A bid to condemn Canada's safe supply drug policy in British Columbia fails in Parliament, Vermont's governor signs an overdose prevention omnibus bill into law, and more.

An Ohio appeals court has ruled that pregnant women who use drugs cannot be prosecuted under a state law. (CC)

Minnesota Becomes 23rd Legal Marijuana State. With the signature Tuesday of Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) on a reconciled bill, the state became the 23rd to legalize marijuana and the second this year. Delaware legalized it earlier this year. Passage of the bill after years of effort came after the Democratic Farm Labor Party won majorities in both houses of the legislature. Marijuana use and possession will be legalized as of August 1, but it is likely to take a year or longer to get the state's legal marijuana commerce system up and running

Harm Reduction

Vermont Governor Signs Omnibus Overdose Prevention Bill into Law. Gov. Phil Scott (R) last Thursday signed into law an omnibus overdose prevention bill, House Bill 222. The move comes as the state sees its third year in a row of record drug overdose fatalities. The bill contains measures aimed directly at reducing overdoses, such as funding to launch drug-checking services around the state and providing for liability protection. It also contains provisions aimed at breaking down barriers to receiving drug treatment, such as reducing wait times for preauthorization for medication-assisted treatment and expanding the availability of recovery and sober living homes. The measures are being funded with $8 million the state received from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Pregnancy

Ohio Appeals Court Rules Law that Criminalizes Providing Drugs to Pregnant Women Does Not Apply to the Pregnant Woman Herself. Last week, Ohio's 5th District Court of Appeals ruled that it is not a crime for a pregnant women to administer illicit drugs to herself. The ruling came in the case of Muskingum County woman who was found guilty of violating a law that makes it a crime to "administer a controlled substance to a pregnant woman" after she confessed to injecting fentanyl in the hospital parking lot before entering the hospital to deliver her baby. In overturning the verdict, the appeals court held that the administration of drugs must be done by another person—not the pregnant woman herself. As a result, similar cases against four other women have been suspended and the woman in the original case has been released from prison. Prosecutors say they will appeal.

International

Canadian Conservatives' Motion to Condemn Liberals' Safe Supply Drug Policies Fails. A motion from Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre to condemn the Liberal federal government's drug policies, and especially its decision to fund the supply of pharmaceutical alternatives as alternatives to illicit street drugs in the province of British Colombia, failed to pass in the House of Commons last Friday. BC's safe supply approach comes as some 35,000 Canadians have died of drug overdoses since 2016. Poilievre argued that the "tax-funded drug supply" fueled addiction rather than recovery and suggesting diverting money from that program into drug treatment. His motion called on the House to "immediately reverse its deadly policies and redirect all funds from taxpayer-funded, hard drug programs to addiction, treatment and recovery programs." But the House didn't buy it. 

A North Dakota bill would increase monthly THC limits for medical marijuana patients, a South Dakota bill would bar pregnant or breast-feeding women from getting medical marijuana cards, and more.

The Mexican military can't handle the cartels and the US military should help, a GOP congressman says. (Creative Commons)

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Wins First Committee Vote. A Democratic marijuana legalization bill, House File 100, was approved on a voice vote in the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee Wednesday and has now been referred to the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee, the second of what could be as many as a dozen committee hurdles. The bill would allow people 21 and over to possess up to two ounces in public and up to five pounds at a residence, as well as allowing the gifting of amounts up to those limits. It also allows for the home cultivation of four mature and four immature plants, and it would set up a system of taxed and licensed marijuana commerce.

Medical Marijuana

North Dakota Senate Approves Bill to Raise Patients' 30-Day THC Limit. The Senate has approved Senate Bill 2068, which increases the amount of THC in products such as tinctures and lotions that patients may purchase in a 30-day period. The limit is currently 4,000 milligrams, and the bill originally would have doubled that to 8,000 milligrams, but bill sponsor Sen. Kristin Roers (R-Fargo) amended it down to 6,000 milligrams after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 for a "do not pass" recommendation. The measure now heads to the House.

