A consortium of past and present world leaders and other influential figures call the drug war a total failure and say it’s time for the US to stop treating drug users like criminals and to open up to debate about other ways to handle the drug problem.

Although it’s hardly the first time critics have voiced opposition to the ‘war on drugs’ the message is noteworthy and may be more difficult to ignore due to the influence and credibility of the panel members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, who include the sitting president of Greece George Papandreou, Mexico’s past president, Ernesto Zedillo, Columbia’s former president, Cesar Gaviria, Brazil’s past president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former UN Secretary General, Kofi Anan, former US Federal Reserve Chairman, Pail Volcker and others.

In the report, the Commission members argue “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the U.S. government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed…Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won."

Key policy recommendations from the 24 page report include:

• Encouraging governments to experiment with models of decriminalization and legalization of drugs, especially marijuana, with the purpose of reducing the power and influence of organized crime and increasing the health and safety of the population as a whole
  
• Ending the “criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others” and ending the propagation and reinforcement of untrue stereotypes and popular beliefs about drugs and drug users
  
• Making sure effective treatment and harm reduction strategies are made available to people who use drugs. Effective treatments include methadone, buprenorphine and even heroin treatment for opiate abusers and effective harm reduction polices include needle exchange programs and supervised injection clinics.
  
• Encouraging law enforcement to work on eradicating the violence and social degradation that can surround drug markets, not on eradicating the drugs
  
• Making sure future drug polices are based on science, human rights, health and security
  

In a statement issued in response to the report, the White House defended the effectiveness of its war on drugs polices, saying, “Drug use in America is half of what it was 30 years ago, cocaine production in Colombia has dropped by almost two-thirds, and we’re successfully diverting thousands of nonviolent offenders into treatment instead of jail by supporting alternatives to incarceration.

Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe.”

According to the UN, however, drug use around the world in on the rise, and it has been for some time, despite the best efforts of militaries and law enforcement. From 1998 to 2008, the global use of opiates increased by 34.5%, the global use of cocaine went up by 27% and the global use of marijuana wet up by 8%.

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Michael Botticelli, the man now driving US drug policy, brings 25 years of recovery experience to his post.

He’s got 25 years of sober time and with a White House nomination for US Drug Czar, Michael Botticelli brings his recovery experience and treatment focus to the national stage.

Sober since getting involved with the 12 steps in 1988, Botticelli was former drug czar Gil Kerlikowske’s deputy director and has served as acting director since March. He was previously the director of the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.

In recent years, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has transitioned from a law and order mentality toward seeing addiction as a public health issue – more solvable by prevention and treatment efforts than by incarceration. Listing his planned initiatives, the new Drug Czar said he hoped to get police across the country supplied with the anti-overdose medication naloxone, and to help those newly in recovery back into the workforce.

The Possibility of Recovery

Recounting his recovery story, Botticelli tells of a DUI crash and conviction – and waking up handcuffed to a hospital bed, as well as drinking to the point of eviction.

Now, speaking to reporters outside of the church where he attended his first AA meetings 25 years ago, Botticelli sums up his belief in transformation, saying, “When I first came here, all I wanted to do was not drink and have my problems go away. I’m standing here 25 years later, working at the White House. And if you had asked me 25 years ago when I came to my first meeting here if that was a possibility, I would’ve said you’re crazy. But I think it just demonstrates what the power of recovery is.”

Though many perceive marijuana to be relatively harmless, researchers from the APA urge those considering legalization to keep cannabis away from underage consumers.

“Regular marijuana use is bad for teen brains.”

That’s the warning-headline on the American Psychological Association’s (APA) website, summing up symposium discussions on the public health implications of marijuana legalization at their 122nd Annual Convention.

According to researchers presenting at the symposium, regular marijuana use in adolescence – which they define as once a week or more – can have significant and lasting consequences, such as

• Teens who smoke regularly are at risk of addiction, and those that become addicted to marijuana can lose an average of 6 I.Q. points by mid adulthood.
• Increased marijuana use in adolescence is associated with grey matter reductions (grey matter is associated with intelligence).
• Reduced attention and memory capacities.

