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Former British Drug Policy Head Says Legalize it All

(DRCNet, May 3, 2002)
Former cabinet minister Mo Mowlam, who ran Prime Minister Tony Blair's drug policy until less than a year ago, has called for the legalization of all drugs. . . . These are only the latest in a series of high-profile defections from Britain's drug war, a process that began about the time Mowlam pronounced for cannabis legalization last summer and has encompassed prominent figures from across the British establishment. . . . "The thing that hit me was the money that drives it. I don't think we can stop it and there are a number of people in other countries, and police and social workers, who agree with me. We have to face up to the reality." . . . Last July, after leaving politics, she ripped Blair's rigid line on marijuana, saying: "What I am concerned with is the hypocritical and confusing situation we are in at the moment. From my time with the government's drug policy I have come to the conclusion that we must decriminalize cannabis. It is a view I know that many in the police, social workers and others working with cannabis smokers fully agree with," she said. . . . there is no sign the Blairites will give legalization any serious consideration. Still, the pressure mounts.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:41 PM

 

Ecstasy Begets Empathy - MDMA and the Middle East
(Sheerly Avni, Salon, September 12, 2002)
Last week, an essay in the Psychologist, a magazine published by the British Psychological Society, called into question the validity of recent research on the effects of Ecstasy. . . . but the question the researchers had hoped to raise -- whether MDMA may have medical benefits -- was lost in the din. And not for the first time, according to Dr. Charles Grob, a longtime researcher of MDMA and hallucinogenic drugs and one of the study's three authors. . . . We never said it wasn't dangerous. Clearly, Ecstasy use in today's recreational drug scene is full of risks. . . . Well, I think, as far as medical marijuana is concerned, the charge is that people who support medical marijuana would also support the legalization of marijuana for recreational or personal use. With MDMA, I look at it as a very valuable potential adjunctive treatment, but on the other hand, I would say that there are serious risks involved with recreational use. So I am very reluctant to advocate that this drug be used in a recreational drug scene. It's a problematic drug in how it's used, and people are overdoing it. . . . There are a number of problems. First of all, there is rampant substitution going on. The reliability of the drug Ecstasy is very poor. Whereas 10 years ago you could be pretty sure that all Ecstasy was MDMA, today that is not the case at all. Things have changed radically. Surveys are indicating that often more than 50 percent of surveyed Ecstasy turned out to be drugs other than MDMA. . . . Some are potentially lethal like paramethoxyamphetamine, or PMA, and you really have no idea what you're getting. In fact, that's the strongest argument I can muster when I talk to young people about the dangers of the youth recreational drug scene. Drug substitution with Ecstasy is like no other drug that I've ever seen. You really have no idea what is in the pill. So right off the bat, that makes it very problematic. . . . you can also have interactions with prescription medications that people take to treat medical conditions. . . . you couldn't do this with Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat because I'm sure they are in terrible medical shape, but what about taking their children, who are adults, and get them together and provide a sanctioned, medically facilitated MDMA session? Let them have a mutually emphathogenic experience, get in the shoes of the other, feel the pain and the suffering that the other has gone through, and then take a few steps toward feeling what a mutual understanding could be like?

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 2:26 PM

 

Medical marijuana backed in Santa Cruz
SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Quadriplegic people in wheelchairs and other people walking haltingly with serious terminal diseases came to the red brick courtyard of city hall under a cloudless sky Tuesday to receive marijuana preparations in defiance of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration policy.

City and county officials participated in the event, which was organized by medical marijuana users despite a recent DEA raid on a local garden. Six of the seven Santa Cruz city council members and two former mayors expressed their support for medical marijuana for the ill.

"We're putting patients first," Santa Cruz mayor Christopher Krohn told United Press International. "These are community members, some of the most vulnerable in our community, many who are terminally ill."

The distribution is legal under California law but not federal law, and the DEA seems unlikely to support any change in enforcement policy.

"The cultivation, distribution or possession of marijuana is illegal under federal law," agency spokesman Tom Hinojosa told UPI. "If there was evidence based on scientific study, demonstrating benefit, that might influence the DEA's thinking about whether or not physicians should be permitted to prescribe marijuana under federal law."

Members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana placed muffins with marijuana leaves as an ingredient as well as a liquid extraction of marijuana and a marijuana preparation in a milk base, on a table. Ten members of WAMM, who had drawn lots out of a hat to participate, came forward in front of a crowd of about 600 to obtain their weekly doses. Those who are able to pay for the marijuana from WAMM do so, others do not. The drug is smoked by some patients, a WAMM member told UPI.

