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SAFER Banking Act Heads for Senate Floor Vote, Scottish Safe Injection Site Approved, More... (9/27/23)

The US and Colombian governments lay out areas of agreement in drug policy, new research shows that drug decriminalization did not increase overdoses in Oregon and Washington--but did cause arrests to drop--and more. 

The Senate is set to vote on a long-awaited marijuana banking bill. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

SAFER Banking Act Passes Senate Banking Committee, Heads for Floor Vote. The long-desired bill aimed at opening the banking and financial sector to state-legal marijuana businesses is moving. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to approve the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act (S.2860), clearing the way for a Senate floor vote.

"Forcing legal businesses to operate in all-cash is dangerous for our communities ... passing the SAFER Banking Act through committee is a historic moment in this body," said bill sponsor Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

"At this juncture, we believe this piece of legislation is ready for prime time after having had seven votes out of the House in the past," said Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve Cannabis. "Realizing this first vote out of the Senate signals strong bipartisan support from both chambers of Congress."

Drug Policy

Decriminalizing Drug Possession Not Linked to Higher Overdose Death Rates in Oregon or Washington. In recent months, several media outlets have investigated an Oregon law that decriminalized possession of small amounts of controlled substances, including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, for some persons. The articles have included information suggesting that the law may be responsible for continued increases in overdose deaths.

Wednesday, new research led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine published online in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that in Oregon and Washington, two states that implemented drug decriminalization policies in early 2021, there is no evidence of an association between decriminalization and fatal drug overdose rates.

The findings are the result of a collaboration between the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policyy at NYU Langone, the Network for Public Health Law, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The research team’s goal was to investigate whether fully or partially decriminalizing drug possession changed rates of overdose deaths in either state in the first year after the policy change.

"Our analysis suggests that state decriminalization policies do not lead to increases in overdose deaths," said Corey Davis, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, a member of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy, and the study’s senior investigator.

Another study published by Davis and colleagues last month found that the Oregon and Washington decriminalization policies dramatically reduced arrests for drug possession and did not lead to increased arrests for violent crimes.

"These two studies show that drug decriminalization measures in Oregon and Washington reduced arrests and did not increase overdose deaths. Taken together, these findings signal reduced harm to people who use drugs and possibly their communities as well," said Davis.

Foreign Policy

US, Colombia Counternarcotics Working Group Issues Joint Statement. After the third meeting of the US-Colombia Counternarcotics Working Group Monday and Tuesday, the two governments issued a joint statement touting their "common efforts to address the development of this group’s work, taking into account the strengthening of democracy, the fight against corruption, the protection of human rights, peace efforts, climate action, public health, and a comprehensive approach to address the global drug problem."

The two governments called for "an approach based on public health and human security, with a long-term vision focused on saving lives and building a better future."

In particular, both parties agreed to the following:

  • Increase interdiction efforts in both countries, significantly increase joint training, capacity building activities, and intelligence sharing to strengthen Colombia’s ability to combat transnational organized crime and multi-crime groups and enhance human security.
  • Expand efforts to combat money laundering and crimes against natural resources and the environment.
  • Reaffirm the will of both governments to continue cooperation to confront the global drug problem, including issues related to criminal activities associated with cocaine and synthetic drugs.
  • With regard to rural security, strengthen and increase judicial and police presence in rural areas.
  • Strengthen the implementation of strategies aimed at promoting the transition to licit economies in rural areas and Areas of Special Environmental Importance, such as the 3T model (Titling, Transition, Transformation) in municipalities to be prioritized for the implementation of a holistic approach to territorial transformation.
  • Provide licit economic development opportunities as alternatives to illicit crops, in conjunction with continued strategic eradication efforts.
  • Implement strategies to reduce the consumption of psychoactive substances and their associated impacts.
  • Strengthen metrics measuring the underlying causes of drug production and the dismantling of transnational narco-trafficking criminal networks.
  • Continue to work with the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law and Ministry of Foreign Affairs towards identifying a coordination mechanism for the bilateral holistic strategy within the Colombian government.

International

Scottish Authorities Approve UK's First Safe Injection Site. Authorities in Glasgow have approved the first safe injection site in the United Kingdom. Glasgow's Integration Joint Board, which consists of National Health Service representatives and council officials, approved the planned facility Wednesday.

