There are no "safe heroin injection sites." The only "safe" approach to heroin is not to take it. For addicts, the humane public health response is to help them get and stay sober, or at the very least, opioid replacement therapy in sustained treatment. Any approach without these goals is cruel and dehumanizing - not healing, but perpetuating harm. Addiction is a treatable disease. Millions of Americans are in recovery - living healthy, productive lives. Supporting addicts' heroin use maintains their disease, administering the poison that causes their illness and diminishes their lives. A government-approved place for unlimited heroin injection creates the conditions for neverending addiction and gives government a drug dealer's power over the addicted. [continues 217 words]
President Barack Obama's National Drug Control Strategy in 2010 first proclaimed the major policy goals of the administration's approach to the drug problem and the goals were to be met by 2015. Not only have they not been met, in critical instances, the policies have been going in the wrong direction, rapidly. We learned last week that, in the midst of the opiate overdose crisis, heroin overdose deaths rose an additional 28 percent between 2013 and 2014. That's on top of the 340 percent rise in heroin deaths since 2007, such that beyond the 8,217 deaths of 2013, we now have another 10,574. That is, we now see a 440 percent increase from the Bush years. [continues 948 words]
There's New Opportunity for the Senate Drug Caucus Establishment Washington too often forgets that while most legislative matters affect segments of the country, drug policy is a national concern. When the American people gave Republicans majorities in both houses of the next Congress, they certainly indicated dissatisfaction with the performance of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party. But soon, the voters will ask what the Republican Congress has done with its leadership of the legislative branch. Despite strong majorities, Republicans are unlikely to override presidential vetoes, which means Congress will have limited power to implement sweeping changes that require presidential cooperation. Redefining issues and setting forth a governing agenda may therefore be as important as enacting laws for the next Congress. [continues 541 words]
Progress in Colombia Provides Clear Evidence That the War on Drugs Is Winnable, While History Repeatedly Shows That Relaxed Restrictions Lead to More Abuse and Addiction. Justified alarm over drug-related Mexican border violence has led to the predictable spate of drug legalization proposals. The most prominent was a call by three former Latin American presidents -- from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico -- to end what they claimed was the drug war. While there are many "end the drug war" plans, all of them, as even their advocates admit, result in more drug use and addiction. Their response? We should emasculate prevention and law enforcement and just spend more on treatment. [continues 1619 words]
Countries That Have Experimented With a Permissive Approach Have Always Turned Back. Since 2001 the number of young people using illegal drugs has dropped by 900,000 to about 2.7 million. This drop is an important development for all the obvious reasons, plus one. Substance abuse is a disease. Until recently, we failed to grasp the nature of this disease and how to reduce the suffering it causes. For decades, we did not want to believe that alcohol or drugs could have the power to take over our lives, despite the evidence we witnessed when our loved ones grappled with drug addiction. We did not understand how this disease could alter personality and steal individual freedom. We have paid a high price for this confusion. [continues 779 words]
Workplace Tests for Cocaine Show the Lowest Use on Record. Whatever challenges await him, President-elect Barack Obama will not have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to keeping a lid on the use of illegal drugs. Our policy has been a success -- although that success is one of Washington's best kept secrets. Reported drug use among eighth, 10th and 12th graders has declined for six straight years. Teen use of cocaine, marijuana and inhalants is down significantly, while consumption of methamphetamine and hallucinogens like LSD and Ecstasy has all but collapsed. [continues 628 words]
Daniel Kurtz-Phelan states in his article (July 13) that there "has been no significant decrease in drug flows out of Colombia or in the availability of cocaine or heroin in the United States." Law-enforcement officials in 38 U.S. cities, however, have reported decreased availability of cocaine since January 2007. This coincides with a 30 percent jump in the price per gram of cocaine on American streets over the past year. Even The Times covered the significance of this rise in price and its effect on availability in an article published in October 2007 ("Citing Price Rise, U.S. and Mexico See Antidrug Progress"). Since then, positive drug-test rates for cocaine among our work force have been in a free fall, reaching their lowest levels in 10 years. We've also seen even more dramatic declines in the effective availability of heroin, particularly east of the Mississippi, where the bulk of Colombian heroin is sold, because huge drops in potential production of heroin in Colombia have led to decreased purity and increased price of the drug here. [continues 67 words]
