Dutch city has been trying for five years to push seven shops to three new “coffee corners” at its northern, western and southern borders.

The marijuana equivalent of out-of-town shopping malls would serve the 1.5 to 2 million people who pour into the city each year in search of a powerful puff. Neighboring Belgian districts and the Dutch community of Eijsden, enraged by the prospect of coffeeshops on their doorsteps, forced Maastricht to back down after winning a legal challenge last month.

The Dutch city has now put forward a watered-down proposal to place two coffeeshops in a single “coffee corner” at its southern edge for a trial period of three years. Its neighbors are still not happy.
“We see reckless driving, car theft… We already have the highest level of crime of any countryside district in Belgium and 95 percent of it is due to drugs,” said Huub Broers, mayor of the Belgian district of Voeren, just south of Maastricht.

About 80 percent of the city’s coffeeshop customers are foreign — of which 60 percent come from Belgium and the rest from France and Germany. Most buyers come at the weekends but even on a weekday morning, there are Belgian cars clustered around coffeeshops. “Slow Motion,” near the station, is anything but, with a stream of customers in and out within minutes.

DRUGS GANGS

Both proponents and critics of the plan generally agree that the coffeeshops and the vast majority of their customers who come for a joint or a small bag of hash are not the problem, although residents do complain about congestion and parking.

The trouble comes from the criminals they attract, notably about 500 “drug runners” on the streets peddling substances such as cocaine, ecstasy or heroin. Western Europe is the world’s largest market for cannabis resin and Europe is the second-largest global market for cocaine, the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board said in March.

John Walters, director of U.S. national drug control policy, said earlier this month the euro’s gains against the dollar may be behind an enormous increase in the availability of cocaine in Europe: selling in euros may be more profitable than in dollars.

“Maastricht is plagued by drug gangs,” said Brice de Ruyver, a professor of criminology and drugs expert at Ghent University. “The coffeeshops themselves need huge quantities of illicit supplies. Then you have trouble in the city because of dealers. The reasoning is that whoever is interested in cannabis in a coffeeshop may also want something harder as well.”

Residents attest to the problems.

“You see the dealers jump out in the middle of the street flagging down French or German cars. They get in and can be aggressive,” said the owner of Nautica Jansen, a water sport shop beside two floating coffeeshops on the river front. While Voeren’s mayor fears Maastricht’s plan would simply move the criminals towards his district, Maastricht argues it is difficult to stamp out drug crime in the tight central streets.

At more isolated sites outside the city, the Dutch say, policing would be easier and dealers less able to reach people driving into gated coffeeshop enclosures. Marc Josemans, chairman of the Maastricht coffeeshop association, believes illegal dealers would find demand reduced.

That would in turn cut supply: “It’s a normal market mechanism,” he said. “We cannot prove it, because no one has given us the chance.” A survey by Joseman’s association found that a third of customers would prefer out-of-town sites: not surprising, given that so many are foreign.

CLAMPDOWN

The Dutch have cracked down on coffeeshops: there are now around 700, compared with around 1,200 in 1997. In Maastricht, all customers must prove they are at least 18 years old and there are plans to bring in finger scanners to ensure no one buys more than 5 grams per day.

“It’s easier for a terrorist to enter Europe than for a dope smoker to get inside a coffeeshop,” said Josemans “Tolerance in Europe has declined. You see that towards foreigners, religions. And that’s a key reason why the number of coffeeshops has fallen.”

But in Belgium, the rules have softened. Belgians are no longer prosecuted for possessing up to 3 grams (0.1 ounces) of cannabis and can grow a single plant, but would still face arrest for selling resin, plants or seeds in their country. De Ruyver says the coffeeshops cannot simply be labeled a Dutch problem. “If 60 percent of those visiting the shops on the border are Belgian, we must take our responsibility too,” he said.

Source: Reuters 20th April 2008

Re: Take ideology out of decisions, by Keith Baldrey, In My Opinion, Burnaby NOW, May 7.
Mr. Baldrey makes a number of misleading statements about me and about opponents of Insite in general. I am the author of the “flawed and questionable report” criticizing the Insite evaluations that Mr. Baldrey referred to. Mr. Baldrey and other supporters of Insite and of harm reduction as the new way to deal with drugs seem to lack any real argument for Insite and its parent ideology – yes, ideology – so they attack the critics themselves. So please let me respond.
First, my report was not flawed or questionable. I am more than amply qualified to comment on printed research reports. In fact, any grad student would see the flawed assumptions and conclusions made in the Insite evaluations, regardless of what journal they were published in. I have worked in the addictions field in B.C. and in Canada for almost 30 years, and, until I disagreed with harm reduction, I was well respected by the people who now attack me merely for expressing professional concerns about the direction drug policy was taking – downward.
Second, I did not write the report for a “prohibition group,” as Mr. Baldrey asserts. I wrote it for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a key stakeholder in Insite and in drug problems in Canada. They merely wanted a review by someone not ideologically wed to Insite. I stand behind the report and everything I said as true and valid based on reading the published Insite research.
I did not write the paper as director of research for the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, or for them. Incidentally, the Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice, in which my article was published, is a scientific peer-reviewed journal. Public accusations otherwise should be made with caution.
Third, my paper was but one of three academic reports critical of Insite. Garth Davies, a colleague of Neil Boyd’s at Simon Fraser University, wrote one that was equally critical. A federal panel of experts recently released another, saying essentially the same things.
For example, drug overdose deaths have actually increased in Vancouver and in the Downtown Eastside since Insite was initiated. Insite may or may not be preventing up to one overdose death a year. This is fact.
But Mr. Baldrey refers to reports claiming overdoses have gone down. Somebody is indeed putting out misleading information, but it is not me or others concerned about Insite. It is Insite and its supporters. The fact is that Insite is not doing what it set out to do – reduce infections, prevent overdose deaths and reduce public disorder.
Nor is it demonstrating a unique ability to get people into treatment where they belong. It is drawing funds that could be used for more effective things and taking our attention from the real problems – drug use and addiction.
Mr. Baldrey refers to specific people as experts in harm reduction, etc. What he does not say is that these individuals, and many others involved with Insite, are avid proponents of legalizing drugs. I do not fault them or anyone else for holding this ideology, except when people use their positions or authority to unilaterally push it on the public or to lend credence to it by their names, when no such credence exists.
The fact that so many supporters of Insite and of harm reduction are so rabidly pushing it and skewing the facts even when flaws are identified, and that they disparage their opponents, tells me they are so caught up in ideology themselves that they can no longer be objective.
And as for “moralizing,” no one is moralizing here. The Insite test study did not meet its stated objectives. That is not moralizing.
But Mr. Baldrey seems to be saying that any “moralizing” is bad. The fact is “moralizing” is to some extent inevitable in any human discourse. We all have some moral reference point that underlies our ideas and choices at the deepest levels. Trying to entirely exorcize human debate of values – the outgrowth of our morality – is itself impossible.
Mr. Baldrey, you are very loose and misleading in your accusations. I could go on in pointing them out. But suffice it to say, throwing mud and attacking people is neither professional nor a sign of a noble cause.
It comes from an arrogant belief that anyone who disagrees with harm reduction or Insite is somehow stupid, misinformed or an ideologue. I am frankly embarrassed at how deeply this blind arrogance has gotten into otherwise intelligent people and at the utter lack of professionalism their attacks display.
Colin Mangham, PhD, is a Langley resident.
Source: Canada.com – Burnaby Now May 10th 2008

In different forms it’s been sold as plant food, but little is known about a new recreational drug hitting Australian streets, other than it prompts acts of horrendous self-mutilation by some users. Within the past few months in Sydney there have been reports one user tried to castrate himself while under the influence of the drug. Another severed half a finger using a kitchen appliance and degloved his penis in an apparent circumcision attempt.
The drug in question is 4-methylmethcathinone or mephedrone – but more commonly known as 4-MMC, MMCAT, bubbles, megatron, bath salt or miaow miaow. As a derivative of methandienone, the drug is a prohibited substance in Australia.
Continuing to prove hugely popular on the UK clubbing scene, the drug is believed to be partly responsible for the deaths of a woman in Sweden in 2008 and a 14-year-old girl in England in November. It has since been made illegal in some European countries.
The psychoactive drug creates a state of euphoria similar to, but not as extreme as cocaine, with an ecstasy-like hit at the end. Reports of little after-effects and a mild “come-down” have made the drug popular among young professionals who like to party at the weekend before having to return to work.
Since September 2008, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), along with Australian Customs and the Border Protection Service, have detected 25 attempts to import a combined total of more than 20kg of the drug. An AFP spokeswoman confirmed that mephedrone “is a new drug that has emerged in Australia”. While prohibited here, the drug is readily available for legal purchase abroad, predominantly in China and Israel.
In Tasmania, police have labelled the drug “Israeli’s”, because of its country of source, and report its popularity with people who believe it’s legal to possess. “We conducted an investigation at the start of the year and a number of persons were charged with trafficking,” Tasmanian Police Detective Inspector Ian Lindsay told The Mercury newspaper in October last year. He added that since those charges were laid there had been a “dramatic reduction” in the amount of mephedrone seized across the state.
In a report from the Tasmanian Department of Police and Emergency Management, the drug is said to have been possessed “in an attempt to circumvent existing legislation”. In the Northern Territory, a 16-year-old boy faced Darwin Youth Justice Court on January 15 for allegedly importing 1kg of mephedrone, ordered online from a legitimate chemical company in China. The court heard the boy paid $8,000 and was expected to pay an additional $12,000 when the drug arrived, the NT News reported. The matter is ongoing.
Brisbane-based Rave Safe project coordinator Michael Brennan said use of the drug in Australia was “worrying” and people continued to consume the substance without knowing its effects or what’s used in its production.
Typically, mephedrone is mixed with caffeine and the compound can take effect very quickly. However, for users of other recreational drugs, Mr Brennan said the effect may not be as strong as that to which they’ve become accustomed.
“Reports are that it’s incredibly more-ish, which can be a concern in itself,” he said. “It is one thing to pop one or two tabs of ecstasy, but taking this stuff, they could be inclined to take several hundred milligrams.
“In a way these things are more dangerous because people will take one or two doses and not get the effect they want so then they take a lot more of them. When a substance like this comes up that was really only invented only a few years ago, it’s hard to say what the effects will be, so it’s really worrying to me. It’s just a real unknown at this stage.” Typically, the drug is purchased in crystal form and snorted for quick effect, but can also be taken orally.
Mr Brennan said mephedrone had proven popular among ecstasy users, but added that few seemed to move onto long-term use. “I think some people are quite happy with that effect, that you don’t get this terrible after-effect with it,” he said.
“A lot of ecstasy users have been taking it for a try, but a lot of long-term users have gradually lost the attraction to it. And I would bet that 4M CC will slowly disappear into the background.”
As a stimulant, the drug affects the human cardio system and users have experienced varying symptoms including palpitations, paranoia, anxiety, depression, insomnia, headaches and short-term memory loss.
In one case, documented in an online forum, following the consumption of about 100mg over a week, a male user noticed his fingers and knees turn a dark red to purple colour before he passed out. After about six months, including a short stint in hospital, the discolouration disappeared, but the symptoms returned after again trying a small amount of mephedrone.
In the Sydney cases, it’s unknown whether the male users were also under the influence of other substances, but online discussions about the drug frequently list paranoia as a common side-effect. Both men were hospitalised for their injuries, but NSW Health does not have a system in place to record how many patients have been admitted to hospital due to the drug.
Nor is the use of mephedrone recorded by major agencies, including the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, or the Centre for Population Health.
The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users’ League in Canberra has only anecdotal data about the drug. All agencies report having been made aware of the drug’s existence in Australia since about 2008, but concede there is little or no information about mephedrone.
Online forums suggest Australian use or sampling of the drug is most popular in states along the eastern seaboard. Part of the drug’s appeal is its relative cheapness, with online advertisements for various forms of mephedrone available from $170 for 100mg.

Source: www.smh.com.au 29th Jan 2010

Can your state afford to gamble on legalizing marijuana?

California is capturing national media coverage as the state debates the issue of legalizing and taxing marijuana. A legislative bill (AB 390) and three potential ballot initiatives propose different strategies to allegedly profit financially from marijuana. Promotion of those measures rely on a biased study. The study suggesting potential revenue gains is not only questionable, but also neglects to identify societal costs associated with marijuana.

In a written response to an article published by the Sacramento Bee, Police Chief Scott C. Kirkland addresses what the pro-drug lobby and the study they promote have neglected. His response may have been written to specifically address issues in California, but his points are relevant to other states considering similar measures.

Can your state afford to gamble on legalizing marijuana? After reading what Chief Kirkland has to say, I think you will agree the answer is NO; our nation cannot afford the damaging cost such efforts would have on society.

On August 6, 2009, the Sacramento Bee published an editorial by F. Aaron Smith entitled, “Legalized pot is more than a tax bonanza.” I would like the opportunity to present the other side.

My name is Scott C. Kirkland and I am currently the Police Chief in El Cerrito. I am on the Board of Directors for the California Police Chiefs Association as well as the California Peace Officers’ Association. Moreover, I am currently the Chair Person of the California Police Chiefs Medical Marijuana Task Force. The task force is comprised of representatives from the California Peace Officers’ Association, California Police Chiefs Association, California State Sheriff Association, California District Attorneys’ Association, California Narcotics Association, and other interested parties.

The purpose of this article is to write specifically about the financial aspect of the issue. I would be more than happy to contribute other articles that discuss the Assembly Bill specifically, the substance itself, or any other aspect of this issue should you so desire.

The advocates on this issue have once again selected a very well crafted message to the public. In essence, they are saying that the State of California should legalize and tax marijuana and that this action would allow the State to remain solvent. The argument would then be that with a solvent State, police officers, firefighters, and teachers will not be laid off. Mr. Smith states that there would be $1.4 billion in new tax revenue available to solve the state budget crises. But, let us examine those numbers and see if the State of California could afford such a gamble.

Yes, the Board of Equalization did identify a potential revenue stream from the sale of marijuana but are those numbers accurate? In their bill analysis, the sole report that is cited as the basis of their revenue projections is entitled, Marijuana Production in the United States (2006). The report was written by Jon Gettman, who served as President for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He writes the “Cannabis Column” for the HighTimes.com. Mr. Gettman owns DrugScience.com which he cites six times in his report. Upon reading the report and comparing the report to various law enforcement data that is published, his estimates of marijuana crops are more than twice as high.

I believe it is and was irresponsible for the individuals that wrote the bill analysis not to have known who the author of the report was and to have questioned his credibility. In this day of Internet usage I have become in the habit of doing a “Google” search on authors upon reading their work. It is important to me to know where the author is coming from and it should be important for those who complete a bill analysis. It took me ten minutes to glean information about Mr. Gettman. I believe it is important for all who delve into this emotional issue to fully research it and failure to do so results in a slanted and inaccurate analysis.

Since the Bill Analysis is utilizing a study that shows double the estimates of any other law enforcement data, the Board of Equalization’s initial projections are simply wrong. I believe it is this type of financial forecasting that has caused the State of California so much trouble today.

In May of 2009, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University released a report entitled, “Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets.” This one hundred and seventy-six (176) page report documents for the first time the costs of the two legal substances that are abused today (Alcohol and Tobacco). The costs are substantial!

In 2005, the State of California spent $19.9 billion dollars on substance abuse and addiction or $545.09 per capita (population of 36.5 million). Once again I am talking specifically about Alcohol and Tobacco. But, the State of California collected $1.4 billion dollars of tax revenue or $38.69 per capita on the sale of Alcohol and Tobacco products. Yes, the costs far exceeded the revenue!

I believe it is also worth mentioning that as of June 19, 2009, California’s Carcinogen Identification Committee of the Office of Environmental Health and Assessment Science Advisory Board issued a ruling that listed marijuana smoke as causing cancer. This is just another reason why the financial analysis of the bill does not make economic sense. From a public health stand point, why would we, residents of California, want to legalize a crude substance that is known to cause cancer when the costs of substance abuse of the psychoactive drug will far outweigh the amount of monies the state receives? Are we that short sighted? How is the State of California going to find the monies to pay for the costs of abuse, treatment, and damage to youth? These are all unanswered questions that must be addressed in order for there to be a fair and impartial analysis that voters rely on when they go to the polls.

Source: Source: Save Our Society From Drugs Oct 2009

I have read with interest the article in “The Province” Newspaper from British Columbia dated February 16th, 2009 entitled “Huge Price Tag Leads to Call for Audit, and then the articles in the Ottawa Citizen recommended an injection site in Ottawa of Intravenous Drug users.
The newspaper investigated the cost of funding the “Downtown Eastside” in Vancouver dealing with providing housing and support for the residents. This is the first time such an investigation takes place and the result are staggering given the cost was approximately $360 million dollars per year. The article mentions that is cost approximately $ 1 million dollars a day with most of that for the roughly 5,000 disabled people in the community.
It further states that this spending continues to go unabated, with no one in control of the purse strings as conditions continue to deteriorate at street level.
Given these staggering statistics, I believe it would be a good time for the city of Ottawa to do a cost study of their homeless and addicted population to ascertain the cost before going forth with any other programs especially the recommendation for an injection site for intravenous drug users. It would be best practice to evaluate the pilot project in Vancouver when one reads Dr. Raymond R. Corrado’s and Dr. Irwin Cohen “Analysis of the Research Literature on INSITE: Vancouver’s Injection Site Summary”, and the Health Canada report on Vancouver’s Insite.
The stated Insite objectives were:
- Increasing access to health and addiction care;
- Reducting overdose fatalities;
- Reducing the transmission of blood borne viral infections like HIV and hepatitis C;
- Reducing other injection related infections such as skin abscesses; and
- Improving public order.
My question is, have they met their stated objective and if not should we not reconsider it’s effectiveness.
Dr. Carrado states:
“The pilot of a supervised injection site in Vancouver Downtown Eastside was established as a response to high rates of blood born disease (Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS) and a large number of overdoses among intravenous drug users population”
Here are some of their findings:
Blood-borne diseases::
“Dr. Corrado states that there was a “GOOD LIKELIHOOD” that there was a reduction in the spread of blood-borne diseases since several of Insite clients stopped sharing syringes. However, he also underlines that due to the lack of direct measures of blood-borne diseases, it’s not possible to estimate the extent of the reduction.”
In the final report of Health Canada, the Expert Advisory Committees on Vancouver’s INSITE and other Supervised Injections Sites: What has been learned from research from Health Canada states:
Page 11
“There is no direct evidence that SIS’s reduce the spread of HIV infection, and the mathematical models used are based on assumption that may not be valid.
Baseline rates of needle sharing have not been reported for SIS users.
Self-reports of changes in needle sharing beyond the walls of SISs have been validated.
More objective evidence of sustained changes in risk behaviors and a comparison or control group study would be needed to confidently state that SISs have a significant impact on these behaviors.”
Dr. Carraro then states:
” Insite did achieve its objective of reducing the number of fatal drug overdoses. In fact, drug overdoses were minimized and deaths were avoided.”
The Health Canada report states:
Page 11
“There is no direct evidence that SIS influence overdose death rates and large scale and long term, case-controlled studies would be needed to show that SISs influence overdose death rates among those who use INSITE. Mathematical modeling is based on assumptions that may not be valid.”
The overdose rates increased in Vancouver since the Injection site opened it’s doors.
Dr. Irwin Cohen states in his report:
“Several limitations exist within the research and evaluation on supervised injection sites. There are methodological problems regarding outcome measures, as well as an overall lack of research rendering it difficult to compare supervised injection sites to other types of interventions ( i.e.: needle exchange programs and methadone treatment programs). Furthermore, the limitations also result in restricting comparisons of research findings form one study to another.
Health Canada study states the following with regards to limitations of research in the Cost-Effectiveness and Cost Benefit section on page 13 of report.
” While some longitudinal studies have been conducted, the results have yet to be published and may never be published given the overlapping design of the cohorts. Until these studies have been undertaken it will not be possible to show with any certainty that INSITE is cost-effective or to show that the economic benefits exceed the costs.
Mathematical models used to estimate benefit-cost ratios use estimates of the frequency of needle
sharing involving HIV positive and HIV negative injection drug users and estimates of HIV transmission rates have not been locally validated.
Mathematical models used to estimate benefit-cost ratios with respect to lives saves have incorporated an assumption about the economic value of the lives of injection drug users that has not been validated.”
In summary, on page 3 of the Health Canada report, Insite accounts for less than 5% of injections at the site. Many people have been referred to health and addiction care but have not been followed up to see how many have actually gone or how many have successfully recovered from their addiction? The report on page 11 states that Insite saves about one life a year as a result of intervening in overdose events, but overdose rates have increased in Vancouver. I’ve addressed the HIV/HepC results. In the area of Public order what they fail to mention is that the police presence was increased which could explain why there was no increase in crime and loitering. I do not feel that Insite has accomplished it’s stated objectives.
Given the above direct quotes from the Insite report and others, Ottawa should investigate if the site has met these objectives and if not then question the validity of the pilot project and should question whether it should follow suite based on these findings. The fact that it is costing $360 million dollars per year to manage the poorest postal code region in Canada without any improvement in the lifestyle of its residents should be audited and whatever change is required should be implemented without delay. The price tag speaks for itself.
Will Ottawa be next with these statistics given we are modeling Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside philosophy based on Harm Reduction as best practices.
Andre Bigras,
Drug Prevention Network of Canada.

Cigarette smoking rates among American teens in 2008 are at the lowest
levels since at least as far back as the early 1990s, according to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study based at the University of Michigan, which has been surveying national samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students each year since 1991.

MTF tracks tobacco use with surveys administered to a national sample of over 45,000 students in about 400 secondary schools each year. This year represents the low point for smoking in all three grades. The proportions of students indicating any smoking in the prior 30 days (called “monthly prevalence”) stands at 7 percent, 12 percent, and 20 percent in grades 8, 10, and 12, respectively.

These rates reflect large declines since the recent peaks in the mid-1990s: 8th graders’ smoking rates are down by two thirds, 10th graders’ by more than half, and 12th graders’ by nearly half. “I can’t begin to tell you what a dramatic difference this is going to make in the health and longevity of this generation,” said Lloyd Johnston, the study’s principal investigator. “The fact that teen smoking is still declining is particularly encouraging, because a couple of years ago it looked like the long decline in youth smoking might be coming to an end.”

Across the three grades combined, there was a statistically significant decline in monthly smoking prevalence from 13.6 percent in 2007 to 12.6 percent in 2008. All grades showed some decline this year, but it was greatest in the upper grades. This year’s declines are also greatest among males and students who say they are college-bound.

The study has actually tracked the smoking behavior of 12th graders for a considerably longer period, going back to 1975. Their smoking rate today is the lowest it has been over that entire 33- year period. The investigators note that in the early 1990s cigarette smoking was making a rapid comeback among American teens, one to which the MTF study drew considerable public attention. A number of governmental and other institutional responses to the growing threat followed, perhaps the most
important of which was the tobacco settlement between the industry and the state attorneys general. That settlement brought about some immediate changes in cigarette advertising in the country, including the termination of the Joe Camel ads, and it launched the American Legacy Foundation, which has sponsored national antismoking ad campaigns aimed at youth in the years since. It also forced the tobacco companies to raise the price of cigarettes considerably in order to cover the costs of the settlement, and increasing the price has been shown to be a deterrent to youth smoking. A number of states and some municipalities have raised prices still further by increasing their excise taxes on tobacco.

One important reason that smoking rates have been dropping for over 10 years is that fewer students even try cigarettes. The proportion of 8th graders who ever smoked a cigarette is down from 49 percent in 1996 to 21 percent in 2008—a decline of nearly six tenths.

Attitudes About Smoking
One belief that has proven to influence the likelihood that young people use a drug is their belief about whether its use poses a danger for the user. For cigarettes, there has been a substantial increase since 1995 in the proportions of teens who see pack-a-day smoking as involving “great risk” to the smoker. And the proportions of teens who said that they “disapproved” of pack-a-day smoking began to rise a year later and continued into recent years

However, the increase in perceived risk did not continue into 2008; indeed, there was a significant decline in this measure in 2008 among 12th graders. Disapproval of smoking, while quite high, appears to have levelled off in 2008, as well.
The great majority of teens today say that they “prefer to date people who don’t smoke”: 83 percent, 80 percent, and 75 percent in grades 8, 10, and 12, and nearly two thirds of them think that “becoming a smoker reflects poor judgment.”

These attitudes became more widespread after the mid-1990s, but have not grown much over the past few years, except in 12th grade, where the earlier cohorts of 8th graders are still working their way up the age spectrum, bringing their more disapproving attitudes toward cigarette smoking with them. The investigators say that teens should take note that becoming a smoker will make them less attractive to the great majority of the opposite sex—a high price to pay.

Availability of Cigarettes to Teens
The proportion of teens reporting that they could get cigarettes “fairly easily” or “very easily,” if they wanted some, has been declining for some years, particularly among younger teens. Today, 57 percent of 8th graders—most of whom are 13 or 14 years old—say they could get cigarettes fairly easily.

As high as that number is, it is down considerably from 77 percent in 1996. Availability for 10th graders is higher, as might be expected, but fewer of them say they could get cigarettes easily in 2008 (77 percent) than in 1996 (91 percent). It appears that the efforts of many states and communities to get retail outlets to stop selling to underage smokers have been having some success, the researchers say. Despite that, however, the majority of teens—even younger teens—still say that they can get cigarettes if they want them.

Source: Johnston, L. D., et al. (December 11, 2008) http://www.monitoringthefuture.org

As kids flood weed outlets, Ramon Cortines admits there’s no plan

Los Angeles City Hall is thrashing around as the City Council and mayor belatedly try to control a pot-shop explosion they ignited, which has spawned dozens of freewheeling weed emporiums near public schools. The Los Angeles school board’s response? Nada.

That’s what the Los Angeles Unified School District has done to stop kids from trekking a short distance from Fairfax, Hollywood and other high schools and middle schools to score buds at unregulated neighborhood pot shops that have opened, often in the same block as schools or very nearby.

The LAUSD school board and Superintendent Ramon Cortines have held no meetings about the impact on kids, have no idea how many children are turning to the flood of easy weed, have not tried to assess the money the dispensaries are making off healthy kids, and have not trained faculty and administrators in how to deal with ever-younger stoned students.

Now, following routine questions from L.A. Weekly, some school board members are pledging to deal with it.

The lack of interest from LAUSD’s top officials seems unlikely to help the district — already hammered by high dropout rates and intense competition from charter schools — to win back parents. Scott McNeely, of the Pico Neighborhood Council, complained to the City Council last summer when he heard about 17 dispensaries within a mile and a half of his home, three near elementary schools. “It’s a little discomforting when parents try to walk their kids to and from school and the kids smell marijuana smoke in the air,” he says. “It’s long past time for the LAUSD to weigh in on this issue and pressure the City Council, work with the City Council, just as we are doing. … The school board needs to raise a little hell.”

Some school board members believe the weed-and-kids situation is out of control. “After school you can see students stopping at the dispensary before going home,” says school board member Tamar Galatzan. “That’s unacceptable.”

The first sign that kids were being affected by the medical-pot explosion — and even directly targeted — arose at Grant High School in Van Nuys. It was the end of summer 2006 and time, apparently, to get back to the San Fernando Valley’s version of the three R’s: reading, writing and rolling joints.

On August 10 of that year, Van Nuys police found that a nearby marijuana dispensary, Pacific Support Services, had left fliers on cars in the Grant High School student parking lot. The fliers were emblazoned with the iconic, three-leaf marijuana bud, and underneath was a friendly message:

“It is still legal to own, grow and smoke marijuana as long as you do it properly. Qualification is simple and our experienced physicians are more than happy to help you,” it informed students, who probably had no idea California law gives seriously ill patients the right to smoke pot if they merely obtain a doctor’s verbal recommendation.

The flier language was directly aimed at those who might be tempted to spend their burgers-and-fries money: “$15 off with this flier. … If you do not qualify for a recommendation your visit is free.”

In other cities, the targeting of an academically struggling school like Grant High and its mostly minority, mostly working-class students, which resulted in a Los Angeles Daily News story, might have prompted school leaders to act. But it just floated right over the heads of the seven LAUSD board members.

“We had so many other things going on that I guess we just plain missed it,” says school board member Marguerite LaMotte, who represents much of South Los Angeles. “I can’t speak for the rest of the board but myself, I was more worried about the gangs, the liquor stores and all the other problems in my district. … There’s so much going on in my district.”

Since then, neither the school board nor Cortines has done anything — no new policies, rules or special teacher or principal training — to protect children from unregulated pot dispensaries.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council today have no idea how many pot stores exist, where they are, where they are getting their pot, who is financing them or where the huge profits are going. The exact number of stores in L.A. is a highly fluid calculation, with dispensaries opening and closing daily and dozens filling out paperwork but never switching on the lights. On paper, there are more than 1,000; hundreds are believed to be actually operating.

An analysis by the Los Angeles Times showed that at least 240 of the 1,000 dispensaries are within 1,000 feet of a school, park or library. Teenagers can be seen heading into them after school lets out in Hollywood, Fairfax, Northridge, the San Fernando Valley, Wilshire District and other areas.

According to both police and residents, many medicinal-marijuana shops are covertly targeting healthy kids as young as 14 through street contacts who urge students to “get your card.”

Yet the City Council and school board have yet to open a meaningful dialogue. “On issues that impact LAUSD, there’s been a lack of formal or even informal communication and coordination between the [City] Council and the school board,” says board member Galatzan. “This is the latest manifestation of that problem.”

Galatzan, an attorney who works for the L.A. City Attorney’s Office dealing with street-level crime, supports a tough ordinance proposed by her boss, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, which among other things would ban dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school.

The Los Angeles City Council failed for years to adopt state-required local medical-marijuana regulations that other cities, including San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, long ago debated and approved.

Those three politically liberal cities cracked down on pot profiteers while adopting rules that allow the ill to easily obtain weed. The City Council here, gridlocked and unable to decide what to do, instead adopted a series of moratoriums — and then missed the state’s legal deadline for acting. Now the council is unhappy with Trutanich’s plan, and is looking at its options once again.

At the time of the Grant High incident, Los Angeles dispensaries had mushroomed from just four in 2005 to dozens in 2006. That was before the great medical-bud flood of the last 18 months.

LaMotte and recently elected school board member Steve Zimmer say they too support a 1,000-foot restriction. Zimmer, however, says his is a narrow endorsement of that one provision. He has problems with the rest of Trutanich’s ordinance, which bans the selling of pot over the counter and profiting from it. Zimmer particularly objects to calls to shut down the existing pot stores.

“I support the 1,000-feet restriction because I believe in creating ‘safe passages’ for our students to travel to and from school,” Zimmer says. “But I also support medical marijuana, and I think Trutanich and [Steve] Cooley are focused too much on suppression and not enough on harm reduction.”

Zimmer insists, “They won’t get one student to stop smoking weed by shutting down the dispensaries.”

Frank Sheftel, an advocate of the medical-marijuana movement and co-founder of the Toluca Lake Collective, a medicinal-pot outlet, favors a restriction of 600 feet, as with liquor stores and pharmacies. “Why create a different set of standards for this industry?” he asks.

But Galatzan notes that pharmacies require written physician prescriptions — not verbal recommendations, as with medical pot — and are so heavily regulated that no L.A. schoolchildren can score drugs at pharmacies. Moreover, liquor stores operate under strict laws forcing them to check age and I.D. Pot stores “are totally different from liquor stores, where kids are not allowed, because minors are [being] allowed into dispensaries,” Galatzan says.

David Berger, a special assistant to Trutanich, tells the Weekly that at least two police investigations are under way involving students and medical marijuana. One stems from a community complaint about a dispensary whose “stoned people” hang out next to a Lexington Avenue elementary school. The other is in Venice, where a pot store opened directly across from one public school and down the block from another. Berger says, “LAPD is documenting all this stuff for us now.”

