• Letter of the Week

    Allow Pot for PTSD

    LETTER OF THE WEEK

    ALLOW POT FOR PTSD

    The Veterans Affairs Department recently adopted a policy prohibiting its physicians from recommending medical marijuana to their patients.

    Overwhelming scientific evidence has already proved marijuana’s safety and efficacy for treating conditions like chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that afflicts nearly one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.  Marijuana, moreover, carries none of the risks associated with prescription drugs used to treat PTSD, which have been responsible for the tragic overdose deaths of current conflict veterans.

    VA claims the ban is primarily a response to threats from the Drug Enforcement Administration to prosecute VA doctors who recommend medical marijuana, even though civilian doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients are not subject to arrest.

    Veterans and advocates are urging VA to stand up to the DEA’s harassment of veterans and their doctors.

    Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, President, The New School

    Jason Flom, Board of Directors, Drug Policy Alliance, New York City

    Source: Federal Times

    Pubdate: Mon, 31 May 2010

  • Drug Policy - Law Enforcement & Prisons - Question of the Week

    The effectiveness of paramilitary drug law enforcement

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 5-25-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 5-25-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2912

    Question of the Week: Is the use of paramilitary SWAT raids in drug enforcement effective?

    First, let’s count the numbers. The Office of National Drug Control Policy noted in its fiscal year 2010 Budget Summary that,

    “For FY 2007,  … there were almost 620 HIDTA [High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas] initiatives.”

    The ONDCP said that these

    “HIDTA initiatives … seized $673 million in cash, and $203 million in noncash assets from drug traffickers.” And “These initiatives identified more than 7,300 DTOs [drug trafficking organizations] operating in their areas.”

    SWAT units are often integrated into HIDTA initiatives.

    Rodney Balko found in his 2006 Cato Institute analysis that

    “these increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers.”

    Further, Balko countered that the seizure of cash and assets, called forfeiture, cause

    “police officials [to] feel increasing pressure to send SWAT teams out on drug assignments, where the assets seized come back to the department and can help offset the costs of having a SWAT team in the first place.”

    So, despite disrupting drug traffickers and seizing of hundreds of millions of assets, often needed to fund the SWAT teams themselves, HIDTA still identified over seven thousand drug trafficking organizations. Sound effective?

    Further, a new report by the International Center for Science in Drug Policy reviewed the scientific evidence concerning this approach to drug law enforcement and confirmed that it,

    “contributes to gun violence and high homicide rates and that increasingly sophisticated methods of disrupting organizations involved in drug distribution could unintentionally increase violence.”

    Possibly, violence begets violence?

    These facts and others like them come from the Drug Interdiction Chapter of Drug War Facts.

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

    The federal government’s failure to find any positive use for marijuana

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 5-19-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 5-19-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2902

    Question of the Week: Why has the federal government failed to find any positive use for marijuana?

    Let’s say that it did, but it didn’t.

    In his 1998 ruling called “In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition” the DEA’s Administrative Law Judge Francis Young recommended,

    “that the Administrator [of the DEA] conclude that the marijuana plant considered as a whole has currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, that there is no lack of accepted safety for use of it under medical supervision and that it may lawfully be transferred from Schedule I to Schedule II.”

    That ruling might suggest that the government found positive use for marijuana, but that was 20 years ago. Despite Judge Young’s ruling, marijuana still remains in the most restrictive Schedule I of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act along with heroin, LSD, and GHB.

    Flash forward almost 22 years to the column “Medical Marijuana and the Law,” that appeared in the April 22, 2010 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. This article revealed,

    “Restrictive federal law and, until recently, aggressive federal law enforcement have hamstrung research and medical practice involving marijuana.”

    Yet, despite federal policymakers having hamstrung research and medical practice involving marijuana, four patients continue to receive an ongoing supply of medical cannabis under the federal government’s Compassionate IND program established around the same time as Judge Young’s 1988 ruling. Further, a research review by Americans for Safe Access concluded that,

    “a privately funded study of these patients confirmed that they benefited from their use of medical cannabis.”

    To summarize, Judge Young appeared to find “positive use” for marijuana over 20 years ago, yet federal policymakers have “hamstrung research,” while at the same time provided an “ongoing supply” to four patients who have “benefitted from their use” of cannabis.

    And of course, you can also find facts concerning medical marijuana like these from the Congressional Research Service at Drug War Facts in the Medical Marijuana Chapter.