There is an opening target date of next summer for what will be a three-year pilot program.

The facility will "reduce drug-related harms" for individuals as well as providing them with "opportunities for treatment, care and recovery," said Dr Saket Priyadarshi, associate medical director of Glasgow alcohol and drug recovery services.

A safe injection site has been discussed for years to address the estimated 400-500 people injecting drugs in the city center and was able to move forward now after Scotland's senior law officer said users would not be prosecuted for possessing drugs while at the facility and the Home Office in London said it would not interfere.

Revised Weed Banking Bill Filed, Scottish Safe Injection Site Location Revealed, More... (9/21/23)

A House panel approves the CURE Act to protect past marijuana users from federal employment discrimination, the new Thai minister vows to roll back marijuana decriminalization, and more.

Marijuana is on the agenda on Capitol Hill. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Revised, Renamed Version of Marijuana Banking Bill Filed, Committee Vote Set for Next Wednesday. The bill aiming to pave the way for providing financial services to state-legal marijuana businesses known as the Safe and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act has now been revised and renamed the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act and is headed for a key Senate committee vote next Wednesday.

Sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT), the revised bill was filed Wednesday, is set for mark-up in the Senate Banking Committee, and after that, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says he intends to "bring it to the floor with all due speed."

But despite apparent clear skies in the Senate, the future is a bit cloudier in the House, where a key committee chairman has not committed to allowing it a vote.

Among the key changes to the bill: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation gets one year instead of 180 days to develop guidance for financial institutions, regulators must have a "valid" reason for requesting or requiring the termination of bank accounts for any business, regulators must work with state and federal counterparts to create rules or guidance for pot businesses to increase deposit accounts within two years, FDIC must conduct a biennial survey and report to identify barriers to accessing deposit accounts for small-and medium-sized businesses, and the words "diversity and inclusion" have been remove from section titles, even though required reports on data concerning small and minority-, veteran- and women-owned businesses are still in the bill.

Federal Bill to Remove Marijuana as Barrier to Federal Employment, Security Clearances Wins Committee Vote. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee voted Wednesday to approve the Cannabis Users' Restoration of Eligibility (CURE) Act (HR 5040). The bill would prevent the denial of federal employment or security clearances based on a candidate’s past marijuana use.

The bipartisan bill cosponsored by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Nancy Mace (R-NC), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) passed on a 30-14 vote, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats in approving it.

The version of the bill approved in committee removed a provision that blocked federal employment and security clearance denials for current marijuana use, leaving the bill addressing only past marijuana use.

International

Scottish Safe Injection Site Pilot Scheme Location Revealed. The proposed safe injection pilot project for the country will be located at the Hunter Street Health Center in the east end of Glasgow. The center already provides a heroin assisted-treatment service.

The safe injection site is becoming a reality after the country's top lawyer officer said users would not be prosecuted for simple possession offenses and the United Kingdom in government in London has said it would not block the scheme.

Glasgow authorities just received a report that found safe injection sites have been shown to "reduce public injecting and discarded needles, and remove barriers to, and improve the uptake into, treatment and care." The report also noted that the Hunter Street Health Center site "offers a discrete base, closely located to the city center, and implementation of the enhanced drug treatment service within the center has not caused significant challenges for the community."

Thailand to Restrict Marijuana Use, New Prime Minister Says, After Decriminalization Last Year. After thousands of pot shops have opened across the country since it decriminalized marijuana a year ago, the new Thai prime minister is vowing to restrict the use of marijuana to medical purposes.

"The law will need to be rewritten," Prime Minister Srettha Thavasin said. "It needs to be rectified. We can have that regulated for medical use only," he said, adding that there can’t be a middle ground for recreational use.

Srettha's Pheu Thai Party ran a hardline anti-drug campaign and vowed to undo decriminalization, but his party is part of an 11-party governing coalition, and some of his partners have different ideas. One partner party, for example, wants tighter control over the industry but not reverting to classifying the plant as a drug.

The industry is not that concerned because it is convinced the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. "More regulation will be good as we don’t want a free-for-all anyway," Poonwarit said Poonwarit Wangpatravanich, president of the Phuket Cannabis Association. "Cannabis is here to stay, but in what status is not yet clear."

