Drug War Chronicle #635 - June 4, 2010

Feature: Schwarzenegger Trying to Gut California Methadone Funding in Budget Move

With California facing a $19 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) last month proposed saving the state $53 million by cutting off Medi-Cal funding for methadone maintenance for most heroin addicts. That would cause the loss of more than $60 million in matching federal funds. The move was fiercely resisted by methadone advocates -- including a former drug czar -- and public policy analysts, and the proposal was defeated last week in committee votes in the state Senate and Assembly.

But California gives the governor the power to veto individual budget items, so advocates are not resting yet. Instead they are reaching out to the administration in hopes they can enlighten it and persuade the budget axe-wielding Schwarzenegger to aim elsewhere.

Schwarzenegger isn't the first top-tier elected official to go after methadone maintenance. Back in 1999, then New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani vowed to wean all of the city's methadone patients off it in three months. While Giuliani acted for ideological rather than budgetary reasons -- he said he wanted "drug freedom," not drug dependence -- the pugnacious mayor later changed his tune, admitting the idea was "maybe somewhat unrealistic."

Currently, nearly 150 methadone clinics provide the heroin substitute to some 35,000 addicts, 55% of whom are on Medi-Cal. Advocates and treatment providers said that clinics would be forced to close if the proposal passed, affecting not only the Medi-Cal patients, but also patients who paid out of their own pockets or through private insurance to be able to get maintenance methadone.

"Methadone isn't a cure," said Roxanne Baker, president of the National Alliance of Methadone Advocates (NAMA), "but much like thyroid medication, as long as you keep taking it, it keeps your disease in check, and opiate addiction is a disease. When you mess with your brain with painkillers, it then doesn't produce the endorphins it should. It's not a matter of will power, it's a disease. You need something to replace those endorphins, whether its methadone, suboxone, or even prescription heroin, although I doubt we'll ever see that here."

Enacting the proposed cuts would be "a disaster," said Baker. "There would be no methadone programs left. More than half the patients statewide are on drug MediCal, and they wouldn't even have a place to go. A lot of these people have their lives in order. This is somebody's brother, somebody's aunt, somebody's mom. Please don't take this from us."

Last week, Clinton-era drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey flew into the state to hold a press conference denouncing the cut. "Dumping tens of thousands of opiate addicts back on the street would be an immediate disaster to law enforcement, and to the families of people who have become stable, functioning adults" thanks to methadone, said McCaffrey, who has a consulting firm and serves on the board of directors of an organization that treats chemical dependency.

Legislators were listening, not only to McCaffrey, but to the methadone treatment community. A Senate Budget Committee hearing last week proved tough going for Schwarzenegger's representatives.

"This measure would eliminate the drug MediCal program with the exception of the perinatal and youth funding," said John Wardlaw from the state Department of Finance. "This is not an easy reduction in any way. We are at the point where we are making very difficult reductions."

Committee Chair Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego) wasn't buying it. "How much federal funding are you giving up?" she asked.

"Sixty-six million dollars," Wardlaw said.

"We save $53 million and lose $66 million?" asked Ducheny.

"That is correct, ma'am."

Ducheny just stared at him for a few uncomfortable moments before moving on to the next witness.

"There would be cost shifts in the area of corrections and child welfare services," Greg Tallivant of the legislative analysts' office told the solons. "The day the clinic closes, those people have to do something. If they can't make it to the next methadone clinic, heroin would be the next choice. You would see people arrested. You would see prison costs and child welfare costs go up."

Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) was visibly irritated by the proposal. "There is a complete lack of interest in any cost-benefit analysis here," he said. "This is reckless and cavalier. It doesn't really make much sense. We have 171,000 people addicted to drugs. This will increase our crime rate; it's a recipe for disaster on our streets. Does the governor have no interest in this or does he not believe that this will impact the safety of our children and communities? We've already zero-funded the base Proposition 36 program. The outcome of this is to have drug offenders with no jail and no treatment."

"This is really a short-sighted proposal that shifts costs from funding treatment to funding law enforcement, jails, and prisons," said Jason Kletter, a member of the Bay Area Addiction Research Team (BAART), which is in turn a member of California Opioid Maintenance Providers (COMP), a nonprofit organization representing opioid maintenance treatment centers. "It is a public safety issue, to say nothing of the humanitarian crisis it would provoke," he said.

