Advocates Say Addicts Need Long-Term Care Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and the Democratic-controlled legislature are weighing options for tackling the fast-growing heroin epidemic that has taken root across the state and throughout the country. Many of the solutions focus on loosening criminal penalties for drug offenses and shifting more money - including the potential prison savings - to treatment and rehabilitation programs. The efforts have drawn praise from experts, including Joshua Sharfstein, the physician who served as state health director under Hogan's predecessor, Martin O'Malley (D). But they are viewed with skepticism by some advocates, who want the state to immediately and significantly expand long-term residential treatment. [continues 1270 words]
Activist Daniel Miller Says Psychedelics Can Be Good for You Taking LSD even one time may fundamentally reshape our lives, making us happier and kinder, more productive at work and more open-minded. In 1970, Congress dropped psychedelics into the war on drugs. After a decade of Timothy Leary, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" and news reports of gruesome murders, the federal government declared that the drugs had no medical use - and high potential for abuse. The chairman of New Jersey's Narcotic Drug Study Commission called LSD "more dangerous than the Vietnam War." [continues 1967 words]
The mass of protesters gathered outside the White House couldn't quite wait for 4:20 Saturday afternoon, the pre-planned time they had designated to light their marijuana-packed joints and pipes in protest of the federal laws that prohibit the drug's consumption. Just past 4: 17, plumes of smoke arose from the crowd of more than 100 people, which was surrounded by officers from the U. S. Park Police, Metropolitan Police and the Secret Service. Still, because the activists remained on the street - owned by the District, which has legalized pot possession- and off the sidewalks-owned by the federal government, which has not - no one was arrested. Just two people were given citations and $25 fines for public consumption. A man who knew the pair said they were confronted by police only after a member of their group accidentally blew smoke in an officer's face. [continues 199 words]
For a religion in which wine plays such a central role, Christianity may prove surprisingly effective at curbing drug use, according to a study. Data analyzed by DrugAbuse.com in "Drugs and Devotion: Comparing Substance Abuse by Believers and Nonbelievers" show a correlation between religious belief and a reluctance to experiment with narcotics. Americans who said they are not religious are more likely to have used a host of recreational drugs, ranging from marijuana and alcohol to Ecstasy and heroin. Nonbelievers in the study, for instance, were 12 times more likely to use LSD and more than four times as likely as than their religious counterparts to try cocaine in the past year. [continues 595 words]
Supporters of Legalization Risk Arrest for Lighting Up Outside the White House Attention senior class-trip chaperones, cherry blossom lovers, and anyone else who may wander by the White House on Saturday: Brace yourself for a cloud of marijuana smoke - and, possibly, mass arrests. Organizers of the successful ballot measure that legalized pot last year in the District say they have had enough with President Obama's slog toward loosening marijuana laws. To protest, they are planning what they promise will be the first large-scale display of public pot smoking in the nation's capital, with the intention of getting arrested. [continues 933 words]
The March 18 editorial "Sobering up about addiction" was flawed. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is wrong on the issue as well. The idea that "loose prescribing norms . . . have fueled the growth of opioid consumption" does not correspond with the National Survey on Drug Use and Health's findings, as reported in the March 6 Outlook essay "Five myths about Heroin," that "75 percent of recreational opioid users in 2013-14 got pills from sources other than doctors, mainly friends and relatives. Even among this group, moving on to heroin is quite rare. Only 4 percent do so within five years; just 0.2 percent of U.S. adults are current heroin users." [continues 83 words]
Addiction has long been medicine's unwanted stepchild. Doctors didn't understand it, didn't know how to treat it and felt helpless in the face of the wreckage it brought to their patients' lives. As a result, while providers addressed the consequences of addiction - - endocarditis, liver failure, seizures, overdose - they rarely treated the disease itself. That mysterious task has been left to others: counselors, peers in recovery and 12-step programs. But this is changing. There is now a general consensus in medicine that addiction is best understood as a chronic disease that can be treated with pharmacological interventions. Providers now have access to an array of medications that reduce cravings and addictive behaviors. As a result, doctors in increasing numbers are seeking training in addiction management and are willing to assume responsibility for treatment of this complicated disease. [continues 616 words]
The House Should Take Up a Bill That Would Mark a Sea Change on Opioids. SLOWLY BUT surely, like the proverbial aircraft carrier, the U.S. government is changing to a new and better course on the long-neglected issue of opioid abuse and addiction. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took an emphatic stand against the loose prescribing norms that have fueled the growth of opioid consumption for non-cancer pain, with the terrible result that 16,000 people a year die from over doses. [continues 467 words]
