Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, London, marijuana, NORML, Paul Armentano, pot, skunk, uk, weed
Survey: One In Five High Schools Drug Test Students
September 25, 2008 – Washington, DC
Washington, DC: An estimated one in five high schools and one in ten middle schools engage in some form of student drug testing – including random testing, according to survey data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and published in the fall issue of Strategies for Success, a newsletter of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
“Findings indicate that the number of schools conducting … drug testing may be [approximately] 4,000 – more than double the highest estimates cited previously,” the ONDCP reported.
In all, 14.6 percent of all public and private middle schools and high schools now conduct some type of student drug testing, the CDC’s School Health Policies and Programs study found. Slightly more than 50 percent of these schools reported conducted random drug testing among specific groups of students.
Of the schools that drug test, 84 percent utilize urinalysis – a method that detects the presence of inactive drug metabolites, but does not have the ability to determine recent drug use or impairment. Fifteen percent of schools employ hair follicle testing, the study reported. Eight percent use saliva testing, and three percent use sweat patch testing technology.
Of the drugs screened for, 86 percent of schools test for the presence of marijuana. By contrast, 75 percent of school drug testing programs screen for cocaine, 50 percent screen for alcohol, and fewer than 20 percent test for nicotine.
Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on School Health resolved, “There is little evidence of the effectiveness of school-based drug testing,” and warned that students subjected to random testing programs may experience “an increase in known risk factors for drug use.” The Academy also warned that school-based drug testing programs could decrease student involvement in extracurricular activities and undermine trust between pupils and educators.
A 2003 cross-sectional study of national student drug testing programs previously reported, “Drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use.”
A 2007 prospective randomized clinical trial also reported that students who underwent random drug testing did not differ in their self-reported drug use compared to students at neighboring schools who were not enrolled in drug testing programs.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director.
DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7709
Text Messaging Impacts Psychomotor Skills Far More Than Cannabis, Study Says
September 25, 2008 – London, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom: Sending text messages from one’s mobile phone impairs motorists’ ability to drive a car to a far greater degree than does smoking cannabis, according to the findings of a study published this week by Britain’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and reported by Reuters news wire.
Seventeen volunteers age 18 to 24 years old participated in the driving simulator study.
“The reaction times of people texting as they drove fell by 35 percent, while those who had consumed the legal limit of alcohol, or taken cannabis, fell by 21 percent and 12 percent respectively,” Reuters reported.
The study also found that drivers’ ability to maintain lane position and headway with the vehicle in front of them was more adversely impacted by texting than by the influence of marijuana.
Currently, five US states have enacted laws prohibiting text messaging while driving. By contrast, fifteen states have enacted laws criminally prohibiting drivers from operating a vehicle with trace levels of cannabis or inactive cannabis metabolites in their blood or urine.
A study published earlier this year in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention reported that in terms of overall driving performance, subjects under the influence of cannabis performed in a manner comparable to motorists with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05 percent.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. NORML’s white paper, “Cannabis and Driving: A Scientific and Rational Review,” — http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7459
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, pot, skunk, weed, white house
Washington, D.C. — Cocaine and methamphetamine use among young adults declined significantly last year as supplies dried up, leading to higher prices and reduced purity, the government reports. Overall use of illicit drugs showed little change.
About one in five young adults last year acknowledged illicit drug use within the previous month, a rate similar to previous years. But cocaine use declined by one-quarter and methamphetamine use by one-third.
Drug use increased among the 50-59 age group as more baby boomers joined that category. Their past month drug use rose from 4.3 percent in 2006 to 5 percent in 2007.”The baby boomers have much higher rates of self-destructive behavior than any parallel age group we have data from,” said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Walters, 55, is a boomer himself.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, being released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is based on interviews with about 67,500 people.
Overall, about 20 million people 12 or older reported using illicit drugs within the past month. Marijuana was the most popular by far, with 14.4 million acknowledging use of marijuana in the past month.
Among adolescents, age 12 to 17, drug use dipped from 9.8 percent in 2006 to 9.5 percent last year, continuing a five-year trend. Their use of alcohol and cigarettes also fell during the same period.
“The earlier you use drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, the more likely you are to have a lifelong problem,” Walters said.
Much of the progress in curbing drug use occurred from 2002 to 2005. Critics of the nation’s drug policies warned not to read too much into the latest numbers.
“Use of marijuana and other drugs naturally fluctuates and if you look at long-term trends, current rates are smack in the middle of the range they’ve been in for decades,” said Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates the decriminalization of marijuana. “There is simply no evidence that current policies … have made any difference.”
A World Health Organization survey of 17 countries this year showed that people in the United States were more likely than people elsewhere to have tried illicit drugs. The United States tied New Zealand for the highest rate of marijuana use and far outpaced other countries on cocaine use, the survey found.
The U.S. report measured drug use over the past month, while the WHO’s looked at drug use over a lifetime.
The WHO survey concluded: “The use of drugs seems to be a feature of more affluent countries. The U.S., which has been driving much of the world’s drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies as well as a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries.”
More than half the people who tried drugs for the first time in 2007 used marijuana, according to the U.S. survey. The rate of new marijuana users came to about 6,000 people a day.
The overall rate of illicit drug use dropped from 8.3 percent of those 12 and older to 8.0 percent in 2007.
Walters also acknowledged concern about non-medical use of prescription pain relievers among young adults. He urged parents to have more awareness of where they keep their prescriptions and to throw them away when the drugs are no longer needed.