South Dakota Bill Would Bar Pregnant or Breast-Feeding Women from Access to Medical Marijuana. Anti-marijuana and anti-abortion zealot Rep. Fred Deutsch (R-Florence) has filed a bill that would block the Health Department from issuing medical marijuana cards to pregnant or breast-feeding women, House Bill 1053. The bill has been referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee. Deutsch served as treasurer for Protecting South Dakota Kids, a ballot measure committee that successfully opposed the 2022 marijuana legalization initiative and he also is a past president of South Dakota Right to Life, an anti-abortion group.

Foreign Policy

GOP Congressman Will File Bill to Authorize Use of Military Force Against Mexican Cartels. US Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) said over the weekend that he plans to introduce a bill that would authorize the use of certain US military capabilities against drug trafficking organization in Mexico. "They are defeating the Mexican army. These are paramilitary entities with billions and billions at their disposal," he said during an appearance on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures. But he specified that his proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Forces would not include placing the US military in combat in Mexico: "I'm not talking about US troops. But I am talking about cyber, drones, intelligence assets, naval assets." Former president Donald Trump also recently called for using US special forces, cyber warfare and other capabilities to "inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations." The Trump administration also considered designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and a bill to the effect has been filed in the Senate.

A federal appeals court shoots down yet another effort to move marijuana off Schedule I, new research finds prentant Black women are more likely to be tested for marijuana, and more.

The annual list of naughty and nice drug producing and trafficking nations is released. (Creative Commons)

Federal Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to Marijuana's Schedule I Classification. A group of defendants who had been convicted on federal marijuana charges had their bid to have the substance removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act shot down by the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals at the end of August. They had argued that the scheduling of marijuana had no rational basis because it does not meet the criteria for a Schedule I drug and the court should "strike the offending statutory classification as unconstitutional"and leave reclassification to Congress. But the appeals disagreed, ruling that there is a "conceivable basis" for the classification.

Blacks Disproportionately Drug Tested for Marijuana During Labor, Analysis Finds. A study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that patients ordered to undergo marijuana-specific drug screening during the labor and delivery process are disproportionately Black and are also likely to be on subsidized health insurance plans. The research assessed drug screening practices at one St. Louis hospital and found doctors ordered marijuana-related drug tests in 753 patients out of just under 4,000 deliveries. Seventy percent of those subjected to testing were Black. Marijuana tests were also more likely for those patients who were younger or on public insurance. Most subjected to testing came up negative, but of those who did positive, 90 percent were referred to child welfare authorities, even though there were no statistically significant differences between them and other mothers in terms of preterm birth rates or other indicators of natal health.

"Isolated marijuana use was a poor predictor of other substance exposure in our cohort, but a urine drug screening test result positive for marijuana exposed a historically underserved population that is already subject to pervasive systemic racism in the medical field to further stigmatization without changing outcomes. The utility of using isolated marijuana use as a criterion for urine drug screening appears limited in benefit but rife with inequitable potential to harm and should be carefully reconsidered in labor and delivery units for necessity," the authors concluded.

Drug Treatment

California Governor Signs Forced Drug Treatment Bill. To the dismay of drug reform and mental health advocates, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law Senate Bill 1338, the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Act, which create a civil court system in all counties that would force people who are experiencing substance use disorder and other mental health issues to undergo an involuntary court process and treatment plan. Although the CARE Act sailed through the legislature, the proposal was opposed by a wide range of advocates who feel it is a huge step in the wrong direction. It will take away people’s basic right to make their own decisions and force them into court-mandated treatment programs, which have been shown to often exacerbate harms while worsening existing health disparities and the overrepresentation of people of color in the criminal legal system. The CARE Act will fail to meet the urgent needs of our communities or offer a path to effective evidence-based treatment, recovery and other health services for Californians who are unhoused, struggling with substance use disorder, or experiencing other mental health issues, they argued.

Foreign Policy

White House Issues Annual List of Major Drug Trafficking and Producing Countries; Contains the Usual Suspects. The White House has released its annual Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2023 and has identified the following countries as major transit or drug producing countries: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. The annual exercise also designated four countries—Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela—as "having failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts during the previous 12 months to both adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements." Notably, all four of these countries are political foes of the US, unlike major drug producing and trafficking countries such as Colombia and Mexico, which are US allies.