'Getting High' May Be Fun, but It's Destructive, and Inevitably Everyone Pays It's called "getting high" for a reason. Euphoria feels good. But abusing "harmless" drugs like marijuana has consequences that are anything but harmless. Drug overdose has surpassed traffic accidents as a cause of death in the United States; the numbers of heroin deaths in particular are off the charts. Congress struggles to craft a national legislative remedy to deal with the scourge of drug abuse, just as several states are undermining the congressional effort by dealing with pot as a good-time treat for fun-seekers. Pot is a gateway drug, and legalizing it sends a mixed message that inevitably produces more misery. [continues 473 words]
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it would not bring federal charges against a New York City Police Department officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man inside his apartment in 2012. The decision drew swift condemnation from community activists, who questioned why officers pursued Ramarley Graham, kicked down the door to his apartment, and shot him as he retreated into the bathroom after officers erroneously suspected he was carrying a firearm. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, announced Tuesday that there was "insufficient evidence" to bring federal criminal charges against NYPD Officer Richard Haste, who fired the single shot that killed Graham. [continues 377 words]
Maia Szalavitz advanced the thoughtful national conversation on addiction by dissolving some of the most widespread misconceptions about the heroin epidemic in her March 6 Five Myths essay [Outlook]. Yet she did not highlight what many of us in the treatment and recovery world see as the most inaccurate and troubling myth. That is, the belief that addiction is a moral failing, a sign of weak or poor character. Rigorous research and neuroscience have proved that substance use disorder is a bona fide disease. [continues 94 words]
WASHINGTON - Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine District of Columbia police officers smashed through her door, pointed a shotgun at her face and ordered her to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 990 words]
WASHINGTON - Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine District of Columbia police officers smashed through her door, pointed a shotgun at her face and ordered her to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a softspoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 516 words]
America' s epidemic of heroin and prescription pain reliever addiction has become a major issue in the 2016 elections. It's worse than ever: Deaths from overdoses of opioids (the drug category that includes heroin and prescription analgesics such as Vicodin) reached an all-time high in 2014, rising 14 percent in a single year. But because drug policy has long been a political and cultural football, myths about opioid addiction abound. Here are some of the most dangerous- and how they do harm. [continues 1494 words]
Pursuing Drugs and Guns on Scant Evidence, D.C. Police Sometimes Raid Wrong Homes - Terrifying Residents Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up as nine D.C. police officers smashed through her door. A shotgun was pointed at her face, and she was ordered to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 3913 words]
The District recently marked the first anniversary of its legalization of recreational marijuana. And as the city is home to so many fitness minded people, it's likely that at least a few of them are wondering whether it makes sense, or whether it's even safe, to incorporate pot into their exercise regimens. Given the long-standing illegality of marijuana, there is not a large body of evidence about its effects on the human body. However, I spoke with a professional athlete who offered his own large body as testimony to the benefits of engaging in physical activity while stoned. [continues 1206 words]
Regarding the Feb. 28 editorial "Gun violence: 7,548 incidents and counting": As a retired detective, I do not understand why the editorial board failed to mention the huge role that drug prohibition plays in the deaths of so many of our youths. Young people are shot-sometimes shot dead-every day because of their employment in the drug trade in the United States. Given the justified concern for the death toll from guns, why continue to support our nearly 50-year-long, trillion-dollar, highly unsuccessful modern prohibition? Howard Wooldridge, Adamstown [end]
The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and the District has led to a so-called "green rush" of prospectors looking to cash in. Can the commercial potential from this newly sanctioned vice revitalize a newspaper industry struggling in the Internet age? Documentarian Mitch Dickman's "Rolling Papers" follows Ricardo Baca, marijuana editor at the Denver Post since 2013, to find out. Yet despite slick production values, this look at the intersection of two potentially fascinating subcultures - journalists and stoners - yields only half-baked results. ALCHEMY Jake Browne's journalism job: Pot critic, writing reviews of such strains as Glass Slipper and Banana Kush for the Cannabist, a publication devoted to marijuana in the Denver Post. [continues 217 words]