Policy Suggestions

There is some evidence that legalization and more favorable social attitudes toward marijuana lead to an increase in adolescent marijuana use and a decrease in adolescent perception of the risks and dangers of marijuana use. Therefore, the psychologists urge policy makers considering marijuana legalization to also consider:

• What measures might help to reduce adolescent access to marijuana.
• Whether regulating THC potency might help (higher THC potency is linked to greater use-consequences).
• Increasing funding for adolescent addiction treatment.

Summing up her research, Krista Lisdahl, PhD, director of the brain imaging and neuropsychology lab at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said, “It needs to be emphasized that regular cannabis use, which we consider once a week, is not safe and may result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, especially in youth.”

Marijuana is far more dangerous for teens with still-developing brains than it is for adults. To learn more about why it’s important to delay marijuana initiation to adulthood, read Help Teens Delay Marijuana Use to Avoid Cognitive, Academic and Mental Illness Risks.

Also, if someone you love uses marijuana but denies the existence of a problem, ask them to take this quick teen marijuana addiction test.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie calls the drug war a failure and uses a pro-life argument to call for treatment instead of jail.

In a speech given Monday at The Brookings Institution, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie slammed the war on drugs – calling it a well intentioned failure – and praised recent New Jersey legislation that imposes a year of mandatory treatment on first time non violent drug offenders as an alternative to jail time.

Calling for a wider change from current law and order based drug policy, Christie argued that not only does incarceration not deter drug use, it also costs taxpayers more than more effective alternatives like addiction treatment, saying, "It costs us $49,000 a year to warehouse a prisoner in New Jersey state prisons last year. A full year of inpatient drug treatment costs $24,000 a year."

And bringing kindness into the discussion, Christie called compassionate programs that divert addicted offenders to treatment instead of prison congruent with pro-life morality, saying, "If you're pro-life, as I am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb. Every life is precious and every one of God's creatures can be redeemed, but they won't if we ignore them."

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The Global Commission on Drug Policy says war on drugs style policies fuel the spread of HIV. The GCDP is a think tank comprised of 6 former world leaders, a former Canadian Supreme Court Justice, British entrepreneur Richard Branson and other notables.

In their report ‘The War On Drugs And HIV/AIDS - How The Criminalisation Of Drug Use Fuels The Global Pandemic’ the think tank group reflects on how different approaches to drug control result in very different outcomes. They say countries that have moved to evidence based drug policies have seen HIV rates decline while countries which have ignored scientific evidence in favor of a crime and punishment approach to drug policy have seen HIV rates – and drug availability – increase.

Arguing against the continuation of what they say are failed drug control polices, the report authors say that global heroin availability has increased by 380% over the last decades as governments have devoted increasing resources to suppression and incarceration.

But while crime and punishment drug policies have not worked to reduce supply, they have been very effective in scaring drug users underground and away from harm reduction and treatment services that are proven to reduce drug use rates and cut HIV transmission.

• The report gives ‘A’ grades to countries like Switzerland, Australia and Portugal, which have all reduced the criminalization of drug use in favor of increased harm reduction and treatment services and which have all seen a resultant reduction in HIV rates and injection drug use.
• In contrast, the report lists a number of countries, such as Russia, the US and Thailand, which continue to ignore evidence based practices in favor of a crime and punishment model of drug control – to what the report authors call “devastating consequences.”

The think tank is calling for the UN to "acknowledge and address the causal links between the war on drugs and the spread of HIV/AIDS and drug market violence” and urging prompt action and change, declaring, “The war on drugs has failed, and millions of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths can be averted if action is taken now.”

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In a speech at The Betty Ford Center, US Drug Car Gil Kerlikowske called for an end to laws and statutes that continue to punish people already striving for recovery.

Calling drug addiction a treatable brain disease and not a moral failing, Kerlikowske spoke about a real shift in the way the Office of National Drug Control Policy now looks at the issue and announced that programs for prevention and treatment now receive more federal funding ($30 billion over the last 3 years) than law enforcement and incarceration combined.

