Drug Policy Question of the Week – 6-26-11

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 6-26-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3440

Question of the Week: Who declared war on drugs?

“America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.”

According to a recent report by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, President Richard Nixon spoke these words on June 17, 1971.

Ironically, a New York University Law Review article noted, “When

President Nixon first declared a national War on Drugs, the policy focused on treatment rather than incarceration … the Nixon era marks the only time in the history of the War on Drugs in which more funding went toward treatment than law enforcement.”

Pew Center on the States reports that there were about 174,000 state prison inmates in 1972.

Nixon’s declaration was just the first, according to a Fordham Law Review article,

“[President Ronald] Reagan officially launched the “War on Drugs” on June 24, 1982, with the creation of the White House Office of Drug Abuse Policy. First Lady Nancy Reagan joined the movement, announcing the “Just Say No” campaign in 1982.”

State prison inmates in 1982 approximated 300,000.

The NYU article suggests that,

“With the Obama administration comes hope for scaling down the War on Drugs, though the collateral consequences remain for those who are presently incarcerated. The current director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, has chastised the phrase “War on Drugs” as eliciting an inaccurate representation of the War on Drugs as a war on individuals.”

In 2010, there were over 1.4 million state prisoners, 1.2 million more than on June 17, 1971.

These facts and others like them can be found in the History section of the United States Chapter and in the Prisons & Jails Chapters of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

Drug Policy Question of the Week – 6-15-11

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 6-15-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3427

Question of the Week: What about international drug policies?

Several recent reports highlight the impact of the international War on Drugs and call for a reevaluation of it.

The first comes from a series called “Count the Costs: 50 Years of the War on Drugs,” by the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. The report, “The War on Drugs: Are we paying too high a price?” lists seven definable and tragic costs of the drug war and supports each referencable international statistics. Did you know that that…

“Up to 1000 people are executed for drug offences each year, in direct violation of international law”?

A similar report in the Count the Costs series, “War on Drugs: Undermining international development and security, increasing conflict,” lists seven definable ways that the drug war affects international economic development and security, again documenting each with referencable statistics. Did you know that …

the demand for cocaine in Europe has “turned Guinea Bissau from a fragile state into a narco-state in just five years.”?

The recent “Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy” indicted international drug war failure and listed eleven actionable principles. The report was co-authored by notable commissioners that included former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan as well as three former Latin American presidents, among others. The report summary succinctly concluded,

“Break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now.”

Some facts in the above reports and others like them can be found in the International Policy Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org. Listeners should note that there are seventeen Chapters and 341 Facts under this link on the Drug War Facts home page. Countries include U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico, a number of countries in the European Union, and Australia.

Drug Policy Question of the Week – 6-5-11

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 6-5-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3413

Question of the Week: What are adverse drug events?

An article in the Connecticut Law Review defines the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the agency that

“regulates both the safety and effectiveness of prescription pharmaceuticals and certain medical devices. In addition to ensuring that prescription drugs are safe and effective before they are sold in interstate commerce, the FDA approves all information a manufacturer plans to provide physicians on a drug’s recommended use, contraindications, risks, and side-effects.”

The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is the regulatory body that oversees over-the-counter and prescription drugs, and biological therapeutics. This agency has produced several trendable reports, including a data briefing covering 1996 to 2006.

This paper overviews the CDER’s Adverse Event Reporting System that compiles

“voluntary adverse drug reaction reports from [healthcare practitioners] and required reports from manufacturers … this system forms “the basis of “signals” that there may be a potential for serious and unrecognized drug-associated events [or reactions].”

Drug reaction numbers from this FDA system are now displayed in two Drug War Facts Tables, one called “Prescription Drug Product Approvals, Recalls and Adverse Event Reports” and the other named “AERS Patient Outcomes by Year,” both sourced directly from the FDA.

Both of these tables reflect troubling statistics. The former table shows that Adverse Drug Event reports to the FDA concerning prescription drugs soared by almost +75% for the six years (2002-2007) compared to the prior six years (1996-2001). Further, and perhaps more disturbing, adverse reaction outcome “deaths” totaling over 370,000 and “serious outcomes” eclipsing 2,300,000 occurred during the ten years from 2000 to 2009 for the prescription drugs tracked by this FDA system.

These facts and others like them can be found in the Regulation of Prescription Drugs section of the United States chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.