By Richard Branson
One minute survey:
We believe it is time to end the criminalisation and stigmatising of drug users to more effectively combat drug use and drug related crime.
Criminal syndicates should face the law and jail time but people with drug problems need health care, not prison!
We would greatly appreciate it if you could take this quick five question survey on the war on drugs.
Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-28-12
As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-28-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3770
Question of the Week: How many people of color are under the control of the U.S. corrections system?
In its analysis of racial disparities in California, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice offered these stark contrasts,
“Compared to Non-blacks, California’s African-American population are 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana, 12 times more likely to be imprisoned for a marijuana felony arrest, and 3 times more likely to be imprisoned per marijuana possession arrest. Overall, these disparities accumulate to 10 times’ greater odds of an African-American being imprisoned for marijuana than other racial/ethnic groups.”
When minorities go to prison, they become caught up in a criminal justice web that includes, not only federal, state and local prisons, but also probation and parole. A new Drug War Facts table using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics attempts to provide accurate national estimates concerning their numbers.
From the table, of the 7.2 million individuals who found themselves in the criminal justice web in 2009, at least 3.6 million or about half belonged to a minority group. Blacks represented about one third, a percentage roughly three times their 12% portion of the U.S. population. The proportion of Hispanics/Latinos held steady over the past 20 years at about 16%. But, when it comes to prison, a consistent 60% of inmates – about 1.3 million – count themselves among those two minority groups.
As the Drug Policy Alliance lamented,
“Mass arrests and incarceration of people of color – largely due to drug law violations – have hobbled families and communities by stigmatizing and removing substantial numbers of men and women.”
These Facts, numbers and others like them can be found in the Race & Prison Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.
Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-21-12
As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-21-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3759
Question of the Week: Why have there been so many reports of celebrity overdoses?
From Heath Ledger, to Michael Jackson, to Amy Winehouse, and now to Whitney Houston, celebrity deaths from overdoses of otherwise legal drugs seem to be increasing, and indeed they are.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control outlined these disturbing statistics.
“In 2009, 1.2 million emergency department visits (an increase of 98.4% since 2004) were related to misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals.”
The report went on to read,
“In 2008, a total of 36,450 deaths were attributed to drug overdose … among which a drug was specified in 27,153 deaths. One or more prescription drugs were involved in 20,044 [almost 75%] of the 27,153 deaths, and opiate pain relievers were involved in 14,800 [almost 75%] of the 20,044 prescription drug overdose deaths.”
U.S. Food and Drug Administration tracks the “serious outcomes” of its approved drugs through its Adverse Event Reporting System. By “serious outcomes,” the FDA means a “death, hospitalization, life-threatening, disability, congenital anomaly and/or other serious outcome” reported to it through the AERS system.
This system shows a substantial escalation in the number of deaths and serious patient outcomes over the last eleven years. From 2000-2010, “Serious outcomes” numbered 2,816,297, with “deaths” equaling 452,780. These two values grew by well over 50% during the last five years alone.
An article in the Connecticut Law Review laments that,
“Prescription drugs are paradoxical: as one of the greatest triumphs of the twentieth century, their powerful chemicals and biologics save many millions of humans from suffering and death; yet, these same chemicals also cause great suffering and death.”
These facts and others like them in the Causes of Death Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.
México Unido Contra la Delincuencia A.C., es una asociación civil nolucrativa, laica y apartidista.
Nuestra visión es tener una sociedad que pueda vivir y progresar conseguridad y tranquilidad en un marco en que prevalezca el Estado dederecho, con ciudadanos comprometidos con México, conscientes de su responsabilidad social, participativos y que exijan a las autoridades el cumplimiento de la ley; además de autoridades e instituciones profesionales,honestas y efectivas en los ámbitos de la seguridad y la justicia.
Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-15-12
As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-15-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3752
Question of the Week: Why have the counts of drug prisoners changed?
Government reports are notoriously foggy when it comes to those incarcerated for “drugs.” Divining these elusive numbers requires a spreadsheet and a detailed search of the Bureau of Justice Statistics for numbers buried in some years, but missing from others. Some numbers must simply be computed.
This is the case with probation and parole, for which two different values are reported. For example, Appendix Table 15 of the “Probation and Parole in the United States 2009” report displays percentages for “Characteristics of adults on parole,” including those for “Drug” as the “Most Serious Offense.” This table indicates that 36% of parolees had “Drugs” as their most serious offense in 2009. Multiplying the 819,000 total 2009 parolees times this 36% produces a count of 295,000 of parolees with “Drug” offenses. However, the numeric counts of “drug” parolees reported in the report’s Appendix Table 20 produce a lesser percentage of parolees with drug offenses – 32%. The same problem can be found in the probation numbers.
Further, reports going back to 1990 contain these kinds of percentages, enabling better trending.
Thus, the new Drug War Facts table that displays the number persons under the control of the U.S. corrections system has been updated with numbers derived from the percentage of total calculations.