"We think if this happened many clinics would close, and the folks who lose access to care would likely relapse and cost the system much, much more in a short time," said Kletter. "We see relapse rates of 80% within a year when clinics close, so it wouldn't even be like we'd be kicking the can three or four years down the road."

"This would have the biggest impact on programs that have a high percentage of Medi-Cal beneficiaries in treatment and would be unable to stay open because more than half their patients, and thus, their revenues, are gone," said Kletter. "You would have a fundamental dismantling of the system."

The cost incurred would be staggering, Kletter said."If 80% relapse in same year, we know that the state will incur $700 million to $1 billion in new costs in the criminal justice system," he said, citing a study from the 1990s that found each dollar invested in treatment produced a seven-dollar return. "The state wants to save $53 million by eliminating drug Medi-Cal and will also turn away more than $60 million in matching funds. That's $115 total program cost. A seven-to-one return on that is close to a billion dollars. "With 80% relapse, we could end up seeing $700 million in new criminal justice and prison costs."

"It's a terrible proposal," said Glenn Backes, a Sacramento-based public policy analyst who works with the Drug Policy Alliance at the Capitol. "California Democrats in both houses have said so. The Senate Republicans didn't do a cost-benefit analysis; they just said we can't afford to give out subsidized health care."

But in reality, the situation is even worse, said Backes. "They've killed Proposition 36 funding, drug courts are being slashed. According to the governor's finance director, that's 171,000 patients. The cost-benefit for this is worse than nil. If only one out of a thousand relapses and goes to prison, you've already lost money because prison is so much more expensive than treatment. If only one out of a thousand gets Hep C, the taxpayer loses. If only one out of a thousand gets HIV, the taxpayer loses."

It's easy to lose the human side in all the numbers, Backes said. "If only one out of a thousand ODs and dies, that's 170 California families who have lost a loved one."

And the battle continues. "While both the Senate and the Assembly budget committees have rejected the governor's proposal, in California, the governor has a line item veto," said Kletter. "We are continuing to try to work with the administration to explain the impact of this kind of proposal and get them to understand it is a public safety and cost-shifting issue. We haven't had any direct meeting with them yet, but that's next on our agenda. We want to educate them about them dire consequences of this sort of action."

Even if advocates many to salvage the drug Medi-Cal program, they would be well-advised to be searching for alternative funding sources, and how better than to take money from the drug war? Tough times call for creative solutions, and Backes has one: Use federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grants to fund treatment instead of drug task forces. Every dollar funding more drug war arrests costs $10 additional in spending for courts and prisons, he said.

"Historically, Byrne grant funds have been given to task forces to increase arrests," Backes noted. "The Drug Policy Alliance position is that Byrne funds would be better spent on almost anything other than doing low-level drug sweeps. We would rather see that money go into treatment for people in the system."

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Feature: Arizona Medical Marijuana Initiative Will Be on November Ballot

Arizona is now set to join South Dakota as states where voters will have the chance to approve a medical marijuana initiative this year. The Arizona secretary of state's office announced Tuesday that supporters had turned in enough valid voter signatures to be certified for the November ballot.

The Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project (AMMPP), which is pushing the initiative, collected more than 252,000 signatures on petitions that were turned in to state officials in March. They only needed 153, 365 valid signatures to make the ballot, and now they have done so.

The initiative would allow terminally and seriously ill patients suffering from specified diseases or conditions to use marijuana with their doctor's approval. It also allows for state authorities to add diseases or conditions to that list. The initiative creates a registry system for patients and caregivers and establishes penalties for false statements and fraudulent IDs.

Patients would have to procure their medicine at a regulated medical marijuana dispensary unless they live more than 25 miles away from a dispensary. In that case, patients or their caregivers could grow up to 12 plants. No caregiver could grow for more than five patients. Patients could possess up to 2.5 ounces.

The initiative caps the number of dispensaries at 120 to avoid a California-style green gold rush. It also specifies that people cannot smoke marijuana at the dispensaries, a phenomenon that has occurred in some medical marijuana states. And it has zoning restrictions to keep dispensaries in commercial or industrial areas and away from schools.

"We are very happy that Arizonans will have the opportunity this November to vote for a compassionate and responsible law that protects seriously ill patients," said Steve Fox, director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project, which provides significant funding and support to AMMPP. "By voting in favor of this initiative, Arizonans will ensure that residents suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and other serious ailments will be given safe access to a medicine they and their doctors believe can relieve their condition. The proposed law will also create a dispensary system that will provide patients the same reliable access to medical marijuana that they would have to any other medicine -- meaning they won't have to risk their own safety by purchasing it from the criminal market."

