Reports urging a liberalization of drug laws come out with monotonous frequency. What sets last week's report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy apart from the pack is its unusually glittering roster of authors - among them Kofi Annan, Louise Arbour, Paul Volcker and Richard Branson. But the report shares the same fragile premise as the others: "The global war on drugs has failed," it posits in its opening sentence. To be sure, the war on drugs contains many failures. Indeed, Quebecers had their faces rubbed in that discouraging reality last week when a judge released members or associates of the Hells Angels on grounds that their trial on drug-trafficking charges was being held up too long. [continues 554 words]
Forty years after United States President Richard Nixon launched his War on Drugs, a conflict that far eclipses the War on Terror, the struggle to contain, let alone end, illicit drug abuse is far from over, spewing violence, corruption and addiction into new markets, brutal capitalism at its most malignant. But, finally, there is a glimmer of hope. Yesterday, an extraordinary alliance of the great and good presented their recommendations on how to tackle this worldwide scourge to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in New York. Moral hysteria was noticeably absent. [continues 1593 words]
Alvin Powell, 51, is a 6-foot-5, 300-pound Montreal drugabuse counsellor. He is a former offensive lineman with the Seattle Seahawks and the Miami Dolphins whose National Football League career was cut short by drug addiction. He came to Montreal in 1992 intending to kill himself. But he turned his life around and today works as a motivational speaker for the non-profit Saving Station Foundation of Dorval. Over the past 11 years, tens of thousands of Montreal elementary and high-school students in English-language schools have seen him speak in schools against drug abuse. He talks to Gazette communities editor David Johnston about marijuana consumption among Montreal youth. [continues 1119 words]
It could be the first step in fulfilling the hazy dream of many a reggae artiste. Marijuana, considered as dangerous as cocaine and heroin in the statute books, remains illegal in all East African countries. However, this may change. In June last year, Rwanda took the initial steps in legalising marijuana strictly for medical purposes, the first country in Africa to do so. The proposed law provides that marijuana will only be administered in health institutions to relieve pain or to treat mental problems. [continues 1234 words]
BOGOTA-The U.S. and its ideological foe Venezuela are in a bitter fight over the extradition of Walid "The Turk" Makled, an alleged cocaine kingpin currently jailed in Colombia. And Venezuela appears to have the upper hand. Mr. Makled, arrested late last year on a U.S. warrant in Colombia, is alleged to be one of the world's most important, yet little known, drug lords. He is a "king among kingpins," says Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. At the height of his power, Mr. Makled, a Venezuelan citizen of Syrian descent, smuggled 10 tons of cocaine a month into the U.S. from Venezuela, according to U.S. officials. He controlled Venezuela's most important port and allegedly added to his transport empire by, in effect, stealing an entire airline, according to a lawsuit in Venezuela filed by the airline's former owner. [continues 1834 words]
Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. drug czar, claims that cocaine production in Colombia has dropped by almost two-thirds in the last decade (Letters, March 4). In fact, that figure refers to the amount of land dedicated to coca cultivation. But cocaine producers have increased their productivity. According to the United Nations 2010 World Drug Report, potential cocaine production in Colombia is actually 40% lower than in 1999-a reduction that has been almost fully offset by substantial increases in production in Peru and Bolivia. The fact that the Andean region produced roughly the same amount of cocaine in 2008 (latest data available) as in 1998 speaks to the continuing failure of Washington's hemispheric war on drugs. Juan Carlos Hidalgo Cato Institute Washington [end]
MANILA, Philippines - Apart from the three whose execution has been deferred, there are 79 other Filipinos awaiting their fate on China's death row, an overseas workers group said yesterday. Migrante International said more than 120 other Filipino workers are also facing death sentences in other countries. The group lauded the efforts of President Aquino in successfully halting the execution of the three Filipino workers in China. However, the government should not give its "best shot" at the last minute in saving the lives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on death row because "this is not a game," Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said. [continues 1145 words]
Lie-detector program to be used in weeding out applicants There's no room for pot users on the Quebec City police force. To drive that message home, the force has introduced lie detectors to probe past and recent drug usage and explore other personal habits while screening this year's crop of 135 applicants for cop jobs. This year's final hiring quota has yet to be determined; last year, the force took aboard 69 rookie officers. "You can't be in the police and smoke pot on the weekend -no way," Serge Belisle, chief of the 820-officer force, said yesterday. [continues 373 words]
Although the reporting has improved in recent years, US media coverage of the "war on drugs" continues to ignore the economic realities of just who is fighting who in the conflict. The drug war is best understood as a battle of dollar versus dollar -- a bloody war between the dollars of US taxpayers and the dollars of US consumers. On one side, Americans pay large sums of money to vast networks of people who grow, process, ship, smuggle, defend, and deliver drugs to the US. On the other side, Americans also pay another network of people vast amounts to find, fight, arrest, and kill those whom we hire to provide the drugs to begin with. [continues 581 words]
