• Announcements - Hot Off The 'Net

    Prohibition Documentary

    Premieres October 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2011 at 8 PM on PBS

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    PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.

    Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    marijuana-arrests.com

    An Online Library About Marijuana Possession Arrests, Race And Police Policy In New York City And Beyond

    U.S. government studies consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young blacks or Latinos. Yet, in large cities and counties throughout the United States, young blacks and Latinos are arrested and jailed for marijuana possession at much higher rates than young whites.

    In New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, police arrest blacks for marijuana possession at seven times the rate of whites. Usually, the people arrested were not smoking in public. Police typically found the small amount of marijuana when they stopped, frisked, and searched the young people, often in their own neighborhoods.

    Marijuana-Arrests.com is an on line library of materials about the huge numbers of racially-biased marijuana possession arrests, their consequences, and the law enforcement policies and operations which produce them.

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Court decision on Insite safe-injection project coming Friday

    For Donovan Mahoney, the Insite facility in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside was more than just a safe place to turn to for drugs.

    Since 2004, he’s checked in at the clinic about 1,000 times for heroine, cocaine and morphine injections but he credits the controversial site for helping him get to treatment when he was ready and for housing him while he works on transitioning from life on the street.

    He was sitting in a Maple Ridge, B.C., jail for petty crime when he called on the people he’d met at Insite for help.

    “By then, I kind of burnt a lot of bridges so the people I had to turn to when I was in jail (were) these guys,” he said.

    “They went all the way out to Maple Ridge and drove me out to Miracle Valley (Treatment Centre). It was my first real crack at treatment.”

    On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada will announce its landmark decision on whether North America’s first supervised injection site for addicts, will be allowed to operate without a federal government legal exemption from drug laws.

    Should the Supreme Court not rule in Insite’s favour, the organization would need to continue to rely on a federal government exemption to remain open.

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Drugs, Risk and the Myth of the ‘Evil’ Addict

    By MAIA SZALAVITZ

    My column on making Naloxone available over-the-counter to reverse overdoses drew many plaudits and two main strands of criticism. One group argued that addicts aren’t worth saving and we need to cut the drug supply; the other said that Naloxone, also known by its brand name, Narcan, is too risky to be available without a prescription.

    Let me address the second argument first. More than 50,000 Naloxone kits have already been distributed to drug users, pain patients and their loved ones in the United States and 10,000 successful overdose reversals have been reported.

    The health advocacy group Public Citizen has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize over-the-counter sales and has received a response that details the agency’s requirements for reclassification. A meeting on the topic of how best to expand access is expected to be held by the agency next May: according to its letter, the F.D.A. would probably want expensive clinical trials before granting over-the-counter status. It is not clear how that would be funded or whether it would allow alternative approaches

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Children of the Drug War

    Cover
    ‘Children of the Drug War’ is a unique collection of original essays that investigates the impacts of the war on drugs on children, young people and their families. With contributions from around the world, providing different perspectives and utilizing a wide range of styles and approaches including ethnographic studies, personal accounts and interviews, the book asks fundamental questions of national and international drug control systems:

    • What have been the costs to children and young people of the war on drugs?
    • Is the protection of children from drugs a solid justification for current policies?
    • What kinds of public fears and preconceptions exist in relation to drugs and the drug trade?
    • How can children and young people be placed at the forefront of drug policies?
  • Hot Off The 'Net

    National Survey Shows A Rise In Illicit Drug Use From 2008 To 2010

    Increased rates of marijuana use drive increase, especially among young adults

    The use of illicit drugs among Americans increased between 2008 and 2010 according to a national survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows that 22.6 million Americans 12 or older (8.9-percent of the population) were current illicit drug users. The rate of use in 2010 was similar to the rate in 2009 (8.7-percent), but remained above the 2008 rate (8- percent).

    An increased rate in the current use of marijuana seems to be one of the prime factors in the overall rise in illicit drug use. In 2010, 17.4 million Americans were current users of marijuana – compared to 14.4 million in 2007. This represents an increase in the rate of current marijuana use in the population 12 and older from 5.8-percent in 2007 to 6.9-percent in 2010.

    Another disturbing trend is the continuing rise in the rate of current illicit drug use among young adults aged 18 to 25 — from 19.6-percent in 2008 to 21.2-percent in 2009 and 21.5-percent in 2010. This increase was also driven in large part by a rise in the rate of current marijuana use among this population.

    The annual NSDUH survey, released by SAMHSA at the kickoff of the 22nd annual National Recovery Month (Recovery Month) observance also shows that use rates for nonmedical use of prescription drugs, hallucinogens and inhalants have remained at approximately the same levels as 2009, and are also similar to rates in 2002.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net - International

    Drug Policy in Portugal

    The Benefits of Decriminalizing Drug Use

    By Artur Domoslawski

    In 2000, the Portuguese government responded to widespread public concern over drugs by rejecting a “war on drugs” approach and instead decriminalized drug possession and use. It further rebuffed convention by placing the responsibility for decreasing drug demand as well as managing dependence under the Ministry of Health, rather than the Ministry of Justice. With this, the official response toward drug dependent persons shifted from viewing them as criminals, to treating them as patients.

    Drug Policy in Portugal: The Benefits of Decriminalizing Drug Use is the second in a series of reports by the Open Society Foundations’ Global Drug Policy Program that documents positive examples of drug policy reform around the world (the first being From the Mountaintops: What the World Can Learn from Drug Policy Change in Switzerland). Drug Policy in Portugal describes the process, context, ideas, and values that enabled Portugal to make the transition to a public health response to drug use and possession. Now, with a decade of experience, Portugal provides a valuable case study of how decriminalization coupled with evidence-based strategies can reduce drug consumption, dependence, recidivism, and HIV infection, and create safer communities for all.

  • Events - What You Can Do

    International Overdose Awareness Day

    DPA Coordinating Events for International Overdose Awareness Day (August 31) to Remember Lives Lost and to Educate About Solutions to Overdose Crisis

    Accidental Overdose Deaths Have Quadrupled Since 1990 — More than 26,000 Americans Die Every Year

    Radio Stations and Supporters Urged to Play Music by Artists who Died of Drug Overdose

    The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) will be joining dozens of organizations in the U.S. and abroad who are participating in International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31. The day honors and remembers those who have lost their lives to an overdose. The occasion is also an opportunity to educate policymakers and the public about the growing overdose crisis in the United States and abroad – and to offer concrete solutions that save lives.