It's been said that half the truth is often a whole lie. So it is with the prevailing notion that addiction is a disease. On the surface, this interpretation seems to be at least half right, in that addicts appear to be afflicted by a disorder over which they have no control. However, this half truth distorts the reality that, unlike cancer, addiction can be cured by a choice that is at once simple and profound - - an exercise of free will and resolve that is not available to sufferers of actual diseases. [continues 300 words]
I would never consign even the worst of my enemies (not that I have any, of course) to the hell of heroin addiction. But if someone I knew did end up in that particular underworld, the last thing I would want for them is for authorities to make it more comfortable. Instead, I would want our vaunted health-care system to do everything possible to free them from their addiction. It seems to me that this distinction - that is, whether to reduce the harm associated with drug addiction or to work to end it - is at the root of the current debate over whether the federal government should continue to fund the "safe-injection site" in Vancouver. [continues 278 words]
In 2004, when the Legislature and the governor reached agreement on incremental reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the associations representing police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and police and correction unions were adamantly opposed. Any change in the penal consequences of nonviolent drug offenses would put New York right up there with Sodom and Gomorrah. Almost simultaneously, the voters of Albany County, faced with a clear choice of candidates for district attorney who represented polar opposites on drug policy, rejected the champion of the status quo and elected David Soares -- the advocate for rationalization of the drug laws. [continues 156 words]
Compared to the United States, Canada's judicial system treats marijuana-related offences with kid gloves. Possession of small amounts of the drug is tolerated, even though it is still technically illegal; fewer convicted dealers and growers are sent to jail; and when they are incarcerated, their terms are shorter. But even within Canada, not all drug dealers are treated equally. If our country is generally soft on drugs, B.C. is downright limp. So much so that Canadian drug dealers are flocking to B.C. even after they're convicted of crimes to take advantage of the more temperate atmosphere. [continues 1000 words]
To the Editor: The national media are uncritically reporting methamphetamine as the worst-ever drug epidemic, frustrating efforts to rationalize our response to a genuine and evolving public health problem. Last year, the New York Legislature finally got around to making the most modest of changes to the Rockefeller drug laws, which were hastily enacted in the early 1970's to address a heroin epidemic and in the late 1980's to address a crack cocaine epidemic. Time has shown that these phenomena hit our population like successive strains of the influenza virus. The most susceptible people are struck down, the infection grows less virulent, and society develops a tolerance. [continues 71 words]
Carl Strock has struck a pessimistic note on the potential to move ahead so much as a single step toward legalizing marijuana for medical purposes (Jan. 23 column). Commenting on a recent public hearing by the state Assembly, he notes that despite considerable and compelling testimony from health-care professionals and people with a range of painful and debilitating ailments, legislators are wary of engaging with the issue because "it might send the wrong message to young people." Lawmakers have also been heavily lobbied - even bullied - by district attorneys, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, all of whom have adopted an apocalyptic tone on marijuana not heard since the 1930s. [continues 143 words]
IF politics is smoke and mirrors, then the smoke part of it these days has a sweet, autumnal odour that is clearly not the scent of burning maple leaves. It is marijuana smoke, and it continues to cloud the vision of many politicians, many Canadians and most journalists. The issue du jour is the medical use of marijuana. Health Minister Anne McLellan indicated in mid-August she is less than enthusiastic about allowing certain sick Canadians to receive prescriptions to use marijuana to treat their pain or nausea, especially when her bureaucrats are busy working at ways to prevent people from smoking cigarettes. That is the sort of logic that escaped her predecessor, Allan Rock. [continues 851 words]
Former state Sen. John Dunne continuously reminds us that although he sponsored the legislation that wrote the first chapter of New York's canon of tough drug laws, he considers the experiment to have been a total failure. Having seen in those years the repeated rise and fall of history's most powerful drug mafias, the damage they have done and the cost of taking them down, he knew what he was talking about. Has there been a total failure? I think not. [continues 157 words]
A Symposium Launches A Counterattack Against Pro-Drug 'Harm Reduction' Programs In early May, Marc Emery, the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, bought full-page newspaper advertisements to announce his intention to run for the mayoralty of Vancouver. The one-day media blitz, estimated to have cost him $25,000, centred on Mr. Emery's contention that the use of marijuana should be decriminalized. But in coincidental interviews with reporters, the drug libertarian went much further. He said, for example, that a Marijuana Party administration would order city hall to set up a program to deliver free heroin and cocaine to addicts. [continues 1506 words]
