This week federal parliamentarians will discuss with world experts ways to minimise harm caused by illicit drugs. At a national drug summit, legislators will also be reminded of the sobering reality that Australians consume illegal drugs at concerning levels. A 2014 United Nations report found, for example, Australians lead the world in ecstasy use. The so-called war on drugs has failed, here and in every nation that embraced it. Former Victorian police commissioner and head of the National Ice Taskforce Ken Lay last year encapsulated the views of many informed people when he said "we can't arrest our way out of this". Former UN chief Kofi Annan made the same case in these pages only last Sunday. [continues 440 words]
On Feb. 23, the night before Mayor Svante Myrick officially announced the city's new drug plan, there was a panel discussion on the history of municipal drug policy. Ithaca resident Herebeorht Howland-Bolton, 26, surprised the audience of about 150 people gathered at Cinemapolis when he spoke up during the question-and-answer period. He told the audience he had overdosed just four hours earlier in his apartment on the Commons. His girlfriend, Janice, 20, who asked that her last name not be printed in this article, found him unresponsive on the floor and called 911. [continues 1717 words]
The recent arrest of a number of soldiers, a police officer and a lawmaker for drug possession constitutes an achievement for the team involved and as well as a nightmare for the nation. The number of police and military personnel who were caught is an indication of the strong grip drug syndicates have on those institutions. It is regrettable that law enforcers who should be fighting drug trafficking and soldiers who are given the duty of protecting the nation were involved in drug crimes. [continues 138 words]
Supply and Demand: The Rules Can Play Tricks With the Unwary Having the best product on the market means very little when no one wants it any more. Heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, to name a few commonly known drugs, have been a menace to governments worldwide. Billions are spent every year on the war on drugs and a greater portion of that is allocated to battling the supply end. But the problematic issue is really on the demand side, coming from those who buy and consume drugs. [continues 377 words]
Some countries are legalising the use of certain pernicious drugs, like cannabis, but Singapore cannot afford to contemplate that prospect. Not after having struggled with drug abuse since its founding. Indeed, it was a distribution centre for opium during colonial times. By the time its British rulers awoke to the need for anti-drug laws, addiction had worked its way through society, leading to various forms of experimentation, even among schoolchildren. That prompted the setting up of the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in 1971. Over four decades later, the agency is still waging war against the scourge. [continues 357 words]
VIU's New Overdose Kits Won't Lead to Increased Drug Use I'm sure that at some point in history there was a time where people's safety and well-being was a primary concern. Maybe not for everyone, since no period of time is exempt from having a few nasty genocides and wars, but at least for the safety of the children and young adults of a community. Apparently, as liberal as BC likes to think it is, we still fall short of the mark. [continues 485 words]
PEOPLE caught with drugs for personal use would be referred for health treatment rather than sent to jail under proposals unveiled by the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Leader Willie Rennie said Scotland's current drugs policy "is costly and fails to work for everyone". Drugs misuse costs society UKP3.5 billion a year amounting to around UKP900 for every adult in Scotland, he said. The LibDems will call for drug users to be "referred for treatment, education or civil penalties, ending the use of i mpr i s on ment " , in a ma n i fe sto p ol ic y put forward for discussion at its Scottish spring conference this week. [continues 174 words]
Under Scottish LibDem proposals, possession of small amounts of heroin for personal use would mean a police warning rather than a court appearance HEROIN, cocaine and ecstasy users should face police warnings instead of prison if found with small amounts of drugs for personal use, the Scottish LibDems will argue this week. The party will use its spring conference to advocate decriminalising drug use - as opposed to drug dealing in a fundamental reform of how addiction is dealt with by the authorities. [continues 403 words]
WASHINGTON - In what law enforcement officials describe as a new front in international smuggling, global traffickers and cartels are increasingly turning to a new source for couriers to smuggle drugs across international borders: vulnerable American older adults. The traffickers deceive seniors with promises of prizes or relationships, setting them up to unknowingly try to carry luggage filled with cocaine or other items through customs, hoping they will not arouse suspicions. Such cases have been seen in nearly a dozen foreign countries, officials say. Details of the smuggling and a counteroperation that officials called Operation Cocoon were disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security during a hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. [continues 515 words]
Opioid fentanyl has been linked to 272 deaths in Alberta last year Police school resource officers hope to start a conversation with 29,000 Edmonton high school students this winter about the dangers of fentanyl and its even more deadly cousin, W-18. If you look at the statistics, every year there are more and more deaths happening, so we want to get kids informed about what this is. The first of 21 school presentations about fentanyl, an opioid linked to 272 deaths last year in Alberta, was heard Thursday by more than 850 students at Austin O'Brien High School. [continues 396 words]
Marlborough police are finding more drug users and less drug dealers, according to new police data. Police statistical indicators for December showed Marlborough police caught more than twice as many people using illicit drugs in December last year, compared to the previous year. Nineteen people in Marlborough were caught using drugs in December last year, compared with nine in December 2014. However, the number of people caught selling illegal drugs decreased by more than half, from 14 in December 2014 to five in the same month last year. [continues 297 words]
