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In The Trenches
Vancouver MP Libby Davies Urges Campaign to Save Safe Injection Site
INSITE, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside safe injection site, is in danger of being shut down after September 12 if the new conservative health minister doesn't reapprove it. Here's the email MP Libby Davies sent out today:
Dear friends,
I am writing you today regarding the fate of INSITE, North Americaâs first supervised safe injection facility. As you may know, this program started as a three-year study in September of 2003, and the results have been incredibly impressive. INSITE has reduced public injections, reduced the transmission of blood-borne infections like HIV and Hepatitis C, and reduced the number of injection-related infections. Most significantly, however, is that of 453 overdoses at INSITE, not one has resulted in a fatality. This is strong evidence of the success that this project has had in reducing the harm to drug-users.
Blog
British Doctor Says Marijuana Caused Death of 23-Year-Old
Pretty amazing. I feel like it's 1937. Here is a British doctor claiming pot caused a young man to die from a brain aneurysm. Even the coroner isn't buying it.
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Chronicle
Feature: Wisconsin Drug Reform Activist and Senate Candidate Ben Masel Assaulted, Arrested By Campus Cops, Plans to Sue
Wisconsin's best known drug policy reformer, Weedstock organizer Ben Masel, was pepper-sprayed and arrested by University of Wisconsin-Madison police as he collected signatures for his senatorial campaign the evening of June 30. He was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting a police officer, trespassing, and remaining after being warned to leave, all misdemeanors.
Chronicle
Feature: Battle Over California's Proposition 36 to Head to Court
Last week, the California legislature voted to approve changes to Proposition 36, the state's "treatment not jail" law, that would alter the law's basic philosophy. This week, Prop. 36 supporters are waiting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill into law. Then they will immediately file suit to have the new law overturned.
Chronicle
Editorial: Is Ecstasy a Dangerous Drug?
Member of the South Australian Parliament Sandra Kanck aroused ire from colleagues again by attending a rave then telling them she felt safer there than at a bar.
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In The Trenches
ACLU Alaska press release
And another ACLU item, this one about the Alaska victory that came as expected -- hopefully not just a short term victory, but only time will tell about that. Read our feature story in the Chronicle from about a month ago.
In The Trenches
ACLU Wins Settlement for Goose Creek School Raid Victims
press release from the ACLU...
Blog
Methamphetamine Sold Openly In Stores
This is the kind of mundane story that doesn't make it into the Chronicle, but it is an example of the misreporting that plagues drug policy journalism. Meth isn't being sold in drugs stores, but that's what the misleading headline in a story about the availability of ephedrine says. Bad, bad, bad headline writing.
http://www.abcnews4.com/news/stories/0706/343456.html
Blog
At least 21 states include drug offenses in their definitions of child abuse
Michigan is the latest, with Gov. Granholm signing a bill on Thursday that will make some meth offenses per se evidence of child abuse.
I have a problem with these laws. I think child abuse is already well defined and people who fit the criteria should be punished for it. But saying that using or even cooking speed equals child abuse is just absurd on the face of it. I'll be talking to people t
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