Busting 'Bad Characters' Risky, Strains U.S. Funds CHICAGO -- Mexican drug cartels are stepping up marijuana cultivation in U.S. national parks and on other public land, endangering visitors and damaging the environment, law enforcement and National Park Service officials say. John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says 75%-80% of marijuana grown outdoors is on state or federal land. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says there were more than 4.8 million marijuana-plant seizures at outdoor sites in 2006. [continues 373 words]
Some Messages Help, Others Are Troubling Here's a multiple-choice question for parents of tweens and teens. You're monitoring your child's cellphone and come across a text message encouraging her to try a prescription drug. Could the message be coming from: A. a drugmaker trolling for a new customer. B. an adolescent friend urging a raid on your medicine cabinet for a "pharm" party. C. a trusted physician, offering a reminder to the 25 percent of teenagers who take a daily prescription for conditions ranging from allergies to cancer. [continues 1058 words]
WASHINGTON - Cocaine and methamphetamine use among young adults declined significantly last year as supplies dried up, leading to higher prices and reduced purity, the government reports. Overall use of illicit drugs showed little change. About one in five young adults last year acknowledged illicit drug use within the previous month, a rate similar to previous years. But cocaine use declined by one-quarter and methamphetamine use by one-third. Drug use increased among the 50-59 age group as more baby boomers joined that category. Their past month drug use rose from 4.3 percent in 2006 to 5 percent in 2007. [continues 552 words]
"When we push back against the drug problem, it gets smaller." -- John Walters, White House Drug Czar Well, now we know why federal officials chose to release the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) ( see http://www.drugabusestatistics.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k7nsduh/2k7Results.pdf )on a day when the Republican convention's climax and a string of hurricanes is likely to keep it out of the headlines. The survey pretty much dynamites Office of National Drug Control Policy chief John Walters' claims of success in reducing marijuana and drug use during his tenure, which he'd like us to attribute to his aggressive policies, and particularly ONDCP's near-obsession with demonizing marijuana. [continues 389 words]
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government said Tuesday it needs to see changes from Venezuela's government before the two countries can have a better relationship in the fight against drugs. The comments followed Venezuelan President Hugo ChA!vez's warning that U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy risks expulsion after the ambassador said drug traffickers are taking advantage of the ''gap'' that exists between the United Stats and Venezuela. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the U.S. government is ''prepared to have a better relationship'' but needs ``to see some actions on the side of the Venezuelan government.'' [continues 191 words]
On August 19, the Associated Press reported on a group of college presidents proposing reconsideration of the legal drinking age. I'll refrain from wading into the emotional debate about what the legal age for alcohol should be, but a graph that accompanied the story in some outlets, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch raises larger questions about our national policies towards drugs and alcohol. Two things are striking: 1) The number of alcohol poisoning deaths in the U.S. is shockingly high, consistently between 300 and 400 each year. The number of annual deaths from marijuana poisoning remains -- as always -- zero. [continues 418 words]
America's alcohol prohibition lasted 13 years, filled the country's prisons, inspired contempt for the law among millions, bred corruption and produced Al Capone. What it did not do was keep Americans from drinking. America's marijuana prohibition drew into its 72nd year this month. It has created a huge underground industry catering to users, helped the US prison population balloon into the world's largest, and diverted the resources of American law enforcement. What it has not done is keep Americans from using marijuana. [continues 698 words]
Any discussion of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's claim that today's marijuana is more potent than in the past ("Boomers, beware: Pot more potent now," July 28) must be prefaced by the fact the agency routinely lies about marijuana. Case in point: A recent report by the agency claimed frequent marijuana ingestion doubles a teen's risk of depression and anxiety. When questioned about the agency's claim that "using marijuana can cause depression and other mental illnesses," drug czar John Walters admitted there is no proof one leads to another. [continues 178 words]
United States Federal Agency Takes on California Over Cannabis Use for Health Reasons The young woman in the bikini top and bottle tan was having a good time in the bright afternoon sun. Gyrating opposite the Muscle Beach Gym on the boardwalk at Venice beach, she chanted her mantra in an eastern European accent. "The doctor is here! The doctor is here!" Sitting behind her in a beach chair, an equally bronzed young man repeated the single word: "Caliente!" The saleswoman changed her mantra: "Medical marijuana! Medical marijuana!" she said, proffering cards to the tourists ambling by. [continues 1040 words]
VISALIA -- Last week's drug bust involving a massive marijuana grow site above Porterville is drawing national attention with the arrival today of the nation's drug czar. Ten media outlets, including CNN and CNBC, converged on the National Guard Armory building in Visalia shortly after noon for a press conference to address the relative success of the joint operation. John Walters, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, and Tulare County Sheriff Bill Wittman each spent several minutes answering reporters' questions. [continues 424 words]
Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies say they have seized more than 340,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $1.4 billion and arrested 36 suspects in a sweeping crackdown on marijuana cultivation on public land in eastern Tulare County over the last week. The joint operation involving 14 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, which started July 27 and will continue through Aug. 9, brought President Bush's drug czar, John Walters, to a press conference at the National Guard Armory in Visalia yesterday, where officials announced the program. [continues 446 words]
New Program Will Raid Marijuana Gardens of Mexican Drug Cartels. The nation's drug czar chopped down marijuana plants growing deep inside the Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County on Tuesday. John Walters, who holds the Cabinet-level position as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, came to California to bring attention to a new locally coordinated, but partly federally funded, marijuana eradication program to raid marijuana gardens planted on public lands by Mexican drug cartels. [continues 312 words]
Daniel Kurtz-Phelan states in his article (July 13) that there "has been no significant decrease in drug flows out of Colombia or in the availability of cocaine or heroin in the United States." Law-enforcement officials in 38 U.S. cities, however, have reported decreased availability of cocaine since January 2007. This coincides with a 30 percent jump in the price per gram of cocaine on American streets over the past year. Even The Times covered the significance of this rise in price and its effect on availability in an article published in October 2007 ("Citing Price Rise, U.S. and Mexico See Antidrug Progress"). Since then, positive drug-test rates for cocaine among our work force have been in a free fall, reaching their lowest levels in 10 years. We've also seen even more dramatic declines in the effective availability of heroin, particularly east of the Mississippi, where the bulk of Colombian heroin is sold, because huge drops in potential production of heroin in Colombia have led to decreased purity and increased price of the drug here. [continues 67 words]
On Tuesday, July 15, the Bush Administration's second-in-command of national drug policy visited Humboldt County as part of a California tour to scope out the state of the illegal cannabis industry. Scott Burns, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) met with county officials, participated in a sweep of grow houses in Eureka and points south, then came to Arcata. The Arcata Eye was invited to interview Burns, and, with a phalanx of City and Humboldt State Unversity officials in attendance, took 25 minutes of his time in the Arcata Police Department's conference room. Offering interjections during the interview are Arcata Police Chief Randy Mendosa and Tommy LaNier, director, National Marijuana and Public Lands Initiative. [continues 5289 words]
On March 1, 2006, I met Hamid Karzai for the first time. It was a clear, crisp day in Kabul. The Afghan president joined President and Mrs. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ambassador Ronald Neumann to dedicate the new United States Embassy. He thanked the American people for all they had done for Afghanistan. I was a senior counternarcotics official recently arrived in a country that supplied 90 percent of the world's heroin. I took to heart Karzai's strong statements against the Afghan drug trade. [continues 5557 words]
To the Editor: Re "Not Winning the War on Drugs" (editorial, July 2): You say that "some experts argue that the rising price of cocaine on American streets is mostly the result of a strong euro and fast-growing demand in Europe." But this argument doesn't take into account the even greater disruption for methamphetamine, which no one is diverting to Europe. You selectively slice the Monitoring the Future data, citing 12th graders' annual use of cocaine in 2007, to claim that teenagers are using "more" cocaine than they did in 2001. But examination of that data shows a decrease in use by 12th graders from the previous year, to 5.2 percent in 2007 from 5.7 percent in 2006. And this is far below the peak of 6.2 percent in 1999. [continues 99 words]
More potent weed puts today's kids at greater risk for health and social problems If you're a baby boomer, don't lull yourself into thinking that marijuana is a fading fad that represents a modest threat to today's youth. You'd be wrong. Nearly half of today's teenagers try marijuana before graduating from high school, and by their senior year more than 20 percent are regular users, Science Daily reported in May. More teens use marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined, and they are at greater risk than teens who smoked pot a couple of decades ago. [continues 693 words]
According to the White House, this country is scoring big wins in the war on drugs, especially against the cocaine cartels. Officials celebrate that cocaine seizures are up -- leading to higher prices on American streets. Cocaine use by teenagers is down, and, officials say, workplace tests suggest adult use is falling. John Walters, the White House drug czar, declared earlier this year that "courageous and effective" counternarcotics efforts in Colombia and Mexico "are disrupting the production and flow of cocaine." This enthusiasm rests on a very selective reading of the data. Another look suggests that despite the billions of dollars the United States has spent battling the cartels, it has hardly made a dent in the cocaine trade. [continues 584 words]
In What Is Becoming a Nearly Annual Ritual, the ONDCP Has Released Yet Another Report Filled With Dire Warnings About Rising Marijuana Potency. In what is becoming a nearly annual ritual, on June 12 the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released yet another report filled with dire warnings about rising marijuana potency. And the U.S. media -- led by the Associated Press, by far the nation's most powerful wire service -- once again mistakenly treated the story as if it was actual news. [continues 902 words]
WASHINGTON - Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released today by the White House. The latest analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project tracked the average amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in samples seized by law enforcement agencies from 1975 through 2007. It found that the average amount of THC reached 9.6 percent in 2007, compared with 8.75 percent the previous year. [continues 123 words]
