Drug News

By Charles Lane October 22, 2009; 5:14 PM ET ““Medical marijuana” is obviously a Trojan horse for legalization of pot as a recreational drug. In a democracy, people should pursue their policy objectives openly, not under false pretenses. In that respect, I thought that the attorney general created a certain amount of inevitable confusion when…

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – U.S. and Guatemalan authorities captured a makeshift submarine loaded with an estimated 10 tonnes of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean off Guatemala, Guatemalan police said on Thursday.If the size of the seizure is confirmed, it would be the largest ever drug bust in Guatemala, which is becoming an important transit point…

“OCT 22 – The Department of Justice recently issued guidelines regarding the use of federal resources in investigations and prosecutions in states that have passed laws authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued the following statement: “DEA welcomes the issuance of these clarifying guidelines pertaining to the use…

By Charles Lane October 20, 2009; 5:56 PM ET “In a brilliant article (requires subscription) on this subject in the Hastings Center Report, a bioethics journal, lawyer and anesthesiologist Peter J. Cohen noted that “medical marijuana” groups have been notably passive about demanding FDA testing and approval for this purported elixir. Instead, they took their…

“New Police Chief George Gascón’s focus on undercover drug stings in the Tenderloin has had an interesting side-effect: far fewer sales of heroin and crack cocaine, and more sales of OxyContin and other pills.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=49774&tsp=1

By BRAD DICKERSON, Highlands Today “SEBRING – What is Highlands County drug abusers’ poison of choice? According to Capt. Randy LaBelle, with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), it’s prescription medications. “I see a whole lot of oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax,” he said.” http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2009/oct/21/la-what-drugs-are-on-highlands-county-streets/#

 

“(CNN) — Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide — more than any other drug — and the opiate heroin kills five times as many people in NATO countries each year than the eight-year total of NATO troops killed in Afghan combat, the United Nations said Wednesday.” http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/21/un.heroin.trade/

By Mike McPhee and Victoria Barbatelli, The Denver Post “Demand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that it has outstripped the production of legal “grow” operations and is now probably being supplied by international drug cartels, say some local sheriffs and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement…

Julie Rose “Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have seized five times as much heroin so far this year as they did in all of 2008. And so far this year, five times as many people have died from heroin overdoses in Charlotte. Those figures led Mayor Pat McCrory to sound the alarm at a press conference yesterday. WFAE’s…