The survey, which also examined mental health, indicated that 24.3 million people 18 or older experienced “serious psychological distress over the past year.” It stressed the link between mental health and substance abuse, noting that adults experiencing depression within the past year were more than twice as like to have tried illicit drugs during that time than other adults.
Source: Associated Press
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, cocaine, drug, executions, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, indonesia, law, marijuana, traffic, war on drug
JAKARTA, Indonesia — This country has resumed executions for serious drug crimes after a four-year hiatus, and Indonesia’s attorney general has warned drug offenders on death row that their executions may now be accelerated.
The resumption follows a decision last year by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court that upheld the death penalty for serious drug offenses.
Two Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were the first to be executed for drug crimes after the long break. The two, Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, were put to death on June 26.
All executions in Indonesia are by firing squad. Prisoners are taken to a field to stand in front of 12 men who each fire one shot aimed at the chest. If that barrage does not kill the prisoner, a commander stands ready to fire a point-blank shot to the head.
Although Indonesia is known for some of the world’s strictest penalties for drug offenses, Kathryn Duff, a representative of Amnesty International, said the country was “not typically an enthusiastic executioner.”
Indeed, Indonesia had suspended executions for drug offenders while the court was considering the constitutional case and had not put drug offenders to death for two years before that while prisoners pursued judicial reviews and clemency, said A. H. Ritonga, a deputy attorney general.
Mr. Ritonga said the statement last month by the attorney general, Hendarman Supandji, about speeding up executions did not necessarily mean all 58 prisoners on death row for drug-related crimes would be executed soon. “Death row inmates will only be executed according to the law, after their appeals are exhausted,” Mr. Ritonga said, adding that they can also apply for clemency.
The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has publicly said, however, that he would not pardon drug offenders.
Using the death penalty for drug offenses had been challenged by three Australians sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin off the resort island of Bali, and by two Indonesians. Last October, the Constitutional Court ruled that a constitutional amendment upholding the right to life did not apply to capital punishment. The court added that the right to life had to be balanced against the rights of the victims of drug trafficking.
Indonesia executed the two Nigerians on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, as a message to those trafficking drugs through the country.
Indonesia is fighting an epidemic of drug abuse. Its population of 238 million includes an estimated 18 million addicts, according to the Ministry of Health.
There are 112 felons on death row. Seven have exhausted appeals and may be executed soon; they include three prisoners convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, according to the attorney general’s office. Eighteen other prisoners have appealed for clemency.
Indonesia executed only three prisoners in 2006, the year before the death penalty challenge was filed. By comparison, according to Amnesty International, China is estimated to have executed at least 1,000 prisoners that year; Iran executed 177; and Pakistan, 82. In the United States, there were 53 executions.
Still, President Yudhoyono has been a staunch supporter of the death penalty since taking office in October 2004, rarely granting clemency.
He went ahead with the executions of three men who had been convicted in connection with attacks by a Christian militia on Muslims, despite concerns from international human rights groups that not all the evidence had been presented during their trial.
So far, Mr. Yudhoyono, a former general, also has not bowed to pressure from Australia to commute the death sentence of the three Australians imprisoned for trying to smuggle heroin.
The three are entitled to seek one more judicial review and, should that fail, to appeal for clemency.
By PETER GELLING
From “New York Times”
Link http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/world/asia/13indo.html?ref=world
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: 2007, arrested, cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, italy, law, marijuana, report, repression, skunk
The last report about the use of drug in 2007 admitted that in Italy use of cannabis is increased.
Last year 32413 people has been signaled to authorities: 73% for cannabis,16% for cocaine and 8% for heroin and 26985 people has been arrested, more than in 2006
The use of cocaine is increased in 2006,but not in 2007.On the other hand, in 2007 use of cannabis is increased and 14 Italians on 1000 between 15 and 64 years old have admitted and 14% had used cannabis more than one time in 2007.
320000 people has been cared for drug: 205000 for heroin and 154000 for cocaine.
84,6% of Italians are against the use of every drug and 89,8% believe is danger.70% is worried and 80% is against the use of cannabis. More people are against cannabis respect 2006.
I believe real number of cannabis smokers is more higher, and not so many people (80%) are against the use.
Younger Italians, particularly, are less worried about cannabis.
I’m afraid in 2009 a new and more strong wave of repression will beat us…
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: anti-drug, cannabis, cocaine, drug, drug-test, ganja, hashish, hemp, italian parliament, italy, law, marijuana, prohibitionism, skunk, war
In October 2006 a popoular tv transmission (“Le iene”) had done a secret drug-test on 50 members of italian parliament.
The result was incredible: 1/3 of members use drugs.
The report was stopped and starded an incredible discussion:is it correct a secret drug-test for parliament’s member?
I think it isn’t correct,but:
-it wasn’t possibile recognize the members (the faces were obscurated and voices changed)
-the tests were mixed,so it wasn’t possible recognize whic test a members had used
-Italy has the strongest anti-drug law in Europe and one of the strongest in “occidental world”
-it was the first time for a drug-scandal among italian parliament’s members.Emilio Colombo (more than 80 years old) ammited he use cocaine as therapy (cocaine therapy…) and he didn’t suffered of restriction (as example jail,driving license and passaport suspended)
The tv-report was stopped,the trasmission fined and some party proposed drug-test for every members,but nothing has done.
On 10 june 2008 the italian supreme court condamned the transmission because the report “had demanged the public imagine and onorability of parliaments”.
Today, Carlo Giovanardi (the co-author of the anti-drug law,with Gianfranco Fini) has admitted that drug ,particularly cocaine, is diffused also in parliament.He said also drug test will be done for every category of workers that could be “on risk”.
He forget members of parliament…
