The Drug War’s Invisible Victims

There are many kinds of war. The classic image of a uniformed soldier kissing mom good-bye to risk his life on the battlefield has changed dramatically. In today’s wars, it’s more likely that mom will be the one killed.

CIP Americas Program (Mexico)


UNIFEM states that by the mid-1990s, 90% of war casualties were civilians– mostly women and children.


Mexico’s drug war is a good example of the new wars on civilian populations that blur the lines between combatants and place entire societies in the line of fire. Of the more than 50,000 people killed in drug war-related violence, the vast majority are civilians. President Felipe Calderón claims that 90% of the victims were linked to drug cartels. But how does he know? In a country where only 2% of crimes are investigated, tried, and sentenced, the government pulled this figure out of its sleeve.


There is no official information on why these thousands were killed. When their bodies are found in unmarked mass graves, no one even knows who they were. With violence the norm, executions can —and do— target grassroots leaders, human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, and rebellious youth under the cloak of the drug war.


Not Just Homicide


There are also war tolls beyond the body counts. The homicide number misses the disappeared, the thousands whose bodies–dead or alive–are never found, never counted. And it hides the mutilation of lives caused by “collateral damage”: the loss of loved ones, families forced from their homes, permanent injury, orphans and widows, sexual abuse, lives lived in fear.


These costs fall primarily on the shoulders of women–the mothers, daughters, and sisters who are left with the nearly impossible task of seeking answers and redress in a justice system outpaced by violence and overrun by corruption. They are often re-victimized by government agencies that ignore, reject, or stifle their pleas for justice.


“Families that demand that our children be found face all kinds of threats… the loss of our property, isolation, rejection by our own families,” said Araceli Rodríguez, a mother whose son, a young policeman, was disappeared on the job. His police unit refuses to give information on his disappearance. “I wake up and find that it’s not a nightmare, that his absence is real and the impunity is also real.”


It’s rare to hear the voices of the women who bear the brunt of the drug war. Their pain doesn’t make headlines. Some need anonymity to remain alive. Many have been granted protective measures by the government or international human rights organizations because of the extreme threats they face.


Telling Stories


Despite all these difficulties, some 70 women told their stories amid tears and despite fear for their lives in Mexico City on January 22. The meeting called by the Nobel Women’s Initiative brought an international delegation led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams together with Mexican women victims of the violence and women human rights defenders.




From the sketchy statistics available, women make up a relatively small proportion of the murdered in Mexico, but they are the majority of citizens who denounce disappearances, murders, and human rights violations in the drug war. They work on the front lines of defending communities and human rights. For their efforts, they become targets themselves. In Mexico, six prominent women human rights defenders have been murdered in the past two years.


The last report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders recognized that threats and especially “explicit death threats against women human rights defenders are one of the main forms of violence in the region, with more than half coming from Latin America, most of those (27) from Mexico.”


Sometimes it’s the drug cartels that seek to silence women activists. But a recent survey of Mexican women human rights defenders revealed that they cite the government (national, state, and local) and its security forces as responsible in 55% of cases of violence and threats of violence to women defenders. Among government officials charged with public safety and justice, they encounter at best indifference and at worst death threats and attacks. A human rights defender from the state of Coahuila explained that searching for a disappeared loved one implies “always having to be in the hell of the institutions, which are often infiltrated by crime.”


Gender-based violence including femicide has skyrocketed in the context of the overall violence. The number of femicides in Chihuahua since sending the army in has risen to 837 for the period of 2008- June 2011 —nearly double the total femicides in 1993-2007. Women rights defenders report that the vast majority of threats and acts of violence against them include gender-based violence.


Silent No More


Olga Esparza, whose daughter Monica disappeared in Ciudad Juarez in 2009, explains through her tears that the government simply doesn’t care. “We’re the ones who have to carry out the investigations, with our own resources.” She adds that government officials often add insult to injury, “They say she’s probably just gone off with her boyfriend or she’s a prostitute or drug addict.” In her case, as with so many others, there’s no investigation, no results, no justice.


Another woman described how her work with indigenous communities led to her rape and torture by police agents. She continues to live in terror due to threats against her life and her family.


Alma Gomez of the Center for the Human Rights of Women in Chihuahua summed up what she sees in the center, “Women are the invisible victims, we are always at risk in this military and police occupation. We know of gang rapes by security forces that the women don’t even report; arbitrary arrests; women who make the rounds between army barracks and city morgues searching for their sons, fathers, or husbands. We are the spoils of war in a war we didn’t ask for and we don’t want.”


“Victim” is really the wrong word for these women. The mother whose son disappeared more than two years ago said, “In the struggle to find my son, I joined the peace movement. I learned that I can transform my pain into a collective force and together we can help more people to have a voice and to now be empowered to defend their rights.”


Valentina Rosendo, a Me’phaa indigenous woman from the State of Guerrero, was raped by soldiers and took her case all the way up to the Interamerican Court of Human Rights. She sums up the reason for participating in the Nobel Women’s forum, “It’s really hard to speak out, but it’s more painful to keep quiet.”


30 January 2012
Laura Carlsen
Source: www.cipamericas.org


Laura Carlsen is the Director of the Americas Program and is currently corresponding from the Nobel Women’s Delegation as it tours Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Ranking 20 Drugs and Alcohol by Overall Harm

The British peer-reviewed journal Lancet published a study titled "Drug Harms in the UK: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis" on Nov. 1, 2010 which ranked 20 drugs from alcohol to marijuana to tobacco based on harm factors.

Individual harm (such as dependence, mortality, and impairment of mental functioning) was considered under "harm to users," while "harm to others" (such as crime, environmental damage, and international damage) took into account the number and extent of others harmed by individual drug use. 

The two charts below illustrate the study’s conclusions using a 100 point scale where 100 is the maximum harm and zero indicates no harm. The first chart broadly illustrates all 20 drugs by "harm to users” and harm to others” while the second chart illustrates those drugs on 16 criteria from drug-specific mortality to dependence to family adversities.

The study concluded that alcohol was the most harmful drug overall (72 out of 100), followed by heroin (55 out of 100), and crack cocaine (54 out of 100). The most harmful drugs to users were crack cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine (scores 37, 34, and 32, respectively), whereas alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others (46, 21, and 17, respectively). Cannabis (aka marijuana) had an overall harm score of 20, putting it in eighth place behind amphetamine (aka speed) and before GHB (aka liquid ecstasy).

Last updated 4 January, 2012

ProCon.org
Source: David Nutt, Leslie King, Lawrence Phillips, "Drug Harms in the UK: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis," The Lancet, Nov. 1, 2010

Cannabis Use Associated With Enhanced Cognitive Functioning In Schizophrenia

A recent study examining the relationship between neuropsychological performance and three different indices of cannabis use in schizophrenia has revealed that use of cannabis is linked with enhanced cognitive functioning in schizophrenia.


