drugwar Archives | Page 5 of 7

Tagdrugwar

1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says

March 1, 2008 / Klint Finley

For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

Full Story: New York Times.

(via OVO).

American College of Physicians support research into the therapeutic role of marijuana

February 15, 2008 / Klint Finley

Marijuana has been smoked for its medicinal properties for centuries. Preclinical, clinical, and anecdotal reports suggest numerous potential medical uses for marijuana. Although the indications for some conditions have been well documented, less information is available about other potential medical uses.

Additional research is needed to further clarify the therapeutic value of cannabinoids and determine optimal routes of administration. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana, and the debate over legalization. ACP believes the science on medical marijuana should not be obscured or hindered by the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana for general use. In this paper the College lays out a series of positions on research into, and the use of, marijuana as medicine.

Full position paper available at American College of Physicians web site.

(via Hit and Run).

Rastafarians may get religious exemption for marijuana use

February 15, 2008 / Klint Finley

Ras Iyah Ben Makahna won a partial victory in the US’ 9th Circuit Court after he argued that he used cannabis as a sacrament. The potential implications are astounding: sacramental users, especially Rastafarians, may be able to light up on federal lands and be protected by Makahna’s precedent.

Ras Iyah Ben Makahna was arrested for possession and importation of marijuana seeds on January 2, 1991, at an international airport in his homeland of Guam, a US territory. He was on his way back from California when officials charged him with importation of a controlled substance. The American Civil Liberties Union soon became interested in his case, and offered legal assistance.

Makahna explained that Rastafarians are required by their religion to carry and use cannabis sacramentally: for him it was a choice between breaking the law, or sinning in the eyes of God.

Full Story: Cannabis Culture.

(Via Irreality Wire).

Why is religious exemption the most feasible means of making legal exceptions for marijuana use? If we accept that religious people can use the drug, why not cancer patients? Or artists and musicians? Or television program viewers?

Obama Supports Marijuana Decriminalization

January 31, 2008 / Klint Finley

Given what Obama seems to mean by decriminalization, this position is not exactly radical. About a dozen states are said to have decriminalized marijuana, which generally means that possession of small amounts for personal use does not result in arrest and can be punished by a modest fine at worst. Possession is still illegal in almost all of those states, the conspicuous exception being Alaska, where possession of a few ounces in one’s home does not trigger any penalty at all. Possessing more than the limit (usually an ounce), growing marijuana, or selling it remain crimes even in so call decrim states.

Full Story: Hit and Run.

Update: Now he says he’s against it.

Medical Marijuana Vending Machines Take Root in LA

January 30, 2008 / Klint Finley

Patients suffering from chronic pain, loss of appetite and other ailments that marijuana is said to alleviate can get their pot with a dose of convenience at the Herbal Nutrition Center, where a large machine will dole out the drug around the clock.

“Convenient access, lower prices, safety, anonymity,” inventor and owner Vincent Mehdizadeh said, extolling the benefits of the machine.

But federal drug agents say the invention may need unplugging.

“Somebody owns (it), it’s on a property and somebody fills it,” said DEA Special Agent Jose Martinez. “Once we find out where it’s at, we’ll look into it and see if they’re violating laws.”

At least three dispensaries in the city, including two belonging to Mehdizadeh, have installed vending machines to distribute the drug to people who carry cards authorizing marijuana use.

Full Story: Fox News).

(thanks Nick!)

US government: better to let heroin users die than encourage drug use by making it safer

January 29, 2008 / Klint Finley

Radley Balko on the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy’s opposition to giving overdose rescue kits to drug users:

Digest that for a sec. Better to let a heroin user die than administer a product that, in some cases, may remove the threat of overdose death from people who use heroin to excess. This is the mentality of your modern drug warrior. We’re fighting drug use not because it’s dangerous or harmful, but because they believe drug use is, in and of itself, immoral.

Today’s drug war isn’t about saving lives, it’s about saving souls. it’s the same mentality that led some family values types to oppose the marketing of Gardasil. Remove the threat of cervical cancer from premarital sex and, golly, some girls might have more premarital sex. If a few have to learn an important lesson by dying of cervical cancer, so be it.

Full Story: the Agitator.

Balko also sends word about a kid arrested for smelling hand sanitizer.

Cleveland DEA Informant Scandal Unravels

January 23, 2008 / Klint Finley

Geneva France walked out of federal prison with $68 and a bus ticket home. That’s all the government had to offer a woman who had served 16 months of a decade-long prison sentence for a crime she didn’t commit.

The mother of three returned to her family, but her youngest child — who was 18 months old when France was sent to prison — didn’t recognize her.

