Tag: the war on (some) drugs

LEADING DEMOCRAT IN MARYLAND SENATE RACE ONCE BLAMED MURDERS ON DECRIMINALIZED POT

EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE Maryland voters will cast their ballots in a rare U.S. Senate primary, the bulk of the state’s Democratic machine has already consolidated behind one candidate. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks emerged as a front-runner shortly after announcing her candidacy, garnering endorsements from major Democratic officials and organizations before her campaign had any issue platforms listed on its website. 

The race presents a unique opportunity to fill a safely blue seat with a new candidate for the first time in 16 years. If Alsobrooks is successful, she would become Maryland’s first Black senator. While Democrats have embraced Alsobrooks’s historic campaign with enthusiasm, however, her record on criminal justice has largely gone overlooked.

During past campaigns for Prince George’s state’s attorney, Alsobrooks positioned herself as staunchly “tough-on-crime.” In addition to pushing the notion that cannabis decriminalization led to drug dealers murdering each other, she has supported DNA collection of people without criminal convictions, putting police in schools, and harsh penalties in a variety of situations, among other positions opposed by justice system reformers. 

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House Democrats File Marijuana Legalization And Expungements Bill

A top House Democrat has reintroduced a bill to federally legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, with provisions to expunge prior cannabis convictions.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, refiled the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act on Wednesday. There are 33 initial cosponsors—all Democrats.

The comprehensive legalization legislation has passed the House twice in recent sessions—but this marks the first time it’s being introduced with Republicans in control of the chamber, raising serious questions about whether it will move. The Judiciary Committee, which is the primary panel of jurisdiction, is chaired by anti-cannabis Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

Even the prospects of a modest marijuana banking bill that’s set for committee action in the Senate next week are uncertain in the House under the GOP majority. That said, a GOP-led House panel did advance legislation on Wednesday to prevent the denial of federal employment or security clearances based on a candidate’s past cannabis use.

In any case, advocates have long touted the MORE Act as an example of the type of wide-ranging cannabis reform legislation that would not only end prohibition but take steps to right the wrongs of prohibition and promote social equity.

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PREGNANCY-RELATED ARRESTS SPIKED DURING LAST 16 YEARS, REPORT FINDS

Nearly 1,400 people were arrested for actions related to their pregnancies from 2006 through June 2022, according to a report released today by Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that defends pregnant people from criminalization. Most of those arrests occurred in five southern states—Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. Most cases involved allegations of substance use, even when there was no harm to the fetus or infant.

“Pregnant people are increasingly targeted for criminalization in ways that do not exist for people who are not pregnant, with dire consequences for themselves and their families,” Lourdes A. Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice, said in a press release. “Halting criminalization requires repealing ‘fetal personhood’ laws and ending the collusion between the criminal and family regulation systems.”

The report reveals a substantial increase in the criminalization of pregnant people over the past decade and a half. In 2013, Pregnancy Justice released a report that found that law enforcement had criminalized 413 pregnant people in the three decades between 1973 and 2005. Pregnancy Justice’s new report found a threefold increase in criminal cases during the last 16 years.

The report links the rise of fetal personhood laws—which give fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses the same legal rights as people—to the heightened criminalization of pregnancy. Nearly 77 percent of cases where pregnant people were criminalized occurred in states that expanded the definition of child abuse to include fetuses, fertilized eggs, and embryos.

The report defines pregnancy criminalization as an instance in which someone is arrested for reasons related to their pregnancy or where terms of a person’s bail, sentencing, or probation are heightened because they became pregnant after being charged with an unrelated crime. Pregnant people were most often accused of child endangerment, substance possession, drug use, feticide, murder, or manslaughter, legally unauthorized abortion, failure to report a birth or death, tampering with remains or abuse of a corpse, fetal assault, or drug delivery.

Nine out of ten cases tracked by Pregnancy Justice involved allegations that a person had used substances, including marijuana, cocaine, or methamphetamine, while pregnant. One-quarter of such cases involved legal substances, such as prescription opiates, nicotine, and alcohol. One-third of the cases involved people accused of using marijuana.

