• Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1071 -- 6/21/19 Table of Contents with Live

    From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 21 07:52:09 2019
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    Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1071 -- 6/21/19
    Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1071

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

    Table of Contents:

    1. MOST HEROIN ADDICTS DIDN'T START BY BEING PRESCRIBED PAIN PILLS,
    DESPITE DRUG CZAR'S CLAIMS [FEATURE]
    The drug czar's office is making misleading claims about the origin of
    heroin addiction, and that has consequences. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/most_heroin_addicts_didnt_start

    2. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
    A sticky-fingered Louisiana lawman heads for prison, so does a cocaine distributing Texas bailiff, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

    3. CHRONICLE AM: CO HITS $1 BILLION IN CANNABIS TAXES, POMPEO DOUBLES
    DOWN ON COLOMBIA CROP SPRAYING, MORE... (6/13/18)
    Colorado has raked in a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenues,
    Cincinnati decriminalizes, Bonaroo harm reduction protest, Pompeo pushes Colombia coca crop spraying, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/13/chronicle_am_co_hits_1_billion

    4. CHRONICLE AM: NY LEGALIZATION EFFORT CONTINUES, BRAZIL DRUG SURVEY SUPPRESSED, MORE... (6/14/19)
    The New York legislature has less than a week to get marijuana
    legalization done, a bid to open research on Schedule I drugs dies in
    the House, the Brazilian government appears to be suppressing a drug use
    survey that undercuts its war on drugs, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/14/chronicle_am_ny_legalization

    5. CHRONICLE AM: CA ACTS TO BOOST STRUGGLING CANNABIS INDUSTRY, WV
    STUDENTS FACE DRUG TESTS, MORE... (6/17/09)
    California officials are cutting legal operators some slack in a bid to
    boost the marijuana industry, Virginia's attorney general calls for
    marijuana decriminalization, West Virginia is demanding students seeking
    free community college tuition undergo drug testing, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/17/chronicle_am_ca_acts_boost

    6. CHRONICLE AM: CLOCK TICKING ON NEW YORK LEGALIZATION BILL,
    PSYCHEDELIC REFORM HOPES SPREAD, MORE... (6/18/19)
    New York lawmakers only have until tomorrow to pass a marijuana
    legalization bill, China gripes about legalization in the US and Canada,
    the movement to decriminalize psychedelics is spreading, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/18/chronicle_am_clock_ticking_new

    7. CHRONICLE AM: NO NY LEGALIZATION (YET), COLOMBIA TO RESUME AERIAL
    COCA SPRAYING, MORE... (6/19/19)
    The House could vote on a series of marijuana amendments soon, New
    York's bid to legalize marijuana this year runs out of time, Colombia's president says the spraying of coca crops (and farmers) with herbicides
    will recommence soon, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/19/chronicle_am_no_ny_legalization

    8. CHRONICLE AM: CORY BOOKER PLANS MASS DRUG PRISONER CLEMENCIES, CA
    SAFE INJECTION SITE BILL DELAYED, MORE... (6/20/19)
    Corey Booker wants to grant clemency to thousands of federal drug
    prisoners, a pair of drug reform amendments pass the House, the Russians
    move to start cultivating marijuana and opium, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/chronicle_am_cory_booker_mass_clemency

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    ================

    1. MOST HEROIN ADDICTS DIDN'T START BY BEING PRESCRIBED PAIN PILLS,
    DESPITE DRUG CZAR'S CLAIMS [FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/most_heroin_addicts_didnt_start

    As part of its campaign to stem opioid addiction and overdoses, the
    White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug
    czar's office) has launched an education campaign called The Truth About Opioids (https://opioids.thetruth.com), but some of the material it is presenting has more than a whiff of spin to it -- and could imperil the
    ability of pain patients to get the relief they need.

    The web site declares in big, bold letters that "80% of heroin users
    started with a prescription painkiller, (https://opioids.thetruth.com/o/the-facts/fact-1008)" and highlights the
    words "80%," "heroin," "started," and "prescription" in lurid purple.
    The graphic suggests that heroin users were prescribed opioids,
    developed a habit, and then went on to junk, with the further
    implication that a way to reduce heroin addiction is to tighten and
    reduce the prescribing of opioids.