But there is still much that can be done, said Kerlikowske, who highlighted thousands of laws and statutes that were originally drafted to deter drug use but which have resulted in policies that most effectively punish people already trying for recovery.

In his speech, he noted that “Research from the National Institute of Justice found 38,000 state and local statutes that impose additional penalties on people convicted of crimes—including drug-related crimes. These laws burden people who have already served their sentences–in other words, they have already paid their price back to society. We must modify or repeal laws that keep a qualified person in recovery from getting the basics they need to rejoin society. When housing, employment, or student loans—even something as basic as a driver’s license—are out of reach for someone in recovery, the government is only making it more difficult for him or her to succeed.”

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Addiction doctors say that it’s not fair to imprison people for the actions of addiction, not provide adequate addiction treatment and then continue to penalize for drug use and possession.

In December, Cameron Douglas had an addition 54 months tacked onto his 5 year drug trafficking prison sentence after guards found heroin and Suboxone in his federal prison cell.

A group of more than 20 addiction doctors say that just isn’t right, and they’ve filed a protest brief in federal court to put a spotlight on the addiction treatment needs of inmates in the criminal justice system and to question the sensibility of lengthening jail terms for the actions of untreated addiction.

Commenting on the group’s motivation to take action, Dr. Robert Newman, director of the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center, wrote, “My outrage is as a physician for someone who has a medical condition which has been ignored. What the judge has imposed has zero benefits for the community and has staggering consequences for society.”

The doctors’ group would like to see a reduction or dismissal of the additional jail time in this particular case but they also hope to influence future policy by calling for the appellate court judges to make a statement on the addiction treatment needs of inmates in the correctional system.

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Defense Department to reverse an insurance coverage ban on long term methadone maintenance therapy for military personnel.

Currently, military insurance regulations forbid the substitution of one addictive drug for another. Doctors can use methadone for short term detoxification of opiate addicts but cannot use it as a longer term therapy for opiate addiction.

But that’s all about to change.

Under new regulations, the Defense Department will allow coverage of long term methadone maintenance therapy.

In a clarification statement, the Defense Department explained the change in policy to allow methadone maintenance treatment by saying that the ban on opiate substitution therapy “is outdated and fails to recognize the accumulated medical evidence supporting certain maintenance programs as one component of the continuum of care necessary for the effective treatment of substance dependence."

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Medicare will extend coverage, at no additional cost, to provide screening services for depression and for alcohol abuse disorders and to provide behavioral counseling to Seniors with alcohol abuse problems.

Seniors with Medicare are now eligible for increased substance abuse and mental health services, in most cases at no extra cost.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced an extension of coverage of Medicare services. Seniors with Medicare can now receive:

• An annual alcohol abuse screening in a primary care setting, such as in a doctor’s office
  
• 4 sessions of behavioral alcohol abuse counseling upon an alcohol abuse screening which indicates a possible problem with substance abuse
  
• An annual screening for depression in any primary care facility which has the resources to provide support or referrals to appropriate services
  

Commenting on the new coverage, Donald M. Berwick, MD of CMS said, “Preventive services bring relief to Medicare beneficiaries for whom preventive care means early identification of disease and greater opportunity for treatment and recovery. It’s just as important for our elderly beneficiaries to enjoy access to preventive services as it is for any American.”

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Old Dominion Freight Line in Arkansas is facing a federal lawsuit for violating the disability act rights of a driver they fired for being an alcoholic (the driver had never violated the company’s alcohol policies).

Under the conditions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a person with an alcohol abuse problem has a recognized disability. If that person gets treatment and follows the alcohol policies of the employer then he or she cannot be terminated or sanctioned based on the alcohol abuse or alcoholism – no matter what the occupation.

Old Dominion Freight Line is facing a federal lawsuit for sanctioning (effectively terminating) a driver who self reported an alcohol abuse problem and who was sent for treatment counseling. The driver had worked for the company for 5 years and had never been found in violation of alcohol polices. Nevertheless, the driver was told that upon completion of alcohol treatment he would never again be reinstated as a working driver with the company.

