The World Wide War on Drugs #6 -Is de zinloze "oorlog" over?

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Op vrijdag 14 februari 2014 22:21 schreef heiden6 het volgende:

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Ik heb zelden zoiets onzinnigs gelezen als deze post.

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Op vrijdag 14 februari 2014 22:26 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

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Prima argument.
Jij moet wel een junk zijn.

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UN says Afghan opium production reaches new high

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Cultivation of opium in Afghanistan has reached a record peak, despite international efforts to curb the trade. The UN has warned that the withdrawal of foreign troops next year is expected to exacerbate the situation.

Afghan production of opium rose to record levels in 2013, according to a report issued by the United Nations' drugs control agency on Wednesday.

The harvest in May was recorded as amounting to 5,500 metric tons, 49 percent higher than last year and more than the net output of the rest of the world.

The UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)'s regional representative in Kabul said the withdrawal of foreign troops was expected to make matters worse.

Pending withdraw prompts surge

Jean-Luc Lemahieu warned that the Afghan government would become increasingly reliant on illicit sources of income as international help waned and international troops withdrew.

"The short-term prognosis is not positive," said Lemahieu. "The illicit economy is establishing itself, and seems to be taking over in importance from the licit economy."

UNODC said some regions that had seen a decline in cultivation in the past were now seeing an increase. Lemahieu said that farmers' uncertainty about the future was fuelling the rise in poppy cultivation.

The report said the area under opium poppy cultivation in 2013 rose to 209,000 hectares from the previous year's total of 154,000. That figure represented a rise on the previous peak of 193,000 hectares, in 2007.

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Afghanistan opium crop cultivation rises 36 per cent, production up 49 per cent

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Melin challenges cops on pot opposition

Medical marijuana bill sponsor says police agencies are hooked on drug-enforcement dollars

In her push to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota, Rep. Carly Melin expected there would be tough negotiations and, inevitably, some compromise on the fine points of the proposal. That seemed a reasonable assumption, given the hard line opposition from many of the state’s law enforcement leaders and Gov. Mark Dayton’s insistence that lawmakers need to get those top cops on board before he signs on.

The negotiations haven’t been tough, she said, they have been virtually non-existent: “It’s like negotiating with a brick wall. All along I have said that I am willing to amend the bill. But they won’t move at all.”

The second-term DFLer from Hibbing said she was particularly frustrated after she met in November with representatives of the powerful Minnesota Law Enforcement Coalition, a group that includes the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, Minnesota Sheriffs Association, Minnesota County Attorneys Association, and Minnesota State Association of Narcotics Investigators.

“They wouldn’t discuss any specific provisions and said they had a blanket opposition to medical marijuana,” Melin recalled. She took note of one objection voiced at the meeting but not mentioned in the coalition’s 10-page, bullet-point laden white paper: concern about the impact the measure might have on police budgets.

According to Melin, Dennis Flaherty, the executive director of the MPPOA, explicitly told her that he was worried that legalization — in any form — could lead to harmful reductions in the federal grants that are an important funding source for many police agencies.

Efforts to reach Flaherty for comment were not successful.

To date, most questions about the policy positions of law enforcement and its financial stake in upholding current drug law have received little attention at the Capitol. “I don’t think it’s part of the debate because they wouldn’t publicly admit that it’s even an issue,” Melin said. In addition, she said, “Nobody wants to question the motives or honesty of law enforcement.”

Melin took pains to acknowledge that many in law enforcement have legitimate public safety concerns related to medical marijuana. But the uncompromising posture of the top leaders, she added, makes it “pretty obvious that something else is going on here.”



Federal grants bring millions to state

Whether or not money is a motivating factor, there is no question that federal crime-fighting funds have become increasingly important to local law enforcement. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Justice distributes between $300 million and $500 million annually through a program called the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.

Byrne grants are especially critical to the operations of inter-agency drug task forces, which don’t have the same dedicated funding sources as municipal police departments. In 2012, 23 such task forces in Minnesota received a total of approximately $4.2 million from Byrne grants. The money is spent on everything from military-grade hardware to officer overtime.