Medical marijuana users suffer from a variety of ailments such as cancer, chronic pain from muscle spasms in quadriplegia, HIV infection, AIDS, and post-polio syndrome.

"It decreases my involuntary muscle spasms a lot and helps tremendously with nerve pain," WAMM member Levi Castro, who is paralyzed from the neck down, told UPI. "I don't need to take a lot of the medications I used to be on, so it's a lot less harmful on my liver and kidneys."

Hal Margolin said it helps his chronic peripheral neuropathy, which gives him 24-hour pain. Patients with AIDS, post-polio syndrome, prostate cancer and brittle diabetes also told UPI the medical marijuana helps reduce pain. At least 12 of WAMM's 250 members have died over the past nine months, said the organization's Denis Berry.

Valerie Corral, who is the director of WAMM, and her husband Mike, own the land with the marijuana garden raided by the DEA. For more than five years, the Corrals have provided marijuana to people who have a recommendation from their physicians. The local sheriff, who routinely confiscates large amounts of marijuana annually from commercial marijuana operations, has not confiscated any marijuana from the Corrals.

At the event, Valerie Corral said there are legal medical marijuana users under federal law and introduced Elvy Musikka, who has glaucoma and is one of eight people approved by the federal government to smoke marijuana.

"She always carries her legal medical marijuana, rolled by the federal government, grown in the federal government's garden, one that they do not go into with guns," Corral told the crowd. Musikka displayed a large tin box and held up a handful of marijuana cigarettes.

"This isn't about recreational pot use," Emily Reilly, the vice-mayor of Santa Cruz told UPI. "What the city council is trying to do here is show support for Mike and Val Corral."

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State have passed voter initiatives permitting marijuana use under a physician's supervision. Hawaii enacted such a law in its legislature.

. . . Read more!


posted by West 7:58 AM

 

Ecstasy not dangerous, say scientists
(Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, September 2, 2002)
Three leading psychologists have provoked an outcry by claiming that the dance drug ecstasy may not be dangerous and that some of its ill-effects may be imaginary. . . . Writing in the magazine the Psychologist, published by the British Psychological Society, they claim that many of the studies since 1995 have been flawed. They also accuse researchers of bias. . . . They accuse other scientists of minimising the impact of data suggesting that ecstasy exposure had no long-term effects. Although numerous tests were run on volunteers, only positive results were reported in detail, they say. "This suggests that hypotheses concerning the long-term effects of ecstasy are not being uniformly substantiated and lends support to the idea that ecstasy is not causing long-term effects associated with the loss of serotonin," write the authors. . . . Most studies have failed to pinpoint ecstasy as the cause of problems, they say, and the animal studies were flawed and inconclusive. . . . About two million ecstasy tablets are believed to be taken by clubbers in the UK every weekend.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 1:06 PM

 

10 percent of students have used the drug Ecstasy
Associated Press -- SACRAMENTO - A survey of California students released Friday found that more than 10 percent of high school students have tried the drug Ecstasy, prompting the state to create a media campaign to target use of the drug. The biennial survey by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office found that Ecstasy was the third most popular drug among the 7th, 9th and 11th graders questioned. Alcohol and marijuana topped the survey, Lockyer said. This was the first year students were asked about their use of Ecstasy.

. . . Read more!


posted by West 9:07 AM

 

Pot less harmful than alcohol: Senate report
Last Updated Wed, 04 Sep 2002 14:27:19 - CBC News

OTTAWA - Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and should be governed by the same sort of regulations, says a Senate committee. In its final report, released on Wednesday, the Special Committee on Illegal Drugs says the government should make smoking pot legal, and should wipe clean the records of anyone convicted of possession. In particular, the committee wants the government to deal quickly with issues surrounding medical use of marijuana. Advocates of legalizing marijuana say the report goes much farther than they expected, and would address some of the real problems associated with drug trade.
"Our current drug laws fund organized crime, they fund terrorist groups around the world," Eugene Oscapella, executive director of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, told CBC Newsworld.

"Our policies that we build around this drug are far more harmful than the drug itself."

Hmmmm! That aught to get their attention on the Potomic!!! I wonder if Ottawa will be added to the "axis of evil" now??

