Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for reasons that are far from clear, chose to enter the debate over medical marijuana with a thoroughly unscientific - one might even say anti-scientific - blanket denial that marijuana has any medical value at all.Specifically, the grandiosely titled "Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine" referenced a "past examination" that "concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use." That is simply not true. As Scientific American magazine noted on its Web site the next day, the statement simply ignores "the existence of a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, which concluded that marijuana was 'moderately well-suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting.'" The Institute of Medicine report, which was commissioned by the "drug czar" at the time, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and included a series of hearings around the country as well as a complete review of the scientific literature worldwide, summarized its conclusions as follows: "Advances in cannabinoid science of the past 16 years have given rise to a wealth of new opportunities for the development of medically useful cannabinoid-based drugs. [continues 257 words]
Despite Assured Privacy, Addicts Wary Of Internet Five years ago, Barry Karlin sensed a huge business opportunity where most people saw only devastating social blight. There were more than 16 million people in the United States who needed treatment for drug or alcohol addiction, but only one in five addicts who sought help could get it because the number of programs was limited and the cost was so high. Enter the Internet -- or so Karlin imagined. Rather than undergo the shame and awkwardness of face-to-face group counseling programs, addicts could find the support they needed in cyberspace. Karlin calculated the size of the potential market for drug treatment -- online and offline -- at $12 billion. [continues 836 words]
- -A Last-Minute Twist Led by doctors who learned nothing about cannabis in medical school and never employed it in clinical practice, the Medical Board of California decided in April 2004 to discipline the state's leading authority on the subject. Tod Mikuriya, MD, was put on probation for five years, subjected to supervision by a "practice monitor," and fined $75,000 for the cost of his own prosecution. Instead of accepting the punishment, Mikuriya, 74, a Berkeley-based psychiatrist, has gone to great expense to appeal in Superior Court. "It's the principle of the thing," he says without irony. [continues 1601 words]
This week a House subcommittee held hearings on a bill, the Second Chance Act, which is meant to deal with the problems that prisoners encounter on their reentry into society and also with their need for substance abuse treatment. The concern over prisoners and recidivism is justified. Though national crime rates declined steadily over the past decade, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that the percentage of released prisoners re-arrested within three years increased from 62.5 percent in 1983 to 67.5 percent in 1994. And given that offenders are arrested for only a fraction of the crimes they commit, even this depressing statistic is an underestimate. Few would dispute that the correctional system must be changed. But how? [continues 729 words]
23-Year-Old Turns Tables on Drug War With Denver Victory It's not even noon and Mason Tvert already has hit seven television and five radio news shows in his post-election victory lap as the architect behind an effort to make Denver the first U.S. city to legalize adult marijuana possession. Tvert has drawn international coverage by turning the tables on the drug war. He calls marijuana the "safer alternative" for society and criticizes the "hypocrisy" of elected officials who condemn pot while condoning alcohol use, despite studies showing that alcohol fuels deadly violence, car wrecks and abuse. [continues 700 words]
WASHINGTON -- The FBI, famous for its straight-laced crime-fighting image, is considering whether to relax its hiring rules over how often applicants could have used marijuana or other illegal drugs earlier in life. Some senior FBI managers have been deeply frustrated that they could not hire applicants who acknowledged occasional marijuana use in college, but in some cases already perform top-secret work at other government agencies, such as the CIA or State Department. FBI Director Robert Mueller will make the final decision. "We can't say when or if this is going to happen, but we are exploring the possibility," spokesman Stephen Kodak said [continues 862 words]
CRC Health Group, the country's largest provider of drug treatment services, has doubled the size of its Silicon Valley headquarters, as concern about methamphetamine-fueled crime continues to rise. CRC inaugurated its new offices in Cupertino on Monday. The privately held company has 87 facilities in 21 states, and treats approximately 22,000 people a day. Kathryn Jett, the director of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, said people need to understand that methamphetamine addictions are treatable. "We know we are not going to arrest our way out of the methamphetamine problem," she said. [continues 94 words]
Jamaica's deep social and economic crisis due to crime, violence and natural disasters urgently requires us to "put our noses to the grindstone, and shoulders to the wheel" to extricate our beloved country from the iron grip of adversity. There is, however, a huge waste of intellectual energy that should be engaged in the national recovery effort, particularly in the field of education, instead of promoting the low-level priority issue of decriminalising ganja. In recent forums and publications, it was asserted that "the people" want ganja to be decriminalised. This oft-repeated statement is misleading, as it flies in the face of the two national polls whose data stand until new polls are conducted. The Gleaner Don Anderson Poll of August 14 - 28, 2001 reported 53.3 per cent against legalisation; also the Observer Stone Poll of August 26 - 27, 2001 reported a majority of 48.3 per cent against legalisation that includes decriminalisation. [continues 858 words]
Washington -- Methamphetamine has made its way into Virginia. The illicit drug, which is easily and cheaply produced by consumer products, has spread quickly and created a national crisis. In a survey by the National Associa-tion of Counties released this month, 58 percent of the 500 law-enforcement agencies sur-veyed in 45 states cited meth as their greatest drug problem, easily sur-passing all other drugs. According to the highly respected National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2003 meth lured 12.3 million Americans aged 12 and older to try it. As former U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey has said, "Methamphetamine is one of the worst drug menaces ever to threaten America, associated with paranoia, stroke, heart attack, and permanent brain damage, leaving a trail of crime and death." [continues 636 words]
