MAP Drugnews

stthomastimesjournal.com (Canada) Addictions counsellor Kelly Putnam are happy with the changes at the Psychiatric Survivors Network of Elgin since it moved to a new location on Talbot Street. (Fri May 11 02:12:04 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(60%), $drugwar_propaganda(60%), $addiction(60%), $propaganda_theme2(60%), $propaganda_theme3(50%), $propaganda_theme5(60%), $illegal_drugs(60%), $youth(60%)]

wmnf.org MAPS executive director Rick Doblin Rick DoblinB is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). (Fri May 11 20:10:56 2018 PDT)

delta-optimist.com Rap video, social campaign targets teen pot smokers Centers for Disease Control ... (Fri May 11 02:10:23 2018 PDT)

delta-optimist.com Rap video, social campaign targets teen pot smokers Centers for Disease Control ... (Fri May 11 02:10:23 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(100%), $propaganda_theme1(100%), $propaganda_theme2(75%), $propaganda_theme3(75%), $use_is_abuse(100%), $propaganda_theme4(100%), $propaganda_theme5(70%), $propaganda_theme7(100%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $snoop_dogg(100%), $legalization(100%), $chemicals(50%), $plants(100%), $intoxicant(100%), $depressant_intoxicant(50%), $alcohol(50%), $cannabis(100%), $youth(70%), $school(100%), $aggrandizement(100%), $msm(50%), $mockingbird(50%), $assoc_press(50%)]

delta-optimist.com Illicit drug deaths increase to near-record monthly levels in B.C.: coroner VICTORIA b British Columbia's death rate from illicit drug overdoses has spiked with the ... (Fri May 11 02:10:23 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(95%), $propaganda_theme2(95%), $propaganda_theme3(75%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $drugs(95%), $snoop_dogg(100%), $pharms(100%), $analgesic(100%), $anesthetic(100%), $naloxone(100%), $fentanyl(100%), $various_drugs(95%), $various_illegal_drugs(100%)]

dailyheraldtribune.com (Canada) Cannabis retailers apply to operate in Grande Prairie ... (Fri May 11 02:09:40 2018 PDT)

dailyheraldtribune.com (Canada) He discussed issue such as housing, policing, opioids and cannabis among many other topics. Given also provided an emotional response when discussi... (Fri May 11 02:09:40 2018 PDT)

dailyheraldtribune.com (Canada) Cannabis retailers apply to operate in Grande Prairie ... (Fri May 11 02:09:40 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(60%), $propaganda_theme2(60%), $propaganda_theme3(55%), $propaganda_theme5(60%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $plants(100%), $intoxicant(100%), $cannabis(100%), $youth(60%)]

dailyheraldtribune.com (Canada) He discussed issue such as housing, policing, opioids and cannabis among many other topics. Given also provided an emotional response when discussi... (Fri May 11 02:09:40 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(100%), $drugwar_propaganda(75%), $propaganda_theme2(70%), $propaganda_theme3(75%), $moral_imperative(100%), $illegal_drugs(100%), $chemicals(50%), $plants(100%), $intoxicant(100%), $opioid(100%), $depressant_intoxicant(50%), $narcotic(100%), $alcohol(50%), $cannabis(100%), $aggrandizement(100%)]

koreaherald.com University student shares sex video in group chat b by mistakeb The South Korean government has set a task force to handle the unfolding legal dispute with US private equity fund Elliott as the US firm is demanding a huge financial compensation from the governmen... (Fri May 11 01:05:44 2018 PDT)

koreaherald.com University student shares sex video in group chat b by mistakeb The South Korean government has set a task force to handle the unfolding legal dispute with US private equity fund Elliott as the US firm is demanding a huge financial compensation from the governmen... (Fri May 11 01:05:44 2018 PDT) [$drug_related(55%), $drugwar_propaganda(100%), $propaganda_theme2(100%), $propaganda_theme3(65%), $illegal_drugs(55%), $plants(55%), $intoxicant(55%), $cannabis(55%), $cannabis_industry(55%), $school(100%), $aggrandizement(100%), $meeting(60%)]