Source:paulteetor@verizon.net. 5th Nov. 2009

Exclusive data reveals 134 people died of heroin-caused deaths in Victoria last year – the most annual fatalities since 2000 when the drug rivalled the road toll. Already this year, 59 heroin deaths have been verified – taking the total to almost 200 in less than two years – with 2009′s figure expected to rise dramatically as investigations into causes of death are completed. With heroin caps now selling for as little as $40 to $50 – about the same as a slab of beer – and police warning heroin purity and volumes are on the rise, experts predict scores more will die.
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation into drugs on Victorian streets reveals:
Drug detectives are battling Vietnamese organised crime syndicates which are using teams of mules to transport “alarming” quantities of heroin into Melbourne.
Victoria Police has compiled a hit list of more than 100 names of suspected couriers who will be detained if detected at airports.
While heroin is booming, an amphetamine drought has more than doubled the price of “ice” to up to $1000 a gram.
And, according to authorities, new groups are “champing at the bit” to fill the void in the speed market vacated by the execution and imprisonment of figures in the gangland war.
In an exclusive interview, one of the state’s top anti-drug enforcers, detective Sen-Sgt Dale Flynn, revealed the international heroin wave had started to break locally.”We’ve been anticipating some type of flood into Australia, into Victoria, and we’ve really just seen signs of that in the past six to 12 months,” he said.
Forensic, toxicology, police and corrections sources have noticed a rapid increase in heroin and its attendant harms in Victoria in recent months. “Identifying factors for us are we’re seizing more and the purity has increased and we’re getting more intelligence about heroin,” Sgt Flynn said. “If there was an increase in any particular drug, that would be a concern to us. Heroin is the one that has probably the most fatalities connected to it, so when that starts to increase that is a concern.”
A Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine report on heroin deaths, obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun, details the startling rise in fatalities. A further analysis shows that including the part-year figures for 2009 from the National Coronial Information Service, there have been 2414 heroin deaths in Victoria since 1991.
Figures also show those who died in 2008 ranged from a 15-year-old female to a 57-year-old male, with increasing numbers of female victims. And ambulance officers had attended 614 non-fatal heroin overdoses in the first six months of this year, the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre revealed.
VIFM chief toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos said the increase was mirroring the spike that happened in the late 1990s. “There’s more heroin being produced nowadays than ever before, so there is quite a lot of heroin available,” he said.
Police said the amount of heroin being produced in Afghanistan and South-East Asia was significant. In recent years, brown heroin from Afghanistan had appeared locally as well as Asian white. “Probably the main issue at the moment is Vietnamese organised crime groups,” Sgt Flynn said. “They obviously have the contacts in Vietnam and South-East Asia that can get it here initially. They’re the ones that we seem to be targeting at the moment. We have a problem at the moment with Australian nationals getting paid to fly over to Vietnam, stay for a couple of days, receive some pellets of heroin that they insert internally then come back over.”
He said several heroin couriers had been arrested in Melbourne and around the nation in joint ventures between Victoria Police, Customs and the AFP. “But we don’t believe we’re getting all of them. Obviously there’s some that’s getting through,” he said. The deadly drugs are cut and processed locally, often in industrial areas, factories and homes. In September, heroin worth $5 million was seized from a West Footscray house. Victoria Police drug investigators have compiled a “hit list” of more than 100 names of suspected couriers who will be checked if detected passing through airports. “We don’t always just look at taking them out at the border, but we look for the Melbourne-based offenders to try to gather evidence and put them before the courts as well,” Sgt Flynn said.
Melbourne’s heroin hot spots include the CBD, St Kilda, Richmond, Footscray, Frankston, Collingwood, St Albans, Deer Park, Boronia, Dandenong, Reservoir, Fitzroy and Carlton. During the week the Sunday Herald Sun found used syringes dumped in city alleyways, car parks and near a needle exchange program just metres from a primary school.
The broad availability of heroin is causing its price to fall, while ecstasy and amphetamine stocks are falling, pushing up their street prices. A gram of smack can cost as little as $260, while a gram of ice, or crystal meth, now sells for $750 to $1000. A smaller cap of heroin costs between $40 and $50.
Needle exchange group ANEX said the heroin boom would bring a tide of disease if the right steps were not taken. “We need millions more needles in the needle exchange services to prevent HIV and hepatitis C,” ANEX chief John Ryan said. Overall, about half of injections are made without a clean syringe. More than 40,000 needles are distributed to drug addicts every month as part of a Frankston program – one of 19 needle and syringe programs throughout Victoria.
An analysis of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data has found the number of prescriptions for methadone and other heroin recovery drugs in Australia almost tripled from about 2.4 million in 1992 to almost seven million in 2007. Victoria has recorded the greatest increase in addicts of any state, with almost 12,000 – more than double since 1998 – costing the taxpayer more than $22 million in treatments.
Source: Heraldsun.com.au 23 Nov. 2009

This study was designed to document knowledge about Kuwaiti drug users and to investigate whether or not there is an association between their poor self-concept and high level of anxiety. One hundred and seven incarcerated drug users, 107 individuals serving prison terms for offenses other than drug use, and 107 “normal” individuals were included in this pilot study. The Arabic version of Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale and Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to measure the subjects’ self-esteem and state-trait anxiety, respectively. The results documented revealed that there is a relationship between levels of self-esteem and anxiety in Kuwaiti drug user behavior.

Source: Substance Use & Misuse 1996, Vol. 31, No. 7, Pages 937-943

“ I would establish a strictly controlled distribution network through which I would make most drugs, excluding the most dangerous ones like crack, legally available.” – George Soros

Source: Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve.
Published :New York John Wiley & Sons 1995

Decades of painful experience dealing with the misery, violence, and crime associated with drugs have left parents and public health officials with a responsibility to educate every new generation of young people about the devastating effects of illegal drug use.
Working against these efforts, however, is a small, but well-funded group of pro-drug advocates who argue that the legalization of drugs provides a cure-all for America’s drug problem. By placing pro-drug politics ahead of scientific consensus and common sense, these groups place obstacles in the way of making progress.

Drugs are Illegal because they are Harmful

Medical research has established a clear fact about drug use: once started, it can develop into a devastating disease of the brain, with consequences that are anything but enticing. Consider the facts:
The potency of retail marijuana has more than doubled since the mid-1980’s, leading to an increase in drug treatment need for teens. Today, more young people enter drug treatment for marijuana than for all other illegal drugs combined. (MPMP, NSDUH)
Young people who smoke marijuana weekly have double the risk of depression later in life. Additionally, teens aged 12-17 who smoke marijuana weekly are three times more likely than non-users to have suicidal thoughts.
(Source: British Medical Journal, SAMHSA)

Marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. (Source: NIDA)

Drug Legalization Would Dramatically Increase the Costs to Our Society
If drugs were legalized, the United States would see significant increases in the number of drug users, the number of drug addicts, and the number of people dying from drug-related causes.
Studies show that attitudes about drugs drive youth drug use rates. By trivializing and advocating tolerance for illegal drug use, drug legalization groups send a message to young people that experimentation with dangerous illegal drugs is acceptable. Drug legalization would increase the occurrence of drug impaired driving. Drugs affect concentration, perception, coordination, and reaction time; many of the skills required for safe driving.

Who’s Really in Prison for Marijuana?
One of the primary arguments used by drug legalization advocates is based on a lie – that our prisons are filled with marijuana smokers. In fact, the vast majority of drug prisoners are violent criminals, repeat offenders, traffickers, or all of the above.
The most recent data available reveals that just 1.4 percent of the state inmate population were held for offenses involving only marijuana, and less than one percent of all state prisoners (0.3 percent) were incarcerated with marijuana possession as the only charge. (Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics)
Out of all drug defendants sentenced in federal court for marijuana crimes in 2001, the overwhelming majority were convicted for trafficking, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Only 2.3 percent—186 people— received sentences for simple possession, and of the 174 for whom sentencing information is known, just 63 actually served time behind bars.

Source: www.WhiteHouseDrugPolicy.gov 2007

A ground-breaking report into the use of the stimulant MDMA has revealed it claimed 82 Australians over five years from 2000 – and the number fatalities is increasing.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s study into MDMA-related deaths is the most comprehensive examination to date, and has prompted calls for more research. Last year, Perth teenager Gemma Thoms collapsed at the Big Day Out and died in hospital. She swallowed three ecstasy pills at the festival gates to avoid being caught by police.
Her mum, Peta, is planning to hand out leaflets at today’s Big Day Out warning revellers about the dangers. Concert organisers had promised to design and print flyers for all the 40,000 people expected to attend the festival.
Additional figures obtained by The Sunday Times this week show 23 people died as a result of taking ecstasy in Australia from 2006 to 2008. There could be more, with a number of cases still under investigation. Of those, 10 deaths were reported in 2006, seven in 2007 and six in 2008, with 65 per cent of victims aged 20-29 and more than 70 per cent male.
More than 80 per cent of the deaths were unintentional and 15 of the 23 victims took other drugs with the MDMA, including cannabis or alcohol. In the earlier cases examined by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, 91 per cent of the deaths were directly caused by drug toxicity and MDMA was the sole drug involved in a quarter of cases.
It also contributed to a number of drownings, cardiovascular problems and car crashes. Last week, The Sunday Times revealed that ecstasy had never been cheaper in Perth, with the street price dropping for the first time last year.
A survey by the National Drug Research Institute also found that young users were taking the party drug more often and in bigger quantities. The number who binged on the drug rose from 22 per cent in 2008, to 40 per cent in 2009.
Funded by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing, a separate National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report found the median age of ecstasy fatalities was 26, with the youngest victim 17 and the oldest 58.
“There are a lot of accidental deaths where MDMA is thought to have played a role . . . and this seems to be a more prominent and prevalent concern,” the centre’s assistant director Louisa Degenhardt said. “A lot of bad things can happen when combining drugs because accidents happen when people are intoxicated with any drug.”
Royal Perth Hospital emergency 2medicine specialist Daniel Fatovich warned that cheaper prices meant more West Australians could afford more pills, increasing the risk of overdoses.

Source www.perthnow.com.au January 30, 2010

Smoke and mirrors: Colorado teenagers and marijuana

By Christian Thurstone

Colorado’s public policies regarding the use of medical marijuana are a complete mess — and as the medical director of a busy adolescent substance abuse treatment program in Denver, I get to contend with this mess every day.
Take, for example, the 19-year-old whom I have treated for severe addiction for several months. He recently showed up in my clinic with a medical marijuana license. How did he get it? Easy, he said. He paid $300 for a brief visit with another doctor to discuss his “depression.” The doctor took a cursory medical history that certainly didn’t involve contacting me. The teenager walked out with the paperwork needed not only for a license to smoke, but also for a license permitting a “caregiver” to grow up to six marijuana plants for him. My patient, who had quit using addictive substances after a near-death experience, is back to smoking marijuana daily, along with his caregiver. So, that’s just one young person who managed to game the system, right? Not by a long shot.
In the last three months, I have seen more than a dozen young people — all between the ages of 18 and 25 and with histories of substance abuse — who received from other doctors what are essentially permission slips to smoke pot. Some of my colleagues recently reported seeing a young, pregnant woman who was granted a license to smoke marijuana because of her nausea. (Yes, you read that right.) Kids without licenses tell me about the potent pot they buy from from caregivers whose plants yield enough supply to support sales on the side.
Colorado schools are also scrambling to make sense of our muddled public policies. Educators ask me how to deal with students who have marijuana prescriptions for their attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and with the “medical marijuana specialists” seen passing out business cards in student parking lots. Here’s what I tell them: Good research shows that using marijuana makes anxiety, depression and ADHD worse, so let’s stop prescribing marijuana to our youth.
Colorado is just beginning to see much bigger and more costly problems associated with teen marijuana smoking. That’s particularly unfortunate because our state already ranks among the top five for adolescent marijuana use and among states providing the least access to adolescent substance abuse treatment. For teenagers, marijuana is an especially addictive drug. Nationally, almost 5.5 percent of high school seniors smoke marijuana daily, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. About 95 percent of the hundreds of young people referred to my clinic each year have problems with marijuana. I see teenagers who choose pot over family, school, friends and health every day. When they’re high, these young people make poor choices that lead to unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, school dropouts and car accidents that harm innocent people. When teenagers are withdrawing from marijuana, they can be aggressive and get into fights or instigate conflicts that lead to more trouble.
Now, almost every day, a kid asks me, “Doc, how can marijuana be bad? It’s a medicine.”
I recently reviewed medical marijuana licenses in Colorado and found that only 3 percent belong to people with cancer and 1 percent to people with HIV. Those illnesses are not open to much interpretation; you’ve either got them or you don’t. However, a whopping 90 percent of Colorado’s medical marijuana licenses have been awarded for “pain,” which is a highly subjective qualifying condition that makes it easy to abuse the system. Also interesting is that 70 percent of Colorado’s medical marijuana prescriptions are for men, and the biggest age group of licensees is 25- to 34-year-olds. Medical marijuana in this state is not being prescribed for end-stage illnesses. Instead, it is being handed to the demographic most likely to have addictions.
The medicinal value of smoked tetrahydrocannabinol — marijuana’s active ingredient — has hardly been studied in controlled trials, which is why the American Medical Association recently called for more research. In the absence of credible data, we’re allowing this public debate to be bombarded by junk science and blatant lies championed by people more interested in getting high than in alleviating the pain of end-stage illness.
Medically speaking, there’s probably little need for smoked marijuana. Tetrahydrocannabinol has been available as a pill for years. For patients too nauseous to take a pill, a tetrahydrocannabinol patch has been produced and studied but is not yet available for prescription. The pill and patch have been deemed effective, produce less intoxication and are far less addictive than smoked marijuana.
With such limited data, it’s incredible that marijuana bypassed FDA approval and the way medications are normally dispensed in pharmacies. It is ridiculous that this “medicine” can be sold in an array of flavors alongside pot brownies and candies. Also stunning is that marijuana has bypassed the Colorado Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which enables me to look up all of my patients’ prescriptions. Now, I can see all of their meds — except for their marijuana. What Colorado has created is a backdoor way to legalize marijuana, and it has done so in a manner that makes a mockery of responsible medicine.
Let’s stop talking in terms of smoked marijuana’s medicinal value because we’re not even close to knowing what that is. Let’s instead answer the question that’s truly at the heart of all of this political wrangling: Is smoking marijuana a civil right? Before answering that question, Colorado should carefully study the social costs of accidents, aggression, school dropouts, STDs and teen pregnancy that will inevitably be the result of increased marijuana use. No medication — not even marijuana — is without side effects.
Christian Thurstone is a board-certified child/adolescent and addictions psychiatrist who conducts federally funded research on marijuana addiction in teenagers
Source: http://www.denverpost.com 31st Jan 2010

Decriminalization of drugs in Portugal – The real facts!
The national press, and especially the foreign, has referred with outlandish insistence, on the eve of two important elections in Portugal, the “resounding success” of the decriminalization of drugs launched in 2001 by the Socialist Government, neglecting all other European countries and in prejudice of the guidelines of the UN Conventions of which Portugal is a signatory.

Respect for the truth of the matter requires the Association for a Drug Free Portugal (APLD) to clarify to the Portuguese, and others, the real consequences of the implementation of this current policy, independent of particular party affiliation. Portugal adopted a unique and unmistakably questionable ‘solution’ to manage the nightmare of drugs.

Recent articles in the weekly British magazine, The Economist and The Cato Institute of Washington promote government options as a legitimate right. The problem is the rest; the manipulation of the facts and numbers is unacceptable!

In 2006, the total number of deaths as a consequence of overdose did not diminish radically compared to 2000, nor did the percentage of drug addicts with AIDS decrease significantly (from 57% to 43%). The opposite occurred.

Portugal faces a worrying deterioration of the drug situation. The facts prove “With 219 deaths from ‘overdose’ per year, Portugal has one of the worst results, with one death every two days. Along with Greece, Austria and Finland, Portugal registered an increase of deaths by more than 30% in 2005 ” and ” Portugal remains the country with the highest increase of AIDS as a result of injecting drugs (85 new cases per million residents in 2005, when the majority of countries do not surpass 5 cases per million). Portugal is the only country that recorded a recent increase, with 36 new cases estimated per million in 2005 when in 2004 only 30 were registered” (European Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction 2007). The European report also confirmed that in 2006, Portugal had registered 703 new cases of SIDA, which corresponds to a rate eight times higher than the European average!

The decriminalization of drugs in Portugal did not in any way decrease levels of consumption. On the contrary, “the consumption of drugs in Portugal increased by 4.2% – the percentage of people who have experimented with drugs at least once in their lifetime increased from 7.8% in 2001 to 12% in 2007 (IDT-Institute for Drugs and Drug Addiction Portuguese, 2008).

With regard to the consumption of cocaine “the latest data (surveys from 2005-2007) confirms the increasing trend during the last year in France, Ireland, Spain, The United Kingdom, Italy, Denmark and Portugal” (EMCDDA 2008). While rates of use of cocaine and amphetamine doubled in Portugal, seizures of cocaine have increased sevenfold between 2001 and 2006, the sixth highest in the world (WDR-World Drug Report, 2009).

With regard to hashish, it is difficult to assess the trends and intensive use of hashish in Europe, but among the countries that participated in field trials, between 2004 and 2007 (France, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands and Portugal) there was an average increase of approximately 20% ” (EMCDDA, 2008).

In Portugal, since decriminalization has been implemented, the number of homicides related to drugs has increased 40%. “It was the only European country with a significant increase in (drug-related) murders between 2001 and 2006″ (WDR, 2009).

A recent report commissioned by IDT, the Center for Studies and Opinion Polls (CESOP) of the Portuguese Catholic University, based on direct interviews regarding the attitudes of the Portuguese towards drug addiction (which has strangely never been released), revealed the following: 83.7% of respondents indicated that the number of drug users in Portugal has increased in the last four years. 66.8% believe that the accessibility of drugs in their neighborhoods was easy or very easy and 77.3% stated that crime related to drugs has also increased (“Toxicodependências” No. 3, 2007).

This is the painful reality in Portugal- the attitude towards drugs and drug addiction. For the Portuguese government, drug addicts are essentially regarded as ‘sick’. This is not only a suicidal attitude, but a public expense. Pretend you are sick and the government pretends to treat you! The decriminalization of consumption, possession and acquisition for consumption has added to the illicit consumption of drugs. Legalizing a crime committed by “drug addicts” (or “the sick”) does not seem the most effective way to combat the problem, as shown by greatly increased rate of drug-related homicides recorded in Portugal compared to other countries with reduced dependence and related crime.

What is happening in Portugal is very peculiar; drug addicts, with the support of the government, rely on their status as ‘sick’. But these addicts often forget that they are ‘sick’ and are assumed as free and responsible people, who are able to decide whether they want treatment or not! As a result of decriminalization the addict is considered a patient and not a delinquent. The state can not choose, through a political policy, a solution that gives priority to feed the “disease” rather than a cure! Resounding success? Glance at the results!

Manuel Pinto Coelho
President of the Association for a Drug Free Portugal

Source: www.wfad.se Tuesday, 02 February 2010

A study has found that heavy cannabis smoking is a major cause of gum disease.

The investigation, which tracked a group of 1000 people born in Dunedin in 1972-73, found heavy cannabis use was responsible for more than one-third of the new cases of gum disease by age 32.

The study involved researchers from the University of Otago, King’s College in London, Duke University and the University of North Carolina in the United States. Professor Murray Thomson from University of Otago School of Dentistry said toxins in cannabis smoke were detrimental to periodontal health. “The problem is not the smoke itself – it’s what’s in the smoke,” he said. “In the mouth, there is a fine balance between tissue destruction and tissue healing and the various toxins in cannabis smoke disrupt that.”

Professor Thomson said gum disease was one of the most common diseases of adulthood, and caused problems such as the loss of support for the teeth. There was also emerging evidence it could be a risk factor for heart disease, stroke and pre-term birth.

Heavy cannabis users are those who smoke cannabis 41 times or more per year between the ages of 18 and 32.

The study is the first to have investigated whether smoking anything other than tobacco is detrimental for the gums. The evidence has been published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association.

Source: New Zealand Herald.6 Feb 2008

A new study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes finds that HIV prevalence in the city Toggliatti in Russia declined from 56 percent in 2001 to 38.5 percent in 2004, “despite the lack of needle and syringe exchange.” The study found that “a history of drug treatment was associated with a reduced likelihood of testing positive for HIV,” and credits less frequent injection of drugs for the overall reduction in HIV among new injectors, “rather than interventions through services, such as needle exchanges.”
Compare the HIV decline in Toggliatti, Russia—which has no needle exchange program—to the HIV explosion in Vancouver, Canada, which boasts the largest and one of the oldest needle distribution program in North America.
When Vancouver’s needle exchange program (NEP) was established in the late 1980s, the city’s estimated HIV prevalence was 1 to 2 percent. By 1997, one-quarter of the of the drug users in Downtown Eastside were infected with HIV, with a transmission rate of nearly 19 percent, giving Vancouver the distinction of having the highest infection rate of any city in the developed world. By 2003, an estimated 40 percent of the drug using population in Vancouver was infected with HIV. Research has directly linked needle exchange to this trend. A study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes in 1997 found that “frequent NEP attendance” was one of the “independent predictors of HIV-serostatus” among IDUs. The study found that HIV-positive IDU were more likely to have ever attended NEP and to attend NEP on a more regular basis compared with HIV-negative IDUs. With only one exception, the NEP was the main source of syringes for all of those who became infected during the course of the study.
Source: http:// www.aidsmap.com/en/news/AA1E32BC-20EF-4B93-B811-83CF26FEF1F9.asp April 23, 2008

A significant decline in risky injecting practices and a decline in HIV prevalence in new drug injectors was seen in a Russian city severely affected by HIV between 2001 and 2004, despite the lack of needle and syringe exchange, researchers from the London School of Hygiene report in the April 15th edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The researchers believe that word of mouth, and growing awareness of the rising number of HIV diagnoses, contributed to the shoft, but also note that changes in the drug market during the study period may have driven the change in injecting and equipment sharing practices.

Several major cities worldwide have witnessed explosive outbreaks of HIV due to injecting drug use. In these contexts, some research suggests that new injectors might adopt riskier behaviours, or alternately, within the context of an HIV outbreak, new injectors might adopt safer behaviours than longer term injectors. Thus, measuring behavioural change in targeted populations may help to monitor risks in a changing epidemic.

Therefore investigators from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined two anonymous, cross-sectional community-recruited surveys of injecting drug users in Toggliatti city, which is in the Samara region of Russia. They also conducted a review of new HIV diagnoses in the region since 2000.

Participants in both surveys had used injection drugs in the previous four weeks and consented to HIV testing via oral fluid samples. The participants analysed were injecting drug users who had injected for three years or less (recent injectors): 138 people in 2001 and 96 in 2004.

Participants were identified by respondent-driven sampling, in which those initially recruited act as ‘seeds’ for an expanding chain of referrals. Mathematical modelling was then used to estimate population effects. Injection drug use was estimated to occur in 5.4% of the registered population of the city, but in 2.7% of the assumed genuine population, close to 1 million people.

In 2004, a lower proportion of injecting drug users reported injecting daily, using used needles, syringes or filters, or front-loading – when a solution of drug is passed from a donor syringe into another person by removing the needle. Although fewer injecting drug users in 2004 reported contact with drug treatment services, needle exchange or outreach workers, more had been tested for HIV.

Overall HIV prevalence was high among injecting drug users, but it declined between 2001 and 2004, from 56% to 38.5% A significantly lower prevalence of HIV was found among new injectors in 2004 (11.5%, 95% CI: 5.0 – 17.9) than in 2001 (55.2%, 95% CI: 46.7 – 63.8). A history of drug treatment was associated with a reduced likelihood of testing positive for HIV, while increased odds of HIV were associated with exchanging sex for drugs and sex work, duration of injection (odds ratio 1.4 per year), and front-loading. Most injecting equipment was obtained from pharmacies in both surveys.

Examination of surveillance data revealed that in 2000, 97% of new HIV cases were linked with IDU whereas that figure had fallen to 56.4% by 2005.

The reduction in HIV among new injectors in 2004 seems likely to be related to general risk awareness and changes in injection practice rather than interventions through services, such as needle exchanges. However, the authors suggest that “IDUs, and IDUs involved in sex work specifically, should be targets for sexual risk reduction interventions”.

Given the nature of IDU-related health services in this region, the authors write that “we emphasize the need for increasing access to voluntary and confidential HIV testing in combination with increasing the accessibility of sterile injecting equipment through pharmacies”.

Source: Platt L et al. Changes in HIV prevalence and risk among new injecting drug users in a Russian city of high HIV prevalence. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 47: 623 – 631, 2008.

Being a teenager isn’t as risky as it used to be, but too many teens still put their lives and their health at risk, a CDC survey shows.

Every two years, the CDC conducts its huge Youth Risk Behavior Survey. It contains detailed data from more than 14,000 questionnaires anonymously completed by teens in grades 9 through 12.

Overall, the 2007 results suggest that teens are acting more responsibly. Fewer are sexually active, nearly all wear seat belts, drinking and drug use are down, 80% of kids don’t smoke, and there are fewer suicide attempts.

This is good news to Howell Wechsler, EdD, MPH, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. In some cases, the new numbers begin to approach the CDC’s Healthy People 2010 objectives. “What we are seeing is from the early to mid-1990s to now, on a large number of health risk behaviors, we are seeing very, very encouraging progress,” Wechsler tells WebMD.

Even so, the new numbers are enough to take a parent’s breath away:
• 7% of teens say they’ve attempted suicide (down from nearly 9% in
2001).
• 35% of teens say they’re sexually active (down from 37.5% in 2001).
• 18% of teens say they carry a gun, knife, or club (no significant change from 2001).
• 20% of teens say they smoke cigarettes (down from 36.4% in 1997).
• Nearly 45% of teens say they use alcohol (down from 50% in 1999).
• About 20% of teens say they use marijuana (down from nearly 27% in 1999).
• Only about 21% of kids eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables (down from 24% in 1999).
• 25% of teens play video games or use the computer for three or more hours a day (up from 21% in 2005).
• More than 65% of kids don’t get enough exercise , and 25% of teens say they don’t even get an hour of exercise on any day of the week.

“We are gratified that there is progress being made,” Wechsler says. “But my take on it is this: I have a bunch of kids myself and I am not going to be satisfied until we meet our goals — and in most areas we are still not meeting our Healthy People 2010 objectives. So I see no cause to be overly
satisfied.”

(Which teens are most at risk? Find out from guest blogger Howell Wechsler on WebMD’s News Watch blog.)

Best States/Cities, Worst States/Cities

In some cases, the overall numbers conceal states and localities where teen behavior is much better — and much worse — than average:
• 62.2% of Kentucky kids have tried smoking cigarettes, compared with only 24.9% of Utah teens (national average: 50.3%).
• 34.5% of West Virginia teens use tobacco products, compared with only 8.9% of kids in Vermont (national average: 25.7%).
• 44.7% of Alaska teens have tried marijuana, compared with only 17.4% of Kentucky kids (national average: 38.1%)
• 90.8% of kids in New York attend physical education classes at least once a week vs. 28.4% of kids in South Dakota (national average: 53.6%).
• 49.7% of Baltimore teens are sexually active, compared with 17.5% of San Francisco teens (national average: 35%).
• 39.2% of ninth to 12th graders in Dallas have been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug, compared with 13.5% of teens in Baltimore (national average: 22.3%).

Wechsler says the survey data don’t show exactly why teens in some areas take fewer health risks than teens in other areas. But he says that state and local efforts to reduce specific risk behaviors pay off. He points to anti-tobacco efforts as an example.

“One thing that is instructive is the tremendous difference in resources different states put into this,” Wechsler says. “In some states, teen tobacco use is much lower than the national rate. And we see this in exactly those states where they have made substantial investments in tobacco
reduction.”

Even Good Teens Take Risks — What Parents Must Do

If none of this sounds like your teenager, listen to Nancy Cahir, PhD, a child/adolescent/adult psychologist in private practice in Atlanta.

“What I have seen in my practice is even parents who think it couldn’t happen to their child — well, it can,” Cahir tells WebMD. “Even with the ‘perfect child,’ there may be hidden issues; even in good families, bad things can happen. There is no discrimination when it comes to high-risk behavior for teens.”

Parents have a responsibility to involve themselves in their children’s lives, Cahir says. They cannot assume their teen is doing fine because they haven’t had calls from the school or because their teen’s grades are good.

“Parents, I say stay close to your children. Know your kids the way you know your best friend, and keep in touch with them,” she says. “Spend time with them, know their friends, and know the parents of the children your children hang out with. Say to them every day, ‘Did you have a difficult day? What’s going on with you? How are you doing?’”

It’s probably not news that teens can be moody, even surly at times. Your teen may respond to your inquiries with something like, “My life is none of your business.”

Not so, says Cahir.

“Every parent has the right to say, ‘It is too my business,’” she says. “Parents sometimes shy away from being more involved because they don’t want to seem intrusive. But it is their business to know whom their child hangs out with, to know whether the child is in distress, and to help their children through these difficult times. Sometimes kids don’t like hearing that, and may respond in defiant ways, but parents must toe the line and say, ‘We have a right to know.’”

But Wechsler agrees with Cahir that communication is not only what your children need, but what they truly want.

“As a parent of two teens myself, you tend to believe them when they walk out of the room and don’t express any interest in hearing from you,” Wechsler says. “But kids really do want that communication with parents. They really do want to hear their parents’ values. They really need their parents to monitor their whereabouts and stay in touch and stay a very strong part of their lives.”

Cahir says the key to communicating with teens is developing mutual respect.

“Each member of a family should treat the others members like a best friend or at least as a guest in the house,” she says. “If you are angry with your teen, or your teen is angry with you, you have to talk it out in a way that is not hostile or aggressive. I’ve seen some families go after each other tooth and nail and they end up really harming each other.”

If communication breaks down, it may be time for the family to sit down with a professional to learn how to express disagreements in a constructive way.

The full CDC report, “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2007,” is available on the CDC’s web site. For comparison, earlier years’ reports are also available.

Source:CBS News Web 4 June 2008

Highest in Europe – one in ten Scots used cannabis last year

SCOTS are some of the biggest users of drugs in Europe, a new study has shown.
The annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), has shown that 11 per cent of Scottish adults used cannabis last year – second only to Italy – compared with an European average of 6.8 per cent, and a UK rate of 8.4 per cent.

The report also showed Scotland has the highest usage of cocaine (3.8 per cent), amphetamines (2.2 per cent) and LSD (0.6 per cent), while ecstasy use came in at 3.2 per cent, second to the Czech Republic, which has a rate of 3.5 per cent.

The figures follow controversy over cannabis classification following UK government drug adviser Professor David Nutt’s sacking last week.

He had spoken out against the decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class C drug to the more dangerous category B.

The EMCDDA’s figures, which are based on the most up-to-date regional cannabis-use statistics, revealed that the Dutch were among the lowest users, with just 5.4 per cent using the drug.

Scottish Drugs Forum director David Liddle said the figures pointed to wider issues about approaches to tackling drug use.

“They raise the question of what is the best route, through education and giving young people information about drug use, or through the legal route,” he said. “The bigger issue is the one of early use, which leads young people on to particular cultures and problematic use of illegal substances, but early drunkenness and smoking are also linked to this.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “This report highlights why Scotland’s drugs problem cannot be tackled overnight.

“We need long-term cultural change, which is why we launched ‘Road to Recovery’, Scotland’s national drugs strategy.”

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Bill Aitken said the figures reflected the need for a rethink on drugs policy.

Mr Aitken said: “These are clearly very concerning figures, and the cannabis statistics in particular result from the lack of a firm message from the UK government on cannabis classification.”
Source: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland 7th Nov. 2009

New research shows alcohol-related illnesses could be killing one in 20 Scots – twice as many as previously thought. The study totalled the proportion of 53 different causes of death – ranging from stomach cancer and strokes to assaults and road deaths – in which alcohol consumption played a part, to show that nearly 3,000 deaths in 2003 were alcohol-related.
This is double the figure for deaths from illnesses caused almost entirely by alcohol consumption alone, such as alcoholic liver disease. It means one Scot may be dying from alcohol-related causes every three hours.
While alcohol-related deaths accounted for five per cent of all deaths in Scotland, this proportion rises to more than a quarter of deaths in men and a fifth of women aged 35-44. In addition, around 41,414 people were discharged from hospital due to alcohol consumption – more than one in twenty (7.3 per cent) of patients over 16, and 50 per cent higher than figures based on wholly attributable conditions.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:
“This research shows that alcohol misuse is taking an even higher toll on Scotland’s health than previously thought. To have one in 20 Scots dying from alcohol-related causes is a truly shocking statistic. Drinking alcohol is part of Scottish culture, but it’s clear that many people are drinking too much and damaging their health in the process. Alcohol misuse is the biggest public health challenge we face and the Scottish Government has made crystal clear our determination to get to grips with it.”
Cancer deaths accounted for just over a fifth (21.7 per cent) of all alcohol attributable deaths. A total of 2,374 of the 2,882 deaths (82.4 per cent) linked to alcohol were in people under the age of 75. And of these, 1,080 deaths were people under the age of 55.
The calculations are based on consumption data from the Scottish Health Survey 2003, updated to reflect the increasing strength of alcoholic drinks. Conditions were identified where alcohol increased the likelihood of developing the condition and this information was applied to consumption patterns to calculate the proportion of deaths from a particular condition attributable to alcohol. New Scottish Health Survey data due for publication later this year will allow updated mortality figures to be calculated. The study, published by ISD Scotland, also indicated that 1,493 heart disease deaths may have been prevented by low levels of alcohol consumption, although drinking even at low levels was found to be a risk factor for almost all the other conditions. Furthermore, the positive effects of low consumption in relation to heart disease were cancelled out by higher consumption.
Last week the Scottish Government held an Alcohol Summit which brought together representatives from all the political parties, alcohol industry, NHS, retailers and academics to discuss the measures outlined in the Alcohol Framework.
Source: The Scottish Government 30th June 2009

The ban on the sale of fresh hallucinogenic mushrooms from December 1 has been confirmed by health minister Ab Klink on Monday evening as earlier reported. The ban covers both the growing and sale of these mushrooms.
The sale of dried mushrooms is already banned.
Klink said last year he would ban the so-called magic mushrooms following a series of incidents involving tourists.
Source: DutchNews.nl 11th Nov. 2008

THE serious consequences of long-term cannabis use in indigenous communities are beginning to show, with an alarming surge in the rate of chronic mental health conditions among those who started smoking the drug at an early age.
James Cook University researcher Alan Clough, who has been looking at the issue of indigenous drug use for the past five years, found cannabis use in remote communities was now as high as 70 per cent of people, with almost 90 per cent of users claiming to be addicted.
Since the study began in 2004, the bulk of users surveyed reported continuing heavy use. “After 15 years of a cannabis epidemic we’re really starting to see the chronic mental effects appearing,” Professor Clough said.
“We’ve seen acute psychosis that is irreversible, as well as depression and dependence. Unfortunately we also have the situation where suicide is linked not just with cannabis use but also through withdrawal. The other worrying trend is the declining age of people trying it for the first time. Some kids are starting at 10.”
In a recent study of three remote Arnhem Land communities, Professor Clough and a team of researchers found that cannabis use exceeded six “cones” daily in almost 90 per cent of users. This was about twice the consumption of regular users elsewhere in Australia. The study also found people spent more than 60 per cent of their income on cannabis.
Professor Clough denied that alcohol bans under the intervention had forced people to switch to drugs. Senior Arnhem Land elder Bakamumu Marika said young people were turning to cannabis out of boredom. “People just get bored stiff. They’ve got no work to do, no training, no jobs,” he said.
Source:www.theaustralian.com 9th Nov. 2009

The breakdown shows health boards and councils forked out £77 million on drug services in 2007 and just under £26 million on alcohol services.
Drug and alcohol abuse is costing Scotland nearly £5billion a year, according a report by the watchdog Audit Scotland. The breakdown shows health boards and councils forked out £77million on drug services in 2007 and just under £26million on alcohol services.
The report said spending patterns did not always reflect national priorities or need, and funding arrangements are often “complex and fragmented”.
Death rates for alcohol and drug abuse in Scotland are amongst the highest in Europe and have doubled in the last 15 years. This is while rates decrase in other parts of Europe. The number of alcohol-related deaths in 2007 was 1,399 – compared to 455 drugs-related deaths.
The report has called for a more co-ordinated approach to services.
Auditor General Robert Black said: “The range of services for people in need of help can depend on where they live and there is not enough information about the effectiveness of these services.”
Scottish ministers have not set out minimum national standards that victims and their families can expect from drug and alcohol services. The report says ministers need to work with the NHS, councils and others to ensure they all know their responsibilities. While recent Scottish Government strategies have a focus on prevention, only 6 per cent of direct spending was on preventive activities.
Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said: “This report came about as a result of Scottish Conservative pressure in the 2008 budget. We suspected there was chaos in how funding streams were directed towards addressing addiction. The horrific truth has now been exposed and I am shocked at the sheer scale of the drugs and alcohol problem in Scotland.”
Labour’s Cathy Jamieson added: “I am particularly concerned that Audit Scotland’s report states that the Scottish Government is not funding services in the most effective way as they have no way of measuring performance. This is completely unacceptable and must change.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said the Government had asked for the report and welcomed its findings. He added: “It details the system we inherited from the previous administration.” The spokesman also said spending on drug and alcohol services had increased.

Source: www.stv.tv 26 March 2009,

Possession and use of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD and amphetamines are no longer criminal offenses in Mexico, the A law that went into effect this week decriminalized minor drug possession, although individuals caught three times with drugs would be required to attend an addiction-treatment program.
Mexican officials have said that the law would free police up to focus on combatting dealers and higher-level drug traffickers.
Source: Associated Press reported Aug. 21.2009

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen burst into a drug treatment center in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and shot to death 10 people, the second such mass killing this month.
Police say nine men and one woman were killed in the attack just before midnight Tuesday at the Anexo de Vida center in Mexico’s most violent city. Two people were seriously wounded. Enrique Torres, a spokesman for Chihuahua state police, said Wednesday the identities of the gunmen and the motive for the attack have not yet been established. But officials have said in the past that drug gangs may be using treatment centers to recruit dealers, or may be targeting them to eliminate rivals. Most of the victims are believed to have been recovering addicts staying at the facility.
“Why? Why them?” said Pilar Macias, weeping after she identified the body of her brother, Juan Carlos Macias, 39. “He was recovering, he wanted to get back on the right track and they didn’t let him, they didn’t give him a chance. This is going to kill my mother,” Macias said. “She’s very sick and this is going to kill her.” Macias said the mother had encouraged her son to enter the facility for treatment of his cocaine addiction three months ago.
Maria Hernandez also had come to the state prosecutor’s office to identify the body of her 25-year son. “He was good, he didn’t hang out with gangs, he didn’t have ‘narco’ friends,” she said. “He just began with marijuana, and then … they killed him.”
Pools of dry blood and bloodied footprints were visible Wednesday in the courtyard of the drug and alcohol rehab center where the shooting occurred. The center is located in a poor neighborhood with dirt streets, some of which were impassable due to recent rains.
On Sept. 2, gunmen lined patients against a wall at another rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez and then riddled them with bullets, killing 18.
Five men were killed at another rehabilitation center in June, and in August 2008, gunmen barged into a pastor’s sermon at a rehabilitation center and opened fire, killing eight people. Authorities have not said if any of the attacks are related.
Ciudad Juarez has seen the worst of the nation’s drug violence, with more than 1,300 deaths this year. The bloodshed has continued despite a buildup in troops since March. Early Wednesday, gunmen burst into a bar in Ciudad Juarez and shot to death five men, police said. They said they knew of no motive for the attack. Surging gang violence has claimed 13,500 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and deployed extra soldiers across the country to fight cartels.
Also Wednesday, police in the southern state of Guerrero reported they had found the decomposed bodies of four men by the side of a highway. Because of their poor condition, the cause of death and identity of the bodies has not yet been established.
Source: Yahoo news Sept. 2009

The CDC report “Deaths: Final Data for 2006” released in April 2009, reveals a spectacular 15% increase in drug induced deaths in 2006 compared to 2005 (latest data available.) These 2006 rates once again have reached yet another new national all-time record high for the 16th consecutive year. It reports that 38,396 Americans died in 2006 directly from “Drug-induced causes” the vast majority of which were overdose deaths from use of illegal drugs or from illegal use of legal drugs. ( See page 93 of 135 of the CDC report at link: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf )

Steadily increasing OD deaths over the past two decades strongly indicate that current national drug OD death rates in 2009 are raging out of control at national crisis levels. The graph shows the 2006 total of 38,396 deaths with the trend line heading off the chart! This calculates to a rate of over 3,000 deaths occurring MONHLY and rising.

Parents’ drug prevention organizations from throughout the nation recognize that the vast majority of those drug overdose deaths result from the early introduction and addiction of schoolchildren to drugs and alcohol (which is an illegal drug for teens) in their schools. Therefore they have petitioned President Obama and Congress for early enactment of the demand-reducing national drug prevention strategy of implementing a federal mandate for health screening all secondary school students for drugs by Random Student Drug Testing (RSDT) see attached. The legislative precedent for such a mandate is the federal mandate for the 21 drinking age that Congress enacted in 1984 in reaction to widespread tragic teen auto crashes, injuries and deaths on the nation’s highways that had directly resulted from states authorizing teen alcohol use in the 1970s.

“Diagnostic drug testing is the very best means ever found for effectively reducing the kids’ exposure to the deadly disease of drug addiction. This has been well demonstrated in the military, businesses, transportation industry and in the over 4,000 U.S. schools currently using drug testing,” said Joyce Nalepka, president of Drug Free Kids: America’s Concern and former president of Nancy Reagan’s National Federation of Parents. “We parents sincerely appreciate that RSDT is fully supported by Congress, the ONDCP, the U.S. Education Department, DEA, U.S. Justice Department, and all health-related federal agencies,” she added.

Congress should reject recent efforts by professional drug legalization lobbyists to soften federal laws on drug abuse and reduce federal support for RSDT. Their frenzied attempts to get street drugs legalized will only help drug traffickers reap further profits from the drug-related destruction of families, schools and communities throughout the nation. Congress must support parents and their children against the drug traffickers.

“This avalanche of tragic drug overdose deaths among our children should serve as a wake up call to all members of Congress. They must support America’s drug-besieged parents who demand that federal support continue and be increased for utilizing RSDT as a compassionate non-punitive means of reducing the nation’s inordinate demand for drugs and reducing the ultimate harm of massive drug overdose deaths,” said

Source DeForest Rathbone, Chairman of the National Institute of Citizen Anti-drug Policy (NICAP.)
April 30, 2009

September 29, 2009

A recent analysis of official reports on the Sydney Kings Cross injecting room confirmed that unavailability of heroin is of far greater significance in preventing heroin deaths than the availability of injecting rooms.
Less than 9,800 drug users were registered at Kings Cross, a small number of illicit drug users in New South Wales. Most drug users lived well away from Kings Cross and used the rooms only occasionally so most drug use was elsewhere.
The severe heroin drought at the end of 2000 led to the reduction in drug deaths. In fact, timely ambulance attendance is more likely to prevent a drug death than any other factor.
Source: Kings Cross Injecting Centre Fails to Reduce Overdose Deaths, Dr Sullivan PhD. Click here for the research.
DRUG ADVISORY COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA COMMENTS
This study confirms overseas research that indicates that injecting rooms are a failure and are being closed down. Restriction of illicit drug supply is effective in reducing use and deaths.
Reducing the demand for illicit drugs is a key to successful drug policy.
Drug policy should divert identified drug users into court ordered and supervised detoxification and rehabilitation to get them drug free.
THE DRUG ADVISORY COUNCIL SUPPORTS:
• More detoxification & rehabilitation that gets illicit drug users drug free.
• Court ordered and supervised detoxification & rehabilitation.
• Less illicit drug users, drug pushers and drug related crimes.
Posted at 10:40 AM in News, Policies, legislation | Permalink
Comments
A very good point. So let’s destroy the heroin fields in Afghanistan!
Posted by: Frugal Dougal | September 29, 2009 at 04:54 PM
There were 2,106 overdose “events” treated at the Centre during the trial period. Nobody died during this time and yet, according to the study, no deaths were necessarily prevented, because these people could have been treated by paramedics or in a hospital ED.
True – as long as they were using with a responsible friend who could call out an ambulance. But the target group, street injecters, often don’t.
It is impossible to say exactly how many of these 2,000+ events would have been fatal had they happened elsewhere, but to choose instead to look for the effect of a single clinic by using overall population data is misguided, or just plain dishonest.
What this study shows most clearly is that people will take the evidence that suits their ideology and use it to attack the good work that is being done by others, simply because, in their opinion, it is “wrong”. Whether lives are saved, or not, is secondary.
Posted by: Adam Baxter | September 30, 2009 at 10:59 AM

Possession and use of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD and amphetamines are no longer criminal offenses in Mexico, the A law that went into effect this week decriminalized minor drug possession, although individuals caught three times with drugs would be required to attend an addiction-treatment program.
Mexican officials have said that the law would free police up to focus on combatting dealers and higher-level drug traffickers.
Source: Associated Press reported Aug. 21.2009

The consequences of drug abuse cost the state and federal governments much more than they spend on prevention, according to a national report.
Substance abuse costs Michigan more than $5.2 million annually, but less than 1 percent of that amount goes to prevention and treatment.
And nationwide, taking into account both federal and state spending related to drug abuse and addiction, only 1.9 percent went to prevention and treatment, says the report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), located at Columbia University, in New York.
The big cash outlays go to the consequences of drug abuse in the areas of criminal justice, health care, family assistance, and elementary and secondary school spending, says the report.
The report, titled “Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets,” says that in 2005 Michigan spent about $5.28 million, or 18.2 percent, of its $28.9 million budget on the consequences of substance abuse and addiction. Those costs included about $1.6 million for criminal justice , $1.4 million in elementary and secondary school spending related to substance abuse, $1 million for health care, and $300,000 for child and family assistance. Less than $50,000 was spent on prevention, treatment and research.
In a foreword to the report, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., founder and chairman of CASA, calls current government spending patterns misguided.
“The facts revealed in this report,” he says, “constitute a searing indictment of the policies of government at every level that spend virtually all of the funds in this area to shovel up the wreckage of substance abuse and addiction and practically nothing to prevent and treat it.”
The figures in the report are based on 2005 spending, the most recent year for which data were available, “but there is nothing to suggest that anything in this area has changed since then,” Califano says.
Abuse of tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drugs cost governments at least $467.7 billion in 2005, the report says. The report also cites these findings:
v State governments spent $135.8 billion — or 15.7 percent of their budgets — to deal with substance abuse and addiction, up from 13.3 percent in 1998.
v If substance abuse and addiction were a separate budget category for the 50 states, it would rank second behind states’ spending on elementary and secondary education.
v For every dollar that federal and state governments spent on prevention and treatment, they spent $59.83 dealing with the consequences of substance abuse.
“Despite a significant and growing body of knowledge documenting that addiction is a preventable, treatable and manageable disease, and despite the proven efficacy of prevention and treatment techniques, our nation still looks the other way while substance abuse and addiction cause illness, injury, death and crime, savage our children, overwhelm social-service systems, impede education — and slap a heavy and growing tax on our citizens,” Susan E. Foster, CASA vice president and director of policy research and analysis, said in a prepared statement about the report.
Source: Kalamazoo Gazette Thursday, August 20, 2009

MEXICO CITY — Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging free government treatment for drug dependency.
The law defines “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamines. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution when the law goes into effect on Friday. Anyone caught with drug amounts under the personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory — although the law does not specify penalties for noncompliance.
In 2006, the U.S. government publicly criticized a similar bill. Then-President Vicente Fox sent that law — which did not have a mandatory treatment provision — back to Congress for reconsideration. The maximum amount considered to be for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams of marijuana — the equivalent of two or three joints — or a half-gram of cocaine. The limit for methamphetamine is 40 milligrams, and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.
The law was approved by Congress before it recessed in late April, and President Felipe Calderon — who is leading a major offensives against drug cartels — waited most of the summer before enacting it. Calderon’s original proposal would have required first-time detainees to complete treatment or face jail time. But the lower house of Congress, where Calderon’s party was short of a majority, weakened the bill.
Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate between addicts or casual consumers and the violent drug traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of over 11,000 people during Calderon’s term. And in the face of growing domestic drug use, Mexico has increased its focus on prevention and drug treatment. Sen. Pablo Gomez of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party praised the legislation: “This law achieves the decriminalization of drugs, and in exchange, offers government recovery treatment for addicts.”
Previously, all drug possession was punishable by stiff jail sentences, with some leeway for those considered addicts and caught with smaller amounts. In practice, relatively few people were prosecuted and sentenced to jail for small-time possession. While the United States openly expressed concern about the 2006 law, this time around it has been more circumspect.
Asked about the new law in July, U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said he would adopt a “wait-and-see attitude. If the sanction becomes completely nonexistent I think that would be a concern, but I actually didn’t read quite that level of de facto (decriminalization) in the law,” said Kerlikowske, who heads the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. Whether the law’s proposed sanctions “are actually enough or not, I’m not sure,” he said.
Source: The Associated Press Aug.2009

August 19, 2009

VANCOUVER’S Skid Road is a slummy end-of-the-line refuge for drug-addicted criminals.
Once a vibrant district, Skid Road is now overrun by junkie marauders who plunder law abiding citizens and merchants in a predictable pattern of violence and property crime.
Just deserts for these incorrigibles ought to be detoxification followed by a significant stretch in jail as pure punishment for their parasitical behaviour.
My suggestion that we get tough with Skid Road misfits will likely draw a cacophony of cluck-clucking from big-brother medical health officers and senior bureaucrats engaged in an Orwellian scheme to medicalize drug addiction.
Medicalization is simply an expedient way to transform the deviant moral and criminal behaviour of drug addicts into a non-deviant medical issue.
You may recall that since 2000, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have engaged in pernicious campaign to neutralize criminalization of possession of illicit drugs. They unabashedly mislead the general public with the falsehood that drug addiction is: a particular kind of disease displaying special symptoms; that it is beyond personal agency and self-imposed abstinence; and, that it requires professional medical assistance under the aegis of an addictions bureaucracy.
They have adopted a stigma-neutral lexicon including words and definitions such as “problematic substance abuse” rather than “drug abuse”, and “illegal” for “illicit” to eliminate moral/ethical considerations.
It is indisputable that opiates are poisons; and it is equally a fact that there will always be rogue citizens who, regardless of the risk, want to narcotize themselves out of the uncertainties and rigours of daily life, even if it inevitably leads to life of crime and ill health.
In Romancing Opiates – Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy, Dr. Anthony Daniels says that “medical consequences (of addiction), however terrible, do not make a disease.”
Before publishing Romancing Opiates in 2006, Daniels had worked 14 years as a doctor in a large general hospital in a British slum, and in an even larger prison nearby. During this period opiate addiction increased dramatically and Daniels began treating as many as 20 new cases a day. He witnessed a worsening of the problem even though drug clinics increased as did medication prescribed to addicts.
Based on his experience with addicts and his extensive reading, Daniels rejects the notion that opiate addiction is relatively instantaneous. He says that it requires determination to reach habitual use three or four times a day, and that “it is truer to say that the addict hooks heroin than that heroin hooks the addict. The active principle in the exchange is the person, not the drug, and the addiction is a freely chosen state: an obvious fact that is ignored by the addiction bureaucracy.”
In forming his opinion Daniels also relied on the experience of American soldiers during and after the Vietnam War: “Thousands of American soldiers, especially towards the end (of the war), addicted themselves to heroin. … What happened to them when they went home? Only one in eight of the addicts continued with his addiction after return to the United States, and by two and three years after their return, the addiction rates among those who had served were no higher than among those who qualified for the draft but did not serve in Vietnam.
“And what help or services did these thousands of addicts receive when the returned home? For all intents and purposes, it varied between very little and none. They simply stopped taking heroin and did not resume.”
When Skid Road’s drug addicts go about robbing and stealing to fund their purchases of illicit drugs, they are cunning, wily and mindful of what they are doing. They are not automatons.
The festering sore of Skid Road is a national disgrace. It is worse today than in 2000.
Parliament has the constitutional right to enact a Public Safety Act that would authorize police to arrest any person found in a public place in a state of incapacitation by illicit drugs, and to forthwith render that person to a justice of the peace for committal into a secure detoxification facility.
It’s high time to take back our streets and public places. So just do it, all you members of Parliament.

Source:wallace-gilby-craig@shaw.ca. – North Shore News – Aug 19/09

ABSTRACT

Background Studies in Europe have suggested that injectable diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin, can be an effective adjunctive treatment for chronic, relapsing opioid dependence.
Methods In an open-label, phase 3, randomized, controlled trial in Canada, we compared injectable diacetylmorphine with oral methadone maintenance therapy in patients with opioid dependence that was refractory to treatment. Long-term users of injectable heroin who had not benefited from at least two previous attempts at treatment for addiction (including at least one methadone treatment) were randomly assigned to receive methadone (111 patients) or diacetylmorphine (115 patients). The primary outcomes, assessed at 12 months, were retention in addiction treatment or drug-free status and a reduction in illicit-drug use or other illegal activity according to the European Addiction Severity Index.
Results The primary outcomes were determined in 95.2% of the participants. On the basis of an intention-to-treat analysis, the rate of retention in addiction treatment in the diacetylmorphine group was 87.8%, as compared with 54.1% in the methadone group (rate ratio for retention, 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35 to 1.95; P<0.001). The reduction in rates of illicit-drug use or other illegal activity was 67.0% in the diacetylmorphine group and 47.7% in the methadone group (rate ratio, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.77; P=0.004). The most common serious adverse events associated with diacetylmorphine injections were overdoses (in 10 patients) and seizures (in 6 patients).
Conclusions Injectable diacetylmorphine was more effective than oral methadone. Because of a risk of overdoses and seizures, diacetylmorphine maintenance therapy should be delivered in settings where prompt medical intervention is available. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00175357 )

Source: New England Journalof Medicine Volume 361:777-786. 20.08.2009

Dr. Samuel Ohene stated that all smokers have increased risks of multiple cancers especially lung ,kidney, lip, tongue and pancreas cancers; heart disease, strokes, emphysema with women having additional risks. He said smoking in pregnancy is dangerous to the mother and baby. Whilst the mother is likely to experience miscarriages, bleeding during pregnancy and premature birth, the baby when born will look small and have birth defects.

Dr. Ohene also disclosed that deaths caused by tobacco are more than deaths caused by AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents, murder and suicide. He stated that cigarettes kill half of all lifetime users, half of who die between 35-69 years old.

“There is conclusive evidence that even if you do not smoke, but are exposed to the smoke from others it affects your health,” he said. He referred to this as passive smoking and called on all to shun the company of smokers.

Dr. Ohene appealed to all restaurants, bar, chop bars, food joint operators and homes to ban smoking on their premises or better still set aside special places for smokers. According to him, research has shown that places where people gather to eat and drink have seen an increase in their income as a result of the sign “NO SMOKING” put up at their operation centers.

“Drug driving tests have been an outstanding success in reliably identifying drivers whose capacity to drive is dangerously compromised,” Mr Holding said. “There can be no mistake that driving under the influence of illicit drugs is just as dangerous as driving while affected by alcohol and is a major contributor to death and trauma on Victoria’s roads.

“The first four months of the saliva drug testing program have identified a worrying level of substance use among drivers that will not be tolerated.” Mr Holding said a three-step process ensured the integrity of the tests. Drivers are initially asked to provide a saliva sample by placing a small absorbent pad on their tongue for a few seconds.

Drivers who return a positive test are then asked to accompany police into a drug bus, similar to a booze bus, for two further saliva samples – one to be kept by the driver and the other for further on-the-spot analysis. If this indicates a positive result, the sample is sent to a laboratory for verification. Motorists who return positive laboratory results for cannabis or methamphetamines are fined $307 and lose three demerit points, or are prosecuted in court. If the offence progresses to court, the maximum penalty for a first offence is $614 and three months’ licence cancellation. Subsequent convictions can result in fines of up to $1227 and up to six months’ licence cancellation.

Mr Holding said in the four months to 17 March 2005, a total of 4619 drivers were tested, with 63 drivers testing positive for drugs. He said 21 drivers tested positive for cannabis and methamphetamine-based drugs. Five drivers tested positive for only cannabis, with 37 testing positive to only methamphetamine-based drugs.

Of the 3488 car drivers tested, 47 returned a positive result. Sixteen out of 1131 truck drivers tested positive for drugs. Eight preliminary tests were not confirmed by the drug bus.

Mr Holding said test handling procedures had been reviewed after three drivers’ final tests ultimately came up negative in the very early stages of the program. “Independent laboratory tests since have conclusively verified the accuracy of saliva drug testing,” Mr Holding said.

White ‘repackaged’ drug facility idea as crime prevention tool
The newcomer to Ottawa credited with being the catalyst for a new residential drug-treatment centre for youth managed the feat by “repackaging” the proposal from a health issue into a crime prevention issue.
Yesterday, as a who’s who of politicians and community leaders gathered for a multi-million-dollar funding announcement by Premier Dalton McGuinty, police Chief Vern White was praised for being instrumental in putting together the deal that has eluded Ottawa for two decades.
Chief White has been in Ottawa only 15 months, but has done what no one else had managed to do in
“Everyone complains about lack of health care. So I called it a ‘crime prevention tool’,” said Chief White after the press conference yestserday. “The old packaging wasn’t working, so I repackaged it.”
According to Chief White’s calculations, taking 20 youths with drug addictions off the street would result in 80 to 160 fewer minor crimes each day. Each addicted youth commits four to eight crimes a day, ranging from prostitution to vehicle smash-and-grabs to support a drug habit, he estimates.
Chief White took his repackaged argument on the road in the Ottawa area, speaking to more than 50 community groups and service clubs. He didn’t talk about youth, he talked about parents.
“They’re our kids,” he said.
As it stands, drug-addicted youths must go to Thunder Bay and even farther for residential drug-treatment programs. According to figures from the United Way of Ottawa, one in six Ontario high school students reports symptoms of drug use, which translates into 9,000 Ottawa high school students. Young people typically begin to experiment with alcohol at age 12 and with illicit drugs at 14.
Long-term residential treatment for addicts results in a 71-per-cent decrease in substance use and a 61-per-cent decrease in criminal behaviour, according to the United Way.
A campaign to get a residential treatment centre had been on the agenda for years, but plan after plan fell apart.
In June 2006, a proposal to buy the former Rideau Correctional Centre near Burritts Rapids and convert it into a treatment centre was shelved amid concerns about a native land claim encompassing the property.
A likely location for a new anglophone residential centre is the Meadow Creek treatment facility on Carp Road, currently used for programs helping adult addicts. The program is scheduled to be moved into Ottawa in about a month. East-end locations are still being scouted for a francophone program.
Chief White credited restaurateur and fundraiser Dave Smith with being the “DNA” behind the project.
“I have been hollering and screaming for 20 years,” said Mr. Smith yesterday. “Sending kids to the American side wasn’t the answer.” Mr. Smith’s campaign to get a residential centre for youth resulted in the creation of an outpatient drug treatment program. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was “better than nothing at all,” he said. Mr. Smith said he’s just glad Ottawa will finally be getting a residential centre.
Source: The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

New law puts alcohol and drugs on an equal footing in roadside checks for impaired driving, and promises to reduce driving “high”

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), Canada’s national addictions agency, welcomes new legislation set to go into effect on July 2 that, for the first time in Canada, establishes parity between drug- and alcohol-impaired driving under the law. Bill C-2, the Tackling Violent Crime Act, comes into force after a decade of rising rates of drug-impaired driving in Canada. Canadian studies indicate that drugs, often in combination with alcohol, are detected in up to 30% of fatally injured drivers. CCSA’s 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey found 5% of Canadian drivers admitted to driving within two hours of using cannabis—a 50% increase since 1989. Among 16–18 year olds, 21% reported driving after using cannabis, slightly higher than the 20% of their peers who reported driving after alcohol use. ―Such findings suggest that the drugs-and-driving problem is by no means insignificant and appears to be increasing,‖ said CCSA Manager of Research and Policy Doug Beirness. Mandatory roadside checks for alcohol impairment are recognized as having a deterrent effect on drinking and driving because of the perceived risk of being caught and charged. However, before Bill C-2, a police officer who suspected a driver of being impaired by drugs could only request that the driver undergo voluntary testing and there was no sanction if the driver refused. This left officers with little chance of pursuing a conviction on the basis of drug-impaired driving. ―As a result, many drug-impaired drivers have been risking their own safety and the safety of others because they believed they would not be caught,‖ said Beirness. Beginning July 2, refusing a roadside drug test will be equivalent to declining a breath test for alcohol and will be subject to the same sanctions. Refusing to take a breath test is a Criminal Code offence. ―The legislation clarifies that you must comply with demands from police to assess whether you are impaired, and if you refuse, you are subject to the same penalties,‖ said RCMP Cpl. Evan Graham, National Coordinator, Drug Evaluation and Classification Program, Traffic Services. The new legislation empowers Canadian police who suspect a driver of being impaired by any drug, illegal, prescription or over the counter, to conduct a Standardized Field Sobriety Test, a roadside test of physical coordination. If found to be impaired, the driver must submit to a mandatory Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) assessment, a 12-step process that requires the driver to provide a bodily fluid sample (blood, saliva or urine). The DEC is conducted by a Drug a DEC-trained community police officer, and takes 45–60 minutes to complete.

In this way, Bill C-2 has the potential to reduce the harms associated with drugs by enabling police officers to remove dangerous drivers from Canadian roads, whether they are impaired by drugs or alcohol” said Beirness.
The DEC programme has been operating in Canada for 13 years, but only in cases where drivers agree to participate. Research on the DEC programme, including studies conducted by CCSA staff, has established the accuracy and reliability of this method in determining impairment from a variety of drugs and drug combinations.

Impaired drivers will face new penalties under the law, including a fine of not less than $1,000 for the first offence, and imprisonment for the second offence of not less than 30 days, and not less than 120 days for each subsequent offence.

Impaired drivers who cause an accident can face a maximum 10 year sentence in the case of causing bodily harm, and a life sentence in the case of causing death.

Anyone convicted of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both will be prohibited from driving a vehicle for one to three years for the first offence and two to five years for the second offence.

We hope that by creating awareness of the new legislation, its tests and penalties, we can prevent Canadians from getting behind the wheel while they are impaired by drugs, alcohol or both, said Beirness.

Source: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse June 25th 2008

―In this way, Bill C-2 has the potential to reduce the harms associated with drugs by enabling police officers to remove dangerous drivers from Canadian roads, whether they are impaired by drugs or alcohol,‖ said Beirness.
The DEC program has been operating in Canada for 13 years, but only in cases where drivers agree to participate. Research on the DEC program, including studies conducted by CCSA staff, has established the accuracy and reliability of this method in determining impairment from a variety of drugs and drug combinations.
Impaired drivers will face new penalties under the law, including a fine of not less than $1,000 for the first offence, and imprisonment for the second offence of not less than 30 days and not less than 120 days for each subsequent offence.
Impaired drivers who cause an accident can face a maximum 10-year sentence in the case of causing bodily harm, and a life sentence in the case of causing death.
Anyone convicted of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both will be prohibited from driving a vehicle for one to three years for the first offence and two to five years for the second offence.
―We hope that by creating awareness of the new legislation, its tests and penalties, we can prevent Canadians from getting behind the wheel while they’re impaired by drugs, alcohol, or both, said Beirness.