After evaluating the case, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has determined that the company is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and has filed suit on behalf of the terminated employee.

In a statement, the EEOC wrote, “The ADA mandates that persons with disabilities have an equal opportunity to achieve in the workplace.  Old Dominion’s policy and practice of never returning an employee who self-reports an alcohol problem to a driving position violates that law. While the EEOC agrees that an employer’s concern regarding safety on our highways is a legitimate issue, an employer can both ensure safety and comply with the ADA.”

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Although Governor Rick Scott had claimed that cancelling benefit payments to drug users on welfare would more than pay for the cost of the testing program – it looks like he was wrong.

Governor Rick Scott of Florida has said in the past that welfare recipients are more likely than the general population to use drugs and he doesn’t think that Florida tax payers should be left with the bill to fund substance abuse.

Because of this, Scott pushed for a law which came into fruition this July which demanded that people applying for temporary assistance monies first pay for, and then pass a drug test.

• Eligible candidates who passed the drug test would have their $30 test money refunded and be able to collect their benefits.
  
• Eligible candidates failing the drug test would not have their test money refunded and would not be eligible to collect benefits for another at least 12 months.

Scott had argued that the savings of withholding benefits for drug users would more than pay for the cost of the drug testing program, but since only 2% of the applicants tested so far have tested positive for drugs (far less than the national average drug use rate) the expected savings aren’t likely to materialize.

Officials calculate that rejecting a full year’s benefits for the 2% that test positive may cover the of drugs test costs for the 98% that test negative but that is before any administration costs or salaries get factored in. Nor are possible legal costs yet in the equation, and the Florida ACLU has been protesting the law and is considering a lawsuit.

Derek Newton of the ACLU says the law may be unconstitutional and it’s at the very least unfair. He argues, "This is just punishing people for being poor, which is one of our main points.  We're not testing the population at-large that receives government money; we're not testing people on scholarships, or state contractors. So why these people? It's obvious-- because they're poor."

The governor’s office did not respond to an opportunity to comment on the lower than expected drug test failure rate.

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Crack users in Vancouver will soon have access to new free crack pipes, courtesy of Vancouver Coastal Health which will hand out the crack pipes to those that want them in Vancouver’s notoriously drug plagued Lower Eastside neighborhood.

The pilot project aims to reduce the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV, both of which can be transmitted via shared crack pipes (especially if either user has cracked or bleeding lips) and other contagious respiratory infections.

A recent study from The University of Victoria found that 2 in 3 crack users in Vancouver shared pipes and that between 60% and 80% of drug users in Vancouver either already have Hepatitis C or are at risk of transmitting the disease.

As a secondary benefit, harm reduction strategies like passing out free clean pipes or needles, put drug users in direct contact with health workers or a regular basis. Building relationships between health workers and drug users in other harm reduction programs has been shown to facilitate access to treatment programs among a population that does not often head to the doctor’s office for check-ups and increase demand for such services.

Harm reduction advocates in the city would eventually like to see the Insite Safe Injection Clinic (which provides a nurse supervised space for heroin users to inject drugs) provide a similar nurse-supervised safe inhalation service for crack cocaine users. They note that the clinic already has ventilation sealed rooms but acknowledge that Insite isn’t likely to expand its services until it wins a Supreme Court battle with the federal government which has been trying to shut the program down for violating national drug laws.

Commenting on the benefits of crack cocaine harm reduction policies, Walter Cavalieri of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network summed things up by saying, "Will these services stop them from using drugs? For some people it will, but some won't. Some will continue to use drugs but use them safely, some will cut back, and some will die, but their lives and health will be greatly improved."

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On Tuesday, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) passed a strong resolution that calls for an end to the 40 year long war on drugs, citing grossly imbalanced application of drug laws on the African American community and the war’s total ineffectiveness as compelling reasons for a change.

NAACP delegates passed the resolution, entitled ‘A Call to End the War on Drugs, Allocate Funding to Investigate Substance Abuse Treatment, Education, and Opportunities in Communities of Color for A Better Tomorrow’ at the 102nd NAACP annual conference in LA on Tuesday.

