MAPTalk-Digest Friday, June 3 2011 Volume 11 : Number 025
001 The Drug War At Home: Sharing Your Stories & Reactions
From: "Herb" <>
002 WHAT'S NEW @ Drug War Facts, Volume 1, Issue 3
From: "Mary Jane Borden" <>
003 Interesting...
From: DH Michon <>
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Subj: 001 The Drug War At Home: Sharing Your Stories & Reactions
From: "Herb" <>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 09:29:42 -0700
The Drug War At Home: Sharing Your Stories & Reactions
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/may/30/drug-war-home-sharing-your-storie
------------------------------
Subj: 002 WHAT'S NEW @ Drug War Facts, Volume 1, Issue 3
From: "Mary Jane Borden" <>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 06:49:06 -0700
All,
Below is a new edition of the WHAT'S NEW @ Drug War Facts e-newsletter. It
is designed to be circulated every other month, and announce new and
interesting additions to the Fact base.
If you would like to receive a personal copy, please visit
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/subscriptions. And, please distribute
widely.
Mary Jane
Editor
- ------------WHAT'S NEW @ DRUG WAR FACTS, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3------------
WHAT'S NEW @ Drug War Facts
Volume 1, Issue 3
May 2011
=========
FEATURE: The FDA and ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS
The subchapter "Regulation of Prescription Drugs" and two new tables have
been added to the United States Chapter of Drug War Facts. They concern the
approval of prescription drugs through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), a regulator often cited in the drug policy debate.
The FDA states its purpose as "responsible for protecting the public health
by assuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs,
biological products, medical devices, our nation's food supply, cosmetics,
and products that emit radiation."
The agency also claims responsibility "for advancing the public health by
helping to speed innovations that make medicines more effective, safer, and
more affordable and by helping the public get the accurate, science-based
information they need to use medicines and foods to maintain and improve
their health."
Points and counterpoints with respect to medical marijuana, as one example,
often circle back to the plant's lack of FDA approval. So, what does FDA
approval mean? Some insight can be gleaned from new postings in the
"Regulation of Prescription Drugs" subchapter. Law review journals are
excellent sources for legal analyses, and this is exceptionally true with
respect to the FDA approval process, clinical trials, and product labeling.
Look for an overview of the prescription drug distribution system at the top
of the Drug War Facts Interdiction Chapter.
More telling statistics can be found in the aforementioned tables,
"Prescription Drug Product Approvals, Recalls and Adverse Event Reports" and
"AERS Patient Outcomes by Year," both sourced directly from the FDA.
The FDA is charged with "assuring safety" and responsibility for making
"medicines more ... safe." Cannabis must be safe because no documented
deaths can be directly attributed to it as noted in famous 1999 "Marijuana
and
Medicine: Assessing the Science Base" report from the Institute of Medicine.
Yet, both of the FDA-sourced tables reflect troubling statistics. The former
table shows that reports to the FDA concerning Adverse Events from
prescription drugs have soared by almost +75% for the six years (2002-2007)
compared to the prior six years (1996-2001). Further, and perhaps more
disturbing, adverse reaction outcome "deaths" totaling 370,056 and "serious
outcomes" equaling
2,345,006 occurred during the ten years from 2000 to 2009 as tabulated from
the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System for prescription drugs.
Perhaps it then comes as little surprise that, during those same time
frames, fifteen states enacted laws protecting patient medical use of
marijuana.
===
U.S. Food and Drug Administration mission statement [
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/default.htm ]
"AERS Patient Outcomes by Year," Food and Drug Administration, March 31,
2010.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/v2dGEVgx ]
"CDER Facts and Figures," Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and
Drug Administration, August 7, 2007.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/byVHHtRG ]
"Center for Drug Evaluation 2007 Update," Center for Drug Evaluation and
Research, Food and Drug Administration, 2008.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/RKmXirQU ]
===
Drug War Facts - United States - Regulation of Prescription Drugs
- - [ http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/United_States#Rx ]
Drug War Facts - Diversion of Drugs
- - [ http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/Diversion ]
Drug War Facts - Institute of Medicine Report
- - [ http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Medicinal_Cannabis#IOM ]
"Dangers in Prescription Drugs: Filling a Private Law Gap in the Healthcare
Debate," Connecticut Law Review, February 2010.
