• Announcements

    Alan Randell receives the MAP Published Letters Gold Award

    Pubdate: Sat, 30 Oct 2010
    Source: Burnaby Now, The (CN BC)
    Copyright: 2010 Alan Randell
    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n861/a07.html
    Author: Alan Randell
    Award: With this published letter Alan Randell receives the MAP
    Published Letters Gold Award for 500 published letters
    http://mapinc.org/lte_awards/lte_gold.htm

    DRUG PROHIBITION PART OF PROBLEM

    Dear Editor:

    Re: No easy answers to gang violence, Burnaby NOW, Oct. 20.

    Why do we continue to ban certain drugs when it is crystal clear to
    all but the most stubborn drug war warriors that not only prohibition
    doesn’t work but it causes even more harm – including, of course,
    gang violence – than if the users were left alone.

    Here are some of the reasons:

    . Politicians feel they need scapegoats:

    Human beings are suspicious of strangers or those who are different.
    Thousands of years ago, such feelings may have been a necessary
    factor in survival, but in the modern world, vestiges of this feeling
    still remain and we are all susceptible to urgings from our leaders
    that this or that minority is a deadly threat to society.

    The “good” citizens of Salem hanged innocent “witches.” Hitler
    consolidated his power by urging the majority to hate the Jews. Our
    present political leadership is merely goose-stepping in Hitler’s
    path by distracting the majority away from more serious problems by
    demonizing a vulnerable minority, those who use and/or sell certain
    drugs. Another advantage for the politicians in banning drugs of
    course is that such a strategy calls for bigger and more powerful governments.

    . The media needs scapegoats too:

    Aside from a few token articles, the media supports any program that
    results in people being punished by the law because that is what
    (they think) sells newspapers and increases TV ratings.

    And like the politicians, editors and publishers just love a law that
    enables them to work themselves into a rage about how society is
    going to hell in a hand basket because of a few rotten eggs that
    should be thrown into jail forthwith and the key thrown away.

    Prohibition is perfect for this practice because “it is for the children.”

    . Drug users are a minority:

    The prohibition of alcohol both in Canada and in the U.S., like all
    prohibitions, failed to achieve the hoped for results, but, because
    drinkers were the majority, politicians listened and acted to abolish it.

    Because the number of marijuana users is increasing, that drug may
    well be legalized before long, but the users and sellers of other
    illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine will have to wait a little
    while longer until their drug is legalized.

    Once marijuana is legalized and it no longer possesses the lure of
    the forbidden fruit, you can be sure the popularity of another
    illegal drug will skyrocket until that drug becomes favoured by the
    majority and is legalized and the whole cycle begins again.

    . The police favour prohibition:

    This is a no brainer, of course. Drug prohibition is the greatest
    police employment booster ever.

    Alan Randell, Victoria

  • Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week

    Cannabis Cat and Mouse

    Pushing 60 now, I’ve long been tired of the cat-and-mouse game that
    using cannabis invokes. I totally lost any respect for the law at a
    tender age. Faith in government? What, the government that wants to
    see me in a cage? The prohibition has been quite corrosive on my and
    many of my comrades’ patriotism.

    We can restore respect for law, and law enforcement, as well as faith
    in the American way by ending this prohibition. We could even end up
    like the Dutch–who’ve managed to make pot boring in the eyes of that
    country’s youth and whose rates of use are but a small fraction of ours.

    The war on cannabis has its roots in racism, and is now the new Jim
    Crow. It has been a handy cudgel to whup on Mexicans, blacks and
    those darn hippies. Despite the claims, it has never had anything to
    do with public safety.

    This war on our own citizens can be ended. The passage of Prop. 19
    will force a large crack in the dike. Much of the delay, deceit, and
    obfuscation seen after the passage of Prop. 215 should be
    neutralized by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s recently introduced
    legislation to create a uniform statewide regulatory system. “If 19
    passes, we’ll be ready,” he asserts. Prop 19 includes language that
    allows modification by the Legislature. This was missing in 215.

    My ballot is marked Yes. I hope yours is, too.

    Jay Bergstrom

    Forest Ranch

    Pubdate: Thu, 21 Oct 2010

    Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net - International

    UN Expert Calls For A Fundamental Shift In Global Drug Control Policy

    At a press conference in New York on Tuesday 26 October, at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly, one of the UN’s key human rights experts will call for a fundamental rethink of international drug policy.

    Anand Grover, from India, is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, whose mandate is derived from the UN Human Rights Council. Mr Grover’s annual thematic report, to be presented on October 25/26, sets out the range of human rights abuses that have resulted from international drug control efforts, and calls on Governments to:

    * Ensure that all harm-reduction measures (as itemized by UNAIDS) and drug-dependence treatment services, particularly opioid substitution therapy, are available to people who use drugs, in particular those among incarcerated populations.

    * Decriminalize or de-penalize possession and use of drugs.

    * Repeal or substantially reform laws and policies inhibiting the delivery of essential health services to drug users, and review law enforcement initiatives around drug control to ensure compliance with human rights obligations.

    * Amend laws, regulations and policies to increase access to controlled essential medicines

    * To the UN drug control agencies, Mr Grover recommends the creation of an alternative drug regulatory framework based on a model such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

    The report is the clearest statement to date from within the UN system about the harms that drug policies have caused and the need for a fundamental shift in drug policy.

