• Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    How many medical marijuana patients are there?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-26-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-26-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3284

    Question of the Week: How many medical marijuana patients are there?

    The Congressional Research Service reported that,

    “A July 2005 CRS telephone survey of the state [medical marijuana] programs revealed a total of 14,758 registered medical marijuana users in eight states.”

    The report also noted,

    “More recently, an estimate published by Newsweek early in 2010 found a total of 369,634 users in the 13 states with established programs.”

    Medical cannabis programs are changing quickly. Applying the National Survey on Drug Use and Health or the Monitoring the Future survey to U.S. Census Bureau data can extrapolate national estimates.

    Using the legal state of Colorado as a basis, the Census Bureau calculated Colorado’s 2009 population age 18+ at 3.8 million. The 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health claims that 6.8% of Coloradans are current cannabis consumers. Applying that percentage to the population results in an estimated 260,000 “current users” in Colorado.

    According to the Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry, the

    “total number of patients who currently possess valid Registry ID cards [was] 95,477”

    as of 6/30/2010. Thus, these registered patients represented about 36% of the state’s “current” marijuana users.

    Assuming 36% to be a standard patient percentage and applying it to the estimated 16.7 million current marijuana users nationwide results in about 5 million U.S. patients.

    This count is supported by the Monitoring the Future survey, which apportions daily marijuana use percentages by age. Daily cannabis consumption implies medical use. Matching survey percentages to the middle series 2010 Census population computes an approximate total of 5 million patients between the ages of 18 and 55.

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Medical Marijuana Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected]

  • Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    “How are women affected by the drug war?”

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-8-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-8-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3261

    Question of the Week: How are women affected by the drug war?

    According to the 2009 National Survey for Drug Use and Health, the percentage of women using drugs and alcohol is less than men. About 6.6% of American women are current users of marijuana vs. 10.8% for men. Men use more psychotherapeutics and cocaine than women. Men are also more likely than women to use alcohol and drink heavily. However, the small percentages for non-medical use of tranquilizers and for methamphetamine are about the same for men and women.

    Just because women are less likely to engage in substance use, doesn’t mean that they are spared arrest and incarceration for drug offenses.

    The Institute on Women and Criminal Justice reported that,

    “The number of women serving sentences of more than a year grew by 757 percent between 1977 and 2004 – nearly twice the 388 percent increase in the male prison population.”

    In 2008, 25,500 women were imprisoned under state jurisdiction for drug offenses of one year or more.

    While women often play relatively minor roles in the drug trade, they bring special issues to the criminal justice system.

    As the Institute noted,

    “More than 70 percent of women in prison have children. More than half of mothers in prison have no visits with their children for the duration of their time behind bars. Children are generally subject to instability and uncertainly while their mothers are imprisoned.”

    The Institute concluded,

    “Incarcerating women does not solve the problems that underlie their involvement in the criminal justice system. ”

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Women and the Drug War Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected]

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Anti-Stigma Week: Time to Reflect and Act

    It has been incredible to see a diverse group of people and organizations pool their skills and resources to mount Anti-Stigma Week, with activities that all have one goal – enhancing individual and community health and well-being by transforming stigma around drug use.

    This year’s Anti-Stigma Week theme is Drug Use, Dignity and Human Rights. Drug use, and especially illicit drug use, is associated with high degrees of stigma that hurt individuals’ health and access to health care and reduce community cohesion.

    Stigma is a societal process that marks people as outsiders. Those who are different -because of their behaviours or identities -are subject to disapproval and marginalization.

    They aren’t seen as people, as someone’s daughter or father, neighbours with their own stories and failings and hopes. This prejudice makes it easier for active discrimination to take hold, or to leave individuals fearing that others think them less worthy. The way systems are organized and accepted societal attitudes reinforce these tendencies.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Drug War Anniversary a Time for Reflection and Action

    By Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance

    Some anniversaries provide an occasion for celebration, others a time for reflection, still others a time for action. This June will mark forty years since President Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” identifying drug abuse as “public enemy No. 1.” As far as I know, no celebrations are planned. What’s needed, indeed essential, are reflection — and action.

  • Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    What are Special Rapporteurs?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-5-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-5-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3256

    Question of the Week: What are Special Rapporteurs?

    Shortly after enacting its charter in 1946, the United Nations established the Commission on Human Rights. According to its 2009 report, the Commission’s Human Rights Council fields,

    “independent human rights experts with mandates to investigate, report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.”

    Some experts are called Rapporteurs, a French term for “reporter.” Rapporteurs carry out their designated mandates via “special procedures.” There are currently 31 thematic and 8 country mandates.

    Special Rapporteurs have issued several reports on mandates germane to drug policy.