“The playbook that legislators, politicians, and law enforcement officials have been establishing in the context of criminalizing pregnancy and substance use is going to be applied to abortions,” Emma Roth, senior staff attorney at Pregnancy Justice, said in an interview.

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With Oklahoma’s Hemp Production ‘Way Down,’ Lawmakers Consider Benefits Of Expansion

Oklahoma legislators are studying whether industrial hemp production would benefit rural development in the state.

Growing hemp became legal in Oklahoma after Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act’s classification of marijuana and declassified hemp as a Schedule I narcotic.

While there was a lot of initial interest in 2018, Oklahoma has seen a decline in interest from potential growers since then, according to Kenny Naylor, the director of Consumer Affairs for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

“Unfortunately our numbers have gone way down,” Naylor told the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Monday. “In 2018, everybody wanted to grow hemp.”

As of this year, Oklahoma has 21 licensed hemp growers and 22 licensed hemp processors.

Aside from a saturation of the CBD market and limited processing ability, which have both cooled the interest in growing hemp, according to Naylor, other factors were a matter of bad timing.

“I think COVID-19 hit right at the wrong time and shut everything down, and that definitely caused problems,” said Naylor. “And then for Oklahoma specifically, people switched to marijuana.”

It was initially cheaper to get licensed to grow medical marijuana, though Naylor said he doesn’t believe that is the case anymore.

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Ketamine Therapy Is Now Being Offered Across the US by an Insurance Provider

Ketamine-assisted therapy is now available as a health benefit across the U.S.

Enthea, a benefits company focused on providing insurance coverage for psychedelic treatments, announced it is offering ketamine-assisted therapy to its benefit plans nationwide. The company already has ketamine-assisted therapy on benefit plans in California, New York, and Texas. 

But the number of Americans receiving this type of treatment as a benefit is limited. Currently only 1,500 people are offered it while the company hopes that number will reach 200,000 by the end of 2024. 

Ketamine is the only psychedelic that can legally be used to treat mental health conditions, and there’s been an influx of clinics offering the drug, sometimes in conjunction with psychotherapy, in the last few years. Sessions range from $300 to $1,500 a session without insurance—usually several sessions are recommended. 

Enthea’s ability to offer ketamine as a benefit nationwide is due to new partnerships with two companies—Skylight Psychedelics and Innerwell—that facilitate psychedelic experiences at clinics around the country, remotely, and in people’s homes, according to a news release. 

Employers looking to offer the benefit to its workers can add it on to existing plans, similarly to dental and vision plans, Enthea said. 

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Fentanyl-Laced Coke and Meth Is Not Fuelling America’s Overdose Crisis

“Overdose deaths from fentanyl-laced cocaine and meth have risen 50-fold,” screamed the Daily Mail about a new study into the US opioid crisis.

The Mail, reporting on the study published last week in the scientific journal Addiction, warned that “many users unwittingly consume fentanyl, as it is frequently used as a cutting agent in cocaine and other illicit drugs to extend the supply and the high”.

Reporting on the same study, carried out by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), ABC News told its readers: “Many people who use drugs like cocaine recreationally may not be aware these drugs are laced with fentanyl… this could be fueling unintentional overdoses, according to experts.”

But is this really happening?

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Seattle Leaders Pass Law To Prosecute Drug Possession And Public Use

The Seattle City Council voted 6–3 Tuesday to align the city’s municipal code with a 2023 state law making public drug use and possession a gross misdemeanor and give the City Attorney’s Office authority to prosecute those crimes.

Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Andrew Lewis, Debora Juarez, Sara Nelson, Alex Pedersen and Dan Strauss voted in support. Councilmembers Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant voted against.

Supporters argue the legislation is a critical tool for addressing a worsening drug crisis and that language in the bill is meant to push people with substance use disorders to treatment. Opponents say it’s a return to a failed drug war tactic that will incarcerate drug users and disproportionately impact Black and brown residents rather than provide people the help they need.