The indices were DSM-IV lifetime abuse/dependence, frequency of use, and recency of use. Sixty males suffering from schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and 17 healthy males were recruited as part of the study. The two groups were matched for age, education years, and premorbid IQ and the researchers assessed medical history, substance use, and psychiatric symptoms of the recruits. A neuropsychological battery was also administered for assessing attention/processing speed, executive functions, memory, and perceptual organization. Substance use within twenty-four hours of cognitive assessment was screened by urine analysis, and a range of confounds were controlled.

It was revealed that 44 participants met DSM-IV criteria for lifetime cannabis abuse/dependence in the schizophrenia group and there were three mutually exclusive frequency-of-cannabis-use subgroups comprising “high” frequency users (n=11), “medium” frequency users (n=7), and “low” frequency users (n=34) over the preceding year. There were also four mutually exclusive recency-of-cannabis-use categories comprising “cannabis abuse/dependence in the past week” (n=11 users), “non-dependent cannabis use in the past week” (n=7 users), “non-dependent cannabis use in the past month, but prior to the past week” (n=7 users), and “non-dependent cannabis use prior to the past month” (n=9 users).


Moreover, the control group fared better than the schizophrenia group in all cognitive domains. A larger proportion of participants, within the schizophrenia group, with lifetime cannabis abuse/dependence demonstrated better performance than those without lifetime abuse/dependence on a component of psychomotor speed. Recency and frequency of cannabis use were also linked with improved neuropsychological performance, predominantly in the domains of attention/processing speed and executive functions. In conclusion, the use of cannabis was found to be associated with improved cognitive functioning in schizophrenia.


20 January, 2012
iMarijuana.com
Ref: National Center for Biotechnology Information

Medical Marijuana: the Best and Safest Pain Killer Compared to Oxycontin, et cetera

I had 5,000 or so patients with 70% complaining of severe pain, who found relief with Marijuana; most were able to stop the narcotics.


I presume that a few people will disagree with my thesis. I will admit to a few exceptions and I will address them later.

For my own review, I pulled up the standard doses of the opiates, (from opium) and the opioids, not from opium but totally synthetic. I’m going to dismiss Codeine, an opiate which is lightly used any more in doses from 15 to 120mg but which is severely constipating and has many other intolerable side effects.


I will base my discussion on Morphine which is the standard pain killer with a usual dose of 10mg sometimes lower. The big “daddies” are Hydrocodone dose of about 20mg but soon to be long acting at about 40mg per dose; Oxycodone dose is about 15mg but has a long acting dose from around 40mg; Heroin dose is around 4.0mg but Heroin addicts frequently take 10 times more; Hydromorphone is not common with a dose of about 2.0mg.


All of these cause severe constipation and addiction and many other adverse side effects but some are much worse than others.


The Opioids, those not from Opium but totally synthetic are Meperidine or Demerol with a dose of about 50mg which is presumed to be about equal to Morphine in the dose of 10mg; Methadone has a dose of about 3.0mg; Fentanyl in a dose of about 0.2mg compared to Morphine.


It is important to note that with long term use all of the above drugs cause tolerance or the requirement for increasing doses for the same relief. I have left out some of both classes, Opiate and Opioid because they seem to be rarely used.


We will soon be having more long acting, more addicting, more lethal drugs like Oxycontin. Drug overdoses and deaths mostly from this later type of drug approached 37,000 deaths in 2009.


I first was introduced to the Opioid painkiller, Demerol, when I started my medical practice, for migraines. I could tell from my patients apparent suffering that it was severe and I thought Morphine might be best. I was advised by my betters that Demerol with a brain blood vessel relaxing action would be better. It was!


On Nov. 18, 2010 I posted Marijuana: Miracle Pain Killer in salem-news.com lightly covering this subject. It received 10 comments. On March 2, 2009 I posted Marijuana vs. Morphine drugs on salem-news.com after I heard that Marijuana was extremely useful for severe pain. On Feb. 13, 2009 I posted Marijuana vs. Anti-depressants. I received 35 comments many advising me that Marijuana was excellent therapy for pain with minimal adverse effects.


One of my biggest surprises in preparing this posting was to see that Marijuana was/is used together with drugs like Oxycodone and Hydrocodone for severe pain and otherwise. This may be one of the exceptions for Marijuana being equal to or better than Opiates. Some extreme pain requires surgical severing of the pain nerve. Transcutaneoous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (T.E.N.S.) may be another option. I still say that with my 5000 or so patients with 70% complaining of severe pain having found relief with Mairjuana and most were able to stop the narcotics.


My experience and that of several thousands of physicians indicate that Marijuana works well for 150,000 Medical Marijuana patients for about 70% of those requesting permits for pain. It also works well for the 30% who have muscle spasms and the 20% of those who have nausea and vomiting for patients with Cancer or HIV or the medications for them.


CBS News had a recent story on the use of Marijuana in the various 17 legal states in 2009. Delaware had 11.86% of people using Marijuana and it went up to 16.29% for Alaska. The overall percentage for use in the U.S. was about 9%. In Australia and New Zealand it was up to about 20%.


SAFE MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS HERE TO STAY!!!


17 January, 2012 
Dr. Phil Leveque 
Salem-News.com
________________________________________
Dr. Phillip Leveque has degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and minors in physiology and biochemistry. He was a Professor of Pharmacology, employed by the University of London for 2 years, during which time he trained the first doctors in Tanzania. After training doctors, he became an Osteopathic Physician, as well as a Forensic Toxicologist.   Before any of that, Phil Leveque was a Combat Infantryman in the U.S. Army in WWII. He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder more than 60 years after the war, and specialized in treating Veterans with PTSD during his years as a doctor in Molalla, Oregon. 

IACM-Bulletin of 15 January 2012

News in Brief


* Science: Cannabis smoking does not impair lung function

Cannabis does not impair lung function - at least not in the doses inhaled by the majority of users, according to the largest and longest study ever to consider the issue, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. US researchers conducted a longitudinal study collecting repeated measurements of pulmonary function and smoking over 20 years from 1985 to 2006 in 5115 men and women. "Occasional and low cumulative marijuana use was not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function," authors summarized the results. Lifetime exposure to cannabis cigarettes was expressed in joint-years, with 1 joint-year of exposure equivalent to smoking 365 joints (cannabis cigarettes) or filled pipe bowls.


Researchers found that measures of lung function - forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration and forced vital capacity - actually improved slightly as young people reported using more cannabis - at least up to 7 joint-years or 2,555 joints. "There's no doubt marijuana triggers a cough," said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who worked on the new study. But questions have remained about the drug's longer-term effect on lung functioning. Not surprisingly tobacco use was associated with decreased lung function. But at least at moderate levels of cannabis smoking, that didn't seem to be the case - in fact, the trend was reversed. Lung volume and air flow rates both increased with each joint-year in moderate users. "It's a very real increase (...) but it's so small that I don't think that a person would feel a benefit in terms of their breathing," Kertesz said. At the highest levels of cannabis smoking lung function seemed to decline again, but the researchers noted that there weren't enough heavy cannabis users in their study population to be sure of that.


