SAN ANTONIO, Guatemala - Surrounded by green fields of potatoes, oats and corn on his small farm, Carlos Lopez recalled the decent money he was earning before last year, cultivating a different crop he referred to simply as "the plant." The plants, ones with the bright red flowers, "are worth a lot more than these other crops," Lopez said, wearing a blue baseball hat, sitting on a plastic chair behind his two-room, mud-splattered house. "Amapola," said Lopez, speaking the Spanish word for poppy. [end]
SAN MIGUEL AMOLTEPEC VIEJO, Mexico - For years, two young brothers, like many other farmers in their poor, mountainous region of southwest Mexico, found salvation in the opium poppy. They bled the milky latex from its pods and the profits made their hard lives a little easier. The fact that this substance was the raw material for most of the heroin consumed in the United States was of little concern to the family, if they even knew it at all. But then changes in that distant market for illegal drugs made the price of the dried opium latex plummet. [continues 1405 words]
An association between weed and the dead turns out to have been established long before the 1960s and far beyond a certain ur-band's stomping grounds in San Francisco. Researchers have identified strains of cannabis burned in mortuary rituals as early as 500 B.C., deep in the Pamir mountains in western China, according to a new study published Wednesday. The residue had chemical signatures indicating high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant's most psychoactive, or mood-altering, compound. [continues 1030 words]
BALTIMORE - Heroin has ravaged this city since the early 1960s, fueling desperation and crime that remain endemic in many neighborhoods. But lately, despite heroin's long, deep history here, users say it has become nearly impossible to find. Heroin's presence is fading up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from New England mill towns to rural Appalachia, and in parts of the Midwest that were overwhelmed by it a few years back. It remains prevalent in many Western states, but even New York City, the nation's biggest distribution hub for the drug, has seen less of it this year. [continues 1518 words]
In mid-May, authorities discovered an acre of poppy fields in Monterey County. By the end of the month, they carried out the largest known opium poppy bust in California history, according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. "We know it's the biggest grow in California history and we believe it could be the biggest in the nation," sheriff's spokesman Cmdr. John Thornburg told the Monterey County Herald. In a Facebook post, the agency announced that, in addition to the acre found at Moss Landing, they found seven more fields of the flowers in a span of three days. Five of the fields were in Royal Oaks and two were in Aromas. [continues 275 words]
SARASOTA - When the Drug Enforcement Administration was formed in 1973, roughly 2,000 Americans were dying from overdoses each week, largely from heroin injections. In 2016 alone, thanks to a deregulated pharmaceutical industry, fatal overdoses -- 80 percent opioid related - -- claimed 63,000 lives. Or, as Peter Bensinger pointed out Thursday morning, opium-derived drugs have exacted a higher death toll in a single year than nearly two decades of fighting in the Vietnam War. Appointed by President Ford in 1976 to become the nation's second DEA director, Bensinger detailed the history of America's relationship with the poppy to a Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning crowd gathered at First United Methodist Church. As the leading cause of death for U.S. residents under 50, the toll from opioids and its synthetic counterparts today would've been unimaginable to Bensinger when he was the nation's top drug cop. [continues 204 words]
They're still dealing with crushing grief barely contained, but a group of Niagara mothers who lost children in the prime of their lives to overdoses from opioids delivered a powerful message to regional politicians last week on the desperate need to deal with the opioid crisis sweeping like a freight train across the country. The powerful drugs such as fentanyl have left a trail of destruction starting on the West Coast and moving east, with soaring numbers of emergency rooms visits due to overdoses in Ontario now. [continues 418 words]
In 1805, German apothecary Friedrich Serturner revolutionized the practice of pharmacy by isolating morphine from opium. Opium, the latex exuded by the bulb of the poppy plant on scoring with a sharp instrument, has a long history of use dating back to about 3400 BC. The Sumerians, living in the region that is modern day Iraq, are known to have cultivated the poppy and were aware of the effects of consuming its juice, referring to it as the "joy plant." Judging by artwork depicting Sumerian medicine men carrying poppies, they were also aware of opium's painkilling abilities. [continues 744 words]
The Taliban in Afghanistan is now running significant heroin production lines in the war-torn country to provide jihadists and insurgents with billions of dollars, western law enforcement officials And much of that heroin is flowing into Canada. "More than 90 per cent of all heroin consumed in the US is of Mexican origin. But in Canada more than 90 per cent of the heroin consumed is of Afghan origin," said William Brownfield, US Assistant Secretary for Drugs and Law Enforcement when addressing reporters in the Afghan capital Kabul recently. [continues 842 words]
[photo] At a roadside restaurant outside Kabul, Gula Jan, far left, sells hashish to a wide array of clients. (Sultan Faizy / For The Times) Gula Jan ground a small amount of hashish, about the size of a marble, in his hand. He mixed it with tobacco and carefully rolled it into a cigarette. Then he smiled. "Do you know how many people come and smoke hash here?" he said. "Thousands!" The 34-year-old counts parliamentarians, government officials, doctors, engineers and businessmen among his clients. They all stop by his usual spot on a river bend 45 miles outside Kabul for a taste of his specialty. [continues 660 words]
