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September 9, 2008 on 10:26 am | In Uncategorized | Comments OffWelcome to your new blog. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
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We’ve Moved Our News Feed!
March 12, 2008 on 8:39 pm | In News and Action Alerts | Comments Off Folks, we've moved our news feed to another address. To continue receiving drug policy news and other content from the Drug Policy Alliance, please subscribe to the feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DPANNews?format=xml.Thanks for all your support!
Sincerely,
Jeanette Irwin, Megan Farrington, and Amanda King
Drug Policy Alliance Web Team
Drug Policy News Round Up: Feb. 25, 2008
February 25, 2008 on 11:08 pm | In News and Action Alerts | Comments Off Strategies to Control Bupe Abuse OutlinedAmid growing illegal sales and abuse of buprenorphine, top federal officials outlined yesterday action they might take to curb problems with the addiction-treatment drug, including more precise detection methods, improved training of doctors and stronger warning labels for patients. "The issue of diversion has been out there since 2004," said Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, which oversees the federal government's buprenorphine initiative. "We've been concerned about that, and we will continue to be concerned about that."
Oakland Trade School Teaches People How to Grow Pot
OAKLAND, Calif. - You know you're in a different kind of college when a teaching assistant sets five marijuana plants down in the middle of a lab and no one blinks a bloodshot eye. Welcome to Oaksterdam University, a new trade school where higher education takes on a whole new meaning. The school prepares people for jobs in California's thriving medical marijuana industry. For $200 and the cost of two required textbooks, students learn how to cultivate and cook with cannabis, study which strains of pot are best for certain ailments, and are instructed in the legalities of a business that is against the law in the eyes of the federal government.
The Hunt for an Addiction Vaccine
Although the American Medical Association recognized addiction as a disease back in 1956, only now are we beginning to see treatments that target the underlying biochemistry of that disease, Newsweek reports in the March 3 cover, "The Hunt for an Addiction Vaccine" (on newsstands Monday February 25). Health Reporter Jeneen Interlandi reports that this emerging paradigm treats addiction as a chronic, relapsing brain disorder to be managed with all the tools at medicine's disposal. The addict's brain is malfunctioning, as surely as the pancreas in someone with diabetes. In both cases, "lifestyle choices" may be contributing factors, but no one regards that as a reason to withhold insulin from a diabetic. "We are making unprecedented advances in understanding the biology of addiction," says David Rosenblum, a public-health professor and addiction expert at Boston University. "And that is finally starting to push the thinking from 'moral failing' to 'legitimate illness'."
The Politics of Pain
When pain medications double as dangerous party drugs, doctors are left to balance the well being of their patients with an accountability to society.
Camden's Needle Exchange Hobbled by Lack of Funding
The program lacks adequate means to fulfill its mission to stop addicts from spreading HIV through infected syringes. If more money is not put into Camden's fledgling needle-exchange program, it could fail to cut the transmission of AIDS as it was intended to do. After years of debate, New Jersey legislators finally approved needle-exchange programs for four cities, including Camden and Atlantic City. It was the last state in the union to recognize that needle exchanges didn't encourage crime. Rather, such programs help break the link between the sharing of dirty needles among addicts and the transmission of the AIDS virus. New Jersey has the fifth highest number of AIDS cases in the nation, but is second in people who contract the virus through injection-drug use.
Federal Drug Budget Defies Policy Priorities, Critic Contends
The War on Drugs is being fought much as it was during the Reagan administration -- when most of the money and attention was focused on interdicting boatloads of cocaine coming north from Colombia -- even though most of nation's current drug problems are domestic in origin, according to budget analyst John Carnevale. Carnevale Associates recently released an analysis of the proposed FY2009 drug budget which states that the Bush administration continues to favor supply-reduction programs over demand-reduction programs, with the former receiving at least two-thirds of all federal antidrug funding.
Cheap Cocaine Floods a Slum In Argentina, Devouring Lives
Bilma Acuña has two drug-addicted sons and roams the streets of the Ciudad Oculta slum here with a purpose: to save others from the same fate. She and the group of mothers she helps organize have become the only bulwark, it seems, against the irrepressible spread of paco, a highly addictive, smokable cocaine residue that has destroyed thousands of lives in Argentina and caused a cycle of drug-induced street violence never seen before in this country.
Sheriffs across the US brace for cuts in federal funding for drug-fighting
From Arizona to Oregon and east to Kentucky, county sheriffs are bracing for stiff cuts in a federal funding program that has helped them battle drug cartels. Congress in January cut funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant by two-thirds, from $520 million to $170 million for fiscal 2008. Local agencies say that's a threat to the officers who do much of the law enforcement spadework.
Politics and Needle Exchanges
Needle exchange programs save lives. They slow the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and they help get addicts into treatment. Yet when it comes to supporting these programs, it seems that the political cowardice never ends. For the last 20 years, Congress has blocked the use of federal money to pay for needle exchange programs in the United States or abroad. For 10 years, Congress banned Washington from using tax dollars raised in the District of Columbia to pay for needle exchange efforts. Congress finally lifted Washington's ban in December, stripping that provision in the federal budget that President Bush had signed. The District of Columbia has now allocated $650,000 that will, among other things, pay to open a clinic that combines needle exchanges with H.I.V. testing. In what would be an unconscionable reversal, President Bush's new budget request would reimpose that ban.