It is unlikely that cannabis puts users at risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, as smoking tobacco does, says Dr. Donald Tashkin, professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, who studies the effects of cannabis on the lungs for decades but wasn't involved in the new study. When it comes to diminished lung function, "This particular potential complication of marijuana smoking doesn't appear to be an important risk," he told the press agency Reuters. "Therefore, people who are using marijuana for medicinal purposes or recreationally at least could be reassured that they're not harming their lungs in this way."
(Source: Pletcher MJ, Vittinghoff E, Kalhan R, Richman J, Safford M, Sidney S, Lin F, Kertesz S. Association between marijuana exposure and pulmonary function over 20 years. JAMA 2012;307(2):173-81)



* Science: Cannabis use was not associated with cognitive impairment in people at the age of 50 according to a large epidemiological study

Researchers at King's College in London, UK, investigated the association between illicit drug use and cognitive functioning during the mid-adult years. They found that "at the population level, it does not appear that current illicit drug use is associated with impaired cognitive functioning in early middle age." A total of 8,992 participants who were surveyed at 42 years of age in the years 1999 and 2000 were included. The authors analyzed data on 3 cognition tests when the participants were 50 years of age in the years 2008 and 2009.


Cannabis was by far the most common used drug of the participants with six percent saying they had used it in the past year, while one-quarter said they had ever used it. Overall, the study found, there was no evidence that current or past drug users had poorer mental performance. In fact, when current and past users were analysed together, their test scores tended to be higher. But that advantage was small, the researchers said, and might just reflect another finding - that people who'd ever used drugs generally had a higher education level than non-users. "However, the authors cannot exclude the possibility that some individuals and groups, such as those with heavier or more prolonged use, could be harmed," they write in their article for the American Journal of Epidemiology. More at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-drugs-idUSTRE8030AE20120104 (Source: Dregan A, Gulliford MC. Is Illicit Drug Use Harmful to Cognitive Functioning in the Midadult Years? A Cohort-based Investigation. Am J Epidemiol. 2011 Dec 21. [in press])


* Science: Cannabis-ketamine synergy in intractable neuropathic pain in case report
Two doctors from the Institute for Neuropathic Pain in Soest, The Netherlands, reported of a 56 year old woman suffering from severe chronic neuropathic pain due to damage of the right ulnar nerve. During her life she had had several fractures and surgeries of her right arm. Since 1996 she suffers from pain in the innervation area of the ulnar nerve, which is mainly the area of the fourth and fifth finger. The pain increased in the following years with a pain intensity of 7 on an 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS) with "0=no pain" and "10=highest possible pain," despite the use of opiates and other pain medication.

She stopped the medication due to severe side effects and started using oral cannabis (0.5 grams per day in cookies) resulting in the reduction of pain intensity from 8 to 5 on the pain scale. Adding ketamine cream twice daily further reduced the pain (pain scale: 2 to 3). Ketamine is a medicinal drug used for general anaesthesia and also for pain reduction. Authors concluded: "Ketamine and cannabis may act synergistically because cross-talk exists and the cannabinoid and the opioid receptor systems also have synergistic interactions." 
(Source: Hesselink JM, Kopsky DJ. Intractable neuropathic pain due to ulnar nerve entrapment treated with cannabis  and ketamine 10% J Clin Anesth. 2012 Jan 5. [in press])


*Science: Cannabis increases creativity in people with low creativity
According to research of the University College London, UK, with 160 cannabis users, who were investigated one day under the influence of cannabis and one day sober, cannabis influenced psychosis-like symptoms and verbal fluency as a measure of creativity. Subjects were divided into four groups of creativity level. The drug increased psychosis-like symptoms in people with the highest and lowest creativity. In addition, acute cannabis use increased creativity in people with low creativity. (Source: Schafer G, et al. Conscious Cogn. 2012 Jan 7. [in press])


*Science: THC neuroprotective in model of Parkinson's disease
Researchers of the University of Plymouth, UK, demonstrated an increase of the CB1 receptor in direct response to neuronal injury in a cell culture model of Parkinson's disease, and a direct protective effect of THC on the nerves. (Source: Carroll CB, et al. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. 2012 Jan 11. [in press])


*Science: Pharmacokinetics of Namisol (THC)
The pharmaceutical company Echo Pharmaceuticals in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, investigated the pharmacokinetic properties of their THC preparation Namisol. Namisol is a new tablet containing THC designed to improve bioavailability. Oral Namisol resulted in a maximum blood concentration after 39-56 minutes. Authors noted that "variability and the time of maximum value of THC plasma concentrations were smaller for Namisol than reported for studies using oral dronabinol and nabilone." (Source: Klumpers LE, et al. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2011 Dec 28. [in press])


*Science: Nabilone did not reduce experimental acute pain in clinical study
Researchers of the pharmaceutical AstraZeneca investigated the effects of the synthetic cannabinoid nabilone on acute pain, which was induced by a chemical (capsaicin), in a placebo-controlled cross-over study with 30 healthy subjects. The cannabinoid had no significant effect on acute pain. (Source: Kalliomäki J, et al. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2012 Jan 10. [in press])


*Science: Endocannabinoids reduce allergic reactions in the skin in tissue experiments
Researchers from University of Lübeck, German, investigated the effects of the stimulation of CB1 receptors on so-called mast cells in human skin. These cells are important for allergic reactions. Researchers found that mast cells in normal skin are controlled by the endocannabinoid system limiting excessive activation of mast cells. They concluded that "CB1 stimulation is a promising strategy for the future management of allergy." (Source: Sugawara K, et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012 Jan 6. [in press])


International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (IACM)

Could 2012 be a banner year for drug law reform?

Although California voters failed to pass Prop 19 and legalize marijuana back in November of 2010, the drug policy reform community already had their eye on the future and 2012. It was hoped that by 2012 a handful of states would have both medical and full legalization measures on the ballot, in places such as Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nevada, and possibly California again. Indeed, 2012 may have the potential to be a banner year for drug policy reform advocates.


Recently, both Colorado and Washington State submitted their marijuana legalization initiatives with far more signatures than the required amount, while a myriad of others are considering medical marijuana initiatives. Activists in Michigan are also gearing up for a signature drive to amend the state constitution and end marijuana prohibition. In Arizona, a lawsuit filed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) challenging the state’s recently approved medical marijuana law was recently dismissed, paving the way for the state to implement the law’s regulatory schematic.


Also, Colorado, Washington, Rhode Island, and Vermont have all asked the DEA to re-schedule marijuana from Schedule I – substances considered having no medical value – to Schedule II, which would enable doctors to issue prescriptions to patients. And in Florida, a federal judge declared the state’s drug law unconstitutional since it doesn’t require the mens rea be proven. If the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the decision, it could place a large number of drug convictions in doubt. These developments, just to name a few, may help 2012 become the best year yet for drug law reform. 


It’s not as if the optimism isn’t justified; legalization advocates have a right to be giddy about the possibilities of 2012. While Americans already overwhelmingly favor legalizing medical marijuana, current support for full legalization is at record highs. Back in October, a Gallup poll found 50% in favor of legalizing marijuana, the first time support for full legalization ever reached the 50% mark.