The Feb. 15 editorial "Success in Colombia" focused almost entirely on counterinsurgency success against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and thus was another sad example of willful amnesia about U.S. drug control policy impacts abroad. Ignored by the editorial were the equally important counternarcotics goals and impacts of Plan Colombia. After 15 years and almost $10 billion in U.S. aid, the question needs to be asked if U.S. taxpayers received their money's worth from this investment in the largest drug control program in the annals of the war on drugs in the Western Hemisphere. Today, Colombian cocaine production is increasing. Moreover, Colombia is a major source of heroin in the United States' national epidemic, with Maryland a sad case in point. [continues 88 words]
Matthew L. Springer's Feb. 4 letter, "Secondhand marijuana smoke is harmful, just like tobacco smoke," comparing cannabis (marijuana) smoke to cigarette smoke, is laughable. While cigarette smoke is enough to gag a maggot and cause emphysema, cannabis is nothing like it. In 5,000 years of documented use, cannabis has not killed a single person, while cigarettes kill more than 1,000 Americans daily. Cannabis smoke may be unpleasant, but it won't kill anyone. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
I've been an emergency room physician for more than 30 years. Every shift, I see broken legs, lacerations, cases of pneumonia and more. On the surface, none appears related to the rising rates of drug addiction and crime plaguing our society. But they are. Recently, I treated a man with an abscess on his inner thigh about the size of cantaloupe. We had complications trying to give him an IV with pain medicine because years of drug abuse had scarred his veins. He was clearly a drug user with an addiction problem, but his medical record will read only "abscess." [continues 572 words]
As a middle-age white man of comfortable means and right-of-center views on many issues, Imay have been oblivious to certain things longer than others. Recent headlines make it impossible to ignore disparities, however. An armed man in open revolt against the law of the land is killed by law enforcement officials ["Bundy patriarch shows no regrets," Politics & The Nation, Feb. 1]. There is hand-wringing and second guessing, even though his death occurs only after a month of confrontation and not-very-veiled threats. Contrast this with the deaths of unarmed African American males whose fates are decided by police officers in a matter of seconds. [continues 120 words]
The Jan. 31 front-page article "D.C. rules on smoking pot may go down in flames" described a "cloud of marijuana smoke" that rose from the audience at a Grateful Dead concert. That means the nonsmokers at the event were forced to inhale secondhand smoke. I doubt it would have been tolerated if audience members had lit tobacco cigarettes in the arena. Amid the controversies surrounding marijuana legalization, it's important to understand that smoked marijuana is not just a drug. There's a legitimate cardiovascular-health concern about exposure to the smoke itself, because secondhand marijuana smoke is similar to secondhand tobacco smoke, which impairs proper functioning of the arteries. [continues 116 words]
The District will begin studying whether to license private pot clubs under a measure that the D.C. Council approved Tuesday, potentially giving residents and visitors places to gather and smoke marijuana socially in the nation's capital as early as next year. The council action amounted to a compromise between allies of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who had sought to continue a complete ban on pot clubs, and a growing contingent of council members who had threatened to override the mayor and approve a plan to license clubs. Such an effort, they contended, would more fully implement a voter-approved ballot measure in 2014 that legalized pot in D.C. [continues 922 words]
When aging Grateful Dead members and their fans broke into song at Verizon Center late last year, a cloud of marijuana smoke rose from the audience. Under D.C. law, the collective exhale constituted more than enough for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser to swoop in and shut down the city's marquee sports arena - not just for the night, but permanently. The fact that she did not, or even threaten to, has emerged as Exhibit A of why the city's rules on when and where people can smoke pot have become unworkable and in need of change, say D.C. Council members and other critics of the mayor's law. They argue that because Bowser has never exercised the powers she sought a year ago to shut down a business large or small for public consumption, the law is effectively a sham and should be changed. [continues 1246 words]
The Jan. 7 editorial "Clouded judgment" regurgitated the same tired argument that the District is moving too fast to change discriminatory cannabis laws. But as council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1) said, there is no emergency that warrants a ban. Beginning July 17, 2014, the day the D.C. Council's decriminalization law went into effect, it stopped being a criminal offense to have cannabis clubs in the District. It wasn't a criminal offense to have private events, where the public is not invited and cannabis could be used behind closed doors. The decriminalization law says that the smell of cannabis is not probable cause for police action. Private cannabis clubs could have been created before Initiative 71 was voted on, but they weren't. By rubber-stamping the mayor's ban, the council inadvertently created the "smokeasy," a private residence where adults consume cannabis together. Is this the "unintended consequence" of poorly crafted emergency legislation? It's a hallmark of poor governance to enact laws to solve a problem that doesn't exist. By banning cannabis-using adults from gathering at private venues, the council created a problem. [continues 54 words]