Source:

―In this way, Bill C-2 has the potential to reduce the harms associated with drugs by enabling police officers to remove dangerous drivers from Canadian roads, whether they are impaired by drugs or alcohol,‖ said Beirness.
The DEC program has been operating in Canada for 13 years, but only in cases where drivers agree to participate. Research on the DEC program, including studies conducted by CCSA staff, has established the accuracy and reliability of this method in determining impairment from a variety of drugs and drug combinations.
Impaired drivers will face new penalties under the law, including a fine of not less than $1,000 for the first offence, and imprisonment for the second offence of not less than 30 days and not less than 120 days for each subsequent offence.
Impaired drivers who cause an accident can face a maximum 10-year sentence in the case of causing bodily harm, and a life sentence in the case of causing death.
Anyone convicted of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both will be prohibited from driving a vehicle for one to three years for the first offence and two to five years for the second offence.
―We hope that by creating awareness of the new legislation, its tests and penalties, we can prevent Canadians from getting behind the wheel while they’re impaired by drugs, alcohol, or both, said Beirness.

Controversial new law takes effect in a week

OTTAWA – Drivers who get behind the wheel while high on drugs will face roadside testing and they could be ordered to surrender urine, blood or saliva samples at the police station under a controversial new law that takes effect one week from today.

Drivers who refuse to comply will be subject to a minimum $1,000 fine — the same penalty for refusing the breathalyzer.

Police will be given their new powers to nab drug-impaired drivers after almost five years of intense debate in the federal Parliament.

The law, passed this year after three failed attempts, has been lauded by law enforcement and groups who say drug-induced drivers are escaping unpunished at a time when their numbers are climbing.

“Love it,” said Gregg Thomson, a father from Kanata, Ont., who predicted yesterday that the new testing will deter people from driving under the influence of drugs, just as the breathalyzer test produced a drop in drunk driving.

Mr. Thomson has been lobbying for a new law since 1999, when his son, Stan, and four of his high-school friends were killed when a 17-year-old who had been smoking marijuana attempted a highway pass that led to a pileup.

The crash became a catalyst for the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving to start pushing for changes to the Criminal Code, which outlaws drug-impaired driving but until now has not included measures that allow police to order a battery of tests.

The new law, however, has sparked warnings about potential court battles from critics who contend that demanding bodily fluids is overly intrusive and scientifically unreliable in detecting drug impairment.

“This is going to be challenged left and right,” predicted Murray Mollard, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

Beginning July 2, drivers suspected of being high will be required to perform physical tests at the side of the road, such as walking a straight line. If they fail, they will be sent to the police station for further testing by a trained “drug recognition expert” and then be forced to give blood, urine, or saliva samples if they flunk the second test as well.

Critics say the new law could cause more problems that it solves, particularly because there is no reliable scientific test to detect drug use. Also, while there is a measurable link between blood alcohol levels and driving ability, research is lacking to equate drug quantity and impairment.

Another potential problem in testing bodily fluids is that they can detect marijuana smoked several days or months earlier and the effect has worn off.

“This kind of testing doesn’t test for impairment, it tests for past use of a substance and we know with certain substances they stay for a long time,” said Mollard.

Federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart and the Canadian Bar Association have also raised alarm bells.

Testing is already happening in Quebec, Manitoba, and British Columbia — but only when the driver voluntarily participates. But that hardly ever happens because nobody “is going to consent to pee in a bottle” when they are not legally required, said Andy Murie, chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Source http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=612887 June 2008

ALCOHOL problems in the Western Isles are so widespread that experts find it difficult to decide which section of the population to target.

A new report says moves towards a cultural change must be maintained and developed to make excessive drinking less acceptable.

It says it makes sense to focus on young people, to attempt to reduce future problems. In addition to education and prevention, help must be given to young people affected by adult drinkers. Another study suggests a significant proportion of youth homelessness in the islands is related to parental alcohol misuse.

The report by the Western Isles Alcohol and Drugs Action Team will be discussed by the islands’ health board on Thursday. It shows men in the Western Isles drink more than women and are more likely to drink above sensible guidelines, but youngsters aged 18-24 drink more than older age groups.

Overall, the number of people taken to hospital with alcohol-related illnesses rose by 30 per cent between 1990-2000 and 2004-5, compared with a 21 per cent rise across Scotland. Most of these – 338 out of 437 (77 per cent) – were men, an increase of 23 per cent in the five years.

Over the same period, alcohol-related discharges of women from hospital in the Western Isles rose by 60 per cent, compared with a 20 per cent increase in the rest of Scotland. The report recommends this as a priority area for investigation and action.

Findings among children shows 53 per cent of 13-year-olds in the Western Isles (57 per cent nationally) have had an alcoholic drink, as have 92 per cent of 15-year-olds (84 per cent nationally).

Source: The Scotsman 26th August 2008

Teenagers are to be banned from buying alcohol in France, as health advisers dismiss the cherished Gallic belief that children should be initiated in the art of wine-drinking at an early age. With British-style binge drinking gaining ground among French youth, officials say they want to send out a clear message against adolescent consumption. Roselyne Bachelot, the Health Minister, said that she was planning to make it illegal to sell alcohol to the under18s, with legislation likely to be introduced next year.
Her announcement signals a sea change in a society where 16-year-olds have been able to buy wine and beer, although not spirits, in cafés and restaurants and all alcoholic drinks in supermarkets and other shops with an off-licence. It marks a shift in official thinking over the hallowed French tradition of initiating the young in drinking rituals, notably involving wine. The French consensus has been that the first sips should be taken in early adolescence – or before – under parental supervision. This is believed to foster a mature, sensible approach to alcohol far removed from Anglo-Saxon excesses – a couple of glasses of red with lunch and dinner throughout the week, rather than ten pints of lager on a Saturday night.
A senior French health adviser told The Times that his compatriots were deluding themselves. Bernard Basset, deputy managing director of the National Institute for Health Prevention and Education, said that not only did childhood tippling encourage adult alcoholism, but it was also no barrier to binge drinking. He said: “In effect, you are authorising them to drink and suggesting that alcohol consumption is a normal thing.”
Studies showed that those who started drinking under the age of 18 were likely to consume more in later life than those who started afterwards, he added. Mr Basset hopes that the ban on serving alcohol to teenagers in public will encourage a similar move within Gallic families. “What we say is, don’t drink before adulthood.”
Research has debunked the idea that the French were immune to le binge-drinking, as it has become known. The percentage of under18s saying they got drunk regularly rose from 19 to 26 per cent between 2003 and 2006, for instance. According to the Health Ministry, the number of people under 24 treated in hospital in connection with alcohol increased by 50 per cent between 2004 and 2007.
Gilles Demigneux, a public health specialist, said: “The fact that you can get completely smashed in an Anglo-Saxon way, using alcohol as a drug, is something we couldn’t have imagined in France in the 1980s.”
In an attempt to curble binge-drink-ing the Health Ministry released Boire Trop(Too Much to Drink), a hard-hitting advertising campaign this summer, cautioning that excessive alcohol could lead to comas, violence, accidents and sexual abuse.
Critics say the government action could be counter-productive, however. The Federation of General Student Associations, a leading students’ union, said: “There is a tendency to infantilise young people when it would be better to make them take responsibility for themselves.” Olivier Douard, a sociologist at the Laboratory for the Study of and Research into Social Intervention in southern France, said: “Bans are not generally efficient as far as adolescents are concerned. They often lead to transgression.”
The debate has been given added urgency by the death from alcohol poisoning last month of an 18-year-old student in central France who had been out to celebrate passing his end of school exams. In another well-publicised case this week, a father from Brittany sued the supermarket that had sold three bottles of spirits to his 16-year-old daughter, who was taken to hospital after losing consciousness.
Source: The Times August 26, 2008

The Jornal da Tarde, a newspaper published in Sao Paulo, in its edition of September 1, 2008 (see below) exposes some of the never ending new formulas for the drug trraffickers to attract and keep their drug using clients. Now in Brasil, they have found a new way to go about the fact that the Brazilian Matihuana is of “low quality” (less that 1% THC content). They simply have started adding
crack to the marihuana cigarettes which are old so that their clients can have stronger psicoactive effects when they smoke those cigarettes.

The alert was first given by the Director of the Toxichology Center of the prestigious Hospital das clinicas in São Paulo, Anthony Wong.
Luiz Carlos Freitas Magno, a Delegate of the Denarc which is São Paulo State Department of Narcotic Investigations, has known about this practice of adding crack to marihuana.
About a year and a half ago, the drug traffickers of Rio de Janeiro started selling marihuana mixed with crack, but they sell it as a new drug called crackonha (in English it would sound as crackonia).
Dr. Womng says that the danger of young people using this new mixture drug is that it is very addictive. Another problem pointed out is that when somebody arrives at an Emergency Room because of drug problems, it is more difficult to know rapidly which was the drug causing the problem
Source: Journal da Tarde Sept. 1st 2008

Counselling centres for the prevention of drug abuse would be opened in various parts of the capital, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said here Thursday.”The Delhi government would set up counselling centres to bring forceful awareness about prevention. It is better to prevent occurrence of any bad incident than cure it after it takes shape and grows gradually,” Dikshit said while inaugurating a day-long seminar on drug abuse prevention.
She said the administrative reforms department has already cleared the proposal for appointment of counsellors and it would take sometime to make such centres functional.
Dikshit called upon NGOs to come forward and put an end to menace of drug abuse, which is affecting the youth.
“There would be no dearth of funds for extending help to NGOs to enable them to substantially contribute in prevention of drug abuse,” said state Health and Social Welfare Minister Yoganand Shastri here.
Source: Thaindiannews.com 4th Sept.2008

Dutch growers earn around €2bn from exporting marijuana to the rest of the world every year, a senior police chief told the NRC newspaper this weekend. This compares to €5.5bn for the country’s entire flower and plant export trade, paper says.
Every year, more than 500 tonnes of marijuana grown in the Netherlands is shipped abroad, police commissioner Max Daniel told the paper. The figures are based on police research.
Daniel says that 80% of cannabis grown in the country is for export. ‘In the Netherlands, we have 400,000 cannabis users. If that was it, we would have a much more manageable problem.’
He claims that the involvement of organised crime in the marijuana trade is increasing. ‘Hemp has a role in almost every major murder, guns and drugs case,’ he tells the paper.
Organised crime
And the police chief claims that the lines between the underworld and ordinary society are becoming increasingly blurred. Banks give mortgages to hemp growers, while companies allied to universities help them improve their production techniques, says Daniel.
This summer the government set up a task force involving the police, justice ministry officials, energy companies and housing corporations to look at the role of organised crime in marijuana production.
It is illegal to grow marijuana in the Netherlands although police turn a blind eye if they find up to four plants. Marijuana possession is also technically illegal, but up to five grammes will be ignored.
Source: Drugwatch International quoting DutchNews.nl Oct. 20th 2008

The mother of popular hip-life musician Okomfuo Kwaadee, known as Jerry Anaba in private life, has confirmed the open secret that the artiste smokes.
Auntie Cecilia, who made the disclosure last Saturday on Peace FM, an Accra radio station, openly said her son smokes Indian hemp, locally called “wee”, adding, that was what led to the musician’s psychological problem some time ago.
Kwaadee has for some years now been off the music scene due to a mental problem.
However reports last year indicated that he was healed by a Man of God and is now leading a normal life.
“Musicians smoke, so by all means Kwaadee also smokes wee,” she said, adding, “I believe that was what worried him.”
Kwaadee, she indicated, was introduced to smoking through bad company, but did not say whether the influence was from colleagues in the music industry or elsewhere.
By the grace of God, she said, Kwaadee has stopped smoking because “he has come to the understanding that it would not help him.”
The singer, she revealed, was now fit and lives a normal life.
She, however, could not get the son to speak on air as he was not around at the time his mom was contacted.

Source: Francis Addo Daily Guide. Ghana 23 Oct 2008

Australian Premier John Brumby’s promise to battle the social ills of alcohol has been undermined by inaction on the expansion of big discount liquor stores and bottle shops, often in socially disadvantaged areas. The State Government has accepted only two of the 27 recommendations from its Liquor Control Advisory Council on how to control the booming retail liquor market and its impacts on binge and under-age drinking.
The council’s report found the number of retail liquor stores had increased more than 60% in Victoria in the past decade — to 1851 outlets. The report also revealed the dominance of the state’s biggest purveyor of alcohol — Woolworths.Since the Government lifted the cap on big players in the liquor market five years ago, Woolworths, which owns the Dan Murphy’s chain, has boosted its outlets from 135 to 233 stores. Coles liquor group owns 178 licences.
Woolworths has recently been involved in several cases where communities and local councils, concerned about a saturation of liquor stores, have fought to stop the company establishing new Dan Murphy’s outlets. In September, residents and Manningham City Council lost its bid to stop Woolworths turning a Doncaster Safeway supermarket into a Dan Murphy’s. Last year, against the wishes of police and the Darebin Council, a Dan Murphy’s was approved next to a Salvation Army alcohol treatment centre in Preston. (if ever there was a case of big business succeeding over a community need this must surely be it NDPA)
In its submission to the council’s review of the liquor store market — or packaged liquor — the Liquor Stores Association of Victoria said the state’s saturated market would lead to irresponsible discounting “in direct conflict with the principle of harm minimisation”. Most submissions to the inquiry, including some from the liquor industry, said communities should be given more power to object to new liquor store licences, and community or social impact statements should be included in the application process.
The council, however, did not recommend giving more power to communities. It did say the State Government should review home delivery of alcohol with takeaway meals and groceries because it was concerned the practice gave minors easier access to alcohol. The council, which advises the Government on alcohol issues in the community, is made up of community, police and alcohol industry representatives. The State Government, after sitting on the report for seven months, recently adopted two of the council’s recommendations: one that requires outlets to have extra shelf signage about under-age drinkers, and another about applicants advertising their intentions in local newspapers.
A spokeswoman for Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson said the other recommendations would be looked at during a review of all categories of liquor licences, as outlined in the Victorian Alcohol Action Plan. Two recommendations have been referred back to the council. Mr Robinson said the Government was committed to reducing alcohol abuse in the community. He denied that the community had little say in fighting liquor store applications. Input was also sought from local councils and the police.
“Each application is judged on its merits, and the director of Liquor Licensing’s decision may be challenged at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal,” he said. But Mary Wooldridge, the Opposition’s community services spokeswoman, said the minister was doing nothing to curb the saturation and inappropriate location of liquor stores, despite evidence linking them to a range of social problems, including property damage.
The Government’s alcohol plan only briefly mentioned packaged liquor, she said.
In its battle against booze culture, the State Government has been accused of unfairly focusing on nightclubs. A recent government report into the regulatory impact of increasing licence fees shows that although packaged liquor licences have massively increased over 10 years, the bigger growth has been in “on-premises” licences for bars, clubs, restaurants and cafes. The overall growth in new licences peaked in 2002-03 and has since been in decline.
The report, released last month, shows the number of offences recorded at licensed premises in Victoria has actually decreased from 8166 in 2002-03 to 6835 in 2006-07.
But total police incidents where the offender was alcohol or drug-affected (including those on licensed premises) rose from 11,808 to 14,556 in the same period.
A spokesman for Woolworths declined to comment for this report.

Source: TheAge.com.au Sun 2nd Nov.2008

President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending “indefinitely” the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia.
Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September. He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca- growers have been pressing him to do.
Bolivia’s first indigenous president once served as the leader of the country’s union of coca-growers. Relations between Bolivia and the US have been strained since Evo Morales won presidential elections in January 2006.
Coca is the raw material used in the production of cocaine and is widely grown in Bolivia. The country is a major producer of cocaine, but millions of Bolivians poorest people also chew coca leaves as part of their daily routine. Many believe the leaf offers health benefits.
‘Defending Bolivia’
“From today all the activities of the US DEA are suspended indefinitely,” the Bolivian leader said in the coca-growing region of Chimore, in the central province of Chapare.

Coca is widely used by Bolivian Indians
“Personnel from the DEA supported activities of the unsuccessful coup d’etat in Bolivia,” he added, referring to the unrest in September which left 19 people dead.
“We have the obligation to defend the dignity and sovereignty of the Bolivian people.”
US officials have denied any wrongdoing. In recent months, a string of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats and agencies increased tensions between both countries, the BBC’s Andres Schipani reports from Bolivia. Bolivia’s government expelled the US international development agency and the US ambassador to La Paz.
Washington retaliated by expelling its Bolivian counterpart, while last month President George W Bush himself put the Andean country on an anti-narcotics blacklist that cuts trade preferences. Making his announcement, Mr Morales also declared that his government had eradicated more than 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of illegally planted coca.
Source: BBC News Sat.1st Nov.2008

Harm reduction, which has been the central focus of drug policy in this country since 1992, by its very definition does not focus on getting drug users off drugs. ‘Harm reduction’ is defined by the International Harm Reduction Association as ‘efforts to reduce the health, social and economic costs of mood altering drugs without necessarily reducing drug consumption’.Alarmingly, leaders of the harm reduction movement want Australia to move on to the next step, getting rid of the prohibitions against drug use, prohibitions which the Australian
community support so strongly.

Dr Alex Wodak, Australia’s most prominent proponent of harm reduction both nationally and internationally, responsible for introducing it to Australia in 1985, wants currently prohibited
drugs made legal for personal use. He says,

“In many countries it is time to move from the first phase of harm reduction – focusing on reducing adverse consequences – to a second phase which concentrates on reforming an ineffective and harm-generating system of global drug prohibition.”

Dr Alex Wodak; Paper presented to the 15th InternationalConference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm

Many leaders of the harm reduction movement in Australia are seeking government support for new harm reduction interventions which show little interest in getting users off drugs,
but rather perpetuate their drug use while spending large amounts of tax-payer funds for programs to keep them safe while their use continues.

Injecting rooms
The Kings Cross injecting room does little to get users off drugs, with less than 4.5% of clients being sent to detox or rehab. Rather it spends $2.5 million per year saving clients from overdoses. The 2003 evaluation showed there was 36 times more overdoses in the
injecting room than on the streets of Kings Cross, despite injecting room clients injecting 97% of the time on the streets of Kings Cross rather than in the room. Proponents are working for multiple injecting rooms in every Australian city. Injecting rooms are very ineffective in reducing drug use.

Heroin On Prescription
It is not legal in Australia for the government to provide heroin to heroin users, with methadone being substituted instead. However many harm reductionists want an expensive program providing heroin on prescription to heroin users. Heroin on prescription focuses most on maintaining a user’s addiction. Other agendas that perpetuate drug use are the decriminalisation or legalisation of cannabis, the legalisation of raw cannabis for medical purposes, and pill testing at RAVEs.

EX-INJECTING ROOM CLIENT TELLS WHY INJECTING
ROOMS HAVE SO MANY OVERDOSES
“They feel a lot more safer, definitely because they know they can be brought back to life straight away. They know that they can, like some people go to the extent of using even more. So in a way they feel it is a comfort zone, and no matter how much they use if they drop they just get brought back. What users look for is in heroin and pills is to get the
most completely out of it as they can, like virtually be asleep but awake for 4 – 5 hours. For instance to get that you have to test your limits. And by testing your limits that is how you end up dropping.”
desire for a society free of illicit drugs
CHRISTOPHER
I became addicted and it took seven years for me to realise that I had to stop .In those seven years . . . I would get windows of opportunity to get out. I would feel like I could go to rehab or detox and everything like that but, when I would get on the phone to get in contact with [a treatment agency],there would not be a place available. The feeling of ‘okay, I’ve had enough, Ican get out’ would disappear. I would go back into it.

Christopher, transcript, 7 April 2007 p 68 – cited in Winnable War on Drugs, House of Representatives Standing
Committee on Family and Human Services. p209

TIM
With early inquiries in September 2006, and desperate to rid himself of drugs, Tim was assessed and approved for suitability to participate in a drug rehabilitation program at the Woolshed Drug Rehabilitation Community, Adelaide. Elated at such an opportunity he diligently marked off the list of preparatory requests made, he telephoned regularly as required on 22, 26 and 29 September, and 3, 6, 10, 13, 17 and 20 October for a period
extending five weeks, hoping and waiting desperately for a placement, for an opportunity to learn how to live without drugs.

Throughout this time, Tim had returned to live with us. He had stated that it was a particularly difficult time as not only did he have to deal with the long-term effects of taking drugs and withdrawal, he had to deal with the loss of autonomy in living in his own place of residence. He felt unable to apply for employment outside of the family business, because of his commitment to securing a placement at the Woolshed. Rehabilitation could take as long as six months, with then ongoing support required. On Sunday, 22 October 2006, in a desperate bid to end his pain and suffering, Tim committed suicide in our family home. I have been informed by the Woolshed that there is only accommodation for 24 participants, with up to as many as 34 waiting for a bed at one time for periods as long as 12 weeks. As of 24 May this year, 30 people were waiting. Tim could wait no longer.

Drug Free Australia Ltd

Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC), together with the RCMP, recently announced the launch of a new prevention program called Kids and Drugs — A Parent’s Guide to Prevention. The program is intended to assist parents and other concerned adults in helping school age children avoid alcohol and drug abuse. Kathie Gavin, prevention co-ordinator for AADAC, says the new program goes beyond the basic drug education provided to parents in the past, addressing important protective factors for youth including effective parenting practices.

“In the past, when parents asked about drug information sessions we would give them the good, bad and ugly … The new program broadens the scope of parents’ understanding. It’s about giving your kids confidence, having open communication and giving them support,” says Gavin.

Content of the program is built on known factors that prevent substance abuse, says Gavin, like improved communication, support, decision-making and discipline.
The programs four core areas examine the importance of parental role modeling, enhancing communication skills, decision making, and the final area, “What parents need to know about drugs.” This final workshop provides information on commonly used drugs and their risks, as well as reasons why kids use drugs and the signs and symptoms of a developing problem.

Gavin says different substances are used according to different trends, but a constant remains in that tobacco, alcohol and marijuana are the most likely drugs of choice.
“Other illicit drugs are small in number with regard to use by young people. The really common ones are right in front of us, ingrained in our culture. We need to talk about prevention with consideration of all the substances we use in our culture, and develop some respectful attitudes about that.”

Gavin says prevention is a long-term investment, and it’s an important one that involves consideration of cultural values, attitudes and norms. The focus of the new program is on prevention, not on intervention or treatment, says Gavin, so the program’s workshops are designed for families where there is no significant problem already.

Gavin says input into the new program was gathered from addictions, enforcement and educational specialists then piloted at six sites across Canada. Through formative evaluation, Gavin explains that certain aspects of the program were then revised. For example, because one of the objectives was to give communities flexibility in when and how they offer the program, suggestions like offering it at work sites or through school councils was incorporated into the program’s design.
The Kids and Drugs prevention program was developed over a three year period by AADAC and the RCMP, says Gavin, and replaces an earlier RCMP program called Two Way Street.
For more information about the program, including a free download of the parent’s booklet, go to http://www.aadac.com/565_502.asp. The AADAC website also contains a parent information series, addressing prevention, intervention and treatment of substance abuse in youth (http://www.aadac.com/). AADAC can also be reached toll free;
Source: Prairie Post West. Canada. Jan. 22nd 2009

Today, Sunday, the prestigious daily newspaper paper O Globo (Rio de Janeiro) publishes a text with the title: The absolute Majority prefers Marihuana. The text presents the results of a study by the name: Drug Consumption in Rio’s Nightlife” (which had already been published by the O Globo magazine on Nov 2, 2008, and which was done by Retrato Consultoria and Marketing. The numbers presented are staggering. Anyone who knows a little bit of Statistics sees that this data and this analysis are very biased and do not represent in any way the general situation of a city. For example: they interviewed 857 people who were partying in nightclubs and/or attending shows, gas stations, restaurants and other places where there are concentrations of people from 15 to 40 years.

Some of the results: 71.7% of those who answered were males, 47% do not work, just study; 90.7% are single, 82.7% do not have children, and so on and on. Those figures do not represent Rio’s population but the title of the text implies otherwise. Well, 71% declared that they can obtain easily the drugs of their choice although 91.3% of those using drugs prefer Marihuana over any other drug.

What is frightening is that 85% of those who were interviewed declared that they had driven after using alcohol and taking illicit drugs. Of those, 6% declared having had some sort of accident.

Source: Drugwatch International Forum 25th Jan.2009

MEXICO CITY (AP) – President Felipe Calderon’s war on drug trafficking has
led to his own doorstep, with the arrest of a dozen high-ranking officials
with alleged ties to Mexico’s most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa Cartel.

The U.S. praises Calderon for rooting out corruption at the top. But
critics say the arrests reveal nothing more than a timeworn government
tactic of protecting one cartel and cracking down on others.

Operation Clean House comes just as the U.S. is giving Mexico its first
installment of $400 million in equipment and technology to fight drugs.
Most will go to a beefed-up federal police agency run by the same people
whose top aides have been arrested as alleged Sinaloa spies. “If there is anything worse than a corrupt and ill-equipped cop, it is a corrupt and well-equipped cop,” said criminal justice expert Jorge Chabat, who studies the drug trade.

U.S. drug enforcement agents say they have no qualms about sending support
to Mexico. “We’ve been working with the Mexican government for decades at the DEA,” said Garrison Courtney, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. “Obviously, we ensure that the individuals we work with are vetted.”

Agents who conduct raids have long suspected Mexican government ties to
Sinaloa, and rival drug gangs have advertised the alleged connection in
banners hung from freeways. While raids against the rival Gulf cartel have
netted suspects, those against Sinaloa almost always came up empty – or
worse, said Agent Oscar Granados Salero of the Federal Investigative
Agency, Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI. “Whenever we were trying to serve arrest warrants, they were already waiting for us, and a lot of colleagues lost their lives that way,” Salero said.

The U.S. government estimates that the cartels smuggle $15 billion to $20
billion in drug money across the border each year. Over the last five months, officials from the Mexican Attorney General’s office, the federal police and even Mexico’s representatives to Interpol have been detained on suspicion of acting as spies for Sinaloa or its one-time ally, the Beltran Leyva gang. An officer who served in Calderon’s presidential guard was detained in December on suspicion of spying for Beltran Leyva.

Gerardo Garay, formerly the acting federal police chief, is accused of
protecting the Beltran Leyva brothers and stealing money from a mansion
during an October drug raid. Former drug czar Noe Ramirez, who was
supposed to serve as point man in Calderon’s anti-drug fight, is accused
of taking $450,000 from Sinaloa.

Most of such tips are coming from a Mexican federal agent who infiltrated
the U.S. embassy for the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. No such infiltrators
have been found for the Gulf cartel, which controls most drug shipments in
eastern Mexico and Central America. Sinaloa controls Pacific and western
routes. The DEA’s Courtney agrees that there has been a greater crackdown on the Gulf Cartel in both the U.S. and Mexico, with more than 600 members of the
gang arrested in September. But he declined to answer questions about
Mexico favoring Sinaloa.

Calderon has long acknowledged corruption as an obstacle to his offensive,
which involved sending more than 20,000 soldiers to battle drug
trafficking throughout the country. The U.S. aid plan includes technology
aimed at improving the way Mexico vets and supervises police. The president vows to create a “new generation of police,” consolidating agencies under Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, who heads all federal law enforcement.

That’s what worries Granados Salero and other agents. So many of Garcia
Luna’s associates are under suspicion of Sinaloa ties that many wonder how
he could not have known. Calderon has publicly backed Garcia Luna, calling him “a man of great capacity.”

“Obviously, if there was any doubt about his honesty, or any evidence that
would call into question his honesty, he would certainly no longer be the
secretary of public safety,” the president said recently.

But some see the alleged Sinaloa ties with Garcia Luna’s lieutenants as an
old tactic used widely under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or
PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years with a tight fist. Officials in the
past preferred to deal with one strong cartel rather than many warring
gangs – what Calderon faces now. More than 5,300 people died in
drug-related slayings in 2008.

“I fear that Secretary Garcia Luna … is working on the idea that once
one cartel consolidates itself as the winner, that is, Sinaloa, the
violence is going to drop,” said organized crime expert Edgardo Buscaglia,
who tracks federal police arrests and has studied law enforcement
agencies’ written reports.

Garcia Luna has denied being involved in corruption. He has acknowledged
that authorities in the past chose the path of managing cartels. But in an
interview with the newspaper El Sol, he said that approach only
strengthens the gangs in the long run. Others say the high number of Sinaloa infiltrators is a reflection of the two cartels’ very different styles.

The Gulf cartel is led by military-trained hit men so violent that they
reportedly planned to attack even U.S. law enforcement agencies.
“They don’t necessarily try to build networks of corruption. They prefer
networks of intimidation,” said Monte Alejandro Rubido, who leads Mexico’s
multi-agency National Security System.

Sinaloa, on the other hand, appears to use bribery and infiltration at
least as much as its gunmen. Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman
bribed his way out of a Mexican prison in 2001, provoking suspicions the
government was on his side.

Many Mexicans worry about giving so much money and power to a still
corrupt force. Of more than 56,000 local and state police officers
evaluated between January and October last year, fewer than half met the
recommended qualifications, Calderon reported to Congress in early
December. No similar numbers are available for federal police.

Agents like Granados Salero wonder who is in charge of police integrity.
“We agents find out about a lot of things,” he said, “but who can we turn
to?”

Source: Drug Watch International Sun.25th Jan.2009

A Review of Australian public opinion surveys on illicit drugsA strong trend since the 1998 NDSHS (National Drug Strategy Household
Survey) has been a hardening in attitudes towards cannabis, a review from Australia revealed. The review, published by National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in December 2008, analysed a range of illicit drug opinion surveys conducted in the country.

Cannabis is now more associated with “a drug problem”, is a greater concern to the general community, its use is approved of less than in 1998, and there is also less support for cannabis legalisation and decriminalisation, it is pointed out in the review.

In 2004, 25 per cent of Australians approved use of cannabis compared to 10 per cent in 2007.
The strongest support for legalisation of cannabis was observed around
1998 and since then the support has been declining down to 19 per cent in 2007.

Certainly there has been an increased interest in the link between cannabis and mental health, with new evidence showing the link between cannabis use and disorders such as schizophrenia; It is possible that an increased research and policy focus on cannabis and mental health has affected public opinion on this matter, says Pr Ritter from the Drug Policy Modelling Program at the University of New South Wales, one of the authors of the review.

The change in attitudes to the cannabis legalisation has not resulted in support for increased penalties. The majority of the Australians would like to see increased spending for education and treatment.

Source: ECAD Newsletter, 26. Jan. 2009

Germany’s health minister announced on January 22, 2009 that the government banned the production, sale or possession of a synthetic marijuana-like drug known as “Spice” (CP-47,497 and JWH018).
Health Minister Ulla Schmidt says Spice must “quickly be taken out of circulation.”
Germany is the fourth nation to ban the substance, marketed as an herbal room-freshener, after Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.Read the article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012100543_pf.html

Source: ECAD Newsletter Jan. 2009

MANILA, Philippines – Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Vicente Sotto III on Friday expressed disappointment over the Commission on Human Rights’ opinion that the planned random drug testing could violate an individual’s rights.

During a meeting with education officials on Friday morning, Sotto insisted that the random drug testing – set to be conducted in over 8,000 schools – would not trample any human rights as claimed by various sectors.

“They (CHR) got it completely wrong. The objective of the drug test is not punitive, but preventive. This is a health issue. The students’ confidentiality is assured and anyone testing positive can be rescued in time through counseling,” Sotto said in a statement. “In fact, Sotto said “any attempt to block the implementation of the latest effort against illegal drugs should be the one considered as a violation of human rights. Preventing drug testing is a violation of human rights because you are preventing the government to cure drug dependence,” Sotto said in a separate radio interview.

