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House Dems Reintroduce Weed Legalization Bill, San Francisco Mayor Wants Forced Treatment for Benefits, More... (9/22/23)

Wisconsin Democrats roll out a marijuana legalization bill, a Pennsylvania medical marijuana expansion bill passes the Senate, and more.

Members of the Sinaloa Cartel parading through San Gregorio Chemic in Chiapas state, near the Guatemalan border. (YouTube)
Marijuana Policy

House Democrats Reintroduce Comprehensive Marijuana Reform Legislation. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), along with Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) have reintroduced the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (HR 5601), one of the most comprehensive marijuana reform bills ever introduced in the U.S. Congress.

Following efforts led by states across the nation, the MORE Act decriminalizes marijuana at the federal level. The bill also aims to correct the historical injustices of failed drug policies that have disproportionately impacted communities of color and low-income communities by requiring resentencing and expungement of prior convictions. This will create new opportunities for individuals as they work to advance their careers, education, and overall quality of life. The MORE Act also ensures that all benefits in the law are available to juvenile offenders.

The bill:

  • Decriminalizes marijuana at the federal level by removing the substance from the Controlled Substances Act. This applies retroactively to prior and pending convictions, and enables states to set their own policy.
  • Requires federal courts to expunge prior convictions, allows prior offenders to request expungement, and requires courts, on motion, to conduct re-sentencing hearings for those still under supervision.
  • Authorizes the assessment of a 5% sales tax on marijuana and marijuana products to create an Opportunity Trust Fund, which includes three grant programs:
    • The Community Reinvestment Grant Program: Provides services to the individuals most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, including job training, re-entry services, legal aid, literacy programs, The Cannabis Opportunity Grant Program: youth recreation, mentoring, and substance use treatment.  
    • Provides funds for loans to assist small businesses in the marijuana industry that are owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals
    • The Equitable Licensing Grant ProgramProvides funds for programs that minimize barriers to marijuana licensing and employment for the individuals most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.
  • Opens up Small Business Administration funding for legitimate cannabis-related businesses and service providers.
  • Provides non-discrimination protections for marijuana use or possession, and for prior convictions for a marijuana offense:
    • Prohibits the denial of any federal public benefit (including housing) based on the use or possession of marijuana, or prior conviction for a marijuana offense.
    • Provides that the use or possession of marijuana, or prior conviction for a marijuana offense, will have no adverse impact under the immigration laws.
  • Requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to collect data on the demographics of the industry to ensure people of color and those who are economically disadvantaged are participating in the industry.

The MORE Act has the support of a broad coalition of civil rights, criminal justice, drug policy, and immigration groups, including: the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Drug Policy Alliance, NORML, Better Organizing to Win Legalization, and Minorities for Medical Marijuana, the Center for American Progress, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Wisconsin Democrats File Marijuana Legalization Bill. State Sen. Melissa Agard and state Rep. Darrin B. Madison have introduced a marijuana legalization bill. This bill would allow Wisconsin to join thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia that have passed laws broadly legalizing cannabis in some form. Republican majorities in the legislature have blocked any progress on such bills in the past.

"I’ve said this time and time again – we know that the most dangerous thing about cannabis in Wisconsin is that it remains illegal," said Sen. Agard. "For the past decade, I have worked to undo Wisconsin’s antiquated and deeply unjust marijuana policies and put our state on a prosperous path forward.  

"Legalizing cannabis is a matter of public safety and racial justice here in Wisconsin," said Rep. Madison. "People in Wisconsin indulge in cannabis use and deserve the ability to buy safe cannabis and use it responsibly without being criminalized. According to the ACLU, Black people were 4.24 times more likely to be arrested than white people in Wisconsin during 2018. Similar disparities exist in convictions, leading to immeasurable harm to black communities in Wisconsin. The bill we’ve introduced today lays a solid foundation for those that have been harshly convicted for non-violent possession charges and the ramifications of those convictions." 

Under the proposal, adults in Wisconsin aged 21 and older could legally have marijuana in their possession. The measure would also lay the groundwork for a regulated cannabis market to launch in the state.

Medical Marijuana

Pennsylvania Senate Passes Bill to Expand Medical Marijuana Program. The Senate has approved a bill that would expand the state’s medical marijuana program by allowing growers to sell directly to patients despite ongoing federal cannabis prohibition. The bill was approved last Wednesday on a 44-3 vote.

Sen. Chris Gebhard and a bipartisan coalition of senators introduced Senate Bill 773  earlier this year. The current state medical law authorizes licenses for 25 businesses growing and processing medical marijuana, but only five of those licensees can sell directly to patients through vertically integrated dispensaries. SB773 would allow all medical marijuana growers and processes to sell directly to patients.

The bill now goes to the House, where it may become a vehicle for broader reforms, from allowing for patient home cultivation to converting the bill into a full-on legalization bill. But changes too profound could endanger an amended bill's prospects back in the Senate, which would have to address any changes.

"There will certainly be vigorous discussions there on what shape this bill will come back to the Senate in said Sen. Dan Laughlin (R). "If this becomes a vehicle for adult use, I doubt that it would pass this chamber. However, I think if they do add home-grown to this bill, it would strengthen the bill and I believe that we would be able to get it through this chamber as well."