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

    Teen use in states that have medical marijuana laws

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 5-10-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 5-10-10.  http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2890

    Question of the Week: Is teen use of marijuana is higher in states with medical marijuana laws than in states without them?

    The Congressional Research Service took a look at this issue in its April 2010 report entitled, “Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies.”

    The report stated,

    “A statistical analysis of marijuana use by emergency room patients and arrestees in four states with medical marijuana programs—California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington—found no statistically significant increase in recreational marijuana use … after medical marijuana was approved.”

    The CRS report referred to

    “Another study [that] looked at adolescent marijuana use and found decreases in youth usage in every state with a medical marijuana law. Declines in usage exceeding 50% were found in some age groups,”

    The CRS report added,

    “California, the state with the largest and longest-running medical marijuana program, ranked 34th in the percentage of persons age 12-17 reporting marijuana use in the past month.”

    Finally, the CRS report concluded that,

    “No clear patterns [concerning teen use] are apparent … “ state-to-state and that “more important factors are at work in determining a state’s prevalence of recreational marijuana use than whether the state has a medical marijuana program.”

    The Federation of American Scientists maintains a collection of Congressional Research Service reports on its website at www.fas.org. You can find this extensive 51-page overview of medical marijuana there by searching on the key word ‘marijuana.’

    And of course, you can also find facts concerning medical marijuana like these from the Congressional Research Service at Drug War Facts in the Medical Marijuana Chapter.

  • Drug Policy

    The Price of the Drug War

    The price that Americans are paying for the drug war has become an issue in these times of severe federal, state, and local budget deficits. Some of these costs can be found within the Economics link at Drug War Facts and have been distilled into the flyer, “The Federal, State, and Local Price of the Drug War.”

    Consider these costs, remembering that each point represents a direct quote from the linked authoritative source:

    $714 billion – That’s the current Federal budget deficit as of April 2010.

    $48.7 billion – That was total estimated cost of U.S. drug prohibition in 2008.

    $6.2 billion– That’s the price America paid to imprison drug offenders in 2007.

    $2 billion – That’s what was spent on counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan from 2005-2009. This, of course, excludes the cost of the war.

    $1.4 billion – That’s how much revenue California is losing or really the funds that the state could collect if it taxed marijuana.

    Please note that these costs were also the subject of the first of a new series of audio segments for Drug War Facts on the Drug Truth Network, with this first segment airing on May 3, 2010.

  • Letter of the Week

    Step Close To Subjugation

    LETTER OF THE WEEK

    STEP CLOSE TO SUBJUGATION

    I am appalled at the decision to extradite Marc Emery on May 10 for clearly political reasons, despite the move directly violating Canada’s extradition treaty with the United States which states that no citizen may be extradited for a political crime.

    On the day of Emery’s arrest, the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Agency released a statement that confirmed that the extradition was politically motivated.

    It’s clearly targeted at the rapidly growing marijuana legalization movement in both Canada and the U.S.

    Since Emery has tirelessly crusaded for years to legalize this harmless substance, he’s an obvious target for the wasteful and futile American “war on drugs.”

    He is only one of thousands of people out there selling seeds in the U.S., Holland and Britain, yet those parties are not being prosecuted.

    Emery was chosen because he is an extremely influential leader in the legalization movement.

    Never have I been more ashamed of the Canadian government, which bowed down and gave away one of our citizens for a five-year sentence for what would merit a $500-fine in our own country.

    We truly have given away our sovereignty in giving away Emery, and are that much closer to becoming politically subjugated to the U.S.

    Tony C. Quick

    Saskatoon

    Pubdate: Thu, 20 May 2010

    Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Reining in SWAT — Towards Effective Oversight of Paramilitary

    Feature: Reining in SWAT — Towards Effective Oversight of Paramilitary

    from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #634, 5/28/10

    As is periodically the case, law enforcement SWAT teams have once again
    come under the harsh gaze of a public outraged and puzzled by their
    excesses. First, it was the February SWAT raid on a Columbia, Missouri,
    home where police shot two dogs, killing one, as the suspect, his wife,
    and young son cowered. Police said they were looking for a dealer-sized
    stash of marijuana, but found only a pipe with residues. When police
    video of that raid hit the Internet and went viral this month, the
    public anger was palpable, especially in Columbia.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream

    Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype

    The mainstream media loves to spill ink hyping the allegation that marijuana causes mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. In fact, it was in March when international media outlets declared that cannabis use ‘doubled’ one’s risk of developing the disease. Yet when research appears in scientific journals rebuking just this sort of ‘reefer
    madness,’ it generally goes […]