How U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates prescription drugs.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/z36k6Exh ]
"The Effects of Product Liability Exemption in the Presence of the FDA,"
National Bureau of Economic Research, December 2009.
Overview of the FDA pharmaceutical drug approval process.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/ylTWbPGR ]
"Green Medicine: Using Lessons From Tort Law and Environmental Law to Hold
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Authorized Distributors Liable for Injuries
Caused by Counterfeit Drugs," University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Winter
2007.
Counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs and the U.S. drug distribution system.
- - [ http://lawreview.law.pitt.edu/issues/69/69.2/Aleong.pdf ]
"State by State Medical Marijuana Laws," Marijuana Policy Project, November
2008.
- - [ http://docs.mpp.org/pdfs/download-materials/SBSR_NOV2008_1.pdf ]
=========
NEW CHAPTER - MEXICO
Check out the new International Chapter concerning Mexico. Selected Facts
include:
- - [ http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/mexico ]
(importance of Mexico) "On a day-to-day basis, no other country affects the
United States as Mexico does. More than ever, Mexico and the United States
are deeply interdependent: they are connected by more than $300 billion in
annual cross-border trade, tens of millions of U.S. and Mexican citizens in
binational families, and the everyday interactions of more than 14 million
people living along the nearly two-thousand-mile shared border." Council on
Foreign Relations, March 2011.
- - [ http://i.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Mexico_CSR60.pdf ]
(2010 - Mexico - drug-related killings) "In 2010, the number of drug-related
killings in Mexico surpassed all previous years. According to Mexico's
Reforma newspaper, there were 11,583 drug-related murders in Mexico in 2010,
compared with 6,587 in 2009." United States Department of State, March 2011.
- - [ http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/156575.pdf ]
(2009 - guns used by Mexican drug cartels) "In 2009, ATF reported to
Congress that about 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico that ATF has
traced were initially sold in the United States.7 The Southwest border
states - Texas, California, Arizona, and to a lesser extent, New Mexico -
are primary sources of guns used by Mexican drug cartels." U.S. Department
of Justice Office of the Inspector General Evaluation and Inspections
Division, November 2010.
- - [ http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e1101.pdf ]
=========
NEW SOURCES
"Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy," University of British
Columbia, April 2011.
Report concerning the policy decision making about ayahuasca.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/4KuKHs9M ]
"Cannabis Use in Patients with Fibromyalgia: Effect on Symptoms Relief and
Health-Related Quality of Life," PLoS Medicine, April 2011.
Observation of significant symptom improvement in fibromyalgia patients
using cannabis.
- - [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3080871/pdf/pone.0018440.p
]
"Drug Courts Are Not the Answer: Toward a Health-Centered Approach to Drug
Use"
Drug Policy Alliance, March 2011.
Overview of drug courts and their function within the criminal justice
system.
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/5BwWuQl0 ]
"Numbers Game: The Vicious Cycle of Incarceration in Mississippi's Criminal
Justice System," American Civil Liberties Union, March 2011.
Impact of confidential informants on the Mississippi criminal justice
system.
- - [ https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/DLRP_MississipppiReport_sm.pdf ]
"Reforming the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act," Arizona Law Review, 2009.
The necessity of reforming Civil Asset Forfeiture laws.
- - [ http://www.arizonalawreview.org/pdf/51-3/51arizlrev777.pdf ]
"Use of Chronic Opioid Therapy in Chronic Noncancer Pain: Evidence Review,"
The American Pain Society in Conjunction with The American Academy of Pain
Medicine, February 2009.
