A number of critical airline staff have tested positive for hardcore drugs and alcohol while on the job, leaving passengers concerned about the protocols in place to keep them safe in the air. At least 14 Australian airline and airport employees operating in 'safety sensitive' roles came to work affected by alcohol and drugs in 2015, according to The Daily Telegraph. Three ground staff were found with traces of cannabis and methamphetamine in their system, an engineer tested positive for cocaine and a student pilot tested positive for cannabis. [continues 408 words]
What if LSD could treat PTSD, or magic mushrooms could help you quit smoking? Overseas research is advanced, but trials of psychedelic drugs can't get approval in Australia. Are we missing out on cures? Konrad Marshall reports. When Martin Williams' research plan was first rejected by an ethics committee in 2012, he understood why. The medicinal chemistry researcher could see some valid sticking points. For one, the psychiatrist attached to his detailed protocol didn't quite have the requisite clinical trials experience. [continues 2533 words]
Colin Barnett has suggested the war on the drug ice is all but unwinnable, saying its supply into the WA market is "not possible" to stop. Speaking at a conference held by the WA Council of Social Services yesterday, the Premier painted a bleak picture of efforts to control the methamphetamine trade. Mr Barnett said that unlike organically derived drugs such as heroin or cannabis that had to be grown as a crop, ice could be manufactured overnight. As a result, he said it was much easier to produce and harder for law enforcement agencies to control. [continues 259 words]
NIMBIN'S 24th annual Mardigrass looks set to be epic, with 50% more tickets sold online than this time last year. Hemp Embassy president Michael Balderstone said the Mardigrass cannabis law reform protest and gathering had something to celebrate this year, with the legalisation of medicinal cannabis. "We're looking for some seriously good vibes at this protestival with a good harvest behind us and finally, after about 80 years, our elected rulers admitting our favourite herb is good medicine," he said. [continues 111 words]
DERRYN Hinch won't have a puff on a joint at Mardigrass, but he's willing to throw a bong in the Hemp Olympix. "Unlike Bill Clinton, I've not only never smoked pot, I've never inhaled it," he said. "I'm a rabid anti-smoker, so whether it's tobacco or cannabis it's not my thing. "If somebody wants to offer me a joint I won't be smoking it. "I'd have a go at bong throwing, not bong smoking though." [continues 316 words]
Secret government-run drug labs have started growing medicinal cannabis in Victoria to provide new treatment for nearly 500 children. And those that cannot afford newly legal medicinal cannabis will be given nearly $ 12 million in taxpayer-funded assistance to buy the drug, Premier Daniel Andrews says. Last week the government passed laws for medicinal cannabis but people seeking the treatment it will require a prescription - will have to wait until next year when the government-controlled product becomes available. The government warned that people getting treatments from other sources was illegal and would be a matter for the police. [continues 335 words]
In 1998, a special session of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to set a 10-year deadline to make the world "drug free". After an embarrassing failure to achieve this goal, the deadline was extended a further 10 years, setting the world up for another inevitable failure in 2019. In the years since the use, availability and variety of illicit drugs have escalated exponentially. It is estimated by the UK charity Transform Foundation that 300 million people worldwide used illegal drugs in 2012, contributing to a global market worth $US330 billion a year. [continues 626 words]
World leaders have an opportunity to act on the global drug problem that causes untold human suffering and costs billions a year. The discussions will have an immediate flow-on effect to changes in drug policy being contemplated in Australia and around the world. In 1998, a special session of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to set a 10-year deadline to make the world "drug free". After an embarrassing failure to achieve this goal, the deadline was extended a further 10 years, setting the world up for another inevitable failure in 2019. [continues 781 words]
VICTORIA has beaten New South Wales in becoming the first state to legalise medical marijuana. Children with severe epilepsy will have first access to clinical trials early next year. A small-scale marijuana cultivation will also be trialled at a Victorian facility. "It's absolutely heartbreaking to see families having to choose between breaking the law and watching their children suffer, and now . they won't have to," Health Minister Jill Hennessy said. [end]
IN THE US prohibition of drugs led by Harry Anslinger was predicated on racial grounds, cocaine and marijuana associated with African Americans and jazz and opioids with Chinese. Further cannabis had strong opposition from timber investments supplying the newspaper industries. Nixon's war on drugs continued this precedent. In an interview in 1994 with investigative journalist Dan Baum Nixon advisor John Erlichman admitted, "the Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. [continues 146 words]
Medicinal cannabis supporters are pushing forward with plans to establish a dispensary in the ACT, similar to those found in some states of the United States where the drug is freely sold from shopfronts. Launching advocacy group The Med Shed at the Hellenic Club in Woden on Sunday afternoon, group co-ordinator Matthew Holmes said a large number of pain, nausea and seizure sufferers were forced to break the law to seek relief. Despite overseas evidence of the drug's effectiveness, the medical community in Australia remained slow to accept it as a viable treatment. [continues 482 words]
The Money Governments Pour into Stopping the Flow of Drugs Could Be Better Spent on Education, Treatment and Better Healthcare. You may have read recently that the late John Ehrlichman, a senior policy adviser to disgraced United States president Richard Nixon, admitted that the administration's 1971 declaration of a "war on drugs" was an invention, a lie. Its purpose was a political diversion; to create the perception of fear and uncertainty among the US population. It was directed at young blacks and leftist "activists" who became the scapegoats and collateral damage of the so-called "war". Know thy enemy. [continues 759 words]
THE average pot smoker in the Coffs-Clarence region spends $250 for an ounce of medium-quality marijuana or about $9 a gram when buying in bulk. For what is ostensibly a wild-growing weed, that is some serious money weighing down the pockets of drug dealers. The Coffs-Clarence figure comes from a website allowing users to submit their pot prices, which are then averaged out and published so crimson-eyed travellers know what they can expect. Submissions have been tendered from towns all over the country. [continues 176 words]
THE average Mackay pot smoker spends $336.61 on an ounce of medium-quality marijuana, translating to about $12 a gram when buying in bulk. For what is ostensibly a wild-growing weed, that is some serious money weighing down the pockets of drug dealers. The Mackay figure comes from a website allowing users to submit their pot prices, which are then averaged out and published so crimson-eyed travellers know what they can expect. Submissions have been tendered from towns all over the country. [continues 641 words]
THERE appears to be an inexorable advance in acceptance of the ubiquitous use of party drugs and a concomitant approach to safe use of these drugs at music festivals. In NSW a group of doctors, led by Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Drug Law Reform Foundation, is preparing to provide drug testing facilities at music festivals, giving sound scientific and medical advice to recreational drug users on site. Experience has shown that this approach saves more young lives than the current saturation police enforcement policy. [continues 153 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]
A leading Canberra doctor behind a plan to roll out a private pill testing trial at music festivals believes it could persuade up to 60 per cent of people who use the service not to take potentially dangerous drugs. Fairfax Media revealed on Sunday that Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Dr Alex Wodak and Canberra physician Dr David Caldicott planned to run the trial at Sydney music festivals without police or state government approval, potentially breaking the law. The controversial service, which would allow festival-goers to submit their drugs for testing at music venues would "save people's lives", Dr Caldicott told The Canberra Times. [continues 426 words]
Inside Australia
