For a religion in which wine plays such a central role, Christianity may prove surprisingly effective at curbing drug use, according to a study. Data analyzed by DrugAbuse.com in "Drugs and Devotion: Comparing Substance Abuse by Believers and Nonbelievers" show a correlation between religious belief and a reluctance to experiment with narcotics. Americans who said they are not religious are more likely to have used a host of recreational drugs, ranging from marijuana and alcohol to Ecstasy and heroin. Nonbelievers in the study, for instance, were 12 times more likely to use LSD and more than four times as likely as than their religious counterparts to try cocaine in the past year. [continues 595 words]
Supporters of Legalization Risk Arrest for Lighting Up Outside the White House Attention senior class-trip chaperones, cherry blossom lovers, and anyone else who may wander by the White House on Saturday: Brace yourself for a cloud of marijuana smoke - and, possibly, mass arrests. Organizers of the successful ballot measure that legalized pot last year in the District say they have had enough with President Obama's slog toward loosening marijuana laws. To protest, they are planning what they promise will be the first large-scale display of public pot smoking in the nation's capital, with the intention of getting arrested. [continues 933 words]
While it would appear that drug use is a prominent feature of student life, quantitatively, it seems that drug use is actually decreasing at university campuses as well as Brock University specifically. According to Campus Security, there have been approximately 87 instances of controlled drug and substance abuse infractions in 2015, which has decreased considerably from 2014 (126 infractions) and 2013 (100 infractions). "The drugs and or drug calls that we respond to on campus generally involve marijuana. We have also come across cocaine, ecstasy, prescription drugs, however, these are very few incidents that we are aware of," said Donna Moody, director of Brock University Campus Security Services. [continues 894 words]
Being simultaneously high on pot, cocaine, heroin, MDMA and LSD is never a good combination, but the Ford Motor Company wants you to know that it's particularly bad if you plan to get behind the wheel. That's the idea behind the automaker's new "drugged driving suit," an elaborate collection of weights, bandages, goggles and noisemakers that claims to simulate the physical effects of taking a variety of drugs. Ford will be rolling the suit out this year as part of its Driving Skills for Life classes, asking new drivers to navigate a driving course while pretending to be blissed out on an improbable cocktail of illegal substances. [continues 377 words]
In a recent report, the Register's pot reporter, Brooke Edwards Staggs, wrote on the different ways the growing legal marijuana industry is navigating the complex and conflicting mix of state and federal law especially when it comes to money, that most necessary asset of any successful business. "Even with checks and balances, [Chris Francy, director of the OC3 dispensary in Santa Ana] said, operating in cash makes businesses vulnerable to internal theft. They struggle with simple transactions like paying workers and bills," the Register reported. "The state Board of Equalization says some dispensaries have settled tax bills with duffel bags stuffed with up to $150,000." [continues 235 words]
It's not surprising that feeling supremely stoned in front of two uniformed police officers is a truly embarrassing feeling. Yet that's exactly how I felt Thursday when Ottawa Police Const. TJ Jellinek was instructing me to walk toe-to-toe in a straight line while counting out loud at the Shaw Centre. Ottawa police officers were at the Ottawa-Gatineau International Auto Show to give live demonstrations of a drugged driving simulation suit designed by Ford to show what it's like to operate a vehicle while impaired by cannabis, LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, or heroin. [continues 194 words]
Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel Tom Wainwright, PublicAffairs, 278 pages, $26.99. In "Narconomics," Tom Wainwright of the Economist brings a fine and balanced analytical mind to some very good research, undertaken largely in northern Mexico. By looking at the drug trade as a business, Wainwright is able to reveal much about why it wreaks such havoc in Central and South America. The issue of violence is not a random by-product of gangster culture. It is central to the industry, Wainwright observes, as the only way "to enforce contractual agreements." To control or police a market like drugs, the cartel must be able to wield decisive violence or, at the very least, be able to project a credible threat of violence. [continues 151 words]
Samples Collected at Nightclubs Can Provide Data on Which Substances Are Being Used and Where For decades, the war on drugs has been fought on fronts from the jungles of Latin America to the classroom. But now the struggle to understand the use of illegal substances has reached a new low - the nation's urinals. Scientists in charge of tracking drug use across Europe, in particular the booming use of so-called "legal highs", have put forward proposals to use samples from urinals in locations such as nightclubs and music festivals to try to work out which illicit substances are being consumed. [continues 414 words]
Eleven years is a lifetime in technology, real estate, and the California cannabis industry. But to find a taste of 2005 in 2016 San Francisco, all you have to do is head south on Mission Street past Cesar Chavez - do not be afraid, Valencia Street ends, yet the city continues - and pull up on the narrow block of 29th Street that connects Mission to San Jose Avenue. Here, after you're buzzed in past a mirror-glassed door, a handful of people - some old, some crippled, some indigent - can be found lounging on well-worn couches. There are black-light posters on the walls, and New Orleans jazz wafts softly through air heavy with the sweet smell of cannabis from the counter at one end of the room. It's run-down, it's homey, it's comfortable. It's very, very chill. [continues 910 words]
LIBERAL Democrats say there's a case for setting up cannabis shops allowing people to buy the drug in their local high street. But how many people in the West Midlands take cannabis or other drugs - - and is drug use rising or falling? Here's what the official figures tell us about drug use in the West Midlands. In the West Midlands, 6.9 per cent of the population aged 16 to 59 say they have taken cannabis at least once last year. That's about one in 15 people. It's about the same as the national average. [continues 791 words]
No one wants another summer of deaths at music festivals. Not the organisers, the health experts, the government, the festival-goers. Nor the parents left to wonder and worry when their children go to these events. But how to prevent it? The best efforts of police, teams of sniffer dogs and the threat of arrest have failed to make a dent in Australia's love affair with "party drugs". We are many years into the relationship and use has not decreased. Meanwhile, the potency of ecstasy has shot up and new psychoactive substances are coming onto the market, increasing the risks for those taking illicit substances and making it harder for medical personnel to work out the best treatment for sufferers. [continues 414 words]
Of all the conflicts that the United States embarked upon in the past 100 years, President Richard Nixon's war on drugs - launched in June 1971 - was arguably the most futile. The aim was to reduce the illegal trade in drugs by criminalising their production, sale, possession and consumption. An army law enforcement agency equipped with all the resources the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation on earth could muster was enlisted to reinforce this prohibition. However, for all the national treasure expended and the millions of lives lost or blighted, the war has achieved little. Estimates of the size of the US' illicit drug trade are far from precise, but it's estimated that users spend about $100 billion annually, sustaining and enriching large criminal organisations inside and outside the country. [continues 594 words]
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]