To the Editor: Re "Not Winning the War on Drugs" (editorial, July 2): You say that "some experts argue that the rising price of cocaine on American streets is mostly the result of a strong euro and fast-growing demand in Europe." But this argument doesn't take into account the even greater disruption for methamphetamine, which no one is diverting to Europe. You selectively slice the Monitoring the Future data, citing 12th graders' annual use of cocaine in 2007, to claim that teenagers are using "more" cocaine than they did in 2001. But examination of that data shows a decrease in use by 12th graders from the previous year, to 5.2 percent in 2007 from 5.7 percent in 2006. And this is far below the peak of 6.2 percent in 1999. [continues 99 words]
A Day to Reflect on the Fight Against Meth Today is National Methamphetamine Awareness Day -- the first time a president has designated a day to focus national attention on methamphetamine, an extremely destructive and harmful drug. For parents, today is a reminder of the importance of talking to our children about dangerous drugs. For our youth, it is an opportunity to reaffirm a commitment to a drug-free future. For those struggling with addiction, it is an occasion to seek treatment. And for all Americans, it is an opportunity to thank law enforcement officers, treatment counselors and prevention advocates whose efforts have contributed to a nearly 20 percent decline in drug use among American youth over the past four years. [continues 383 words]
What Is The Real Story On The Threat Of Methamphetamine Methamphetamine has ravaged communities throughout our nation. Meth users suffer devastating mental and physical effects, and they often endanger others. Paranoia, violence, family abuse and child neglect are behaviors associated with meth use. Equally devastating are meth labs, where toxic chemicals, mixed together by people with no regard for safety, jeopardize neighborhoods. The results have been explosions, fires, toxic waste and poisonous vapors that harm children and first responders. This drug has been a national nightmare, entrapping addicts and overwhelming community resources. Meth is uniquely threatening because its impact is so disproportionate to the actual number of users. [continues 577 words]
George Melloan, in his Feb. 21 Global View "Musings About the War on Drugs" and some of the March 7 Letters in response ("Our Unwinnable War -- Against Drugs," March 7) propose new thinking about whether drugs should be legalized, but in the end offer a rehash from libertarians of yesteryear. Arguments that drug prohibition has failed depend upon two points. The first accepts that drug use damages the social fabric, but insists that more damage follows from the prohibition itself. The second argues that drug prohibition doesn't even have the virtue of achieving its goal. After all, some people still use drugs, traffickers still make profits and fighting back against drugs means that there is, well, a fight, producing violence. Hence, our policy should accommodate the fact of drug use. [continues 474 words]
Meeting The Challenge Of The Meth Epidemic Methamphetamine is a dangerous drug that is harming too many Americans. But the federal government, together with its state and local partners, is aggressively addressing this challenge. Our efforts against meth have been unprecedented and increasingly effective. Further, we were engaged in actions well before the recent spate of media attention, and, in accord with our National Synthetic Drugs Action Plan, are bringing forward new programs. The facts speak for themselves. Against meth use, we have new efforts in prevention and treatment. From the launch of nationwide advertising in our media campaign specific to the dangers of meth, to fundamental brain research guiding our understanding of this drug's effects, to focused treatment initiatives leading users to recovery, we have new programs backed with budgetary commitments. [continues 398 words]
Over the past three years, we have seen significant declines in youth drug use in America. Today, there are 600,000 fewer young people using illegal drugs than in 2001. An increasing number of young people deserves credit for making smart choices about their health and their futures. However, it must be noted that the progress we have made in reducing illegal drug use does not happen on its own. We know from 25 years of dealing with the misery of drug use that most of the work to reduce drug use in America happens at the local level. [continues 449 words]
Focus Is Response to New Research on Drug's Potency, Use and Risks. Assertions that our nation's drug policy minimizes cocaine and heroin while focusing on marijuana are misleading. The fallacy involves interpreting drug arrests as signals of changed drug policy, rather than as indicators of drug use. As drug use went down during the 1980s, arrests fell accordingly. When drug use climbed between 1992 and 1997, arrests followed suit. And when the cocaine epidemic struck, cocaine arrests rose steeply, only to drop as the epidemic waned. [continues 266 words]
There is a quiet revolution taking place in the way America's criminal-justice system treats non-violent drug-using offenders. Over the past 15 years, drug court programs, which bring a public-health approach to a law enforcement challenge, have grown from one drug court in 1989 to more than 1,600 today in all 50 states. In fact, 2004 alone saw an increase of more than 400 such courts. Drug courts have become a crossroads for the law enforcement, judicial and treatment communities that, in the past, dealt with drug users without effective coordination. Drug courts represent an integrated approach that is reducing recidivism rates and saving taxpayers' money. [continues 627 words]