Critics contend that Byrne grants effectively encourage police to pursue relatively low-level drug offenses, including marijuana possession. Mainly, they say, that’s because the performance measures used in determining awards are based on such factors as numbers of arrests or new task force investigations, with little regard paid to the quality of the arrest or the outcome of the court case.

“The agencies that are successful have to demonstrate a commitment to drug enforcement. The nature of that enforcement is much less important,” said Norm Stamper, a former chief of police in Seattle who now serves on the board of the drug reform advocacy group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “Those who develop a dependency on federal funds such as Byrne grants are likely going to oppose any kind of initiative to legalize anything that’s been a cash cow for them.”

Stamper, who testified before the Minnesota Legislature during the last big medical marijuana push in 2009, said law enforcement has another big stake: preserving its haul from assets seized in the course of drug investigations.

During his tenure with the San Diego Police Department, Stamper said he felt “a real sense of justice” after the department seized two helicopters owned by high level drug dealers and then converted them to the department’s use. “I have since come to view seized assets with a very jaundiced eye,” Stamper said. “I think there is a really twisted set of priorities that cause too many in law enforcement to go after the money and that becomes the mission, rather than public safety.”



Forfeiture proceeds bolster budgets

For those police who see medicinal marijuana as gateway legislation, the financial implications of change are real. In Washington, where recreational marijuana is legal, police are already complaining they’ve been forced to slash budgets because they can no longer rely on any revenue from marijuana-related asset seizures. A drug task force in one county cut its budget by 15 percent to compensate for the lost revenue.

In 2012, police in Minnesota seized approximately $8.3 million of cash and property under the state’s forfeiture law, according to a report from the Office of the State Auditor. About 47 percent of those forfeitures were related to controlled substance violations, with most of the rest associated with drunk driving.

The auditor’s report does not differentiate between marijuana and other drugs, so it is hard to know how a change to legalized medical marijuana might affect the cash haul, said Sen. Ron Latz. Latz said he suspects most asset forfeitures are connected to drugs such as crack and meth, where the felony threshold is low.

Not all agencies use the forfeiture law in the same way. The St. Paul Police Department netted more than $582,000 from asset seizures in 2012. It was the second-biggest haul of any police agency in the state — a fact made more notable since the proceeds were derived exclusively from controlled-substance cases.

According to Lee McGrath, an attorney with the libertarian Institute for Justice, Minnesota law enforcement agencies netted nearly $30 million between 2003 and 2010 through the use of forfeiture.

“What is most offensive in Minnesota is that you can be acquitted in criminal court and still lose your car or your cash in civil court,” McGrath said. “The only people defending the current law are in law enforcement. Everybody else is offended by the idea.”

While forfeiture was sold to the public as a good way to hit drug kingpins and gang leaders in the wallet, McGrath said, Minnesota law enforcement mostly use forfeiture to target small game. “No Colombian drug lords are being busted under this law. The average seizure in Minnesota is worth $1,253,” he said.

McGrath, as well as some liberal and libertarian-minded lawmakers, want to prohibit the use of forfeiture in the absence of a criminal conviction or admission of guilt. Rep. Susan Allen and Sen. Dave Thompson have proposed such legislation.



Police defend revenue streams

That move is not winning friends in law enforcement circles. In December, the members of the state’s Violent Crime Coordinating Council — an oversight body created in 2010 after the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force failed to account for more than $18,000 in seized cash — voted to oppose “proposed legislation limiting the use of asset seizure and forfeiture.”

Dodge County Sheriff Jim Jensen, the VCCC chair, passed on those objections to Allen and Thompson in a Feb. 7 letter. The same day, Jensen also wrote Rep. Melin and Sen. Scott Dibble to formally express the VCCC’s opposition to the medical marijuana legislation, as well.

The letters irked Melin enough that she fired off her own letter to the House Research Department inquiring as to whether the VCCC over-stepped its statutory authority in advancing policy positions. The answer: yes, probably.