Tuesday was the Council’s second attempt to align city municipal code with state drug possession laws. In June, a bill co-sponsored by Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen at the behest of City Attorney Ann Davison was voted down 5–4. In a last-minute turn that killed the June bill, Councilmember Andrew Lewis said that while he supported aligning state and city law, he could not support a bill without a stronger plan for treatment.

In the intervening months, Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Lewis co-sponsored a new version of the bill that places greater emphasis on diversion and treatment and attempts to outline the “last resort” conditions under which officers should arrest drug users.

In its simplest terms, the passage of the Council bill puts the state drug possession law into Seattle’s Municipal Code. The law states that public drug possession or use is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in prison and a maximum fine of $1,000. For someone with two prior convictions for drug possession, the maximum penalty can increase to 364 days.

By adopting the language of the state law into city code, the council granted the Seattle City Attorney’s Office authority to prosecute drug possession charges. When drug possession was a felony in Washington, that authority resided with the King County Prosecutor.

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Fake Sudafed Is Bullshit, Just As You Suspected

Two decades ago, it became clear that Congress was intent on trying to curtail illicit methamphetamine production by restricting access to pseudoephedrine, a meth precursor that was also widely used as a decongestant in cold and allergy remedies such as Sudafed. Pfizer, the manufacturer of Sudafed products, responded by announcing that it would start selling alternatives containing a different active ingredient: phenylephrine.

What’s the difference between pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine? “SUDAFED products with phenylephrine are available for over-the-counter purchase without restrictions,” explains Johnson & Johnson, which acquired the brand from Pfizer in 2006, while “products that have pseudoephedrine as an active ingredient face restrictions.” Johnson & Johnson does not mention another distinction that might be of interest to consumers: Pseudoephedrine works, while phenylephrine does not. Or so a unanimous panel of experts advised the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday.

The main problem with phenylephrine: When taken orally, it is so thoroughly metabolized in the gut that almost none of it ends up in the bloodstream. “The new data appear compelling that the monographed dosage of oral [phenylephrine] results in no meaningful systemic exposure or evidence of efficacy,” says an FDA briefing document that was presented to the advisory committee. “Furthermore, the review suggests that higher doses…have also not shown efficacy. These findings are supported by in vitro and in vivo clinical pharmacology data showing that orally administered phenylephrine undergoes high first-pass metabolism resulting in less than 1% bioavailability.”

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White House Promotes Biden’s Marijuana Moves As Part Of ‘Fight For Our Freedom’ Campaign To ‘Mobilize Young People’

The White House is promoting President Joe Biden’s mass marijuana pardon and scheduling review directive as part of a “Fight for Our Freedom” campaign meant to “mobilize young people” as next year’s election approaches.

A factsheet about the campaign that the administration published on Thursday contains a section dedicated to the president’s cannabis reform actions from late last year titled, “Addressing a Failed Approach to Marijuana.”

“The criminalization of marijuana possession has upended too many lives—for conduct that is now legal in many states,” it says. “While white, Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are more likely to be in jail for it.”

The youth outreach campaign will involve a college tour featuring Vice President Kamala Harris that begins at Hampton College on Thursday. The vice president will visit a total of seven colleges across the country over the next month, though its unclear if she will explicitly tout the administration’s cannabis reform actions on campuses.

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Hunter Biden INDICTED on three felony charges for lying about being on drugs when he bought a gun

Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison after being indicted on three felony charges for lying about his crack cocaine addiction when buying a gun.

In a sensational development, the First Son will have to appear in court after a Delaware grand jury returned three charges against him, including two counts of false statements on his gun forms, and one of possessing a firearm while addicted to illicit drugs.

It is a shattering blow for President Joe Biden who has stood by his son and is running for reelection in 2024. 

The move by Special Counsel Davis Weiss is a significant escalation in his investigation into the president’s son for gun and tax crimes, which is still ongoing. 

It also comes the same week that Republicans in the House opened a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden for his alleged connections to Hunter’s business dealings and is likely to have a long-term impact on his political career.

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