Drug Policy

San Francisco Mayor Proposes Mandatory Drug Treatment for Cash Assistance Programs. Trying a new tack in the city's ongoing effort to get a grip on open air drug use and an overdose crisis, Mayor London Breed is now proposing that city residents with addiction issues who receive cash assistance be required to undergo drug treatment in order to keep receiving payments. The proposal would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Under the proposal, people who apply for County Adult Assistance Programs would have to undergo screening for substance use disorder and participate in a treatment program if they're found to have an addiction. People who refuse or who "do not successfully engage in treatment" would not be eligible for cash assistance.

"We fund a wide range of services, and we want to help people get the care they need but under current state law, local government lack tools to compel people into treatment," Breed said. "This initiative aims to create more accountability and help get people to accept the treatment and services they need."   

Some, but not all, supervisors are on board. Board President Aaron Peskin demurred, saying that Breed should focus on stopping dealers and open-air drug markets rather than "drug testing people on welfare."

"If she can't find the way to prevent several hundred brazen criminals from selling deadly drugs -- how does she think she will find the resources to drug test thousands of welfare recipients?" Peskin said

Drug Testing

Washington Department of Corrections Sued Over Faulty Drug Tests, Harsh Punishments. Columbia Legal Services (CLS) filed a class action complaint against the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC), challenging the widespread practice of imposing harsh discipline on people in DOC facilities based on unreliable drug testing. People have faced months in solitary confinement, delays in release from prison, loss of visitation, and other cruel punishments after colorimetric tests have returned "presumptive" positive results on incoming mail and other possessions.

Clifton Bell, et al. v. Washington State Department of Corrections, filed in Thurston County Superior Court last Friday, alleges that DOC’s actions violate plaintiffs' rights under Washington State law and the Washington State Constitution.Plaintiff Gregory Hyde was placed in administrative segregation (another term for solitary confinement) for almost five months after a presumptive positive test result. The item that tested positive for drugs was a packet of crossword, word search, and Sudoku puzzle books sent by Mr. Hyde’s father and stepmother.

After facing months of irreversible disciplinary actions, DOC returned the books in question to Mr. Hyde with no explanation or expungement of the infraction. His father’s name remains on DOC’s records as having mailed drugs to the prison.

"I think DOC is using its power to punish people who can’t fight back," said Mr. Hyde."My elderly father just wanted to send me some puzzle books. Now they’re saying he’s a drug dealer. Now my father is too far away to see because I got transferred to a different facility. My father is impoverished and on a fixed income. I think it’s an abuse of power. I don’t think DOC should be doing this."

Manufactured by companies like DetectaChem and MMC International, the colorimetric tests (also called roadside tests or field tests) are designed to be initial screening testsand the manufacturers are clear that they require confirmatory testing to be valid. Similar test technologies have been found unlawful in many settings, including in other state prison systems. In 2021, a Massachusetts court forced that state’s DOC to stop using similar colorimetric tests from another manufacturer, with the court describing them as "only marginally better than a coin flip"at identifying drugs. The tests in that case were found to deliver false positives nearly 40 percent of the time.

International

Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel Lauded by Chiapas Townspeople for Rescuing Them from Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Townspeople in San Gregorio Chemic, Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border, cheered a 20-vehicle convoy of Sinaloa Cartel fighters as they paraded through the city after having driven out the rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC).

JNGC fighters had seized the town and blocked the only highway access to it for nearly two weeks, killing and extorting local residents along the way. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced over the weekend that he was sending 800 National Guard troops to the area. He also implored local youth not to be seduced by the Sinaloa Cartel.

'It turns out that on the border with Guatemala, in Comalapa, towards Motozintla, there are organized crime groups that are fighting for the territory (Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel) to have spaces, to store drugs that enter from Central America, to have control of that territory and they will confront each other, fortunately there have not been many murders,' López Obrador said during his daily presser with the media.

A local Catholic priest said that local residents may have been intimidated into cheering on the Sinaloa Cartel. "Others will say that they have already allied themselves with drug traffickers. They line them up," he said. "It's not that they want to. There will be people who do it on their own, but people are being forced and that is not worth it. People are being forced to defend one cartel, to fight for another and they are being used as cannon fodder."

200 Familes Send Letter to Lawmakers Calling for a Health Response to ODs, Not Punishment [FEATURE]

In the face of the continuing overdose crisis and the regressive resort to punitive drug war tactics such as drug-induced homicide laws to combat it, a group of friends and family members of drug users, including many who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses, is calling on Congress to stand firm against looking to more criminalization and prosecution as a solution.

The people of Broken No More (broken-no-more.org_
In collaboration with the Drug Policy Alliance, the group, Broken No More, last week sent an open letter to lawmakers urging them to oppose more failed drug war policies and instead embrace evidence-based health responses proven to save lives and prevent other families from suffering the loss of loved ones.

