Drug Policy Question of the Week – 8-7-10

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 8-7-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3010

Question of the Week:  Is there a relationship between HIV/AIDS and drug policy?

The most recent annual statistics concerning HIV/AIDS come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It reported that, from the beginning of the epidemic through 2007, an estimated 583,298 persons in the US have died from AIDS. A total of 1,030,832 persons reportedly had AIDS in 2007.

AIDS is prevalent in Europe where 48,892 newly diagnosed HIV cases were reported in 49 of the 53 EU countries. The situation in the Russian Federation is particularly dire as detailed in a Human Rights Watch report that determined

“being in prison or other state detention is an important risk factor for HIV in Russia.”

Prison is a risk factor in the United States as well. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that,

“At yearend 2008, a reported 21,987 inmates held in state or federal prisons were HIV positive or had confirmed AIDS.”

Another risk factor for HIV/AIDS is race. The CDC concluded that HIV was the 22nd leading cause of death in the US for whites, the 13th leading cause of death for Hispanics, and the 9th leading cause of death for blacks.

These factors and more served as the basis for the Vienna Declaration, which was launched at the 18th International AIDS Conference held recently in Vienna, Austria from July 18th to 23rd. The declaration was drafted by a team of leading international HIV experts. It stated simply,

“The criminalisation of illicit drug users is fuelling the HIV epidemic and has resulted in overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. A full policy reorientation is needed.”

These facts and others like them can be found in the HIV/AIDS, Race & HIV, and European Union chapters 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 – 7-19-10

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 7-19-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2984

Question of the Week: Is alcohol a dangerous drug?

Let’s look at some statistics.

A 2009 report from the National Center for Health Statistics estimated that about 22,000 people died of alcohol-induced causes in 2006.

Numbers from 1993 quoted in a 2009 study from the Journal of Psychopharmacology stated,

“Four per cent of the global burden of disease is attributable to alcohol (about as much as that to tobacco and hypertension) and causally related to more than 60 medical conditions.”

An editorial in the New Zealand Journal of Medicine calculated that

“The lethal dose of alcohol divided by a typical recreational dose [in other words, its safety ratio] is 10, which places it closer to heroin [safety ratio – 6), and GHB [safety ratio – 8] in terms of danger from overdose”

The editorial further asserted that alcohol is considerably more dangerous than LSD [with a safety ratio of 1000] or cannabis, whose safety ratio is greater than 1,000.

A 1998 Bureau of Justice Statistics analysis found that,

“Federal statistics show that a large percentage of criminal offenders were under the influence of alcohol alone when they committed their crimes (36.3%, or a total of [1.9 million] offenders). Federal research also shows for more than 40% of convicted murderers being held in either jail or State prison, alcohol use was a factor in the crime.”

That Journal of Psychopharmacology study compared alcohol to GHB and concluded,

“the degree of danger to public health caused by ethanol is similar to that caused by GHB.”

In the United States, GHB is a Schedule 1 drug, the same classification as heroin.

These facts and others like them can be found in the Alcohol chapter of Drug War Facts.org.

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

Drug Policy Question of the Week – 6-29-10

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 6-29-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2956

Question of the Week: What’s the relationship among opium, heroin, and Afghanistan?

Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South–Central Asia, bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Although the modern state of Afghanistan was established in 1747, the country has been fought over, conquered, and incorporated within large empires for millennia.

A report entitled, “Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The transnational threat of Afghan opium,” was published by the United Nation’s Office of Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) in October 2009. It stated,

“Opium poppy cultivation is not a new phenomenon in Afghanistan, but the country’s global pre-eminence as an exporter is relatively recent. Opium poppy was traditionally cultivated in some parts of Afghanistan as far back as the eighteenth century.⁸² The first significant increases in cultivation levels were reported in the 1980s as Turkish, Pakistani and Iranian anti-narcotics policies were being successfully enforced.”

It went on to state,

“Between 1995 and 2000, the Taliban regime tolerated the drug trade and earned some US$ 75-100 million annually from taxing it. In the post-Taliban period, it was a source of revenue for warlords.”

The Taliban regrouped in the south of the country, and their cumulated revenue over the four-year period (2005-2008) ranged from US$ 350-650 million.

The report concluded that, currently

“more than 90 per cent of the world’s heroin is manufactured from opium produced in Afghanistan,”

that

“global illicit consumption [of opium] is estimated at close to 1,100 tons per year, used by some 4 million users,”

and that

“Close to half of all global heroin consumption is estimated to take place in Europe (including the Russian Federation).”

The UNDOC’s World Drug Report 2009 calculated that,

“The 2007 wholesale price for a kilogram of heroin in Afghanistan ranged around $2,405.”

In the United States, the wholesale price for a kilogram is estimated at $71,200.

These facts and others like them can be found in the Interdiction chapter of Drug War Facts.org.

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