    The May 2010 “Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, [by] Philip Alston,” stated,

    “…in Afghanistan, the US has said that drug traffickers on the “battlefield” who have links to the insurgency may be targeted and killed. This is not consistent with the traditionally understood concepts under [international humanitarian law].”

    The Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

    “decided to devote particular attention in 2010 to the issues of the detention of drug users.”

    The August 2010 “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,” conceded,

    “While drugs may have a pernicious effect on individual lives and society, this excessively punitive regime has not achieved its stated public health goals, and has resulted in countless human rights violations.”

    The report then concluded,

    “The primary goal of the international drug control regime … is the “health and welfare of mankind”, but the current approach to controlling drug use and possession works against that aim.”

    These facts and others like them can be in the Human Rights – United Nations section of the Civil Rights Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected]

  • Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    What are Entheogens?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 1-26-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 1-26-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3243

    Question of the Week: What are Entheogens?

    A paper in the Journal of Consciousness Studies defined entheogens as,

    “psychoactive agents more generally known as psychedelics (etymologically, mind manifesting) or hallucinogenic … that bring one in touch with the Divine within.”

    A 2009 Cornell Law School research paper went on to state that,

    “The word entheogen is believed to translate into the phrase “God inside us”. In the literal sense this word refers to plants, shrubs, fungi and seeds used for centuries in religious or shamanic rituals for the purpose of obtaining revelations, spiritual enlightenment, or healing illnesses. Some of these substances include, Ayahuasca, Amanitas Muscaria, Blue Lotus, Hawaiian Baby Woodrose and Morning Glory Seeds, Salvia Divinorum, Khat, Kanna, San Pedro Cacti, Kratom, Henbane, Yopo and Mandrake. There are many more, some of which are illegal (such as DMT, Kava Kava, Cannabis and Psilocybin Mushrooms)…”

    Wikipedia includes LSD, Ibogaine, and even ethanol, aka alcohol as entheogens.

    The Cornell paper noted that,

    “The first scholar to highlight the sacramental use of psychoactive substances was de Felice [who put] forward the hypothesis that the use of psychotropic substances is deeply embedded in human culture, and that it is intrinsically intertwined in a most basic human instinct — the search for transcendence. Thus, he proposes, the use of psychotropic substances is at the roots of perhaps all religions.”

    The Cornell paper finally asks, is

    “the legal status of many entheogens … another example of legislative inertia and a defect in the law? Are these drugs harmful enough to warrant criminalization? Or, alternatively, are these drugs, with their connection to peoples’ spiritual beliefs, to be protected … as an expression of people’s religion?”

    These facts and others like them can be found in the new Entheogens Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected]

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    New Dialogue Report Calls For Alternative Approaches To Drug War

    Most Americans believe that the country’s forty-year “war on drugs” has failed. Yet, despite the costs and growing opposition to US anti-narcotics strategy across Latin America, the US debate on drug policy remains muted. According to Rethinking US Drug Policy, a report released in January by the Inter-American Dialogue, what is most needed now is a far-reaching debate on alternative approaches that could reduce the risks and damage from the trafficking and abuse of illegal drugs. The report proposes a series of US government initiatives to begin a thorough rethinking of US drug policy.

    On February 10, the Inter-American Dialogue will hold a public discussion on the findings and recommendations of the report at an event on Capitol Hill.

    Read the official press release.

    http://www.thedialogue.org/uploads/Drug_Policy/Press_Advisory.pdf

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    The Obama Administration’s Public Health Approach to Drug Policy

    By R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

    President Obama’s comments during last week’s live YouTube interview about the need to approach our national drug problem from a public health perspective were timely, thoughtful, and well-grounded in what science tells us about drug use and its consequences. Like the president, I am opposed to the legalization of illegal drugs. At the same time, I understand, from firsthand experience as a police officer and police chief, that we cannot arrest or incarcerate our way out of a problem this complex, and that a “War on Drugs” mentality is too simplistic an approach to be effective.

    Before my confirmation as President Obama’s drug policy advisor, I’d spent thirty-seven years −- my entire professional career -− in law enforcement or working on law enforcement issues. Just one year before my career began, in 1971, President Nixon held a press conference declaring illicit drugs “public enemy number one.” It was a powerful metaphor — characterizing the Nation’s drug problem as fundamentally a criminal justice issue, and marking the beginning of a so-called “War on Drugs” that would last for most of the next four decades.

    While drug use was spreading across the country, especially after support for legalization reached a high point in the late 1970’s and the introduction of crack cocaine in the 1980’s, this era came to be defined with a heavily punitive emphasis, from mandatory minimum sentences to enhanced penalties for crack cocaine possession. Our Nation’s courageous law enforcement officers, prosecutors, courts and prisons system were asked to shoulder an ever-growing load, and to use the effective — but limited — tools at their disposal to arrest and prosecute dangerous drug traffickers that deserved severe sentences in addition to non-violent drug addicts.