"Opportunistic politicians supported by law enforcement are using the overdose crisis and parents’ grief to pass harsh drug laws that will only continue to fill our morgues and prisons," the open letter says. "Punitive laws will not bring our loved ones back, but they will subject other parents’ children to more suffering and deny them the support that can keep them alive.

The group makes concrete demands of Congress about what it does and does not want. It says "no more" to drug-induced homicide laws, new mandatory minimum sentencing laws, or new laws increasing penalties for the possession of personal use amounts of illicit drugs.

Instead, it calls for "health-based solutions focused on overdose prevention, harm reduction, and drug treatment," including drug decriminalization (with the savings invested in addiction services and social supports), the panoply of harm reduction measures from needle exchanges and drug checking to safe injection sites, effective voluntary drug treatment options (including access on demand for opioid disorder medications buprenorphine and methadone_, "reality based drug education," and removing civil punishments for drug use  (in food, housing, and employment).

"As a mother who lost her 16-year-old son to overdose, I strongly oppose imposing harsher penalties for those involved in drug-related deaths," said Tamara Olt, MD, executive director of Broken No More. "It is enough that one family has been devastated by the loss of their loved one. It is cruel and unjust for a second family to lose their child to incarceration and the laws will increase deaths by making people afraid to get help for someone experiencing an overdose. I support a health-based approach, harm reduction, and safer supply to cease the senseless and preventable overdose deaths that are increasing exponentially. No one is disposable."

"I lost my son, my only child, Jeff, to an overdose. But he didn’t have to die. There were two people with Jeff that day, one of whom had sold him the heroin he used. They could have called for help but, instead, they pulled him from the SUV and left him on a lawn. And while people will say that they were monsters, they weren’t. The monster was fear. Fear of the police. Fear of arrest. Fear of spending 20 years to life in prison. It was fear that killed my son," said Denise Cullen, LCSW, co-founder of Broken No More. "Criminalization and punitive drug laws have resulted in nothing but more imprisonment, more deaths, and more devastated families. We must, instead, invest in health-based solutions that will save the lives of the ones we love. Laws that charge people with murder for a drug-related death may sound like a good idea. Until that is, it’s your child that dies on a lawn."

"We stand behind the families who are bravely fighting for the right policy solutions so that no one else has to go through the heartbreak and pain they have experienced. Their voices are abundantly clear that the best way to address the overdose crisis is through continued investment in public health resources and services rather than doubling down on the deeply flawed, unjust, and failed punitive approaches of the past," said Emily Kaltenbach, senior director of state advocacy and criminal legal reform at the Drug Policy Alliance. "Turning to health solutions instead of punishment is the right way forward. People all across the country are looking for answers to the problems of public safety, mass criminalization, racist policing, addiction, overdose, and homelessness.  But we know that punishing people for possessing drugs for personal use is not the answer to these issues."

For a complete list of signatories go here. And it is not too late for other parents and family members who have lost loved ones to sign the letter here.

Chronicle Book Review: Whiteout

Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in Americaby Helena Hansen, David Herzberg, and Jules Netherland (2023, University of California Press, 369 pp., $29.95 HB)

When the face of opioid addiction turned white, an era that can be marked as beginning with the introduction and mass prescribing of OxyContin in the late 1990s, official attitudes toward drug users shifted away from the punishing and toward the nurturing. They were no longer Black deviant criminals, but now white innocent victims.

Republican lawmakers in statehouses around the country who had built careers as fierce drug warriors now sponsored Good Samaritan bills (so that people overdosing and those seeking to help them did not face drug charges), the availability of medicine-assisted treatment (methadone and buprenorphine) spread—and went upscale, with bupe acting as white people's methadone.

While methadone, associated with the Black and Brown heroin addicts of the 1970s, remains heavily stigmatized, its administration heavily authoritarian, and its dispensing locations almost always deep within poor minority neighborhoods, buprenorphine –a drug for treating white opioid users of the 21st Century—is much more easily accessible, available in doctors' offices instead of grim industrial buildings, but also more expensive, limiting its access for people with little money or insurance.

In Whiteout, an addiction psychiatrist (Hansen), a drug historian (Herzberg), and a policy advocate (Netherland) tease apart the structures of Whiteness (the unspoken ideology of white virtue, purity, and superiority) and demonstrate how racial disparities have been cooked into American drug policies from the beginning—and how not only Black populations but white ones, too, have suffered for it.

In the first great wave of opioid addiction in the late 19th Century, it was middle class white women who suffered the grip of the poppy, and they were largely treated in the doctor's office. As relatively well-off people, they had the ability to access the health care system of the time, to be prescribed the pills they wanted, and to be helped off them if necessary.

Meanwhile, Black Americans more often lacked the money to gain access to the health care system, and once drug prohibition fell into place in the 1910s, they were shunted into the black market, criminalized, and stigmatized. Their neighborhoods became epicenters of the illicit drug trade. Black market drugs in the ghetto, white market drugs at the doctor's office and the drugstore.

But white privilege had its price—a price that hundreds of thousands of white opioid users have paid since the turn of the century as overdose deaths quintupled in 20 years. Affluent white drug consumers would be provided their drugs by a lightly regulated pharmaceutical industry that the authors demonstrate portrayed the users of its products as white people and marketed their products directly at white people. The poster child for this behavior is Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, which zeroed in on mostly white Appalachia as its force of zealous sales reps went to work. This is the racial capitalism of the title.

