Victorians would be free to smoke and grow marijuana if a push by the Sex Party to legalise the drug is successful. On Wednesday, Sex Party MP Fiona Patten will introduce a motion to the upper house calling on the government to immediately remove criminal sanctions for the possession, use and cultivation of marijuana for personal use by people 18 and older. The motion will also urge the government to allow the drug to be grown by farmers, which would create an additional revenue source through taxation. [continues 268 words]
Victoria's medicinal cannabis is a step closer to being dispensed to children with severe epilepsy, Premier Daniel Andrews has declared after visiting the state's clandestine marijuana crop. Less than an hour after pictures were released of Mr Andrews inspecting the crop, the Premier announced the appointment of an independent medical committee to work out which patient cohort will be next to access medicinal cannabis. Victoria's medicinal cannabis is on track to be dispensed to the first group, children with severe epilepsy, next year, Mr Andrews says. [continues 201 words]
The Debate on Medicinal Cannabis Needs the Major Parties to Grow Up. I think I am the only member of parliament in Australia to acknowledge my recreational use of cannabis. In fact, I have enjoyed the many blessings that cannabis can bestow for a lot of my adult life and have not lost my mind or become a serial killer. Indeed, I became a politician and some have even said I would not have been elected without it! Jokes aside, I'm declaring my usage or non-usage of cannabis, just so everyone knows where I'm coming from. This debate would be far more informative if every journalist, every politician and every commentator on the subject of cannabis law reform did the same, instead of hiding their drug use, drug abuse or their nonuse in the closet. [continues 620 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]
Addiction to painkillers is putting many Americans on a road that leads to heroin and an early grave, writes Andrew Purcell. The United States is in the grip of an unprecedented epidemic. In 2014, more than 47,000 people were killed by an overdose more than were killed by guns, or died in traffic accidents. " This is the worst drug addiction epidemic in United States history," says Andrew Kolodny, the chief medical officer of Phoenix House in New York. Phoenix House was founded in 1967 by six heroin addicts who resolved to kick the habit together and has grown to become the nation's leading provider of drug- abuse treatment. [continues 1187 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]
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]
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]
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]
As the Status of Drug Use in Victoria Is Debated, Lessons Can Be Learnt From the US. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In January 1964, the Beatles first broke onto the US Billboard chart. In January, the US surgeon general announced that scientists had found conclusive evidence linking smoking to cancer and thus launched a highly successful 50-year public-health fight against tobacco. In August, the North Vietnamese fired on a US naval ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the public phase of the Vietnam War. Alongside an accelerating deployment of conventional troops would come their widespread use of marijuana and heroin. [continues 822 words]
Where is the "war" against drugs when we all know the penalties are so ineffective ("Death, 60 arrests at Stereosonic", 6/12)? If there were significant penalties, would people be arriving at such events in large numbers with illegal drugs? If they don't care about the law or health, then punish them with something they do understand. Money and possessions are treasured above most other things in our society, so why not place a nominal fine of, say, $10,000 on those found carrying drugs and higher for those under the influence? Confiscate cars, phones, computers and cash up to that value and hold it in trust for one month, six months, a year or indefinitely, subject to drug test results. Philip Eagles, Mill Park [end]
Prime Minister Should Back Bill Legalising Medical Marijuana to Ensure It Passes, the Greens Say. Richard Di Natale is forging ahead with his bid to legalise medical marijuana and warns the Turnbull government would be foolish to stand in the way. The Greens leader will ask the Senate to vote on his bill co-sponsored by Liberal, Labor and crossbench senators next month and he's calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to get on board to ensure its success. Senator Di Natale will personally press Mr Turnbull for his support when the pair meet in Canberra this week. [continues 359 words]