"This would provide relief for Arizona's most vulnerable and ill residents," AMMPP spokesman Andrew Myers told the Arizona Capitol Times.

Opponents are already sharpening their arguments. Former DEA agent and Partnership for a Drug-Free America Arizona affiliate spokesman Doug Hebert told the Capitol Times smoking marijuana is no substitute for medicine and that allowing medical marijuana would lead to increased illegal drug use. He also questioned the motives of initiative backers.

"They're preying on voter sympathy for very ill people, because they want to smoke marijuana," Hebert claimed. "If they wanted to keep this above ground, you'd think they'd want law enforcement to have a role, but they specifically wrote into the initiative that the only agency that can monitor the dispensaries is the (Department of Health Services), and they can't make an inspection without giving notice first," he complained.

Hebert also claimed the initiative infringes on the right of employers to keep a drug-free workplace -- it does not -- and that it would cause permissive attitudes toward drug use, particularly among kids. That has not proven to be the case in other states that allow medical marijuana.

This would be the third attempt at legalizing medical marijuana at the ballot box in Arizona. In 1996, voters approved an initiative allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana, but that was overturned by the state legislature. Two years later, voters again approved medical marijuana, but that effort was invalidated because of a drafting error.

Drafters of the current initiative learned from those efforts and others around the country, Myers said. "We could look at what works, and what doesn't," he said. "We wrote it to be as transparent as possible, and to have no negative impact."

AMMPP polling has support for the initiative at 65%. If that holds, Arizona could become the 15th medical marijuana state -- or the 16th, if South Dakota also approves it on Election Day.

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Imprisonment: US Jail Population Declines for the First Time in Decades

The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported this week that the number of people held in US jails declined last year for the first time since 1982. The report did not address US prison populations. Nor did the report provide numbers on the offenses for which people were jailed. In both the prison and the jail populations, drug offenders are thought to comprise 20% to 25% of the population.

According to the report, Jail Inmates at Midyear 2009 -- Statistical Tables, the US jail population on June 30, 2009 was 767,620, down 2.3% from the previous year. The rate of jail population increase had been slowing since 2005, but last year was the first year jail population growth rates went negative.

Most of the decline occurred in large, big city jails. Two-thirds of the 171 large jails (more than 1,000 inmates) reported declines, while seven large jails reported a drop of more than 500 inmates, accounting for 29% of the nationwide decline. Declines in two Florida jails alone, Miami-Dade (down 1.090) and Orange County (down 944), accounted for more than 10% of the nationwide decline.

At mid-year 2009, about 60% of jail inmates were not yet convicted of any offense, but were awaiting trial. The remainder were either serving jail sentences or awaiting transfers to begin serving prison sentences. About 12.8 million people were admitted to local jails in the year ending June 30, 2009.

Whites represented 42.5% of all jail inmates; blacks represented 39.2%; and Hispanics, 16.2%. Those numbers are nearly unchanged from 2000.

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Conference: New Directions: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy, June 17, Capitol Hill, DC

StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) is pleased to be a Partner in the free upcoming conference, "New Directions: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy." New Directions DC will be the first-ever full day conference on drug policy reform on Capitol Hill. Join us to reframe the drug policy debate in the United States to focus on a public health, rather than a criminal justice, approach.

When asked about the war on drugs on the campaign trail President Obama said, "I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting
the model, so that we focus more on a public-health approach [to drugs]." Polls show the American people agree. But what exactly is a public health approach to drugs? By bringing together a broad spectrum of organizations to examine the four pillars of any successful drug strategy ?-- Prevention, Treatment, Policing, and Harm Reduction -- the one-day New Directions conference seeks to answer that question.

Conference Objectives:

• Clarifying the role of national government in determining drug policy;

• Brainstorming new approaches to difficult policy and implementation problems;
• Fostering connections among groups that have not traditionally worked together, but should;
• Developing a shared course of action to build evidence-based policies and strategies; and
• Identifying where further research is needed.