Although public policy shouldn’t be based on the whims of public opinion, the poll results are most welcome. The American people are recognizing the absurdity of the government’s position on marijuana and the failure of the government’s fear mongering efforts.  Perhaps the most interesting data within the poll is the wide range of support amongst various age cohorts, especially the 49% from ages 50 to 64. There are also state polls in Colorado showing voters favor legalization by a 49% to 40% margin, while voters in Washington State are split on the initiative.


A key variable favoring the 2012 measures is that this time around, unlike Prop 19 in 2010, it will be a presidential election year. Voter turnout will certainly be higher, especially amongst the young, when compared to an off-year election.    


The newfound prevalence of drug policy discussions taking place in presidential debates and the mainstream media shouldn’t be overshadowed either, arenas where the issue is typically ignored. Specific contributions from Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul and Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Gary Johnson helped propel the discussion of the drug war to the forefront. Both Paul and Johnson make drug policy reform a key component of their respective platforms, not to mention the vital advocacy work by a number of drug policy reform organizations.


As more people learn and understand the insidious effects of drug prohibition – crime cartels, corruption, black market violence on the Mexican border and in poor urban areas, disparate treatment of minorities, militarized police, mandatory minimums, out of control prison rates, and rampant civil liberties violations – the better.


Even if 2012 doesn’t turn out quite the way legalization advocate’s hope, it’s still important to remember the drug policy reform movement’s success over the last fifteen or so years. Based on the global drug policy conversation’s pivot during that time span, it’s exciting to think about the strides that can be made in the near future.


Shifting drug policy from interdiction and criminal justice approaches towards a more rational and humane method, namely legalization or (at the very least) decriminalization, will remain the long-term goal of the drug policy reform movement. 


11 January, 2012
Brad Schlesinger
Drug Policy Examiner

The Silly, The Stupid, and The Just Plain False: The Top Ten 'Reefer Madness' Stories of 2011

From the pizza driver who snitched on a pot patient to cannabis 'deaths' and vodka tampons, 2011 was a year of great drug propaganda.


Today we bring you the Top Ten “Reefer Madness” Stories of 2011.  ”Reefer Madness”, of course, is the 1936 anti-pot propaganda film showing young people becoming crazed and violent on the effects of “reefer”.  Today, we use “Reefer Madness” as shorthand to describe the hysterical warnings by the anti-drug zealots as reported unchallenged by a complacent media.


10. Oregonian editorial board hypes fears of medical marijuana and teen pot smoking


(The Oregonian – “Seeing through the smoke” editorial) It’s about time someone took action on the increasing number of medical marijuana dispensaries  … Right now, anyone, including teenagers, can apply [for a medical marijuana card]. A study done by Oregon Partnership found, for example, that 35% of students at Wilson High School and 46% at Marshall High School knew someone with a card.


Unlike the Oregonian editorial board, I check sources (I work for NORML: I have to.) The survey they refer to was addressed at a Marshall High community town hall meeting. The poll was conducted by students as part of a project called “SMASH” in a “confidential, random, peer-to-peer” survey – meaning one high school kid asking another high school kid. We have no control group, no control for confounding variables, not even a mention of the survey size or the randomness of those polled (maybe the SMASH kids are more likely to “randomly” speak to their friend, for instance, or stood in the hall and talked to anyone passing by who would answer.)


But besides all the methodological issues arising from trusting the polling data of high school kids talking to their friends, it’s important to note what their survey actually said:


PERCEPTION: Students surveyed believed that 8 out of 10 students smoke marijuana


REALITY: 7 out of 10 students DO NOT smoke marijuana


Kids surveyed thought 77.3% of others were smoking marijuana.  76.07% of kids never smoked marijuana, another 12.27% smoked it once or twice a month.  So, kids think 3 out of 4 other kids smoke pot when 3 out of 4 kids actually don’t.  Where, oh, where could the kids be getting the message that youth cannabis smoking is out of control, when, in fact, Oregon’s 12th grade monthly cannabis use rates have declined 14% (before | after) since 1999, when medical marijuana got underway in Oregon?


9. Papa John’s Pizza supports driver who reported medical marijuana patient to police


You would think that pizza delivery companies would understand who their customers are and that a great number of them smoke marijuana.  If you’re a pizza delivery company in Colorado, you’d understand that many of the marijuana smokers in your delivery area may be legally using cannabis for medicinal purposes.  But apparently Papa John’s pizza in Colorado doesn’t care too much about its drivers violating the privacy of its customers who are medical marijuana patients.

(9News) The man was smoking medical marijuana just before the pizza arrived on Friday evening. The delivery driver smelled the marijuana and called the cops. The Papa John’s employee, who was not identified, was concerned because the customer’s 9-year-old daughter was in the house.

8. The annual scaremongering about marijuana-laced Halloween treats begins now


L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Glen Walsh said parents should definitely inspect the candy their children bring home after trick-or-treating.
Walsh said a pungent smell or an odd taste can serve as indicators on whether the food contains marijuana. As for the potency of the marijuana-laced prodcuts, Walsh said the level of THC, the chemical found in marijuana, can vary from zero to over 90 percent.


OK, so watch closely, parents.  You don’t want your kid getting a candy with 0% THC in it.  But if you find any of that 90% THC stuff, you can send it my way for proper disposal.


How stupid is this?  First off, if there is a person out there who would intentionally hand THC-laden treats to children, they are a criminal.  They’d be just as likely to poison Halloween treats or put pins or razor blades in them.. which is an urban legend with no truth to it whatsoever.


Second, if you are a person who uses THC-laden treats for medical or recreational purposes, why are you handing out a $20 “Buddafinger” when you could pass out a 20-cent “Butterfinger”?  You want to be so sure some kid you don’t know and won’t see gets high that you’ll spend 10 times more on Halloween candy?


7. Portland Reporter Anna Canzano: A medical marijuana-hating sheriff’s best friend


[Oregon Sheriff's Association President] Tom Bergin said at the rate Oregon is going, he believes Oregon is three times sicker than California. Why? Well, more than 90 percent of cardholders say they’re using pot to treat pain — not glaucoma or cancer — as the bill was initially marketed.


Here are the facts from the state’s medical marijuana program registry:


There are 49,220 medical marijuana patients
There are 44,756 patients who indicate chronic pain as a qualifying condition

So Canzano, Bergin, and every prohibitionist who scoffs at people in serious pain treating it with a non-toxic herb pull out their calculators and exclaim “90% of cardholders are using it for pain, not glaucoma or cancer!”  (The number is actually 90.9%.)


What Canzano distorts lies in the word “not”.  Under Oregon law, a registry cardholder can qualify under more than one condition.  The state even puts “A patient may have more than one diagnosed qualifying medical condition” right there on the website where you got the numbers to crunch.  Are we to believe people with cancer and glaucoma don’t suffer chronic pain as well?


