I've always thought that there's a lot that could be done to improve the state of the drug war without passing a single law. Police and prosecutors have a lot of discretion in terms of what priorities to maintain and which charges to file once someone has been arrested. It sounds like the feds are … Continue reading Drug war sense
Category: Policy
Sanjay Gupta – I was wrong about pot
Worth noting that the guy was almost Surgeon General of the U.S. He's changed his mind on marijuana. He says he overestimated the harm and looks forward to more research on medical marijuana. I didn't read many conclusions in his piece, but I agree with the questions he's asking. As far as … Continue reading Sanjay Gupta – I was wrong about pot
“It works!”, Ctd
A new study of buprenorphine implants find that implants work as well as oral dosing and outperform placebo. What does that mean? If I'm reading it correctly, it means that the average subject receiving the implant tested positive for opioids 68.8% of the time compared to 86.6% for the placebo subjects. (If I'm misreading it, … Continue reading “It works!”, Ctd
“manifestly unsuitable for (psychiatric) treatment”
Will Self reviews a recently published book on psychiatry and has some interesting observations on the relationships between addicts, mutual aid groups and psychiatry: Interestingly there is one large sector of the "mentally ill" that Burns believes are manifestly unsuitable for treatment – drug addicts and alcoholics. He points to the ineffectiveness of almost all … Continue reading “manifestly unsuitable for (psychiatric) treatment”
Non-Violent State Inmates Declining for 20 Years
From Keith Humphreys: Prison is the subject of many myths in the public policy world. For example, many people believe that the size of the prison population has continued to rise under President Obama, when in fact it has fallen. Other observers maintain that prison populations drop during economic downturns, when in fact the reverse has generally … Continue reading Non-Violent State Inmates Declining for 20 Years
What happened to the “crack babies”?
Dirk Hansen reports the good news about "crack babies": In a paper authored by Hurt, Laura M Betancourt, and others, the investigators write: “It is now well established that gestational cocaine exposure has not produced the profound deficits anticipated in the 1980s and 1990s, with children described variably as joyless, microcephalic, or unmanageable.” The authors do … Continue reading What happened to the “crack babies”?
Cash, sexual favors and drugs
Cash, sexual favors and drugs. We're not talking about a dope house. Some people (and companies) never learn: ...last week, UK pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline admitted that Chinese doctors were bribed by its execs with cash and sexual favours in return for prescribing the company's drugs. That coincided with rival AstraZeneca having its Shanghai office raided … Continue reading Cash, sexual favors and drugs
What makes treatment effective?
I've been catching a lot of heat recently for posts about Suboxone and methadone. (For the sake of this post, lets refer to them as opioid replacement therapy, or ORT, for the rest of this post. One commenter who blogs for an ORT provider challenged my arguments that we should offer everyone the same kind … Continue reading What makes treatment effective?
Regulating the marijuana market
The Partnership at Drugfree.org reports the results of a recent survey: There is strong support for a wide array of stringent post-legalization marijuana regulations to protect minors and the community wellbeing. The research shows intense support (above or near 90 percent) for: Setting a legal age of 21 Prohibiting marijuana smoking in public places Severe … Continue reading Regulating the marijuana market
Why “medical” marijuana gets little respect here
Mark Kleiman, the Washington state pot czar, explains his use of "scare quotes" when writing about medical marijuana: Yes, cannabis has medical value for some people. And yes, the sustained effort of the federal government to make medical cannabis research as difficult as possible is a national disgrace. And then, on the other … Continue reading Why “medical” marijuana gets little respect here
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