The UN drug agency's annual report says cocaine is surging and meth is expanding worldwide, Peru's drug agency reports record levels of coca leaf production, and more.

Cocaine use is surging worldwide, says UNODC. (Creative Commons)

Poll Finds Majority Support for Legalizing Psychedelic Therapy, Near-Majority for Psychedelic Decriminalization. A poll from the University of California-Berkeley's Center for the Science of Psychedelics released at the Denver Psychedelic Science conference finds that 61 percent of registered voters support "creating a regulated legal framework for the therapeutic use of psychedelics" and 49 percent said they supported decriminalizing the use and possession of psychedelic plants and fungi.

The poll also found that 78 percent of respondents backed making psychedelic research easier and 56 percent said they could support a medical model where psychedelics would have to be approved by the Food & Drug Administration and prescribed by a physician.

"This is the first clear picture we have of what the American public think and feel about psychedelics," BCSP Executive Director Imran Khan said in a press release. "The Berkeley Psychedelics Survey shows that the majority of American voters are interested in, and supportive of, the field. They want fewer barriers to research for scientists, and they want regulated, therapeutic access for the public."

Drug Policy

DeSantis Calls for Executing Drug Smugglers at the Border. Seeking to out-Trump Trump with aggressive border policy positions, Florida governor and GOP presidential nomination contender Ron DeSantis called Monday for a slew of harsh measures, including a plan to use "deadly force" against people trying to come through the border wall with drugs.

He called for "rules of engagement" allowing US personnel to kill people trying to do that. He said "of course" deadly force would be justified against people carrying drugs and showing "hostile intent," but he did not specify exactly what that meant.

"If you go, if you drop a couple of these cartel operatives trying to do that, you're not going to have to worry about that anymore," DeSantis told reporters.

"If someone was breaking into your house, you would repel them with the use of force, right?" DeSantis said. "But yet if they have drugs, these backpacks, and they're going in and they're cutting through an enforced structure, we're just supposed to let 'em in? You know, I say use force to repel them. If you do that one time, they will never do that again."

International

UN Report Says Global Cocaine Market Booming, Meth Trafficking Spreading. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its annual World Drug Report 2023 Sunday and reported that cocaine demand and supply are surging worldwide and methamphetamine trafficking is expanding to new markets.

Coca bush cultivation and total cocaine production were at record highs in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, and the global number of cocaine users, estimated at 22 million that same year, is growing steadily, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in its annual World Drug Report.

"The world is currently experiencing a prolonged surge in both supply and demand of cocaine, which is now being felt across the globe and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond the traditional confines," the UNODC report said. "Although the global cocaine market continues to be concentrated in the Americas and in Western and Central Europe (with very high prevalence also in Australia), in relative terms it appears that the fastest growth, albeit building on very low initial levels, is occurring in developing markets found in Africa, Asia and South-Eastern Europe," it said.

While meth trafficking has been centered in two regions -- North America and East and Southeast Asia -- it is increasing in other areas such as the Middle East and West Africa. UNODC also mentioned meth production in Afghanistan, which may be a replacement for heroin production after the Taliban's opium ban.

Peru Coca Farming at Record Levels. The amount of land under coca leaf cultivation was at record levels last year after growing 18 percent over the previous year, the Peruvian anti-drug agency DEVIDA reported Monday. It said most of the increase was in protected lands and indigenous Amazon villages close to the borders with Brazil and Colombia. Altogether, 367 square miles were devoted to coca leaf production.

Cultivation has been increasing since 2015 and while coca leaf is used for traditional purposes in the country, DEVIDA said that 90 percent of the crop is destined to be turned into cocaine and fed into the global illicit drug trade. Peru vies with Colombia for the title of world's largest coca producer, with Bolivia in third place.

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)

A New York bill increasing civil penalties for illicit pot shops is signed into law, Oregon regulators approve the nation's first licensee for therapeutic psilocybin services, and more.

Fentanyl test strips. The Florida legislature has become the latest to decriminalize them. (Creative Commons)

New York Governor Signs Bill to Increase Civil Penalties for Illicit Pot Shops. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) last Wednesday signed into law Assembly Bill 3281, which increases civil and tax penalties for unlicensed marijuana retailers, including fines of up to $20,000 a day. The move is aimed at reigning in an illicit marijuana market in the state that exploded in the months-long gap between marijuana being legalized and licensed retail sales that only recently began. At this point, there are only a handful of licensed marijuana outlets in the state compared to more than a thousand unlicensed outlets in New York City alone.

"As New York State continues to roll out a nation-leading model to establish its cannabis industry, these critical enforcement measures will protect New Yorkers from illicit, unregulated" Hochul said. "Unlicensed dispensaries violate our laws put public health at risk and undermine the legal cannabis market. With these enforcement tools, we're paving the way for safer products, reinvestment in communities that endured years of disproportionate enforcement, and greater opportunities for New Yorkers."