6. Florida Woman Sues Over Being Arrested for Sage


A woman in Florida who was arrested for felony marijuana possession is suing for wrongful arrest. She might just have a case, she was charged with marijuana possession even though the bag they caught her with turned out to be Sage. 49 year old, Robin Brown says a Broward County Sheriff’s deputy caught her while she was bird watching back in March of 2009. He used his field kit on the herb she had in a bag, and said that in the field it tested positive for marijuana. The deputy sent the 50 grams of substance to a state crime lab.


Her lawsuit says that she was arrested before the test was performed. Her arrest was ordered by the Assistant State Attorney, Mark Horn, in June of 2009. She was arrested at her place of business, Massage Envy in Weston. She said that she was arrested in front of co-workers and her customers and subjected to a full body cavity search during her overnight stay in jail. When her lawyer discovered the herbs had not been tested a second time, he used the courts to force the tests which determined what Ms. Brown was contending all along, her sage was completely marijuana free.


5. Teen dies after plastic fumes scar lungs, media blames synthetic pot


The boy smoked the fake marijuana out of a plastic PEZ candy dispenser. The chemicals in the drugs caused extensive damage to his lungs. Brandon was put on a respirator in June and had a double lung transplant in September.


So, we’re to assume here it was the K2 that scarred the boys lungs and not the freakin’ fumes from the melting plastic of a PEZ dispenser?!?


Tonya Rice told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper Brandon was put on a respirator in June after smoking Spice fake cannabis, which is said to be ten times more dangerous than cocaine.


Not to be cruel or insensitive about the boy’s death, but he didn’t suddenly die from the acute effects of K2 use.  He used it in June, fell very ill, was given a double lung transplant, and died from an infection because of his lowered immune system in October.  So, to compare, we have cocaine, which can give you a heart attack by overdose and kill you the minute you snort / smoke / inject it, versus a synthetic cannabinoid smoked through plastic, requiring a double lung transplant, leading to a fatal infection four months later in the hospital that kills one boy.  We’re not trying to say K2 is safe – it isn’t – but it’s not “ten times more dangerous than cocaine”.


4. CASA’s Joe Califano blames marijuana for Arizona shooter


I haven’t seen press reports or talking heads discuss their concern about how easy it has been for this mentally ill young man to get marijuana. And there has been no mention of the potential of marijuana to spark latent psychosis and exacerbate schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.


So as we continue to think about this killer and his deranged mind, we should be asking this question: Is Jared Loughner an individual whose psychosis was prompted or exacerbated by the use of marijuana?


Gee, Joe, what do you think we ought to do?  Make marijuana illegal?  Lock up people who use it?  Break down their doors at night and shoot their dogs?  Use helicopters and infrared to eradicate the plant wherever it’s grown?  Throw billions at American and Mexican law enforcement for armor and weapons to fight its traffickers?  Train dogs to sniff it out?  Drug test employees, high schoolers, even middle schoolers to detect its use?


The facts are that 1% of the population exhibits schizophrenia, whether it is 1979 and 60% of high school seniors have tried marijuana or it is 1992 and 33% have tried it.  A study of 186 UK mental hospitals found no increase in schizophrenia or psychosis admissions, despite use rates of cannabis increasing greatly during that decade.


3. UK Daily Mail: Cannabis ‘kills 30,000 a year’


Cannabis ‘kills 30,000 a year’

Oh, dear.  From zero deaths* in 5,000 years of human use to ’30,000 a year’.  That sounds serious.  Let’s read on…


More than 30,000 cannabis smokers could die every year, doctors warn today.


Wait, “could die”?  We’ve gone from the active headline verb “kills” to the lede adverb “could”?  Usually you bury that wiggle room somewhere in paragraph umpteen.  Continue…


Professor John Henry, a leading authority on the drug, said the change – due to take place this summer – had undermined doctors’ efforts to highlight the risks.


He said: “Cannabis is as dangerous as cigarette smoking – in fact, it may be even worse – and downgrading its legal status has simply confused people.”


“May be” worse?  Where are the wards full of cannabis smokers?  Britain actually has some level of health care worthy of a civilized (civilised) people.  You’d think the National Health Service would bring these figures up.  It sounds like quite a cost to the government.


2. American Cancer Society says marijuana use can lead to amputation


Although it is rare, severe shutdown of blood circulation to the arms or legs has been reported in young people who smoked marijuana. In some cases, it was so severe that amputation was required.


In all my years beating back reefer madness, this is a first.  I have never heard a story of someone’s marijuana use leading to amputation.  I have covered stories of people who use marijuana for their already-existing amputation, since it is a superior medication for “phantom” pain, and I’ve covered one double-amputee diabetic’s eviction for her medical marijuana use, though.


1. Butt-chugging, vodka tampons, drinking bleach, and other parent-frightening urban legends


(KPHO) [School Resource Officer Chris] Thomas spends his days patrolling the halls of a Valley high school. He’s heard first hand how kids are getting tipsy.


“What we’re hearing about is teenagers utilizing tampons, soak them in vodka first before using them,” Thomas said.


“This is definitely not just girls,” Thomas said. “Guys will also use it and they’ll insert it into their rectums.”


Rather than the traditional beer bong you’d find at a college party, kids are sticking the tube elsewhere to get wasted.


They’re calling it “butt chugging.”


Rrrighttt… young teenage males, typically the most homophobic and self-conscious creatures on the planet, are dropping trou in front of their peers and inserting plastic tubes up their ass to chug beer.  And the vodka tampons?  Huffington Post reports that “the practice remains unverified despite multiple reports of incidents in the U.S. and elsewhere” and that a blogger “conducted her own informal trial to see whether the purported method worked“, where she notes the alcohol dissolves the glue and consistency of the tampon so much it couldn’t be inserted and that even if it were inserted, the burn you’d feel on your sensitive lady parts would not make this an enjoyable drunk.  Plus, the idea that it would help teens avoid detection with no alcohol on their breath is false, as alcohol metabolizes in your breath no matter how you ingest it. 


30 December, 2011
Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator
NORML

The Top Ten International Drug Policy Stories of 2011

The new year is almost upon us and 2011 will soon be a year for the history books. But we can’t let it go without recognizing the biggest global drug policy stories of the year. From the horrors of the Mexican drug wars to the growing clamor over the failures of prohibition, from the poppy fields of Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle to the coca fields of the Andes, from European parliaments to Iranian gallows, drug prohibition and its consequences were big news this year.


Of course, we can’t cover it all. We have no room to note the the emergence of West Africa as a transshipment point for South American cocaine bound for Europe’s booming user markets, nor the unavailability of opioid pain medications in much of the world; we’ve given short shrift to the horrors of "drug treatment" in Southeast Asia; and we’ve barely mentioned the rising popularity of synthetic stimulants in European club scenes, among other drug policy-related issues. We’ll be keeping an eye on all of those, but in the meantime, here are our choices for this year’s most important global drug policy stories:


The Mexican Drug Wars


This month marks the fifth anniversary of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s declaration of war on his country’s drug trafficking organizations — the so-called cartels — and five years in, his policy can only be described as a bloody disaster. The death toll stands at somewhere around 45,000 since Calderon sent in the army and the federal police, but that figure doesn’t begin to describe the horror of the drug wars, with their gruesome brutality and exemplary violence.