Agenda:

• 8:45-9:15 -- Registration and Breakfast

• 9:15-9:30 -- Opening and Welcoming Remarks
• 9:35-10:50 -- Panel: The War at Home
• 11:00-12:15 -- Panel: Treating Drug Use as a Health Issue
• 12:15-1:00 -- Lunch and Speaker
• 1:00-2:15 -- Panel: Reducing Crime and Incarceration
• 2:25-3:40 -- Panel: Protecting Treatment from the Criminal Justice System
• 3:45-5:00 -- Roundtable: A New Bottom Line in US Drug Policy

Partial Speaker List:

• Lynn M. Paltrow, JD, Founder and Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women

• Deborah Peterson Small, Executive Director and founder of Break the Chains
• P. David Soares, JD, Albany County District Attorney
• Kash Heed, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Vancouver-Fraserview and Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General
• Thomas Zeltner, MD former Secretary of Health for Switzerland and Director-General of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) of Switzerland

New Directions is presented by the Drug Policy Alliance, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Black Police Association, and Physicians for Human Rights, and takes place June 17, 8:30am-5:00pm, in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room B338, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Please RSVP to [email protected].

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Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

This week we have three cops whose drug habits got them into trouble. It is Chronicle policy not to include police officers whose only offense is drug possession in this column. Dope-snorting cops may be hypocrites, but that doesn't make them corrupt. But in all three cases below, officers who used drugs also did something crooked. Let's get to it:

In Troy, Missouri, a Winfield police officer was arrested May 25 on suspicion of arranging to purchase cocaine. Officer Bud Chrum went down after investigators with the Lincoln County Narcotics Enforcement Team received information that Chrum and his brother, Tony, were trying to score in Winfield to replace two grams of cocaine Bud Chrum had taken from the Winfield Police evidence room. The narcs busted Tony after he made a purchase, then convinced him to snitch out his own brother, which he did. Officer Chrum was arrested when he arrived in uniform to meet his brother to pick up the coke. He is charged with conspiracy to distribute, deliver or manufacture a controlled substance, and was being held on $25,000 bond at last report.

In Mansfield, Louisiana, a Mansfield police officer was arrested May 25 after allegedly buying cocaine from an undercover officer. Officer Todd Brewer, 31, is charged with cocaine possession with intent to distribute it, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, malfeasance in office and possessing a gun during a drug transaction. Brewer went down after the local drug task force got reports he was involved in the buying and selling of drugs. He was busted after buying 10 grams -- possibly a sign of a really bad coke habit, but more likely a sellable quantity.

In Williamsburg, Kentucky, a former Williamsburg police officer will plead guilty to conspiring to sell drugs. Kenneth Nighbert's attorney filed a motion last Friday to set a plea hearing date. Nighbert and six others were indicted by a federal grand jury with conspiring to sell pain pills from December 2005 to May 2007. Nighbert was a police officer during part of that time -- until he was arrested on state charges of trafficking in Oxycontin. He did jail time for that already. The federal indictment also alleged that Nighbert burglarized a pharmacy while he was an officer in order to get more pain pills. Nighbert is the son of former state Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.

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Marijuana: Detroit Possession Legalization Initiative Approved

A municipal initiative that would legalize the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults is headed for the November ballot. The Coalition for a Safer Detroit announced this week that the Detroit Elections Commission had certified its petitions.

The initiative would amend the city's controlled substance statute by adding the words: "None of the provisions of this article shall apply to the use or possession of less than 1 ounce of marihuana, on private property, by a person who has attained the age of 21 years."

The coalition turned in more than 6,000 signatures to put the initiative on the ballot. The initiative is now before the Detroit City Council, which has 30 days to pass it into law or it goes automatically before the voters in November.

"We met the proper number of signatures and we met all the legal standards," initiative organizer and medical marijuana patient Tim Beck told the Detroit Free Press. "There will be no legal challenge to keep it off the ballot. I'm very confident. People in Detroit have a serious understanding that priorities need to be reordered in respect to law enforcement. We need to focus on violent crime and guns. We just can't afford this any longer."

Beck knows his initiatives. He was the moving force behind the successful Detroit medical marijuana initiative in 2004.

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Marijuana Legalization: California Tax and Regulate Has Eight-Point Lead in Latest Poll, But Still Under 50%

According to a Los Angeles Times/USC poll released Tuesday, the California Tax and Regulate Cannabis initiative has the support of 49% of voters, while 41% are opposed, and 10% are undecided. The figures are in line with other recent polls. Two weeks ago, an internal campaign poll had support at 51% and another public opinion poll had it at 49%.

The bad news for initiative supporters in the latest poll is that it needs 50% plus one vote to win, and it isn't there yet. The good news, however, is that the initiative only needs to pick up one out of five of those undecided voters to go over the top.