Medical Marijuana

Florida Lawmakers Approve Bill to Allow Telehealth Renewals for Medical Marijuana, Help Black Farmers Get Grow Licenses. With a final vote in the Senate last Wednesday, the legislature approved House Bill 387. The measure allows doctors to renew approvals for medical marijuana patients via telehealth. New patients will still require an in-patient exam. The measure could also help Black farmers get medical marijuana grow licenses after years of delays. Only one license has been issued to a Black farmer, and this bill could lead to the Department of Health issuing additional licenses to Black farmers.

Psychedelics

Oregon Regulators Approve Nation's First Psilocybin Service Center. The Oregon Health Authority has awarded a license to EPIC Healing in Eugene to provide therapeutic psilocybin services, where people can use the psychedelic in a supervised and facilitated environment. This is a national first and comes after state voters approved therapeutic psilocybin services in 2020. Now, the state has issued at least one license in all four licensing categories -- facilitators, testing labs, psilocybin manufacturing, and therapeutic services.

"This is such a historic moment as psilocybin services will soon become available in Oregon, and we appreciate the strong commitment to client safety and access as service center doors prepare to open," Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Section Manager Angie Allbee said in a press release.

Harm Reduction

Federal Government Provides Grant to Study Safe Injection Sites. New York University and Brown University announced Monday that they had received a four-year, $5 million grant to study whether safe injection sites can prevent drug overdoses, estimate their costs, and weigh potential savings for health care and criminal justice systems. This marks the first time the federal government has paid for such a study. The study will focus on two safe injection sites already operating in New York City and one set to open next year in Rhode Island and hopes to enroll a thousand adult drug users. The grant comes from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Studies from the 14 countries that currently allow safe injection sites have found they radically reduce drug overdose deaths.

"There is a lot of discussion about overdose prevention centers, but ultimately, we need data to see if they are working or not, and what impact they may have on the community," said NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow.

Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill to Decriminalize Fentanyl Test Strips. The House last Wednesday gave final, unanimous approval to a bill that decriminalizes fentanyl test strips by removing them from the state's list of drug paraphernalia, Senate Bill 164. More than 6,000 Floridians died in drug overdoses implicating fentanyl in 2020. A similar bill failed last year after some critics claimed that legalizing the test strips would incentive drug use.

International

Honduran Police Seize a Million Coca Plants, Rustic Labs. The Honduran National Police announced that a raid last Friday in a protected forest reserve in the eastern part of the country resulted in the seizure of more than one million coca plants, two million seedlings, and "four rustic structures" used to extract alkaloids from the coca leaf and store chemicals used in the process. While coca has traditionally been grown almost exclusively in its native Andean region of South America, Honduran authorities have been encountering small coca plantations on their soil since 2017, but never one approaching this size.

That Minnesota marijuana legalization bill keeps rolling toward final passage, Colombia's president suspends a ceasefire with a rightist drug trafficking group, and more.

Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akundzada announced on ban on cannabis cultivation Sunday. (CC)

Minnesota Marijuana Legalization Bill Advances Again, with Big Amendment. The House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee has approved the marijuana legalization bill, House File100, but only after members accepted an amendment that overhauls various aspects of the bill—mainly at the request of marijuana industry players. The industry is operating under a law enacted last years that allows low-THC edibles, and the amendment eliminates some of regulations in the current bill that don’t make sense in the low-dose hemp market. The Senate adopted a similar amendment last week, but there are differences that will have to be resolved in conference committee. For instance, the House bill now has a lower personal possession limit than the Senate bill and is more expansive when it comes to who qualifies as a social equity license applicant.

Opiates and Opioids

DEA Reports Widespread Threat of Fentanyl Mixed with Xylazine. The DEA is "warning the American public of a sharp increase in the trafficking of fentanyl mixed with xylazine. Xylazine, also known as "Tranq," is a powerful sedative that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved for veterinary use. "Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier," said Administrator Milgram. "DEA has seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 States. The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine." Xylazine and fentanyl drug mixtures place users at a higher risk of suffering a fatal drug poisoning. Because xylazine is not an opioid, naloxone (Narcan) does not reverse its effects. Still, experts always recommend administering naloxone if someone might be suffering a drug poisoning. People who inject drug mixtures containing xylazine also can develop severe wounds, including necrosis—the rotting of human tissue—that may lead to amputation"

.[Editor's Note: This sounds like a good argument for a "safe drug supply," or a "legal and regulated supply of drugs with mind/body altering properties, as the Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs put it in their "Safe Supply: Concept Document."]

International

Taliban Announces Ban on Marijuana Cultivation. Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada announced on Sunday issued an official order prohibition marijuana cultivation across the country. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan is the world's second largest cannabis producer, after Morocco. The ban includes non-psychoactive hemp. "Cultivation in the whole country is completely banned and if anyone grows them, the plantation will be destroyed. The courts have also been ordered to punish the violators as per Sharia laws,"the statement reads.

