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Guatemala Army No Match for Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

Guatemalan soldiers tasked with sweeping out Mexican drug trafficking organizations are finding they are outgunned and ill-equipped, raising fears of a power vacuum in parts of the country even after a 30-day military siege. "Organized crime is not just infiltrating us, it pains me to say it but drug traffickers have us cornered," Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom told Congress last week.

Perspective: To Prevent AIDS in Russia, Drug Addicts Need Care

Russia has one of the fastest spreading HIV epidemics in the world, driven largely by the government's refusal to institute measures to treat the country's drug addicts — measures that have dramatically reduced HIV infections in drug addicts in other countries, including the U.S.

Introducing Points: The Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Points (Blog of the Alcohol and Drug History Society)


 The Alcohol and Drugs History Society Launches

Points
 

 
 
 
 
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

Contact: Joseph Spillane, Managing Editor, [email protected], (352) 273-3355


The Alcohol and Drugs History Society Launches Points
 

January 18, 2010 - The Alcohol and Drugs History Society today unveiled Points, an interdisciplinary blog that examines present-day cultural developments and policy debates through various historical lenses. Led by Managing Editors Drs. Joseph Spillane and Trysh Travis, Points brings historical considerations to bear on contemporary drug and alcohol-related issues. Spillane and Travis hope the blog will act as a resource and virtual meeting space for  scholars, advocates, activists, and others interested in unraveling the complex relationship between past and present controversies surrounding mind-altering substances both legal and illicit.

Contributing Editors Caroline Jean Acker (Carnegie Mellon University), Charles Ambler (University of Texas-El Paso), Joseph Gabriel (Florida State University), Brian Herrera (University of New Mexico), David Herzberg (University of Buffalo), Amy Long (drug policy reform and free speech advocate), Michelle McClellan (University of Michigan), and Ron Roizen (independent scholar) will join Spillane and Travis in posting short, thoughtful reflections on topics as varied as addiction and treatment methodologies, the global drug war, media representations of substance use and abuse, the pharmaceutical industry, and alcohol and drug-related pedagogy. Points will also feature periodic interviews with authors of recent books on relevant topics and contributions from guest bloggers outside the university. "We hope to distill - no pun intended - some of the most exciting new scholarship on the history of drugs and alcohol into engaging and readable material that will interest a broad audience," says Spillane.

In addition to Points, the Alcohol and Drugs History Society publishes the ADHS Daily Register and The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Joseph Spillane is the author of Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) and an Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida (UF). His most recent project is a study of liberal prison reform in twentieth-century New York State. Trysh Travis teaches in UF's Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research and is currently working on an edited collection entitled "Re-Thinking Therapeutic Culture." Her first book, The Language of the Heart: A Cultural History of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2009.
 

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Michigan Attorney Has Answers to Resolve Medical Marijuana Quagmire

Medical Marijuana is emerging as a top new industry in Michigan. It may be a sign of changing times, or perhaps it's just getting back to basics as Michigan chose 63 percent to 37 percent in November of 2008 to legalize marijuana for medical use. Grow Shops, colleges, and compassion clubs are just some of the new business models. Attorney Paul C. Youngs has taught the law and lends insight on the effects of Medical Marijuana in The Great Lakes State.

Colombia's FARC May Inherit Hundreds of Men from Slain Drug Lord

Colombia's largest rebel group FARC may benefit from the recent killing of neo-paramilitary drug lord "Cuchillo," newspaper El Espectador reports. According to the newspaper, the death of Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero, alias Cuchillo, late last month brought an end to the paramilitary rule of the underworld of Colombia's eastern plains that started when the AUC took control of the region in the 1990s. A police investigator told El Espectador that members of Cuchillo's organization ERPAC have been meeting to assure a continuation of the drug trade, but have not been able to appoint a successor of their slain leader.

Oregon High Court to Decide Concealed Handgun/Medical Marijuana Issue

Sheriff Mike Winters faces a showdown at the Oregon Supreme Court on March 3 with a medical marijuana patient who was denied a concealed handgun permit. The patient, Cynthia Willis, has allies in her fight for the permit, including Attorney General John Kroger and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
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Brutal Drug Raid Killing Caught on Video

The drug czar has gone to great rhetorical lengths to convince the American people that our drug policy isn’t a war any longer, but you don't have to look very hard to see the violence that still erupts daily, not only in Mexico, but right here in our own communities. If you can handle it, I'd like you to take a look at just one example of the incredible violence police use when enforcing our drug laws.

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