Or, as Dan Schnur, director of USC's Jesse M. Unruh institute of politics put it: "The good news for proponents is that they are starting off with a decent lead. The good news for the opposition is that initiatives that start off at less than 50% in the polls usually have a hard time."

The poll also questioned voters about their marijuana use histories, finding that 37% had tried pot and 11% had smoked it within the last year. Not surprisingly, those who had smoked within the last year favored the initiative by more than four-to-one (82%).

This latest poll, like previous ones, points to women, especially married women, as a key demographic. While men favor the initiative, women are split, and among married women, 49% oppose the initiative while 40% are in favor.

Pollsters also asked about some of the key arguments made by supporters and opponents of the initiative. When asked whether they thought legalization of marijuana could raise a billion dollars in revenue, 42% said yes, while 38% said that figure was wildly exaggerated. Voters in Los Angeles, where dispensaries spread like wildfire in the last half of the last decade, were most likely to believe that such revenues could be generated.

When asked whether legalizing marijuana would worsen social problems, voters were similarly split, although such concerns especially resonated with those who oppose the initiative. Of that group, 83% think freeing the weed would increase crime and teen marijuana use. Fifty-five percent of married women also think that.

Attitudes toward legalization diverge sharply by age, with support much higher among younger voters. A 52% majority of voters 65 and older oppose legalization. Among voters between 45 and 64, 49% support it. But among those 30 to 44, 53% are in favor, and that rises to 61% among those 18 to 29.

The next five months are going to be very interesting. But if the tax and regulate initiative is to emerge victorious at the polls come November, it has its work cut out for it. And it looks very much like the path to victory is going to have to go through Mom.

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Marijuana: Legalization Has Majority Support in Washington State, Poll Finds

Marijuana legalization has the support of 52% of Washington state voters, according to a poll released last week by The Washington Poll, a quarterly sounding of public opinion on different issues conducted by the University of Washington. Only 35% opposed it, with 13% either undecided or not responding to the question.

Pollsters asked 1,252 registered voters whether they would support "removing state civil and criminal penalties for possession or use of marijuana." That is the precise language used on I-1068, the marijuana legalization initiative sponsored by Sensible Washington, which is now engaged in a signature-gathering campaign to get the measure on the November ballot.

A marijuana legalization initiative is already on the ballot in California, where it leads narrowly in recent polls, but has not cracked 50%. Another legalization initiative is in the signature gathering phase in Oregon. It is unclear whether either the Washington or Oregon initiatives will manage to get onto the ballot in November, but these kinds of numbers can only help the Washington effort.

The Washington Poll did not provide crosstabs with more detailed breakdowns of who did and did not support marijuana legalization. It had a margin of error of 2.8%.

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Sentencing: South Carolina Governor Signs Reform Bill, Will End Mandatory Minimums for Some Drug Offenses

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) Wednesday signed into law a sentencing reform package that includes ending mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses. The bill, SB 1154 was based on the recommendations of the South Carolina Sentencing Reform Commission, empanelled by the governor in a bid to slow the growth of corrections spending in the state.

"A number of structural problems with our prison and parole system have prevented Corrections from making improvements that would both discourage recidivism and save taxpayer resources in the process," Sanford said in a signing statement. "This bill accomplishes many of those goals. It's designed not only to make our corrections process even more lean and effective and thereby save taxpayers millions -- but also to reduce overall crime and consequently improve the quality of life we enjoy as South Carolinians."

While South Carolina can brag about how cheaply it can imprison people -- it spends the second lowest amount per inmate in the country -- its prison budgets have soared along with its inmate population since the 1980s. In 1983, South Carolina spent $64 million to keep 9,200 people behind bars; this year, it will spend $394 million to imprison 25,000 people.

The bill attempts to change that trajectory through a number of measures. It ends mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug possession offenders and allows the possibility of probation or parole for certain second and third offenders. It also removes the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine possession.

It also allows more prisoners to get into work release programs in the final three years of their sentences and mandates six months of reentry supervision for nonviolent offenders. The bill allows for home detention for third time driving-with-a-suspended-license offenders and for route-restricted drivers on first and second convictions.

It isn't all sweetness and light. The bill shifts the status of two dozen crimes, including sex offenses against children, from nonviolent to violent, meaning inmates convicted of those offenses will have to serve at least 85% of their time before being paroled. It also increases penalties for habitual driving-while-suspended offenders who kill or gravely injure someone.