Narcan Maker Blocked OTC Sales to Boost Profits, AZ Weed Workers Strike, More... (9/18/23)

A proposed California initiative would warn fentanyl dealers they could be charged with murder in the event of an overdose death, clashes kill four Colombian soldiers ahead of scheduled peace talks with leftist rebels, and more.

Did profits matter more than lives for Emergent BioSolutions? (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Arizona Pot Workers On Strike Against Curaleaf. Workers at Curaleaf's Dispensary Midtown in Phoenix voted more than a year ago to unionize and seek a labor agreement with the company, but that has not happened yet. Instead Curaleaf has refused to begin union negotiations and fired worker Christian Tallabas for his union activity, so on Friday the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99 led a day-long Unfair Labor Practices strike.

"It really grinds my gears how we have corporate from Curaleaf standing right behind this window," said Tallabas at a rally in front of the dispensary. "I personally think it is really disgusting and you should see the look on their faces. "We deserve to know what percentage of our tips we make when our customer service is making this company millions of dollars," he said.

"Not only do we not have a contract despite it being over a year, but there's so many different labor violations already on the books that the National Labor Relations Board has found that Curaleaf is responsible for," said Curaleaf employee Nick Fredrickson.

Joining the UFCW and Curaleaf workers at the rally were representatives of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Opiates and Opioids

California Initiative Would Warn Fentanyl Dealers They Could Be Charged with Murder. Organized by parents who have lost children to drug overdoses, an initiative that would warn fentanyl sellers they could be charged with murder in the event of a fatal overdose has been filed with the state attorney general. Judges would be required to tell people convicted of, or who pleads guilty or no contest to, possession of illicit drugs for sale, this:

"You are hereby advised that it is extremely dangerous and deadly to human life to illicitly manufacture, distribute, sell, furnish, administer, or give away any drugs in any form, including real or counterfeit drugs or pills. You can kill someone by engaging in such conduct. All drugs and counterfeit pills are dangerous to human life. These substances alone, or mixed, kill human beings in very small doses. If you illicitly manufacture, distribute, sell, furnish, administer or give away any real counterfeit drugs or pills, and that conduct results in the death of a human being, you could be charged with homicide, up to and including the crime of murder."

The proposed initiative also includes criminal penalties of 10 to 12 years for a subsequent conviction or guilty plea.

The initiative campaign comes after grieving parents were unable to get a bill to the same effect through the legislature. The bipartisan bill had 41 cosponsors but died in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

"This is a disgusting display of a legislative committee holding hostage 40 million people and their safety and security, all in the name of political, ideological gameplay," fumed Matt Capelouto, who lost a daughter to a fentanyl overdose. "What all of us want here is to protect people from the enduring, the never-ending pain of someone being killed by a drug dealer selling poison. And they won’t do it. They won’t even pass a bill that contains a warning — a freaking warning."

The initiative takes the form of a statutory amendment, which means it will need some 874,641 valid voter signatures within 180 days of the beginning of signature-gathering, or by the first week of July 2024 at the latest.

Harm Reduction

Narcan Maker Blocked OTC Sales for Years in Bid to Boost Profits. Emergent BioSolutions, the manufacturer of the opioid overdose reversal product Narcan, has finally allowed it to be sold over-the-counter (OTC), but only after delaying for five years.

"I’m not sure that OTC is the answer," Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, then Emergent’s top executive, told investors during a November 2018 earnings call. In December 2018, the company’s then president, Robert Kramer, cautioned "against a rush to an over-the-counter solution for this current crisis," citing concerns about Narcan awareness and insurance coverage.

But the head of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said the bottom line was profits. "I think the problem is that the financial model doesn’t appear to be working for the company, so they’re not motivated to do it," FDA head Robert Califf said at a 2022 conference. "We can’t order companies to go over-the-counter."

Emergent only relented late last year after a competitor prepared its own bid for OTC approval of naloxone. That came after Emergent spent years using the courts and regulatory agencies to stop other naloxone products from entering the market. It had also moved to lock up lucrative state contracts, "hindering broader distribution of the antidote while the opioid crisis worsened," the Washington Post reported Monday.

"It’s a strategy that’s cost lives," said Jennifer Plumb, a doctor and Democratic state senator in Salt Lake City who serves as medical director of the Utah naloxone program.

International

Four Colombian Soldiers Killed in Clash with FARC Dissidents Ahead of Peace Talks. Peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC dissidents known as Estado Mayor Central were set to begin Monday, but their prospects were clouded by a weekend clash that left four soldiers dead.