In a sharply worded letter to Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman and the members of the VCCC, Melin made her frustrations clear:

“The public has long questioned law enforcement’s motivation behind its staunch opposition to medicinal marijuana, and suspected that a threat to the law enforcement’s revenue stream through forfeiture laws creates an inherit conflict. The fact that the VCCC opposed both medical marijuana and a restructuring of forfeiture laws at the same meeting raises a red flag that needs further exploration.”

In addition, Melin wrote that “it is especially concerning to me that the VCCC flew in a law enforcement officer from Colorado to address the Council on medical marijuana laws in the State of Colorado.”

Melin said the incident further highlighted the outsized role that law enforcement has assumed in a debate she would prefer be defined by doctors and patients. But, she said, Gov. Dayton invited law enforcement to the table. “It would be very helpful for us if the governor asked law enforcement to negotiate in good faith,” she added.

Read more: http://politicsinminnesot(...)ition/#ixzz2tggOMo00

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Hyperbole Hurts: The Surprising Truth About Methamphetamine

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Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush’s attorney general, called it “the most dangerous drug in America.” A physician quoted by The New York Times described it as “the most malignant, addictive drug known to mankind.” A police captain told the Times it “makes crack look like child’s play, both in terms of what it does to the body and how hard it is to get off.”

Meanwhile, doctors routinely prescribe this drug and others very similar to it for conditions such as narcolepsy, obesity, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If these drugs are as dangerous as Gonzales et al. claim, how can millions of Americans—including schoolchildren—safely consume them on a regular basis?

Columbia neuropsychopharmacologist Carl Hart explores that puzzle in a new report that aims to separate fact from fiction on the subject of methamphetamine. Hart and his two co-authors—University of North Carolina at Wilmington philosopher Don Habibi and Joanne Csete, deputy director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program—argue that hyping the hazards posed by meth fosters a punitive and counterproductive overreaction similar to the one triggered by the crack cocaine panic of the 1980s, the consequences of which still afflict our criminal justice system. “The data show that many of the immediate and long-term harmful effects caused by methamphetamine use have been greatly exaggerated,” Hart et al. write, “just as the dangers of crack cocaine were overstated nearly three decades ago.”

The report, published by the Open Society Foundations, begins by considering the addictive potential of methamphetamine. Despite all the talk of a “meth epidemic,” the drug has never been very popular. “At the height of methamphetamine’s popularity,” Hart et al. write, “there were never more than a million current users of the drug in the United States. This number is considerably lower than the 2.5 million cocaine users, the 4.4 million illegal prescription opioid users, or the 15 million marijuana smokers during the same period.” Furthermore, illicit methamphetamine use had been waning for years at the point when Newsweek identified “The Meth Epidemic” as “America’s New Drug Crisis.”

Although methamphetamine is commonly portrayed as irresistible and inescapable, it does not look that way when you examine data on patterns of use. Of the 12.3 million or so Americans who have tried it, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), about 1.2 million (9.4 percent) have consumed it in the last year, while less than half a million (3.6 percent) have consumed it in the last month (the standard definition of “current” use). In other words, more than 96 percent of the people who have tried “the most addictive drug known to mankind” are not currently using it even as often as once a month. A 2009 study based on NSDUH data found that 5 percent of nonmedical methamphetamine consumers become “dependent” within two years. Over a lifetime, Hart et al. say, “less than 15 percent” do.

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Laboratory research also has found that “d-amphetamine and methamphetamine produce nearly identical physiological and behavioral effects,” Hart et al. write. “They both increase blood pressure, pulse, euphoria, and desire to take the drug in a dose-dependent manner. Essentially, they are the same drug.” That observation helps put methamphetamine’s risks in perspective, since d-amphetamine, a.k.a. dextroamphetamine, is one of the main ingredients in Adderall, a stimulant widely prescribed for ADHD. Hart et al. note that methamphetamine, like dextroamphetamine, increases heart rate and blood pressure, but “well below levels obtained when engaged in a rigorous physical exercise.”

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What about long-term effects? Shocking as it may be to anyone who has accepted at face value the gruesome images featured in anti-meth propaganda, the drug does not make you ugly. “Meth mouth”—the extreme tooth decay supposedly characteristic of heavy users—is said to be caused by meth-induced dry mouth. Yet widely consumed prescription stimulants such as Adderall produce the same side effect, Hart et al. note, and “there are no published reports of unattractiveness or dental problems associated with their use.” Allegedly meth-related physical characteristics such as rotten teeth, thinning hair, and bad complexions, they say, “are more likely related to poor sleep habits, poor dental hygiene, poor nutrition and dietary practices.”

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Over-the-top warnings about methamphetamine—encapsulated in the slogan “Meth: Not Even Once”—aim to scare people away from a drug that might harm them (but probably won’t). By contrast, Hart argues, exaggerating the hazards posed by methamphetamine causes definite damage by encouraging harsh criminal penalties (such as a five-year mandatory minimum for five grams), fostering distrust of accurate warnings about drugs, suppressing useful information that could reduce drug-related harm, driving users toward more dangerous routes of administration (as efforts to reduce meth purity, if successful, predictably would do), and justifying ineffective policies that impose substantial costs on large numbers of people for little or no benefit (such as restrictions on the methamphetamine precursor pseudoephedrine, a cheap, safe, and effective decongestant that is now absurdly difficult to obtain). In other words, hyperbole hurts.

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Steve Rolles from Transform; Winning the War on Drugs (interview)

Flying to South America to provide expert advice to Uruguay’s iconic marijuana legalisation guru President Jose Mujica in 2012, British drugs expert Steve Rolles played a significant role in helping the President draw up plans for full legalisation.

Talk to Al Jazeera - Jose Mujica: 'I earn more than I need'

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'Legale wietkwekerijen doelwit van extreem geweld'

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'De criminaliteit wordt door regulering niet aangepakt', aldus Bik. 'Het is voorstelbaar dat de georganiseerde criminaliteit zich gaat toeleggen op het 'rippen' van de 'legale' hennepkwekerijen. Het rippen van oogstbare planten is een fenomeen dat nu al geregeld voorkomt en vaak gepaard gaat met - extreem - geweld en hoge veiligheidsrisico's voor de personen in en nabij de betreffende hennepkwekerij (mishandeling, gijzeling, liquidatie). De legale hennepkwekerijen moeten - om het veiligheidsdoel te realiseren - 24 uur worden beveiligd.'

Ook is hij bang voor het 'verweven raken' van hennepteelt en andere vormen van zware criminaliteit, wat de aanpak 'extra complex' maakt. 'Het aantal illegale kwekerijen zal niet direct verminderen', aldus Bik. 'Er vindt waarschijnlijk slechts een verschuiving van de afzetmarkt plaats, van binnen- naar buitenland.'

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Op dinsdag 24 december 2013 12:11 schreef Deeltjesversneller het volgende:
Uruguay's buurlanden Argentinie en Chili overwegen nu ook cannabis te legaliseren

wanneer volgt nl?

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Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:05 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Als we nou banken verbieden en drugs legaliseren?

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Op zaterdag 18 januari 2014 10:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 18:30 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:

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Dat is al gebeurd, maar telkens warmen ze hem weer op en dan laat hij een reeks euhs en hier en daar nog wat andere geluidjes ontsnappen.

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Op donderdag 27 februari 2014 20:41 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Talk to Al Jazeera - Jose Mujica: 'I earn more than I need'

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Mexican drug trafficking in the US: the Sinaloa cartel's vast empire - Interactive

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El Chapo: drug lord's arrest sparks apprehension from Mexico to Chicago

Sinaloa cartel leader’s capture leaves Mexicans fearing more bloodshed, while few in US believe the flow of drugs will slow

Looking out on the spectacular mountain slopes that hide his marijuana field, a Mexican farmer says he will be able to sell his harvest provided the army doesn’t go on an eradication spree. A restaurant owner lets slip her fear of war while serving breakfast, but quickly assures herself the cartel will adjust.