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 12:20 PM

 

Scientists Say Long-Term Effects of Ecstasy Unclear
LONDON (Reuters) - Ecstasy may be dangerous and could cause brain damage but its long-term effects are still unclear, a team of researchers said on Monday. The dance clubbers' favorite drug has been linked to psychological and memory problems but scientists in Britain and the United States said results of studies of Ecstasy may have been misinterpreted and sensationalized by the media. "We think the drug might be dangerous but we believe our current methodology does not allow us to make cast-iron statements about whether it is or not," said Dr. Harry Sumnall of the University of Liverpool. In a report in The Psychologist magazine, Sumnall and other researchers called for caution. "We are saying we've looked at these studies and we've identified some perhaps confounding factors that are muddying our interpretation of this data," Sumnall said in an interview. "It may be that Ecstasy has detrimental long-term effects. We're advising caution before we go out and tell Ecstasy users that this is what will definitely happen to them." Ecstasy is known chemically as MDMA. Users say it heightens awareness, intensifies their emotions and makes them feel good. Scientists in Germany said people who use the drug over many months seem to develop lasting, cognitive impairment. Researchers in the United States have also discovered that the drug damaged nerve endings in the brain that release serotonin, a chemical that regulates mood, memory, pain, sleep and sex. Sumnall and Dr. Jon Cole of Liverpool University and Charles Grob of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in California said there are problems with some studies that preclude such a cause-and-effect relationship. One of the stumbling blocks is the difficulty in determining how much of the drug is being used. There may also be lifestyle factors that could explain the results and Ecstasy users may also be taking other drugs. "No study published to date has actually quantified the amount of MDMA or other drugs consumed by its participants. Very few studies even urine-test on the test day to check that their participants are drug-free," the scientists said in the magazine. Some drug campaigners have criticized the report, saying the evidence about the harmful effects of Ecstasy was strong. "People need to be aware that any mood-altering chemical has the potential to cause damage," said Dr. Robert Lefever of the Promis Recovery Center. But he added that there has not been a sufficient number of people with problems to be sure they are specifically due to Ecstasy and not to other things.

. . . Read more!


posted by West 11:02 AM

 

Ecstasy not dangerous, say scientists
guardian.co.uk -- Three leading psychologists have provoked an outcry by claiming that the dance drug ecstasy may not be dangerous and that some of its ill-effects may be imaginary.

The drug has been blamed for causing deaths and permanent brain damage, but the psychologists are strongly critical of animal and human studies into its effects, claiming that they are misleading and overestimate the harm ecstasy - scientifically known as MDMA - can cause.

Other scientists insisted that those who took ecstasy were undoubtedly risking their health and their life.

Two of the scientists challenging the established view are British and the third is American. Dr Jon Cole is a reader in addictive behaviour and Harry Sumnall is a postdoctoral researcher, both at Liverpool University. Professor Charles Grob is director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre in California.

Writing in the magazine the Psychologist, published by the British Psychological Society, they claim that many of the studies since 1995 have been flawed. They also accuse researchers of bias.

Ecstasy is said to affect cells in the brain which produce serotonin, the chemical known to influence mood. But the changes observed involved the degeneration of nerve fibres, which can be regrown, and not the cell bodies themselves, the psychologists say.

They accuse other scientists of minimising the impact of data suggesting that ecstasy exposure had no long-term effects. Although numerous tests were run on volunteers, only positive results were reported in detail, they say. "This suggests that hypotheses concerning the long-term effects of ecstasy are not being uniformly substantiated and lends support to the idea that ecstasy is not causing long-term effects associated with the loss of serotonin," write the authors.

The article is critical of the way studies involving young users have been conducted. They point out that many psychological problems start in adolescence anyway, ecstasy users invariably took other drugs as well, and some of the symptoms reported mirrored those caused by simply staying awake all night and dancing.

Most of the young people in the studies were volunteers from universities which raised questions about how representative they were of the population, the article says.

Most studies have failed to pinpoint ecstasy as the cause of problems, they say, and the animal studies were flawed and inconclusive.

They suggested that the long-term effects of the drug might be "iatrogenic", which is defined by the New Webster's dictionary as "caused by the mannerisms or treatment of a physician, an imaginary illness of the patient brought about by the physician".

Paul Betts, whose daughter, Leah, died after taking the drug in 1995, called the article "despicable".

Three other ecstasy experts writing in the Psychologist dismissed the notion that symptoms of long-term ecstasy use were all in the mind.

Dr Rodney Croft, a research fellow at the Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Australia, said: "There is strong evidence that ecstasy does cause impairment... although conclusions drawn from such evidence cannot be infallible, I believe the strength of this evidence makes 'danger' the most reasonable message for the researchers to be broadcasting."

About two million ecstasy tablets are believed to be taken by clubbers in the UK every weekend. Deaths linked to the drug have risen in the past decade. Between 1993 and 1997, there were 72. In 2000, there were 27, although 19 had other drugs in their system.

The exact cause of death cannot always be established, but where it has been, it was often dehydration.

. . . Read more!


posted by West 10:54 AM