Still, the bill should have a real impact on the system, especially given that drug offenders are the biggest category of offenders in prison in South Carolina, followed in order by burglars, bad check writers, and people driving on a suspended license. Officials estimate the measure will save the state $409 million over the next five years.

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Opiate Maintenance: Prescribing Heroin to Hard-Core Addicts Keeps Them Off Street Smack, British Study Finds

In research findings reported in The Lancet, scientists monitoring the Randomized Injectable Opiate Treatment Trial (RIOTT) reported that allowing addicts who have failed to get off heroin to use injectable "medical grade" heroin resulted in lower levels of street heroin use than in addicts given either oral or injectable methadone. The research was done by Professor John Strang and colleagues from the National Addiction Center's Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London.

Up to 10% of heroin addicts fail to respond to conventional treatments, for reasons that are unclear. In recent years, scientific evidence suggesting that providing medicinal heroin, known as diamorphine in the United Kingdom, under supervision is an effective treatment for chronic heroin addiction, has only increased. This study adds to the mounting evidence.

The RIOTT study chose as subjects chronic addicts who were receiving oral maintenance doses, typically of methadone, but were continuing to regularly inject street heroin. Subjects were provided with oral methadone, injectable methadone, or injectable heroin over a half-year period. At the end of the study, 80% of the subjects remained in treatment, with the highest figure for those using heroin (88%), followed by injectable methadone (81%) and oral methadone (69%). Among subjects who had 50% or more negative samples for street heroin -- the authors' measure of measurable improvement -- 66% of medicinal heroin users avoided street smack, while only 30% of injectable methadone users did and only 19% of oral methadone users did.

"We have shown that treatment with supervised injectable heroin leads to significantly lower use of street heroin than does supervised injectable methadone or optimised oral methadone," the authors said in a press release announcing the findings. "Furthermore, this difference was evident within the first six weeks of treatment."

Noting that the UK government's 2008 Drug Strategy had called for rolling out prescription heroin and methadone to clients who don't respond to other forms of treatment, contingent on the results of the RIOTT study, the authors said the results were in and it was time to act. "In the past 15 years, six randomized trials have all reported benefits from treatment with injectable heroin compared with oral methadone. Supervised injectable heroin should now be provided, with close monitoring, for carefully selected chronic heroin addicts in the UK," they concluded.

"Our scientific understanding about how to treat people with severe heroin addiction has taken an important step forward," said Professor Strang. "The RIOTT study shows that previously unresponsive patients can achieve major reductions in their use of street heroin and, impressively, these outcomes were seen within six weeks. Our work offers government robust evidence to support the expansion of this treatment, so that more patients can benefit."

You can watch Professor Strang discuss the findings here.

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Marijuana: Study Finds Minimal Changes in Driving Performance After Smoking

The head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, is pushing a campaign targeting drugged driving and has singled out marijuana as a main problem. But if the latest research findings on stoned driving are any indication, the drug czar may want to shift his emphasis if he wants to (as he claims) let policy be driven by evidence.

According to clinical trial data published in the March issue of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, subjects tested both before and after smoking marijuana exhibited virtually identical driving skills in a battery of driving simulator tests. Researchers in the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested 85 subjects -- 50 men and 35 women -- on simulated driving performance. The subjects had to respond to simulations of various events associated with vehicle crash risk, such as deciding whether to stop or go through a changing traffic light, avoiding a driver entering an intersection illegally, and responding to the presence of emergency vehicles. Subjects were tested sober and again a half hour after having smoked a single medium-potency (2.9% THC) joint or a placebo.

The investigators found that the subjects' performance before and after getting stoned was virtually identical. "No differences were found during the baseline driving segment (and the) collision avoidance scenarios," the authors reported. Nor were there any differences between the way men and women responded.

Researchers did note one difference. "Participants receiving active marijuana decreased their speed more so than those receiving placebo cigarettes during (the) distracted section of the drive," they wrote. The authors speculated that the subjects may have slowed down to compensate for perceived impairment. "[N]o other changes in driving performance were found," researchers concluded.

Past research on marijuana use and driving has yielded similar results as well, including a 2008 driving simulator clinical trial conducted in Israel and published in Accident, Analysis, and Prevention. That trial compared the performance of drivers after they had ingested either alcohol or marijuana. "Average speed was the most sensitive driving performance variable affected by both THC and alcohol but with an opposite effect," the investigators reported. "Smoking THC cigarettes caused drivers to drive slower in a dose-dependent manner, while alcohol caused drivers to drive significantly faster than in 'control' conditions."