Commenting on the resolution, NAACP president Benjamin Jealous said, “Today the NAACP has taken a major step towards equity, justice and effective law enforcement. These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidenced-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America.”

Compelling arguments from the NAACP for a change drug policy change include:

• The US spends $40 billion per year fighting a losing war against drugs
  
• African Americans are 13 times more likely to be imprisoned for drug crimes than Whites
  
• The war on drugs has created "a system of racial disparities that rivals Jim Crow policies of the 1960's."
  

As an alternative to incarceration based drug policy, the resolution authors call for less prison building and more funding for evidence based drug treatment programs.

Alice Huffman, who heads the California NAACP chapter voiced her support for the resolution, adding that, “Studies show that all racial groups abuse drugs at similar rates, but the numbers also show that African Americans, Hispanics and other people of color are stopped, searched, arrested, charged, convicted, and sent to prison for drug-related charges at a much higher rate. This dual system of drug law enforcement that serves to keep African-Americans and other minorities under lock and key and in prison must be exposed and eradicated.”

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Nine years after being asked to consider the possible merits of medical marijuana, the DEA has ruled to continue classifying marijuana as a drug of abuse with no approved medicinal value.

Nine years after being petitioned by medical marijuana advocates to reconsider marijuana’s legal classification, the DEA has come back with a ruling to deny any changes to current federal marijuana classification law.

In a statement explaining their decision, the feds argued that "DHHS concluded that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision."

But while this may seem like bad news for those who’d like to see greater use of marijuana as medicine, some pro-marijuana campaigners were celebrating, saying that since the government has at long last responded to their petition they now have a legal option to appeal that decision and keep things moving forward.

Speaking to the LA Times, Joe Elford of Americans for Safe Access explained, enthusing, "We have foiled the government’s strategy of delay, and we can now go head-to-head on the merits, that marijuana really does have therapeutic value." He argues that given the numerous studies which show marijuana’s efficacy in treating conditions from glaucoma to multiple sclerosis that the ruling can’t be based on evidence, stating, “The decision is clearly motivated by a political decision that is anti-marijuana.”

Other organizations that may dispute the government’s claim of ‘no medical value’ include The American Medical Association, which has called for a review on marijuana classification and the American Cancer Institute, which notes that marijuana is helpful in alleviating weight loss caused by nausea.

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Changes to sentencing laws will effect 1 in 17 inmates in the entire federal corrections system.

Retroactive changes to federal crack cocaine sentencing laws should mean early release for approximately 12,000 federal prisoners.

Long criticized as racist in application, congress voted last year under the ‘Fair Sentencing Act’ to change sentencing guidelines which called for stiffer sentencing on crack cocaine offenses than powder cocaine crimes. Yesterday, a federal sentencing committee announced that a retroactive application of that act would result in the possible early release of 12 000 inmates – 85% of whom are black.

Under previous sentencing guidelines (passed into law in 1986 and repealed in 2010), the possession of 50 grams of crack cocaine earned a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. For powder cocaine, the same 10 year mandatory minimum went into effect only after 5000 grams.

By 2002, these sentencing guidelines had resulted in such an unfair racial imbalance in sentencing that the US Federal Sentencing Commission at that time commented that for most African Americans, the major and wholly unintended consequence of the law was to “foster disrespect for and lack of confidence in the criminal justice system.”

The earliest prisoners can expected to benefit from early release is by November 2011, and eligible prisoners will still have to petition a judge for a decision on early release – to be made on a case by case basis which will hinge on the inmate’s perceived threat to society and behavior in prison. Eligible prisoners will receive an average of 3 years in sentencing reductions.

Commenting on the significance of the decision to grant retroactive sentencing changes to eligible inmates, US Federal Sentencing Commission Chair Judge Patti B. Saris stated “In passing the Fair Sentencing Act, Congress recognized the fundamental unfairness of federal cocaine sentencing policy and ameliorated it through bipartisan legislation. Today’s action by the Commission ensures that the longstanding injustice recognized by congress is remedied.”

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