A VicPD officer explains why the opioid is so easily available Staff Sgt. Conor King has been a Victoria Police Department officer for 16 years, is an expert on fentanyl and other drugs from a law-enforcement standpoint, and serves in VicPD's Investigative Services Division. He shares his thoughts on the province's growing opioid crisis. I spent Christmas 2015 sitting at my kitchen table, smartphone in hand, tracking overdose deaths across Greater Victoria. Eight people had died in seven days, three in the preceding 24 hours. Two of them died on the street, one in a parkade, the rest at home. [continues 915 words]
I spent Christmas 2015 sitting at my kitchen table, smartphone in hand, tracking overdose deaths across Greater Victoria. Eight people had died in seven days, three in the preceding 24 hours. Two of them died on the street, one in a parkade, the rest at home. This included Miranda, the 22-year-old daughter of one of my co-workers at the Victoria Police Department. She died in her bedroom a few hours after opening Christmas presents with her mom and stepdad. [continues 916 words]
Victoria Police Staff Sgt. Conor King shares his thoughts on B.C.'s growing opioid problem. I spent Christmas 2015 sitting at my kitchen table, smartphone in hand, tracking overdose deaths across Greater Victoria. Eight people had died in seven days, three in the preceding 24 hours. Two of them died on the street, one in a parkade, the rest at home. This included Miranda, the 22-year-old daughter of one of my co-workers at the Victoria Police Department. She died in her bedroom a few hours after opening Christmas presents with her mom and stepdad. [continues 916 words]
[photo] Bonnie Bruce is the mother of a Vermont woman, Tamara, who was found the day after Thanksgiving passed out from heroin in her car with her fiance and their two young children. DORSET, Vt. - The midnight phone call woke them all up. As Bonnie Bruce struggled to understand what the police officer was saying, her 11-year-old grandson, Elias, appeared in her bedroom doorway and walked to her bedside, listening. He knew: It was about his mother. "Wait a minute, what are you telling me?" Bonnie gasped into the phone. The coil of dread lodged hard in her gut for the past 11 years, since her daughter first shot heroin into the soft crook of her elbow, abruptly gave way. "Is she all right?" [continues 3038 words]
Drug dealers who sell narcotics containing fentanyl could face serious charges beyond trafficking if users are injured or killed. Charges could range from criminal negligence causing bodily harm or death to manslaughter and homicide charges. Insp. Zvonko Horvat, chief of the Norfolk OPP, spelled out the consequences during the Nov. 23 meeting of the Norfolk Police Services Board. "Police are looking at strategies to deal with this," Horvat said. "Unfortunately, we are not exempt from that in our community." The matter was raised at the PSB because of a spike in fentanyl overdoses in the local area recently. Paramedics in Haldimand and Norfolk responded to four fentanyl overdoses on Nov. 19, one on Nov. 20 and one on Nov. 21. [continues 334 words]
The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research - a group better known for its views on inflation targeting and GDP growth - says New Zealand should move "sooner rather than later" to legalise marijuana which would generate a net gain of $300 million to the government accounts. Drawing on Treasury research which found that legalising could reap $150m in new government revenue and reduce spending on drug enforcement by around $180m, NZIER principal economist Peter Wilson concludes that legalisation, combined with heavy taxation, regulation and education would be a better way of reducing social harm from the drug. [continues 205 words]
But "meth," or methamphetamine hydrochloride, short for shabu, is something else, the President pointed out. Shabu addicts were initially described as the "living dead" by President Rodrigo Duterte when he made an impassioned speech last week in defense of his administration's deadly literally campaign against illegal drugs. A few days later, President Duterte called these shabu dependents as the "walking dead" in our midst. Perhaps, the President was able to watch last week the first episode of the popular "Walking Dead" TV series now being locally carried at TV5 every Thursday night. "Walking Dead" is a fictional apocalyptic weekly series in US setting where zombies, or the undead, prey and feed upon human beings. [continues 962 words]
Although President Duterte's police methods have drawn concern in various parts of the world, even those who deplore his methods at home are praying that his 'war on drugs' would somehow succeed. However, international experts who have done extensive studies on the global drug wars are deeply pessimistic; they describe the "war on drugs" as a failed strategy, and are calling for a major policy "rethink." These experts have not condemned the extrajudicial killings, the shoot-on-sight and "surrender or else" orders in the present drug war, as some UN officials, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and certain international publications have. Their studies precede DU30's war by at least a couple of years. [continues 1824 words]
Parents of a young man who died of substance abuse urge others to talk about addiction before they, too, face tragedy Thank you to Amy Waldron for her letter ("Bringing addiction out of the shadows," July 28) regarding the death of our son, Alex Hoehn, from substance abuse. Amy's comments were both accurate and poignant, "Addiction is killing our young people at unprecedented rates. ... By bringing addiction out of the shadows and showing the faces of the people we are losing to this disease, we can continue to move forward toward breaking the stigma of addiction." Her response touched our hearts and we felt compelled to further share our story and the brutal effects of this horrific drug epidemic. [continues 497 words]
BANGKOK In a backroom heavy with sawdust, Mr Akkarin Puri, 33, carefully examines the veneer of a half-finished guitar. There was a time when the craftsman's attention was more focused on inhaling the vapours from a pill of yaba - a methamphetamine - heated over a flame. In fact, by the age of 21, his drug habit had landed him in juvenile detention at least six times and a military lock-up for 18 months. There, he tried to rob a fellow addict to fund his next fix and landed himself in jail for another eight years. It was while doing time in a particularly notorious prison, in Pathum Thani province next to Bangkok, that he saw up close one of the gravest consequences of the kingdom's long-running "war on drugs". [continues 1319 words]