Mexico’s drug wars pit the army and the state and federal police against the cartels, the cartels against each other, and different factions of state, local, and federal police, and even different military commands, aligned with various cartels fighting each other in a multi-sided dance of death. All the violence and corruption has had a corrosive effect on Mexicans’ perceptions of personal and public safety and security, as well as on its political system.


It has also tarnished the reputation of the Mexican military. After a two-year investigation, Human Rights Watch reported last month credible evidence that the security forces, led by the military, were responsible for 170 cases of torture, 39 disappearances and 24 extrajudicial killings in the five states they studied.


And, as the cartels battle each other, the military, and the various police, the violence that was once limited to a handful of border cities has spread to cities across the country. Once relatively peaceful Acapulco has been wracked by cartel violence, and this year, both Veracruz and Monterrey, cities once unaffected by the drug wars, have seen murderous acts of spectacular violence.


Meanwhile, business continues as usual, with drugs flowing north across the US border and voluminous amounts of cash and guns flowing south. Calderon’s drug war, which has racked up a $43 billion bill so far (and an additional nearly one billion in US Plan Merida aid), has managed to kill or capture dozens of cartel capos, but has had no discernable impact on the provision of drugs across the border to feed America’s voracious appetite. Worse, the attempted crackdown on the cartels has led them to expand their operations to neighboring Central American countries where the state is even weaker than in Mexico. Both Guatemala and Honduras have seen significant acts of violence attributed to the cartels this year, while El Salvador and Nicaragua also complain of the increasing presence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations.


There are, however, a couple of positives to report. First, the carnage may have peaked, or at least reached a plateau. It now appears that the death toll this year, while tremendously high at around 13,000 so far, will not exceed last year’s 15,000. That would mark the first downturn in the killing since Calderon called out the troops.


Second, the bloody failure of Calderon’s drug war is energizing domestic Mexican as well as international calls to end drug prohibition. A strong civil society movement against the drug war and violence has emerged in Mexico and, sadly, the sorrow of Mexico is now Exhibit #1 for critics of drug prohibition around the world.


Afghanistan: Still the World’s Drug Crop Capital


A decade after the US invaded Afghanistan in a bid to decapitate Al Qaeda and punish the Taliban, the US and NATO occupation drags bloodily on, even as it begins to wind down. And Afghanistan’s status as the world’s number one opium poppy producer remains unchallenged. In a Faustian bargain, the West has found itself forced to accept widespread opium production as the price of keeping the peasantry out of Taliban ranks while at the same time acknowledging that the profits from the poppies end up as shiny new weapons used to kill Western soldiers and their Afghan allies.


The Afghan poppy crop was down last year, not because of successful eradication programs, but because a fungus blighted much of the crop. This year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported that the area under poppy cultivation increased 7%, but that the expected harvest increased 61% because of better yields and would produce about 5,800 metric tons of opium.


Last year’s blight-related poppy shortage led to price increases, which encouraged farmers to plant more poppy and more than doubled the farm-gate value of the crop from $605 million to more than $1.4 billion. Additional hundreds of millions go to traders and traffickers, some linked to the Taliban, others linked to government officials. This year, US and NATO forces embarked on counter-drug operations aimed at traders and traffickers, but only those linked to the Taliban.


And it’s not just opium. According to the UNODC World Drug Report 2011, Afghanistan is also "among the significant cannabis resin producing countries," producing somewhere between 1,500 and 3,500 metric tons of hash in 2010, with no reason to think it has changed dramatically this year. That brings in somewhere between $85 million and $265 million at the farm gate.


A decade after the US invasion, Afghanistan remains the world’s largest opium producer by far and possibly the world’s largest cannabis producer. Given the crucial role these drug crops play in the Afghan economy, there is little reason to think anything is going to change anytime soon.


The Return of the Golden Triangle


In last year’s roundup of major international drug stories, we mentioned the reemergence of opium production in Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle. This year, production has accelerated. According to the UNODC’s Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2011, opium production has been increasing since 2006, but jumped 16% this year.


The region produced an estimated 638 metric tons this year, of which 91% came from Myanmar, with Laos and Thailand producing the rest. The region is now responsible for about 12% of annual global opium production.


The amount of land under poppy cultivation is still only one-third of what it was at its 1998 peak, but has more than doubled from its low point of 20,000 hectares in 2006. More importantly, estimated total production has rebounded and is now nearly half of what it was in 1998. The UNODC points a finger at chronic food insecurity, weak national governments, and the involvement of government actors, especially in Myanmar.


If Afghanistan does not produce enough opium to satisfy global illicit demand, the countries on the Golden Triangle are standing in the wings, ready to make up the difference.


The Rising Clamor for Legalization


2011 saw calls for ending drug prohibition growing ever louder and coming from ever more corners of the world. Throughout the year, Latin American leaders, such as Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and former Mexican President Vicente Fox, have called repeatedly for drug legalization, or at least a serious discussion of it. Although the specifics of their remarks shift over time — sometimes it’s a call for drug legalization, sometimes for marijuana legalization, sometimes for decriminalization — leaders like Fox and Santos are issuing a clarion call for fundamental change in global drug policies.

That such calls should come from leaders in Colombia and Mexico is no surprise — those are two of the countries most ravaged by drug prohibition and the violence it fuels. By the fall, even current Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who unleashed Mexico’s drug war five years ago, was starting to join the chorus. In an October interview with Time magazine, Calderon said he could never win in Mexico if Americans don’t reduce demand or "reduce at least the profits coming from the black market for drugs." While he was unwilling to take the final step and embrace ending prohibition, he added that "I want to see a serious analysis of the alternatives, and one alternative is to explore the different legal regimes about drugs."


But the biggest news in the international battle to end drug prohibition came at mid-year, when the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a star-studded panel of former presidents and prime ministers, public intellectuals, and business magnates, called the global war on drugs "a failure" and urged governments worldwide to should shift from repressive, law-enforcement centered policies to new ways of legalizing and regulating drugs, especially marijuana, as a means of reducing harm to individuals and society, in a report that drew press attention from around the world.


The commission, heavily salted with Latin American luminaries, grew out of the previous year’s Latin American Initiative on Drug Policy and includes some of the same members, including former Brazilian President Henry Cardoso and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. It is paired with the UK-based Beckley Foundation’s Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform, which launched in November and is eyeing changes in the legal backbone of international drug prohibition, the UN 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and its successor treaties. The global commission also picked up strong support from an organization of Latin American judicial figures, Latin Judges on Drugs and Human Rights, which echoed the commission’s call with its own Rome Declaration.


European Reforms


Drug reform continued its achingly slow progress in Europe this year, with a handful of real advances, as well as a number of parties in various countries taking strong drug reform stands. But while Europe has largely embraced harm reduction and seen the positive results of Portugal’s decade-long experiment with drug decriminalization, getting to the take level — ending drug prohibition — remains elusive.


