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Could you be an addict? More Americans die from overdoses of legal drugs each year than from gunshot wounds
July 13, 2009 – Subpoenas have gone out, the DEA has been brought in, and every doctor who has ever come within a prescription pad of Michael Jackson can probably expect a phone call soon. But even absent the results of the inquiries and toxicological reports, it seems obvious that prescription drugs played a role…
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The Patriot's Guide to Legalization
July 6, 2009 – Have you ever looked at our marijuana policy? I mean, really looked at it? WHEN WE THINK of the drug war, it’s the heavy-duty narcotics like heroin and cocaine that get most of the attention. And why not? That’s where the action is. It’s not marijuana that is sustaining the Taliban…
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Medical marijuana: Just what the doctor ordered for North Carolina?
July 5, 2009 – 10:52 PM – Prescription painkillers made her retch. Muscle relaxants ravaged her liver. So Jean Marlowe put down her pills and rolled a joint. “I tried marijuana, and in five minutes, my stomach stopped shaking for the first time in five years,” said Marlowe, who has used marijuana as medicine since…
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Effective care, not criminalisation
THE drug war policy wonks are in retreat. The UN’s World Drug Report makes this clear. Released last month in Washington by the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, with new US government drug tsar Gil Kerlikowske, the report has direct implications for all countries. The report reveals that a significant shift…
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How Portugal treats drug addicts – Hint, Think Compassion, NOT Incarceration
July 3, 2009 – At “The End of the World” I met Maria. Beneath a tent of blankets on a steep bank, surrounded by discarded syringes and blood, she unfolded her foil and proceeded to smoke heroin. The district in which she lives near Lisbon gained its name and reputation from illegal drugs. But as…
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How Will Michael Jackson’s Legacy Impact Drug Reform?
June 27, 2009 – To quote Leonard Cohen, “Everybody knows” – and according to media reports, everybody knows Michael Jackson abused prescription medications – legal medications that most likely brought about his death. Was Michael a troubled soul? It appears so. Were laws bent or broken in providing his access to these drugs? Possibly. Recent…
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A Misguided 'War on Drugs' – Too many lives are at stake for the current head-in-the-sand politics
June 25, 2009 – Anything goes in the “war on drugs,” or so it seems. Governments around the world have used it as an excuse for unchecked human rights abuse and irrational policies based on knee-jerk reactions rather than scientific evidence. This has caused tremendous human suffering. It also undermines drug control efforts. That human…
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UN official urges greater investment in drug control and treatment to cut scourge
24 June 2009 – Amid an increasingly brutal struggle for a bigger slice of the $50 billion global cocaine market between Central American drug cartels, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned that legalizing narcotics would be an “historic mistake,” in a call for a global boost in…
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Drug Decriminalization in Portugal-Providing Support, Not Prison
June 22, 2009 – Glenn Greenwald is a civil rights attorney, a blogger for Salon, and the author of a new Cato Institute policy study called “Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Policies.” The paper examines Portugal’s experiment with decriminalizing possession of drugs for personal use, which began in 2001. Nick…
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Suppressed UN/WHO report raised questions about drug policy
June 21, 2009 – In 1991, an editorial in the British Journal of Addiction condemned the inordinate amount of resources devoted to drug law enforcement, and compared the war on drugs to the witch hunts of the past. It’s an apt comparison, since drug warriors around the world are influenced more by myths, stereotypes and…