Anyone who is uncomfortable with terms like "racial capitalism" is really going to be squirming when Critical Race Theory makes its entrance. Unlike the case with the moral panic around Critical Race Theory in children's schoolbooks (which it isn't), the academic tool is actually applied here and, indeed, is central to the argument the authors make.

It also colors their recommendations for what is to be done. In line with the critique of capitalism, a little more harm reduction here or a little more criminal justice reform there are not going to solve the social problems that give rise to the current opioid crisis. It is going to require real social change, things like universal health care and a real social safety net. And an ongoing interrogation of Whiteness.

The National Governors Association Weighs in on Fighting Drug Overdoses [FEATURE]

Faced with an ongoing drug overdose epidemic that may have peaked in recent months but is still killing around 100,000 Americans each year, with fentanyl implicated in the great majority of deaths, the nation's governors are moving to get a grip on the problem. On Tuesday, the National Governors Association (NGA) released a roadmap to help support governors and state officials in developing policy solutions to address unprecedented opioid overdose rates. Titled Implementing Best Practices Across the Continuum of Care to Prevent Overdose, the roadmap outlines concrete solutions across the full spectrum of health services, from the foundations, to prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery.

By limiting their policy prescriptions to health services, the governors avoid tackling the prickly politics of drug prohibition and the role it plays in the overdose crisis. The words "legalization" and "decriminalization" do not appear once in the 79-page report. On the other hand, law enforcement is not mentioned as playing a role in addressing the problem, either.

Developed in coordination with the O'Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, the roadmap is based on the contributions of more than 30 subject matter experts and 20 states and territories -- providing governors with specific, actionable recommendations to prevent overdose across five pillars of the Substance Use Disorder Continuum of Care.

This is not the first time the governors have addressed the topic. In fact, this report can be seen as an update to the NGA's 2016 Roadmap, which covered much of the same territory. The latest iteration, however, reflects the evolving nature of the ongoing drug overdose epidemic and includes strategies specific to the rise of illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

The continued attention is needed. From 2019 to 2021, overdose death rates increased in all 50 states; death rates in 40 states increased by more than 25 percent. The national overdose death rate in 2021 reached 32.4 per 100,000 people, compared to 6.1 in 1999. Overdose deaths among adolescents increased 109 percent from 2019 to 2021, despite low youth substance use rates.

For each of the five pillars -- foundations, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery -- the NGA roadmap makes specific recommendations:

Foundations

  • Establish a state government coordinating body to set a statewide vision for overdose prevention.
  • Invest in state infrastructure to maximize resources.
  • Seek and include the perspectives and leadership of people with a variety of lived experiences.
  • Invest in evaluation and test new ideas. Promote evidence-based requirements for funded prevention initiatives.
  • Nurture and grow a mental health and substance use workforce that reflects the populations served.

Prevention

  • Champion and invest in initiatives that support family cohesion and well-being.
  • Promote evidence-based requirements for funded prevention initiatives.

Harm Reduction

  • Maximize federal resources and braid funding to promote health and reduce harm for people who use drugs.
  • Implement targeted and low-barrier distribution strategies for overdose reversal agents (ORAs) such as naloxone.
  • Champion changes that allow for the distribution of harm reduction tools.

Treatment

  • Implement and invest in policies and programs that expand Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) access beyond the office setting.
  • Implement and invest in evidence-based treatment and access models.
  • Maximize federal funding resources for treatment.
  • Assess state-level policies that restrict access.
  • Make all MOUD treatment forms available to those involved in the criminal legal system.

Recovery

  • Foster communities that support recovery.
  • Champion changes to policies to establish recovery residence standards.
  • Invest in small businesses and community-based organizations led by and employing people with lived experience who represent the communities they serve.

The roadmap goes into gritty, granular detail on each of these recommendations and policy-makers and advocates alike would be well advised to dig deeper. Overall, the NGA provides a progressive, evidence-based approach to dealing with drug overdoses. There is much to apply here.

OH to Vote on Marijuana Legalization in November, CA Natural Psychedelic Bill Advances, More... (8/17/23)

Oregon's governor has vetoed a bill that would have moved toward a state bank to serve marijuana businesses, a coalition of public health and drug reform groups calls out the way some of the opioid settlement money is being spent, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Ohio Will Vote on Marijuana Legalization in November. The Secretary of State's Office announced Wednesday that the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol had gathered sufficient valid voter signatures to qualify its marijuana legalization initiative for the November ballot. The group had originally come up short on signatures but used a 10-day window to find more signatures to go over the top.

The proposal would legalize the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana or 15 grams of extract by adults. It would also legalize the home cultivation of up to 12 plants. It also envisages a taxed and regulated market in legal marijuana, with retail pot sales taxed at 10 percent.

Nearly six in 10 state voters support marijuana legalization. If it passes in November, Ohio will become the 24th state to free the weed.