It’s like stopping efforts to stamp out drug dependence and help drug addicts,” he added. Sotto gathered officials form the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development to draw up guidelines in the planned random testing for high school and college students nationwide. Sotto said they did not invite the CHR to Friday’s meeting, but added that the rights body is more than welcome to send a delegate to supervise or contribute ideas in the creation of the guidelines. He also reiterated during the meeting that the random drug testing could no longer be taken out of the government’s intensified anti-drug campaign because it is considered as its most important part.

The measure’s significance lies in the fact that it not only involves the “prevention” of drug dependence, but also the government’s “intervention” in ensuring that the students would be subjected under counseling to cure them of their addiction. In his statement, Sotto assured transparency in the conduct of the testing, adding that various sectors including the Supreme Court had approved of the measure.

“The student’s family will also be alerted about the situation. Those who fear that drug-testing will violate the privacy of students and put them behind bars are mistaken,” he said. “The matter of drug testing was the product of consultation and had been the subject of DDB Resolution No. 6 promulgated since August 1, 2003. Likewise, the Supreme Court, in the case of Social Justice Society vs. DDB promulgated on November 3, 2008, decided that random drug-testing in schools is constitutional,” Sotto added.

He also said that passing a drug test has in fact been a requirement for admission in a number of schools in Metro Manila for quite some time now.
The government is slated to carry out the initial stages of the drug testing in March. Then at the start of the school season in June, the government would resume the program for its second instalment.

The DepEd earlier said it would expand its random drug testing to include more students and more schools, ultimately targeting to include about 6 million students from 8,000 schools. For its part, the Department of Health on Thursday suggested that the drug testing which it had been conducting since 2005 should now include the detection of cocaine, Ecstasy, and barbiturates – and not just shabu and marijuana.

Source: GMANews.TV Jan.16 2009

PARIS: France will ban the sale of alcohol to minors and drinking in public near schools as part of a broad crackdown on binge drinking among youths, the health minister said in an interview published on Sunday.
Roselyne Bachelot said that a recent study showed an over all decline in alcohol consumption among youths but the frequency of drunkenness was increasing.
“Almost half of youths said they had had five glasses of alcohol on a single night on at least one occasion in the previous 30 days, which is the definition of binge drinking,” she said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche newspaper. She said she was working on a new bill that would also ban promotions known as “open bar” which allow customers to drink as much as they want to for a fixed price. “We are also going to ban open bars … which are a classic at student parties and which encourage binge drinking,” Bachelot said.
She said the number of under-25s hospitalised because of excessive drunkenness had doubled between 2004 and 2007. “Drinking alcohol in public places close to schools will also be forbidden,” she said.
She told the newspaper that at present there was a grey area surrounding sales of alcoholic drinks to teenagers aged 16 to 18, with different rules depending on the kind of alcohol and whether the sales point was a bar, a club or a supermarket. She said her bill would unambiguously ban any sale of alcohol to under-18s anywhere in France.
Another measure will be to ban sales of alcohol in filling stations. Bachelot said that at present, such a ban exists only from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and the new rule should help curb drunk driving.
Bachelot said the measures, which she expected will come into force in 2009, would be accompanied by an advertising campaign featuring youths in a heavenly environment that turns hellish after they have been drinking. In May, a government body in charge of fighting drug and alcohol addiction said it was considering banning “happy hours” during which bars offer cheaper drinks early in the evening to attract customers. Bachelot’s interview made no mention of this.
Source: Reuters July 13, 2008

Long-term addicts to get two free doses of heroin a day in a Danish scheme that could be replicated across the UK Danish drug users will inject heroin in clinics under doctors’ supervision.
State-funded heroin is becoming a reality in Denmark, the latest in a small, but growing, number of European countries – including the UK – concerned with improving drug users’ quality of life and reducing criminality.
Since 1 January, hundreds of drug addicts in the Nordic country have the right to receive two free doses of heroin a day, paid for by their health system. The offer is only for adult, long-term users for whom substitutes such as methadone and subutex have not worked.
“The aim is to improve their state of health, help them avoid committing crimes and stabilise their lives,” explains Dr Anne Mette Doms at the Danish Board of Health, which supervises the project. “Quitting altogether is not a realistic option for most of these patients. For them, this will be a chronic treatment, as if you were treating a chronic disease.” Addicts will need to attend one of five specialist drug clinics across the country, where they will inject diamorphine – pharmaceutical-grade heroin – under doctors’ supervision. The drug will not be available on prescription so as to avoid resale on the street.
Danish authorities are in the process of setting up the clinics, registering the doctors who will work there, and finding out which drug companies they will source the heroin from. The £7.2m project is expected to be up and running by March.
The initiative was adopted by overwhelming consensus in February 2008, after all but one of the parties represented at the Danish parliament voted in favour of the policy – the only one against it was a tiny far-left party that did not oppose the project per se, but the way it was funded. Among those in favour was the far-right Danish People’s Party, a movement not usually known for its progressive views: at the last general election in 2007, it described some Danish Muslims as benefit-scroungers and fifth columnists who threatened Danish democracy.
Some might think this initiative is not surprising in a country with a historical tradition of progressive, social democratic policies. But, just as in the UK, the drug debate has been bruising in Denmark. And unlike in Britain, where heroin is available on the NHS for some cancer patients, heroin as a palliative is completely forbidden in the Nordic country.
“Five years ago I decided I would not participate in yet another debate on drugs,” recalls Preben Brandt, the chairman of the Council for Socially Marginalised People and an advocate of the policy. “It was too emotional, with different groups being very aggressive.”
“The counter-argument was always ‘you kill people by giving heroin’ or ‘with this initiative, you are telling people that taking heroin is OK’,” he says. “It is very difficult to have a rational debate when you are arguing against beliefs.”
The turning point came when results became available from experiments trialling the policy in other European countries, including Switzerland and the Netherlands. “The politicians became convinced that it could help those with the most severe drug problems,” says Mads Uffe Pedersen, the head of the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research at the University of Aarhus. “You could not argue against the (positive) findings.” “The debate became more practical,” agrees Brandt. “It was about what policies worked and which ones did not. It was no longer about morality.”
Attitudes towards drugs addicts improved too. “Drug addicts in Denmark are less stigmatised,” says Brandt. “They are no longer perceived as criminals who are a danger to society. They’re seen as patients who have a disease they need help with. The new scapegoats in Denmark are the foreigners.”
Could a similar initiative be possible in the UK? It’s actually happening already, with three schemes taking place in Brighton, Darlington and south London, where long-term heroin users can inject drugs under medical supervision at specialised clinics. Early results indicate that the scheme has cut crimes and stopped street sales.
Crimes committed by the addicts involved in the scheme dropped from about 40 to six a month after six months of treatment, Professor John Strang, the head of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley hospital, told the Independent newspaper. A third of addicts stopped using street heroin and the number of occasions when the rest used it dropped from every day to four or five times a month, on average.
It remains to be seen whether UK politicians will expand the policy nationwide, especially if they fear a possible backlash from voters. But if British voters are similar to their European cousins, this would not be an issue. Last November, Swiss voters approved the scheme overwhelmingly, with 68% supporting the plan. And there has been no popular backlash in Denmark, following the adoption of the policy by parliament.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk 5th Feb.2009

While a worldwide study has found teenagers on the whole are smoking less marijuana and going out less often with friends, Maltese teenagers have been found to be doing exactly the opposite in both respects.

A study published this week has found that the prevalence of smoking marijuana and going out with friends are inextricably linked. Out of 31 countries, marijuana use among 15-year-old boys and girls between 2002 and 2006 had increased only in Malta, Estonia and Lithuania, and among Russian girls.

Malta’s increases in both sexes were the highest recorded, as were the increased number of nights out with friends. Between 2002 and 2006, the prevalence of cannabis use among Maltese 15-year-old boys increased by 2.7 per cent – from seven per cent in 2002 to 9.7 per cent in 2006 – while the female increase was even higher at 5.6 per cent – from 4.2 to 9.8 per cent in 2006.

In both years, more Maltese girls reported having used cannabis over the previous year than boys while the female rate of increase was also far higher. In both sexes, Malta saw the largest increase in cannabis use, but in terms of overall prevalence Malta’s was ranked in an overall 26th place, and its 9.7-9.8 per cent usage rate paled in comparison to leading countries Canada, Switzerland and the United States – all of which saw rates in the mid to high 20s.

In tandem, Malta also saw the highest increase in the numbers of nights spent out with friends – from 1.9 in 2002 to 2.61 in 2006 for boys and from 1.63 to 2.43 for girls. Both were also the highest increases across the 31-country spectrum. While rates varied widely among countries, prevalence was highest both years in Canada, where 30 per cent of boys and almost 28 per cent of girls used marijuana in 2006. That was down 13 per cent among boys and almost 10 per cent among girls.

According to a study of 15-year-olds across 31 countries between 2002 and 2006, going out with friends and smoking marijuana are related, mostly because research has found that children who spend many evenings out are more likely to smoke marijuana than those who prefer to stay at home.

Since few parents approve of marijuana use, teenagers are most likely to smoke cannabis secretly away from home, said lead author Emmanuel Kuntsche of the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems. While reasons for the declines are unclear, the researchers said drug prevention efforts and technology may have contributed. Moreover, instant messaging, email and mobile phones “may have partly replaced face-to-face contacts, leading to fewer social contacts in the evenings,” Dr Kuntsche said. But while the latter trends have also seen a sharp increase among Malta’s teenagers, so has the practice of going out at night with friends.

The researchers analysed data on 93,297 15-year-olds from periodic health surveys, the “Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children” study, conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, which, among a multitude of other things, asked about marijuana use and evenings out with friends in the past year. Responses to 2006 surveys were compared with those from 2002. The next such research is due to cover the year 2010.

The results of this week’s study – titled “Decrease in Adolescent Cannabis Use from 2002 to 2006 and Links to Evenings Out with Friends” – were published in February’s Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, released on Monday.

Source: Malta Independent Online 6th Feb 2009

The Government will look at an open-minded and balanced approach to reducing drug use but there will be no relaxation of the laws around cannabis, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne said today.

There were too many mental health problems, respiratory diseases and social issues related to cannabis for the Government to consider legalising the drug, he told an international drug policy symposium in Wellington.

Reports that levels of cannabis and methamphetamine use had levelled off were encouraging, but were not a reason for complacency, he said. “Evidence indicates a balance is needed between reducing supply of drugs through interdiction and enforcement, and also reducing the demand for drugs through prevention and treatment strategies, if we are to be effective in reducing adverse health and social consequences of drug misuse.”

Drug Foundation chairman Tim Harding said it was important the issues were taken seriously. “The problem we face is that sound policy is not always popular or, for that matter, obvious. It has to be based on solid foundations of research, experience and a liberal dose of wisdom.”

Police Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope released an Illicit Drug Strategy at the conference, which detailed the police response to drug related crime until 2010.
The strategy focused on methamphetamine, cannabis and how to protect and deter groups that were most at risk of using the drugs. “We now have increased capacity with the new National Intelligence Centre (NIC) based at Police National Headquarters.” Mr Pope said. “This is going to enable us to more actively record intelligence around drug related crime from each police area and district.”

The strategy recognised that cannabis and methamphetamine were the biggest drug issues in New Zealand, he said. “Preventing today’s young people from becoming tomorrow’s drug users contributes to reducing harm and reducing the overall crime rate.”

United Nations director of policy analysis and public affairs at the office on Drugs and Crime, Sandeep Chawla, told the conference the international community needed to work together to continue stemming the use of illicit drugs.

The multilateral drug control regime had contained illicit drug use to less than 5 percent of the world adult population, and hardcore problem drug users to less than 1 percent, he said.

“There has been considerable reduction over recent decades in the consumption of opiates, the most problematic of drugs, and opium cultivation and production has been limited to just one or two countries in the main.” However, he said containment did not mean the problem had been solved and consequently a thriving criminal black market in drugs had emerged.

“It also appears we have created a system where those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalised, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they want it.”

Mr Chawla said the international community must renew its commitment to existing conventions and work together on reforms based on empirical evidence rather than ideology, and that public health, the first principle of drug control, must be brought back to centre stage.

The symposium is being held as a precursor to a March meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna where the direction of global drug policy for the next 10 years will be set.
Source: http://www.3news.co.nz/News/NationalNews/No-relaxation-on-cannabis-laws- Wed, 18 Feb 2009

Due to the UAE’s strategic location, policies and free zones, the nation is a thriving commercial hub. This country should take pride in the way it has become both a marketplace of goods and services as well as a marketplace of ideas.

But not all the influences that arrive on the UAE’s shores are positive. Yesterday’s revelation of the seizure of 100kg of the stimulant Captogan, an amphetamine commonly used as a recreational drug, came only weeks after customs officials confiscated 16kg of heroin at Dubai International Airport. The Ministry of Interior’s department of anti-narcotics has said that drug related crimes have risen significantly due to the increase in population and in the transit of people and goods through the country.
These recent discoveries and other high profile arrests such as the jailing of a British DJ last year for possession of cannabis illustrate how seriously the Government takes the threat. This no nonsense approach is commendable. No amount of investment in narcotic control is big enough. Drug use may be an individual crime but it has tremendous social costs. Crack-cocaine ravaged American cities in the 1980s and a dependence on the flowering plant khat, chewed by 80 per cent of Yemen’s adult population for its stimulative effects, has been widely attributed as a cause of that nation’s unemployment and poverty levels.
The UAE’s large population of young people, particularly those living outside the cities, have a limited amount of entertainment outlets and drugs all too often become an insidious escape route from boredom. The authorities must continue their vigilant approach, but through education and the creation of more extra-curricular options for youth, the false appeal of drug use can be diminished.

Dubai Customs’s ability to locate the Captogan stash in 152 industrial sized spools of thread through a study of their density is a testament to the effectiveness of their technology and their thoroughness. But drug smugglers will still attempt to flout the law. Strategies for education and rehabilitation are needed to help further reduce the risks that drugs pose to society.
Source: TheNational digital edition Feb. 2009

Six to 10 thousand youth in Ottawa will have a better chance of saying ‘no’ to drugs thanks to a federal government donation. On Feb. 10, Pierre Poilievre, MP for Nepean-Carleton on behalf of the Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, minister of health, announced the federal government will contribute $1 million over a four year period to help eradicate youth addiction and drug usage.
Poilievre announced the government’s support for S.T.E.P. (support, treatment, education and prevention) – a project that provides targeted help for youth in Ottawa who are at risk of engaging in substance abuse. S.T.E.P. is Ottawa’s response to addressing the need for residential addiction treatment, education and prevention for young people aged 13 to 17. It is a fundraising campaign involving community partners such as Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Jim Watson, Ottawa Police chief Vern White, Mayor Larry O’Brien and Michael Allen, president and CEO of United Way Ottawa.
“This project will help to prevent young people in high schools from taking drugs in the first place,” said Poilievre “Activities will be held in those schools for students who are at risk of drinking or taking drugs. This strategy helps to prevent the use of drugs, treats people with drug addictions, and combats drug trafficking. The strategy also emphasizes education for young people and their parents on the damages that drug use can cause.” The initiative was announced at the Ottawa Police headquarters and is part of the government’s national anti-drug strategy, which was introduced in 2007.
“That’s why our Conservative government is providing the project S.T.E.P. with up to $1 million in support—over the next four years—from its drug treatment funding program,” Poilievre added. According to Allen, this initiative “will no less than double the capacity for counsellors and prevention education” and will -double the infrastructure that is already in place in Ottawa schools. “It’s a good day for the future of our community,” said White.
“A number of schools don’t have the resources they need and a number of schools certainly don’t have the capacity to deal with the challenges they are facing right now.” White said six to 6,000 to 10,000 youths in Ottawa will benefit from this programming. Poilievre concluded by saying this initiative is close to his heart since he has seen some of his loved ones battle drug addiction.
“It’s very important that lives are spared from this terrible destructive path and I’m hoping that this million dollar donation will help us to achieve that goal.”
Source: meghan.graham@nepeathisweek.com Feb.21 2009

The so called war on drugs is 100 years old this year, yet the taking of illicit drugs is showing few signs of coming under control.

The International Opium Commission, first convened in Shanghai in 1909 and since then the number of internationally-controlled substances has grown to more than 200. The United Nations’ International Narcotics Control Board, in its annual report released yesterday, paints a picture of an ever-expanding and increasingly violent drugs market, with new trafficking routes being opened regularly, many of them in our region.

WATTERS: It will be an ongoing battle. I think it’s like a lot of other things we face in life, poverty, discrimination and racism. It’s a continuing battle. But certainly things would be a great deal worse if it hadn’t been for what was launched in China in the year 2009 [1909]. For example, in 2009 [1909], there was, in China alone there was three thousand tonnes of morphine equivalent of opium being consumed. Now in the whole world today, there’s not that much, including what’s being used legally. So we know there’s been a very significant downturn in the use of that drug, even though it’s very much in the hands of very clever criminal syndicates, but we’ve certainly controlled it to a very large extent.

LAM: Your report also notes that the internet is playing an increasing role in the trafficking of legal and unauthorised prescription drugs. How is the Internet being used for drug trafficking?

WATTERS: Well Sen, like a lot of other areas in our modern life, we’re having to cope with changes in technology and certainly the rapid movement of information and the free movement of information on the Internet allows for criminal syndicates around the world to plan their movements of drugs and place their orders using various sorts of cryptology, avoiding the open statement. Then on top of that, we have what we call the Internet pharmacy proliferation around the world and these pharmacies are very often, not all, but a significant number of fronts for Illegal organisations to allow controlled substances to be moved freely from country to country through the postal systems.

LAM: And indeed, with modern communications being so efficient now, the drugs do pass quite easily from country to country. For instance, your report pointed out that Chinese chemicals are being used by Canadian ecstasy manufacturers to make drugs which then end up being sold in Australia and Japan. So it’s quite a daunting challenge, isn’t it?

WATTERS: Yes, it’s an international movement and certainly part of what we’ve been doing at the International Narcotics Control Board is seeking to control those precursors and we do very, very well in many ways, but when you think that a country like China with its vast numbers, they tell us they have got 50,000 factories there that are producing chemicals that could be diverted illicitly into the methamphedamine markets, so it’s a huge task and the India similarly has a big task just to control these things.

LAM: So is there a sort of common attitude by world authorities towards drugs and drug use. For instance, the chair of Britain’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Professor David Nutt, recently said that using ecstasy was no more dangerous than horse riding. So are we wasting resources by targeting drugs like ecstasy?

WATTERS: Well, with all due respect, I think he’s being very foolish to even talk like that. One of the difficulties we face in many countries is to use the term recreational or party in relationship to dangerous drugs. We do know that more than 95 per cent of the member states of the United Nations are signatories to the convention and that covers 99 per cent of the world’s population. So in principle, they all agree that we should control drugs, make available where necessary, but certainly not allow for the recreational use of these dangerous substances and to suggest that…there is so much medical evidence that these methamphetamine type drugs can have seriously long term psychotic affects. I suppose it could be said if you fell of a horse and landed on your head, that might be equivalent.
presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Major Brian Watters from the Salvation Army is a Member of the International Narcotics Control Board and Chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs
Source:www.radioaustralia.net Feb20th 2009

The effects of cannabis use on health and social adjustment are profound.
Substance misuse by Indigenous people has long been recognised
as one of the devastating consequences of contact with
Western culture. Misuse of tobacco, alcohol and petrol
among Indigenous Australians has received much attention. Cannabis,
by contrast, has not been viewed as a major problem. But
since the 1990s, it has become apparent that heavy cannabis use is
common in some remote Indigenous communities.1 The associated
health and social burdens are now being recognised.
Indigenous Australians, whether living in urban or rural
settings, are more likely than other Australians to report cannabis
use. Recent reports suggest that cannabis use is also relatively
high among Indigenous populations in New Zealand, Canada
and North America. Limited data are available on patterns of
cannabis use among Indigenous Australians. However, a recent
5-year study of adolescents and young adults in three remote
communities in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory has
found that not only is cannabis use common in remote Indigenous
settings, but its effects on health and social adjustment are
profound. These three communities are close to one another but very
isolated, being over 550 kilometres from the nearest city. There is
one local Indigenous language, and English is a secondary language.
Tobacco use was found to be the norm in these communities,
with over 90% of adolescents and young adults smoking.
Because of restricted access to alcohol, problem drinking was
uncommon. In contrast, cannabis use was endemic, with over
70% of males and 20% of females being current users. Cannabis
was typically consumed mixed with tobacco and smoked using a
locally fashioned “bucket bong” that gives the user a rapid and
intense dose with little smoke lost. Regular heavy use (_6
“cones” daily) was found in almost 90% of users. This is around
twice the consumption of regular cannabis users elsewhere in
Australia. Furthermore, about 90% of the Indigenous users
reported symptoms of cannabis dependence. This compares with
about 20% of users aged 18 or over in the general Australian
population.3 Of even greater concern was a suggestion that, for
most Indigenous users, cannabis was not a passing adolescent
phase. After 5 years of follow-up, the great majority reported
continuing heavy use.
Cannabis use was linked to substantial health problems and
social burdens in these communities, which are already disadvantaged
by isolation and poverty. Up to 10% of the communities’
total income and between 31% and 62% of a user’s median weekly
income was spent on cannabis. Cannabis users were less likely
than non-users to participate in education or training and more
likely to report auditory hallucinations, suicidal ideation, symptoms
of depression, and having been imprisoned. Community
violence increased when cannabis supplies were scarce. The
effects on traditional life were described by one NT Indigenous
mental health clinician in the following way:
Too many of my people are chained to [cannabis]. They don’t
go out hunting or spend time by the river with their family.
They just sit and smoke [cannabis], then look for money to buy
more [cannabis] and get into fights when they can’t get any
(Muriel Jaragba, personal communication).
What accounts for the unusual patterns of cannabis misuse in
these remote Indigenous communities? There is little evidence that
cannabis is grown locally, but much anecdotal evidence that
market networks supplied by dealers based in urban or regional
centres are extensive and resilient, making cannabis readily available
(A R C, unpublished observation). Alcohol restrictions have
been effective in reducing problem drinking within communities,
but may have had the undesirable consequence of encouraging an
increase in cannabis use where it could be easily obtained. As
with risks for other forms of substance misuse in these communities,
the social context is important. Limited employment and
education opportunities; crowded, poor-quality housing; community-
wide feelings of disempowerment; and grief and loss related
to high mortality, morbidity and incarceration rates are all likely
risk factors for substance misuse. Cannabis misuse is likely to be
both a consequence of this type of social disadvantage and a
perpetuating influence.
Cannabis misuse in remote Indigenous communities has been
overlooked for too long. It is now clear that it is yet another major
problem for these already disadvantaged communities, with evidence
of cannabis misuse across a broad area of northern Australia.
As well as in the NT, concerns about the level of cannabis
use have recently been noted in Cape York and anecdotally in
other parts of remote and regional Australia. Further research is
needed to investigate the impact of cannabis use on urban
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Effective responses will not be easy. Controls on supply by
state- or territory-based police are one of the few available
measures. In order to be effective, policymakers and service
providers would need to work collaboratively with local communities
to tie in local prevention and treatment initiatives with
existing supply control initiatives. Such programs would need to
use Indigenous language and cultural frameworks, build capacity
of local Indigenous professionals, and improve understanding of
the harms associated with cannabis misuse. Ultimately, tackling
the misuse of cannabis and other substances in remote settings
will depend on creating opportunities for social development
and for continuing education, training and employment of
adolescents and young adults.

Source: 228 MJA • Volume 190 Number 5 • 2 March 2009

Tuesday 03 March 2009
The tax on alcohol should be doubled to discourage under-age drinking, according to a group of experts in Tuesday’s AD. The move would also save billions of euros as the damage caused by drunken teenagers declined, says the paper.
The call comes from the alcohol prevention foundation Stap, criminologist Jan van Dijk and paediatrician Nico van der Lely, who say it is time for drastic measures. They say the soft approach of the past 20 years has not worked and the only option is to raise the price of alcohol.
The Netherlands has been wrestling the problem of teenage drinking in recent years. Last December new figures from the national statistics office CBS showed that Dutch teenagers are now drinking less. The number of teens who use alcohol fell from 85% in 2003 to 79% in 2007. This is ‘probably’ due to the need to prove you are at least 16 when buying alcohol, said CBS researcher Jan Latten.
Source: Daily Dose 4th March 2009

We, participants of the World Mayors’ Conference against drugs – reaffirm our support for the UN Conventions and declare that all people have the right to expect their governments to work according to the conventions and their intentions.Worldwide, cannabis is the most frequent used illicit drug, which calls for action from each city and country. Extensive research confirms that the use of cannabis is detrimental to health, causes crime, and is addictive. Cannabis, and certain other drugs, for example khat, should be viewed in the same way as other types of illicit/psychotropic drugs for example cocaine,
heroine and amphetamine, when it comes to control policy, rehabilitation and preventive measures.

We, participants …..
 Reaffirm our unwavering determination and commitment to overcoming the world drug problem through international and domestic strategies to reduce both the illicit supply of and demand for drugs;

 Recognize that action against the drug problem is a common and shared responsibility requiring an integrated and balanced approach in full conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law;

 Affirm our determination to provide the necessary resources for treatment and rehabilitation and to enable social reintegration to restore dignity and hope to children, youth, women and men who have become drug abusers, and to fight against all aspects of the world drug problem;

 Urge all people to work with their governments to strengthen, support, and encourage the UN system of drug control, in order to reduce the global demand and supply of illicit drugs;

 Emphasize the immediate need for all countries and cities to place drug issues as one of the high priorities on their development agendas;

Together we can meet the challenge and make a difference!

Minister of State for Community Affairs John Curran has expressed “grave concern” that people addicted to drugs “seem to be on methadone for an extended period of time”.
He said “not everybody who uses methadone uses it exclusively” and it appeared to be taken with a combination of other drugs. “I may not be in my position long enough, but I would like to see the hard evidence to show progression” and an “active methadone-reduction programme”.
The Minister was answering questions about Health Research Board figures which revealed 2,442 drug-related deaths in the eight-year period from 1998-2005.
Labour spokesman Jack Wall expressed concern that 60 deaths in 2005 involved the use of methadone. If drug addicts were getting access to methadone from more than one source “instead of curing themselves, addicts are creating more problems for themselves” with addiction to methadone. Mr Curran said the HSE “is in the process of implementing a national overdose-prevention strategy which would address the issue of benzodiazepines, prescription drugs and methadone”.
Referring to the figures for 2005, the Minister said of the 400 drug-related deaths “cocaine was implicated in 100 deaths”, while 25 per cent of deaths from poisoning were “the result of alcohol in conjunction with another drug”.
He said while illegal drugs were involved in many cases, “prescribed drugs and over-the-counter medication, such as anti-anxiety drugs like valium, antidepressants and pain-killers, are frequently involved in such deaths, either alone or in conjunction with illegal drugs”.
Catherine Byrne (FG, Dublin South Central) expressed concern about service cutbacks in drugs task force areas. “I will not criticise the Minister, whose heart is in the right place,” she said.
However, she warned that crime was greatly linked to drugs, and the Government had to “take the drugs issue seriously if we are to get anything done”. She said the local Inchicore drugs team had to reduce its budget by €30,000, and other services in Wexford and Tipperary had being asked to reduce their budgets by 14 per cent.
Mr Curran said while the funding in 2008 was €34.776 million, it was €34.6 million for 2009, a slight reduction. However, spending had increased significantly over the years.
Source, Marie O’Halloran, The Irish Times,05/03/2009

Last year seven student-athletes at Green Valley High School tested positive for drugs or alcohol. This year? Zero.
Green Valley High School players cheer before the second half of their game against Bishop Gorman during the Nevada girls basketball state semifinals Feb. 26 at the Orleans Arena. Student-athletes at the school and other students engaged in extracurricular activities that involve travel are subject to random drug testing.
Green Valley High School administrators say the success of their year-old random drug testing program can be seen in the lower numbers of drug users they are catching.
But Taylor Ashton, a sophomore at the Henderson campus, said he has seen the changes in a more direct way — in the school’s “bathrooms and hallways.” A year ago, he explained, it wasn’t unusual to walk into a campus bathroom and smell smoke. He said he couldn’t be more specific about the type of smoke.
These days, even the talk about drugs — on campus, at the bus stop and at parties of Green Valley students — is down, he said. Green Valley students appear to be trying hard to avoid failing a test that an increasing number of Clark County schools are adding to their curriculums. Next month, seven additional Clark County high schools will begin randomly testing students for drugs.
In February 2008, Green Valley became the first public high school in Nevada to randomly test students for drug use. One of the reasons, Green Valley Principal Jeff Horn said, was that during the 2006-07 academic year, the school caught nearly 8 percent of its athletes using drugs or alcohol, more than twice the rate for the rest of the school’s student population.
This academic year, just two student-athletes have been referred to the dean’s office for offenses involving controlled substances, said Jackie Carducci, assistant principal for athletics and activities. That equates to less than a half-percent of the school’s student-athletes. Horn said the two were playing hooky when they were caught by Clark County School District Police and brought back to campus, where it was determined that they had been smoking marijuana.
The number of students who are flunking urinalysis is also down.
Through the end of the academic year in June 2008, seven of the 264 Green Valley athletes tested positive. From the start of the 2008-09 academic year through January, Green Valley tested 263 students with only four positive results. None of those were student-athletes. This year’s testing pool has been expanded to include students who participate in extracurricular activities that require travel, such as forensics and musical groups.
The U.S. Supreme Court has deemed random drug testing of students participating in sports or other school activities constitutional, but public schools cannot require testing of all students. At Green Valley, parents can opt to have their children added to the pool and more than 100 have, the principal said.
“Our community is behind us,” he said. “I would say things are going extremely well.”
Funding uncertain
In September, Coronado and Silverado high schools followed Green Valley’s lead. Since then, Coronado has tested 224 students and five student-athletes flunked the tests. Silverado has checked 100 student-athletes and five didn’t pass. The school is testing only student-athletes — a pool of about 500 — because that’s all it can afford.
And because it doesn’t have any external funding, Silverado’s program has an uncertain future, Principal Kim Grytdahl said. To cover the cost this year, he boosted the fee for athletic registration to $20 from $5. “With the way school budgets are right now, I don’t know that we can fund the program at the level that it needs to be, so that it does what it’s supposed to do,” Grytdahl said. “Given the economic climate, I don’t think it’s fair to pass any more of the price along to the children.”
At Green Valley, the program is covered by private grants and donations, enough to keep it going at least through 2010, Horn said.
A three-year, $450,000 federal grant is paying for the random drug testing that is to begin next month at Centennial, Del Sol, Desert Pines, Durango, Eldorado, Foothill and Mojave high schools. But whether additional federal money will be available to allow more high schools to start drug testing is unknown.
The Bush administration made random student drug testing a priority; opponents of such programs hope that “with a new administration that values evidence-based outcomes, … money will no longer be diverted from student-based programs to random drug testing,” said Jennifer Kern, youth policy manager of the Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy group. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Education Department said Tuesday that the new administration has not yet taken up the question of random student drug testing.
Proponents say random testing serves as a deterrent, helps schools identify students who need help and gives those students an excuse to say no to offers of drugs or alcohol, while opponents contend the at-risk students who often benefit the most from involvement in school activities and sports drop out rather than risk being tested.
Administrators at Green Valley, Coronado and Silverado all said, however, that student participation in sports or extracurricular activities has not declined since the random testing programs began. In fact, participation is up at Coronado, Principal Lee Koelliker said. The testing will continue at Coronado next year, he said.
“Our athletes as well as their parents understand that there is a drug problem in our schools, not only in the CCSD but throughout the country, and appreciate the fact that we are taking a stance to try and combat the use of these substances,” Koelliker said.
‘False sense of security’
Kern contends, however, that random testing gives parents a false sense of security that if there’s a drug problem at a school or with their child, campus administrators will catch it. “The prevention research out there shows what really works is helping students feel connected to school and getting them to believe there is an adult who cares about them,” she said. “With random testing, you’re treating students like they’re guilty until proven innocent.”
In addition to questions about the long-term efficacy of random testing, organizations such as the ACLU say the program raises serious concerns about privacy rights, and can serve only to diminish trust among students and school staff.
Leah Yaffe, a senior and president of Green Valley’s forensics team, said she doesn’t find the random drug testing policy intrusive. “I don’t see it as administrators trying to find out who the bad kids are,” she said. “It’s trying to find out who might have a problem.”
The program might be less of a deterrent to students who are regular drug users, especially those whose social group revolves around the behavior, Yaffe said. But for a student who might be considering experimenting, she said, the specter of the test offers “a viable excuse” for turning down an offer of drugs or alcohol — a way to deflate peer pressure without losing face.
Green Valley junior Asli Kupoglu, a starter on the varsity girls soccer team, had to pass the test twice in three weeks, and it was inconvenient and a little embarrassing. Still, Kupoglu said she fully supports random drug testing for students who represent Green Valley in extracurricular activities. The possibility of being called for a drug test has made some students rethink some of their choices, she said.
Kupoglu also said she would support expanding the testing pool to include all extracurricular activities, and not just the ones that involve travel. She pointed out that the Student Council members who weren’t in the testing pool voted to voluntarily add their names, to set an example.
“I was really proud of them for doing that,” Kupoglu said.
How the testing works
Green Valley, Coronado and Silverado high schools are all using Sport Safe, an Ohio-based vendor, for testing services.
Green Valley and Coronado require students who participate in athletics or extracurricular activities that require travel — music and vocal groups, forensics teams — to be part of the testing pool. Both schools also allow parents of students who don’t fall into those categories to sign their teens up for the program. Silverado currently tests only student athletes.
Sport Safe chooses the names of students to be tested at random, and provides the list to the school. Those students are escorted by a staff member from class to the nurse’s office, where they must provide a urine sample. Refusal to give a sample is considered a positive test.
The test covers a range of substances, including alcohol, nicotine, anabolic steroids, amphetamines, marijuana and cocaine. Nicotine is included on the list because the use of tobacco products is a violation of Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association regulations, even if the student is of legal age.
The sample is processed at a local lab, and the results go to Sport Safe. If a test is positive, Sport Safe notifies parents within 24 hours. The school’s principal is also notified.
Students who test positive for any banned substance are required to undergo drug counselling, and are restricted from participating in school activities, in keeping with the guidelines of NIAA. Students who test positive a second time are not allowed to participate in interscholastic competition for a minimum of six weeks and cannot practice with their teams or participate in offseason activities. Students who have a third positive drug test are ruled ineligible for interscholastic competition for the remainder of their high school careers in Nevada.
Students who test positive must also submit to five follow-up tests over the course of the academic year, and the school can charge them $35 per test.
Source Las Vegas Sun 6th March 2009