In March, Scotland’s Liberal Democrats voted to making campaigning for heroin maintenance treatment part of their party platform. Heroin users should not be fined or imprisoned, but should be given the drug through the National Health Service, party members agreed.


In September, their more powerful brethren, the British Liberal Democrats, who are junior partners with the Conservatives in the governing coalition, did them one better by adopting a resolution supporting the decriminalization of drug possession and the regulated distribution of marijuana and calling for an "impact assessment" of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that would provide a venue for considering decriminalization and controlled marijuana sales. That is going to lead to debate in parliament on the issue next year.


In August, the Greek government proposed drug decriminalization in a bill sent to parliament by Justice Minister Miltadis Papioannou. Under the proposed bill, drug possession for personal use would qualify only as "misconduct" instead of a more serious criminal offense. The bill would also guarantee the right to drug treatment, including for people currently imprisoned. People deemed "addict offenders" by the courts would be provided treatment instead of being jailed. But given the other pressing matters before the Greek government, the bill has yet to move.


Probably the most significant actual drug reform achievement in Europe this year was Poland’s passage of a law that allows prosecutors to divert drug users into treatment instead of prison. That law went into effect earlier this month. The new law lets prosecutors bypass the courts in a "treat, not punish" approach to drug use when confronted with people arrested in possession of small amounts of drugs. A person arrested with personal use quantities of drugs can now be immediately referred to a therapist, and prosecutors are compelled to gather information on the extent of the person’s drug problem. Still, there is an appetite for more reform; a political party that wants legalize soft drugs won 10% of the vote in the October presidential elections.


There has been some movement on marijuana and hints of more to come, as well this year. In an otherwise dismal year for weed in the Netherlands (see below), the Dutch high court ruled in April that anyone can grow up to five pot plants without facing criminal charges, no matter how big the harvest. The ruling came after prosecutors went after two different people who produced large multi-pound yields from a handful of plants, arguing that such harvests violated the Dutch five-gram rule. The court disagreed, but said that the pot would have to be turned over to police if they came to the door.


In June, Italy’s top court ruled that balcony pot grows are okay, finding that the amounts of pot produced in such grows "could cause no harm." It’s a small advance on earlier court rulings, and a step in the right direction.


And then there are moves that are pushing the envelope. Last month, the Copenhagen city council voted to explore how best to legalize and regulate pot sales. The move has the support of the mayor, but has to be approved by the Danish parliament, which has balked at such measures before. Maybe this time will be different. And raising the ante, the Basque parliament is set to approve a new drug law that will regulate marijuana cultivation, distribution, and consumption. The move is being propelled by the health ministry in the autonomous region of Spain, and would be a direct challenge to the UN conventions’ ban on legalization.


Medical Marijuana’s Slowly Growing Global Acceptance


It comes by dribs and drabs, but it comes.


In Israel, the Cabinet approved guidelines in August that will govern the supply of marijuana for medical and research purposes. In so doing, it explicitly agreed that marijuana does indeed have medical uses. The move came on the heels of a Health Ministry decision the week before to deal with supply problems by setting up a unit within the department to grow medical marijuana. That unit will begin operating in January 2012. Currently, medical marijuana is supplied by private Israeli growers, but with the number of medical marijuana patients expected to rise from the current 6,000 to 40,000 by 2016, the state is stepping in to help out with supply.


In the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Health said in September it plans to remove marijuana from its list of proscribed substances and allow it to be prescribed by doctors. The ministry said it would move to amend Czech drug laws by the end of this year to allow for the prescription of marijuana by doctors, although we haven’t seen that actually happen yet. The ministry must also determine what sort of distribution system to set up. The Israeli model, where the state is licensing medical marijuana farms, is one oft-cited system.


In New Zealand, medical marijuana was on the agenda of the New Zealand Law Commission when it issued a report in May reviewing the country’s drug laws. In addition to other drug reform measures, the commission called for clinical trials on medical marijuana "as soon as practicable" and said medical marijuana patients should not be arrested in the meantime. "Given the strong belief of those who already use cannabis for medicinal purposes that it is an effective form of pain relief with fewer harmful side effects than other legally available drugs, we think that the proper moral position is to promote clinical trials as soon as practicable. We recommend that the government consider doing this." The government there does not appear to be eager to follow those recommendations, but the commission report is laying the groundwork for progress.


In Canada, which has an existing medical marijuana program, the news is more mixed. Health Canada is in the process of adopting a "more traditional regulatory role" for the medical marijuana "marketplace, and envisions privatized medical marijuana provision by licensed and strictly regulated grower. That doesn’t sit well with a lot of patients and activists because it means Health Canada wants to eliminate patients’ ability to grow their own. Nor were patients particularly impressed with Health Canada’s earlier attempt to provide privately produced and licensed medical marijuana. Without outright legalization of marijuana being more popular than the Conservative government, Canada may eventually get around to solving its medical marijuana problem by just legalizing it all.


Iran’s Drug War Execution Frenzy


Iran has garnered itself a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s leading practitioners of the death penalty, but 2011 saw an absolute explosion of death sentences and executions — the vast majority of them for drug offenses. At the end of January, we reported that Iran had already executed 56 drug offenders for offenses involving more than five kilograms of opium or 30 grams of heroin. As if that weren’t enough, in February, the Islamic Republic made trafficking in synthetic drugs, including meth, a capital offense. More than 50 grams (less than two ounces) of meth could bring the death penalty, but only on a second offense.


At the end of May, by which time the execution toll for drug offenses had risen to 126, Iran announced it had 300 drug offenders on death row and lashed out at Western critics, saying if the West was unhappy with the killings, Iran could simply quit enforcing its drug laws.

"The number of executions in Iran is high because 74% of those executed are traffickers in large quantities of opium from Afghanistan bound for European markets," said Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme Council for Human Rights, during a press conference that month. "There is an easy way for Iran and that is to close our eyes so drug traffickers can just pass through Iran to anywhere they want to go," he said."The number of executions in Iran would drop 74%. That would be very good for our reputation."


In a December report, Amnesty International condemned Iran’s drug executions, saying the Islamic Republic has embarked on "a killing spree of staggering proportions." The London-based human rights group said "at least 488 people have been executed for alleged drug offenses so far in 2011, a nearly threefold increase on the 2009 figures, when Amnesty International recorded at least 166 executions for similar offenses."


"To try to contain their immense drug problem, the Iranian authorities have carried out a killing spree of staggering proportions, when there is no evidence that execution prevents drug smuggling any more effectively than imprisonment," said Amnesty’s Interim Middle East and North Africa deputy director, Ann Harrison. "Drug offenses go much of the way to accounting for the steep rise in executions we have seen in the last 18 months," Harrison said.


Amnesty said it began to receive credible reports of a new wave of drug executions in the middle of 2010, including reports of mass executions at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, with one, on August 4, 2010, involving at least 89 people. While Iran officially acknowledged 253 executions in 2010, of which 172 were for drug offenses, Amnesty said it has credible reports of another 300 executions, "the vast majority believed to be for drug-related offenses."