Evidence based report concerning the use of opioid medications in patients
with noncancer pain.
- - [ http://www.ampainsoc.org/library/pdf/Opioid_Final_Evidence_Report.pdf ]
=========
NEW FLYER - FORFEITURE FACTS FROM DRUG WAR FACTS
(forfeiture fact sheet - PDF format) This one-page flyer, entitled
"Forfeiture Facts from Drug War Facts," highlights a number of the Facts in
the Asset Forfeiture Chapter. - [ http://mapinc.org/url/UWFGyPUg ]
=========
ANOTHER NEW TABLE
(2009 - value of assets forfeited), Sourcebook of Criminal Justice
Statistics
- - [ http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Forfeiture#Table1 ] In the 21 years from
1989 to 2009, an estimated $10.9 billion in assets were seized by U.S.
Attorneys in asset forfeiture cases. The growth rate during that time frame
averaged +17%. The value of assets seized in 2009 was four times greater
than that for 1989.
=========
DRUG TRUTH NETWORK SEGMENTS
Approximately once per week, Drug War Facts Editor Mary Jane Borden
contributes a 3-minute segment to the Drug Truth Network's 420 Drug War News
[ http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/views/latest_420 ]. The transcripts of these
segments are also posted to the DrugSense Blog at [
http://drugsense.org/blog/category/facts ].
3/2/11 DWF segment for Drug Truth Network - What can hemp be used for?
MP3: [ http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3289 ]
Transcript: [ http://mapinc.org/url/srvZ76rz ]
3/14/11 DWF segment for Drug Truth Network - Can people with a drug
conviction vote?
MP3: [ http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3304 ]
Transcript: [ http://mapinc.org/url/myK9VWe1 ]
3/26/11 DWF segment for Drug Truth Network - What is naloxone?
MP3: [ http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3320 ]
Transcript: [ http://drugsense.org/blog/drug-policy/what-is-naloxone ]
4/4/11 DWF segment for Drug Truth Network - What is Domestic Surveillance?
MP3: [ http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3331 ]
Transcript: [
http://drugsense.org/blog/drug-policy/what-is-domestic-surveillance ]
4/20/11 DWF segment for Drug Truth Network - Is Asset Forfeiture taxation?
MP3: [ http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3355 ]
Transcript: [ http://mapinc.org/url/g8aED6Bh ]
=========
FAVORITE FACTS
David A. Shirk, Council on Foreign Relations, March 2011.
(United States should permit state marijuana legalization)
- - [ http://i.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Mexico_CSR60.pdf ] "To
allow policy experimentation, the federal government should permit states to
legalize the production, sale, taxation, and consumption of marijuana. While
testing this policy shift, authorities should redirect scarce law
enforcement resources to focus on the more damaging and socially
unacceptable drugs (such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine) from which
Mexican DTOs [drug trafficking organizations] derive more than 70 percent of
their drug proceeds."
Robert Miklos, Stanford Law & Policy Review, February 2011.
(legalizing medicinal cannabis without Congress)
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/RZZfqYo5 ]
"... the CSA [Controlled Substances Act] authorizes the Attorney General to
do [legalize medical marijuana], in consultation with the Secretary of
Health and Human Services and the DEA.144 In other words, the President
would not need the consent of the Congress to make this, more fundamental
change to federal law ...
Such a move would sever the many heads of the prohibition hydra. Marijuana
would be put on par with other medications-it would be legal, but
controlled. Civil sanctions would no longer flow solely from the drug's
illicit status. Civil RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization
statute] claims predicated on the distribution of medical marijuana would be
dismissed even more readily.
Preemption challenges would no longer threaten legal protections for
marijuana users and dispensaries or derail proposed reforms designed to
enhance state control over the medical marijuana trade. And DOJ [Department
of Justice] officials could no longer prosecute medical marijuana users and
dispensaries, regardless of where they lived in the country."
