The war on drugs has failed and should make way for a global shift toward decriminalizing cannabis use and promoting harm reduction, former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso wrote in the Observer yesterday. Cardoso said the hardline approach has brought "disastrous" consequences for Latin America, which has been the frontline in the war on drug cultivation for decades, while failing to change the continent's position as the largest exporter of cocaine and marijuana. His intervention, which will reignite growing debate in Europe about how to tackle drugs, was welcomed on Saturday by campaigners for drug law reform who increasingly see the impact on developing countries where drugs are produced as critical to the argument. [continues 336 words]
MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR? : At issue is whether a pledge on 'harm reduction' should be included in the next UN declaration of intent, or if a 'drug-free' line will be kept. A rift between the EU and US over how to deal with global trafficking in illicit drugs is undermining international efforts to agree a new UN strategy. The confrontation has been heightened because of suggestions that the US negotiating team is pushing a hard-line, Bush administration "war on drugs," in contrast to the EU position, which supports "harm reduction" measures such as needle exchanges. [continues 397 words]
Drug trafficking on international flights is on the increase as more people turn to drugs as a source of revenue to help weather the economic slump, the airport police at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport said, citing flights to and from Southeast Asia as the most popular routes used to move drugs. During the global economic downturn, airport drug enforcement agents said drug trafficking has increased at all levels of society, ranging from the super rich down to blue collar workers. "People are very uncertain about their future, especially when it is becoming more difficult to earn a living," said an agent, speaking on condition of anonymity in an interview with the Central News Agency. [continues 162 words]
The number of drug offenders rose sharply in the first 11 months of last year, mainly because of a sentence commutation program implemented in the second half of 2007, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday. Ministry statistics showed that between January and November, courts convicted 37,700 people of narcotics-related offenses, up 52.1 percent from the same period in 2007. The figures also show that 86.9 percent of the convicts were repeat offenders who had been released under the 2007 commutation program. [continues 235 words]
LONDON - Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers reported in an analysis of past research that re-ignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous. The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent. Doctors have long suspected a connection and say the latest findings underline the need to highlight marijuana's long-term risks. The research, paid for by the British health department, was published yesterday in the medical journal the Lancet. [continues 629 words]
Though discrimination and stigma run deep, Taiwanese activists and officials are pushing for greater awareness about HIV/AIDS to thwart an emerging epidemic Thunderous applause erupts as Hank (his English name is used to protect his identity) finishes a speech about contracting and living with AIDS. A young man - one of more than 400 in attendance - wends his way through the lecture hall to shake Hank's hand, then embraces him in a bear hug. Over by the stage, young women line up to have their picture taken hugging Regan Hofmann, a guest speaker. [continues 1347 words]
Cannabis smokers are unwittingly funding Islamist extremists linked to terror attacks in Spain, Morocco and Algeria, according to a joint investigation by the Spanish and French secret services. The finding will be seized on both by campaigners for a harsher clampdown on cannabis and by those who argue that legalization is the only way to end a petty dealing trend that is dragging growing numbers of teenagers into crime. The investigation by the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia and the Renseignements Generaux was launched after Spanish police found that the Islamists behind the March 2004 bombings in Madrid bought their explosives from former miners in return for blocks of hashish. The bombings claimed 191 lives. [continues 215 words]
Reducing Harm: The plan aims to help addicts through substitute drugs and rehabilitation and will be implemented nationwide on July 1 The Department of Health is expected to broaden the scope of its Harm Reduction Program for drug addicts starting on July 1, supported by the Cabinet's allocation of NT$81 million (US$2.5 million) from its second reserved budget. The Harm Reduction Program will include a clean-needle project, expand HIV examination and offer substitute treatment for drug addicts. [continues 360 words]
Diane never smoked marijuana, and she disapproved of her mother's past drug experiments. But cancer made the 33-year-old teacher ready to try anything that might help: she hoped she would find a cure in herbs from a Tibetan doctor or in the hands of a faith healer deep in the Brazilian rain forest. Then, as the pain and fatigue of advanced colon cancer left Diane increasingly bedridden, she just wanted the strength to get out of bed. That's when she found ecstasy, the illegal drug people often take at all-night dance parties. [continues 1183 words]
A total of 520 Taiwanese students were arrested for narcotics abuse last year, with amphetamines and ecstasy being the most commonly used drugs, according to official statistics released yesterday. Cases of ketamine abuse have been increasing in recent years, the statistics show. However, the number signifies a decrease in cases among students compared with 2004 and 2003, when 602 and 594 cases respectively were reported. The National Police Administration tallies were unveiled during a conference for local education chiefs. Wang Fu-lin, head of the Ministry of Education's Department of Military Training and Education, said new drugs -- such as ecstasy, ketamine and nimetazepam - -- are replacing heroin and amphetamine as the most commonly used drugs among teenagers in Taiwan. [end]
