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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1029 -- 7/19/18
Phillip S. Smith, Editor,psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1029

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. HOW TO PREVENT OPIOID OVERDOSES? PROVIDE HARD-CORE ADDICTS FREE PHARMACEUTICAL HEROIN
That's what the Dutch do, and it's working. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/19/how_prevent_opioid_overdoses

2. BULLDOZED TO DEATH FOR GROWING TEN MARIJUANA PLANTS
It’s not marijuana that’s killing people, but marijuana prohibition. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/19/bulldozed_death_growing_ten

3. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
A medical marijuana battle royale is raging in Oklahoma, New York will allow medical marijuana as an opioid replacement, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/18/medical_marijuana_update

4. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A Tennessee sheriff's head narc is under investigation for stealing stuff at a drug bust, cops in Georgia and Vermont go to prison for stealing from the evidence locker, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/18/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

5. CHRONICLE AM: OK MEDICAL MARIJUANA KERFUFFLE, UK GOV WON'T BLOCK FESTIVAL PILL TESTING, MORE... (7/12/18)
Oklahoma voters approved a medical marijuana initiative last month but a new battle is brewing, the British government says it will not block pill testing at clubs and festivals, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/12/chronicle_am_ok_medical

6. CHRONICLE AM: NY STATE REPORT CALLS FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION, DOJ FENTANYL CRACKDOWN, MORE... (7/13/18)
Wine and liquor wholesalers endorse legalizing marijuana "like alcohol," a New York state report calls for marijuana legalization, Attorney General Sessions announces a crackdown on fentanyl, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/13/chronicle_am_ny_state_report

7. CHRONICLE AM: CA LEGAL POT DRAFT RULES UNVEILED, OPIOID CRACKDOWN HURTS PAIN PATIENTS, MORE... (7/16/18)
California regulators issue proposed draft regulations for the legal marijuana market, British police are "in effect" decriminalizing marijuana, the opioid crackdown is impacting chronic pain patients, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/16/chronicle_am_ca_legal_pot_draft

8. CHRONICLE AM: OK MEDICAL MARIJUANA MUDDLE, TORONTO HEALTH BOARD SAYS DECRIMINALIZE, MORE... (7/17/18)
The uproar in Oklahoma grows louder after the state health board messed with the medical marijuana initiative, Toronto's health board endorses drug decriminalization, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/17/chronicle_am_ok_medical

9. CHRONICLE AM: MX MINISTER TALKS LEGALIZING DRUGS, BC NURSES IN CANADA DECRIM CALL, MORE... (7/18/18)
BC nurses talk drug decriminalization, a Mexican minister talks drug legalization, House Republicans on a key committee once again block House votes on marijuana amendments, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/18/chronicle_am_mx_minister_talks

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1. HOW TO PREVENT OPIOID OVERDOSES? PROVIDE HARD-CORE ADDICTS FREE PHARMACEUTICAL HEROIN
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/jul/19/how_prevent_opioid_overdoses

With Ohio beset by a massive public health crisis around opioid use and overdoses -- more than 4,000 Ohioans died of opioid overdoses in 2016 -- the Cleveland Plain Dealer (https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/07/in_amsterdam_the_government_pr.
html) sent travel editor Susan Glaser to Amsterdam in search of innovative approaches to the problem. While there, she rediscovered Holland's longstanding, radical, and highly-effective response to heroin addiction and properly asked whether it might be
applied to good effect here.

The difference in drug-related death rates between the two countries is staggering. In the US, the drug overdose death rate is 245 per million, nearly twice the rate of its nearest competitor, Sweden, which came in second with 124 per million. But in
Holland, the number is a vanishingly small 11 per million. In other words, Americans are more than 20 times more likely to die of drug overdoses than Dutch.

For Plain Dealer readers, the figures that really hit home are the number of state overdose deaths compared to Holland. Ohio, with just under 12 million people, saw 4,050 drug overdose deaths in 2016; the Netherlands, with 17 million people, saw only 235.

What's the difference? The Dutch government provides free heroin to several score hardcore heroin addicts and has been doing so for the past 20 years. Public health experts there say that in addition to lowering crime rates and improving the quality of
life for users, the program is one reason overdose death rates there are so low. And the model could be applied here, said Amsterdam heroin clinic operator Ellen van den Hoogen.

"It's been an enormous success. I think it would work elsewhere," she told Glaser.

It already has. The Dutch program was modeled on a similar effort in Switzerland, which has also proven successful. Germany and Canada are among the several other countries with similar programs.

The Dutch approach is an example of the country's policy of gedogen (pragmatic tolerance), the same principle that led the Dutch to pioneer quasi-legal access to marijuana in the 1980s. It is also rooted in the notion that, for some, drug addiction is a
chronic disorder, not a condition to be "cured," and one that can be treated with supervised drug use under clinical supervision. And the complete cessation of drug use need not be the ultimate goal; rather, the Dutch look for reductions in criminal
activity and increases in the health and well-being of the drug users.

"It's not a program that is meant to help you stop," acknowledged van den Hoogen. "It keeps you addicted."

That's not a sentiment sits well with American moralizers, such as George W. Bush's drug czar, John Walters, whom Glaser consulted for the story. He suggested that providing addicts with drugs was immoral and not "real treatment," but he also resorted to
lies about what the Dutch are doing.

He claimed the Dutch are "keeping people addicted for the purpose of controlling them" and that the Dutch have created "a colony of state-supported, locked-up addicts."

Actually, the Dutch are dealing with older, hardcore addicts who have repeatedly failed to quit after repeated stints in treatment, including methadone maintenance therapy, and they are neither "controlling them" or locking them up. Instead, the people
in the program show up at the clinic twice a day, get their fix, then go about their business. This heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) allows those hardcore users to live less chaotic and more productive lives.

And heroin-assisted treatment is "real treatment," said Peter Blanken, a senior researcher with the Parnassia Addiction Research Centre in Rotterdam. He pointed out that one-quarter of program participants make a "complete recovery," including better
health and quitting illegal drugs and excessive drinking. Many others continue to use heroin, but do so with better outcomes, he said.

There is also a real safety benefit to using state-supplied pharmaceutical heroin. It's potent, but it's a known quantity. Users face no risk of adulteration with more dangerous drugs, such as fentanyl, which is deeply implicated (https://www.drugabuse.
gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/fentanyl-other-synthetic-opioids-drug-overdose-deaths) in the current US overdose crisis.

In the current political atmosphere in the United States, providing heroin to hardcore addicts is a hard sell indeed. Other, lesser, harm reduction interventions, such as needle exchanges remain controversial, and the country has yet to see its first
officially sanctioned safe injection site. And drug decriminalization, which has led to a dramatic reduction in heroin addiction and overdose deaths in Portugal (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-
hasnt-the-world-copied-it), remains off the table here, too. But with an annual drug overdose death toll of more than 50,000 people a year, it may time to start asking how many more Americans we are willing to sacrifice on the altar of moralistic drug
prohibition.



================  ...


                                         ___________________

                                          It's time to correct the mistake:
                                        Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

                                      Cops say legalize drugs--find out
why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

                                       Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
                                       ___________________

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      It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
      the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
      It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
         --from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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