It's About Public Health -- Identifying Individuals Who Need Help and Treatment -- Not Punishment Over the past three years, youth drug use in America has declined by 17 percent. Today, there are 600,000 fewer young people using drugs than in 2001. While our prevention efforts are resulting in a national decline, too many young people are still using drugs. Pennsylvania is no exception. Our youth continue to use drugs, particularly marijuana, at an alarming rate. In fact, approximately 15 percent of Pennsylvanians between the ages of 12 and 17 tried marijuana in 2004, a startling statistic. [continues 660 words]
Across America, drug use has declined over the last three years. The 2004 Monitoring the Future study, an ongoing survey of eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders, shows a 17 percent decrease in overall teenage drug use compared with 2001. This translates into 600,000 fewer teens using illegal drugs today than there were in 2001. This positive trend is not the only good news. In our major cities, through innovative ideas of concerned citizens and determined leadership throughout city governments, efforts to reduce drug use and crime are starting to pay off. The Office of National Drug Control Policy recognizes that mobilizing the energy and expertise of citizens and city officials is a powerful way to reduce the drug problem nationwide. That is why, in 2003, my office embarked on an effort to engage more directly with officials and concerned citizens in 25 of America's largest cities. [continues 662 words]
Across America, drug use has declined over the past three years. The 2004 Monitoring the Future study -- an ongoing survey of eighth, 10th and 12th graders -- shows a 17 percent decrease in overall teenage drug use compared to 2001. This translates into 600,000 fewer teens using illegal drugs today than there were in 2001. This positive trend is not the only good news in America. In major cities, through innovative ideas of concerned citizens and determined leadership in city governments, efforts to reduce drug use and crime are starting to pay off. The study is just part of the story. The Office of National Drug Control Policy recognizes that mobilizing the energy and expertise of citizens and city officials at the local level is a powerful way to reduce the drug problem nationwide. That is why in 2003, my office embarked on an effort to engage more directly with officials and citizens in 25 of America's largest cities. [continues 521 words]
So-called "medical" marijuana is in fact a medical breakthrough straight from the 19th century. Back then, Americans were exposed to a host of patent medicine "cure-alls." Most "cures" were alcohol, which explains why they made people "feel better." Marijuana was also available as an elixir for everything from migraines to gonorrhea. Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1907 exposed those claims, and today Americans enjoy the world's safest, most effective medical system, built on an unequaled process of scientific research and testing. [continues 117 words]
Afghanistan is a changing nation. Only three years ago, regional leaders who helped defeat the Taliban agreed in Bonn to a roadmap to democracy. In January they adopted an enlightened constitution, and on Oct. 9, more than 8 million Afghan men and women voted in their nation's first-ever presidential election. Each voted for a single candidate, but all voted for democracy. Progress toward a safe and democratic Afghanistan has been steady and significant. That progress, however, faces a threat that requires renewed attention by the Afghan government and a helping hand from the international community. The threat is illegal drugs and a booming drug trade that transforms innocent and otherwise honest farmers into laborers trapped in the service of a criminal enterprise. The trade is in illegal narcotics, and the challenge is to free Afghan farmers from their dependence on poppy cultivation. [continues 551 words]
Latin America's oldest democracy is a vigorous nation of 41 million people that for 40 years has suffered violence at the hands of brutal armed groups funded by the narcotics trade. But because of courageous action by a new administration, this need not be Colombia's future. There are signs of hope in Colombia's struggle to remain democratic and liberated from fear. Colombia's internal conflict has been described by some as a revolutionary insurgency in which armed groups such as FARC--Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia--cloaked themselves in Marxism while they battled the government. [continues 495 words]
The Bush administration, working with the medical community, is responding to the threat of the diversion and abuse of controlled substances (particularly narcotic painkillers) that cause addiction in adults and, increasingly, in young people. Our initiatives are crafted carefully to do three things: protect our communities by stopping abuse, direct abusers to treatment and help the medical practice keep these drugs accessible and safe for those who need them. The threat is not minor. Prescription drug abuse is the second largest illicit drug problem in America -- only marijuana is more widely abused. In fact, 6.2 million Americans reported abuse of these drugs last year, while one in 10 high school seniors admitted abuse of a single brand of prescription narcotic: Vicodin. The number of people abusing OxyContin has doubled every year since we first asked the question on national surveys and now is approaching the number who have abused heroin -- while the addictive potential is comparable. [continues 211 words]