Researchers are waiting anxiously for final consent from Health Canada to import the illegal drug Ecstasy for a study on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Vancouver-based Dr. Ingrid Pacey and Andrew Feldmar will use methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as Ecstasy, in their double-blind study once they get a licence authorizing the import of the pharmaceutical-grade drug from Switzerland. The mental-health researchers were successful in applying for a temporary exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in early 2009 and expect their study to begin in six to eight weeks. [continues 319 words]
Scanning coverage of Conrad Black's release from prison on bail, I was amused (sort of) by a reporter's describing Mr. Black as a "one-time conservative." This assessment was based on Mr. Black's taking up the cause of prison and drug-law reform during his incarceration, and says more about the writer's superficial, stereotyped perceptions of "conservatism" than about Mr. Black's politics. Perspectives broadened, mind focused by circumstances, Mr. Black lobbed withering and well-deserved broadsides from behind bars at the United States justice system, which he accurately describes as "putrefied," "'a carceral state' that imprisons eight to 12 times more people per capita than the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan..." [continues 717 words]
Letter writer Geoffrey Capp is right to point out that marijuana use can be harmful to one's mental health. Moreover, there are several other defensible reasons that might lead a conscientious citizen to oppose the use of marijuana. It is one thing to believe that a decrease in marijuana use would be good for society. It is another thing entirely to believe that prohibition is good public policy. To take the leap in logic from the former to the latter is to assume (a) that prohibition is successful in significantly lowering the rate of marijuana use and (b) that the societal benefits of prohibition outweigh the costs. [continues 251 words]
KATHMANDU: On the eve of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking that falls tomorrow, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has sounded the alarm that there is risk of public health disaster in less developed countries, including Nepal. The designated theme for this year is 'Think Health, Not Drugs'. Drug Report- 2010 released by UNODC said, "Poor countries have other priorities and fewer resources. They are not in a position to absorb the consequences of increased drug use. As a result, there is now the risk of a public health disaster in developing countries that would enslave masses of humanity to the misery of drugs." [continues 340 words]
Malta has the eighth-highest estimated level of problem drug use in the EU, according to the recently published World Drug Report 2010. Compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report makes reference to several reports including ESPAD and the EMCDDA Statistical Bulletin 2009. Nearly six per 1,000 Maltese in the 15-64 age group are estimated to use drugs. The UK, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Denmark, France, and Portugal surpass Malta, with the highest number of problem drug users, over 10 per 1,000, being in the UK. [continues 1237 words]
On the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, there is no better way for the government to renew its commitment to a narcotics-free society than by having the cabinet approve the new national anti-narcotics policy. It was in 2000-01 that we eradicated poppy cultivation and achieved poppy-free status, thanks to the first anti-narcotics policy, 1993. However, with no new policy, success in reducing the production of narcotics in the 1990s was not matched by similar progress on the drug-trafficking and drug-addiction fronts. [continues 227 words]
Malta has the second-highest number of cocaine-related deaths out of 22 European countries, according to a UN report. The UN's drugs chief said people snorting cocaine in Europe were destroying the "pristine forests" of the Andes and "corrupting governments" in West Africa. The World Drug Report 2010 said cocaine use appeared to be concentrated in Europe in six countries, including Ireland, which was one of three European countries with the greatest increase in drug treatment cases for cocaine since 2002. [continues 352 words]
OTTAWA-The leaders of the world's eight industrialized economies are expected to address an emerging security threat as the global narco-trafficking business shifts toward new drugs and markets via a new hotspot: West Africa. The United Nations released a report Wednesday showing West Africa is exploding as a major transshipment point for funnelling cocaine from central and South America to Europe. The World Drug Report 2010, released in Washington by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), lends urgency to an issue that was discussed by G8 foreign ministers in March and has been placed on the security agenda of the summit. [continues 606 words]
The world's $88-billion cocaine market is shifting toward Europe and is severely destabilizing transit countries in West Africa, even as total production falls, a United Nations report said on Wednesday. The shift in demand has altered trafficking routes, with more cocaine flowing from Andean countries to Europe via Africa rather than to the United States, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. "This is causing regional instability," the UNODC said in its wide-ranging annual World Drug Report. [continues 263 words]
International Conflicts Spill Into Canada Via Illicit Trade Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials confiscated 1,700 kilograms of hashish from a container aboard a South African ship entering the port of Montreal on February 18. The seizure came shortly after 97 kilograms of opium were confiscated from a shipping container from Iran in late January, making it the second of two major drug busts at the port in the span of two months. Dominique McNeely, a spokesperson for the CBSA, said that tracking drug shipments into Montreal can often be difficult for officials working at the port. [continues 312 words]
Major Bust Proves The Need For Tighter Restrictions, RCMP Says The RCMP says the recent bust of a major Richmond drug lab is confirmation that Ottawa needs to clamp down on legal loopholes facilitating the manufacture of synthetic drugs. At a news conference Tuesday, RCMP displayed drugs and weapons seized after an 18-month investigation. The haul included 14,000 ecstasy pills, three kilograms of MDMA pow-d er, six kg of ketamine, $250,000 in cash and several long-barrelled shotguns and rifles. [continues 326 words]