Something to keep in mind when lawmakers in your state start pushing for zero-tolerance "per se" Driving Under the Influence of Drugs laws that want to label people impaired drivers because of the presence of a few metabolites left over from last week.

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Weekly: This Week in History

June 8, 1993: Leading conservative intellectual William F. Buckley says in an interview, "the amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense -- the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditures of social energy."

June 4, 1998: Common Sense for Drug Policy begins a $60,000 advertisement campaign on CNN and other outlets, timed to coincide with the June 8 UN drug summit, featuring a video of President Clinton at the UN with an overdubbed voice imitating the president and urging a change in drug policy (with a visual disclaimer saying it is not Clinton talking). On June 7, ABC Evening News covered the story.

June 8, 1998: A well-publicized letter signed by more than 600 international leaders and high-profile, influential professionals from various fields is written to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging him to reconsider "failed and futile drug war policies" as the signers believe the war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself. The signatories call for opening the debate to alternative approaches to drug abuse based on common sense, science, public health and human rights.

June 9, 2000: Human Rights Watch releases a study finding that Illinois is the worst state for racial disparity among jailed drug offenders. Illinois' black men are 57 times more likely than white men to be sent to prison on drug charges, and blacks comprise 90 percent of all prison admissions in Illinois for drug charges. Though federal studies show that white drug users outnumber black drug users 5-to-1, blacks make up about 62 percent of prisoners incarcerated on drug charges, compared with 36 percent of whites.

June 6, 2002: The newly formed medical marijuana advocacy organization Americans for Safe Access holds a nationwide day of action with protests at more than 50 DEA offices around the country.

June 7, 2003: Cheryl Miller, a multiple sclerosis patient and leading medical marijuana advocate, dies from pneumonia and other MS-related complications at 57 years old. She is survived by her husband, Jim, who remains active in the movement.

June 10, 2004: The New York Times publishes an article about K-Drink, a new beverage containing coca produced by the Peruvian company Kokka Royal Food & Drink. The article reminds readers that "In this region of South America, coca tea is so common and so accepted that it has even been regularly served in the American embassy in Bolivia."

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Appeal: 2010 is Important in Drug Policy -- And So Are You

Dear friend of drug policy reform:

I am writing today to ask you to step up for drug policy reform. 2010 is a critical year in drug policy, with great opportunities for changing minds, laws, and lives:

• Polls show an approaching majority supporting marijuana legalization -- California with an initiative this November is at 56%.
• The horrific violence in Mexico is making opinion leaders consider total drug legalization more seriously too.
• More good drug policy reform legislation -- lowering crack sentences, allowing needle exchange funding, unblocking DC's medical marijuana law -- has come out of Congress the past year than in decades.

There is a long, hard road still ahead, but things are definitely moving our way. Like every nonprofit, our funding has been affected by the troubled state of the economy, and we need your help. Can we count on your support in this important year? Please make a generous donation to StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) today!

The support of our generous members has been part of a winning combination that saw us draw nearly two million annual visitors to our web site last year -- the most yet! -- and which saw opinion leaders in the blogosphere using our work on a regular basis. (See links about this below.) StoptheDrugWar.org, thanks to you, is the #1 source for news, information and activism promoting sensible drug law reform and an end to prohibition worldwide. The more we do at StoptheDrugWar.org, the faster the reform movement will grow and the sooner that minds, laws and lives will change.

Your support counts now more than ever -- please join our 2010 "Changing Minds, Changing Laws, Changing Lives" campaign by donating to StoptheDrugWar.org today.

I would like to send you some free gifts to show our appreciation. For a contribution of $30 or more, choose either the important new DVD, 10 Rules for Dealing with Police, or its classic predecessor, Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters -- or choose either of our popular StoptheDrugWar.org t-shirts -- "alcohol prohibition/drug prohibition" or "consequences of prohibition." For a gift of $55 or more, you get to pick any two... for a gift of $80 or more, pick any three... for a gift of $100 or more you can get all four! (Want to substitute? No problem. Choose any item from our inventory of books, videos and StoptheDrugWar.org items.)

