America's drug policies are largely misguided. Many people, from common citizens to seasoned politicians, are aware of this, and have sought to change these laws in response to the needless incarceration of indulgers and addicts and, as a consequence, an ever-expanding population of prison inmates - the largest in the world. However, the ethos of the War on Drugs has, since the early 1970s, remained a powerful motivation for lawmakers and justice officials to maintain the status quo. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as of Jan. 30, 2016, the U.S. prison population was made up in large degree of drug offenders, with 46.6 percent of all inmates having been incarcerated for such offenses. The second-largest group of inmates by offense, classed under "Weapons, Explosives, Arson," made up just 16.9 percent. [continues 651 words]
Drug Conviction Quashed A man who hid drugs in his rectum had his trafficking conviction overturned Wednesday because Sarnia police detained him for 43 hours waiting for him to defecate before taking him to a justice of the peace. In throwing out the conviction, Ontario's highest court also criticized officers for how they treated Jeffrey Poirier during their "bedpan vigil search." "I do not accept that the officers were acting in good faith," the Appeal Court ruled. "The manner in which the search was carried out was a flagrant breach of the appellant's rights." [continues 296 words]
The spike in Calgary's crime severity index (CSI) can largely be linked to the increase in the city's drug activity and economic slump, according to Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin, as fentanyl and other opioid use remains high across the province. On Wednesday, Statistics Canada released a report that showed Calgary's CSI index jumped by 29 per cent, the largest increase in Canada's metropolitan areas. The CSI measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime. According to Calgary police, there was a spike in methamphetamine, heroin and opiate drugseizures. [continues 176 words]
Hallucinogenic African Bark Could Be the Answer to Heroin Addiction, and Addiction in General Richard Dilley had tried everything by the time he traveled to Mexico and agreed to ingest a drug derived from a hallucinogenic African shrub bark that, he was told, would alter his brain. All for the bargain price of $10,000. While terrifying in a way, the drug known as ibogaine (or Tabernanthe iboga in its natural state) was, at this point, less of a horror than the drug Dilley had been addicted to since his teen years. [continues 3617 words]
THE PHILIPPINES may be heading toward another collision course with China-possibly over President Duterte's war on drugs. Barely a week after the Philippines won a favorable ruling from an international court in its maritime claims over the West Philippine Sea, Mr. Duterte over the weekend said he would confront the Chinese government regarding the country's problem on illegal drugs. "One day, I will ask China: Why is the situation like this? I won't say why are you sending them, but why is it that most of the guys who come here do drugs, even inside jail?" the President said in a private gathering in Malacanang on Sunday night. [continues 320 words]
OLONGAPO CITY- Confessed drug users and pushers have been asked to help the city government make caskets as part of their rehabilitation, to prove they were serious on abandoning their lifestyle. "You will help the city government make caskets," which are provided for free to residents who could not afford one for a deceased family member, Mayor Rolen Paulino said when he addressed 400 people who surrendered en masse on Friday. "There were people who died because they didn't have money to buy medicine. So how can their family afford a casket worth at least P20,000?" Paulino said. "This is going to be your source of livelihood." [continues 311 words]
BANGKOK - Somsak Sreesomsong was 18 when he was jailed for selling illegal drugs. Now, turning 30, he is not yet half way through his 33-year sentence at Bangkok's high-security Klong Prem prison. Somsak was "just a kid, not a big-time dealer," his older brother Panit told Reuters after a visit to the jail. "We're also serving time, waiting for him to get out so he can help the family." More than a decade after Thailand declared a "war on drugs," the country is admitting defeat. As the prison population soars, Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya told Reuters he was looking at changes to the country's draconian drug laws. [continues 636 words]
Drug users report highest-ever rate of stimulant's use in study's history, which suggests need for change to harm-reduction resources Crystal methamphetamine use has climbed across British Columbia and is now on par with heroin use, according to a new provincewide survey of drug users. The finding suggests a need to reassess the availability of harm-reduction resources and supplies across the province, according to an epidemiologist behind the study. The survey, prepared by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, was distributed across 34 sites offering harm-reduction supplies and completed by 812 drug users. It builds on annual surveys dating to 2012 and paints a picture of substance-use trends among harm-reduction clients across B.C. Before these surveys, most knowledge of local drug trends was based on data from two major cities: Vancouver and Victoria. [continues 570 words]
While Usage Is Legal in Some Cases, It Still Can't Be Grown in the State. The phones at the Georgia Department of Public Health no longer ring off the hook with people calling to find doctors or asking questions about how the state's medical marijuana registry works. Yet Georgia's quiet revolution in the year since it legalized a limited form of medical marijuana has shown little sign of slowing. Even so, obstacles and risks remain in the push for expansion. [continues 1037 words]
Move targets marijuana use amid prison population boom; some drugs may be reclassified for controlled use Marijuana or methamphetamine users in Thailand may get rehabilitation rather than jail under broad changes to the country's narcotics policy. The kingdom is reviewing its zero-tolerance approach, which has caused its prison population to balloon without actually controlling the proliferation of illicit drugs. Draft legal changes, recently approved by the Cabinet and expected to be tabled in Parliament, would emphasise rehabilitation over jail terms for drug users and mandate more proportional sentences. They will be put in place before the term of the current military government expires, Justice Minister Paiboon Kumchaya said this week. [continues 448 words]