Yes, I think we should legalize marijuana--and maybe all drugs. But the big news is that some prominent conservative Republicans agree with me. What is it about marijuana that makes politicians hallucinate? The faintest whiff of "the weed of madness" (as government propaganda used to call it) causes them to see distorted images of things that aren't there and never were: law and order, justice, reelection. But they don't see the obvious. The war on drugs was lost years ago, and pretending otherwise only makes the problem worse. [continues 1766 words]
Both during and since the recent meeting of President Bush and Afghani President Hamid Karzai, the administration has danced around the critical issue of Afghanistan's growing drug crisis and its impact on the terror threat. The late April arrest of Hajji Bashir Noorzai, whom the Drug Enforcement Administration called the ''Pablo Escobar of heroin trafficking in Asia'' for providing heroin money financing Osama bin Laden, proved once again the connection between Afghan drugs and terrorism. Noorzai even used al Qaeda operatives to transport the heroin out of Afghanistan. [continues 677 words]
People in pain are hurting--but the drug company that makes a pot pill isn't. Medical marijuana ruined Eddie and Dianna Davis' lives. Several years ago, a spat with an ex led Oconee County authorities to get a warrant to search their Walhalla, S.C., home. The next thing they knew, the South Carolina Department of Social Services had sundered the family, taking their four children into custody. Diana and Eddie's crime? Possession of 7 grams (less than a third of an ounce) of marijuana. I met them at the Anti-Marijuana Prohibition Rally last month, co-presented by two groups, the N.C. Cannabis Association and For Safe Access Now. She and Eddie, he in his wheelchair, reposed under the graceful oaks shimmering in the sun at Union Square in the shadow of the stately Greek Revival capitol building--the physical manifestation of the concept of the law: wisdom tempered with mercy. [continues 1366 words]
The headline over a recent National Journal article about U.S. drug czar John Walters seems fairly mundane: "Drug Czar Plays Defense" ( see http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n687/a07.html ) But the subtitle generates more interest. "If you can name the current drug czar, you are probably mad at him." Sounds accurate, at least in my personal situation. But I'm opposed to the whole concept of a federal drug czar, and I find the tactics of Walters little more despicable than his predecessors. In the National Journal, however, other drug warriors just as conniving and dishonest as Walters describe an unlikable bureaucrat, both imperious and isolated. [continues 596 words]
If You Can Name the Current Drug Czar, You Are Probably Mad at Him. Republican and Democratic members of Congress, law enforcement officials around the country, academics who study drug policy, even former and current staff members are raising complaints about the performance of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Under the leadership of John Walters, the office is accused of retreating from its mission, abandoning key programs without consulting with Congress, and losing (or forcing out) key staff members with years of experience. [continues 2590 words]
Data From the Author's Practice Show That Many Californians Use Cannabis to Treat Emotional Conditions. Government Studies Obscure This Reality and Some Reformers Seem Reluctant to Acknowledge It. In response to TV news footage of able-bodied young men buying cannabis in Oakland, city officials voted in 2004 to limit the number of dispensaries. The politicians were exploiting (and re-enforcing) a misconception that California's medical marijuana law applies only to those with serious physical illnesses. Many of my own patients are seemingly able-bodied young men. Their histories reveal problems that are indeed serious (impaired functionality at school and/or work, use of addictive drugs) and that are treated effectively with cannabis. [continues 3348 words]
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Retired U.S. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, drug czar under former President Bill Clinton, said Wednesday the war against drugs is a bigger problem than the war against terror. Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City, McCaffrey said 52,000 people die from drugs each year compared to the 12,000 U.S. troops that have been killed or wounded in Iraq since the war started. Better cooperation between Mexico and the United States has helped win small battles in the fight against drugs, McCaffrey said, adding that the countries now share evidence and have common laws for money laundering, polygraph testing and wire tapping. [continues 252 words]
Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams abused public trust by turning his television show into a clandestine paid advertisement for the administration's No Child Left Behind initiative. It's another embarrassing moment for journalists, but the Department of Education shouldn't escape its share of the shame for complicity in this latest erosion of public trust. Mr. Williams' arrangement with the department required him to produce radio and television spots with Education Secretary Rod Paige. Mr. Williams also was expected to lobby black journalists to support No Child Left Behind. [continues 272 words]
The Bush administration faces a closer look at how it tries to influence public opinion as it readies campaigns to overhaul Social Security and the tax code, following reports that the Education Department paid a conservative columnist to promote its policies. Armstrong Williams, a prominent commentator and frequent guest on television news shows, lost his syndicated column after disclosures that he was paid $240,000 by the Education Department to promote the "No Child Left Behind" law to other black journalists. In an appearance on CNN's "Crossfire" Saturday, Mr. Williams said, "I used bad judgment," and apologized to his audience. "It's the first time we've done business with the government, but I just would not do it again." [continues 517 words]
A Nation Addicted To Profits From Cocaine With new federal statistics showing that one of every six teens still abuses illegal drugs on at least a monthly basis, perhaps we need an additional approach to end this decades-long crisis. While President Bush and Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe praised progress and expressed a commitment to continue to fight narco-terrorism, they did not provide additional resources to combat the poverty that fuels the drug trade and violence in the first place in the No. 1 drug supplier to America. [continues 598 words]
The three-year, 17 percent drop in teen drug use is not the only good news about illegal drugs. According to the annual CIA assessment, last year there was a 23 percent drop in coca production in Colombia, and an 18 percent drop in coca production in the entire Andean Ridge region. The result is the lowest level of cocaine production since 1986. Both the drop in teen drug use and cocaine production in Colombia and the rest of the Andean Ridge Region are the legacy of former "drug czar" Barry McCaffrey. [continues 160 words]