The Estado Mayor Central broke with the FARC in 2016, when the main body of the leftist guerrilla group signed a peace agreement with the government and has been involved in coca and cocaine trafficking. They had agreed in April to hold talks with the government about a ceasefire.

The soldiers were killed in a clash in Narino, close to the Ecuadorian border and the region of the country with the most coca production. Colombia is the world's largest producer of coca and cocaine. Control over the lucrative drug traffic has fomented conflict in the area for decades, where left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and apolitical drug cartels spend their time fighting each other and the Colombian state.

SAFE Banking Act Committee Vote Coming Soon, BC Bans Drug Possession Near Parks, Playgrounds, More... (9/15/2023)

Fentanyl in stimulants like meth and cocaine is driving a fourth wave of opioid overdoses, Vancouver's pioneering safe injection site marks 20 years in service, and more.

The InSite safe injection site in Vancouver, which marks 20 years of operation this week. (PCS Community Services Society)
Marijuana Policy

Senate Banking Committee Set to Vote on SAFE Banking Act by Month's End. The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote on the SAFE Banking Act (S.1323) on September 27, "a Senate source familiar with the discussions" told Marijuana Moment Friday.

That source confirmed earlier media reports that the vote was coming. The date is not yet official, so it could change, but the expectation is that it will take place the week of September 25, the source said.

What amendments—if any—will be offered or adopted remains unclear, although there has been talk about revisions to a key section on broad banking regulations, as well as changes concerning Small Business Administration access and stock uplisting for the marijuana industry.

Drug Policy

Fentanyl-Adulterated Meth and Cocaine Is Driving a Fourth Wave of Drug Overdoses. A study published Thursday in the scientific journal Addiction finds that drug overdoses involving both fentanyl and cocaine or methamphetamine have increased 50-fold since 2010, now account for nearly one-third (32 percent) of all fatal overdoses and are responsible for some 35,000 deaths.

"We're now seeing that the use of fentanyl together with stimulants is rapidly becoming the dominant force in the U.S. overdose crisis," said Joseph Friedman, the lead author of the study and a researcher at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. "Fentanyl has ushered in a polysubstance overdose crisis, meaning that people are mixing fentanyl with other drugs, like stimulants, but also countless other synthetic substances."

The authors described the phenomenon as a "fourth wave" of the ongoing opioid crisis that began with the rise in prescription opioids around the turn of the century, followed by the rise of heroin around 2010 as authorities tightened the screws on prescription opioid prescribing and the arrival of fentanyl around 2013.

International

Vancouver's Safe Injection Marks 20 Years in Operation This Week. Vancouver Coastal Health and the PHS Community Services Society, the two groups that run InSite, the city's pioneering safe injection site—the first one in North America—are celebrating 20 years of operation this week. On Friday, they met in front of the East Hastings Street location to commemorate the occasion.

"Insite was a really important step forward in terms of drug policy and harm reduction, and to be here 20 years after we opened, it just feels incredible," said Jeff West, manager of harm reduction for Vancouver Coastal Health. "Not only was Insite important to the community as a safe space, a symbol of a more progressive drug policy, it also is a really important public health intervention," said West.

PHS first set up InSite as an unsanctioned site and only later got permission from Health Canada to operate, but it has been there ever since. And it has done so with the approval of local, provincial, and federal authorities, as well as Vancouver Police and the Coastal Health Authority. It survived a challenge from the Conservative national government of Stephen Harper, which was slapped down by the Supreme Court.

"Insite saves lives. Its benefits have been proven," wrote Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin in her decision.

British Columbia to Ban Drug Use Near Parks and Playgrounds. The province has decriminalized the possession of personal use amounts of illicit drugs in a bid to get a grip on the overdose crisis, but now British Columbia Premier David Eby legislation is being drafted to ban drug use near parks and playgrounds.

The provincial Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions said Thursday that the federal government had approved the changes expanding the are where drug possession remains illegal.

Drug possession was already prohibited on school grounds and at child care facilities, but as of next Monday, it will also be prohibited within 15 meters of playgrounds, water parks, and skate parks.

Public intoxication remains a crime.