Editor -- An article by Mitch Earleywine, "Anti-pot ads have backfired" (Open Forum, Sept. 26), about the National Anti-Drug Media Campaign, contains factual inaccuracies. Using selective and questionable statistics to claim that the campaign has "backfired," the article ignores the plethora of evidence concluding that the campaign is making a positive difference in the attitudes and beliefs of young people in America. Just last week a study published by RoperASW found a strong correlation between regular exposure to the ads and increased perceptions of risk associated with marijuana use. It also reported that far more youth with high exposure to the ads said the ads made them less likely to try or use drugs than youth with little or no exposure. [continues 174 words]
Most 15-year-old girls look forward to getting their driver's license. For Samantha Reid of Rockwood, however, that day of apprehension would never come. Two weeks after her 15th birthday, Samantha left the movies with her friends and headed to a party. It would be her last. Victimized by a soda laced with a date-rape drug (GHB), Samantha slipped into a coma, dying 18 hours later. Samantha's death was a nightmare for her family. With drug-related tragedies like these in the headlines, the citizens of Detroit know all too well how drug use robs one's future and tears apart families. Indeed, too many people have learned the painful lesson that drug use is not just a "victimless crime." [continues 574 words]
DRUG USE wrecks individual lives, tears apart families and destroys communities. Many of us have had the agony of watching a loved one cope with dependence on drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, we know that many of our family members and fellow citizens are not being treated for their addiction. Oklahoma is not immune to the disease of addiction. Illicit drug use is all too common, with marijuana the most prevalent drug of abuse. High-potency sinsemilla marijuana -- often double the strength of the domestically grown drug -- is readily available in Oklahoma. Methamphetamine is also a rising and dangerous threat. Fully 6 percent of 18 to 25-year-olds self-report that they are dependent or addicted to drugs, with the rate rising to 14 percent when alcohol is added into the mix. We estimate that more than 43,000 Oklahomans in the year 2000 needed but did not receive treatment to overcome their addiction. [continues 399 words]
In recent days, the media in San Diego have devoted moving coverage to the unprovoked shooting of Oceanside police officer Tony Zeppetella - killed with his own service weapon after making a routine traffic stop. The officer's wife is left a widow; his infant son is left without a father. The community is left without a brave officer. The man who murdered him had a history of drug dealing, and the car he was driving contained heroin, a scale for weighing quantities of drugs, and packaging materials for drug selling. [continues 551 words]
An editorial on drug testing ("Random testing no way to curb student drug use," May 29) argues that student drug testing "simply doesn't work," as purportedly shown by a study that examined schools with "random drug screening programs" and found usage rates similar to schools without such tests. The study does no such thing. The analysis does not compare schools with "random drug screening programs" to schools that lack them. In reality, the study consisted of sending letters to administrators in 722 schools and asking them whether they had tested any students for drugs in the last year for any reason. Only 18 percent responded that they had. [continues 95 words]
The drug trade is an ugly business that keeps its face hidden. Trafficking drugs is illegal, and no community can thrive if it treats that trade as acceptable. We now know that if a neighborhood looks the other way, the drug trade expands and traps more young people in addiction. We know we must fight back against the drug pushers, and displace them from any corner where they set up shop. But there's another face to the drug trade that is all too frequently tolerated out in the open. It is the business of trafficking in the tools of drug abuse -- what law enforcement officials term "drug paraphernalia." [continues 560 words]
To the Editor: Re Bill Keller's Nov. 30 column about drug policy: The increase in the number of people needing treatment for marijuana is not a function of "more aggressive law enforcement." The data derive from applying the diagnostic criteria of the American Psychiatric Association to responses from the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse. Fully 62 percent of the need for treatment is due to marijuana use. Likewise, trends in drug-related emergency department episodes tell the same story. [continues 80 words]
Cross-Border Drug Threat TIJUANA - The drug trade begins with experimentation in youth. Many want to deny this and suggest that it is adults who decided to make choices that are a part of their freedom. It's not. If young people do not experiment with drugs in their teen-age years, they're unlikely to try later on. The United States has decades of pain and suffering to prove this. [continues 1420 words]
Con The public debate over marijuana has been plagued by difficulties, not the least of which is a lack of accurate information. Any policy debate that draws activists promoting their cause is likely to suffer from confusion. But the debate over marijuana has been further muddled by careless or gullible media reports. Too often, journalists are fed misleading advocacy information that they swallow whole. For instance, one columnist recently charged that worry about the increased potency of today's marijuana is wildly overstated. In fact, he calls such claims "whoppers," because the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) "has only doubled to 4.2 percent from about 2 percent from 1980 to 1997." [continues 762 words]