"Balance, Uniformity and Fairness: Effective Strategies for Law Enforcement
for Investigating and Prosecuting the Diversion of Prescription Pain
Medications While Protecting Appropriate Medical Practice," Center for
Practical Bioethics, September 2009.
(law enforcement 'chill' and the under-treatment of pain)
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/I2PPTTcW ]
"The under-treatment of pain is due in part to a kind of undesirable
"chilling effect." The concept of a chilling effect, generally, is a useful
law enforcement tool. When publicity surrounding a righteous prosecution
"chills" related criminal conduct, that chilling effect is intended,
appropriate, and a public good. A chilling effect on the appropriate use of
pain medicine, however, is not a public good. Recent research by members of
the Law Enforcement Roundtable confirms that prosecutions of doctors for
diversion of prescription drugs are rare.2 But, on occasion,
overly-sensationalized stories of investigation of doctors have hit the
nightly news. When that happens, the resulting chilling effect reaches far
beyond a "good" chilling effect on bad actors, and directly affects
appropriate medical practice. The consequence is extreme, and not what law
enforcement would ever seek - our parents and other loved ones who are in
pain simply cannot get the medicines they need."
"Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture," The Institute
for Justice, March 2010.
(asset forfeiture - definition)
- - [ http://mapinc.org/url/mgJZruki ]
"...civil forfeiture is a legal fiction that enables law enforcement to take
legal action against inanimate objects for participation in alleged criminal
activity, regardless of whether the property owner is guilty or innocent-or
even whether the owner is charged with a crime. Civil forfeiture actions are
in rem proceedings, which means literally "against a thing"-the property
itself is charged with a crime."
=========
ABOUT DRUG WAR FACTS
Drug War Facts provides reliable information with applicable citations on
important public health and criminal justice issues. A project of Common
Sense for Drug Policy [ http://www.csdp.org ], Drug War Facts is updated
continuously by its Editor, Mary Jane Borden. Its mission is to offer useful
facts, cited from authoritative sources, to a debate that is often
characterized by myths, error, emotion and dissembling. It is CSDP's belief
that in time an informed society will correct its errors and generate wiser
policies.
Drug War Facts [ http://www.drugwarfacts.org ] consists of over 1,700 Facts
in 50 chapters covering all aspects of the policies concerning illicit
drugs, from the "Addictive Properties of Popular Drugs" to "Women and the
Drug War." There is also a multi-chapter section on "International Policies
and Trends,"
covering Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the Russian Federation.
Facts consist of direct quotes from government reports, peer-reviewed
journals, think tank analyses, and other authoritative sources. Accompanying
each quote is its bibliographic citation along with (whenever possible) a
link to a PDF of the source document. Drug War Facts citations now link to
over 800 different reports.
Each Fact is also preceded by two scan reading features in parenthesis. The
first feature is the "data year." This denotes the year represented by the
respective statistic, as in "drug usage in 2009" [example: (2009)]. The
subject matter of the Fact may be included in parenthesis as well [example:
(2010 - U.S.
drug control budget)]. A subject matter descriptor in parenthesis and italic
precedes research facts: [example: (cannabis, alcohol, and driving)].
=========
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Table of Contents: [ http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/243 ]
Recent Facts (those recently added to the database): [
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Recent_Facts ]
Drug War Facts 2007 edition in hardcopy: [
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/factbook.pdf ]
=========
Questions, comments or suggestions for additions and modifications to Drug
War Facts are most welcome and may be addressed to Mary Jane Borden at
[ ].
=========
Drug War Facts
[ http://www.drugwarfacts.org/ ]
------------------------------
Subj: 003 Interesting...
From: DH Michon <>
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 13:10:45 -0700
...
http://current.com/news/93262592_the-underground-website-where-you-can
- --
DH Michon
St Paul, MN
1-(651) 353-7808
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment: http://mapinc.org/temp/13yXXLXIly_WI.html
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End of MAPTalk-Digest V11 #25
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