    The report has been welcomed by the European Union in the EU statement on crime and drugs to the UN General Assembly.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Latinos Also Especially Screwed Over by Pot Prohibition

    Though Not As Much As Blacks

    By Jacob Sullum

    Last week the Drug Policy Alliance released a report that showed blacks in California are much more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though they are less likely to smoke pot. Today another DPA report highlights similar, though less dramatic, disparities between Latinos and non-Hispanic whites. In a coordinated move, the National Latino Officers Association, citing marijuana prohibition’s disproportionate impact on Latinos, today endorsed Proposition 19, California’s pot legalization initiative. The National Black Police Association and the California NAACP are supporting Prop. 19 for similar reasons.

    The authors of the DPA report, led by Queens College sociologist Harry Levine, found that from 2006 to 2008 “major cities in California arrested and prosecuted Latinos for marijuana possession at double to nearly triple the rate of whites,” despite the fact that “U.S. government surveys consistently find that young Latinos use marijuana at lower rates than young whites.” Out of 33 cities examined in the report, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Alhambra—where Latinos were almost three times as likely to be busted for marijuana offenses— had the biggest disparties. In Los Angeles, which accounts for one-tenth of the state’s population, the ratio was 2 to 1.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - DrugSense - Feature

    Could Legalizing Marijuana in California Help Cure Breast

    Newshawk: Medical Marijuana www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/54
    Pubdate: Tue, 26 Oct 2010
    Source: AlterNet (US Web)
    Author: Mary Jane Borden

    For 70 years, we’ve been taught that marijuana has no accepted
    medical use and that its high potential for abuse demands absolute
    prohibition. Medical research has been nearly impossible since
    obtaining the substance for legitimate studies is restricted by the
    federal government.

    But for a moment, forget the anti-drug ads of stoned teenagers
    passing the bong and click instead on the National Library of
    Medicine’s website, “Pubmed.gov.” Look under “breast cancer and
    cannabinoid” and you will find studies in scientific journals like
    Breast Cancer Research and Treatment that should warrant immediate
    action: “Our data demonstrate the efficacy of CBD in pre-clinical
    models of breast cancer. The results have the potential to lead to
    the development of novel non-toxic compounds for the treatment of
    breast cancer metastasis…”

    A study in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics says, “These results
    indicate that CB1 and CB2 receptors could be used to develop novel
    therapeutic strategies against breast cancer growth and metastasis.”
    And this from the journal Molecular Cancer: “these results provide a
    strong preclinical evidence for the use of cannabinoid-based
    therapies for the management of ErbB2-positive breast cancer.” What’s
    more, this basic research also extols the safety of potential
    cannabinoid therapies.

    The science behind these studies finds that the human body contains
    its own internal system interrelated with molecules in the cannabis
    plant–AKA marijuana. A neurological signaling structure called the
    endocannabinoid system is now known to govern numerous bodily
    processes like appetite, pain, and even the birth of new brain cells.
    Cannabinoid receptors, called CB1 and CB2, are located in various
    cell membranes and activated by the body’s own cannabinoid molecules
    (endocannabinoids), as well as those unique to the cannabis plant
    (THC, CBD) and synthetically-derived cannabinoids like MarinolRegistered .

    And now, the latest research is proving that cannabinoids, as part of
    this bodily system, play a mitigating role in breast cancer.

    Breast cancer is a frightening diagnosis that will confront about 1
    in 8 American women this year. Some 40,000 will die from it. An
    unusual lump in a breast can grow through four increasingly incurable
    stages and sometimes into other tissue. Therapies involve invasive
    surgery, heavy radiation, and toxic chemotherapy. Current anti-cancer
    drugs may kill cancer cells, but they also destroy non-cancerous
    tissue and damage heart muscle. Intractable nausea and vomiting
    comprise just one side effect. The disease may be worse than the cure
    but the cure can also kill.

    But suppose some scientist has just come out of the jungle with an
    unknown plant that holds this much promise. It would be featured in
    the nightly news and on the front page of every newspaper. Well, we
    now have before us scientific clues that seem to point toward a
    revolution in breast cancer treatment, yet the government still
    manages to bury this amazing discovery.

    Why? Politics. The “Devil Weed” has always been a favorite target for
    tough-on-crime politicians. Over the decades, they have assembled a
    labyrinth of governmental agencies with multi-billion dollar budgets
    that enforce marijuana laws, ignore the science, thwart clinical
    research–and constantly reinforce anti-pot stereotypes.

    [continues] http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n870.a09.html

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Arresting Blacks for Marijuana in California

    Possession Arrests, 2006-08

    Levine, Harry G., et al. Arresting Blacks for Marijuana in California: Possession Arrests, 2006-08. Los Angeles: Drug Policy Alliance.

    The Drug Policy Alliance and the California State Conference of the NAACP have released a report that documents widespread race-based disparities in the enforcement of low-level marijuana possession laws in California. In the last 20 years, California made 850,000 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and half a million arrests in the last 10 years. The people arrested were disproportionately African Americans and Latinos, overwhelmingly young people, especially young men. Yet, U.S. government surveys consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young blacks. From 2006 through 2008, police in 25 of California’s major cities have arrested blacks at four, five, six, seven and even twelve times the rate of whites.