    The web site then asks readers if they are "shocked," "ah-ha,"
    "outraged," or "fired up" by the information. It is only if readers
    scroll down the page that they are informed that the basis for the
    statistic is a 2013 study (https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/DR006/DR006/nonmedical-pain-reliever-use-2013.htm)
    of "Heroin use and heroin use risk behaviors among nonmedical users of prescription opioid pain relievers." (Emphasis added.)

    That's right, even though the graphic shouts out that people prescribed
    opioids then went on to become heroin addicts, the science it uses to
    back its claim is about recreational pain pill users. That's deceptive.

    Misleading claims about prescribing opioids and the potential for opioid addiction are, of course, nothing new. Twenty years ago, PurduePharma infamously claimed (https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/purdue-pharmas-sales-pitch-downplayed-risks-opioid-addiction)
    that the risk of addiction from OxyContin was so low as to be
    negligible, a marketing tactic that helped kick into overdrive the pain
    pill phase of the current wave of opioid use.

    But the drug czar's office, with its misleading suggestion that being prescribed opioids leads to heroin addiction, tips the pendulum too far
    in the other direction. There are real world consequences to using such
    faulty information. The Drug Enforcement Administration cited that 80%
    figure last year when it ordered steep decreases in the supply of
    prescription opioids, and it claimed in the Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/19/2018-08111/controlled-substances-quotas)
    that patients got addicted "after first obtaining these drugs from their
    health care providers."

    "The 80% statistic is misleading and encourages faulty assumptions about
    the overdose crisis and medical care," Pain News Network columnist Roger
    Chriss argued in a column (https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/4/23/do-80-of-heroin-users-really-start-with-a-prescription)
    last year.

    And now, a new study (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10550887.2019.1609336)
    from researchers at Penn State University published in the Journal of
    Addictive Studies bolsters that claim. Concentrating on southwestern Pennsylvania, an area with high levels of addiction, the researchers
    conducted surveys and in-depth interviews with drug users to determine
    their drug using histories. The sample size was small, with 125 people
    surveyed and 30 interviewed, but the results were illuminating.

    The researchers found that two out of three of those interviewed got
    their first prescription opioids not from a doctor's prescription, but
    either bought or stole it from a family member or friend. Another 7
    percent bought their drugs from a stranger or a dealer. And only one out
    of four (26 percent) began with opioid medications prescribed by a doctor.

    "What emerged from our study -- and really emerged because we decided to
    do these qualitative interviews in addition to a survey component -- was
    a pretty different narrative than the national one. There's a lot about
    that narrative that I think is an overly simplistic way of thinking
    about this," said lead author Ashton Verdery, PhD, an assistant
    professor of sociology, demography and social data analytics at Penn State.

    "We found that most people initiated through a pattern of recreational
    use because of people around them. They got them from either siblings,
    friends or romantic partners," he continued. "Participants repeatedly
    reported having a peer or caregiver in their childhood who had a
    substance use problem. Stories from childhood of witnessing one of these
    people selling, preparing, or using drugs were very common. Being
    exposed to others' substance use at an early age was often cited as a
    turning point for OMI (opioid misuse) and of drug use in general."

    Among study participants, recreational drug use -- or polysubstance
    abuse, in public health speak -- was common, Verdery noted, and usually
    began not with prescription opioids but with drugs such as alcohol,
    marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and prescription sedatives and
    stimulants.

    "It is important to note that interviewees universally reported
    initiating OMI only after previously starting their substance use career
    with another drug (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, cocaine). Opioids were
    never the first drug used, suggesting that OMI is likely associated with
    being further along in one's drug using career," he added.

    Researchers studying opioid addiction need to be aware of the role other substances play in the process, Verdery said. Understanding how opioid addiction is intertwined with other drug use is necessary to figure out
    the correct steps to take to prevent addiction before it takes hold.

    "We think that understanding this mechanism as a potential pathway is
    worth further consideration," said Verdery. "It's not just that people
    were prescribed painkillers from a doctor for a legitimate reason and,
    if we just crack down on the doctors who are prescribing in these
    borderline cases, we can reduce the epidemic."

    It's not nice for the drug czar's office to promulgate deceptive and
    misleading information about why people are getting strung out on
    heroin. It results both in limitation on access to opioid pain
    medications for those who need them and in obfuscating the realities of
    how heroin addiction happens -- and how best to deal with it.

    ================ ...
    ___________________

    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>
    ___________________

    bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

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    bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

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    It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
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    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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