The charge that "nothing works" in the fight against illegal drugs has led some people to grasp at an apparent solution: legalize drugs . They will have taken false heart from news from Britain last week, where the government acted to downgrade the possession of cannabis to the status of a non-arrestable offense. According to the logic of the legalizers, it's laws against drug use, not the drugs themselves, that do the greatest harm. The real problem, according them, is not that the young use drugs , but that drug laws distort supply and demand. Violent cartels arise, consumers overpay for a product of unknown quality, and society suffers when the law restrains those who "harm no one but themselves." [continues 785 words]
In December, the University of Michigan released its annual survey, "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. What it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with 49 percent of high-school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation - and 22 percent smoking it at least once a month. Marijuana is far from "harmless" - it is pernicious. Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar. [continues 511 words]
'Reefer Madness' is silly, but the real effects of this supposedly mellow herb are clearly pernicious, says John P. Walters In December, the University of Michigan released its annual survey, "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat. The report generated little in the way of public comment. Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation -- and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month. [continues 733 words]
In December, the University of Michigan released its annual survey, "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat. Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation - and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month. [continues 466 words]
In December, the University of Michigan released its annual survey, "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat. Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation - and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month. [continues 465 words]
Last December the University of Michigan released its annual survey "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat. The report generated little in the way of public comment. Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation -- and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month. [continues 814 words]
We know that illegal drugs do a great deal of harm -- to our bodies, our minds and our communities. But there's another harm associated with illegal drugs that more and more Americans are beginning to understand: The billions of dollars Americans spend on drugs each year are taking a horrific toll on some of the most fragile and diverse ecosystems on the planet. Consider the Andes and Amazonian regions of South America. In countries such as Colombia and Peru, astonishing environmental riches abound. The Huallaga region of Peru may be the world's richest in all forms of fauna, hosting record numbers of species among butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Colombia contains roughly 10 percent of the Earth's biodiversity, second only to Brazil. [continues 669 words]
We know that illegal drugs do a great deal of harm -- to our bodies, our minds, and our communities. But there's another harm associated with illegal drugs: The billions of dollars Americans spend on drugs each year take a horrific toll on some of the most fragile and diverse ecosystems on the planet. Consider the Andes and Amazonian regions of South America. In countries such as Colombia and Peru, astonishing environmental riches abound. The Huallaga region of Peru may be the world's richest in all forms of fauna, hosting record numbers of species among butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. [continues 698 words]
It's rare when an easy-to-understand, bipartisan foreign policy initiative that is embraced by all the countries involved and lauded by the federal government for its effectiveness is enacted into law. It is rarer still when such an initiative is allowed to simply slip away due to legislative indifference or neglect. Yet, that could be the fate of one of our most effective South American policy initiatives. Last December, the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) expired. Although the House has voted to extend ATPA, the Senate has not yet acted. There is a temporary duty deferral in place, but if it is allowed to expire without being reauthorized, thousands of people in the Andean region will suffer -- and we will have needlessly lost a valuable tool in our ongoing anti-drug efforts. [continues 524 words]
Just Say No . . . To Treatment Without Law Enforcement THE WAR ON CRIME AND DRUGS is rapidly losing ground to the war on punishment and prisons. Recently, Newsweek featured Robert Downey Jr. on the cover, along with a series of articles and essays on the drug problem with the general theme that law enforcement and incarceration don't work and that we need to embrace treatment and new treatment drugs. But Downey only seems to get treated for his addiction when he is forced to by the criminal justice system. Indeed, it's hard to imagine a worse advertisement for the effectiveness of drug treatment than Robert Downey Jr. [continues 1024 words]