Two Colombian soldiers have been arrested for giving weapons to leftist rebels -- their main battlefield enemy -- in exchange for cocaine, the Attorney General's Office said on Friday. The soldiers, in addition to being members of the Medellin-based 4th Brigade, belonged to a criminal ring that included fighters with the country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said the prosecutors' office in a statement. The statement did not say when the two were arrested, but an official said they were captured "in the past several weeks." [continues 168 words]
Crackdown: Those Caught Taking Minor Drugs Such As Ketamine And Ecstasy Could Soon Face Detention and Forced Treatment at One Of Several Centers Around the Nation The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is amending a law which will enable the agency to detain people who use minor drugs and force them to undergo treatment. "The proposed amendment will help teenagers and youths give up taking minor drugs such as ketamine, MDMA [ecstasy] or flunitrazepam frequently used in pubs or KTVs, and also be a punishment to deter people from using these kinds of drugs," Vice Minister of Justice Wang Tian-sheng said. [continues 355 words]
Urgent measures are needed to combat the rise in drug abuse and related HIV infections, government officials said yesterday. They said that drug-use prevention measures should start in the schools, to target youth at an early age. According to Wang Guo-Long, deputy director of the department of military training education in the Ministry of Education (MOE), the amount of drugs discovered by criminal investigative bodies this year was 12,728kg, compared to 8,597kg last year and 8,428kg in 2003, showing the growing seriousness of the problem. [continues 262 words]
Taiwan's first needle exchange program, (exchanging non-sterile drug injection equipment for sterile materials) is scheduled to start tomorrow. It failed to get off the ground last month, and without support from the Ministry of Justice and NGOs, critics questions whether it will ever fully materialize. Despite overwhelming international evidence that HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection rates among intravenous drug users can be reduced with comprehensive needle exchange programs (NEP), harm reduction efforts in Taiwan are being thwarted by a judicial system and public that stigmatizes easy access to injection equipment, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). [continues 1544 words]
CNA , Taipei - Minister of Justice Shih Mao-lin said yesterday police officers should do more to crack down on drug trafficking and use because such offenses have been closely associated with other criminal activities. Shih made the remarks while attending a "drug-free homeland" activity organized by the Taipei Prosecutor's Office to mark the June 26 International Anti-Drug Day. In 2003 and last year, Shih said, more than 8,400kg of contraband drugs were seized around the country. Worse still, he said, 30-plus amphetamine producing facilities were discovered during the same period, indicating that amphetamine production has gradually moved back to Taiwan from China. [continues 302 words]
Chinese officials issued an unusual appeal to the public yesterday for help fighting drug trafficking, acknowledging in a nationally televised news conference that they have failed to stop surging narcotics abuse despite repeated crackdowns. Drug smuggling and the difficulty of fighting it are rising as a result of globalization and freer trade, the officials said, citing the seizure this month of 400kg of the party drug ketamine brought in from India via the Middle East. "Although we've made a lot of achievements, the spread of drug problems remains serious," said Yang Fengrui, secretary-general of the National Narcotics Control Commission. "Heroin use is down in some areas, but the use of new drugs such as ecstasy, marijuana and others is increasing." [continues 471 words]
Washington (AFP) -- The US prison population, already the largest in the world, reached a new high of more than 2.1 million last year, with one in every 138 residents of the country now behind bars, according to new government statistics. The data, made public by the Bureau of Justice Statistics on Sunday, put the US far ahead of countries like China and Russia, whose combined population is about five times that of the US. "The numbers are pretty consistent with what they have been in the last few years," Justice Department statistician Paige Harrison, a co-author of the report, said. [continues 501 words]
YOUTH CRIME: Urine screening on school and college campuses will form part of a joint government campaign to fight illegal and harmful behavior among young people In a bid to eradicate drugs and violence from school and college campuses, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday launched a campaign to fight the two major causes of youth crime and build healthier campuses. With the assistance of the MOI and DOH, the education ministry announced several strategies to fight campus violence and drug abuse, including the establishment of hotlines at the National Police Agency to report campus crimes, expanding the "anti-drug promotional lecture" tour and conducting urine screening on campus. [continues 439 words]
Gradual Phase-Out: Activists Said Changes To The Criminal Code That Rule Out Capital Punishment For Those Under 18 Or Over 80 Are A Step In The Right Direction A group opposed to the death penalty commended yesterday's overhaul of the Criminal Code through a law amendment aimed at gradually abolishing the death penalty. The groups also urged for the strengthening of correctional counseling to inmates. Yesterday's final reading of the Criminal Code amendment abolished the death penalty for individuals under the age of 18 or over the age of 80. [continues 294 words]
'Narcotic Culture' By Frank Dikotter Takes A Fresh Look At The Usual Take On History That Suggests The Use Of Opium By The Chinese Was Entirely Negative Opium has always been associated, for better or worse, with China. And almost invariably it's been for the worse. The myth, in both the Christian West and the communist East, has been that this pernicious substance was brought to the Celestial Empire by the perfidious British, forced onto a gullible people, and as a result accelerated the decline of a once-great nation. [continues 904 words]