"Ultimately, Iran must abolish the death penalty for all crimes, but stopping the practice of executing drug offenders, which violates international law, would as a first step cut the overall number significantly," said Harrison.


Amnesty also accused Iran of executing people without trial, extracting confessions by torture, failing to notify families — or sometimes, even inmates — of impending executions, and mainly executing the poor, members of minority groups, or foreigners, including large numbers of Afghans.


Amnesty noted tartly that Iran receives significant international support in its war on drugs. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has provided $22 million since 2005 to support training for Iranian anti-drug forces, while the European Union is providing $12.3 million for an Iran-based project to strengthen regional anti-drug cooperation. Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, and Japan have all provided anti-drug assistance to Iran via UNODC programs.


"All countries and international organizations helping the Iranian authorities arrest more people for alleged drugs offenses need to take a long hard look at the potential impact of that assistance and what they could do to stop this surge of executions," said Harrison. "They cannot simply look the other way while hundreds of impoverished people are killed each year without fair trials, many only learning their fates a few hours before their deaths."


Iran may be the most egregious offender when it comes to killing drug offenders, but it is by no means the only one. Other countries that not only have the death penalty for drug offenses but actually apply it include China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Human rights activists argue that the death penalty for drug offenses violates the UN Charter. For information on ongoing efforts to curtail the use of the death penalty for drug offenses, visit the International Harm Reduction Association’s Death Penalty Project.


In a bit of good news on the death penalty front, in June, India’s Bombay High Court struck down a mandatory death penalty for some drug offenses.The regional high court is the equivalent of a US district court of appeals.


"This is a positive development, which signals that courts have also started to recognize principles of harm reduction and human rights in relation to drugs. It is not utopia, but it is a giant step," said Indian Harm Reduction Network head Luke Samson.


"The Court has upheld at the domestic level what has been emphasized for years by international human rights bodies — capital drug laws that take away judicial discretion are a violation of the rule of law," said Rick Lines, executive director of Harm Reduction International (formerly the International Harm Reduction Association) and author of The Death Penalty for Drug Offenses: A Violation of International Human Rights Law. "India’s justice system has affirmed that it is entirely unacceptable for such a penalty to be mandatory. This will set a positive precedent for judicial authorities in the region, which is rife with draconian drug laws."


Weekly updates on executions worldwide including for drug offenses are available from the Rome-based group Hands Off Cain.


The Netherlands Will Bar Foreigners from its Cannabis Cafes... and More


The Netherlands’ conservative coalition government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte continued and deepened its effort to undo Holland’s reputation as a marijuana haven and drug tourism destination this year. Plans to ban foreigners from Dutch cannabis cafes reached fruition this year, with the Dutch Justice Ministry saying in November that foreigners would be barred from southern border coffee shops effective January 1. A month later, the government announced that plan would be delayed until May, and would go into effect nationwide beginning in 2013. Goodbye, tourist dollars.


But it’s not just clamping down on foreigners. The number of coffee shops operating in the country has dropped by about half from its peak, with local governments putting the squeeze on them via measures such as distance restrictions (must be so far from a school, etc.). Now, the national government will be limiting their client base to 2,000 card carrying Dutch nationals each.


The national government also rather bizarrely declared in October that it wanted to declare high-potency marijuana a dangerous drug like cocaine or heroin and ban its possession or sale. That hasn’t happened yet, but unless the Dutch get around to electing a more progressive government, the Christian Democrats and their allies will continue to work to undo the country’s progressive pot policy reputation, not to mention its tourism industry..


North America’s Only Safe Injection Site Gets a Reprieve


Ending a years’ long effort by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Steven Harper to close Insite, the Vancouver safe injection site for hard drug users, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously in September that it should be allowed to stay open.


The Harper government, a foe of harm reduction practices in general and safe inection sites in particular, had argued that the federal drug law took precedence over British Columbia’s public health policies. British Columbia and other Insite supporters argued that because Insite is providing a form of health care, its operation is a provincial matter. The federal government’s concerns did not outweigh the benefits of Insite, the court said.


"The grave consequences that might result from a lapse in the current constitutional exemption for Insite cannot be ignored," the court said. "Insite has been proven to save lives with no discernible negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada."


Insite has been the only safe injection site on the North American continent, but in the wake of that ruling, that may not be the case for long. In the wake of the September ruling, Montreal announced plans for four safe injection sites in December. It’s not a done deal — it will require financing from provincial health agencies — but plans are moving forward. And there are distant rumblings of plans for an effort to get a safe injection site running in San Francisco, which would be a first for the US, but don’t hold your breath on that one.


If the Harper government has been defeated in its effort to kill safe injection sites, it is moving forward with plans to pass an omnibus crime bill that includes mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses, including growing as few as six pot plants. With an absolute majority in a parliamentary system, there seems to be no way to block the bill’s passage, which will mean a real step backward for our northern neighbor as it emulates some of our worst penal practices.


Bolivia Challenges the Global Coca Ban


At the end of June, the Bolivian government of former coca-grower union leader Evo Morales announced it was resigning from the UN 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs because that treaty bans the cultivation of coca. The resignation is effective January 1. The move came after a failed effort last year by Bolivia to amend the treaty to allow for coca cultivation, a traditional activity in the Andes, where the plant has been used as a mild stimulant and hunger suppresser for millennia.


"This is an attempt to keep the cultural and inoffensive practice of coca chewing and to respect human rights, but not just of indigenous people, because this is an ancient practice of all Bolivian people," Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told the British newspaper The Guardian at the time.


Bolivia will rejoin the convention sometime during the new year, but with the reservation that it does not accept the language proscribing the coca plant.


That move has aroused the concern of the International Narcotics Control Board, which issued a statement saying the international community should reject moves by any country to quit the treaty and return with reservations doing so "would undermine the integrity of the global drug control system."


Of course, there are many people aside from Evo Morales who believe the global drug control system lacks any integrity whatsoever. For those people, the actions of Bolivia represent the first serious effort to begin to undo the legal backbone of the global prohibition system.


Morales himself said this month that he believes Bolivia will succeed next year. "I am convinced that next year we will win this international ’fight’ for the recognition of chewing coca leaves as a tradition of peoples in Latin America, living in the Andes," he said in an interview with the Bolivian radio station Patria Nueva.


In ending...


Global drug prohibition is under sustained, systemic, and well-deserved attack. It is being attacked (finally) in its core treaties and institutions, it is under ever broader political attack from around the planet; its central precepts are increasingly tattered. Ever year the clamor grows louder in the face of prohibition’s screaming failure to accomplish its given ends and the terrible costs it generates. The process of chipping away at drug prohibition is under way. The prohibitionist consensus is crumbling; now comes the struggle to finally kill the beast and replace it with a more sensible, compassionate, and smarter approach to mind-altering substances.


29 December 2011
Phillip Smith
ENCOD