• Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Ibogaine

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 4-5-12

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 4-5-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3817

    Question of the Week: What is Ibogaine?

    According to a 2008 article in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology,

    “The incidence of opioid-related deaths in the US doubled between 1999 and 2004, with methadone and oxycodone accounting for most of this increase.”

    Expanding in parallel with this explosive growth is a subculture that by 2006 had

    “increased fourfold relative to the prior estimate of 5 years earlier, an average yearly rate of growth of approximately 30%.”

    This subculture advocates for opiate treatment with Ibogaine, defined by a Journal of Neuroscience article from 2005 as,

    “a natural alkaloid extracted from the root bark of the African shrub Tabernanthe Iboga,[that] has attracted attention because of its reported ability to reverse human addiction to multiple drugs of abuse, including alcohol. Human anecdotal reports assert that a single administration of ibogaine reduces craving for opiates and cocaine for extended periods of time and reduces opiate withdrawal symptoms.”

    A 2011 Journal of Legal Medicine review suggested that it is with higher doses that the user experiences the drug’s most intense effects, which are

    “characterized as the “panoramic recall of a large amount of material relating to prior life events from long-term memory, primarily in the visual modality,” or the “waking dream” state. If the user is an addict, he or she will usually be taken back to the place and time where the underlying issue leading to the addiction arose, allowing the addict to gain critical insight into the reasons why he or she abuses.”

    The irony is that, classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, ibogaine is listed in the same highly restricted category as the very drugs it counteracts.

  • Question of the Week

    Illegal Drugs Treat Alcoholism

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 3-19-12

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 3-19-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3796

    Question of the Week: Can illegal drugs cure alcoholism?

    Several illegal drugs are showing promise for reducing the harm and death associated with alcoholism.

    In 2011, the Journal of Legal Medicine overviewed Ibogaine,

    “… a naturally occurring psychoactive substance derived from the roots of the Tabernanthe iboga shrub … It allowed patients to revisit their past experiences objectively and without the negative emotions experienced during the actual incident, which, in turn, enabled them to confront and resolve deep personal conflicts.”

    The report concluded,

    “ibogaine promises the real possibility of substantially lowering the costs shifted to society by drug and alcohol abuse.”

    A very recent 2012 article in the Journal of Psychopharmacology stated,

    “Numerous clinical investigators have claimed that treating alcoholics with individual doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), in combination with psychosocial interventions, can help to prevent a relapse of alcohol misuse, for example, by eliciting insights into behavioural patterns and generating motivation to build a meaningful sober lifestyle.”

    This report concluded,

    “… a single dose of LSD had a significant beneficial effect on alcohol misuse.”

    A 2009 study in the Harm Reduction Journal conducted at the Berkeley Patients Group, a leading medical cannabis dispensary in Berkeley, California, found that

    “research on medical cannabis patients has alluded to the use of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, illicit or prescription drugs.”

    This report concluded,

    “substitution might be a viable alternative to abstinence for those who are not able, or do not wish to stop using psychoactive substances completely.”

    Unfortunately, all of these substances are banned in the United as Schedule I drugs. Further, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California has just forced the Berkeley Patients Group to close.

    These Facts and others like them can be found in the Drug War Facts Chapters for Ibogaine, Enthogens and Medical Marijuana at www.drugwarfacts.org.

  • Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Size of Illegal Drug Market

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 3-12-12

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 3-12-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3787

    Question of the Week: What is the size of the global illegal drug market?

    A 1994 report from the United Nations called

    “the traffic in illicit drugs one of the world’s most substantial money earners. The retail value of drugs, at around 500 billion US dollars a year, now exceeds the value of the international trade in oil and is second only to that of the arms trade.”

    The United Nation’s 1997 World Drug Report reduced that estimate stating,

    “[A] growing body of evidence suggests that the true figure lies somewhere around the $US 400 billion level … larger than the international trade in iron and steel, and motor vehicles.”

    A 1998 report from the Transnational Institute with the tongue-in-cheek title, “Let’s All Guess the Size of the Illegal Drugs Industry!” placed the size of the world illegal drug market at between “$45 and $280 billion.”

    Reducing these estimates even further, a 2001 article in World Economics declared,

    “In true trade terms, a more reasonable estimate of the total for illicit drugs—cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and synthetic drugs—is only about $20 to $25 billion annually.”

    The 2005 World Drug Report didn’t back down,

    “[T]he value of the global illicit drug market for the year 2003 was estimated at $13 billion at the production level, at $94 billion at the wholesale level (taking seizures into account), and at 322 billion based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account.”

    Not surprisingly, that 2001 World Economics article concluded,

    “The underlying data that give rise to estimates of global drug markets are riddled with discrepancies and inconsistencies.”

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

  • Events

    ’Occupy UNODC Vienna 2012

    With the slogan ’Occupy UNODC Vienna 2012’ the critics of current drug policies based on three UN Conventions will unite during the forthcoming annual meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

    Fifty years after the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was launched, the global war on drugs has failed, and has had many unintended and devastating consequences worldwide. Use of the major controlled drugs has risen, and supply is cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. The UN conservatively estimates that there are now 250 million drug users worldwide.

    Illicit drugs are now the third most valuable industry in the world, after food and oil, estimated to be worth $450 billion a year, all in the control of criminals. Fighting the war on drugs costs the world’s taxpayers incalculable billions each year. An estimated 10 million people are in prison worldwide for drug-related offences, mostly “little fish” – personal users and small-time dealers. Corruption amongst law-enforcers and politicians, especially in producer and transit countries, has spread as never before, endangering democracy and civil society. Stability, security and development are threatened by the fallout from the war on drugs, as are human rights. Tens of thousands of people die in the drug war each year.

  • Announcements - Events

    The War on Drugs : Versus Debate : 13th March, 7pm GMT

    Julian Assange and Richard Branson; Russell Brand and Misha Glenny; Geoffrey Robertson and Eliot Spitzer. Experts, orators and celebrities who’ve made this their cause – come and see them lock horns in a new Intelligence2/Google+ debate format. Some of our speakers will be on stage in London, others beamed in from Mexico City or São Paulo or New Orleans, all thanks to the “Hangout” tool on Google+.

    The web will have its say, and so can you at the event in London. Be part of the buzz of the audience, be part of an event beamed across the web to millions. Come and witness the future of the global mind-clash at the first of our Versus debates, live at Kings Place.

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Is Drug War Driven Mass Incarceration the New Jim Crow?

    By Bill Frezza

    Once in a great while a writer at the opposite end of the political spectrum gets you to look at a familiar set of facts in a new way. Disconcerting as it is, you can feel your foundation shift as your mind struggles to reconcile this new point of view with long held beliefs. Michelle Alexander has done just that in her book, The New Jim Crow.

    A liberal ideologue with impeccable leftist credentials, Alexander was Director of the Racial Justice Project at the American Civil Liberties Union before moving on to an appointment in Race and Ethnicity studies at Ohio State University. Her thesis pushes disparate-impact logic to an extreme, ascribing deeply racist motives to a society that has traveled a very long way since the system of legal and cultural discrimination known as Jim Crow stained the land.

    Yet there is no denying that if your goal were to consign African Americans to a permanent underclass—one which the rest of us would be culturally and legally permitted to discriminate against in employment, housing, voting rights, and government benefits—the war on drugs would be a great way to do it.

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    The War on Drugs survey – what do you think?

    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.

  • Law Enforcement & Prisons - Question of the Week

    Race and Prison

    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.