Hamilton Spectator, 11 May 2018 - It'€™s all about harm reduction and improving community health outcomes No doubt some Hamiltonians are chuckling to hear city council is considering banning sugary drinks from city buildings to protect people's health.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, 11 May 2018 - Amid budding efforts to research the medical benefits of marijuana, a simple problem has emerged -- how do you research marijuana if no one can produce it under federal law? Despite a solution proposed in mid-2016, which allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration to approve marijuana manufacturers, only the University of Mississippi has been approved, despite dozens of applications to do so. And there's no sign the DEA intends to approve others anytime soon.

The Blade, 07 May 2018 - Northwest Ohio Syringe Services has begun distributing fentanyl test strips to active users of opioids and other drugs. The exchange, a program through the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, is part of a larger strategy of harm reduction to keep people with addiction issues healthy while using, and provide them with resources and help when they want to seek treatment. Fentanyl has become the scourge of anyone trying to fight Ohio's opioid epidemic: deadly in small quantities and appearing in an increasing number of fatal overdoses.

Philadelphia Daily News, 08 May 2018 - A Pennsylvania legislator introduced a bill Monday that would give medical marijuana patients a chance of expunging a conviction of marijuana possession if the charge resulted from their use of cannabis for medical purposes. The bill is sponsored by State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery), and does not have any support yet from Republicans who control the legislature. To be expunged, patients would have to prove they had a doctor's diagnosis for one of the 21 approved serious health conditions at the time of the conviction. The patient would also have to provide evidence they were using cannabis to treat the condition.

The Denver Post
Cancer docs feel unprepared, but recommend marijuana anyway
The Denver Post
SEATTLE — Nearly half of U.S. cancer doctors who responded to a survey say they've recently recommended medical marijuana to patients, although most say they don't know enough about medicinal use. The results reflect how marijuana policy in some ...
When Cancer Patients Ask About Weed, Many Doctors Say Go For ItNPR
Lots of Doctors Recommend Weed Without Understanding ItWIRED
Many oncologists recommend medical marijuana clinically despite not feeling sufficiently knowledgeable to do soScience Daily
Medscape -EurekAlert (press release)
all 19 news articles »

Prenatal marijuana use can affect infant size, behavior, study finds
Science Daily
Now, researchers at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions have found that prenatal marijuana use also can have consequences on infants' weight and can influence behavior problems, especially when combined with tobacco use.

Vancouver Sun
BC passes marijuana driving-impairment law, but confusion remains
Vancouver Sun
The Senate is currently debating Ottawa's marijuana legalization bill, and it's unclear when it will pass or when the technical legalization of cannabis will occur this summer. The Senate delays also affect the selection of technology for roadside ...

and more »

While the man may be a buffoon, his views on drugs and crime are no laughing matter.

Who isn't enjoying Rudy Giuliani's performance as an endearingly bumbling personal attorney for President Trump? After all, in the few days he has been in the position, he's managed to come up with multiple stories about the president, his porn stars, and his fixers, none of which reflect favorably on Team Trump. He's unintentionally been doing his incompetent best to help implode the Trump White House, and for that, he deserves our thanks.

But although Giuliani's zany antics are entertaining and—one hopes—damaging even further the credibility-challenged president, let's take a moment to remember what a true reactionary the former New York City mayor really is, especially when it comes to drugs and crime.

Giuliani made his political bones as a federal prosecutor and grandstanded his record of drug prosecutions into a successful mayoral bid in 1993, becoming the first Republican mayor of the liberal metropolis in 20 years. Under his leadership, New York City became the marijuana possession arrest capital of the world.

Under his predecessors, Democrats Ed Koch and David Dinkins, small-time pot busts had numbered in the hundreds or low thousands each year, but under Giuliani, those busts went through the roof. The city hit 10,000 pot possession arrests in 1996, nearly 20,000 in 1997, and more than 30,000 in 1998 and 1999, before peaking at more than 50,000 in 2000. They declined slightly in 2001, Giuliani's last year in office, as the NYPD found other things to worry about after the September 11 attacks that year.