Oregon Governor Vetoes Bill to Create State Bank for Marijuana Businesses. Gov. Tina Kotek (D) has vetoed House Bill 2673, which would have created a State Bank Public Task Force as the first step in an effort to create a state-owned bank to help the state's legal marijuana industry. As in other states, the industry is blocked from accessing most financial institutions because marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

The bill would have directed the task force to make recommendations regarding the establishment of a state bank and directed the task force to investigate the provision of financial services for marijuana businesses.

In her veto message, Kotek wrote only that: "While the Governor supports exploring the creation of a state bank, this bill has several logistical challenges, including directing the Oregon Business Development Department (OBDD), which already manages over 80 programs, to manage a new task force, establish an RFP process, and finalize a substantive report on an abbreviated timeline."

Drug Policy

Organizations Oppose "Problematic" Use of Opioid Settlement Money, Want "Evidence-Based" Solutions. A coalition of more than 130 public health and reform groups is charging that the ways some states are using funds from massive settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors are "problematic" and is demanding that states use the settlement funds for "evidence-based solutions."

The coalition, which includes the Drug Policy Alliance and AIDS United, wants the funds to be used for easing access to all FDA-approved medications for addiction treatment (methadone, buprenorphine) and the whole panoply of harm reduction measures, including safe injection sites. They also call for expanding housing, outreach, and wraparound services for current drug users and people with drug convictions, and supporting second-chance employment opportunities, recovery-to-work programs, and expungement of criminal records.

"Secured through the suffering of people who use drugs and their loved ones, these funds should be used to help individuals directly impacted by the failed 'War on Drugs,'" according to a brief from the organizations. "Sadly, in many places, people are not seeing opioid settlement dollars put toward things that would actually improve their lives."

Based on the drug companies' role in the opioid addiction crisis of the past quarter-century, the settlements are estimated to amount to at least $50 billion over the next 18 years and require recipients to spend at least 85 percent of the funds to "abate the opioid epidemic." But the coalition points to a program in Louisian where 20 percent of the funding is going to sheriffs, one in Wyoming that is buying new police cruisers, and one in New York that is paying overtime for narcs as evidence that the terms of the settlement are not always being followed.

Psychedelics

California Natural Psychedelic Legalization Bill One Step Closer to Final Assembly Committee Vote. A bill that would legalize the possession and facilitated use of certain natural psychedelics is one step closer to a final Assembly committee vote after clearing a procedural hurdle Wednesday. The bill, Senate Bill 58, has already passed the upper house.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee advanced the measure to its suspense file, meaning it is set for final action to see whether it advances to the floor. That decision should come by September 1.

The bill would legalize the "possession, preparation, obtaining, transfer, as specified, or transportation of" specific amounts of psilocybin, psilocyn, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline for personal or facilitated use. The bill would legalize up to two grams of DMT, psilocybin, and psilocyn, as well as up to four ounces of "a plant or fungi containing psilocybin or psilocyn. It would also legalize the possession of up to 15 grams of ibogaine.

OR Governor Signs Addiction & Mental Health Bills, Fed Appeals Court Throws Out Drug User Gun Ban, More... (8/10/23)

New York sees its first marijuana farmers market open today, Australia sees its first federal marijuana legalization bill filed, and more.

The ban on drug users possessing firearms is now in doubt after a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
Marijuana Policy

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Ban on Drug Users Possessing Guns. The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has struck down a 1968 law that bars illegal drug users from possessing firearms. It was the latest blow to US gun laws after the Supreme Court last year changed the legal standard around gun restrictions.

"In short, our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person's right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage," Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. "Nor do more generalized traditions of disarming dangerous persons support this restriction on nonviolent drug users."

The ruling comes in the case of Patrick Daniels who was convicted of being a drug user in possession of a firearm after a traffic stop in which marijuana roaches and two loaded guns were found. The 5th Circuit's ruling only applies to Daniels, but open the door for other people convicted of that offense within the circuit to seek similar redress. The 5th Circuit includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

New York's First Marijuana Farmers Market Opens Today. The state's Cannabis Control Board announced Wednesday that the state's first marijuana farmers market will begin today in New Paltz in the Hudson River Valley. The activity is sanctioned under the board's new Cannabis Growers Showcases (CSG) program.

The New Paltz market includes licensed growers Queen Farms and Empire Farm 1830, as well as retailer Legacy Dispensers. It will be open Thursday and Friday afternoon and Saturdays from 1:00pm to 8:00pm. The market will continue through year's end or until a brick and mortar pot shop opens in the village.

At least for now, there is no onsite consumption, nor is alcohol being sold. Onsite marijuana consumption would require additional permits from the state Department of Public Health.

Drug Policy

Oregon Governor Signs Package of Addiction, Mental Health Bills. Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday signed into law six bills aimed at addressing the state's addiction and mental health problems.

"As your Governor, I am fighting for a behavioral health system that really does work across our state," Kotek said prior to signing the bills. "We do need to improve outcomes."