“It feels like we are children left alone in the house by our father,” said Conrado Lugo, a record producer who sums up the mood in the state of Sinaloa, heartland of the drug cartel run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán until his arrest a week ago. “It is worrying, sure, but we are still in the house.”

Parading the world’s most wanted man for the cameras, authorities in Mexico and the US hailed a major victory in the war on drugs. That the arrest occurred in a blaze of publicity rather than gunfire was greeted as a surprisingly positive sign by many.

But a week on, from the Sierra Madre, where Chapo rose from a childhood of poverty, to the streets of US cities where his product made him millions, it is hard to find anyone sharing the authorities’ enthusiasm.

Residents carry on as if nothing significant has happened, between outbursts of concern for what might happen if they are wrong. “It is an uncomfortable calm,” said Javier Valdez, a prominent author on the “narco” world.

And while it may spell more problems in New York and Chicago – where cocaine bought by Chapo’s men in South America for $2,000 a kilo retails for $100,000, and is said to comprise more than half the market – even US agents who hunted him say nervous Sinaloans have little to fear.

“Chapo’s arrest will have no effect on drug trafficking,” said a former senior Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official under presidents Bush and Obama. “If you are making a car and suddenly 15 people on the production line die, it is going to take a while to train new people. But if the CEO dies, it is actually no big deal – the machine is going to continue.”

Valdez agreed: “The arrest is a serious blow to the organisation. It is not a mortal one. Everything else is still intact.”

The cartel’s integration into the local economy is evidenced across Sinaloa, from the smart cars parked outside humble rural homes to the commercial buzz in Culiacán, the state capital. All this boosts the sense that Chapo’s “federation” is too big to be allowed to fail.

“You don’t have to be involved in drug trafficking to depend on the money it brings into Sinaloa,” said a metal worker, who, like many in Sinaloa, will only talk if his name is withheld. “Almost everybody relies on the organisation in some way, and without it lots of people will have trouble putting food on their tables.”

Yet the hopes expressed by many that the cartel can carry on as before is also rooted in terror. Few forget the war unleashed when an alliance between Chapo and the Beltrán Leyva brothers broke down in 2008. Since Chapo won, gun battles still rattle the state but no longer last for hours. It has become rare, too, for children to come across headless corpses on their way to school.

“Chapo is a terrible man, but I think it was a mistake to arrest him,” said a retired salesman. “The politicians let his organisation grow and now it is the only thing that protects us from other cartels, like the Zetas, who are even worse.”

With this in mind, many await signs of a new leadership that can send the message to their rank-and-file and rivals alike that “no pasa nada” in Sinaloa. “If there seems to be a lack of continuity and outward signs of weakness, it would be like a wolf seeing a limping lamb,” said Bob Mazur, a former senior undercover DEA agent.

Most experts point to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longstanding major figure in a cartel that has always operated as a kind of alliance of major traffickers, to ensure a smooth leadership transition in the part of the organisation that Chapo controlled directly. “He and Chapo have been working together for 20 or 30 years,” said Sylvia Longmire, a former US military special agent who focused on trafficking. “They have a unique working relationship in that it hasn’t been plagued by betrayals like others in the narco world. They finish each other’s sentences – that’s how tight these guys are.”

However, “Mayo is 66-years-old, and allegedly in poor health,” said Alejandro Hope, a former senior officer in Cisen, Mexico’s version of the CIA. “The guy was recently talking about retirement. So he may contain some of the fallout, but he is not the future of the organisation.”

Still, those hopeful the federation will remain strong also cite questions about Chapo’s arrest itself. The capo was overpowered without a fight after navy special forces stormed a modest fourth-floor apartment in the resort city of Mazatlán, where he was sleeping with his young wife. Their twin baby daughters and a nanny were in an adjacent room and just one bodyguard was in the hall.