Regarding the Dec. 29 letter "Who's to blame for a long sentence?": Lawrence J. Leiser of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys seems to stand alone in bemoaning President Obama's clemency initiative. Public-interest groups and legislators from the most conservative right to the most liberal left have joined in sponsoring and supporting sentencing reform legislation that would offer relief to prisoners, such as my brother, Weldon Angelos, who would serve essentially life sentences for low-level drug crimes. [continues 159 words]
The D.C. Council Nearly Overturns a Ban on Pot Outside Private Homes, Without Careful Consideration. SINCE IT hasn't even been a year since marijuana was legalized in the District, one would think (or hope, at least) that officials would tread carefully before making any drastic changes in the new and untested status quo. So the D.C. Council's recent antics about further relaxing controls on pot do not exactly inspire confidence. Indeed, they are cause for concern. At issue is how the council flip-flopped Tuesday on whether to lift a ban on pot smoking outside private homes, at such venues as rooftop bars, sidewalk patios and other places deemed to be private marijuana clubs. The council first voted 7 to 6 to keep the restrictions in place, but a supermajority of nine votes was needed; then Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) called council members to remind them of the unique problems the District faces in policing marijuana use. Her warning that the city would have no way to rein in open pot use if the rules were relaxed prompted two members to switch their votes. [continues 295 words]
How Lenient City Should Be About Open Smoking Is Still an Open Question For a brief time Tuesday, the D.C. Council embraced a new, much more relaxed version of marijuana legalization, voting to allow pot smoking at rooftop bars, sidewalk patios and most any other place a city resident declared to be a private pot club. That lasted just about 30 minutes. After appeals from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who argued that there would be no way to rein in open pot use once current restrictions were lifted, the council reversed itself. [continues 833 words]
Danielle Allen equated education to reduce tobacco use with education plus decriminalization to reduce illicit drug use. DoesMs. Allen know of any instances in which innocent bystanders were killed by someone high on tobacco? People get killed all too often by someone high on an illicit drug. Just before reading Ms. Allen's column, I learned that my two darling nieces, one in preschool and the other in second grade, were killed in a high-speed, rear-end crash by a driver who seemed to be high on drugs. [continues 98 words]
Danielle Allen argued that the successful anti-tobacco approach would solve the illicit drug problem. I amnot convinced. Legalizing and controlling marijuana for recreational use follows the tobacco model. But in states that have legalized marijuana, businesses promote marijuana, and thatmay increase its use rather than reduce it. Decriminalizing hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine is useful but falls short of solving this problem. On the positive side, it would help addicts get treatment rather than jail time. But Ms. Allen assumed that such treatment programs would dry up the demand for hard drugs. This may not be the case with new addicts coming along, despite antidrug campaigns. [continues 59 words]
Danielle Allen's recommendation in her Dec. 30 op-ed, "We already know how to win the war on drugs," to model the U.S. approach to illegal substances on the handling of tobacco, has a glaring logical flaw: Seriously addicted tobacco users can function effectively as workers, parents and citizens. There is no deformation of judgment and character inherent in tobacco addiction. As those who have dealt with addicts or with their families know, addiction to cocaine, opiates and similar substances produces behavioral changes that destroy the work and family lives of those addicted. The "war on drugs" has been unsuccessful in reducing abuse and addiction. More funds for treatment and prevention are badly needed; however, new and creative policies will not be built on ignoring the devastation of personal functioning inherent in drug addiction. Linda Gore, Gaithersburg [end]
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In January 1964, the Beatles first broke onto the Billboard chart with "I Want to Hold Your Hand"; by June, Ringo Starr had collapsed from tonsillitis and pharyngitis. In January, the surgeon general announced that scientists had found conclusive evidence linking smoking to cancer and thus launched our highly successful 50-year public-health fight against tobacco. In August, the North Vietnamese fired on a U.S. naval ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the public phase of the Vietnam War. Alongside an accelerating deployment of conventional troops would come their widespread use of marijuana and heroin. [continues 944 words]
The Dec. 24 front-page article "Obama's clemency list brings joy- and heartbreak" painted a picture of Weldon Angelos as a Greek immigrant's son who "was arrested for selling marijuana in three separate transactions . . . while possessing a firearm," resulting in a statutory sentence of 55 years in prison. Mr. Angelos was indicted by a grand jury that charged him with 20 criminal counts for distributing marijuana, possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, possessing a stolen firearm, possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of controlled substances and money laundering. [continues 121 words]
'Kush Gods' Took 'Donations' For months, a brightly painted Mercedes SUV and a Lexus coupe plied the hipster spots of the District along H and U streets and Adams Morgan, their operators openly doling out brownies, cupcakes, cookies and gummy bears that police say were laced with marijuana. The vehicles, with out-of-state plates and bearing pictures of marijuana plants, were as common in some neighborhoods as food trucks, and the proprietors of "KushGods" did little to hide their enterprise. They talked to the media about trading pot for "donations," and patrons could follow them on Twitter and call the mon a phone advertised on the vehicles. [continues 747 words]
As marijuana extracts expand their presence on the East Coast, an especially potent concentrate is appearing on law enforcement radar. Shatter, a cannabis extract with about 80 percent THC content, is legal for recreational use in states such as Colorado and Washington, sold in medical marijuana dispensaries in other states and is faster-acting and far more easily concealed than marijuana. On Monday, Loudoun County sheriff 's deputies intercepted a truck that had about $900,000 worth of packaged marijuana near Dulles International Airport. Included in that load was 15 pounds of shatter, in total packaged weight. Shatter, which is sold by the gram because of its potency, retails for about $60 a gram in Colorado, so 10 pounds of shatter would be worth nearly $270,000 - in a state where it is legal. Black-market shatter probably would cost much more. [continues 638 words]
Marijuana parties in Washington just aren't what they used to be, and Keith Stroup is pleased about that. They used to be wild, illicit affairs, held in word-of-mouth locations with off-the-record agreements. Stroup, the wild-eyed, long-haired, wire-rimmed-glasses-wearing founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, often acted as host. He lost his NORML job once, after outing President Jimmy Carter's drug czar for purportedly snorting cocaine at the organization's 1977 Christmas party. [continues 673 words]
Supporters of more liberal marijuana laws on Thursday delivered dramatic pleas that a temporary District law that bans consumption of the drug in private clubs be allowed to expire. If the ban remains, the District would be punishing the poor, the sick, children and many others, the advocates said, because the law effectively eliminates any loopholes allowing for marijuana use outside a private home. That leaves those who rent, are visiting or who live in federally subsidized housing without a "safe" space in which to partake, marijuana activists said. [continues 566 words]
Calling for Legalization Now Will Slow Reform Progress For marijuana reform advocates, 2014 and 2015 have been remarkable years. Two more states and the District of Columbia joined Colorado and Washington in legalizing recreational ("adult-use") marijuana. Congress passed legislation dealing with issues like Drug Enforcement Administration policies and veterans' access to state legal marijuana, among others. And candidates (from both parties) running for high-profile offices - governor, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, even president - are talking about marijuana policy, and not with War on Drugs rhetoric. [continues 732 words]
Regarding the Nov. 27 Metro article "Va. pot arrests defy trend": The Central Virginia Marijuana Task Force is guilty of using marijuana prohibition's collateral damage to justify throwing good money at bad public policy. Illegal marijuana in Virginia is a gateway to hard drugs because it is distributed by drug cartels that sell meth, cocaine and heroin. These criminals do not require identification to prove ages and kill to resolve business disputes over border trafficking routes. Legal marijuana in Colorado is sold by tightly regulated retailers that generate state tax revenue, require identification for proof of age and sell locally grown marijuana exclusively. [continues 65 words]
It May Be Legal, but Keep It Away From Kids, School Officials Say Cassandra Pinkney, the founder of a charter school in Southeast Washington, makes video messages for parents about how to prepare their children for school: Establish a bed-time routine, read with them, eat healthy food, and, with the city's relaxed position on marijuana use, do not smoke pot around them. In a "fireside chat" titled "marijuana and your student," the director of Eagle Academy Public Charter School, which enrolls children in preschool through third grade, told parents that, even though the District has legalized marijuana, it's not safe to expose children to the drug. Even second-hand smoke can affect their emotional states and attentiveness in school, she said. [continues 788 words]
The smell near the Columbia Heights Metro station Wednesday night was unmistakable. A lit joint in hand, Tony Lee stood outside a residence talking with friends as the evening bustle passed them by, no one paying the group of men any special attention. "The community I'm in, everyone engages in smoking," said Lee, 34, a District resident who runs his own small construction firm. Plus, he said, if he's not smoking, he detects the odor of other people getting high throughout the city on a daily basis anyway. [continues 1049 words]
Officer Who Guarded Capitol Now Heads Security for Possible Medical-Marijuana Grower in MD. For much of his 46-year career in law enforcement, Terrance W. Gainer viewed marijuana as a substance to be confiscated and its sellers as criminals to be investigated and arrested. He is now security chief for one of the nation's leading medical marijuana growers, tasked with, among other things, protecting a 20- acre site in Western Maryland that could become home to one of the state's first cannabis-growing operations. [continues 1072 words]
New Data Show Progress, but No Room for Complacency. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL candidates have spent much of their time on the campaign trail lately pledging more treatment and less punishment to deal with epidemic drug abuse, most dramatically in a viral video featuring an emotional New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. This is a welcome development - even if the GOPers, like their Democratic counterparts, exaggerate the degree to which arrests for simple possession of drugs, as opposed to trafficking, have swollen the prison population. The more attention leaders focus on the heartbreaking rise in prescription opioid and heroin addiction, and overdose deaths the better. [continues 372 words]
"Over the last few decades, we've also locked up more and more nonviolent drug offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before. And that is the real reason our prison population is so high." - - President Obama, remarks at the NAACP Conference, July 14, 2015 "Two-thirds of the people in our prisons are there for nonviolent offenses, mostly drug related." - - Businesswoman Carly Fiorina, remarks at the GOP debate, Sept. 16 "We are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana." [continues 1165 words]
Releasing Nonviolent Drug Offenders Is Only a Start. THE FEDERAL Bureau of Prisons will release 6,000 inmates locked up for non violent drug crime sat the end of the month. If a bi-partisan group of senators gets its way, that will be just the beginning. On Thursday, the group pushed a criminal justice reform bill through the Judiciary Committee that backers say would reduce the federal prison population by tens of thousands. All of this is progress. But even if the bill passes, the number of people in prison in the United States would still be astoundingly high. [continues 408 words]
Last week, President Obama announced a multipronged effort to address the epidemic of addiction to prescription opiate painkillers in this country. This is long overdue and, unfortunately, like most action on addiction and mental illness, comes after the problem has reached Stage 4 - and is that much harder to treat - when it could have been diagnosed and treated at Stage 1, or perhaps even prevented altogether. I bring a unique perspective to this issue, one I would prefer I did not have. For 10 years, I sat on the House Appropriations Committee, overseeing every federal agency charged with addressing this subject. And during much of that time, I was addicted to prescription opiate painkillers myself. [continues 858 words]
The CDC Is Right to Advise Doctors on Opioid Prescriptions. HORRIFIC AS it is for the victims, drug addiction's impact reverberates beyond them, to include families, friends, whole communities. Thanks to a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, we can begin to quantify those wider consequences in our area. Nearly 3 in 10 Marylanders say they have a close friend or family member who was or is addicted to opiates such as prescription pain pills or heroin. The figures range from 4 in 10 in Baltimore to 1 in 6 in Montgomery County; but whether in the city or the suburbs, these numbers are far too high and fully warrant Gov. Larry Hogan's (R) promise to focus on the problem. [continues 422 words]
Why is it so hard for us to see how profoundly a $100 billion illegal market in anything would distort a society? To argue for legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of other drugs does not, at first blush, appear to put one on the side of the angels, especially given the accelerating heroin epidemic. But legalization and decriminalization are what we need if we want to make headway against mass incarceration, high homicide rates in urban black communities and poor educational outcomes in urban schools. [continues 1042 words]
The events described in the Oct. 14 Metro article "Murder conviction in robbery of Montgomery home" played out as an unfortunate example of why the strident gun supporters' push for firearms as the best defense is flawed. The victim set out to defend his housemates, himself and $17,000 of contraband with a firearm and was killed. Ironically, his defense failed in the face of not equal but lesser force, a cutting edge of some sort (which suggests that the mob who invaded his home was intent on robbery and not murder). As a corollary, if marijuana were controlled in Maryland as it is in the District, the "goods" would have been worth far less and perhaps not valuable enough to steal (and ultimately murder for). Kenneth Matzkin, Arlington [end]
Inside District of Columbia