Most wars end. One of the longest in history, the Hundred Years War, finally ended in 1453. However, a war that has been fought internationally for nearly as long, the "war on drugs", continues almost unabated, causing havoc and misery for many people in our community. Winston Churchill once said: "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." Rarely do we look closely at the effectiveness of drug prohibition and the war on drugs. A close analysis, however, shows that globally over the past four decades more than a $US 1 trillion has been spent on a strategy that has led to the incarceration of millions worldwide solely based on their drug choice, thousands have been put to death as a "deterrent" (including two Australians in Indonesia this year), families have been destroyed because of overdoses and HIV, young lives ruined because of a criminal record, law enforcement and public officials have been corrupted, and criminal gangs have reaped the rewards of a policy that has failed to curb demand. Yet illicit drugs are cheaper, and more available and accessible than ever before. [continues 682 words]
Marc Lewis Argues That Addiction Is the Result of ' Deep Learning', Probably Triggered by Stress or Alienation. It Can Duly Be Unlearned... Via Better Habits For a long time, Marc Lewis felt a body blow of shame whenever he remembered that night. " We thought you were dead," accused one of his mates, leaning over him. Lewis was slumped half-naked in a bathtub. " We were just talking about what to do with the body." Lewis was at only the beginning of his odyssey into opiates. After this overdose, he dropped out of university and didn't pick up his studies for another nine years. At the next attempt, he was excelling at clinical psychology when he made front page news. He'd been busted raiding a pharmacy for goodies, hopefully Demerol or Methedrine. That was careless; he'd been successfully pulling off three or four break- ins a week. [continues 1417 words]
More people are buying recreational drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine online, partly because it is much cheaper than buying them on the street, where the price of drugs in Australia is more than double the global average. An international survey on drug habits has detected a rapid increase over the past six years in the number of people who buy their drugs online using sites such as Silk Road, whose founder was jailed for life last month. The Global Drug Survey 2015, which was conducted in partnership with global media organisations including Fairfax Media, polled 102,000 people from 50 countries, including 4030 from Australia, about their patterns of drug use. [continues 495 words]
Dark web demand growing Anyone following the Silk Road story could be forgiven for thinking that the online black market's shutdown in October 2013 and the sentencing of its owner to life in prison without parole last week meant the end of online drug sales. Nothing is further from the truth. The results of the latest Global Drug Survey show the number of illicit drug users turning to the dark web the hidden internet accessible with easily-obtained free software is growing. [continues 468 words]
Michael Coulter The war on drugs has filled our jails, enriched the worst among us, wasted police resources and blotted up millions of dollars that could have been far better spent. 'Are we in the grip of an ice epidemic? No. Are all ice users violent monsters? Certainly not.' 'Are we in the grip of an ice epidemic? No. Are all ice users violent monsters? Certainly not.' It would be nice to say that the war on drugs had achieved nothing. The truth is far worse. [continues 758 words]
In a Rare Moment of Detente, Democrats and Republicans Have Both Admitted That America's War on Drugs and the Subsequent Tough-On-Crime Policies Have Failed. How Did We Get Here? Politicians from across the divided political spectrum now agree tough policies on drugs and mass incarceration have failed, blighting inner-city communities. On the last Tuesday of April they buried Freddie Gray in a white coffin with gold trim at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore. Gray was 25 when he died, his neck broken and his voice box crushed, in police custody after he had been arrested for making eye contact with a police officer. [continues 1918 words]
Food ministers have rejected advice from Australia's food standards agency that hemp be allowed to be used in food. Hemp is a species of cannabis, but unlike marijuana contains no or very low levels of the mind- altering chemical tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC). It is used in Australia in clothing and building products, but cannot be used in food. In 2012, Food Standards Australia New Zealand approved an application to include hemp in food. Food ministers asked the agency to review its decision, which the agency reaffirmed, noting that foods derived from hemp seeds did not present any safety concerns. [continues 120 words]
NSW has been hit by an ice-berg. Rates of ice use and detection are crashing through the roof and have now reached pandemic proportions. Experts have compared the crisis to the crack cocaine scourge that hit the United States in the 1980s. It's a problem that's careering out of control, and the Liberal State Government doesn't have a clue what to do about it. Trust me, I know -- because I've seen this crisis first-hand. As a criminal lawyer (who mostly deals with legal aid clients) much of my work involves defending people who are struggling with drug addiction and/or mental health issues. [continues 710 words]
