A POLICE chief who broke ranks to call for class A drugs to be legalised was yesterday told to "focus on his day job" and catch criminals. Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton suggested the NHS could supply drugs to addicts, breaking the monopoly and fortunes of criminal gangs. Comparing banning drugs to the alcohol prohibition in 1920s America which gave rise to Al Capone and the Mafia, he argued that criminalising them put billions into the pockets of gangs. But his comments prompted a storm of criticism yesterday from pressure groups. [continues 367 words]
THE war on drugs is failing to curb supply despite the increasing amounts of funding being ploughed into law enforcement, medical researchers have warned. Street prices of illegal drugs have fallen in real terms since 1990 while the purity of the substances has generally increased, a sign of increased availability, according to the research, published in the online journal BMJ Open. Most national drug control strategies have focused on law enforcement to curb supply despite calls to explore other approaches, the report said. [continues 76 words]
Supply of These Narcotics Could Still Be Controlled by Criminals, and Legalisation Might Trigger a Rise in Drug-Taking In the small Mexican town of Los Reyes last week, a bag containing the severed heads of three men was left beside a roundabout. They had been killed by gangsters as a warning to local people who had established self-defence squads to protect themselves from the brutal violence associated with the country's war on drugs. Over the past three years, an estimated 60,000 people have been killed in Mexico. If ever there was a country that had cause to believe it was losing the fight, then here it is. So why haven't the Mexicans alighted upon the solution proposed at the weekend by Mike Barton, the chief constable of Durham, and decriminalised drugs? [continues 385 words]
Protecting children from hard drugs is vital Regarding your thoughtful leader ("We can't hide from the realities of the drugs economy any longer", Comment), there is a big difference between condoning cannabis use and protecting children from drugs. Decriminalisation acknowledges the social reality of cannabis and spares users criminal records. What's really needed is a regulated market with age controls. Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as organised crime controls cannabis distribution, consumers of cannabis will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. [continues 68 words]
A CANNABIS-based medicine could help the world's 50 million epileptics control their seizures after a British drugmaker today began putting a potential treatment through human clinical trials. GW Pharmaceuticals, which already uses cannabis to make Sativex for MS sufferers, has spent five years carrying out pre-clinical research on whether a cannabis-derived compound could treat epileptics' seizures, with fewer side effects than current drugs. About a third of epileptics take no medication, either because existing treatments don't control their seizures or because they can't tolerate the side effects. [continues 65 words]
The Choice Is Not to Ban or Sanction Everything. What We Need Is Restraint and Protection for Kids Whenever the pro-cannabis lobby starts agitating for legalisation, there is one crucial question that is always glossed over. They trot out the evidence proving that legalisation will hurt the drug cartels, help the terminally ill and even boost the economy. I understand the logic behind those arguments. I accept there are sick people who claim cannabis is the only analgesic in existence that will give them pain relief, despite there being literally hundreds of alternatives. I accept that if you taxed drugs you would generate billions for the economy. I even listen sympathetically to what the - -"give-a-spliff-a-chance" brigade say about not criminalising "recreational" users who are, apparently, perfectly normal, functioning citizens who should not be labelled criminals. [continues 572 words]
Legalising and taxing cannabis could be worth as much as UKP1.25bn a year to the government, a study suggests. The report, by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, quantifies for the first time the potential revenues to be gained from the legal regulation and taxation of the cannabis market in England and Wales. It estimates that reduced enforcement costs, including police, court and prison time and community sentences, could result in a net external benefit of at least UKP300m. The paper, co-authored by Stephen Pudney, professor of economics at the University of Essex, balances revenues against potential costs, including regulatory costs and increased health promotion initiatives. [continues 117 words]
In 2002, about 15% of the cannabis sold in Britain had high levels of THC, the ingredient linked to psychosis and commonly found in the strain of the drug known as skunk. By 2008, this figure had increased to 80%. The proportion may be even higher now: the paucity of data makes what is happening in Britain's drugs culture difficult to track. Indeed, it can be argued that if Britain wants to tackle its drugs problem, it needs to address its information problem first. The hysteria surrounding the threat posed by skunk and a failure to understand the dynamics that have made it popular are axiomatic. Fear thrives on ignorance. But, in a polarised, often emotive, debate, there is little room for the facts to get in the way of ideology. You are either for prohibition or you are against. [continues 222 words]
