• Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Cannabis rescheduling

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 12-15-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 12-15-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3671

    Question of the Week: How can cannabis be rescheduled?

    According to the Congressional Research Service, the current scheduling scheme for various drugs called the Controlled Substances Act

    “was signed into law as the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.”

    Found under Title 21 of the U.S. Commercial Code. Subchapter I, Section 812 the CSA

    “established five schedules of controlled substances, to be known as schedules I, II, III, IV, and V.”

    In “Initial Schedules of Controlled Substances,” the CSA placed marijuana and its derivatives under Schedule 1, the most restrictive of the five categories.

    Note usage of the term initial. In theory, the schedule of cannabis or any other drug (there are hundreds) can be upgraded (to a more restrictive schedule) or downgraded (to a less restrictive one).

    The Congressional Research Service unfortunately notes that

    “Lawmakers have repeatedly rebuffed campaigns to reschedule marijuana under the CSA, a step that would permit marijuana to be used for some medical purposes. Likewise, courts have refused to carve out exceptions to the CSA, even for individuals who claim a dire need for the drug.”

    Thus, Congress has the authority to reschedule, as do the courts given the right case, but so far neither has done so.

    Robert Miklos in the Stanford Law Review counters that,

    “the CSA authorizes the Attorney General to [reschedule], in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the DEA. … the President would not need the consent of Congress to make this more fundamental change to federal law.”

    Thus, the President and his Executive Branch have the authority to reschedule cannabis, but so far refuse to do so.

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

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Synthetic Cannabinoids

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 11-30-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 11-30-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3650

    Question of the Week: What are synthetic cannabinoids?

    As described in an October 2011 report by Congressional Research Service,

    “Synthetic cannabinoids are substances chemically produced to mimic tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana. When these substances are sprayed onto dried herbs and then consumed through smoking or oral ingestion, they can produce psychoactive effects similar to those of marijuana.”

    A September 2011 issue of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, explains that these agents are

    “… sold on the Internet as herbal mixtures under the brand names of “Spice,” “Spice Gold,” “Spice Diamond,” “Arctic Spice,” “Silver,” “Aroma,” “K2,” “Genie,” “Scene” or “Dream,” and advertised as incense products, meditation potpourris, bath additives, or air fresheners. These products are often referred to as “herbal highs” or “legal highs””

    They were developed according to the CRS by

    “Clemson University Professor John Huffman [who] is credited with first synthesizing some of the cannabinoids, such as JWH-018, now used in “fake pot” substances such as K2. The effects of JWH-018 can be 10 times stronger than those of THC.”

    Current Psychiatry reported that

    “many have been banned in several European countries, 18 U.S. states, and the U.S. military. In March 2011, the FDA placed 5 synthetic cannabinoids on Schedule I, making them illegal to possess or sell in the United States.”

    However, the CRS notes concerns about the DEA’s action, stating that,

    “Professor Huffman did not intend for K2 to be consumed by humans. He is, however, against adding synthetic cannabinoids to Schedule I, asserting that there is still much to learn about [them] …  Professor Huffman has created several synthetic cannabinoids that are seen as showing promise in treating skin cancers, pain, and inflammation.”

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

  • Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 11-21-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 11-21-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3639

    Question of the Week: What are mandatory minimum sentences?

    As described by the Sentencing Project,

    “Along with the stepped-up pace of arrests in the 1980s, legislatures throughout the country adopted harsher sentencing laws in regard to drug offenses. The federal system, in particular, led the way with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and … of 1988. Among a number of provisions, these laws created a host of severe mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug offenses and affected the calibration of the federal Sentencing Guidelines, which were being formulated simultaneous to these statutory changes. The result of these developments was to remove discretion from the sentencing judge to consider the range of factors pertaining to the individual and the offense that would normally be an integral aspect of the sentencing process, thereby increasing the number of individuals in federal court exposed to a term of incarceration for a drug offense.”

    In its recent report to Congress, the United States Sentencing Commission contended that,

    “Sentencing data and interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys indicate that mandatory minimum penalties that are considered excessively severe tend to be applied inconsistently.”

    The other unintended consequences of mandatory minimum penalties were enumerated by The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing to include,

    “significant increases in the costs of corrections due to longer prison terms and an increasing prison population; removal from consideration of other sentencing options that may prove to be less costly and/or more effective than mandatory incarceration; and Impact on … pleas or verdicts and offender eligibility for rehabilitation programs and early release.”