While treatment is an important component in many people’s recovery, its effect becomes less and less pronounced the further away you get from the treatment episode. As William White, the recovery researcher and historian says, the further away you get from treatment, the more important is the post-treatment environment.
Aftercare and mutual aid are evidence-based components of the post-treatment environment. We know that those who come out of treatment who take up aftercare and mutual aid do better than those who don’t.
In Scotland, we have a long tradition of mutual aid groups and they form an important part of the recovery community. In the USA, there are much better developed recovery communities in many areas. We need to nurture recovery communities locally here.
On Friday 17th July, in Edinburgh, there will be the first of several ‘Recovery Cafes’ this summer. This one will be held at Old St. Paul’s in Jeffrey Street and will run from 6.00pm to midnight.
The cafe has been developed by those in recovery and those who support recovery and will offer a safe and sober meeting place for those in recovery to gather. If these cafe nights are successful then dedicated premises will be sought and Edinburgh will have a permanent facility to support and nurture the recovery community.
If you are in the city on Friday and you are in recovery or support those who are, check it out! Like Wired In, this is a valuable resource and recovery tool. It’s also another piece of evidence of how recovery is here in Edinburgh and growing.
Source: Wired In July 2009

In 2008 organized crime in Australia is estimated conservatively to cost $10 billion according to the Australian Crime Commission.
The estimate includes the loss of legitimate business revenue, loss of taxation revenue, law enforcement expenditure, regulation and social harms where criminal activity compromises the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Illicit drugs account for at least 50 per cent of the costs of organized crime which are conservatively estimated at $5 billion per year.
As the illicit drug profits are repatriated overseas the costs involving money laundering will add to the cost of organized drug crime.
The Australian Crime Commission believes that organized crime gangs are highly efficient, use the latest technology and employ highly paid professionals to protect their activities.
(Source: Organised Crime in Australia, Australian Crime Commission, February 2009).

The romance with weed is never-ending for California marijuana devotees. Now, they claim their beloved drug can save the state by solving its unrelenting budget nightmare.
State legislation is afoot to legalize and tax marijuana to backfill the state budget. But, like the grandiose daydreams of a stoner, the reality of this plan would be far different from its vision. I won’t go all “Reefer Madness” on you or claim that hemp T-shirts are a slippery slope to damnation. The problem with marijuana legalization is simpler and worse.
California cannot afford more stoned people, especially stoned young people. We need a lot fewer stoned people.
Prevention experts understand the problem with legalization: The greater the access to an intoxicant, the more abuse there will be of that intoxicant. Alcohol isn’t the most dangerous drug in the world because it’s worse than heroin or cocaine. It’s the most dangerous drug because it’s so easily accessible. You can get large quantities of it anywhere, and cheaply, too. Underage drinking is a big problem because kids can get alcohol so easily.
Legal marijuana would mean more access to marijuana. The number of marijuana users would spike, including teens. Problems related to marijuana use would spike. Marijuana lobbyists argue that if a dangerous drug such as alcohol is legal, then marijuana should be, too. I’ve never understood that. With all the problems we have with alcohol, why would we want to legalize another intoxicant?
Right now, there are 127 million alcohol users and 14 million marijuana users in this country – because one is legal and the other isn’t. But, most alcohol users don’t get intoxicated. About one-fifth of alcohol users binge drink or regularly drink heavily.
The serious problems from alcohol occur when people get intoxicated. With marijuana, you get intoxicated every time you use it. That’s the whole point. Marijuana intoxication and alcohol intoxication may be different, but both are bad for society.
Marijuana intoxication means cognitive impairment, grandiosity, short-term memory loss, difficulty in carrying out complex mental processes and impaired judgment. It severely hurts your ability to perform at school and work. It saps initiative and drive. It increases confusion. In other words, it makes you stupid.
An increase in stoners among California’s young people and work force would be very bad for the state. Right now, we’re in a recession in which people without college degrees are losing jobs twice as fast as people with college degrees. Our future economy will be based on innovation, education and highly skilled labor.
But we’re already not producing enough college graduates for our future work-force needs. With many more stoned teens and young people, the problems of an unskilled, uneducated and unmotivated work force will get worse. Stoned people can’t learn or work very well. Marijuana is the loser drug: That’s the big problem with it.
What about the idea that California can balance its budget by legalizing marijuana and taxing the heck out of it? You haven’t been paying attention to special-interest politics if you believe that.
Moneyed special interests run policy in this state. Look what happened when California criminal justice policies made prison guards one of the most powerful lobbies in the state. The union quickly began dictating policy in its own interest.
The alcohol industry is so powerful in California that beer taxes haven’t increased in nearly 20 years; the last time they were raised was by a minuscule amount and the industry almost killed that. A wealthy marijuana industry will soon co-opt policy-makers and dictate how much tax we charge, where we sell the product and who gets to buy it. Why would a marijuana industry be different from any other special interest?
Personally, I don’t think the marijuana lobby believes its own arguments. When I talk to legalization proponents, it usually boils down to their angry demand that people should be left alone to get stoned if they want to. That libertarian sentiment shows a complete disregard for the public good. If legalizers can’t understand that, elected policy-makers certainly should.
The disingenuousness of the marijuana lobby becomes clear on the subject of medical marijuana. For marijuana lobbyists to push both recreational marijuana and medicinal marijuana at the same time is duplicitous. It’s nakedly obvious where their real desires lie.
Recreational drug use and medical drug use have nothing in common. If pharmaceutical lobbyists pushed recreational and medical use of the same drug, they’d get hauled before Congress and slammed by state attorneys. But the marijuana lobby sees nothing wrong with its tactics.
How about a little more candour from marijuana romantics? Like the panhandler standing on a street corner with a sign that says, “Why lie? I just want a beer.”
Source: San Diego Union Tribune March 26, 2009

Bandar Seri Begawan – The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in its tireless vigilance has once again apprehended several individuals suspected of consuming and distributing illegal drugs openly in public.
According to a press release from NCB, investigations into these activities have warranted the arrests of 10 men between the ages of 18 and 38, including two men who had been reported to have blatantly sold these drugs to passers by at a jetty and the back streets of Kg Saba Darat in the capital.
Some 70 NCB officers were involved in the drug bust last Thursday where they succeeded in seizing several packets of illegal drugs.
The operation is part of a series that NCB will be conducting in known drug hotspots in their commitment to clean up the streets of illegal drugs.
According to Section 39(a), Paragraph 27 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, any person found guilty for possession of controlled drugs will face a minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane, and a maximum sentence of 30 years with 15 strokes of the cane.
But possession of controlled drugs exceeding 500 grammes carries the death penalty in Brunei.
Meanwhile, suspects found guilty of consuming controlled drugs will be charged under Section 6(b), Paragraph 27 of the Misuse of Drugs Act and will face a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years or imposed with a $20,000 fine or both.
Source: Borneo Bulletin www.BruDirect.com March 2009

The number of babies being referred for temporary foster care in Edinburgh because of parental drug misuse has doubled in the last year.
Edinburgh City Council said the statistics showed that the capital was in “desperate need” of more carers. An appeal has been launched to encourage more people to help care for vulnerable babies.
The plea was made at the launch of a training DVD to help people looking after vulnerable babies. Some 99 babies under six months old were referred for foster placement in 2008, double the number in the previous year.
Fifty of those babies were referred before they were born and two thirds of all the babies were suffering from the effects of alcohol or drug addiction as a result of the mother’s addiction problems.
Growing demand
Those babies often suffer from a range of physical, cognitive and emotional problems and need extra care. Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, Edinburgh City Council’s leader for children and young people, said: “The city’s foster carers are dedicated people but the problem we have now is that there aren’t enough carers to meet the growing demand.
“We want the people of Edinburgh to know that a wide range of people can be foster carers. Whether you are in your 20s or your 50s, in a couple or single, you can apply as long as you’re committed and are willing to help a child who has had a tough start in life.”
Ms MacLaren said the increasing number of cases meant social workers were stretched and services could not be sustained or improved without adequate investment.
“It’s a vicious cycle. If we don’t have the resources to tackle the problem at its source then we will see more vulnerable babies,” she added. I’ll be approaching the Scottish Government to ask them to revisit the issue and to take action because if things don’t change, the lives of vulnerable children will get even harder.”
Source: BBC NEWS: go2009/03/26
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ /pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7965526.stm

Brandon Muir was only 23 months old when he was killed by the boyfriend of his drug-addicted mother.
BBC Scotland’s home affairs correspondent Reevel Alderson reports on the children who are living with drugs. The statistics are shocking and bleak – and they reveal the human consequences of Scotland’s drugs epidemic.
Glasgow University has estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 children live with at least one drug-addicted parent.
The number of children removed from their own home because they are being neglected is rising.
And, according to a report seen by BBC Scotland, 30% of those taken into emergency care in Edinburgh are newly born.
The report, produced by Scotland’s Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) but not published outside the organisation, examined the cases of children in Edinburgh made the subject of a Place of Safety Warrant – an emergency removal from their own home.
In 2006-07, just over 60% were under 24 weeks old, and a further 30% were newly born. Warrants were issued by a Children’s Hearing because, in 80% of cases, the baby was feared to be in danger of neglect.

Sadly, this is a familiar picture for social workers across Scotland. Ruth Stark, spokesperson for the British Association of Social Workers, says her colleagues must make an assessment about whether a child can not safely remain at home.
“For young mothers and fathers who are already addicted to drugs, often we find ourselves having to go into a situation where this is a key issue that is interfering with their ability to look after their children. In some circumstances, we have to take drastic action,” she said.
A Place of Safety Warrant follows a Children’s Hearing called to address emergency or high-risk situations, and allows measures to be put into place immediately to protect a vulnerable child.
They only last three weeks – although after investigation children can be placed in care away from the family home.
The Principal Reporter of the SCRA, Netta MacIver, said drug-dependency was not by itself a ground for concern.

But she added: “If there’s a degree of chaos in the household, then the basics of feeding, changing, cleaning – the repetitiveness of a lot of that is quite often challenging, so you can have ancillary supports.
“But if there are behaviours within the parents which aren’t moderated, then the risks will continue.”
Brandon Muir is the latest in a series of tragic cases in which drugs, alcohol or the chaotic lives of adults have led to the death of a young child.
There are a number of projects around Scotland which aim to help parents to better care for their children, while also coping with their own problems.
Andrew Horne, director of Addaction in Linthouse in Glasgow, said it was vital that drug or alcohol-dependent parents were given help – not just for them, but for all of us.

“People don’t see that this has a huge impact both on our resources in terms of our taxpayers, but also on our communities.
“If we can help children stay safe and happy, and in families, then we are not paying for children to be in care systems, to be in foster care, being involved in social work.”
There are controversial solutions to this problem. Duncan McNeil, Labour MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, has suggested administering contraception with addicts’ methadone to prevent them having children.
A new inquiry, under the former chief constable of Fife, Peter Wilson, is now to be held to learn lessons from the Brandon Muir case.
Perhaps the real question to be asked is how does society cope with children brought up in the midst of Scotland’s drugs epidemic?

Source: BBC News Channel 3 March 2009

DRUG exporters are turning to the postal system in a bid to get illicit drugs into Australia.
And border authorities admit they face a challenge to detect the substances amid the estimated 160 million pieces of mail to be sent into the nation this year.
The Courier-Mail has learnt that drug dealers are sending small parcels through the post, fully expecting to lose some to border authorities but expecting they will get enough through to make a profit. Ecstasy traffickers were keeping parcels to between 300 grams and 500 grams and were increasingly sending through MDMA powder because it was more difficult to detect than pills.
Australian Customs national intelligence manager Andrew Rice said MDMA or ecstasy detections in the post were rising, with more than two every week in the past financial year. “The detections in the post are going up in their sheer number, not necessarily in weight,” Mr Rice said. “There is no pretence from us that we do miss things just because of the volumes. Even in that environment of mass input, we do quite well in terms of significant proportion of drugs being sent through the postal system. But we do see criminals moving between different importation methods and the significant shipments are still likely to be attempted by sea cargo.”
Australia is obliged under a United Nations charter to accept mail from across the world. This year, Customs expects 120 million letters and 40 million parcels to be sent from overseas to the checking points in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Mail is screened by Customs or the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, through the likes of sniffer dog patrols and X-rays, before being handed to Australia Post for distribution. “We think about every item of mail. Some items are given different treatment based on the different risks that we assess,” Mr Rice said.
The figures for ecstasy busts in the last three years have been distorted by the monster find of 4.4 tonnes or 15 million pills in a shipping container in Melbourne in June 2007. The container, sent from Italy, was stacked with tinned tomatoes but Customs authorities were suspicious when X-rays revealed inconsistencies in the tins’ contents. Customs alerted the Australian Federal Police, which decided to seek more information by following the drugs. They opened each tin and replaced the ecstasy with harmless tablets and then followed the trail. An investigation lasting more than a year, involving 400 AFP agents and 20,000 hours of surveillance, resulted in 20 arrests.
In the last financial year, Customs detected 172kg of MDMA/ecstasy and a further 260kg of amphetamine-type stimulants among mail and cargo. This compares with 611kg of cocaine, 72kg of heroin and 49kg of cannabis.
Customs also made large detections of precursor chemicals to methamphetamines, including 105kg of pseudoephedrine in air cargo 18 months ago.
Mr Rice said the criminal networks that controlled much of the world’s illicit drug trade had “access to specialist knowledge around the import and export fields”. “The game is all about concealment,” he said.
Source: www.couriermail.com.au 31st March 2009

Texas Prevention Impact Index or TPII numbers for the past 4 years show decreases across the board here in Amarillo.
The Texas Prevention Impact Index is a report showing statistics in the usage of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and violence among students in the Amarillo independent school district.
The TPII look at risk and protective factors that lead students to or away from the various substances. They look at perceptions in the community towards alcohol, drugs, and tobacco use. The numbers also reflect the usage of these substances by the students that fill out the survey.
25 hundred surveys are filled out by a cross section of students in the Amarillo school district, ranging from the 6th grade up to seniors in high school.
Here a few noteworthy statistics you may find interesting from the data collected by Research and Educational services, a private evaluation and research firm based out of Houston. The company has done the surveys and completed the data for A.I.S.D. since 2002.
47.9% of students say they would go to parents if they had a question about alcohol or drugs, versus 20.7% say they would ask a friend their age.
The number of students who say it’s ok to have alcohol to have a good time is 26% down from 30% just 4 years ago.
The number of students who think schools do NOT enforce rules on drinking have gone down form 30% to 19%, which means more students are getting the idea that it’s not acceptable to use alcohol from the school district.
In the category of usage in the past 30 days here are some numbers that show improvement.
In the past 30 days, seniors are using alcohol 7% less, using tobacco 6% less, and nearly 14% less of the students serveyed say they have participated in binge drinking in the past 30 days. All are positive stats.
87% of all students across the board have NOT used Marijuana in the past 30 days.
Frequency of usage numbers also show decreases. Tobacco is down 12%, alcohol is down 6%, marijuana is down 11%, this means that those kids that do use these substances are not using as frequently.
Some statistics that show perception changes are the following: 93% of the students surveyed say that they are harming themselves by smoking. 79% of students, up from 69% say that they are harming themselves by smoking marijuana.
Switching gears to violence and safety issues.
15% of students say they have been bullied during the past 30 days.
12% say they’ve been involved with a group fight.
In the past year the percentage of students who have been in a fight at school was 15%.
33.4% of the students say they have discussed safety issues with family in the past 30 days.
All in all, some of the numbers shown are alarming and some show great improvement in prevention and awareness programs here in Amarillo. The Amarillo community should be proud that the students have made progress and the school district is working decrease these all important problems.
“It shows, basically that the efforts that are being conducted here are working, to be honest with you when you look at the rest of the state or other areas in the state, I don’t think you see the same kind of trends or same kind of change in those areas, it’s been very successful here,” said Dr. Robert Landry, Director of Research and Educational Services.
“We’re seeing some decreases in some types of drug use which we’re glad to see, we also know that we need to continue the education K-12 for our students and be able to share current information with them,” said Teresa Kenedy, A.I.S.D. Prevention Specialist.
Source: www.connectamarillo.com 31st March 2009

Alcohol was officially recognised by the Government today as a gateway drug that can lead users to other addictive substances. The Cabinet decided to re-designate the issue of problem drinking with anti-drugs initiatives as part of a new national strategy.

Minister John Curran, who has responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, said alcohol abuse is causing huge levels of public concern around the country. Mr Curran said a combined strategy will facilitate a more coherent approach to the issues and consequences of alcohol and illicit drug use, including addictive behaviours.

“We cannot continue to look at these problems in isolation. The time has come for more joined-up thinking,” he said. Mr Curran and Health Minister Mary Harney brought the issue to today’s Cabinet meeting, where it was approved.

Mr Curran said: “Alcohol is seen, for many, as a gateway to illicit drug use and poly-drug use, often including alcohol, is now the norm among illicit drug users. “People also have serious concerns in relation to the high level of alcohol consumption in Ireland, the pattern of drinking, especially binge drinking among young people and in the community generally, and the wider social harms which are associated with the misuse of alcohol.”

The minister is preparing a new National Drugs Strategy for the period 2009/16. Discussions will be held around a new National Substance Misuse Strategy in coming days. Meanwhile, Ms Harney announced today she is banning the stimulant drug BZP, which is available in so-called “head shops”. Possessing or selling the substance is now an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977.

She said: “This will now make the possession of BZP illegal and make sure that BZP is no longer available for sale in ’head shops’ around the country, which has been an issue of concern to my Department and the wider public.”
SOURCE: WWW.IRISHNEWS.COM THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009

On a day when the government is meeting to discuss drivers of crime it is worth looking beneath the veneer of the Police offence statistics for the past 10 years to understand just how endemic the violence caused by methamphetamine and drug abuse has become in New Zealand and the need for strategies to address this according to MethCon Group director Mike Sabin.

“Again through 2008 violent offences continued to increase unabated but when you look at the past 10 years you get a far better feel for the way our communities have been held to ransom by failed drug policy”, said Mr. Sabin
“Violent offences and serious assaults increased by 51 percent and 59 percent respectively. Robbery has increased by 57 percent, while intimidation and threats have increased by 73 percent with offences involving grievous harm increasing by a staggering 105 percent, up from 92 percent last year” said Mr. Sabin

“During the same 10 year period there has also been dramatic increases in offences related to methamphetamine including 169 percent increase in supply offences, 208 percent increase in possession for supply, 400 percent increase in importation, while importation of pseudoephedrine to manufacture the drug has increased by well over 10,000 percent with methamphetamine manufacture increasing by over 9500 percent since 1998”, claimed Mr. Sabin “On the back of that we have also become some of the highest recorded use rates of cannabis in the world with 80 percent of those aged 25 in this country now saying they have used the drug”, said Mr. Sabin

“My point is that there is a clear nexus between increased drug abuse in this country, particularly with regard to methamphetamine, and violent crime. While alcohol is a lead contributor to violence, what are we doing to actually identify and respond to poly drug abuse, which is far more common than any other form of drug abuse?”

“For example, as much as 89 percent of our prison population are drug users and yet too often we hear that alcohol is the driver of violent crime and disorder. Drugged driving is more frequently a contributor to fatal vehicle accidents than alcohol use alone, but what do we do to identify drugged drivers on our roads?” said Mr. Sabin.

“Beyond this, why has New Zealand become the highest recorded users of methamphetamine and cannabis in the world over the past 10 years? The answer is quite simple; since 1998 our national drug policy has focused centred on ‘harm minimisation’. Rather than focusing on prevention of drug use and healing drug abusers to a point of abstinence, our national drug policy has focused on accepting drug use as an inevitability and finding ‘safe ways’ to use, while treatment has been more about methadone maintenance programmes and giving addicted users clean needles”, said Mr. Sabin

Justice Minister Simon Power signalled their clear intentions to look at new approaches to address the drivers of crime and I commend the government for having a forum to begin this process as it goes to the heart of solving the cause of the problems rather than tinkering with the symptoms. The role of drug abuse as a driver cannot be underestimated and I would encourage efforts to arrive at strategies which reflect this”, said Mr. Sabin

Source: www.methcon.co.nz. (NZ’s specialist methamphetamine education providers and policy consultants). 3rd April 2009

Executive Summary

Following two decades of progress dealing with alcohol impaired driving, greater attention is now being directed toward the issue of driving while impaired by drugs. Currently, there is far less information related to drug impaired driving than alcohol-impaired driving. This report describes a study on the extent of drug use by drivers. A random survey of drivers was conducted at pre-selected locations in British Columbia from Wednesday to Saturday nights in June 2008. The purpose was to collect information on the prevalence of alcohol and drug use among night time drivers. Those surveyed were asked to provide a voluntary breath sample to measure their alcohol use and an oral fluid sample to be tested subsequently for the presence of drugs. Of the 1,533 vehicles selected, 89% of drivers provided a breath sample and 78% provided a sample of oral fluid.
Key findings include:
• 10.4% of drivers tested positive for drug use
• 8.1% of drivers had been drinking
• 15.5% of drivers tested positive for alcohol, drugs or both
• Cannabis and cocaine were the drugs most frequently detected in drivers
• Alcohol use among drivers was most common on weekends and during late-night hours; drug use was more evenly distributed across all survey nights and times
• Alcohol use was most common among drivers aged 1to 24 and 25 to 34; drug use was more evenly distributed across all age groups
• No drivers aged 16 to 18 were found to have been drinking
• While driving after drinking has decreased substantially since previous surveys, the number of drivers with elevated alcohol levels (over 80 mg%) was higher than in the past

Source: Beirness, D.J., & Beasley, E.E. (2009). Alcohol and Drug Use Among Drivers: British Columbia Roadside Survey 2008. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. 2009

A new Australian study has found that the number of newborns suffering serious drug withdrawal symptoms is now more than 40 times higher than in 1980.

The research, published in the latest edition of the international journal Pediatrics, also found that these infants were at greater risk of neglect and of being taken into care.
The data analysis revealed that of 637195 live births in Western Australia between 1980 and 2005, 906 were diagnosed with Neonatal Withdrawal Syndrome. For every year, there was an average 16.4% increase in children born with the syndrome.
Report co-author, Professor Fiona Stanley from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, said the study identified a range of factors that should assist with the early identification of children at risk.
“It is clear that if we are to reduce the number of these children suffering from abuse and neglect, then there is a need to start working with their mothers before these babies are born, and ideally, pre-conception,” Professor Stanley said.
“Our data show that the majority of the mothers had already had contact with hospitals for mental health and substance use issues which suggests there could have been numerous opportunities to intervene to prevent unplanned pregnancy and provide intensive support with antenatal care and substance abuse treatment.”
“A multidisciplinary team that includes obstetricians, social workers, drug and alcohol workers, and welfare workers is required to case manage and support the women through the complex issues that they face. However it is imperative that this support continues long term.”
Professor Stanley said the increase in babies suffering NWS reflected the overall rise in substance abuse within the community and the increased recognition of NWS by health professionals. While this study was in WA, it is likely that it reflects a national trend.
“We now have the situation where 4 babies out of every 1000 births are born suffering the effects of illicit drugs — that is over 1000 newborns per year in Australia. This has serious implications for the child, the family and the whole community and is an issue that must be tackled well before these children suffer potential harm.”
The study was made possible by a groundbreaking agreement by the Western Australian Government Departments of Health and Child Protection that allowed health and welfare records to be linked and the de-identified information given to researchers for analysis.
The research was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant.

Source: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (2009, April 24). Alarming Increase In Drug-affected Newborns. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/04/090423100821.htm

:

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has praised Sweden for pioneering the most successful illicit drug policy in all Europe, reports David Perrin.

Sweden’s illicit drug use is lower than any other European country. The UN has praised the Swedish policy of wanting a drug-free society and has endorsed its program of increasingly strong laws against drugs as the reason for its success.

In 2003, lifetime prevalence of drug use among 15-16 year olds in Europe was 22 per cent. In Sweden, by comparison, it was only 8 per cent. In 2006, Swedish teenage drug use had fallen to 6 per cent.

Illicit drug use in Sweden has declined in recent years, whereas it has increased in other European countries. Sweden has low levels of HIV/AIDS infections resulting from injecting drug use. Its laws require the country’s small number of syringe exchange programs to divert users into detoxification and rehabilitation programs.

Measuring success

Sweden regularly polls its citizens to determine whether drug use is increasing or decreasing. Surveys are made of teenagers (15-16), the general population (18-64) and military conscripts. The surveys look at drug use in the past month, the past year and over a lifetime. These surveys are important not only to determine drug use trends, but to see which policies are working.

Sweden has enjoyed a broad political consensus over the direction of drug policy with changes in government not leading to changes in drug policy. One of the key planks of Swedish drug policy is the courts’ powers to divert users into detoxification and rehabilitation.

Sweden targets its drug policies at teenagers to stop them trying drugs and, if they get hooked, to get them off drugs quickly and permanently. Sweden’s experience is that if a young person has not taken an illicit drug by age 20, he or she is highly unlikely to use illicit drugs later in life.

Australia has high levels of illicit drug use, similar to most of Europe. We have adopted permissive “harm minimisation” policies which have led to high levels of demand for illicit drugs, with new drugs such as “ice” (methamphetamines) coming on the scene.

Ice is known to cause mental illness, psychosis, violent behaviour and even death in those who try it. The drug is highly addictive with few known methods of rehabilitation.

Sweden has succeeded in its drug policy because it has reduced the number of drug-users, and hence the demand for illicit drugs. This is a lesson Australia has yet to learn. Sweden is not on a known drug route, so drug crime syndicates avoid trafficking to Sweden because of the difficulty involved. High prices, few outlets and strong drug policies deter the supply of drugs.

Like Sweden, Australia is not on a known drug supply route; but we have weak policies, low drug prices and a permissive culture that accepts the use of drugs. None of the strong drug policies of Sweden, as outlined here, are present in Australia, so, like Europe, we continue to suffer high drug usage.

In Canberra, the House of Representatives’ standing committee on family and human services is looking at the impact of illicit drugs on families and is due to report before the federal election.

This committee could perform no better service to our nation than study the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime report, Sweden’s Successful Drug Policy: A Review of the Evidence (September 2006) – obtainable at its website www.unodc.org – and use the findings to replace Australia’s failed drug policy with the successful Swedish approach.

With a federal election due later this year, political parties have an opportunity to offer the Australian public a proven strategy to combat illicit drug use.

Source: Article by David Perrin of the Australian Family Association reported in
Drugwatch International 30th April 2009.

Why do the young turn into drug addicts and what could be the reasons for their increasing number in our country? Riti Naik looks for answers.