Then and to this day, the vast majority of people arrested for small-time pot possession were non-white. Minorities accounted for more than 80% of pot busts then, and even now, while pot possession arrests are way down (under 20,000 a year under Bill de Blasio), black and brown people accounted for 86% of those busts in 2017.

In an especially cruel twist, Giuliani's and the NYPD's mass marijuana arrest campaign came years after the state actually decriminalized the possession of small amounts of pot. What would typically happen is that the cops would roust someone, demand that he empty his pockets, and then arrest him for public possession of marijuana, which was not decriminalized. To make his campaign work, Giuliani had to subvert the spirit of the decriminalization law. He had no problem doing so.

The "tough on crime" mayor's campaign of pot possession arrests was part of a broader anti-crime offensive that went under the rubric "broken windows." That strategy emphasizes going after visible signs of criminality, even if the crimes are minor, as a means of increasing order and thus improving quality of life. That meant going after trivial offenses, such as pot possession, public urination, or public drinking and locking up large numbers of offenders, again, most of them non-white.

Another part of Giuliani's anti-crime, anti-drug strategy was "stop and frisk," the NYPD's aggressive targeting of primarily young people of color for suspicionless stops and searches. Giuliani and then Police Commissioner William Bratton pioneered the strategy, stopping about 90,000 people in his last year in office. The practice ballooned under his successor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, peaking at 685,000 stop and frisks in 2011. Some 88% of those subject to the abusive practice were totally innocent, and 87% of them were black and brown.

It took a federal court to end the practice, with District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruling it unconstitutional in 2013. By last year, Giuliani's stop and frisk legacy was on its last legs, with only 10,000 such stops reported in the city. Again, though, 90% of them were aimed at black and brown people, even though two-thirds of those stopped were innocent of any crime.

Giuliani has been out of office since 2002, but the intervening years show no sign he has brought his views on marijuana or policing into the 21st century. When running one of his failed presidential campaigns in 2007, he refused to endorse the use of medical marijuana, claiming it was a stalking horse for legalization—and that people would be better off with pain medications!

"I believe the effort to try and make marijuana available for medical uses is really a way to legalize it. There's no reason for it," he said at a New Hampshire town hall. "You can accomplish everything you want to accomplish with things other than marijuana, probably better. There are pain medications much superior to marijuana," he said. "We'd be much better off telling people the truth. Marijuana adds nothing to the array of legal medications and prescription medications that are available for pain relief."

Years after that, Giuliani remained immune to the facts and science about marijuana. In 2014, in the early stages of yet another failed presidential campaign, he drew on his prosecutorial expertise to explain why he opposed legalizing marijuana.

 "It can deteriorate your brain. I used to be a narcotics prosecutor," he said.

Giuliani hasn't been talking about marijuana much lately, but his stances are increasingly out of step even with the Republican Party. Former House Speaker John Boehner, for instance, has dramatically switched course on marijuana legalization, and Giuliani's new boss, the titular head of the party, has signaled that he won't go after marijuana in states where it is legal.

But Trump's words notwithstanding, both Giuliani, his own personal lawyer, and Jeff Sessions, his man at the Justice Department, are still old-school pot prohibitionists. Rudy may be doing the rest of us some favors with his stumbling efforts to defend the president from himself, but his malign position on pot remains bad news indeed.

 

 

CNN
Harris says she'll back Booker's legislation to legalize marijuana
CNN
"The fact is that marijuana laws are not applied and enforced in the same way for all people," she said in the video. "So for example, African-Americans use marijuana at roughly the same rate as whites but are approximately four times as likely to be ...
Kamala Harris backs Booker bill to legalize marijuanaThe Hill
Kamala Harris Finally Endorses the Marijuana Justice ActLeafly

all 9 news articles »