    The Commission concluded,

    “Addressing the growth in the state prison population, particularly involving drug-related offenders, requires systemic change.”

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Count the Costs

    By George Murkin

    Far from eliminating drug use and the illicit trade, prohibition has inadvertently fuelled the development of the world’s largest illegal commodities market – a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, controlled solely by criminal profiteers. Produced in collaboration with project supporters Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Transform Drug Policy Foundation, Release, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and Harm Reduction International, the latest Count the Costs briefing outlines how this illicit, unregulated market generates:

    Organised crime
    Street crime
    Mass incarceration
    Violent crime
    Crimes perpetrated by governments/states
    Vast economic costs in terms of drug war-related enforcement

    The briefing will form a key part of our outreach to mainstream NGOs working in the criminal justice sector, building on the endorsements Count the Costs has already received from organisations such as the Howard League for Penal Reform and Make Justice Work.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Cigarette and alcohol use at historic low among teens

    But NIDA’s 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey also shows continued high levels of abuse of alternate tobacco products, marijuana and prescription drugs

    Cigarette and alcohol use by eighth, 10th and 12th-graders are at their lowest point since the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey began polling teenagers in 1975, according to this year’s survey results. However, this positive news is tempered by a slowing rate of decline in teen smoking as well as continued high rates of abuse of other tobacco products (e.g., hookahs, small cigars, smokeless tobacco), marijuana and prescription drugs. The survey results, announced today during a news conference at the National Press Club, appear to show that more teens continue to abuse marijuana than cigarettes; and alcohol is still the drug of choice among all three age groups queried.

    MTF is an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The survey was conducted in classrooms earlier this year.

    Read more: http://www.nida.nih.gov/newsroom/11/NR12-14.html

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    How can we get the media to tell the truth about drugs?

    Professor Nutt is currently the Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London. He received his undergraduate training in medicine at Cambridge and Guy’s Hospital, and continued training in neurology to MRCP. After completing his psychiatric training in Oxford, he continued there as a lecturer and then later as a Wellcome Senior Fellow in psychiatry. He then spent two years as Chief of the Section of Clinical Science in the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in NIH, Bethesda, USA. On returning to England in 1988 he set up the Psychopharmacology Unit in Bristol University, an interdisciplinary research grouping spanning the departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology before moving to Imperial College London in December 2008 where he leads a similar group with a particular focus on brain imaging especially PET. He broadcasts widely to the general public both on radio and television including recent BBC Horizon on drug harms and their classification. He also lecturers widely to the public as well as to the scientific and medical communities; for instance has presented three time at the Cheltenham Science Festival and several times for Café Scientifiques. In 2010 he was listed as one of the 100 most important figures in British Science by The Times Eureka science magazine.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Canadian Drug Policy Coalition

    New Coalition calls for a public health approach to alcohol, tobacco and drug controls

    Vancouver (BC), November 26, 2011: The Health Officers’ Council of BC (HOC) and the Canadian Drug
    Policy Coalition (CDPC), http://drugpolicy.ca/, have called for a fundamental shift in Canada’s approach to alcohol, tobacco, illegal and prescription drug controls.

    The HOC study released today, “Public Health Perspectives for Regulating Psychoactive Substances,” describes how public health oriented regulation of alcohol, tobacco, prescription and illegal substances can better reduce the harms that result both from substance use and substance regulation, compared to current approaches.

    “This paper highlights the large number of needless and preventable deaths, hospitalizations and human suffering consequent to our current approaches”, Dr. Richard Mathias of the HOC said. “The Health Officers’ Council is inviting feedback on its ideas and requesting that organizations and individuals join with us in a call for immediate changes to put the public’s health first.”

    Dr. John Carsley, a public health and preventive medicine specialist and Medical Health Officer for the region
    added: “The harms associated with psychoactive substances are a major public health and social problem.
    Progress will require strong partnerships and frank discussion between all levels of government, non-government organizations, and civil society.”

    The CDPC is a new national coalition of front-line harm reduction and treatment providers, HIV/AIDS service
    organizations, people who use drugs, researchers and public health officials. The Coalition launched today in
    Vancouver, BC through its partnership in the release of the paper.