Congress votes down Medicinal Marijuana
In a 163/259 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would have prohibited the Department of Justice from using appropriated funds to interfere with medicinal cannabis laws. The Drug Policy Alliance notes that, although the legislation was defeated, support is slowly growing for such legislation, and a bipartisan coalition sponsored the bill. To see how a specific Congressman voted on the legislation, click here.
Congressman David Obey (D-WI) had this to say in support of the amendment:
If I am terminally ill, it is not anybody’s business on this floor how I handle the pain or the illness or the sickness associated with that illness. With all due respect to all of you, butt out. I did not enter this world with the permission of the Justice Department, and I am certainly not going to depart it by seeking their permission or that of any other authority. The Congress has no business telling people that they cannot manage their illness or their pain any way they need to. I would trust any doctor in the country before I trust some of the daffy ducks in this institution to decide what I am supposed to do if I am terminally ill… When is this Congress going to recognize that individuals in their private lives have a right to manage their problems as they see fit without the permission of the big guy in the White House or the big guy in the Justice Department or any of the Lilliputians on this Congressional floor? Wake up!
U.N. Drug Czar attacks Britain’s Cannabis Policy
The 2004 decision to change marijuana’s legal status to a less serious level was criticized by Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, who warned that such a move would lead to increased drug use. Costa used the annual UN Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking to say that Cannabis’s effects are “no longer that different” than those of cocaine or heroin. The British government stated that their marijuana policy “is supported by the police and by most drug and mental health charities.”
The European Commission has admitted that current drug use levels in Europe are unprecedented and every month at least 1.5 million Europeans use cocaine, and 12 million use marijuana.
The UN’s 2006 World Drug Report can be found here.
Scotland’s Drug Czar says the War is lost
Tom Wood, Director of Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, Scotland’s equivalent of a Drug Czar, sparked enormous controversy in Scotland and England when he admitted that the War on Drugs is “long lost.”
“We can never as a nation be drug-free. No nation can, so we must accept that. So the message has to be more sophisticated than ‘just say no’ because that simple message doesn’t work,” he explained. Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell responded that “things are dire, but we should never throw up the white flag.” Wood’s statement comes as Scotland is receiving criticism from the UN for it’s failure to deal with some of the highest drug use rates in Europe. Half a million Scots are believed to have used marijuana and 200,000 are believed to have used cocaine in their lifetimes, and drug rates have continued to increase this year.
Proposition 36 supporters fight legislation
California’s Proposition 36, which was passed with a 61% majority and gives drug offenders a treatment instead of incarceration option, is facing attacks in California’s legislature. Wording was placed into a budget bill that would allow judges to incarcerate offenders for several days if they relapse in treatment. Critics also say that the new legislation could change the law so that offenders who commit violence and theft would be allowed to stay in treatment, which is currently not the case under Proposition 36. The legislation is inserted into a spending bill, which would not require a public hearing.
Iran threatens to enact new policy to deal with heroin
Iran’s new chief drug policy official has demanded that the UN Drugs and Crime office give Iran $500 million to combat heroin trafficking from Pakistan and Afghanistan, or he would “reconsider” allowing drug transit. The drug trade is a lucrative option for many poor and unemployed men, who can earn $15-30 per day in Iran.
Over the past two decades, thousands of smugglers and law enforcement officials have been killed in skirmishes on the Iranian border, with Iranian law enforcement being killed at a rate of 3 per day, by some estimates. 42,000 Iranian troops and policemen patrol the border, which has more than 200 observation posts and hundreds of kilometres of barbed wire. An estimated two million Iranians are drug users, and HIV infections from contaminated needles is spreading rapidly.
Some public health personel, such as these two doctors, have been attempting to deal with the crisis, which is considered taboo by most Iranians. Iran still has the highest rate of hard drug use in the world.
An in-depth look at Iran’s treatment programs can be found here.
China’s War on Drugs cuts heroin supplies from the Golden Triangle
China has radically stepped up it’s war on heroin, and officials say that heroin’s price has now risen by at least a third. Since declaring a “People’s War on Drugs” in April 2005, law enforcement officials have received thousands of tips from citizens and have arrested nearly 50,000 drug suspects.
The high price of heroin is also likely tied to the decrease in poppy production, which has been reduced to roughly 13,000 hetacres in the Golden Triangle, according to law enforcement officials. Afghanistan, however, is on target for a record poppy crop.
China celebrated International Anti-Drug Day by executing four drug traffickers and holding education sessions for students with the theme that “drugs are not child’s play.”
Colombia says soldiers killed antidrug police
On 22 May, 10 members of a U.S.-trained counter narcotics team were killed by Colombian soldiers. The event was initially reported as friendly fire, but Colombian officials have now admitted that the team was assassinated by the soldiers, who were working for a drug lord.
This event has damaged the Colombian military’s already poor reputation, as dozens of soldiers go on trial for attempting to pocket $16 million in drug money that they “found” while searching for FARC rebels.