The ‘d’ generation
Ranmeet never came second in class throughout his school life, he was that brilliant. Besides, being an excellent drummer and a swift swimmer, he was also an obedient child. However, when he got through IIT Kharagpur, he lost interest in studies as he had never wanted to take up engineering. With a huge syllabus before him and an adamant mother behind, today, the boy stays with his father in his room. Ranmeet is a drug addict, and his father tries day and night to help him out, fully aware that sending him to a rehab would put an end to his studies. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
This incident talks about a victim who has been treated mercilessly by circumstances. Yet, everyday, thousands of students, all over the country are actually willing to become drug abuse victims. Among these, numerous have already become addicted and blighted their lives.
No one ever aims to become an addict. Who knew that a brilliant boy like Ranmeet would turn his life into such a hell? Well, a question can be asked here: did he turn his life into that of an addict? The answer is ‘yes’ because no one could have taken the drug for him to become an addict. Yet, is he solely responsible for his state? Can we put the entire blame on him? This is the general mistake made by society, which comprises people like you and I – to put the blame on the user. No doubt the user is most guilty, but the contribution of circumstances is something undeniable here.
First, why did a studious boy like Ranmeet take a drug? Or, if we expand the question: why do students of the twenty-first century take drugs?
In most cases youngsters ‘try out’ drugs. When peer pressure threatens to label someone as an outcaste, people generally give in. After the effects are experienced, whenever, a youngster feels s/he cannot cope with her/his circumstances, they fall back on drugs. In this way, they become dependent on drugs during their stressful times. Once a person is under the influence of drugs, s/he will subsequently need more amounts of it every time to produce the same effect. If this is not nipped in the bud, there is very little chance of the person not to turn into an addict.
This is a very crucial point of one’s life, where s/he needs support from loved ones, which is denied most of the times. And specially, after becoming an addict, society turns its face away once they push her/him to a rehab. We must understand that they are what they are today because, somewhere in their lives, they have made a wrong choice, somewhere they haven’t been guided well. And because of this mistake, their lives have changed, they have become unknown beings to themselves, the spark within them flickered out.
So, if we consider ourselves to be responsible people who are wise enough not to make that wrong choice, don’t you agree that it’s our responsibility to accept them too? To try to give them what they deserve? To at least help them get back to their previous life?
No matter how much we try, we cannot run away from drugs. The menace has crept into the very roots of society. Drug abuse is rampant everywhere, all around us -some in large magnitudes, others in less significant numbers. In Australia, selling of loose petrol (which is directly not put inside the engine), is banned. Addicts inhale the smell of petrol for they can’t pay for ‘harder’ drugs. Many times, while waiting at road signals, we see little boys and girls coming with scraps of cloth to wipe the car windows and ask for alms. Some of them, in a quick gesture of picking up something on the ground, wipe the exhaust pipe, preferably of bikes. Once the signal is back , they wait for the next one, sniff the cloth to kill hunger. The child becomes a victim of drug abuse.
One does not become a drug addict only from heroin, cocaine, crack, marijuana(or any other form of it) or club drugs (like Ecstasy, LSD). Many times some addicts even sniff Fevicol, dendrite, nail polish removers, enamel paints and correction pen fluids. These are referred to as ‘inhalants’ and cause severe permanent damages to the brain in the long run. These volatile substances, if taken in good quantity can actually give the user a ‘high’ and lead to addiction. And along with this, we also have alcohol, cigarettes, and pharmaceutical products (sleeping pills, cough syrups and painkillers). Even if they don’t make addicts, they pave the road for one.
The human body can function well without drugs. Mentally, we are quipped with reasoning power with which we can fight every thought that disturbs us. We therefore can solve every problem ourselves, and in case some of us are unable to, there are various other options. Seeking refuge in drugs is not the solution.
Drugs are illegal, hard to obtain and have terrifying after effects – we all know that. So why fall victim to something as heinous as drugs, when you can manage everything yourself? Many take drugs to get that feeling of confidence and being on top of the world. This feeling can be experienced the moment you know what you are doing and your conscience favours you.
The reasons why the youth take drugs, like stress management, for getting that euphoric feeling, making their bodies feel they way they want to —can be all achieved with a little bit of hard work which will in turn do wonders for the mind and body as well.
A human being is a natural creation and a part of it cannot be artificial. Drugs produce effects that are artificial; be it the painkiller or the LSD effect, when you become part of another world. Once, one starts using drugs, one is less dependent on her/his own body functions and more dependent on this foreign stimulant. At first the body refuses to take in excess of such stuff and the person rejects it by throwing up. But once the bodily functions are somewhat affected and the normal working of the human body has decreased, the body gives in and the addict becomes a victim of overdose.
Many movies depict the complete destruction of a character due to drug abuse. Fashion portrays a super model Shonali (played by Kangana Ranaut), who initially a drug addict, spoils her entire career and subsequently, her whole life with her increasing dependence on drugs. In Dev D, Dev (Abhay Deol), doesn’t care to see how much he has started deteriorating in the eyes of those who love him. Other movies like Devdas, Don-2, we see that though the protagonists knew that another drink would kill them, yet they could not restrain themselves. They chose drugs over normal life, destruction over self-restraint.
Many times, events in our lives compel us to give up all hope and shut ourselves up in darkness. Most people use drugs in such a situation to escape that dreadful feeling of loss. And this is the excuse many of our friends give when we come to know about their addictive habits. Most of the times we let them indulge in it, thinking it would be better for them to forget the incident. However, supporting the usage of drugs is as dangerous as misuse of drugs. As a responsible generation, we have to make a decision now; we have to say ‘No’ to drugs.
Nothing can equal the confidence with which an innocent child dreams. These dreams long to be fulfilled by the child buried deep inside us as we grow up. Some claim to need drugs just to feel confident, yet a major bulk of the world population is functioning very well without drugs.
A drug is not a prerequisite for existence. With an able mind and body, we can surely create our own style, we can have our own vision. With a little awareness we can be naturally high on confidence and nurture our own dreams.
And now that we know that we can do well without drugs, we must completely do away with it. We can only be great individuals once we are completely independent, when we do not have to depend on anything to bring out the best in us.
A drug is not a scary subject. It’s just about a strong decision we’ve have make and say “No thanks, I’m fine without drugs”, whenever someone offers it to us.

Coordinator, La Martiniere for Girls
Source: Daily Dose May 2009

THE effectiveness of the country’s main drugs education programme for schools has been seriously questioned in the new National Drugs Strategy (NDS).
The NDS 2009-2016 said the design and concept of the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme was in line with best international practice.

“However, its effectiveness at second level was consistently questioned during the NDS consultation process, in particular by school-goers themselves.”

According to the national strategy, the aim of the SPHE is to build the esteem and confidence of young people by developing their life skills and substance misuse is regarded as “an integral” part of the curriculum.

The Walk Tall programme and On My Own Two Feet are key parts of the SPHE curricula at primary and post- primary level respectively.

The NDS said one of the “key concerns” was the level of commitment given to the programme by individual schools and the supports available to teachers.

The report said an external evaluation by NUI Galway found a number of limitations with the programme:

* Support services were crucial for school and teachers that find it difficult to implement SPHE.

* There is little engagement with parents in the planning and development of the programme.

* Curriculum overload, timetable pressures and lack of status for SPHE affect its provision in schools.

The NDS concluded: “School-based education programmes, on which the NDS places particular emphasis, were considered to be very uneven in their delivery and, therefore, in their overall impact.

“The impact fundamentally depends on the commitment of individual schools and the confidence and competence of individual teachers. Young people consulted were highly critical of their experiences of the delivery of SPHE.”

The strategy called for improved delivery of SPHE in primary and secondary levels, taking into account the views of the evaluation.

The NDS said only 72% of schools responded to a Department of Education survey as to whether they had substance misuse policies. Of those, 71% of primary schools and 75% of post-primary schools had policies.

The strategy said the provision of drug education in non-school settings remained “fragmented and uncoordinated”.

It said that the provision of alternative recreational facilities for young people was also “underdeveloped”.

That was despite the provision of facilities under the Young People’s Facilities and Services Fund, which had provided e127.5 million between 2002 and 2007 to 500 services and facilities.

The strategy said the Office for the Minister for Children was currently examining the issue of youth cafes.

“During the consultation phase for the new strategy, the need to ensure late night and weekend opening of such facilities was highlighted,” it said.

The NDS regards a stabilisation in recent (last year) drug use among young people and a reduction in current (last month) usage as a key performance indicator in the area of prevention.
Source: Irish Examiner Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Aim is reducing first-time use of dangerous narcotic through outreach, media
The Hawaii Meth Project kicks off today at the Kalihi YMCA, citing a new survey that says 30 percent of Hawai’i teens believe there is no risk to trying meth, and 19 percent say it’s readily available.
The statewide drug prevention project targets youths 12 to 17 years old and is aimed at reducing first-time methamphetamine use through a community outreach program and aggressive — some would say graphic — media campaign that begins today.
In one radio spot, Gloria, a 15-year-old recovering drug user, confesses:
“When you’re doing ice, everything is fast, everything is going like 500 mph, and all you can think about is getting high. And then I started doing things I normally wouldn’t do. I would have sex with my dealer for money. I would have sex with guys for money. I lost myself completely in one month.”
Hawai’i has one of the nation’s worst meth problems, ranking behind just four other states in a 2007 survey measuring meth use.Meth is one of the most addictive, destructive drugs in terms of the financial burden and human cost, said Michael Broderick, lead judge of the Special Division of First Circuit Family Court.
“Once someone has begun using, it’s very difficult to get them to stop,” Broderick said. “The Hawaii Meth Project is crucial to our efforts to combat this epidemic by preventing our young people from ever trying meth.”
In Hawai’i the perception among youths is that meth is good and consequences are minimal, so using it once or twice is not a problem, said Cindy Adams, executive director for the Hawaii Meth Project.
“It’s really alarming that kids see significant benefit with meth use in the way of weight loss, increased energy and alleviating boredom,” Adams said. “They don’t correlate risk with use.”
The television portion of the project’s Not Even Once campaign shows young, vibrant teens promising to try the drug just once, then spiraling out of control, losing their good looks, selling their bodies and turning to crime to sustain a habit they thought they could control. Radio ads made from testimonials by recovering teen drug users like Gloria will also be used.
Gloria goes on to say in her ad: “I lost my friend. (He) hung himself because of it, because he couldn’t handle hearing all the voices he heard,” Gloria said. “My friends were all selling their bodies. They’re in jail. Two of them are dead.”
Adams acknowledged that some people might have a visceral reaction to the spots, but she said the kids say this is what gets their attention. Before the campaign, the Meth Project surveyed 1,065 teens, 318 young adults and 400 parent of teens. Their replies demonstrate the need to change youths’ perception, Adams said.
The 2009 Hawaii Meth Use & Attitudes Survey found that one in three teens believes there is little or no risk in trying meth, 35 percent believe it can help you lose weight, 24 percent believe it gives you energy, 21 percent believe it can make you happy and 19 percent believe it helps alleviate boredom.
The survey also shows that teens and young adults are at high risk of exposure to meth, with 19 percent of the teens and 36 percent of young adults reporting that meth is readily available.
According to a 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 7.3 percent of Hawai’i 10th-graders said they had used meth, up 87 percent from 2005. National surveys on drug use and health conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that Hawai’i ranked fifth in the nation for meth use by people 12 and older as recently as 2007.
Besides the television and radio ads, the project will place posters in areas where youths visit and run banner ads on www.MySpace.com, a popular Internet destination for youth ages 12 to 17. Eight radio spots were made from interviews with Hawai’i teenage drug users. Their names and neighborhoods were changed to protect their identities, but their stories are real, Adams said.
Lucien, 18, would use the rent money to buy his drugs and he said he didn’t care when his mother would cry about it.
“I started doing meth when I was 12 years old,” Lucien said in his radio spot. “My mom used to cut open her pillow and put her wallet inside and sleep on the pillow. It was so hard for her to trust us.”
Alan Shinn, executive director of Coalition for Drug Free Hawaii, said meth use is reportedly down in the Islands, but the state’s love affair with the drug persists. He said preventive education is a proven way to reduce the problem. When Montana launched the first such Meth Project in 2005, it was ranked No. 5 in the nation for meth use. Two years later, meth use among teens had dropped by 45 percent, and Montana ranked 39th.
“(Hawaii Meth Project) is looking at youths who have not ever used it, so they’re trying to keep them from using it at all,” Shinn said. “So for some of them, yes, I think it will be very effective, and for others, I think we’re going to have to look at other methods or strategies.”
Source: Honolulu Advertiser. 5th June 2009

An examination into the €140 million spent by State agencies on drug treatment services has found a very small proportion of heroin-users on methadone maintenance ever get off the drug.
About 8,000 people in the greater Dublin area are on methadone maintenance, the main form of treatment for heroin addiction, according to a special report by the Comptroller Auditor General. However, it is estimated annually that about 1.25 per cent progress to detoxification treatment or follow-on rehabilitation.
The report says there are no national targets for treatment progression and calls on health authorities to set objectives to help provide better planning. However, it acknowledges that long-term methadone treatment is likely to be the best outcome that can be achieved for a significant proportion of heroin users.
It is one of a series of often critical findings in a report which raises questions about how effectively the Government’s National Drugs Strategy is being implemented. Other key findings in the report are:
* About 460 people were waiting over a year for methadone treatment in April 2008. The official target is to provide treatment within a month of assessment.
* Cannabis and cocaine use is increasing, but there has not been a proportional increase in the number of cases treated for problem-use of these drugs.
* Non-opiate drug users in the capital are less likely to get treatment than elsewhere in the country, possibly due to the heavy focus on opiate drug treatment services in Dublin.
* Drug treatment courts – where drug use may be a contributory factor in offending – handled just 22 cases a year, rather than about the 100 originally envisaged. The completion rate of this programme is just 17 per cent.
Responding to the report yesterday, Fine Gael’s community affairs spokesman Michael Ring TD described the drug problem as a “national crisis” and said Government spending cutbacks on treatment services would create massive problems in the future.
“We have a drugs time bomb, just when the Government is cutting back on treatment services,” he said. “The budgets for local drugs task forces have been slashed by 20 per cent, while funding for the Government’s own drugs advisory board has been slashed by 23 per cent.”
The report itself raises questions about whether the aims of the National Drugs Strategy – which is aimed at improving and co-ordinating the delivery of treatment of preventative services – are being reached.
The strategy, for example, envisaged that treatment would be based on a “continuum of care” model, which would co-ordinate services and provide for a better transition between different phases of care.
However, it says health authorities have still not put in place a national framework for care planning and management across the State. This would play a key role in providing wider social support – such as accommodation, education and training – to people with drug use problems.
The report also says it is important for local drugs projects to be governed by service level agreements that specify the services to be provided and the standards to be met. In addition, it calls for greater transparency on the cost of treatment and rehabilitation services, and says responsible agencies must provide more information on the effects of their actions or services.
The report says that more research is needed to continue evaluating the effectiveness of drug treatment services. While it says good and informative work has been done in the past, it is important to do follow-up studies to identify long-term outcomes for those in receipt of treatment.
Source:IrishTimes.com 6th June 2009

MAASTRICHT — About 30 cannabis-vending coffee shops in the south of the Netherlands announced Tuesday they would become private members’ clubs at the start of next year to keep out foreign drug tourists.
“We will transform the coffee shops from open establishments, accessible by all, to closed establishments of which clients need to be members,” Maastricht’s Mayor Gerd Leers told a press conference in the border town.
In the latest move away from the traditionally liberal Dutch approach to such issues as soft drugs and prostitution, coffee shops in the province of Limburg said they would start issuing membership cards.
The application procedure would take several days, in effect preventing short-term tourists from buying marijuana. The move is backed by the national government, and is seen as a pilot project for possible expansion to other areas.
Some four million foreigners travel to Limburg every year to buy cannabis, according to a municipal official.
The measure, to be applied uniformly by all coffee shops in the province which borders Belgium and Germany, would seek to “discourage the majority of drug tourists,” said Leers. “We have been fighting for years against the nuisance brought here by the Belgians, the French and the Germans,” he added. These included damage to city property, heavy road traffic, a rising trade in hard drugs and other criminal activities.
From January 1 next year, the province will limit the sale of cannabis in its coffee shops to three grams per person per day. Each buyer would have to present a membership card that would work on the basis of a fingerprint, iris or some similar identification system. Purchases will only be possible by bank card or credit transfer.
Dutch law allows the consumption and possession of up to five grams of cannabis per individual, but prohibits the cultivation and mass retail of the soft drug. Some 700 so-called coffee shops nationwide have special licenses to sell marijuana but are allowed to keep no more than 500 grams on site.
Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst told Tuesday’s launch that the new project was the first step in a “harder approach to illegality” by Dutch law enforcement. Also, the Dutch Council of State, which advises the government on legislation, had asked the European Court of Justice to weigh the legality of limiting access to Dutch coffee shops to Dutch citizen. An answer is expected in about 18 months.
Several Dutch municipalities have recently announced plans to close all or part of the coffee shops within their borders, partly to discourage crime and drug tourism.
But Leers said closing coffee shops was not a viable alternative, as this risked “chasing clients into illegality”.
Source: Agence France-Presse 05/13/2009

AUSTRALIA is in a mental health crisis. It’s not impending. It’s here. Government figures show one in four people under 25 will suffer a mental illness.
While we’re worrying about lifting the retirement age and caring for our ageing population, it will cost billions to treat people who develop mental illness in their youth. This bill will soar if we don’t act now.

The ready availability of alcohol and its enthusiastic promotion to make it a normal part of society are major contributors to the youth mental health problem.
According to the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, more than 20 per cent of 14 to 19-year-olds drink alcohol weekly. A third of boys aged 12-17 downed seven-plus drinks at a time and one in three girls put away five or more in a session.
One in 20 students put away 50 standard drinks or more in a month. An Australian study published in international medical journal The Lancet found that alcohol caused 27 per cent of deaths involving 15 to 29-year-olds in 2002.
That’s tragic, but the physiological effects of drinking on young, developing brains are much more insidious. Brain development continues until the age of 20. Damage from alcohol during this time can be long-term and irreversible. Adolescents need only drink half as much as adults to suffer the same memory loss.
Kids who binge once a week, or increase their drinking between the ages of 18 and 24, increase their chances of not attaining the goals of young adulthood like marriage, educational attainment, employment and financial independence.
While alcohol consumption rates among young people have remained stable for 30 years, what’s really disturbing is the rising intensity of drinking in a small proportion of young people, especially girls.
TV networks have profited tremendously from aggressive alcohol industry ads. The Australian Medical Association has called for a ban on cable and free-to-air TV alcohol ads before 10pm but why not go a step further and ban all alcohol marketing?
Alcohol is a legal product, but why allow it to be marketed so aggressively when the Government is spending millions telling Aussie kids not to binge?
Parents set an example, but an Australian Childhood Foundation report in 2004 said 60 per cent of parents felt they could do better. About 75 per cent said being a mother or father did not come to them naturally. That tallies with research this year by Generation Next, the parenting education group that I will represent in a town hall-style seminar at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on Saturday.
The Generation Next survey of the parents of 500 children found half were worried or concerned by the challenge of raising children and one in five felt overwhelmed.
When we give them a no-nonsense helping hand and take away the alcohol marketing that makes their job harder, they may become confident enough to take the next step of talking to their kids.
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is a Melbourne adolescent psychologist. More information about the Generation Next seminars at www.gennext seminars.com.
Source: heraldsun.com.au 9th June 2009

According to a report CASA issued this morning, federal, state and local governments spend almost half a trillion dollars every year — almost 11 percent of their total budgets — as a result of alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse and addiction. The worst part is that, for federal and state spending, about 95% of that money is spent “Shoveling Up” the mess created by a failure to provide enough money for prevention and treatment.
That’s right. Out of every dollar federal and state governments spent on substance misuse in 2005 (the latest data available), 95 cents paid for the enormous burden of this problem on health care, criminal justice, child welfare, education, and other programs. And only 2 cents were invested in prevention and treatment programs that could reduce many of these costs – and save lives.
1. See detailed expenses for your state and download the report:

http://www.jointogether.org/NO

Our researchers studied all federal, state and local budgets for 2005 using careful, conservative methods to determine how much of each major budget category was directly linked to substance misuse. For example, they determined how much of each state’s Medicaid and other health care expenses were due to one of over 70 medical diagnoses that are caused or made worse by alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse and addiction. They did the same for criminal justice, welfare and other key government budgets. They also identified all government spending on prevention, treatment and research, regulation of alcohol and tobacco products and drug interdiction.
When the numbers are added up, the total is really shocking: 467.7 billion dollars. Spending less than 2% of the federal and state costs for prevention and treatment, and more than 95% shoveling up the mess, is upside down public policy that wastes billions in taxpayer dollars at a time when resources are scarce, and results in untold human suffering.
David L. Rosenbloom, President and CEO
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia Univ.
Source: CASA May 2009

ROUGHLY one-third of Australians have tried it. Half of all people aged 20 to 29 have used it and some of those, like Jade, have smoked so much cannabis that their mental health has crumbled, triggering depression, psychosis, panic attacks, paranoia and even suicidal thoughts.
Former cannabis user Jade experienced paranoia and psychosis before she successfully sought treatment. “It was very scary. I thought people could read my mind. I was getting messages from watching TV. I was very paranoid. I felt like there was a big conspiracy and that everyone was in on this agenda and it was all about me. Cameras were on me. It was something I’ll remember forever and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” recalls Jade, now 29, off “bongs” and studying for a career in youth work.
Jade — who began smoking when she was only 13 — says the psychosis she experienced from using and eventually abusing cannabis landed her in Melbourne University’s Orygen Youth Health in-patient clinic for eight days. She wishes someone had helped her recognise that she had a serious cannabis use problem before she hit the wall. Unfortunately, if anybody noticed, they did nothing.
Now somebody is doing something, if not for Jade then for other young people at risk of cannabis-induced mental health problems. The Orygen Youth Health Research Centre has teamed up with the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre — based at the University of NSW — to produce the first evidence-based guidelines to help people such as Jade’s friends and family identify and assist users who may be sliding down the slope to mental illness. The so-called “first aid” guidelines reflect NCPIC’s job description, says its director Jan Copeland. “There’s a lot of community misinformation about cannabis and only a small proportion of people with problems seek treatment”. And that’s a worry, claims Copeland, a research psychologist specialising in drug and alcohol addiction: “The earlier the intervention the better the outcome.”
Not only can heavy cannabis use lead to the kind of mental illness Jade suffered, it can worsen problems associated with the use of alcohol and other illicit drugs. The resulting emotional cocktail has a host of consequences: impaired judgment, breakdown of families and social connections, legal problems and injuries from car crashes and other accidents. While many of such difficulties can be alleviated by getting off cannabis, others may persist for years, or even life. That’s especially true if people being using very early.
Neuroscientists have learned that different parts of a young brain develop at different rates. Final “wiring” is not complete until the mid-20s, addiction psychiatrist Dan Lubman says. According to Lubman, with Orygen and Melbourne University, that discovery goes a long way to explain why 75 per cent of mental disorders commence before age 25. “It’s a time of huge developmental growth,” he says, noting that stress, drugs and genetic predispositions can make developing brains even more vulnerable.
Most experts agree that developmental mis-wiring involves the brain’s endocannabinoid system. That’s so, as it appears to modulate brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which relay and regulate signals between brain cells. Lubman says: “Certainly, there’s some evidence from animals that early use of cannabis can cause cognitive problems and problems with social interaction that persist and aren’t seen in adult animals.” There’s also solid evidence that young humans with abnormal brain development often experience a cascade of problems. For instance, cognitive difficulties may lead to poor school performance which may drive poor self-esteem, mixing with other uses, dropping out of school, multi-drug problems and so it goes.
Moreover, Jade’s raging paranoia may have been heightened by the increased potency of cannabis. Unlike the pot smoked by 60s hippies, today’s plants have been selectively bred to increase the amount of the active ingredient of euphoria and mood alteration, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. In a gardening twist, the rise in THC has been accompanied by a reduction of another cannabis ingredient, cannabidiol. Lubman says cannabidiol reduces anxiety and has been trialled as an anti-psychotic drug for conditions such as schizophrenia.
Little wonder that Jade found herself going from “giggling on the floor for hours” at 13 to full-blown psychosis at 20. As she escalated her intake of cannabis from light use to “a gram or two per day shared between friends”, her brain and behaviour went haywire. It’s quite possible that people close to Jade noticed that she had a problem. It’s also likely that they didn’t want to get involved, wished to keep the matter quiet or simply believed, incorrectly, it was a matter of morality. “A problem is the notion of hedonism, that users should be punished. They brought it on themselves and they don’t deserve help,” Lubman says. Hence, “Helping Someone with problem Cannabis Use: Mental Health First Aid Guidelines”. As well as simple information about cannabis abuse problems, the guidelines provide practical advice about issues such as approaching a person about their cannabis use, what to do if the person does not want professional help, how to find professional help and where to go for support.
Critically, every bit of information was identified and scrutinised for effectiveness and accuracy by 87 participants, divided into three panels: clinicians, carers of users and former users. Co-ordinated by Lubman’s group, the experts came from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US and Britain. Copeland claims this extensive process was necessary as much of the advice online and in books and other literature is inaccurate, useless or in some cases downright dangerous. While many suggestions are very specific — stay calm, don’t criticise the persons’ cannabis use, don’t bully or nag, ask about the person’s use instead of making assumptions, offer to help find professional help and the like — there are key things to keep in mind, claim both Lubman and Copeland. The key one being that many good treatments are available, from counselling to self-help groups.
Lubman ticks off important basics: “Be realistic about the outcomes. It may be the first time a person has been approached or thought about a problem. Be aware of local options. “Be prepared that the person may not want help and decide how you’ll respond, and understand what you will and won’t do to support the person.” Do the guidelines make sense? “Absolutely,” says Jade. In fact, right now she’s doing a placement with Orygen, working as a peer-support person. “When you’ve got somebody who’s been through it it’s good. They know what’s in your head. That’s why I’m here at Orygen. I’m trying to give back and be here for anyone else going through it.”
Source www.ncpic.org.au, www.mhfa.com.au 19 June 2009

Unlike their larger mainland cousins, the wallabies of Tasmania appear to be more trippy than Skippy. No lesser an authority than the island’s attorney general has discovered that hungry marsupials and thousands of acres of legal opium poppy fields do not mix.
“We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles,” Lara Giddings told a budget hearing on Wednesday. Nor does the problem end there. Even drugged-up marsupials, it seems, cannot break free of the physical law that demands that what goes up must come down. “Then they crash,” said Giddings. “We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high.”
Tasmania is the world’s biggest producer of legally grown opium for the pharmaceutical market. About 500 farmers grow the crop on 49,420 acres (20,000 hectares) of land, producing around half the raw opium for morphine and other opiates. Giddings was answering questions about the security of the island’s poppy stocks, which are estimated to be among the safest in the world. However, the attorney general noted that 2280 poppy heads had been stolen over the last financial year.
Rick Rockliff, field operations manager for Tasmanian Alkaloids – one of the two Tasmanian companies licensed to take medicinal products from poppy straw – said that deer and sheep that munched the poppies had been known to “act weird” afterwards.
“There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles,” Rockliff told the Mercury newspaper. He said growers did their best to stop the local lifestock invading the fields as there were worries over the contamination of meat from animals that ate the drug crops.
“There is also the risk to our poppy stocks, so growers take this very seriously but there has been a steady increase in the number of wild animals and that is where we are having difficulty keeping them off our land,” he said.
British animals appear to be more conservative in their choice of intoxicants. Last October, a drunk pony called Fat Boy had to be rescued from a Cornish swimming pool after gorging himself on fermented apples and falling into the water.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk 25 June 2009

3668 Bonita View Drive., Bonita, Ca. 91902 (619) 475 9941/475 9942 email rogermorgan339@sbcglobal.net

4/18/2009
To: President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

CC: Vice President Joe Biden
Director of The Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske

Dear Mr. President:

We, an international coalition of drug prevention professionals and organizations throughout the world, many with over thirty years of experience, believe that the nation’s problems of health, academic achievement, crime, welfare and resultant impacts on the federal and state budgets cannot be resolved without focusing on the root cause of all of these problems ….. alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (hereinafter ATOD). We therefore call upon the President of the United States to reduce the demand for ATOD as follows:

WHEREAS …..

• Almost all of our nation’s problems, are caused by or made worse by alcohol, tobacco
and illicit drugs. (hereinafter ATOD).

• In your first term of four years, unless there is a radical shift to prevent the disease of addiction, the nation will incur $2.4 TRILLION in cost and an estimated 2.8 MILLION AMERICANS WILL DIE from tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs and misuse of legal drugs.

• Addiction to ATOD is a “pediatric onset disease” (Dr. Barthwell, former Deputy Director of ONDCP). Almost all addiction begins with adolescents, aged 11 to 18 years old.

• If a young person reaches age 21 prior to first significant use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, they should virtually never have a problem. (Joseph Califano Jr., Chairman of CASA)

• Just as we inoculate for measles, small pox, polio and other diseases, if we universally employ the best known prevention methods we can significantly reduce the level of death, destruction and economic cost of health care, and increase academic achievement and productivity.

• America has 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 65% of illicit drugs. Over 2000 young people start smoking tobacco daily, 50% of whom will die from it, and in the process of dying will inflict enormous costs on society for health care. 50% of adolescents use drugs and alcohol, 25% frequently.

• Demand for drugs fuels the drug cartels which in turn financially underwrite terrorism and corruption in Mexico and throughout the world. Reducing demand is of equal importance to interdicting supply, and no longer an option if the nation is to effectively win the war on drugs.

• The High School Drop Out Rate – UC Santa Barbara recently concluded a study showing the average drop out rate in California is 24.2%. Each class of drop outs (127,000 students) cost California taxpayers $46.4 billion …. $365,000 PER DROP OUT, as two thirds will end up on welfare, in prison, and/or burdening public health care. Nationally there are 1.2 million high school drop outs (www.edweek.org). If the same cost figure applies as in California, the ANNUAL NATIONAL COST FOR HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUTS IS $438 BILLION.

• The Cost of Substance Abuse – NIDA reported in 2006 that the annual cost of illicit drugs to the nation was $181 billion, and when combined with alcohol they exceed $500 billion, which includes costs for healthcare, criminal justice and lost productivity. Add tobacco, and the figure is over $700 billion a year … SOON TO BE ONE TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

• Criminal Activity/Prison Overcrowding – Drugs and alcohol are implicated in roughly 85% of all crime. 80% of prison inmates are high school drop outs. Unless corrective measures are taken to improve the high school drop out rate, the social and economic costs to society will increase as the employment, crime, welfare and health care costs increase.

• Death Rate – According to The Center for Disease Control, overdose deaths in 2006 amounted to 3,042 deaths a month. In 1998, the last year total drug deaths were quantified, overdose deaths were only 27% of the total and drug related deaths comprised the balance. If that holds true today, 2,620 Americans die weekly from drugs….. almost the equivalent of 9/11, every week. But tobacco trumps them all, with 1200 deaths a day.

• Treatment vs Prevention – NIDA reported in 2006 23.6 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol (9.6% of persons aged 12 or older), and only 2.5 million actually got treatment. Every dollar spent on addiction treatment returned $4 to $7 dollars in reduction of drug-related crimes. While treatment is economically sound, and necessary, the savings in human lives, misery and costs from PREVENTING the problem to begin with could save HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ANNUALLY.

• States (and we think the federal government) spend 113 times as much to clean up the devastation that substance abuse visits on children as they do to prevent and treat it.” (Joseph Califano; 2001 Study called Shoveling Up: The Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets). This is appalling economic and social policy.

• “The primary responsibility for the protection of its people does lie with the state itself …. and, prevention is the single most important dimension of the responsibility to protect. “(George Soros, The Bubble of American Supremacy)

• Parents are considered to be the number one factor in determining a child’s at-risk behavior. However, parents are unable to protect all children without federal help. 56% of kids in American children are at moderate to high risk of substance abuse (CASA) and the only plausible way to ensure that all children are protected is with federally mandated and approved school-based drug prevention programs in all schools combined with improved education for students and their parents on the pharmacology of drugs.

• We cannot rely on persuasion to get 17,000 school boards in America to make the right choices to defer the onset of ATOD and protect kids. A federal mandate is required to direct schools to protect all kids using the best known prevention techniques starting with non-punitive random drug testing.

• ATOD is a national problem, that inflicts more death, destruction and economic cost on this nation than all other forms of terrorism combined. It makes no sense to focus on terrorism alone, or a war in Iraq that claimed 3,000 soldiers in four years, when 3,000 Americans die monthly just from drug overdose, not to mention a cost of $200 billion a year just for drugs ( $600 billion if one adds alcohol and tobacco.)

• Two of the most important responsibilities of all elected officials are to protect the people, and manage tax dollars intelligently.

• Schools, by virtue of the fact they house 98.5% of adolescents, are critical in terms of shoring up the shortfalls in parenting. A federal mandate for schools to implement the best known prevention practices is an absolute necessity to protect all kids.

• In large part due to drugs and alcohol, there are 6.1 million children in America being raised by grandparents or foster parents; 1.6 million of those are in foster homes.

• China has more children getting straight A’s in school than all of the kids in the school system in America combined, and 1.2 million kids in America don’t even graduate from high school. (Capt Len Kaine, Retired) We cannot retain our competitive position in the world if this is not corrected.

THEREFORE we request President Obama and the Administration to take the following actions to reduce the demand for alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs:

1) Implement a Demand Reduction Program in all schools for grades 6 through 12 to include:

A) A requirement for non-punitive random drug testing for ALL STUDENTS aged 11 to
17 years old. This is the best known tool for deterring the onset of ATOD use. It keeps kids in the system, gives them a reason to say no to peer pressure, takes the burden off teachers and the administration to play drug cop, identifies problems early so kids can get help if needed, keeps law enforcement out of the equation, gets parents involved when problems arise, decreases juvenile problems, and enhances academic achievement and graduation rates.

B) Use the best known practices to keep alcohol, tobacco and other drugs off campus.
According to CASA research, the propensity to use is 5 times greater if ATOD is readily available on campuses.

C) Strive to get Student Assistant Programs (SAP) and effective counselors on each campus, to
fill the void in many young people’s lives caused by the lack of effective parenting.

D) Continue with educational programs that convey an effective no-use message from grades
K – 12 for young people and adults in communicating the pharmacology of ATOD, and their effect on individuals and society in general.

E) Create activities during and after school that enhance physical fitness and healthy
lifestyles.

2) As a condition for receiving federal aid for welfare, health care or child/family assistance, require all
recipients to subject to random drug testing.

3) As a means of expanding knowledge on the pharmacology of drugs by parents and the general public, have ONDCP and/or the Department of Health and Human services provide materials and information to all major employers in the United States so they in turn can provide the information to their employees; and extend incentives such as tax credits for employees who pass an exam. Smaller employers should be allowed to piggy back on larger employers.

SUMMARY

The health of our nation, and the individuals in it, requires a coordinated effort by the Departments of Health and Human Service, Education and ONDCP, but most importantly, leadership from the President of the United States.

The magnitude of the problem suggests that DEMAND REDUCTION for alcohol, tobacco and other drugs is no longer an option, but a necessity, if America is to reduce the cost of health care, enhance education, productivity and retain its competitive position among nations. We pray that you will have the wisdom, courage and conviction to stand in the face of opposition and mandate a policy that will protect our young people, and in turn the future of our nation.

ENDORSED BY:

• Roger Morgan, Californians For Drug Free Schools
• Carla D. Lowe, Californians For Drug Free Schools
• Sandra Bennett, Northwest Center for Health & Safety
• Dee Rathbone, National Institute of Citizen Anti-Drug Policy
• Joyce Nalepka, Drug Free Kids, Americas Challenge
• Dr. Eric Voth, Consultant to the White House
• Ron Cuff, Partnership for Responsible Parenting
• Aurora Williams, Partnership for Responsible Parenting
• Dr. Arlene Seal, Founder & President, Positive Moves/CWD International, Inc.
• Dr. Eric Voth, Chairman of the Institute of Global Drug Policy
• Alex Romero, Founder, Arizonans for Drug Free Youth & Communities
• Mina Seinfeld de Carakushanksy, President of BRAHA, Brazilian Humanitarians in Action
• Brenda Chabot – The Inland Valley Drug Free Community Coalition
• Dr. Paul Chabot, Coalition for Drug Free California
• Lori Green, Yucca Valley Anti-Marijuana/drug Activist
• Cap Beyer, Chairman of the National Student Drug Testing Coalition
• Jeanette McDougall – MM, CCDP. Director – National Alliance for Health & Safety
• Katalin Szomor – Hungarian Parliament’s Drug Committee. Drug Czar 1991-1997
• Stephanie Haynes – SOS – Save our Society from Drugs
• Fabio Bernaber – President of Associazione Osservatorio Droga – Rome Italy
• Linda Taylor – Ex Director Repeal Prop 36 Fund. Anti Drug Activist
• Yvonne Gelpi, Former Head Mistress and Principle of De La Salle High School, New Orleans
• Geraldine Silverman – New Jersey Federation for Drug Free Communities
• Wayne Rogues – Retired DEA. Rogues Group
• Theresa Costello, Port Richmond Community Group, Philadephia
• Ruby Schaaf, R.N. The Chemical People of Erie County, Pa.
• Nancy Starr, The Chemcial People of Erie County, Pa.
• Kate Patten, The Kelley McEnery Baker Foundation. “Forever Kelley;s Mom”
• Susie Dugan, Drugwatch, Omaha, Nebraska

The rapidly changing HIV subepidemic at the border of the United States and Mexico, likely caused by population mobility and the drug and sex trades, may be rapidly affecting the overall HIV epidemic in Mexico. In a recent editorial, NIDA-funded researchers discussed studies of HIV infection at the United States–Mexico border in an effort to better understand factors shaping individual and network-level risks for acquiring HIV. Two different studies in the Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez showed a high prevalence of HIV infection among sex workers who were also injection drug users: 6 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Considerable population mobility exists at the Tijuana–San Diego (United States) border in both directions, with one study showing that one-fifth of injection drug users in Tijuana had traveled to the United States in the previous year. This mobility also occurs in other high-risk populations—for example, “nearly half of men having sex with men (MSM) in Tijuana and three-quarters of MSM in San Diego report having male sex partners from across the border,” explain the authors. The populations of border cities such as Tijuana largely come from other states in Mexico, and HIV-positive people can carry the infection back to their home states. Mexico now faces several challenges at the national level, including integrating treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections that are risk factors for HIV infection, and increasing the availability of antiretroviral therapy. The authors conclude that due to the high level of migration in all directions, bordering countries must be involved for HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in Mexico to be effective.

Source: Strathdee SA, Magis-Rodriguez C. Mexico’s evolving HIV epidemic. JAMA. 2008;300(5):571–573.

Men diagnosed with cancer are less likely to survive the disease if they were smokers or heavy drinkers, Reuters reported Nov. 7.
Smoking and drinking are well-known risk factors for cancer, but researchers have begun looking into how these addictions affect survivability, as well. Researcher Young Ho Yun and colleagues at the National Cancer Center in Goyang, South Korea tracked 14,578 cancer patients for about nine years and compared mortality data to patients’ history of smoking and alcohol use.
The researchers found that former smokers were more likely to die from any kind of cancer than non-smoking cancer patients, possibly because smoking causes tumors to grow more aggressively. Smokers also may be less likely to get cancer screening tests, the authors noted, so their disease is often further advanced when treatment begins.
Among patients with head, neck, or liver cancer, heavy drinkers were more likely to die than non-drinkers, with risk increasing with consumption levels.
“Our findings suggest that groups at high risk of cancer need to be educated continually to improve their health behaviors — not only to prevent cancer, but also to improve prognosis,” the study authors noted.
The research appears in the Nov. 1, 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Limit the sale of cannabis to local users, reconsider the distinction between hard and soft drugs, raise the legal age for drinking alcohol from 16 to 18 and appoint a drug czar to overlook policies. These are the most striking recommendations published on Thursday by a committee chaired by Christian democrat Wim van de Donk.
The Dutch government had asked the committee to lay the groundwork for a new memorandum on Dutch drug policies to be drafted this fall. The report is in line with repressive measures already taken in recent years, but the committee explicitly says it does not want to end the so-called ‘gedoogbeleid’ (tolerance policy), nor does it want to legalise the cannabis trade completely.
The three parties in the Dutch coalition government – Christian democrats, Labour and ChristenUnie (orthodox Christian) – agree that the present drugs policy needs to be revised. The country has seen a dramatic increase in drug tourism and exports of Dutch-grown cannabis have soared. That is not just causing problems at home, it also gives offence to other EU member states unhappy with the Dutch policy.
But the coalition parties don’t see eye to eye on which direction to take.
The current drugs policy is ambiguous at best: cannabis users are not prosecuted and coffee shops are licensed, but the cultivation and wholesale of cannabis are still prohibited. The Labour party has advocated including the production and wholesale of cannabis in the tolerance policy, but the Christian democrats favour complete prohibition.
Original purpose
Despite its international reputation as a Mecca for legal drugs, the use or possession of weed or hash is in fact still a misdemeanour in the Netherlands. But since a 1976 revision of the Opium Law separated hard drugs (e.g. cocaine, xtc) and soft drugs (cannabis), personal use of the latter is no longer prosecuted and the cafes that sell them are tolerated as well.
Dutch tolerance
# The use, possession or sale of cannabis have never been legalised in the Netherlands. Possession and production for personal use are considered misdeameanours. However, possesion of cannabis for personal use is not prosecuted up to five grammes or five cannabis plants.
# Coffee shops are allowed to stock a maximum of 500 grammes of cannabis.
# Large-scale production, export or import of cannabis are illegal, and should always prosecuted.
# In other words: coffee shop owners can legally sell cannabis but they cannot legally buy it.
The Van de Donk committee now wants the coffee shops to go back to their original purpose: they should be limited in number and size and cater to registered local users rather than the “large-scale facilities that supply consumers from neighbouring countries” they have become. This should reduce the nuisance caused by tourists who cross the German and Belgian borders to buy drugs.
Part of the motivation for the Dutch tolerance policy was to take soft drugs out of the criminal sphere by separating them from hard drugs. But as law professor Cyrille Fijnaut, a member of the Van de Donk committee, noted in an article published last March, this has never happened. Even if coffeeshops are legal, the production and trade are still in the hands of criminals, if only because supplying the coffeeshops is by definition illegal.
Experiment
The Van de Donk committee doesn’t propose changing that equation. It does suggest a limited experiment with regulating the supply line for coffee shops. It also wants to raise the maximum amount of cannabis a coffee shop owner can legally have in stock; it is currently capped at 500 grammes.The committee also questions the wisdom of the distinction between soft and drugs, and suggest that more research needs to be done on the subject.
The criminal character of a large part of the cannabis trade and the high values of the psychiactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in Dutch weed, could be reasons to revise the distinction, the committee said. However, experts have said that THC levels have gone down again in the past four years and research suggest that users adjust the amounts they smoke to the strength of the weed.
Committee suggestions
# limit the sale of cannabis to local users
# experiment with legal production and supply of members-only coffee shops
# order more research, possibly rethink distinction between soft and hard drugs
# appoint a drug czar to coordinate all initiatives
A substantial part of the report is dedicated to young people and how to protect them from the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol . Van de Donk wants to raise the legal age for drinking alcohol from 16 to 18, which is also the legal age for smoking cannabis.
Statistics actually show a decline in the number of Dutch teenagers using soft drugs, from 14 percent in 1996 to 10 percent today. Of the Dutch population between 15 and 64 less than 5 percent smokes drugs on a regular basis.
Drug czar
It is unclear if this is a result of the tougher approach recently taken to soft drugs. Although no drastic measures have been taken at the national level – apart from a ban on hallucinogenic ‘magic’ mushrooms last year – local authorities have clamped down on the cultivation, sale and use of soft drugs.
In Amsterdam and Rotterdam, coffee shops are banned within a 250 meters radius of high schools. Border towns Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal closed all their eight coffee shops to put a stop to the flood of Belgian drug tourists crossing the border to buy supplies. The largest coffee shop in the country, in the town of Terneuzen, was shut down in 2008 because it exceeded the allowed amounts of marijuana bought and sold. Its owner is being prosecuted for running a criminal organisation. The southern city of Maastricht is transforming its coffee shops in to members-only clubs.
Between 1997 and 2007 the number of coffee shops went down from 846 to 702.
The diversity of local initiatives calls for a clear national direction, the Van de Donk report says. Too many authorities are currently involved in developing and enforcing policies, which are related to issues of justice, health care, public safety, education and even foreign policy. The report calls for one drug czar to overlook all these areas. “The problem justifies a more binding ambition, based on political leadership, which also extends to connect us with our neighbours and the US”, according to Van de Donk.
Source: DailyDose. July 16th 2009

EMERGENCY departments in Queensland public hospitals are being strained by hundreds of thousands of drunken and violent patients.
Almost one person a minute is thought to be attending the state’s emergency departments for alcohol-related reasons, but experts fear that could be a conservative estimate. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine chairman David Rosengren said studies showed alcohol was a factor in 25-30 per cent of presentations at emergency departments.
The latest figures produced by Queensland Health showed that 373,000 people presented at its emergency departments in three months.
“Alcohol is such an insidious undercurrent in a lot of other presentations,” Dr Rosengren said. “It can be one of three things – the cause of that presentation, someone intoxicated or on the receiving end of intoxication. The vast majority of what we see in an emergency departments from the violence of alcohol is people who have been in fights punched up.”
Dr Rosengren said the true extent of the problem was unknown because alcohol was not recorded in emergency data. “It’s a very big issue, but we can’t actually record that because there’s no system in place,” he said. So any figure that we’re going to see is going to be a gross underestimate of the actual true incidents of alcohol-related problems. All we can do is correlate from other data sets that exist but we work on specific studies that are published, which indicate 25-30 per cent of all ED presentations have alcohol as a factor in some manner – either the primary or secondary cause.”
Dr Rosengren, a staff specialist at Royal Brisbane Hospital, said Friday and Saturday nights were the busiest times for the hospital. “A hospital such as Royal Brisbane, which is close to the nightclub spots in the Fortitude Valley, just fills up,” he said.
Since October last year, RBH, Gold Coast and Cairns hospitals have been part of a Queensland Health trial targeting people presenting for alcohol and drug problems. Addiction Psychiatry director Mark Daglish said it saw up to 480 people a month and 80 per cent of those cases were because of alcohol.
“We know we’re missing a significant proportion because there are those ones who come in, particularly on a Friday and Saturday night, who have been discharged,” he said. “We reckon it’s usually about a third of all inpatients usually have drug and alcohol problems – so it’s big numbers. The common ones we see in the morning are losers of fights.”
Dr Daglish said three-quarters of people presenting in emergency for alcohol or drugs were males and almost all were under 45. “If you’re talking about alcohol and violence, you’re generally talking about men unless they’re taking it out on women,” he said.
“Alcohol and testosterone is a dangerous mix – it really is. On the Gold Coast, they’re seeing a younger population than we’re seeing, which would be in keeping with their demographic on the Gold Coast.”
Dr Daglish said people needed to be made more aware of the acute impacts of binge drinking, and recommended rolling the intervention program across all Queensland hospitals. “The impetus for the service came from this realisation that a lot of the problems from alcohol and drugs come from the early users who are often not yet dependent or not yet in treatment but are still causing themselves and other people a lot of damage,” he said.
“A lot of them were young and not in treatment, but one place they did go was the emergency department, usually on a Friday and Saturday night, usually intoxicated at the time, and there’s a fair few frequent attendees. If you intervene in their drug and alcohol use early, you can shorten the duration of their admission, which means they’re spending less time in the hospital and they’re in treatment towards their substance abuse as well as the trauma.
“Once they’re dependent, you need a lot more.”
Source www.couriermail.com.au 21st July 2009

A new ordinance in Milan bans alcohol for those under 16 in an effort to curb drinking problems among youth. The ordinance calls for fines of up to €500 for younger teens caught drinking and for those who give or sell them alcohol. Italy has no minimum drinking age – only a rarely enforced ban on serving alcohol in public to those under 16. According to the article, “In Milan, 34 per cent of 11-year-olds have had problems with alcohol…. Overall, 22.4 per cent of boys aged 11-18 and 13 per cent of girls in Italy have drinking habits that pose a health risk, according to the National Observatory for Alcohol.”
Source: Associated Press 20 July 2009 published in New Zealand Herald

Arnold Schwarzenegger believes it could solve California’s spiralling financial crisis and supporters rave about its positive effects, so could marijuana be coming to a shop near you? Shane Dunphy reportsChanging attitudes: Legalising cannabis may be on the horizon in California, thanks to a softened stance from Arnold Schwarzenegger

The drug of choice for the free-love counterculture, marijuana has probably received more mixed press than any other recreational drug. Regular users speak of its positive effects: relaxation, warm, friendly feelings towards others and an expanded world-view.

Medical research, however, suggests that marijuana smoke actually contains more toxic substances than tobacco smoke. A study commissioned by the Canadian government, for example, determined that marijuana smoke contained 20 times more ammonia, and five times more hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen oxides than its legal counterpart, making it potentially much more harmful.

Yet the debate as to whether marijuana and its various related substances ( hashish, kief, and hash oil ) should be decriminalised continues, and the latest place to consider the ramifications of such a move is the US state of California.

Supporters of legalised marijuana claim that the drug can solve California’s spiralling financial crisis. A series of television ads was launched last week supporting a bill by Democratic assemblyman Tom Ammiano that would regulate and tax the sale of marijuana in the Golden State, where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration is in a $26bn ( €18.7bn ) black hole.

One of the 30-second films features an “actual marijuana user”. She is a retired, 58-year-old civil servant called Nadine Herndon, shown in front of her family portraits at home in Sacramento County, where she began using the drug after suffering a series of strokes three years ago. She speaks of the huge cuts to police, schools and healthcare that are imminent due to California’s budget crisis. She points out that Schwarzenegger and his legislature are ignoring millions of Californians who want to contribute by paying taxes on their marijuana usage.

The series of advertisements seem to have achieved their goal, as even the arch-conservative ‘Governator’ has softened his stance, and publicly stated that it is time to open the debate on fully legalising the weed, medical use of which was introduced in California by a majority vote in a 1996 referendum.

Commentators propose that there is a huge demographic in California who will support legalisation — children of the participants of the Summer of Love, who were raised within a hippy ethos, believing that smoking the occasional joint is perfectly normal.

The logical extension to this argument is obvious: if legalising marijuana can solve bankrupt California, then why not Ireland? A recent survey by the HSE showed that as many as 15pc of the Irish population use marijuana regularly ( at least once a year ), while 2pc use it daily. The highest using group, the study found, was 15–34 year olds.

Marijuana, as most people encounter it, is a dry, shredded green and brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves derived from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol; THC for short.

The average user will buy marijuana by the quarter ounce, the average price of which is around €100. This will make approximately 20 average sized joints, putting the price of a joint at around a fiver, making it a reasonably competitive alternative to alcohol. Whether legalisation and an added tax would increase this price is open to conjecture. Perhaps a government sanctioned hash farmer, growing in bulk and without the need to hide from the law, would be able to produce a crop more cheaply than the current black market gardeners. And think of all the green jobs.

The campaign for legalisation in Ireland has been ongoing for many years, making a minor celebrity out of its most outspoken and flamboyant spokesperson, Luke “Ming the Merciless” Flanagan, currently a county councillor in Roscommon. Occasionally a TD ( usually in need of some cheap publicity ) will attempt to reopen the legalisation debate, but Ireland has never taken the argument really seriously — a fact that might change if California bites the hemp bullet.

Legalisation has been tried in other countries, with varying degrees of success. Some countries, Belgium, for instance, while not overtly legalising cannabis, tolerate its usage, and so long as the amount in your possession could be reasonably defined as for personal usage, the authorities will turn a blind eye. Canada legally permits small amounts of the drug to be held for personal usage, although marijuana is still grown and traded on the black market and is not yet centrally controlled.

Holland has become synonymous with the legalisation of marijuana, where it can be purchased legally through specially designated coffee shops, in the form of marijuana cigarettes, in teas and in cakes and biscuits. Interestingly, Holland does not condone the purchase of marijuana wholesale or in bulk, and this has, apparently, led to continued problems with the black market sale of the drug, and what the Dutch describe as “nuisance drug users”.

Recent studies of schools in Amsterdam show that the incidence of young people using marijuana regularly is slightly higher than Ireland, at 15.8pc. These studies have also commented on the growing levels of THC, the active ingredient, in Dutch cannabis, suggesting that long-term exposure has created an appetite for stronger and stronger crops, which private growers are doing their best to engineer.

New findings which link regular use of the drug to depression and lethargy have also brought the Dutch government under fire, and earlier this year 27 coffee shops were closed, all within 200 metres of schools. The traditional Dutch stance that marijuana is a harmless and relatively innocent soft drug seems to be under revision.

So while California is considering broadening its laws, Holland, with many years’ experience of selling marijuana openly, is tightening its legislation.

It would seem that this is a debate we will be hearing much more about as the international recession continues.
Source: Irish Independent 25th July 2009

For years, Germany has been famous for its tolerant stance toward public drinking. Now many communities are finding that drunken youths are a public nuisance and a danger both to others and themselves. Although several approaches have been taken to solve the problem, few have worked.
The teenager should be home by now but, instead, he’s lying here passed out on the grass next to a pool of his own vomit. His friend says the boy is 15 — and that he actually laid off things a bit tonight. He only had a couple of beers and a few swigs from a bottle — “something sweet with vodka” — being passed around. And then he suddenly just fell down.
German municipalities are battling an epidemic of youths whose drunken rowdiness is upsetting local residents and spawning a number of tough legal countermeasures.
For Ingrid Friedrich and Dirk Geist, both public safety officials in the southwestern German city of Heidelberg, this is the first completely intoxicated teenager they will have to attend to tonight — but he certainly won’t be the last. The weather is good, it’s summer, and it’s just past 10 p.m. Hundreds of drinking youths have taken their usual places in Heidelberg’s Neckarwiese Park.
It’s Geist and Friedrich’s job to patrol the area until 2 a.m. and make sure things don’t get too far out of hand. They’ll hand out fines to people who urinate on trees or in house entryways. They’ll summon an ambulance for those who collapse, like the boy here on the grass. And they’ll call in the police if drunk people start fighting or jumping into the Neckar River.
Battling the Boozing
Scenes like this have become commonplace throughout Germany. All over the country, police, public safety officials and private citizens have been complaining about excessive drinking in public. Their complaints stem from garbage left in parks, the stench of urine and techno music blaring until late at night. But they’re also about the rioting and violence that drinking unleashes in these young people.
The state can’t make these teens grow up. But it can try to bring their drinking under control through laws and new regulations. Or it can use another strategy — offering them healthier and less disruptive leisure-time activities, such as beach volleyball instead of sunset boozing, or youth clubs instead city bus stops, where they party, make out and fight.
The past few weeks have shown that blanket bans are hard to enforce. For example, an administrative court in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg recently decided in favor of a law student from Freiburg who felt that the nighttime ban imposed early last year on alcohol consumption in that city’s old town was an unacceptable restriction on the freedom of people who don’t necessarily destroy park benches after enjoying a beer or two in the evening sun. The court’s reasoning drew parallels with how swimming bans aren’t imposed on lakes just because someone has drowned in them.
Nevertheless, Germany’s towns and states are still trying to find ways — including some that are used in the United States — to effectively prevent public beer and liquor consumption in certain squares, streets and parks. Following the ruling related to Freiburg, Heribert Rech, Baden-Württemberg’s interior minister, announced that he now wants to amend relevant police laws. “I won’t leave the towns in the lurch,” he says.
Berlin has already imposed an alcohol ban in its famous Alexanderplatz, where “Friday get-togethers” used to draw around 500 young people a week. The gatherings frightened tourists away, annoyed local residents and put a strain on the city’s garbage-disposal service, which had to cart off truckloads of bottles and cans each week after the party was over.
What particularly upsets the residents is the mountain of waste left behind by careless revelers. In 2008 alone, Berlin’s poison control hotline recorded 260 cases of small children who swallowed cigarette butts they had found in parks or playgrounds. And in Berlin’s hip, young district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, a recent citizens’ clean-up day collected 3,100 bottle caps left in grassy areas and bushes. Resentment toward young drinkers in the neighborhood has gotten so strong that some people have even thrown water balloons on them from several flights up.
Priggish Party Poopers?
City officials and residents in Hamburg are also losing patience with the level of chaos there in Europe’s most famous nightlife district, the Reeperbahn. The behavior exhibited by some drinking teens has “changed dramatically,” says Ulrich Wagner, head of the local Davidwache police station. The proportion of crimes committed under the influence of alcohol in the St. Pauli area, which encompasses the Reeperbahn, lies at 42 percent — or three times the citywide average for Hamburg. Since drunks have been known to strike passersby with bottles, the city’s senate has now banned glasses and bottles from the Reeperbahn at night.
Rainer Thomasius, a physician specializing in addiction research at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, considers it an “absolutely reasonable approach” to make the area surrounding the Reeperbahn at least partially dry. Germany makes it much too easy, he says, for minors to get drunk any time and anywhere. Thomasius also thinks that it is “utterly wrong” that a six-pack of beer sometimes costs less than €2 ($2.90). He says these give-away prices are partly responsible for the fact that more and more young people are finding wild drinking binges that ultimately bring them to his clinic.
Throughout Germany’s cities and states, there is a wide range of ideas being bandied about, but they all relate to the same thing: how to spoil the fun for these pedestrian-zone partiers. Baden-Württemberg wants to cut off their access to more supplies by forbidding gas stations and newsstands from selling alcohol between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Police there also started conducting checks last week on teenagers carrying soft drink bottles to see if they had spiked them with vodka.
The state of Lower Saxony, on the other hand, has started sending young mystery shoppers to sniff out supermarkets that sell beer and liquor to 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds. And Sabine Bätzing, the federal government’s chief anti-drug official, is using a two-pronged positive approach of using “attractive leisure-time activities and informational campaigns” to lure minors away from drinking.
Moving Targets
Wolf-Egbert Rosenzweig is the mayor of Neu Wulmstorf, a town of 20,000 just outside Hamburg. He has already tried just such a positive approach. He hired social workers to counsel teens on the streets, and he gave the local youth center more funding. But even after months of funding and counseling, no one succeeded in winning the teens’ trust. Unimpressed by the government’s efforts, the first young drinkers still turned up in the town’s marketplace in the early afternoon to get plastered on cheap beer bought at a nearby discount shop.
Still, word had already gotten out that Neu Wulmstorf was a happening place, and more teens started showing up on its streets. Pedestrians felt threatened by the young drinkers, sales at retail shops and restaurants took a nosedive, and residents of a nearby retirement home complained about garbage and dirty benches.
The town decided to take a tougher approach, but it’s been hard to implement. There simply aren’t enough police officers and public safety officials to constantly keep their eyes on what’s happening and pinpoint individual wrongdoers each time while staying within their legal boundaries.
Ultimately, after a 15-year-old girl was found unconscious and covered in vomit on the edge of the marketplace, Rosenzweig and the town council threw all caution to the wind — and imposed an alcohol ban. Now drinking is only allowed in the town’s marketplace under one set of circumstances — when newlywed couples want to have a champagne toast after their marriage ceremony.
In the beginning, local teens demonstrated against the ban and demanded that it be at least partly lifted. But Rosenzweig didn’t budge.
The teens eventually gave up their protests, but the mayor still hasn’t gotten rid of the real problem. The owner of a local gas station recently complained to him that the drunken youths were back, only this time they were on his property.
Source: Spiegel Online International 3rd August 2009

Nine people accounted for 2,678 of the emergency room visits in the Austin, Texas, area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report by the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients. The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless.
Source: St.Petersburg Times. 4th April 2009

THE United Kingdom is the cocaine capital of Europe, with more than a million regular users taking the drug, according to a new report.
And one of Scotland’s top drug experts said yesterday that given the biggest per capita consumption was north of the Border, the country was probably Europe’s capital of the class A substance.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the UK was Europe’s largest cocaine market. But its report said the quality of the drug had declined dramatically in recent years. The report said a crackdown on traffickers had pushed cocaine prices up and led to dealers diluting the drug even more.

Some seizures by police revealed that substances being passed off as cocaine that were only 5 per cent pure. The UN found dealers mixing their product with cutting agents such as dental and veterinary anaesthetics, which mimic the effects of cocaine but are much cheaper.

There are estimated to be 860,000 cocaine users in England and Wales and about 140,000 in Northern Ireland and Scotland combined. The World Drug Report 2009 revealed that cocaine use had increased dramatically in the UK from the mid-1990s, but remained stable over the past two years.

Data given to the UN by the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency shows that wholesale prices have risen to record levels. The cost of a kilogram of cocaine has increased by 50 per cent – from £30,000 to £45,000 – since 2007. The report says: “The UK thus continues to be – in absolute numbers – Europe’s largest cocaine market, with its second highest cocaine use prevalence rate.”

Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, said he was not surprised at the UN’s conclusions. “A few years ago I said that in due course cocaine would overtake heroin, and I think that’s what we’re going to see. Heroin use may have plateaued at quite a high level, but cocaine use has been rising quite dramatically.” He added: “Scotland typically is the highest centre of drug consumption in the UK anyway, so it could well be that it is the cocaine capital of Europe.”

Source: The Scotsman 25th June 2009

The breakdown shows health boards and councils forked out £77 million on drug services in 2007 and just under £26 million on alcohol services.
Drug and alcohol abuse is costing Scotland nearly £5billion a year, according a report by the watchdog Audit Scotland. The breakdown shows health boards and councils forked out £77million on drug services in 2007 and just under £26million on alcohol services.
The report said spending patterns did not always reflect national priorities or need, and funding arrangements are often “complex and fragmented”.
Death rates for alcohol and drug abuse in Scotland are amongst the highest in Europe and have doubled in the last 15 years. This is while rates decrase in other parts of Europe. The number of alcohol-related deaths in 2007 was 1,399 – compared to 455 drugs-related deaths.
The report has called for a more co-ordinated approach to services.
Auditor General Robert Black said: “The range of services for people in need of help can depend on where they live and there is not enough information about the effectiveness of these services.”
Scottish ministers have not set out minimum national standards that victims and their families can expect from drug and alcohol services. The report says ministers need to work with the NHS, councils and others to ensure they all know their responsibilities. While recent Scottish Government strategies have a focus on prevention, only 6 per cent of direct spending was on preventive activities.
Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said: “This report came about as a result of Scottish Conservative pressure in the 2008 budget. We suspected there was chaos in how funding streams were directed towards addressing addiction. The horrific truth has now been exposed and I am shocked at the sheer scale of the drugs and alcohol problem in Scotland.”
Labour’s Cathy Jamieson added: “I am particularly concerned that Audit Scotland’s report states that the Scottish Government is not funding services in the most effective way as they have no way of measuring performance. This is completely unacceptable and must change.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said the Government had asked for the report and welcomed its findings. He added: “It details the system we inherited from the previous administration.” The spokesman also said spending on drug and alcohol services had increased.

Source: www.stv.tv 26 March 2009

The cost of providing methadone to drug addicts has almost doubled in the past five years to nearly £17million.
The total bill for dispensing the heroin substitute north of the Border rose by 84% – from £9,049,792 in 2003/4 to £16,637,636 in 2009.
Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said the figures were evidence that current drug treatment methods are failing. Drug misuse experts believe addicts should have a maximum of two years on methadone, which is prescribed to an estimated 22,000 people as an alternative to heroin.
Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drugs Misuse Research at Glasgow University, said millions of pounds were being wasted on methadone prescriptions.
The Scottish Government announced a new drugs strategy in 2008. The document promised a change in treatment methods but failed to set targets for cutting methadone use.
Reacting to the latest revelations, Ms Goldie said: “Even in the past year alone the cost of prescribing methadone has risen by over 10 per cent. Under eight years of Labour and the Lib Dems, Scotland’s drug dependency became a methadone dependency.
“The SNP must not make the same mistake. “Methadone must stop being the treatment of first resort. A new political will and a new national strategy were the first steps but now it’s time for action.”
There are an estimated 50,000 “problem” drug users in Scotland. A United Nations report last week showed Scots had the second-highest rate of heroin use in Europe.
Prof McKeganey added: “We have got to move away from it and politicians have to be determined and show leadership, because otherwise the costs of the methadone programme will rise and they will strangle the development of alternative treatments. “You can’t spend that much money on a single treatment and not make other possible treatments suffer as a result.”
However, a Scottish government spokesman insisted its drugs strategy would open up access to alternative treatment methods. He continued: “We want a much wider range of services to be available for drug users. We are transforming the delivery of drug services to ensure that help is available when people need it most. The new target to reduce waiting times will help ensure this happens.”
Source: http://www.stv.tv. 05 July 2009

One of Scotland’s leading drugs experts says there is a big question mark over the size of the country’s methadone programme. Professor Neil McKeganey’s research found many people on the heroin substitute were still taking heroin as well.
22,000 adults in Scotland are on methadone, and that costs at least £25 million a year.
The report from Glasgow university’s centre for drug misuse research says the programme is “gargantuan in size and scale.”
The study, which looked at the behaviour of 400 drug users, found there was no significant difference between those on methadone and others when it came to not using heroin. It also found no significant difference between the groups in terms of committing crimes to pay for drugs.
The Scottish Government says there is evidence methadone can help stabilise those with chaotic lifestyles. It says the drugs strategy launched earlier this year recognises the need to move people on from methadone, but adds the challenge is to make sure the right support is available rather than promoting one type of treatment over others.
Source: www.stv.tv 14 December 2008