Colombia President Suspends Ceasefire with Gulf Clan. President Gustavo Petro on Sunday suspended a ceasefire with the Gulf Clan, the country's biggest drug trafficking organization, after accusing it of attacking civilians. "I ordered the security forces to resume all military operations against the Gulf Clan,"he said on Twitter. "I will not allow them to keep sowing distress and terror in the communities,"Petro added. At the end of last year, Petro had declared a bilateral ceasefire with several armed drug trafficking groups, including the Gulf Clan, as well as the National Liberation Army (ELN) and FARC dissidents. It was the first step in Petro's "total peace" plan to end decades of violence through negotiation with the criminal groups. The Gulf Clan consist of former rightist paramilitaries and is estimated to control between 30 percent and 60 percent of the drugs exported from the country.

Peru Clash with Shining Path Remnants in Coca Valley Leaves Six Dead. Five Shining Path members and one army soldier were killed in a clash between the remnants of the 1980s leftist Shining Path insurgency and a military patrol in a coca-growing valley in the VRAE (Valleys of the Apurimac and Ene Rivers). The army patrol was looking for Victor Quispe Palomino, alias Comrade Jose. They didn't find him. Since the Shining Path was defeated militarily in the early 1990s, remnants of the group have remained in coca-growing areas in the VRAE where they are allied to cocaine trafficking groups. 

The Justice Department signals it will appeal a federal court ruling invalidating the federal ban on guns for pot users, Colombia calls for coca leaf decriminalization, and more.

Naloxone opioid overdose reversal kit. The Oregon House has voted to expand access to them. (hr.org)

Justice Department Now Accepting Applications for Pardons for Federal Marijuana Possession Offenders. Nearly five months after President Biden called for pardons for federal marijuana possession offenders, the Justice Department has begun accepting applications for those pardons. The move comes after a series of friendly public statement from the administration about the drug from both Attorney General Garland and the president. Last week, Garland said that Justice is working on a review of marijuana policy, and just days before that, President Biden mentioned the pardons in a Black History Month speech, saying "too many minorities are in prison" for marijuana use.

Justice Department Appeals Federal Court Ruling Striking Down Gun Ban for Marijuana Users. The Justice Department last Friday filed paperwork in US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma informing the court that it intends to appeal a judge's ruling there that found unconstitutional the federal prohibition on gun ownership for marijuana users. The Friday filing did not make a substantive argument but served primarily as a notification that an appeal was coming. In that district court ruling, Trump-appointed Judge Patrick Wyrick held that a recent Supreme Court ruling where the high court created a higher standard for policies that aim to restrict gun rights made the ban on gun possession unconstitutional.

Oklahoma Votes on Marijuana Legalization Today. In an election with no other issues or races on the ballot, voters will decide whether or not to approve a marijuana legalization initiative, State Question 820. The measure is opposed by law enforcement and most of the state's Republican political establishment. It would allow people 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and eight grams of marijuana concentrates and grow up to six plants and six seedlings at home. It also protects parents from losing custody or visitation rights solely because of marijuana use and states that parolees and probationers cannot be punished for marijuana use. Nor could the odor of marijuana or burnt marijuana be used as probable cause for police to infer that a crime had been committed. And it includes a provision for the expungement of some past marijuana offenses. It also sets a 15 percent excise tax on retail marijuana sales.

Medical Marijuana

South Dakota House Approves Medical Marijuana Expansion Bill. In a narrow vote, the House on Monday approved Senate Bill 1, which expands the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use to include people afflicted with cancer, epilepsy, MS, ALS, PTSD, Crohn’s disease, aids, and HIV. The bill has already passed the Senate, but must go back for one more concurrence vote because it was modified in the House. If it wins that vote, it would then go to the desk of Gov. Kristi Noem (R).

Harm Reduction

Oregon House Approves Bill to Expand Naloxone Access. The House has approved a bill to more widely distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone (Narcan), House Bill 2395, on a vote of 48-9. The bill declares a health emergency and will make overdose reversal kits available in libraries, churches, and other public buildings. It also allows police, firefighters, and EMTs to distribute the kits to drug users and their friends and family members, and it decriminalizes fentanyl test strips. The bill now heads to the Senate.

International

Colombia Vice President Calls for Coca Leaf Decriminalization at UN. Vice President Francia Marquez used an address at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to petition for the decriminalization of the coca leaf in the country's indigenous territories. "The time has come to sincerely put the debate on decriminalizing the use of coca leaf in ethnic and indigenous territories, continuing to criminalize the use of coca leaf will not allow Colombia to achieve total peace," she said. "Because we know that it has been this criminal, racial policy that has us as peoples suffering terrible humanitarian crises, it is the drug trafficking imposed from that criminal policy that today is generating armed conflicts in ethnic territories." Colombia will join Bolivia in petitioning the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs to remove coca leaf from its list of prohibited substances.