The NY Times recently had an Op-Ed based on an interview with Mark Kleiman about his plan for implementing Washington's new pot policy. (They voted to legalize it last fall.): If you read the proposal Kleiman’s team submitted to Washington State, you may be a little boggled by the complexities of turning an illicit herb … Continue reading How to Legalize Pot
Category: Policy
Sentences to ponder
...when you try to balance the damage caused by pain against the damage caused by drug abuse, nobody wins. Barry Meier on Fresh Air
Sentences to ponder
"I had a doctor who I greatly respect who said, 'We thought the great problem with these drugs [opioids] is addiction. What we didn't realize [was] that the people who take them would opt out of life.' And you see it across the spectrum: One of the more startling things is in the area of … Continue reading Sentences to ponder
Room for debate: How to safely sell marijuana
The News York Times recently had a "Room for Debate" section on how to safely sell marijuana. To my mind, only one contribution really addressed that question, Mark Kleiman's. Check it out.
without someone like me!?!?!?
Keith Humphreys is pretty great in this interview: Harold Pollack: I should say you've also done some research on AA [Alcoholics Anonymous]. I think some folks would be interested to know that, at least according to your research, AA is actually a pretty impressive intervention in some ways. Keith: Yeah. I don't mind people who are skeptical … Continue reading without someone like me!?!?!?
Drugs + capitalism + innovation = ?
Andrew Sullivan directs us to a story on "dabs", a highly concentrated cannabis product: Most commonly created by a technique in which high quality pot is blasted with butane that is then extracted, these cannabis concentrates approach 70%-to-90% THC. ... Brad Gibbs, of Greenest Green, which has just opened a new state-approved lab in Denver … Continue reading Drugs + capitalism + innovation = ?
Labeling legal weed
Mark Kleiman's looking for ideas about how to label marijuana in a hypothetical legal, commercial market: Imagine – just hypothetically – that a state decided to open a legal (at the state level) commercial market in cannabis, with some of the users intending to use the substance to treat some medical condition and others using … Continue reading Labeling legal weed
Prescription drug overdose statistics visually
Popular Science has a chart with US overdose deaths by drug: ...the rate of reported overdoses the U.S. more than doubled between 1999 and 2010. About half of those additional deaths are in the pharmaceuticals category, which the CDC has written about before. Nearly three-quarters of the pharmaceuticals deaths are opioid analgesics—prescription painkillers like OxyContin and … Continue reading Prescription drug overdose statistics visually
What would legalized pot look like?
A RAND analyst lays out seven important questions regarding the establishment of legal marijuana: 1. Production. Where will legal pot be grown -- outdoors on commercial farms, inside in confined growing spaces, or somewhere in between? RAND research has found that legalizing marijuana could make it dramatically cheaper to produce -- first because producers will no … Continue reading What would legalized pot look like?
Venture capital and methadone
There must be a lot of money available if private equity firms are willing to expose themselves to this much risk: At least five state legislatures are considering bills to tighten oversight of methadone clinics after allegations that take-home doses of the drug are contributing to illegal street sales, misuse and deaths. Measures in West … Continue reading Venture capital and methadone
Recovery Review 