And France, 25, had no home to return to.

Her landlord had evicted her from the rental during her incarceration, and everything she owned had been tossed on the street.

France’s case is the nightmare scenario for a system that critics say sometimes dispenses justice differently for rich and poor.

It shows how easy it is for the government to get convictions in cases built on shaky investigations.

Full Story: Hit and Run.

Smoke Weed In Moderation

January 19, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“That, at least, is the consensus of a new paper in Neuropharmacology:

There is a general consensus that the effects of cannabinoid agonists on anxiety seem to be biphasic, with low doses being anxiolytic and high doses ineffective or possibly anxiogenic. Besides the behavioural effects of cannabinoids on anxiety, very few papers have dealt with the neuroanatomical sites of these effects. We investigated the effect on rat anxiety behavior of local administration of THC in the prefrontal cortex, basolateral amygdala and ventral hippocampus, brain regions belonging to the emotional circuit and containing high levels of CB1 receptors. THC microinjected at low doses in the prefrontal cortex (10 ?g) and ventral hippocampus (5 ?g) induced in rats an anxiolytic-like response tested in the elevated plus-maze, whilst higher doses lost the anxiolytic effect and even seemed to switch into an anxiogenic profile. Low THC doses (1 ?g) in the basolateral amygdala produced an anxiogenic-like response whereas higher doses were ineffective.

In other words, a good high works in the prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus while a bad high turns on the amygdala. As most pot smokers eventually discover, there is a fine pharmacological line between comic relaxation and vague paranoia.”

(via The Frontal Cortex)

(see also “Is Weed The New Prozac?”)

Recreational Drugs FAR Less Likely to Kill You than Prescribed Drugs

January 15, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Recreational drugs, including cocaine and heroin, are responsible for an estimated 10,000-20,000 American deaths per year [1,2]. While this represents a serious public health problem, it is a “smokescreen” for America’s real drug problem. America’s “war on drugs” is directed at the wrong enemy. It is obvious that interdiction, stiff mandatory sentences, and more vigorous enforcement of drug laws have failed. The reason is simple. Cause and effect have been reversed.

[…] While approximately 10,000 per year die from the effects of illegal drugs, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs which, by medical standards, are properly prescribed and properly administered. More than two million suffer serious side effects. [3]

An article in Newsweek [4] put this into perspective. Adverse drug reactions, from “properly” prescribed drugs, are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. According to this article, only heart disease, cancer, and stroke kill more Americans than drugs prescribed by medical doctors. Reactions to prescription drugs kill more than twice as many Americans as HIV/AIDS or suicide. Fewer die from accidents or diabetes than adverse drug reactions. It is important to point out the limitations of this study. It did not include outpatients, cases of malpractice, or instances where the drugs were not taken as directed.”

(via Mercola)

(Thanks Kaos829!)

Psychedelic research overview in Scientific American

January 5, 2008 / Klint Finley

psychedelic research

Scientific American is running a broad overview of past and present research with hallucinogens:

Before 1972, close to 700 studies with psychedelic drugs took place. The research suggested that psychedelics offered significant benefits: they helped recovering alcoholics abstain, soothed the anxieties of terminal cancer patients, and eased the symptoms of many difficult-to-treat psychiatric illnesses, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

For example, between 1967 and 1972 studies in terminal cancer patients by psychiatrist Stanislav Grof and his colleagues at Spring Grove State Hospital in Baltimore showed that LSD combined with psychotherapy could alleviate symptoms of depression, tension, anxiety, sleep disturbances, psychological withdrawal and even severe physical pain. Other investigators during this era found that LSD may have some interesting potential as a means to facilitate creative problem solving.

Between 1972 and 1990 there were no human studies with psychedelic drugs. Their disappearance was the result of a political backlash that followed the promotion of these drugs by the 1960s counterculture. This reaction not only made these substances illegal for personal use but also made it extremely difficult for researchers to get government approval to study them.

Things began to change in 1990, when ‘open-minded regulators at the FDA decided to put science before politics when it came to psychedelic and medical marijuana research,’ says Rick Doblin, a public policy expert and head of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). ‘FDA openness to research is really the key factor. Also, senior researchers who were influenced by psychedelics in the sixties now are speaking up before they retire and have earned credibility.’ Chemist and neuropharmacologist David E. Nichols of Purdue University adds, ‘Baby boomers who experienced the psychedelic sixties are now mature scientists and clinicians who have retained their curiosity but only recently had the opportunity to reexplore these substances.’

Full Story: Scientific American.

(via Nerdshit).

Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑

Technoccult

Mutate Your Mind