Authorities say Chapo fled to Mazatlán five days before, after narrowly escaping capture at one of his safe houses in Culiacán by fleeing into a tunnel below a bathtub that led into the city’s rainwater drains and, eventually, a getaway car. “It doesn’t make sense that he allowed himself to be taken so easily,” says an agricultural worker from Culiacán. “He must have made a deal.”

True or false, the notion of a deal helps bridge the gap between the mythology of the man who built a global empire and $1bn personal fortune trafficking marijuana, heroin and cocaine after escaping from a high-security jail 13 years ago, and the portly, middle-aged detainee with died hair they saw on TV being marched towards a Blackhawk, his head bowed.

Many in the US, where Chapo faces seven criminal indictments in several states, fear that deal or none, he may none the less be guaranteed protection against deportation. Aides to Obama moved swiftly last week to lower expectations of extradition, while regional law enforcement officials scrambled to stake their claims.

“I think we have the strongest case,” special agent Jack Riley, Chicago’s DEA boss, told reporters. “I fully intend for us to have him tried here.” After declaring that they wanted him, too, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were promptly told to shut up by their bosses at the Justice Department in Washington.

Charges in Brooklyn alone allege that between 1990 and 2005, Chapo and his deputies conspired to import more than 120 tonnes of cocaine into the US. Chicago prosecutors detail how the cartel smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and heroin a time across the Mexican border using a panoply of methods such as “cargo aircraft, private aircraft, submarines and other submersible and semi-submersible vessels, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor-trailers and automobiles.”

More than $15bn of the estimated $65bn in drugs bought by Americans each year are estimated to have been supplied ultimately by the Sinaloa cartel, and special agent Riley estimates that Chapo controlled as much as 80% of the market in his city.

The Americans crave the prospect of transforming Chapo into the biggest supergrass in its 40-year “war on drugs” in return for a reduced sentence, bringing an end to years of flimsy boasts of having seriously weakened the cartel by making arrests of figures who actually turned out to be low-level operatives, which Hope dismisses as “pure propaganda”.

Records unearthed by the Guardian indicate that one such high-publicity operation, in which agents in Brooklyn found almost 200 kilograms of cocaine in a Brooklyn warehouse, much of it hidden in statues of the Virgin Mary, did not live up the DEA’s boasts to have “dismantled all levels of criminal activity” involved. Of eight people arrested at the East New York site in 2006, half were convicted of crimes and only one remains in jail.

“The standard statement is ‘this is dealing a tremendous blow to the organisation,’” said Longmire. “But you later find the majority of the people who have been rounded up are back on the street because there was not enough evidence and they were selling dime bags on the corner.”

Court records in Illinois detail how Pedro Flores, a 32-year-old who served with his twin brother Margarito as Chapo’s principal lieutenants in Chicago, helped DEA agents lure a string of dealers below him in the food chain to their arrests in the car parks of Holiday Inns, Outback Steakhouses and dollar stores, after he was turned into a star witness. About a dozen have been jailed, but officials know they must set their sights higher.

Two alleged senior Sinaloa traffickers, Vicente Zambada-Niebla and Alfredo Vasquez Hernandez, have in fact been extradited, and are in federal custody awaiting trial in Chicago. An attorney for Hernandez said this week that he intends to plead guilty in court next week, but stressed that his client had made no deal with prosecutors.

No one is particularly optimistic that their boss will follow them, however. “There is not a snowball’s chance in the Sonoran desert that Chapo will be handed to the US,” said George W Grayson, a professor and Mexico specialist at the centre for strategic and international studies. “He might spill the beans on the hundreds, maybe thousands, of military, police and political figures to whom he has given generous bribes over the years.”

Banners against extradition abounded at a boisterous march protesting the detention that burst into Culiacán’s centre on Wednesday night, accompanied by a brass band and young men throwing tamales into the jiggling crowd to shouts of “Viva El Chapo.”

The marchers may well find their wish granted. “Even if he gets sentenced to a Mexican prison, eventually he will take over that prison,” said the former senior DEA official. “He will have a laptop, it will turn into a hotel, and he will return to running the cartel from there. That is not something he has to build – it is something he already has.”

