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Religion and Drug Policy Reform
This week, I'll be examining the role of religion in drug reform. I'm awaiting a packet from the Interfaith Drug Policy Alliance, with whom I will be speaking. I'll also be checking in with a progressive church alliance in California that is fighting to save Proposition 36 and with some reformers in the heartland who are trying to get god on their side. And, hell, maybe I'll even call up the conservative evangelicals and query them on drug policy.
Overdose Deaths Outpacing Homicides in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia News reported Monday that despite the city having seen one of its deadliest weekends, drug overdoses, particularly from a batch of heroin laced with the even more powerful opiate fentanyl are claiming even more lives.
British Doctor Says Marijuana Caused Death of 23-Year-Old
Pretty amazing. I feel like it's 1937. Here is a British doctor claiming pot caused a young man to die from a brain aneurysm. Even the coroner isn't buying it.
Methamphetamine Sold Openly In Stores
This is the kind of mundane story that doesn't make it into the Chronicle, but it is an example of the misreporting that plagues drug policy journalism. Meth isn't being sold in drugs stores, but that's what the misleading headline in a story about the availability of ephedrine says. Bad, bad, bad headline writing. http://www.abcnews4.com/news/stories/0706/343456.html
At least 21 states include drug offenses in their definitions of child abuse
Michigan is the latest, with Gov. Granholm signing a bill on Thursday that will make some meth offenses per se evidence of child abuse. I have a problem with these laws. I think child abuse is already well defined and people who fit the criteria should be punished for it. But saying that using or even cooking speed equals child abuse is just absurd on the face of it. I'll be talking to people t
Don't Worry, Orrin Hatch Will Save You
When renowned R&B producer Dallas Austin was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in a Dubai prison for cocaine possession, he found an unlikely advocate in Republican Senator and Christian music composer Orrin Hatch, according to the New York Times: The release of a music producer from a Dubai jail this week, quick on the heels of his conviction for drug possession, turns out to be a story of high-level string-pulling on the part of Mr. Hatch, the conservative Utah Republican and songwriter, along with Lionel Richie, the singer; Quincy Jones, the music entrepreneur; and an array of well-connected lawyers, businessmen and others, spanning cities and continents. And it gets better:
Coming in the Chronicle this week
Here's a late Sunday night heads-up on what I'll be working on this week--subject, of course, to breaking news and other vagaries... The Portland pot initiative handed in signatures Saturday, and it looks like they will have enough to make the ballot... Thursday's raids on San Diego area medical marijuana dispensaries and moves against doctors saw the feds and local officials attempting to show that the dispensaries and the doctors were not practicing "legitimate" medical marijuana medicine. Is that really what the feds and cops were doing? Is that really the case? And what does the future hold for the dispensaries?...
drug war/terror war confusion in Afghanistan
The British online publication "Spiked" noted in a larger story, citing a March article in the Guardian, that there is confusion over whether NATO troops are fighting a "war on drugs" in Afghanistan" or a "war on terror." Philip Cunliff wrote: [T]he British mission objective is further confused by the question of whether the British army is fighting a war on drugs or the war on terror. Former British defence secretary John Reid argued that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is "absolutely interlinked" with the war on terror (though in fact, it was the Americans who endorsed their local alliesâ poppy cultivation after the Taliban curtailed it) (4). On the other hand, NATOâs Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General James Jones, has said: "You wonât see NATO burning crops, but you will see us gather intelligence and support the national effort as best we can."
Lynn Zimmer Dies at 59
Professor Lynn Zimmer, a sociologist at Queens College in New York, was widely regarded among both drug policy scholars and activists as the most original thinker on drug issues in the United States. She died at her home this past Sunday. Please visit the Drug Policy Alliance's blog at http://blog.drugpolicy.org/2006/07/in-memoriam-lynn-zimmer-1947-2006.html to post your respects and memories.
Coming in the Chronicle this week
We've got a bad bill in California, a bad arrest in Wisconsin, needle exchange news on a couple of fronts, a bevy of corrupt cops, and our favorite Australian MP goes to a rave and likes it.
Canadian Senator and Former Mayor Roasts UN Anti-Drug Chief in E-Mail over "World Drug Report"
We didn't get the permission back in time to include this in issue #441 of Drug War Chronicle, but Sen. Campbell wrote back and said it's okay. In an e-mail sent to Vancouver drug reformer and harm reductionist Mark Haden, Vancouver's former mayor, Larry Campbell, now a Senator, wrote the following e-mail, titled " UNODC World Drug Report 2006 full of scientific insults," with permission to distribute it: