MAP Drugnews

journal.com.ph (US) An alleged overseas Filipino worker and a seaman were caught in the act of selling illegal drugs by local policemen. (Sun Jun 17 23:12:39 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(55%), $propaganda_theme2(50%), $propaganda_theme3(55%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $drugs(95%), $govt_prohib_other(100%), $prohibition_agency(70%), $chemicals(100%), $euphoric_stimulant(100%), $stimulant(100%), $methamphetamine(100%), $amphetamines(100%), $various_drugs(95%), $various_illegal_drugs(100%)]

journal.com.ph (US) Pasig OFW, seaman caught selling shabu ... (Sun Jun 17 23:12:39 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(75%), $propaganda_theme1(75%), $propaganda_theme2(70%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $drugs(90%), $govt_prohib_other(100%), $chemicals(100%), $euphoric_stimulant(100%), $stimulant(100%), $methamphetamine(100%), $amphetamines(100%), $various_drugs(90%), $various_illegal_drugs(80%), $incarceration(100%), $school(100%), $aggrandizement(100%)]

delta-optimist.com Cannabis could be Delta's bitter harvest City officials including the mayor are concerned Delta will become the pot growing capital of Canada. (Sun Jun 17 02:10:23 2018 PDT)

delta-optimist.com Cannabis could be Delta's bitter harvest City officials including the mayor are concerned Delta will become the pot growing capital of Canada. (Sun Jun 17 02:10:23 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(98%), $propaganda_theme3(50%), $propaganda_theme7(98%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $drugs(90%), $plants(100%), $intoxicant(100%), $cannabis(100%), $various_drugs(90%), $various_illegal_drugs(100%), $school(100%), $aggrandizement(100%)]

nuggetnews.com (US) CANNABIS - yes or no? - Nugget Newspaper - Sisters, Oregon News, Events, Classifieds - Sisters, Oregon CANNABIS - yes or no? Four years ago, in November 2014, Sisters voted narrowly to permit marijuana dispensaries to open for business, as did the... (Sun Jun 17 22:05:26 2018 PDT)

nuggetnews.com (US) CANNABIS - yes or no? Four years ago, in November 2014, Sisters voted narrowly to permit marijuana dispensaries to open for business, as did the entire state of Oregon. Four years ago, in November 2014, Sisters voted narrowly to permit marijuan... (Sun Jun 17 22:05:26 2018 PDT)

capebretonpost.com (US) LebLanc is now to live at a residence on Manning Street, North Sydney, and abstain from alcohol and drugs not prescribed him by a... (Sun Jun 17 02:05:54 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(80%), $drugwar_propaganda(75%), $propaganda_theme2(75%), $propaganda_theme5(50%), $illegal_drugs(80%), $drugs(95%), $chemicals(50%), $depressant_intoxicant(50%), $alcohol(50%), $various_drugs(95%), $various_illegal_drugs(80%), $youth(50%)]

burnabynow.com She said Billy suffered two severe seizures overnight and that the cannabis oil is the only substance that can prevent life-threatening seizures for him. (Sun Jun 17 02:04:11 2018 PDT)

burnabynow.com She said Billy suffered two severe seizures overnight and that the cannabis oil is the only substance that can prevent life-threatening seizures for him. (Sun Jun 17 02:04:11 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(100%), $propaganda_theme2(80%), $propaganda_theme3(55%), $use_is_abuse(100%), $propaganda_theme4(100%), $propaganda_theme5(60%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $plants(100%), $pharms(100%), $analgesic(100%), $anesthetic(100%), $intoxicant(100%), $medical_cannabis(100%), $cannabis(100%), $hashish(100%), $fentanyl(100%), $youth(60%), $school(100%), $msm(100%), $mockingbird(100%), $assoc_press(100%)]

koreaherald.com Is being accused of harvesting 349 opium poppy seeds in the 33-square meters garden. (Sun Jun 17 01:04:45 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(70%), $propaganda_theme1(55%), $propaganda_theme2(70%), $gateway(60%), $propaganda_theme4(60%), $propaganda_theme5(60%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $drugs(90%), $chemicals(100%), $plants(100%), $euphoric_depressant(100%), $sedative(100%), $analgesic(100%), $euphoriant(100%), $narcotic(100%), $opiate(100%), $opium(60%), $poppy(100%), $various_drugs(90%), $various_illegal_drugs(100%), $drug_test(100%), $youth(60%), $school(100%), $aggrandizement(100%)]

BBC News
Cannabis oil row prompts legalisation call
BBC News
CBD and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are two types of cannabinoids found naturally in the resin of the marijuana plant. A cannabis-based drug called Sativex has been licensed in the UK to treat MS. It contains THC and CBD. Doctors could, in theory, ...
Home Office returns cannabis oil for boy's epilepsy treatment ...The Guardian
Cannabis oil row prompts legalisation call - BBC NewsBBC News
Government considers a review of law on licensing medicinal cannabisTelegraph.co.uk
Times Colonist -Newshub
all 424 news articles »

Toronto Star
Members of Chinese community rally against cannabis stores in ...
Toronto Star
CALGARY—Concerned members of Calgary's Chinese community rallied against proposals for recreational cannabis stores in Chinatown, saying it goes ...
Chinatown residents rally against cannabis stores - 660 NEWS660 News
Calgary eye surgeon cancels plans for medical cannabis clinic after ...CBC.ca
Calgary's Chinatown protests cannabis store proposal | CTV ...CTV News

all 6 news articles »

Forbes
Cannabis 101: Where Entrepreneurs, Lawyers and Caregivers Go To Learn
Forbes
Dennis Mehaffey a contributor to BusinessStudent.com compiled a list of some of the courses including the scientific, business and legal aspects of marijuana. It's a great sign for the cannabis industry that there are so many choices, he said ...

and more »

Calgary Herald
Chinatown rallies against proposed Calgary cannabis stores
Calgary Herald
Business owners and concerned residents in Calgary's Chinatown are saying possible recreational cannabis stores in the community go against Chinese values. Around 50 members of Calgary's Chinatown community gathered outside James Short Park ...

Meet the "iron law of prohibition."

By the end of 2013, the country's quiet opioid addiction crisis was no longer so quiet. Opioid overdose deaths that year topped 16,000, more than four times the same statistic for 1999. That prompted a number of measures at the state and federal level to rein in opioid prescriptions, including a move by the DEA in October 2014 to tighten its policies around some of the most commonly prescribed opioids.

The new DEA policy—aimed at popular opioids such as Vicodin and Lortab—imposed restrictions on doctors' prescribing and made it more difficult for patients to get refills. In one sense, the policy was a success: Prescriptions for those drugs decreased almost immediately. But new research adds to an increasing body of evidence that restricting opioid prescribing has not solved the opioid crisis but instead worsened it.

Since the DEA policy shift, opioid overdose deaths continued to grow with more than 40,000 fatal opioid overdoses in 2016. And while prescription opioid overdose deaths have slightly decreased—there were about 14,000 that year—overdose deaths from heroin and non-prescription synthetic opioids such as fentanyl went through the roof. Heroin and illicit synthetics accounted for nearly two-thirds of all opioid overdose deaths in 2016.

In the new study, published this week in the British Medical Journal, researchers examining the impact of the DEA policy shift found evidence that while the change indeed lowered prescribing rates for the opioids in question, it was also linked to an increase in illicit online sales of those drugs in Dark Web drug markets.

The researchers used software called DATACRYPTO to crawl encrypted Dark Web marketplaces where people can anonymously buy damned near anything, from drugs to guns to credit card numbers. DATACRYPTO harvested data on which drugs were for sale, their country of origin, and the number of customer comments on each seller's comments page. Researchers used that last figure as a proxy for how much of a drug that seller sold. They examined sales of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and steroids, as well as heroin. It was only with prescription opioids that they found a significant Dark Web sales bump.

Here's what they found: "The sale of prescription opioids through US cryptomarkets increased after the schedule change, with no statistically significant changes in sales of prescription sedatives, prescription steroids, prescription stimulants, or illicit opioids."

According to their data, prescription opioids doubled their market share of U.S. Dark Web drug sales thanks to the DEA policy change. By July 2016, opioids represented 13.7% of all drug sales in U.S. cryptomarkets, compared with a modeled estimate of 6.7% of all sales.

While the researchers were careful to not make claims of causation—only correlation—their conclusion speaks for itself: "The scheduling change in hydrocodone combination products coincided with a statistically significant, sustained increase in illicit trading of opioids through online US cryptomarkets. These changes were not observed for other drug groups or in other countries. A subsequent move was observed towards the purchase of more potent forms of prescription opioids, particularly oxycodone and fentanyl."

Not only is the DEA policy change linked to increased Dark Web opioid sales, it is also linked to a move toward more powerful, and thus more dangerous, opioids. The researchers noted that while fentanyl was the least purchased Dark Web opioid in the summer of 2014, it was the second most frequently purchased by the summer of 2016. Fentanyl killed as many people as prescription opioids that year.

This study—one of the few that examines supply reduction (as opposed to demand reduction) as a means reducing drug use—strongly suggests that supply-side interventions carry unintended consequences, especially the resort to more dangerous and more powerful substitutes.  The study's authors refer to this effect as "the iron law of prohibition, whereby interventions to reduce supply, such as increased enforcement and changes to drug scheduling, lead to illicit markets dominated by higher potency products."

Perhaps better than restricting opioid prescriptions, which has deleterious impacts on the tens of millions of Americans suffering chronic pain, or other supply-side interventions, would be increased access to addiction treatment, as well as greatly expanded harm reduction measures to try to get people off opioids and keep them alive in the meantime.

This article was produced by the Drug Reporter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

 

 Related Stories

• Black Tar, Black Markets: Denver's Opioid Crisis and the Search for a Progressive Fix
• Here Are Four Ways Fentanyl Could Radically Disrupt the Global Drug Trade
• New Momentum for Addiction Treatment Behind Bars

MY PG NOW
No clear picture on what legalized marijuana will look like
MY PG NOW
Lyn added he's not concerned that they won't be able to reenact and develop the correct bylaw policies and regulations but is wondering what kind of cost sharing they will see. The federal government plans to legalize cannabis July 1st, but it may not ...

Globalnews.ca
COMMENTARY: Needless panic over home-grown cannabis ...
Globalnews.ca
There is suddenly a tremendous amount of political drama around the question of whether Canadians can grow their own pot, Rob Breakenridge says.
Canadian Cannabis Overproduction And Its Gold Rush Alternatives ...Seeking Alpha

all 4 news articles »

The Telegram
Hey Bud: Is cannabis beer going to be legal?
The Telegram
Province Brands says its drinks will be brewed using the plant material, are alcohol-free, and would have the added benefit of using parts of the cannabis plants that would otherwise become waste in the marijuana grow and industrial hemp businesses.

Entrepreneur
Will President Trump Really Support States' Rights On Marijuana?
Entrepreneur
As it stands now, while 30 states have legalized marijuana for medical or adult use, cannabis remains illegal at the federal level. Legislation backed a bipartisan coalition in Congress has been introduced to allow states to go forward with ...

africanews
Nigerian authorities seize 3 tonnes of cannabis
africanews
Three tons of cannabis were intercepted by Niger authorities, a record seizure in the country. According to Niger's Interior Minister, the cannabis suspected to have come from the Maghreb, could be worth $5m. Twelve people including Nigerians, Malians, ...