alibi: toxicology report

reposted from alibi V.21 No.8 | February 23 - 29, 2012

The Drugs Are Winning

We’re using more than ever

By Samara Alpern

New Mexico is the longtime world heavyweight and still national champion in deaths by drug overdose. But lawmakers passed a landmark memorial that could put a dent in the yearly death toll. The measure, SM 45, is a formal state request that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy study the effectiveness of medically supervised injection facilities. There are none in the United States, but 27 around the world serve as clinical settings for users to inject illegal drugs.

Whether the controversial approach is the best way to deal with our substance abuse problem remains to be seen, but the fact that New Mexico is willing to look at new methods is worth celebrating. Despite the drug war, abuse remains at record levels, and the bodies are piling up.
It was 1971 when Nixon first declared war on drugs. A lot of vets were coming back from Vietnam shooting heroin, and those needles were really freaking people out. To the patriotic highball set, criminalizing the hell out of substance abuse was a sensible strategy to take that seedy element off the streets.

To a certain degree, the plan worked. In terms of turning users into criminals, the war has been a spectacular success. Per capita, the U.S. incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other country on Earth. More than Russia. More than China. This year’s distant runner-up for prisoners per capita: Rwanda.

Since Nixon named drugs public enemy No. 1, the U.S. prison population has increased by more than 700 percent. Apparently, there are a lot more people into drugs than just counterculture deviants.

Are we really this sick? This unhappy? This weak?

Though there is no language explicitly targeting any one group, minorities have clearly been the big losers in the war’s justice lottery. To use an old-fashioned term, it’s racist. African-Americans are 13 times as likely to go to jail as white people for the same drug offense, and today, more African-Americans are caught up in the criminal justice system than were enslaved on the eve of the Civil War.

This tactic doesn’t seem to be having much impact on the street market, however. Though we are smoking, snorting and shooting slightly less than we did in the ’70s, the U.S. is still the biggest consumer of illegal drugs in the world. And when you consider how many people are reaching for legal pharmaceuticals, the fact is today—after more than 40 years of drug war, millions of incarcerations and record levels of overdoses—we are consuming more drugs than ever.

Over the counter sales are up, too, from $2.9 billion in 1971 to $17 billion in 2010, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

While the criminal justice system is culling vast throngs of miscreants who turned to drugs to solve their problems, our medical system has been promoting drugs as the answer to everything from depression to limp dick. We’ve got a whole slew of drugs to help you get off the other drugs. We’ve even got drugs for people who were born with sparse, bald-rat eyelashes. Hallelujah for modern medicine! The lashless will suffer the indignity of applying mascara no more!

Spending on legal prescriptions doubled from 1999 to 2008, when the grand total came to $234.1 billion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nine out of 10 elderly Americans took some kind of prescribed substance in the past month. Our nation’s children are also apparently terribly ill, with one out of every five kids under the age of 12 taking at least one prescribed medicine in the past month.

This is the crisis of today: Nationwide, overdose deaths doubled in the last decade thanks to the surging popularity of painkillers. For the first time in history, ODs outnumber traffic accidents as cause of death. Pills are responsible for more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. It’s a worldwide epidemic, but as the most medicated country in the world, America is leading the trend. And, of course, New Mexico has the highest overdose rate in the country.

Which brings us back to that measure up in Santa Fe. The memorial calls for a study into several harm-reduction strategies, including medically supervised injection sites for intravenous users. While controversial, such programs have been proven effective in reducing overdose fatalities while increasing access to drug treatment programs and health services. Hopefully the study will help guide New Mexico away from its heritage as the likeliest place in America to die of overdose. Our state government’s unanimous support for the memorial should be applauded for seeking alternatives to the clearly ineffective drug war.

But even the most innovative harm-reduction programs do nothing to address our nation’s fundamental problem: We use drugs for everything. That is the underlying pattern of behavior causing us true harm. Are we really this sick? This unhappy? This weak? And, if so, are drugs really the answer? When we toss back those little pills, we need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves: Why?

new mexico mayor and police chief arrested for running guns to mexico

and in more drug news, krqe news is reporting that in the border town of columbus, new mexico, the mayor, chief of police, and ten others have been indicted for smuggling guns to mexico.  no one is officially saying that the guns were destined to arm america's beloved high suppliers, but the atf and dea conducted the raid.

the death toll in mexico attributed to the drug war has been estimated at well over 28,000 since presidente calderon began battling with cartels in 2006.  meanwhile, here in the u.s., the price of mexican dirt weed remains steady.

columbus, nm

new mexico mota report

we've come a long way in drug policy since the first weed law was laid on the books in jamestown colony, virginia, in 1619.  that law required farmers to grow hemp, but i'm sure what the founders really meant was that people who grow weed should be mercilessly prosecuted.

of course, we're living in more sober times than that summer of free love in 1619, but all is not lost.  it looks like at least medical marijuana will live to see another day here in new mexico.  there was a piece of legislation pending that would repeal medicinal use, but it won't come to a vote.   according to the santa fe reporter, state rep james smith (r-sandia park) is pulling his own proposal.  instead, smith is now asking for a study to see how the whole let-sick-people-smoke-the-weed thing is going four years after medical marijuana was legalized.  in 2007, with the passage of the lynn and erin compassionate use act, new mexico became the twelfth state in the union to legalize medical marijuana. the resulting state program currently serves around 4,000 patients.

meanwhile, just say now is estimating that new mexico would generate somewhere between $51.5 and $76 million dang dollars in state revenue if we were to go the legalization and taxation route.  the numbers are extrapolated from official reports by california and washington state on the anticipated financial impact of legalization and taxation.  hmm.  doesn't new mexico have a budget shortfall  or something?  i remember hearing a little something about that.  i don't know-- taxes, budget, snooze...

yeah, so let's talk about paragliding crashes. you know who i mean, one of legalization's most famous supporters, former new mexico governor gary johnson.  in december, governor johnson told the weekly standard that he smoked la mota after he broke his back paragliding. johnson got tangled in a tree, and he fell to the earth from fifty feet above.  then he spent the next three years numbing the pain with herb.  the accident was in 2005, so that's three years of recent, consistent criminal activity.  and, guess what? last month johnson came in 3rd in the straw poll for presidential candidate at the conservative political action conference, one of the great mystical oracles for political future.

so it may be that america is finally ready for a president who admits he was stoned for three straight years.  attitudes are changing.  a recent pew poll found now almost half of the country is supportive of straight up legalization. that's 45% for legalization, and a slim 50% majority against. i'd rather see those numbers flipped, but, hey, it's progress. 

ok, that's enough learning.  here's a nice set from psychic sidekick to mellow out to-- you've earned it.

  Latest tracks by Psychic Sidekick

gov johnson smoking the weed

sporty libertarian and former new mexico governor gary johnson tells the weekly standard that he smoked hella weed for pain relief for three years following a paragliding crash in 2005. he says he wanted to avoid the narcotic addiction that he experienced when he used conventional pain drugs in the past.

gary, you so crazy! don't you know that if you turn to weed, big pharma doesn't get paid? hey buddy, that's not my america!  just kidding-- in my america, everyone gets paid.

unfortunately, gary johnson is not the republican new mexicans voted into office this year.  instead, we chose agitated chihuahua dog susana martinez.  in july, the new mexico independent (r.i.p.) reported that the governor-elect wants to repeal new mexico's medical marijuana law.

maybe it's a good time to make a donation to drug policy alliance.