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Fifteen Years Smoking Crack

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I’m not particularly interested in “bottoming out” or destroying my life in exchange for whatever temporary benefit I get from smoking cocaine. On the other hand, the path I’ve taken over the last 15 years indicates that I’m not motivated to achieve total abstinence. That’s why I have tried to find a middle way, hopefully reducing the amount of harm I inflict upon myself. That is another reason why I’m sharing my story here, and why I don’t hide my drug use from those who are close to me. I need my friends and loved ones to help keep me in check.

It’s not hard to imagine a starker alternative, one in which I was ostracized based on the decades-old perception of the crack user as an out-of-control, devious individual. If family members and friends had forced me to choose between total sobriety and being out on the streets, I can imagine myself traveling down darker and more self-destructive roads.

In my experience and observation, putting a user in rehab is often a way of avoiding, not treating, drug addiction. I understand that there is enormous value in recovery programs, abstinence, and maintaining sobriety. But I also believe the implied choice between abstinence and rock bottom presents users with two options that are equally unsustainable and unreasonable.

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Top U.S. General Says Marijuana Legalization Makes Latin American Officials Less Eager to Join the Futile War on Drugs

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Kelly claimed "countries that have decriminalized or legalized drugs are all now trying to figure out ways to turn back the clock," because "legal or decriminalized drugs bring crime, bring higher addiction rates, bring higher, you know, substance abuse problems." He did not cite any specific examples, which is not surprising, since no country has ever "legalized drugs" in the sense of eliminating penalties for production, distribution, and possession. The closest example is Uruguay, which has approved a plan to make marijuana legally available but has not implemented it yet.

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UN: cannabis law changes pose 'very grave danger to public health'

International Narcotics Control Board calls US and Uruguay moves on cannabis 'misguided initiatives'

The UN has launched a counter-offensive against moves to liberalise drug laws around the world, warning that cannabis legalisation poses a grave danger to public health.

The UN body for enforcing international drug treaties, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), voiced concern over "misguided initiatives" on cannabis legalisation in Uruguay and the US states of Colorado and Washington that fail to comply with international drug conventions.

The INCB annual report published on Tuesday claims that the introduction of a widely commercialised "medical" cannabis programme in Colorado has led to increases in car accidents involving "drug drivers", cannabis-related treatment admissions, and positive drug tests for cannabis.

"Drug-traffickers will choose the path of least resistance, so it is essential that global efforts to tackle the drug problem are unified," said Raymond Yans, INCB president.

"When governments consider their future policies on this, the primary consideration should be the long-term health and welfare of the population."

He said the UN was concerned about some initiatives aimed at the legalisation of the non-medical and non-scientific use of cannabis that posed "a very grave danger to public health and wellbeing" – the very things international drug conventions had been designed to protect.

The UN's warning follows the vote by Uruguay's parliament in December to approve a bill to legalise and regulate the sale and production of marijuana.

The sale of cannabis by licensed suppliers to adults aged over 21 became legal in Colorado in January, and is due to follow this summer in Washington state. This is despite it remaining illegal under US federal law to cultivate, sell or possess cannabis.

Uruguay's president, José Mujica, has said his country's initiative was an attempt to undermine the black market, and find an alternative to the "war on drugs", which he says has created more problems than it solves.

But the INCB report argues against such "alternative drug regimes", claiming legalisation would not collapse "underground markets", but instead would lead to much greater use of such drugs and higher levels of addiction.

Pointing to the history of alcohol and tobacco markets, the report says that despite legalisation there is still a thriving black market for cigarettes in many countries. It says up to 20% of Britain's domestic cigarette market consists of smuggled cigarettes, while they represent 33% of all domestic cigarette consumption in Canada.

Alcohol, despite being legal, is also responsible for far more arrests than illegal drugs. In the US there were 2m alcohol-related arrests in 2012 compared with 1.6m related to illegal drugs.

"One reason for those higher alcohol-related costs is that in many countries alcohol abuse is far more prevalent than the abuse of substances under international control," the report says.