Needle exchange program struggles in last state to adopt practice
CAMDEN, N.J. - New Jersey has become the last state where intravenous drug users can legally get clean needles, but two of the state's three needle exchanges are struggling to get clients. An underlying problem is funding. While state authorized exchanges in 2006, it has not helped pay for them. One program in Camden distributes needles out of the back of a blue van that sets up Tuesday afternoons on a gravel parking lot attached to an overgrown vacant lot, where bottles of all types, trash, condoms and clothing are strewn.
Working for Safe and Healthy Communities in Maryland
February 25, 2008 on 7:05 pm | In News and Action Alerts | Comments OffA message from Naomi Long, director of the DC Metro Area office of the Drug Policy Alliance:
The 2008 legislative session is here, and I can't wait to tell you what we've been working on. But first I want to thank you, again, for all your incredible work last year. You helped pressure the criminal justice committees to stop playing politics with our parole bill, and even after it failed on the House floor, your calls and support got it reconsidered and sent to the Governor's desk. Then, you sent in so many faxes to Gov. O'Malley's office in support of sentencing reform that his staff actually pleaded with us to stop! And even while the governor was threatening to veto our bill, every major paper in the area printed favorable editorials on sentencing reform in Maryland.
You helped make 2007 one of the most exciting sessions yet--and this year, we're not going to let up. We're working on sentencing reform, overdose prevention and medical marijuana access. I'll be contacting you soon with opportunities to take action, so please watch your inbox. I look forward to working alongside you this session. You can get ready by reading more about our efforts below.
Sincerely,
Naomi Long
Director, DC Metro Area
Drug Policy Alliance
Sentencing Reform: Getting Smart on Crime
Last year after Gov. O'Malley vetoed our parole bill,
the Drug Policy Alliance, Justice Policy Institute, and the Office of
the Public Defender worked with our bill sponsors, Del. Curt Anderson
and Sen. Lisa Gladden, to convene a stakeholders' meeting of judges,
state attorneys, legislators, and the National Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Dependence. The result was the Smart on Crime Act, SB 552/HB
845, which applies to individuals who are in possession of very small
amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs.
Under this circumstance, a judge would have the discretion to sentence
a person to five years or less in prison, or to community supervision
or drug treatment instead of a mandatory minimum. The statute
acknowledges that, contrary to the way the law currently works, someone
possessing small amounts of drugs should not be treated the same as
someone possessing 10 times that amount. Read the full bill.
Overdose Prevention: Bringing Good Samaritan to Maryland
In 2007, New Mexico became the first state to pass an overdose
prevention bill that would allow witnesses to an overdose to call 911
without the threat of arrest. We hope to bring the same common sense,
public health approach to Maryland with the Limited Immunity for
Alcohol or Drug Related Overdose Incidents. View the bill. This legislation is especially timely given a recent report from the Baltimore City Department of Health, which found that the number of overdose deaths in Baltimore is comparable to the number of people being murdered.
Medical Marijuana: Organizing Patients to improve the Compassionate Use Act of 2003
Maryland medical marijuana supporters are on the move! DPA, in partnership with Americans for Safe Access, will be holding FREE teach-ins and trainings every week in March in a different location around the state. Our goal is to educate patients, caregivers, and medical professionals about their rights under the current medical marijuana law and discuss how we can work together to improve that law in 2009. The events will take place in Baltimore on March 11, Salisbury on March 18, Silver Spring on March 20, and Hagerstown on March 25. And stay tuned to sign up for the field trip to Annapolis this April, something I'm calling "Patient Visiting Hours at the Capitol." You won't want to miss it! Contact Naomi Long for more information and event details.
Crack the Disparity: Call the U.S. Senate Now
February 25, 2008 on 4:27 pm | In News and Action Alerts | Comments Off Imagine being able to reform one of the worst federal drug laws of all time. You can do it. The draconian crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity is on the ropes. We need you to provide the knock-out punch.Today is a national call-in day on the issue. Please take a few minutes to call your two U.S. Senators and urge them to eliminate the crack/powder disparity by supporting S. 1711, The Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act. If you cant call today, thats OK. Call as soon as you can. Any time this week would be great. It's easy--our website will give you the phone numbers and tell you what to say.
To make a call: http://dpa.convio.net/site/Advocacy?alertId=185&pg=makeACall
Two weeks ago the Senate Crime and Drugs Subcommittee had historic hearings on the crack/powder issue. The House Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee is having hearings this week. The Drug Policy Alliance and almost a dozen other national groups are bringing in people from around the country to lobby key members of Congress tomorrow.
Support for reform is growing in both the House and Senate and among both Democrats and Republicans. We hope legislation reducing or eliminating the disparity will move within the next couple of weeks.
Its not every day we have an opportunity to reduce government waste, improve public safety, promote fairness and restore some sanity to U.S. drug policy. So I hope you take a few minutes to make two phone calls.
Phone calls will make the biggest impact in this campaign. But if you can't call, you can look up the email addresses and fax numbers for your two U.S. Senators at http://www.senate.gov/ .
You can find fact sheets, talking points and articles about crack/powder reform here: http://www.drugpolicy.org/drugwar/mandatorymin/crackpowder.cfm
Sincerely,
Bill Piper
Director, Office of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance Network
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