"I hope and expect that people, even when struggling with addiction, will understand the importance that we've all got to live in the community together, and if there's a place that's funded and safe and appropriate to use, that you should be going to that health-care site rather than to a site that's used by children," Premier Ebe said.

Mark Haden, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health, said in an interview Thursday that the province is "tweaking" its decriminalization policy "in response to some pushback from mayors who are saying 'this isn't working particularly well for us because it's disempowering the police.'"

Haden said the province's move is not "dealing with the real problem of prohibition." "We have a supply-chain problem that decriminalization isn't resolving," he said. "It's the supply-chain problem that's actually killing people."

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.

MN Supreme Court Rules Weed Odor No Cause for Search, Scottish Safe Injection Site Plans, More... (9/13/23)

Nebraska advocates kicked off their third campaign for a medical marijuana initiative on Wednesday, a pair of psychedelic amendments to the defense spending bill will get a House floor vote, and more.

The odor of marijuana alone is not probable cause for a vehicle search, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled. (Creative Commons
Marijuana Policy

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Weed Odor Alone Does Not Justify a Vehicle Search. The state Supreme Court has ruled that that the mere odor of marijuana does not establish probable cause for police to search a vehicle. The state now becomes the latest marijuana legalization state to see such a ruling.

The ruling came in the case of a Litchfield man was pulled over in 2021 for having "too many auxiliary lights on his grill." Two police officers claimed they smelled marijuana coming from an open car window. The man denied having marijuana and police search of the vehicle turned none up, but it did turn up a small amount of methamphetamine, for which the man was charged.

The trial court noted that the man was not driving erratically, nor was there any evidence of a crime in plain view when police approached the car and ruled the search inadmissible. (Even though the state did not legalize marijuana until this year, at the time of the search, medical marijuana was legal and pot possession was decriminalized.

The state appealed the decision to the appeals court and lost and then to the state Supreme Court, where it has now lost again.

Medical Marijuana

Nebrasksa Medical Marijuana Proponents Hope Third Time Is the Charm. Backers of a proposed 2024 medical marijuana ballot initiative kicks off their campaign in Lincoln Wednesday. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is hoping the third time is the charm after a first effort was sidelined by the state Supreme Court and a second effort ran short on signatures after losing a major donor.

The group’s co-chairs, State Senator Anna Wishart and former State Senator Adam Morfeld, are meeting with patients, families, caregivers, and volunteers in an initial fundraiser.

To qualify for the 2024 ballot, campaigners will need to come up with 87,000 valid voter signatures by the first week of July 2024.

Psychedelics

House Committee Clears Psychedelic Amendments to Defense Bill for Floor Vote. The House Rules Committee on Tuesday declared that two psychedelic amendments to the defense spending bill are in order, meaning they can advance to House floor votes. But the committee also blocked separate marijuana-related amendments from advancing.

One of the psychedelic amendments, from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), would allow active-duty service members suffering from PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury to participate in clinical trials of the efficacy of psychedelic substances. The second, from Crenshaw and Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), would appropriate $15 million in funding for the Pentagon's Psychedelic Medical Clinical Trials.

While Republican-led committee advanced the psychedelic amendments sponsored by fellow Republicans, it blocked the marijuana amendments that came from Democrats. One would have ended the disqualification of potential enlistees for THC; the other would have barred federal funds for marijuana testing upon enlistment.

International

Scottish Safe Injection Site Could Be Approved Within Weeks. After Scotland's Lord Advocate, the Scottish government's highest legal official, confirmed that users of a proposed safe injection would not be prosecuted, the proposed pilot scheme is set to be approved by local officials—the next step toward its realization.

Scottish drugs minister Elena Whitman told members of the Scottish Parliament Tuesday that the plan would go before the city’s integrated joint board of council and health officials on 27 September, where it is expected to be approved and put out to public consultation.

While the Conservative government in London sets drug policy for the United Kingdom, it is the Scottish Lord Advocate who decides whether to prosecute.

Lord Advocate Bain said she believed it would "not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility."

The Scottish government and the Glasgow city council, both of which are led by the Scottish National Party, have been supportive of a pilot project for years, but now Scottish Labor, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish Greens are all on board, and the Scottish Tories have agreed not to try to block the proposal.