The UN remains most concerned about the scale of illicit opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which set records in 2013 reaching 209,000 hectares, a 36% increase compared with 154,000 hectares in 2012.

"The country remains the centre of the illicit manufacture of heroin and its importance as a source of cannabis resin for the world markets is growing. The situation seriously endangers the aims of the international drug control treaties," the INCB report says.

It repeats its warnings on legal highs or new psychoactive substances as they are officially known, and says unprecedented numbers and varieties of these synthetic chemical substances are being sold in the developing world as well as Europe.

The UN drugs report also highlights the significance of widespread prescription drug abuse in the US and says that "takeback" days promoting their safe disposal are not enough to tackle this growing trend

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6. stigmatising language
The risk posed by detention centres and the ambiguity of the Board on its view of such abusive measures is exacerbated by the Boards consistent use of stigmatising language throughout the report. The word abuser appears almost a hundred times, sometimes up to three times in single sentences, to describe people who use drugs. The phrase drug abuser is dehumanising and contributes to the stigma and related discrimination faced by people experiencing drug dependency. It is a term that should drop from the UN lexicon. Lessons must be learned from the HIV/AIDS field where the value and importance of language and its influence on stigma and related discrimination has been long understood. The phrase more commonly used, and as recommended by UNAIDS, is people who use drugs to reflect the fact the first and foremost we are talking about people, who are not the sum total of their drug use.

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War of Words: The International Narcotics Control Board vs. A Changing World [FEATURE]

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"This is very much the same old stuff," said John Collins, coordinator of the London School of Economics IDEAS International Drug Policy Project and a PhD candidate studying mid-20th Century international drug control policy. "The INCB views its role as advocating a strict prohibitionist oriented set of policies at the international level and interpreting the international treaties as mandating this one-size-fits-all approach. It highlights that INCB, which was created as a technical body to monitor international flows of narcotics and report back to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, has carved out and maintains a highly politicized role, far removed from its original treaty functions. This should be a cause for concern for all states interested in having a functioning, public health oriented and cooperative international framework for coordinating the global response to drug issues," Collins told the Chronicle.

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The INCB should get out of the way on marijuana and concentrate on its pain relief function, said Collins.

"The INCB should stay out if it," he said bluntly. "It is a technocratic monitoring body. It should not be involving itself in national politics and national regulatory systems. So it doesn't need to be either a help or hindrance on issues regarding cannabis reform. It has no reason to be involved in this debate. It should be focusing on ensuring access to essential pain medicines. These debates are a distraction from that core function and I would argue one of the reasons it is failing to meet this core function."

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Washington DC council votes to decriminalise marijuana possession

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Possession of less than one ounce of marijuana would no longer be a criminal offense in the nation’s capital under a bill approved by the DC Council.

If the bill becomes law, the District of Columbia would join the 17 states that have decriminalized pot possession. Mayor Vincent Gray plans to sign measure, and Congress is not expected to intervene.

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'Heroïnehert' terroriseert Indiase boeren

Antilopes in India hebben de smaak van opium te pakken. De dieren laten zich niet weerhouden door hekken of bewakers om op de velden van papaververboeren in de deelstaat Madhya Pradesh te komen. Dat schrijft de krant Times of India maandag. Op de velden doen zij zich tegoed aan de zaadbol van de papaver. Die levert opium, waar morfine en heroïne van kunnen worden gemaakt.

'Vroeger aten deze dieren geen opium, maar twee jaar geleden begonnen een paar ermee en nu zijn ze verslaafd', vertelt een gedupeerde boer. 'Normaal zijn ze in groepen van 50 tot 100, maar als ze opium komen eten, komen ze alleen. Daarna rennen ze als een gek rond en vernielen ze de gewassen.'

De afgelopen jaren is het aantal antilopes in de deelstaat flink toegenoemen. Er zijn er inmiddels duizenden.

India is een van de landen waar de teelt van papaver onder strikte voorwaarden is toegestaan voor medische doeleinden.