Bato Says Syndicates Employing Vigilantes TRECE MARTIRES CITY- Director General Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa on Thursday said convicted drug lords were behind a rash of vigilante killings, directing hit men to target distributors who had run into difficulties remitting earnings following the Duterte administration's intensified campaign against illegal drugs. "For all you know, these drug syndicates, they're now killing each other," the Philippine National Police chief said at the burning of P1.77 billion worth of banned substances confiscated in police operations since February. [continues 621 words]
"We're talking about hundreds of deaths," Justine McIsaac lamented. For the past year, McIsaac has been on the front lines of Canada's opiate crisis, as an outreach worker for the Street Health Centre. The hundreds of lives lost, she explained, go beyond the city's boundaries, extending not just across the province but across the country. Last week, an announcement was made by Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott regarding the opiate crisis. Philpott signed an interim order to temporarily allow naloxone - a critical overdose-reversing drug - to be imported and sold in spray form across Canada. [continues 699 words]
Thai experts have rightly commented on the value of treatment and health-centred approaches. While it may always be best to be prudent when commenting on the domestic affairs of another country, there are times when issues become far too important to stand silently by and politely observe such custom - the current debate on laws governing methamphetamine use in Thailand is one of those occasions. Drug policy is a dynamic and complex arena and for too long countries have overly focused on investments in law enforcement agencies to address drug use. Whilst no one denies the importance and legitimacy of law enforcement agencies, its lead role in the drug area is an approach that does little to help everyday people and families. Instead, it increases the likelihood of families becoming collateral damage in an ever harmful war on drugs. Nearly all countries agree that arresting and imprisoning people who use drugs has terrible consequences yet when discussion turns to evidence based reform there is little progress and movement towards a health based response and leadership on the issue. [continues 690 words]
Sydney needs to operate safe rooms for users, write Matt Noffs and Alex Wodak. It is an indictment of our failed approach to drugs that the injecting centre in Kings Cross is, after 15 years, the only one in the country. Australia's once bold drug policy is now stuck. Our law enforcement leaders tell us that Australia cannot arrest and imprison our way out of our drug problems. Yet as Australia struggles with increasing problems from ice use, we haven't been prepared to try innovative approaches that appear to have worked overseas. [continues 704 words]
More Drug Users, Pushers Give Up on Eve of Duterte's Oath-Taking SAN AGUSTIN, Isabela -This town became witness yesterday to the latest in a string of surrenders of drug suspects that is being linked to a brutal campaign against drug trafficking that the incoming Duterte administration plans to carry out as soon as it assumes office today. Two days before incoming President Rodrigo Duterte takes his oath of office as the country's 16th President, 43 drug peddlers and abusers turned themselves in to the town police force. [continues 628 words]
An initiative that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California officially took its place on the Nov. 8 ballot Tuesday as its campaign took a commanding lead in fundraising to battle the measure's opponents. The secretary of state's office certified that a random sample showed sufficient signatures among the 600,000 turned in to qualify the measure. The initiative is backed by a coalition that includes former Facebook President Sean Parker and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Today marks a fresh start for California as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself," said Jason Kinney, a spokesman for California's Adult Use of Marijuana Act. [continues 664 words]
SACRAMENTO - An initiative that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California qualified for the Nov. 8 ballot on Tuesday as its campaign took a commanding lead in fundraising to battle the measure's opponents. The Secretary of State's Office certified that a random sample showed sufficient signatures among the 600,000 turned in to qualify the measure. The initiative is backed by a coalition that includes former Facebook President Sean Parker and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Today marks a fresh start for California as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself," said Jason Kinney, a spokesman for California's Adult Use of Marijuana Act. [continues 645 words]
The Medan District Court on Wednesday decided on capital punishment for four Indonesians convicted of smuggling 270 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from Malaysia to North Sumatra. The four defendants are businessmen Ayau and Daud, alias Athiam, from Bengkalis, Riau, Lukmansyah, a security guard in Dumai, Riau, and Jimmy Syahputra, a resident of Deli Serdang, North Sumatra. The panel of judges found that they violated the Narcotics Law, which carries a maximum penalty of death for traffickers. "The defendants are proven to have conspired to traffic narcotics. With all the evidence, the judges rejected their defence and ordered the death penalty," said presiding judge Asmar while reading out the verdict on Wednesday night. [continues 368 words]
Paiboon Ready to Transfer Drug Rehab Function to Public Health Ministry JUSTICE Minister Paiboon Koomchaya is ready to transfer drug rehabilitation function completely to the Public Health Ministry. Authorities would proceed with the next step in the decriminalisation of methamphetamine, when the system is strong he said yesterday after a meeting of agencies including the National Command Centre for Drugs and the Public Health Ministry to discuss the findings of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs. The assembly cited world currents shifting from the war on drugs to thinking of how to live with drugs. [continues 557 words]
Has Thailand's tough policy on narcotic drugs created a monster out of methamphetamines resulting in the poor being punished with the heaviest sentences, and prison overcrowding? An article published on the online outlet Thai Publica in July last year by Mutita Chuachang about the need to rethink the country's policy on ya ba has resurfaced recently. The content is relevant to the Justice Ministry's controversial proposal to remove crystal meth from the illicit dangerous drug list and shift the drug policy away from heavy suppression. [continues 794 words]