Here’s the bottom line. Over 1.7 million probationers, parolees and state and federal prisoners were under the control of the U.S. corrections in 2009 with “drugs” as their most serious offense. This represents over one quarter of the estimated 7.3 million individuals on probation, parole or in prison that year.
These facts and others like them in the Prisons & Drug Offenders Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.
Today, members of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) released their foundational paper on drug policy reform outlining the Coalition’s vision and plans for creating a new drug policy for Canada.
The paper, Changing the Frame: A New Approach to Drug Policy in Canada, also calls on the Federal Government and the Senate to take a giant step back from Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, and rethink their approach to Canada’s drug policies for the sake of all Canadians.
“The research is in. It is clear that the ‘war on drugs’ approach of prohibition, criminalization and incarceration does not work to reduce harms associated with substance use in Canada. Bill C-10 will only exacerbate them, taking us further down a failing path. It is time for a principled, evidence-driven, pragmatic and humane reform of our drug laws and policies,” said Donald MacPherson, Director of the Coalition.
The CDPC is a new national organization of public health officials, researchers, front-line harm reduction and treatment providers, HIV/AIDS service organizations and people who use drugs who are seeking to engage communities to help chart a new direction.
“We need to acknowledge the limits of the current approach and that the criminal law deflects attention from getting to the heart of why some people use drugs in a way that causes harm to themselves and to their families and communities. The CDPC strives for a more inclusive society,” said Coalition Chair, Lynne Belle-Isle. “We want to engage Canadians in finding new and innovative solutions to a problem that affects us all.”
The Coalition held its first two of their planned series of cross-country community dialogues in Vancouver and Edmonton in the fall of 2011. The group is urging broad base citizen participation to explore ideas for reform of Canada’s laws and policies on currently illegal drugs.
Quebec Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin also indicated his support for the work of the Coalition. “The CDPC’s policy paper and leadership on drug policy reform is an important step forward in engaging Canadians in the process of modernizing our drug policies and legislation,” said Nolin. Senator Nolin strongly opposes the passing of the Safe Streets and Communities Act particularly because it supports continued prohibition of cannabis and further criminalization of young cannabis users.
To read a copy of Changing the Frame: A new approach to drug policy in Canada, please visit our website, www.drugpolicy.ca, follow our coverage of the Crime Bill C-10 Hearings here: www.drugpolicy.ca/blog or join the conversation on our Facebook page and follow the latest related news on Twitter @CanDrugPolicy.
By Jacob Sullum
A new study reported in Annals of Epidemiology finds that, contrary to drug czar Gil Kerlikowske’s warnings, passage of medical marijuana laws is not associated with increases in adolescent pot smoking. Analyzing data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, researchers at McGill University found that teenagers in states that enact such laws are more apt to smoke pot, but that is because of pre-existing differences. It seems “states with higher use are more likely to enact laws.” The researchers found little evidence that allowing patients to use marijuana as a medicine makes teenagers more likely to use it recreationally. “If anything,” they write, “our estimates suggest that reported adolescent marijuana use may actually decrease after passing MMLs [medical marijuana laws].” They say such an effect “could be plausibly explained by social desirability bias or greater concern about enforcement of recreational marijuana use among adolescents after the passage of laws.” Evidently Kerlikowske is wrong to worry that linking a drug to cancer and AIDS patients makes it seem cooler to the kids.
These results are consistent with the conclusions of reports from the Marijuana Policy Project and the Institute for the Study of Labor, both of which found no increase in adolescent use attributable to medical marijuana laws. The latter study did, however, find an increase in adult consumption, which was associated with a decline in traffic fatalities.
Drug Policy Question of the Week – 2-6-12
As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 2-6-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3741
Question of the Week: How many people are under the control of the U.S. corrections system for drugs?
Various reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics detail characteristics of the U.S. criminal justice system that includes those housed in federal, state, and local prisons and jails, along with those on probation or parole.
The “Prisoners” report series represents a good place to start counting. This annual series goes back almost 20 years to the “Prisoners in 1994” report. Remarkably, 8,800 persons were admitted to state prison for drug offenses directly from court in 1980. Fast forward twelve years to 1992 – that number soared by +1155% to 101,000.
The newly released “Prisoners in 2009” report placed the number of offenders in state prison with “drugs” as their most serious offense at 242,000 in 2009.
The report quantified the number of federal prisoners with a similar offense at 95,000 in 2009. This represented growth by a whopping +1843 over the 4,900 “drug” federal drug prisoners in 1980.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics also has a comparable series of annual reports on Probation and Parole. According to the 2009 report by that name, only 3,486 adults were on federal probation with drugs as their most serious offense. However, there were 579,000 state “drug” probationers that year.
Federal parolees with drug offenses equaled 55,000 in 2009 and state parolees counted 207,000 for similar convictions.
Thus, over 1.2 million probationers, parolees and state and federal prisoners were under control of the U.S. corrections system in 2009 with “drugs” as their most serious offense.
These numbers can be found in a new Drug War Facts table along with other Facts like them in the Prisons and Drug Offenders Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.