Grassley, Whitehouse Lead Senate Caucus in Issuing Report onStrategies to Combat Money Laundering By Drug Cartels. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RR), Chairman of the caucus, havereleased a bipartisan report entitled: Strengthening U.S. Efforts to Attack the Financial Networks of Cartels. The report offers recommendations for Congress and the Biden administration to reduce the supply of illicit drugs by closing loopholes in the U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) framework that enable narcotics traffickers to obscure and access their illicit proceeds.Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control members Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and James Risch (R-ID) have also endorsed the report.

Its recommendations include: Help partner nations strengthen their institutions to better defend against corruption and implement justice sector reforms; better track whole-of-government efforts to combat narcotics-related illicit finance;  deploy experts in narcotics-related illicit finance to assist partner nations; authorize innovative and effective programs to combat international money laundering, such as Trade Transparency Units; use regulatory authorities to close loopholes in the U.S. AML framework, including by: ensuring greater transparency in the cross-border transportation of stored value or prepaid access devices, and fully implementing the beneficial ownership requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act; aggressively investigate, prosecute, and pursue the maximum allowable criminal penalties for culpable banks, employees, and executives who fail to timely report suspicious transactions; and address vulnerabilities in the AML framework by swiftly enacting the Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Finance, and Counterfeiting Act. The report does not explain how these proposals to deepen the drug war would lead to any different result than decades of previous prohibitionist measures. 

Germany moves to ban an LSD derivative, a new pol lhas the Missouri marijuana legalization initiative trailing, and more. 

Alabama routinely holds pregnant women drug offenders in jail without bond. (Creative Commons)

Missouri Poll Has Legalization Initiative Trailing. The constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana, Amendment 3, faces an uphill fight, according to a new poll from the Remington Research Group and Missouri Scout. That poll had 43 percent in favor of the initiative with 47 opposed and 11 percent undecided. But Legal Missouri, the group behind the initiative, pointed out that previous polling had shown majority support for legalization and that this "same pollster and political newsletter predicted medical cannabis might not pass in 2018, weeks before 66 percent of Missourians voted for it on the ballot." Still, the poll numbers are concerning

Drug Testing

New Jersey Judge Throws Out More Than 2,000 Cases Where Drug Tests Were Mishandled. Superior Court Judge Edward Jerejian has dismissed more than 2,000 drug charges after a review spurred by a mishandled drug analyses at a State Police laboratory. The same judge initiated the review in 2016 after a lab worker reported that a technicians was filing test results without actually testing the samples. The review spanned more than 10,000 drug charges over 10 years and found more than 2,000 cases that merited dismissal. People who had charges dismissed may be eligible for reimbursement. The lab tech responsible retired before the probe began and was never charged. The review has caused the State Police to adopt more strenuous drug testing methods using mass spectrometry and gas chromatography.

Pregnancy

Alabama Routinely Holds Pregnant Women Arrested for Drug Offenses in Jail Until Trial to Protect Fetuses. Under state law, pregnant women arrested for drug offenses are not allowed to post bail and must stay in state custody—either in jail or drug treatment—until giving birth. Alabama leads the nation in imprisoning pregnant women who have drug charges but is hardly alone, and Etowah County is a real hotbed. It has jailed 150 pregnant women in recent years and is currently holding 12 behind bars.

The trend of imprisoning pregnant and postpartum women for supposedly endangering their fetuses is growing nationwide. According to National Advocates for Pregnant Women, there where 413 pregnancy prosecutions from 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided, until 2005. But since then, there have been more than 1,300 more cases. Now, in the post-Roe era, expect more such prosecutions, said NAFPW's Afsha Malik. "We know that we’re going to see more examples of pregnant people being criminalized for behavior that may be [seen as] justified for the general public, like using substances," she said. "[Other] cases that we’ve seen are going to accelerate, like [for] falling down the stairs, having a home birth, not seeking prenatal care, having HIV, having a self-induced abortion, and experiencing a pregnancy loss.”

International

Germany Moves to Ban LSD Derivative. The federal government has sent a draft ordinance banning 1-V-L-LSD, a derivative of LSD, to the Bunderat, where it is set to be discussed on Friday. It would add the substance to an existing ban on new psychoactive substances. It is currently available in shops and online. "The substance 1-V-LSD is a substance with a psychedelic effect, which is converted to LSD when it passes through the body and is already represented on the drug market for purposes of abuse," the draft says. Drug Commissioner Burkhard Blienert said people supplying the drug were "unscrupulous players in the drug market"and