Latin American Countries Call for Drug War "Rethink," GOP Reps Tell DEA Not to Reschedule Pot, More... (9/12/23)

A California bill allowing pot shops to sell food and drink goes to the governor, a new report from Harm Reduction International tracks US and EU aid that goes to support the drug war, and more.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro continues to press for a new drugs approach. (Creative Commons)

Marijuana Policy

Fourteen GOP Lawmakers Tell DEA to Ignore HHS Recommendation, Keep Marijuana Schedule I. A dirty dozen plus two Republican House and Senate members have sent a letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram calling on her to reject a recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services to down-schedule the drug. Instead, the conservative lawmakers wrote, marijuana should remain on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

The lead authors on the letter were Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX). They were joined by Sens. Michael Rounds (R-SD), James Risch (R-ID), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Budd (R-NC), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), as well as Reps. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Hal Rogers (R-KY), Buddy Carter (R-GA) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

Any decision to reschedule marijuana "should be based on proven facts and science—not popular opinion, changes in state laws, or the preferred policy of an administration," they wrote, ignoring HHS's science-based review that led to the call for down-scheduling.

"It is irresponsible for HHS to recommend that marijuana be removed from Schedule I. It would also be irresponsible for DEA to act on this recommendation," the letter concludes. "Our country relies on DEA to enforce our nation’s drug laws. We ask you to uphold your mission by rejecting any effort to remove marijuana from Schedule I."

California Marijuana Café Bill Heads to Governor's Desk. After a final concurrence vote in the Assembly to approve amendments made in the Senate, the legislature on Tuesday approved Assembly Bill 374, which would allow marijuana retailers to offer food and drinks in they get local approval. It now heads to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

The bill would let local governments authorize the preparation and sell of non-marijuana food and drinks. Sale of alcohol would continue to be prohibited, as would the smoking of tobacco.

The bill would also authorize "live musical or other performances on the premises of a retailer or microbusiness licensed under this division in the area where the consumption of cannabis is allowed, and the sale of tickets for those performances."

International

Led By Colombia and Mexica, 19 Latin American and Caribbean Nations Call for Rethink of War on Drugs. After meeting at the Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Drugs over the weekend, 19 Latin American and Caribbean nations have signed onto a joint statement calling for a rethinking of the war on drugs and instead focusing on "life, peace and development" within the region.

Under the current prohibitionist approach to drug policy, "the expected results have not been obtained when combating the world drug problem, leaving in many cases the underlying problems to be solved and exploiting and exacerbating vulnerabilities of our territories and societies."

The governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela all signed on.

Colombia and Mexico "are the biggest victims of this policy," said Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who likened the drug war to "genocide."

"What I propose is to have a different and unified voice that defends our society, our future and our history and stops repeating a failed discourse," Petro said. He argued that it was wrong to look at drug control "as a military problem and not as a health problem in society."

Supply-side solutions have been counterproductive, he argued. "Every dollar that is dedicated to cutting the supply makes the price grow," he said. "If the price increases, drug traffickers have more money to buy rifles, to buy armored vehicles, to buy missiles, to buy politicians, to buy senators, to buy generals, to buy judges, to buy presidents."

"The fundamental thing to face the scourge of drug addiction and violence is to address the causes, with a new criterion, not to think only of coercive measures," López Obrador, the Mexican president, said at the conference. "We have to put first the criterion that peace is the result of justice. We have to fight first against poverty, against inequality."

America and European Union Have Spent a Billion Dollars in Past Decade to Fight Drug War, Fueling Human Rights Abuses, New Report Finds. Between 2012 and 2021, the US and the European Union spent nearly a billion dollars of their budgets on programs supporting drug control policies, fueling human rights abuses as they did so, according to a new report from Harm Reduction International.

EU funding has been used to support surveillance capabilities in Colombia, Mozambique and the Dominican Republic, and undercover policing in Peru, while American funding has been used by the DEA train police and special units in Vietnam and Honduras, which have been accused of arbitrary arrests and killings.

"When you think about development, you don’t really think about it being used for those kinds of activities – you think of poverty reduction, working towards development goals on health or education," said Catherine Cook, sustainable financing lead at HRI, which monitors the impact of drug policies. "This money is actually being used to support punitive measures – so policing, prisons, essentially funding the ‘war on drugs’, even though we know the ‘war on drugs’ and punitive policies have repeatedly failed."

