Consumers Number About 246 Million, With the U.S. Leading the Way and Cannabis the Top Narcotic. As leaders from around the world gather in New York for what many are calling the most important summit on illegal drugs in two decades, one thing is clear: The world has a serious drug problem. Worldwide, about 246 million people use illicit drugs, and 1 in 10 of these users suffer from disorders related to drug use. Of the estimated 12 million people who inject drugs, at least 1.6 million are also living with HIV, while slightly more than half suffer from hepatitis C. Each year, 200,000 people suffer drug-related deaths, such as overdoses. [continues 785 words]
UNITED NATIONS - The first U.N. special session to address global drug policy in nearly 20 years bristled with tension Tuesday over the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses, as countries wrestled over whether to emphasize criminalization and punishment or health and human rights. The outcome document adopted by member states included no criticism of the death penalty, saying only that countries should ensure that punishments are "proportionate" with the crimes. "Disproportional penalties create vicious cycles of marginalization and further crime," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told the gathering. He also called for the decriminalization of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes and said the international community's responses to drug issues are "frankly, insufficient." [continues 103 words]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The first U.N. special session to address global drug policy in nearly 20 years bristled with tension Tuesday over the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses. The outcome document adopted by member states included no criticism of the death penalty, saying only that countries should ensure that punishments are "proportionate" with the crimes. "Disproportional penalties ... create vicious cycles of marginalization and further crime," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told the gathering. He also called for the decriminalization of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes and said the international community's response to drug issues is "frankly, insufficient." [continues 140 words]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The first U.N. special session to address global drug policy in nearly 20 years bristled with tension Tuesday over the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses, as countries wrestled over whether to emphasize criminalization and punishment or health and human rights. The outcome document adopted by member states included no criticism of the death penalty, saying only that countries should ensure that punishments are "proportionate" with the crimes. "Disproportional penalties ... create vicious cycles of marginalization and further crime," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told the gathering. He also called for the decriminalization of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes and said the international community's responses to drug issues is "frankly, insufficient." [continues 165 words]
Managing Social Norms Is As Important As Rewriting the Rules of Cannabis Consumption in Canada, Conference Hears As the Trudeau government prepares to draw up legislation that would legalize marijuana for recreational use, leading policy experts in the United States have some pointed advice for Canada: Rules are important, but cultivating unwritten social standards around how people use the drug are just as crucial. In states such as Colorado and Washington, where prohibition of cannabis has been lifted, lawmakers have seen recreational marijuana use soar. While that has pumped welcome tax dollars into government coffers, it has also led to problems with public consumption, overuse and intoxicated driving. [continues 704 words]
UNITED NATIONS - Canada has promised to legalize marijuana. Mexico's highest court has allowed some citizens to grow cannabis for personal use. Colombia has reversed its decades-long policy of aerial spraying against coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine. Even in the United States, once the chief architect of the global war on drugs, four states permit recreational marijuana sales. Other states have pro-legalization ballot measures pending. And a heroin epidemic has prompted the mayor of at least one city to propose establishing a supervised injection clinic. [continues 888 words]
A U. N. Special Session Will Examine the Effects of the Hard- Line Approach and Will Study Alternatives. At what is being billed as the most significant high-level gathering on global drug policy in two decades, the stage will be set for world leaders to discuss what would have once been unthinkable - reversing course in the war on drugs. The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, which begins Tuesday in New York, will bring together government, human rights and health leaders to discuss whether the hard-line tactics of combating drug trafficking and money laundering have failed. [continues 800 words]
Santa Barbara, Calif. - I'M 74 years old, and I have smoked marijuana almost every day since dinosaurs roamed the earth in the early '70s. When my awareness is heightened, I'm on my game - the best I can be at thinking creatively, making decisions, focusing on my work, seeing the big picture ... and caregiving. For 20 years my wife, Anne, has struggled gallantly against the physical, cognitive, emotional and spiritual depredations of Parkinson's disease. For the first 15, I took care of her myself. Now I have lots of help. Either way, enjoying a hit or two on the pipe every couple of hours has granted me tens of thousands of sweet clemencies that keep me from burning out as a caregiver. [continues 804 words]
WHEN Attorney General Loretta Lynch decided late last year that the Justice Department would end the federal civil-asset forfeiture program, criminal-justice reform advocates proclaimed it a "significant deal." But late last month, less than four months later, the Obama administration reversed itself and reinstated the Asset Forfeiture Fund's Orwellian "equitable sharing" program. That's a shame, particularly when the only supporters of the policy are the law-enforcement agencies that directly benefit from it. Indeed, the federal program's combined annual revenue has grown more than 1,000 percent in the last 15 years, filling the coffers of federal, state and local police departments. [continues 577 words]