The bills are:

  • Senate Bill 1043, which directs hospitals to provide two doses of Narcan, the opioid reversal drug, upon discharge to patients with a substance use disorder.
  • House Bill 2395, which makes it easier to distribute Narcan to people who need it most.
  • Senate Bill 238, which directs the Oregon Health Authority, the Department of Education and Drug Policy Commission to create a curriculum on the dangers of certain drugs.
  • House Bill 2757, which better funds a coordinated crisis services system that includes suicide and mental health crisis hotlines.
  • House Bill 2513, which directs local planning committees to coordinate with local behavioral health networks on services provided to the community. The bill aims to target the slow rollout of Measure 110.
  • House Bill 3610, which creates a task force to study both alcohol pricing and addiction services.

International

Australia Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill Filed for First Time. For the first time, a federal marijuna legalization bill has been filed in Canberra. The bill was filed by Greens Party Sen. David Shoebridge.

"This is the first time a bill has been introduced to Federal Parliament that could, with the support of both houses, create a legal home grow and commercial cannabis market across the country," the Greens said.

About 80,000 Australians are arrested every year for marijuana possession.

"It's time to stop pretending that consumption of this plant, consumed each year by literally millions of Australians, should still be seen as a crime," Shoebridge said.

The bill comes after state legislatures in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia received bills from the Legalize Cannabis Party to legalize marijuana for personal use.

Bill Filed to Prepare Feds for Pot Legalization, Seattle Mayor Unveils New Plan on Open-Air Drug Use, More... (8/1/23)

Another Republican files another border fentanyl bill, Seattle's mayor has a plan to deal with open-air drug use, and more.

As part of a criminal justice reform bill signed into law by Gov. Pritzker (D), Illinois will reduce drug testing of parolees.
Marijuana Policy

Hickenlooper Reintroduces Bill to Prepare Federal Government for Marijuana Legalization. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) recently reintroduced the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-Prohibition Adult Use Regulated Environment (PREPARE) Act, a bill that directs the Attorney General to develop a framework for federal cannabis regulation. Though cannabis is currently illegal at the federal level, many states have followed Colorado's safe and legal model. The PREPARE Act establishes a federal commission, modeled after Colorado's regulatory commission, to advise the government on proper safeguards for federal cannabis legalization.

>"Colorado's is the model for a safe, well-regulated marijuana market," said Hickenlooper. "Let's build on that success with federal regulation."

The PREPARE Act-established federal commission would advise on the development of a federal regulatory framework modeled after state cannabis regulations, consider barriers and suggestions for regulating cannabis similar to alcohol, identify ways to remedy the disproportionate impact cannabis prohibition has had on minority, low-income, and veteran communities, and include representatives from relevant federal agencies and offices, individuals nominated by Senate and House leadership, industry representatives, and representatives of state and local governments.

Drug Policy

House Republican Files Bill to Confiscate Cartel Assets, Use Them to Pay for Border Wall. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) has filed the Build the Wall and Fight Fentanyl Act, which would allow US authorities to seize the assets of Mexican drug cartels and use them to construct a wall at the southern border and to fight fentanyl.

The measure would establish two funds at the Treasury Department, the "Southern Border Wall Fulfillment Fund" and the "Combating the Fentanyl Epidemic Fund." Both funds would be run by the Department of Homeland Security.

"Criminal drug traffickers have smuggled enough fentanyl into our country to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States, and tragically, too many families know the pain of losing a loved one to this deadly crisis. We must fight fire with fire to protect our families, our children, and our communities," Feenstra said in a statement.

According to the DEA, however, the vast majority of drugs smuggled into the US from Mexico go through ports of entry, not unwalled portions of the border.

Seattle Mayor Unveils New Proposal to Fight Open-Air Drug Use. Mayor Bruce Harrell (D) on Monday announced a new plan to cut down on open-air drug use in the city and increase access to addiction treatment. The plan will include guidance to police on when to make an arrest and make drug possession a gross misdemeanor, bringing the city into conformity with state law. The state's drug possession statute had to be redone after the state Supreme Court threw it out in the Blake case in 2021.

"What's the same is it adopts the state law that we call the post-Blake Fix, and under the post-Blake Fix, you may recall, the officers were required to give referrals before arrests were made," said Harrell. "The legislature came out with the fix. That's what's the same, is that we are adopting the state law. What's quite different is we went more specific on what an arrest looks like and what it should not look like. It also brings in the threat of harm standard, which makes it clear, that if people are a threat to others, if they are in an area where people are trying to catch the bus, or where they are trying to shop or bring their kids in a stroller, these areas need to be safe, and it gives us the ability to make arrests when they need to happen," said Mayor Harrell.

The plan also includes $27 million to invest in facilities, treatments and services to address the opioid crisis. The measure needs to be approved by city council members, which Harrell said he is confident will happen and before a two-week break at the end of the month.

Drug Testing

Illinois Governor Signs Bill to Limit Drug Testing of Parolees. Gov. JB Pritzker (D) has signed into law a criminal justice reform bill, Senate Bill 423, that limits drug testing of parolees, among other provisions.

"Today, I will sign legislation that focuses our Mandatory Supervised Release system on creating successful outcomes for those who were formerly incarcerated and improves the safety and peace of our communities," Pritzker said in a statement last Friday. "This legislation supports the reintegration of individuals into the community while lowering the possibility of recidivism, increasing public safety, and lowering taxpayer costs," he added.