The government is under pressure to stop aid for anti-narcotics programmes in countries where drug traffickers are executed. The UK leads the way in opposing the use of the death penalty around the world and the claims are potentially embarrassing. The government stopped funding Iran's anti-narcotics programme amid concerns that the money was helping to capture drugs mules who were then executed. The human rights group Reprieve wrote to the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, requesting guidance on where the UK's foreign aid was going. The charity's research suggests that Britain is funding and training Pakistan's Anti Narcotics Force. [continues 199 words]
From Her Oxfordshire Home, Amanda Feilding Leads a Group With the Sort of Academic and Political Influence That Could See Cannabis Being Legalised - And, Crucially, Regulated Beckley Park, a moated stately home in Oxfordshire, built during the reign of Henry VIII, seems the sort of place that inspires writers to hyperbole. Its gardens boast perfect boxwood topiary, fires burn in huge grates and nobility look down imperiously from thick stone walls. So it is no surprise to learn that Beckley has featured in at least one novel. The author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, set his first book, a satirical novel called Crome Yellow, at Beckley. [continues 1189 words]
LONDON: (AFP) When Britain bans the herbal stimulant khat, Mohamod Ahmed Mohamed will lose his livelihood. But he fears most for his small Somali community without the leaf that fuels its social life. "I can switch to another business but what about the youth, where are they going to go-the street, the mosque, to hard drugs?" he says at his khat warehouse near London's Heathrow airport. "You are taking away their freedom. Why target us? You will never find somebody falling over on the street or fighting from khat like they do when they are drunk." [continues 625 words]
LONDON (AP) - Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first global survey of illicit drug abuse. In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. [continues 134 words]
LONDON (AP) - Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse. In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included, because there weren't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet. [continues 158 words]
For All the Policing and Prosecuting, There Is No Effect on Levels of Drug Use Evidence is mounting that our drug laws are not working. New analysis from Release and the London School of Economics shows beyond doubt that the way in which they are implemented is highly discriminatory, ineffective, and counterproductive. Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money are spent every year on arresting and processing people for possessing drugs, with no discernible impact on drug markets or levels of use. Meanwhile, thousands of otherwise law-abiding people receive criminal records, and many poor and minority communities deal daily with the feeling that the police are unfairly targeting them. [continues 381 words]
But Global Survey Shows Prescription Painkillers Kill the Most LONDON - Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first global survey of illicit drug abuse. In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included because there wasn't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The countries with the highest rates of abuse were Australia, Britain, Russia and the United States. The study was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet. [continues 232 words]
LONDON (AP) - Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse. In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included, because there weren't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet. [end]
LONDON (AP) - Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse. In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included, because there weren't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet. [continues 233 words]
LONDON - Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse. In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren't included, because there weren't enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U. S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet. [continues 216 words]
Shock Admission From UK's Top Doctor ENGLAND'S most senior doctor yesterday admitted she had taken cannabis. Professor Sally Davies also appeared to question the policy of treating drug abuse as a criminal offence. Dame Sally, the chief medical officer, said she had experimented with cannabis three or four times at university but stopped after suffering hallucinations. She has previously claimed that criminalising drugs deterred addicts from seeking medical help. Dame Sally has also said she would be 'ready with quite a lot of advice' if ministers decided to decriminalise some drugs. [continues 668 words]
Dame Sally Davies' important contribution to the discussion about the UK'S drugs laws has been lost in a tabloid frenzy. Charlie Cooper reports It all stemmed from such a civilised conversation. Sunday lunchtime, and Dame Sally Davies, England's highly-respected chief medical officer, was the guest of Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions programme. As Dame Sally explained her admiration for Vaughan Williams' viola pieces, no one could have predicted that the discussion would soon take a turn that would lead to screaming tabloid headlines. But then she started talking about drugs. [continues 1304 words]
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