Lee Carroll Brooker, a 75-year-old disabled veteran suffering from chronic pain, was arrested in July 2011 for growing three dozen marijuana plants for his own medicinal use behind his son's house in Dothan, Ala., where he lived. For this crime, Mr. Brooker was given a life sentence with no possibility of release. Alabama law mandates that anyone with certain prior felony convictions be sentenced to life without parole for possessing more than 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of marijuana, regardless of intent to sell. Mr. Brooker had been convicted of armed robberies in Florida two decades earlier, for which he served 10 years. The marijuana plants collected at his son's house - including unusable parts like vines and stalks - weighed 2.8 pounds. [continues 468 words]
We at the Erie County Board of Health feel compelled to bring more attention and awareness to the imminent public health epidemic currently upon us. Opioids - both prescription drugs and drugs of abuse, such as heroin and fentanyl - are killing residents at an unprecedented rate. Opiate addiction is affecting residents of all ages and from all walks of life; the disease does not discriminate and has no socioeconomic boundaries. In 2014, 127 residents' deaths were attributed to opioids of all types. As of March 28, there have been 219 deaths attributed to opioids in 2015, and there is still a backlog of bodies waiting to have the cause of death cleared through results of toxicology screens. [continues 176 words]
Howard Marks, an Oxford-educated drug trafficker who at his peak in the 1970s controlled a substantial fraction of the world's hashish and marijuana trade, and who became a best-selling author after his release from an American prison, died on Sunday. He was 70. His death, from colorectal cancer, which he disclosed last year, was confirmed by Robin Harvie, publisher for nonfiction at Pan Macmillan, which released Mr. Marks's final book, "Mr. Smiley: My Last Pill and Testament," in September. No other details were provided. [continues 735 words]
If there's a feeder system for developing future opioid addiction, it includes narcotic treatment for back pain without medical justification. More than 80 percent of adults will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives, according to a Univera Healthcare review of upstate New York population data. Among the report's findings is that medical professionals often focus on treating the pain, rather than addressing quality of life or ability to function. The result is that prescription painkillers, including opiates, are widely prescribed, despite medical evidence that they rarely hasten recovery and carry with them the substantial risk for long-term abuse. [continues 320 words]
The practice of medicine and the humane treatment of patients would take giant steps backward if policy solutions to the opioid addiction "crisis" did not guarantee that people who need opioids for pain relief will still be able to access these critically important medications in sufficient amounts without additional hardship. We raise this issue because already some doctors have said they will avoid prescribing these medications in response to new laws and rules. There is reason to be concerned that the response to this latest drug crisis will involve policy mistakes. After all, that's the history of the entire war on drugs. It was recently reported that John Ehrlichman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, admitted that Nixon initiated the "war on drugs" in the early 1970s as a political maneuver to use law enforcement to arrest and imprison hippies, protesters and African-Americans. Since then, literally $1 trillion has been spent on this ill-conceived failed "war" that has ruined countless lives, causing so much more harm than good. [continues 85 words]
When it comes to the epidemic of African-Americans dying at the hands of police, people who are asked to consider the issue often get stuck on whether the person in question had it coming. What was he or she doing at the time? Running away? Resisting arrest? And if so, doesn't that prove he or she was guilty of something? And from there, it's a short hop to the conclusion that if only this person had been doing the right things - staying off the streets, keeping out of trouble, not hanging around with the wrong people or doing exactly as the police demanded at the moment of a heated encounter - tragedy could have been averted. Yeah, right. In a perfect world, mothers and fathers living in low-income communities with crumbling schools and few employment opportunities would heroically manage to raise children who were able to stay away from trouble with alcohol, drugs or gang-type behavior even though these things are all around them. [continues 510 words]
This letter was intended as a response to the Feb. 9 News article about 23 people dying from opiate abuse in 11 days. Shortly after taking pen to paper, news surrounding and involving the opioid epidemic became a daily topic in the media. I commend The News for being a leader in exposing this epidemic, and devoting the time and attention that the issue so desperately needs. How addiction is viewed plays largely in how successful we will be at overcoming this epidemic. There is a stigma attached to addicts, even to those who obtain treatment. While we may be slowly moving away from our "shaming and blaming" of people who suffer from addiction, public views are not changing fast enough. We must remember that addiction is a disease, affecting people of all races, socioeconomic status and geographic locations. [continues 114 words]
Devolution is when the federal government relinquishes responsibility, intentionally or unintentionally, for something it was previously responsible for to local governments. An example of this can be seen in the way the heroin and opioid epidemic is being addressed in Erie County. Gridlock in Congress prevents meaningful federal action, despite the efforts of our elected leaders. They include Sen. Charles Schumer's role in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which would provide communities additional funding for prevention efforts, and Rep. Brian Higgins' introduction of the Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment Act, which would allow physicians to dispense maintenance medications to more patients. [continues 305 words]
The 55-year-old crack addict counted his change outside a Harlem liquor store. He had just over a dollar, leaving him 35 cents short of the cheapest mini-bottle. The 21-year-old heroin addict sat in a McDonald's on the Lower East Side, wondering when his grandmother would next wire him money. He was homeless, had 84 cents in his pocket and was living out of two canvas bags. Each was approached by someone who asked the addict for help buying drugs. Using the stranger's money, each addict went to see a nearby dealer, returned with drugs, handed them over and was promptly arrested on felony drug-dealing charges. The people who had asked for drugs were undercover narcotics officers with the New York Police Department. [continues 1442 words]
Inside New York