Minneapolis Enacts Psychedelic Reform, Albania Legalizes Medical Marijuana, More... (7/24/23)

New York GOP politicos want to ban public pot smoking, California is paying meth users who test negative, and more.

Magic mushrooms are among the natural psychedelics that are now the lowest law enforcement priority in Minneapolis. (CC)
Marijuana Policy

New York Republicans Want to Ban Public Marijuana Use. Republican state lawmakers are calling for a ban on public marijuana smoking and have proposed a bill, Assembly Bill 7612, that seeks to achieve that end by allowing local governments to put bans in place at the county or municipal level. The bill also would require local governments to affirmatively act to allow public marijuana use.

"State residents, including children, are now regularly assailed with the pungent odor of marijuana on public sidewalks, in parking lots and other public spaces," said Sen. George Borrello (R), sponsor of the Senate version of the bill (Senate Bill 7604). "Many New Yorkers don't want to be exposed to either the effects of marijuana smoke or its smell and don't want their children subjected to it."

The Republican bills seek fines of up to $125 for public marijuana consumption.

Drug Treatment

California Fights Meth Addiction with Gift Cards. After receiving a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the state is beginning a pilot program in 24 counties to treat methamphetamine dependency by contingency management, a non-pharmaceutical intervention that reduces use by paying program participants who stay off the drug. Successful participants get gift cards for not testing positive for meth.

Without the federal waiver, the program had been blocked because the state could not cover the costs of the program. California is the first state in the nation to obtain such a waiver.

Among the localities participating in the pilot program are Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Francisco. In the latter city, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital opened enrollment for the pilot program last week and ultimately seeks to serve 50 participants. They will be tested once or twice a week and will receive a $10 gift card each time they test negative, up to $599. That's the limit because payments of $600 or more need to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

A similar program in the Department of Veterans Affairs has been ongoing since 2011 and has proven successful.

Psychedelics

Minneapolis Mayor Makes Psychedelics Lowest Law Enforcement Priority. Mayor Jacob Frey (DFL) last Friday issued an executive order making the use and possession of certain psychedelic drugs the lowest law enforcement priority. That makes the city the latest major city after Denver, Detroit, and Washington, DC, to adopt a more permissive stance toward psychedelics. A number of smaller cities have also enacted psychedelic reforms.

Frey said he hoped the move would contribute to national rethinking of prohibitionist drug laws and that it would draw attention to the role plant-based psychedelics can play for people dealing with depression, trauma and addiction.

"We have a mass proliferation of deaths of despair," he said, citing the nation's high rates of suicide and opioid abuse. "This is something that is known to help."

International

Albania Parliament Approves Medical Marijuana. The parliament last Friday voted 69-23 to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. It is not clear how it will be regulated, but the government believes legalizing it can boost tax revenues.

The country had been a leading illegal marijuana producing country in Europe, but after a police officer was killed raiding a marijuana operation in 2014, the government instituted a crackdown on the black market, which at the time accounted for more than two-thirds of the country's gross national product.

Biden Administration Rolls Out Plan to Confront Xylazine-Fentanyl Phenomenon [FEATURE]

In its latest move to confront the rapidly rising incidence of overdose deaths and other deleterious consequences of the combination use of the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine ("tranq") and fentanyl, the Biden administration on Tuesday released a National Response Plan to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to the threat.

The veterinary tranquilizer and pain reliever xylazine is bad news in combo with fentanyl. (NY OASAS)
The plan calls for a public health campaign of increased testing and treatment and more data collection to see how the drug combo spreads and contributes to overdose numbers. But it also calls for looking into whether to schedule xylazine and includes the reflex resort to law enforcement to try to suppress supply.

This is just the latest in a series of steps the administration has taken since late last year to address the emerging phenomenon. Last December, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office) head Dr. Rahul Gupta hosted a listening session with public health and public safety leaders and subject matter experts from several states and territories about trends they are seeing related to xylazine and efforts to address these trends. In January, Dr. Gupta convened the Evolving and Emerging Threats Committee to discuss the emergence of fentanyl adulterated with xylazine in the illicit drug supply.

In February, the Food and Drug Administration took action to restrict the unlawful entry of xylazine active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage form drug products into the country and in March, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public safety alert to warn the American public of a sharp increase in the trafficking of fentanyl mixed with xylazine. In April, Dr. Gupta named the xylazine-fentanyl combination an emerging public health threat, the first time such a designation has been used since Congress authorized it in 2018.

"Since we announced the emerging drug threat earlier this year, we've been working tirelessly to create the best plan of attack to address this dangerous and deadly substance head-on," said Dr. Gupta in a statement. "Now, with this National Response Plan, we are launching coordinated efforts across all of government to ensure we are using every lever we have to protect public health and public safety, and save lives. As a doctor, I have seen the devastating consequences of xylazine combined with fentanyl firsthand. And as President Biden's drug policy advisor, I am laser-focused on finding every tool we have and following the best evidence-based practices to take on this new challenge. This will be an all-hands-on-deck effort -- but I am confident we can take action together and eradicate this emerging threat."