CA Natural Psychedelic Legalization Bill Goes to Governor, Colombia Cocaine Production at All-Time High, More... (9/11/23)

You could soon be able to get some munchies when you buy your weed in California, Afghanistan is the world's fastest-growing meth producer, and more.

Colombia continues to crank out cocaine. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

California Senate Approves Marijuana Café Bill. The Senate has approved Assembly Bill 374, which would allow marijuana retailers to offer food and drinks in they get local approval. The bill has already passed the Assembly, but because it was slightly amended in the Senate, it must return to the Assemly for a final concurrence vote before heading to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

The bill would let local governments authorize the preparation and sell of non-marijuana food and drinks. Sale of alcohol would continue to be prohibited, as would the smoking of tobacco.

The bill would also authorize "live musical or other performances on the premises of a retailer or microbusiness licensed under this division in the area where the consumption of cannabis is allowed, and the sale of tickets for those performances."

Psychedelics

California Natural Psychedelic Legalization Bill Heads to Governor's Desk. A bill that legalize the possession of personal use amounts of natural psychedelics, including ibogaine and psilocybin (magic mushrooms)—but not peyote—has won final passage in the legislature and now heads to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

Senate Bill 58, filed by Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco), was first introduced in 2021 but was pulled by Weiner after it was heavily amended in the Assembly during the last session. But it came back this session and has now made its way through the legislative process.

The bill would allow people 21 and over to possess up to four grams of mescaline, one gram of DMT, and one gram each of psilocybin and psilocyn.

Newsom has until Oct. 14 to make a decision on the bill becoming law. If approved, it would go into effect in 2025.

International

UNODC Says Afghanistan is World's Faster-Growing Meth Producer. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOD C) reported Sunday that Afghanistan has became the world's fastest-growing manufacturer of methamphetamine. The report comes as the Taliban are busily prosecuting a crackdown on opium production.

Afghan meth production derives largely from legally available substances or the ephedra plants, which grows in the wild in the region, UNODC said. It said Afghan meth production could disrupt the synthetic drug market and fuel addiction. Afghan meth has been seized in Europe and East Africa.

Afghan meth seizures rose from less than 100 pounds in 2019 to nearly 6,000 pounds in 2021.

Annual meth seizure totals from inside the country rose from less than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) in 2019 to nearly 2,700 kilograms (6,000 pounds) in 2021, suggesting increased production, the report said. But it couldn’t give a value for the country’s meth supply, the quantities being produced, nor its domestic usage, because it doesn’t have the data.

Angela Me, the chief of the UNODC’s Research and Trend Analysis Branch, said  that making meth, especially in Afghanistan, had several advantages over heroin or cocaine production. "You don’t need to wait for something to grow," said Me. "You don’t need land. You just need the cooks and the know-how. Meth labs are mobile, they’re hidden. Afghanistan also has the ephedra plant, which is not found in the biggest meth-producing countries, Myanmar and Mexico. It’s legal in Afghanistan and it grows everywhere. But you need a lot of it."

UNODC Says Colombia Coca Cultivation at All-Time High. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported Sunday that coca leaf cultivation in Colombia last year was at the highest level recorded since the agency started monitoring the crop in 2001. Coca cultivation was up 13 percent over 2021, and that generated 1,400 tons of cocaine, up from 1,738 in 2021.

Most Colombian cocaine is destined for markets in the US and Europe.

Key coca growing areas, accounting for two-thirds of national production, are the southern departments of Narino and Puumayo on the Ecuadorian border and North Santander on the Venezuelan border. Nearly half of Colombia's coca production is located on indigenous lands or in parks and nature reserves.

Scottish Lord Advocate Endorses Safe Injection Sites. The senior law enforcement officer in the Scottish government, the Lord Advocate, has issued a position statement on safe injection sites saying it would not recommend the prosecution of people using a safe injection site. The Lord Advocate provides legal advice on the full range of the government's responsibilities, policies, and legislation, including advice on the legal implications of government proposals. : 

"On the basis of the information I have been provided, I would be prepared to publish a prosecution policy that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility," Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said.

"I have not been asked to sign-off or approve any facility and it would not be appropriate for me to do so. However, prosecution policy is for me alone to set and this policy, and the consequences which flow from it, have been considered deeply and thoroughly. 

"The requested statement will not extend to any criminal offences other than possession of controlled substances, contrary to section 5(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It does not amount to an exclusion zone whereby a range of criminality is tolerated. 