The box came from Amsterdam. Casey Stone (pseudonym) and his three friends had waited weeks for the package to arrive. Finally, a Canada Post worker dropped off a brown box. It was addressed to one of Stone's friends and had just been flown in from the Dutch capital. Inside the box was a smaller box from a tea company. On top of it sat a letter from the tea company thanking the new customers for their patronage. They opened the box and pulled out a tea bag. Inside the bag was three grams of 3.4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine, also known as Molly. [continues 1268 words]
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that the inexpensive field drug test kits that police use to test substances found on people are highly unreliable, resulting in arrests - and, sometimes, convictions - - of innocent people with harmless substances. Last year, a Minnesota man spent more than two months in jail because a bag of vitamins in his car was determined to be amphetamines by a police field drug test. A Florida man pulled over for an expired tag in 2009 ended up spending three months in jail - losing his job, his apartment and his car, which the police auctioned off while he was incarcerated - after an officer said the mints the man was chewing tested positive for crack cocaine. [continues 301 words]
In a recent Times Colonist editorial ("Drug war won't be won at sea," Dec. 11), the crews of coastal-defence vessels HMCS Brandon and HMCS Whitehorse were commended for their contributions to Operation Caribbe, Canada's contribution to a U.S.-led anti-drug-trafficking mission in the Caribbean and East Pacific. The Royal Canadian Navy ships assisted the U.S. Coast Guard in seizing about 10 tonnes of cocaine off Central and South America. The editorial also pointed out that the efforts are having discouragingly little effect on the drug trade. [continues 661 words]
The Herald identifies that organised crime groups have become so successful at importing drugs into Australia that the wholesale price being paid for ice, cocaine and ecstasy has dramatically fallen in the past 18 months ("Drug supply soars as imports get cheaper", January 22). Australia has been involved in other wars that were debacles: Vietnam and Iraq. But even those saw governments of the day eventually admit the country's folly and withdraw. I can only hope that our longest war, that on drugs, will reach a similar ignominious end in my lifetime. Then perhaps all the politicians with an interest in this war - as well as law enforcement officers, judicial and magisterial officers, corrections officers, lawyers, probation and parole officers - can begin to put their efforts into something that is not such a stupendous dead end, insofar as the betterment of society is concerned. I am worried that there may be some truth in the words of a police officer in that superb crime drama, The Wire, when he said "the war on drugs is not a war because wars have an end". Joe Weller Lewisham [end]
But Cannabis Users Say They Are Avoiding Detection POLICE have warned Northern Rivers cannabis users that every police car is a potential drug testing unit. But cannabis users say they are outsmarting mobile drug swab tests by swigging vinegar, gargling mouthwash, drinking chocolate milk and chewing on vitamin C. Thousands of people are using Facebook groups to avoid roadside drug tests. With one in four Northern Rivers motorists testing positive for cannabis between April and December 2015 an average of 141 positive tests every month literally thousands of residents have taken to social media to prevent detection. [continues 243 words]
Sydney Awash With Cocaine, Ice, Ecstasy Organised crime groups have become so successful at importing drugs into Australia that the wholesale price being paid for ice, cocaine and ecstasy has dramatically fallen in the past 18 months. The NSW Crime Commission says the illegal drug trade remains the main source of income for organised crime in Australia and at present illicit substances are in "plentiful supply". Fairfax Media has learnt that the wholesale price paid by Australian criminal groups to import cocaine from overseas was as high as $280,000 a kilogram three years ago. Eighteen months ago it had dropped to $240,000 a kilogram and now sells below $200,000 and as low as $180,000. The cost for a kilogram of ice has fallen in the past 18 months from $220,000 to as low as $95,000 and ecstasy had dropped from $65,000 to $37,000. [continues 449 words]
Ryan Norris spent years trying to find help for his mental illness and addiction before dying of suspected fentanyl overdose Ryan Norris, described as a kind-hearted person and once promising athlete, spent his last days trying to get help for his addiction. His spirits lifted, his mother Christine says, when he heard a space had become available at the Sage Health Centre in Kamloops, one of several treatment centres where he was wait-listed. His bags were packed when, about a week before he died, he received a call that the space was no longer available. He became despondent, and left the house in what his mother believes was a search for heroin to ease his pain. [continues 992 words]
As the federal government begins the process of moving towards legalizing marijuana, East Kootenay Addiction Services Society will be presenting a number of articles to generate discussion about marijuana and what changes to marijuana laws could mean. This article will look at some of the common beliefs about marijuana and separate the myths from the facts. Marijuana is the most popular illicit drug used worldwide. Because of its popularity, and in part because of the push to change the legal status of marijuana in Western countries, there are many statements made about marijuana in the media and on the internet that sound factual but may not be accurate. [continues 772 words]
Medical marijuana helped former soldier deal with anger and land civilian job It took six deaths on Easter Sunday, 2007, for Noah Starr's life to unravel. It would take five years, thousands of pills, lost relationships and the discovery of medical marijuana before he won back some semblance of control. "People call marijuana a gateway drug and it absolutely is. It's been the gateway to my recovery," said the former Canadian Armed Forces combat engineer from Fredericton, N.B. [continues 819 words]