Fentanyl first emerged as a significant actor in the illicit drug market in the early to mid-2010s, while xylazine entered the scene in the late 2010s. Now, xylazine has been detected in nearly every state in the country, and xylazine-involved overdose deaths are skyrocketing, albeit from very low initial levels. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported last month that the monthly percentage of fentanyl deaths with xylazine detected jumped from 2.9 percent in January 2019 to 10.9 percent in June 2022. CDC also found that the death rate from xylazine overdoses jumped 35-fold from 2018 to 2021.

Xylazine is a tranquilizer, not an opioid, and thus does not respond to opioid overdose reversal drugs such as naloxone. It also has other serious potential health effects, including wounds that may eventually require amputations, as well as breathing difficulties.

"If we thought fentanyl was dangerous, fentanyl combined with xylazine is even deadlier," Dr. Gupta said in a press call previewing the plan Monday.

But he warned that the plan will need Congress to step up with funding if it is to be be fully implemented. He noted that the Biden administration Fiscal Year 2024 budget request includes funding for emerging threats.

"We will do what we can with what we have until we get the resources from Congress," Dr. Gupta said. "It's a matter of utilizing what we have right now in order to save lives while we're encouraging Congress to pass the president's budget and provide those resources as quickly as possible. We're going to move ahead as quickly as possible because the fact is that lives are on the line."

The Punitive Prohibitionist Approach to Drug Use During Pregnancy is Killing Women [FEATURE]

How to deal with substance abuse during pregnancy is a fraught issue, generating harsh sanctions against pregnant women who use drugs or who lose their fetuses before birth and are drug users. According to data compiled by Pregnancy Justice, the advocacy group formerly known as National Advocates for Pregnant Women, prosecutors filed more than 1,300 criminal cases against pregnant women between 2006 and 2020, a rate of more than a hundred a year. They are almost always poor women of color.

Hardnosed prosecutors and child protection agencies enabled by state and federal laws use a number of techniques and statutes to go after pregnant women who use drugs. As compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, they include:

  • Making drug use during pregnancy a crime. Such laws have been upheld by state Supreme Courts in Alabama and South Carolina.
  • Several states have expanded their civil child-welfare requirements to include prenatal substance use, so that prenatal drug exposure can provide grounds for terminating parental rights because of child abuse or neglect.
  • Some states, under the rubric of protecting the fetus, authorize civil commitment (such as forced admission to an inpatient treatment program) of pregnant people who use drugs; these policies sometimes also apply to alcohol use or other behaviors.
  • A number of states require health care professionals to report or test for prenatal drug exposure, which can be used as evidence in child-welfare proceedings.
  • To receive federal child abuse prevention funds, states must require health care providers to notify child protective services when the provider cares for an infant affected by illegal substance use.

But now, a growing number of experts, including maternal/fetal specialists, federal health officials and people who treat addiction, are saying that such responses are counterproductive. Women who feel subject to prosecution may avoid health care entirely or may shy away from interventions such as a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with opioids such as methadone or buprenorphine, increasing their likelihood of fatal overdoses. Overdoses are a eading cause of preventable death among pregnant women.

A study published this week in the Maternal and Child Health Journal of 26 pregnant Massachusetts women found that the decision whether or not to use MAT "was entirely wrapped up in what happened with respect to mandated reporting to Child Protective Services at the time of delivery," according to Dr. Davida Schiff, the study author and an addiction medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The women underwent "intense anxiety and stress" about the threat they would be reported to child protective services.

"This has led to many women either deciding to not start life-saving medication during pregnancy or to wean off of that life-saving medication during pregnancy and really risk poor outcomes for themselves and their babies," Schiff said.

That someone is using drugs while pregnant "does not diagnose anyone's ability to parent," said Dr. Hendrée Jones, executive director of the University of North Carolina's Horizons Program, a drug treatment program. "I have a woman getting ready to deliver, and she is terrified that somehow they're going to find drugs in her system and Child Protective Services is going to be called and her baby's going to be snatched away," Jones said.

"Across the entire country, we're seeing a general trend toward more punitive policies, and those are kind of the policies that consider substance use during pregnancy to be child abuse or neglect," said Laura Faherty, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation.

The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Nora Volkow, also thinks things have gone too far.

"We should remove criminalization of women who are pregnant and taking drugs," she said. "That needs to stop. We know that mortality from overdoses is greater in women that are pregnant than counterparts of the same age that are not pregnant. This is extraordinarily important because it's telling us that there's something that is making these pregnant women more vulnerable."

The need for change from punitive prohibitionist policies is urgent. A 2019 study found that the rate of opioid-related diagnoses among pregnant women more than doubled between 2010 and 2017, with ongoing research suggesting another big increase after 2017. And a 2022 study found that the number of pregnant women and new mothers dying of drug overdoses reached a record high in 2020, nearly doubling to11.85 per 100,000 from 6.56 per 100,000 in 2017.

Punitive prohibitionist policies are not working. It is time for another approach.

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