"Police Scotland have operational independence and it has been of the utmost importance to me to ensure that Police Scotland retain the ability to effectively police the facility and ensure that the wider community, those operating the site and

The Lord Advocate's decision has been shared with the Scottish Parliament cross-committee on tackling drug deaths and drug harm on September 11. 

Federal Appeals Court Restricts Detroit Vehicle Seizures, NC Tribe Votes Yes on Weed, More... (9/8/23)

New York City settles with a Black woman whose child was seized because of her marijuana use, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals reins in vehicle seizures in Detroit, and more.

The Vancouver safe injection site. Pressure is growing for one in Glasgow, Scotland. (vch.ca)
Marijuana Policy

North Carolina Tribe Approves Marijuana Legalization Measure. Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a referendum permitting the use and sale of marijuana on tribal land. According to preliminary results, the measure was passing with 70 percent of the vote.

The tribe had already approved regulations for the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes but has not yet begun engaging in sales of medical marijuana products.

The state does not permit marijuana to be used or sold for either medical or recreational purposes, and US Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) urged members to reject the referendum: "To allow our citizens to travel only a few miles to buy and use this common gateway drug … would be irresponsible, and I intend to stop it." To that end, he filed a federal bill last week to without certain federal funds from states and tribes that permit adult use marijuana.

New York City Settles with Mother Whose Child Was Seized Over Marijuana Use. The city's child welfare agency agreed to pay $75,000 plus attorney's fees to a Black woman after child welfare workers forcibly removed a woman’s newborn baby based solely on a positive test for marijuana that she did not consent to. The woman, Chanetto Rivers, alleged racial discrimination.

"I didn’t just bring this lawsuit for myself, but for every Black family that ACS [the Administration for Children's Services] has ripped apart," Rivers said in a statement. "They know what they did was wrong." 

An ACS spokesperson said that marijuana use by itself will not be a basis for charging child abuse or neglect. "A case should not be indicated solely because a parent is using marijuana, but instead CPS should assess the impact, if any, on the safety and well-being of the child," the spokesperson said. 

That is in line with stated ACS policy: "Positive marijuana toxicology of an infant or the mother at the time of birth is not sufficient, in and of itself, to support a determination that the child is maltreated, nor is such evidence alone sufficient for ACS to take protective custody of (remove) a child or file a case in Family Court."

But Rivers' lawsuit alleges that child welfare workers continued to interfere in her parenting even after two judges ordered the agency to reunite her and her child. She was subjected to "needless court proceedings" for months, the suit alleged.

"We are glad that Ms. Rivers was able to call attention to ACS’s deplorable history of racial discrimination against marginalized families," her attorney said. "ACS continued to rely on outdated racist stereotypes and tropes about Black parents."

Asset Forfeiture

Federal Court Severely Curtails Detroit Civil Asset Forfeiture Program. Wayne County, which includes Detroit, has long been notorious for seizing cars from people it claims were involved with drugs or prostitution, but now a federal appeals court has severely curtailed that program.

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the program's severe restrictions on property owners' ability to appeal seizures violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling only applies to the Wayne County program, but with a similar case on the US Supreme Court docket, a broader precedent may soon be set.

Under the Wayne County program, police would seize vehicles of people driving or parking in areas where illegal drug use and/or prostitution was suspected and offer them a deal: Pay a $1,000 fine and get their vehicle back right away or appeal the seizure—a process that takes months and could result in the loss of the vehicle anyway.

The appeals court ruled that the months-long delay before people could challenge a seizure was too long and that hearings needed to happen within two weeks.

International

British Royal Pharmaceutical Society Backs House of Commons Call for Safe Injection Sites. At the end of August, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee recommended legalization of safe injection sites for drug users, and now the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has backed that call.

The Home Affairs Committee called for a pilot safe injection site in Glasgow. The Home Office rejected a similar proposal in 2020. But both the committee and the society pointed to successful safe injection sites elsewhere.

 

"We believe we can apply that learning here and provide clean, safe spaces for those injecting drugs," said Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. "This will bring illegal drug users closer to mainstream health and addiction support services, and provide an opportunity for health professionals to engage in treatment and prevention. This in turn will help to save lives, reduce harm and reduce drug deaths," she added.

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.

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