By joining today, you will make an immediate impact by helping StoptheDrugWar.org:

• Reach millions of people per year.
• Influence the discussion on major blogosphere sites.
• Fuel the legalization debate with weekly features like our Mexico Drug War Update.
• And continue to build a successful movement through our web site, newsletter and organizing activities as we've been doing for years.

We are truly seeing more good things happen than ever before -- and the road ahead while challenging is also promising. Please donate to StoptheDrugWar.org today - with your help, we can win this.

Sincerely,

David Borden
Executive Director, StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet)

P.S. Prohibition does not work -- and more and more people know it. Now is the perfect time to galvanize support for the cause. Please send in your donation and get your thank-you gifts today! Thank you for your support.

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Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

Along with our weekly in-depth Chronicle reporting, DRCNet also provides daily content in the way of blogging in the Stop the Drug War Speakeasy -- huge numbers of people have been reading it recently -- as well as Latest News links (upper right-hand corner of most web pages), event listings (lower right-hand corner) and other info. Check out DRCNet every day to stay on top of the drug reform game! Check out the Speakeasy main page at http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy.

Since last issue:

Scott Morgan writes: "Jamaica Says It Can Win Its Drug War for $1 Billion," "Margaret Polovchak Wants to Put Cancer Patients in Jail," "Paul Armentano Talks Legalization on FOX News," "Aaron Houston is a Patriot and a Hero," "Mall Security Freaks Out Over Guy Wearing Marijuana T-Shirt," "Teachers Suspended for Showing Flex Your Rights Video," "WARNING: Recent Claims That the Drug War Is Over Are False."

Phil Smith posts early copies of Drug War Chronicle articles.

David Guard posts numerous press releases, action alerts and other organizational announcements in the In the Trenches blog.

Again, http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy is the online place to stay in the loop for the fight to stop the war on drugs. Thanks for reading, and please join us on the comment boards.

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Feedback: Do You Read Drug War Chronicle?

Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we'd like to hear from you. DRCNet needs two things:

1. We are in between newsletter grants, and that makes our need for donations more pressing. Drug War Chronicle is free to read but not to produce! Click here to make a donation by credit card or PayPal, or to print out a form to send in by mail.
   
   
2. Please send quotes and reports on how you put our flow of information to work, for use in upcoming grant proposals and letters to funders or potential funders. Do you use DRCNet as a source for public speaking? For letters to the editor? Helping you talk to friends or associates about the issue? Research? For your own edification? Have you changed your mind about any aspects of drug policy since subscribing, or inspired you to get involved in the cause? Do you reprint or repost portions of our bulletins on other lists or in other newsletters? Do you have any criticisms or complaints, or suggestions? We want to hear those too. Please send your response -- one or two sentences would be fine; more is great, too -- email [email protected] or reply to a Chronicle email or use our online comment form. Please let us know if we may reprint your comments, and if so, if we may include your name or if you wish to remain anonymous. IMPORTANT: Even if you have given us this kind of feedback before, we could use your updated feedback now too -- we need to hear from you!

Again, please help us keep Drug War Chronicle alive at this important time! Click here to make a donation online, or send your check or money order to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. Make your check payable to DRCNet Foundation to make a tax-deductible donation for Drug War Chronicle -- remember if you select one of our member premium gifts that will reduce the portion of your donation that is tax-deductible -- or make a non-deductible donation for our lobbying work -- online or check payable to Drug Reform Coordination Network, same address. We can also accept contributions of stock -- email [email protected] for the necessary info.

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Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) and Help Stop the Drug War!

Want to help end the "war on drugs," while earning college credit too? Apply for a StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) internship and you could come join the team and help us fight the fight!

StoptheDrugWar has a strong record of providing substantive work experience to our interns -- you won't spend the summer doing filing or running errands, you will play an integral role in one or more of our exciting programs. Options for work you can do with us include coalition outreach as part of the campaign to rein in the use of SWAT teams, to expand our work to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act to encompass other bad drug laws like the similar provisions in welfare and public housing law; blogosphere/web outreach; media research and outreach; web site work (research, writing, technical); possibly other areas. If you are chosen for an internship, we will strive to match your interests and abilities to whichever area is the best fit for you.

While our internships are unpaid, we will reimburse you for metro fare, and DRCNet is a fun and rewarding place to work. To apply, please send your resume to David Guard at [email protected], and feel free to contact us at (202) 293-8340. We hope to hear from you! Check out our web site at http://stopthedrugwar.org to learn more about our organization.

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