Way back in 1962, in the case of Robinson vs. California, the United States Supreme Court considered a California statute that permitted the imprisonment of a person for the offense of being a drug addict. Noting that it is entirely possible to become an addict through no fault of one's own -- such as by being born addicted -- the court tossed that one out. How things changed over the years -- especially our perspective. Granted, we have gone through two periods of true emergency -- the initial public alarm over heroin in the early 1970s and the crack epidemic of the late 1980s -- but for the most part, we have increasingly come to the consensus that America's drug problem is largely driven by chronic drug abusers who should be treated, not imprisoned. As Americans, we have great faith in medical science. We should actually be surprised that we are not already further along the road to finding addiction's cure. [continues 123 words]
IN mid-January, RCMP officers in Richmond, B.C., discovered the body of an Asian man in his 20s, his hands tied with duct tape and his body set afire. To the Mounties on the scene, there was little doubt it was a gang-related murder, the fifth in as many months in the Vancouver suburb. "This is what criminals do," Constable Peter Thiessen observed. "This is how they conduct business." If so, it is a business that is booming. Vancouver-area police said last month that at least 50 people have been killed over the past decade in what they describe as a war between Indo-Canadian drug gangs. Despite the high tally of victims, the feud has gone largely unnoticed by the general public. Nevertheless, law-enforcement officers are now mulling the establishment of a special task force, reminiscent of the group set up to probe the case of the 50 missing Vancouver prostitutes and drug addicts, to stop the slaughter. [continues 916 words]
Two years ago, I struck up a conversation with an FBI supervisory agent on the subject of the tough new money laundering law that Gov. George Pataki had recently signed. He thought it was a good law, but cautioned that money laundering investigations are expensive, time consuming and labor intensive. He was not enthusiastic about them because they require a big investment to generate a one-time headline. I share that insight as the Times Union continues to editorialize in favor of reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws (Times Union, April 3) and point out to those who are resisting even the sensible reform proposed by the governor that the "mules" and penny-ante dealers scooped up and locked up under those statutes are not the root of the problem of drug crime. They are not even useful in getting at the brains behind drug distribution conspiracies -- and all drugs are part of some far-flung conspiracy. [continues 228 words]
B.C. addicts press for anti-discrimination protection even as the chief justice frets about equality Ask most any western Canadian politician and he will say that one of his constituents' most common complaints about modern jurisprudence is that " equality rights" are being extended to absurd ends. It is one thing to prohibit landlords from discriminating against Indo-Canadians, for example, but it is another matter entirely to prevent pub owners from keeping preoperative male-to-female transsexuals out of women's washrooms, as has been ruled in B.C. How far equality rights will eventually extend is a matter that perplexes even Canada's top jurist, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. But if a new B.C. case is any indication, the end may not be in sight. [continues 645 words]
But Promised Changes To The Popular Anti-Drug Abuse Program Will Not Silence Its Critics As coach of his 11-year-old son's house-league hockey team, David Hoffman of Hornepayne, Ont., is used to hearing the odd bawdy comment in the locker room, even from players so young. What he was not prepared for, however, was a recent outburst of jokes, taunts and mock bragging all related to hard-drug use. "I was staggered," says the railway engineer and father of seven [continues 689 words]
I must object to Robert Sharpe's characterization of the struggle against illegal drugs as a "gravy train" (Times Union, Feb. 20). While I appreciate the work the Lindesmith Center has been doing to promote reform of drug policy, I believe he misses the big picture and dishonors the memory and sacrifice of many who have been part of that struggle. The drug epidemic is without precedent in human history. If we have made mistakes in responding to it, we are not without the wisdom and resolve to learn from them. [continues 445 words]
I must object to Robert Sharpe's characterization of the struggle against illegal drugs as a "gravy train" (Times Union, Feb. 20). While I appreciate the work the Lindesmith Center has been doing to promote reform of drug policy, I believe he misses the big picture and dishonors the memory and sacrifice of many who have been part of that struggle. The drug epidemic is without precedent in human history. If we have made mistakes in responding to it, we are not without the wisdom and resolve to learn from them. Today, across America, state governments are beginning to fine tune their policies toward drug abuse. [continues 430 words]
As a longtime student of the war on drugs, it's encouraging to me to see Gov. George E. Pataki taking on the Rockefeller drug laws so bluntly, if without detail, in his annual message to the Legislature. However, given the recent history of skittishness in taking on this issue, I'd say that if ever there were a time when Albany's proverbial "three men in a room" were an unqualified good thing, it would be to hammer out a stand-alone compromise on this important issue. Naturally, the resulting compromise would fully address all significant issues of prevention, treatment and public security associated with drug abuse. [continues 65 words]
