Five Myths About Crack

A Washington Post Op-Ed contributor offers some guidance to the supreme court in the form of 5 myths about crack:

1. Crack is different than cocaine.
2. Crack is instantly and inevitably addicting.
3. The "plague" of crack use spread quickly into all sectors of society.
4. Crack is the direct cause of violent crime.
5. Harsh sentences for crack are necessary to deter "serious" and "major traffickers."

Technorati Tags: cocaine, crack, policy, criminalization, addiction

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Plan to vaccinate babies against drugs

The U.K.'s Daily Mail recently ran a story on a plan to vaccinate children for cocaine, heroin and tobacco. The vaccine would prevent any effects from the drugs and therefore prevent any addiction.

A group called the Transform Drug Policy Foundation has written a response on their blog. They argue that: Drug vaccines don’t really work; Giving drug vaccines to children is profoundly unethical; Even if vaccines worked it wouldn’t prevent problematic drug use, or offending.

I find it pretty unlikely that there would be any significant steps in this direction in the near future. I think it's far more likely that drugs like this will be tried with people who have developed problems before their used in preventative strategies.

Activists Plan 'Safe Site' for Drug Smokers

Another article on calls for a "safe inhalation site" in Vancouver:

Addicts who smoke hard drugs will have an indoor place to get their fix if a Vancouver drug users group is able to open North America's first safe inhalation site later this year....

Such an unsanctioned facility would provide a supervised location for addicts to smoke crack cocaine and heroin, in much the same way that Insite -- Vancouver's legally sanctioned three-year-old safe injection site -- provides services to addicts who inject the same drugs.

Alternative treatments give addicts a chance

An opinion piece on Sam Sullivan's (Vancouver's Mayor) proposal for stimulant maintenance programs. (Previous post here.) Grrrr.

Vancouver mayor proposes 'revolutionary' plan for addicts

Vancouver's Mayor is promoting his plan for stimulant maintenance again and calling it treatment. This is the same guy who suggested that addicts and the public need to get real and accept addiction as a permanent disability, like his experience of having to accept his spinal cord injury and life in a wheel chair.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is lobbying the federal government for an exemption from Canada's narcotics laws that would allow what he calls a "revolutionary" alternative drug-treatment plan to give substitute drugs to at least 700 cocaine and crystal-meth addicts.

If he is successful, Vancouver would be a global pioneer in running such a large-scale program of drug maintenance for stimulant-drug users.

Sullivan said the drug plan, along with three other key elements that have to come from Ottawa or Victoria, will eliminate most of Vancouver's problems with homelessness, panhandling and drug-dealing. Those are the three social problems he promised to reduce by half in time for 2010 in the Project Civil City initiative that he launched in November.

Good news from the new Congress

The new Congress appears interested in revisiting the 100 to 1 disparity (see this post for an explanation) in powder vs. crack cocaine sentencing guidelines:

Key lawmaker Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Robert Scott (D-Va.) have signaled their intention to hold hearings on mandatory sentences for nonviolent offenses. Conyers said that the current sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine offenses -- crack offenders face much harsher penalties -- is the "most outrageous example of the unfairness of mandatory minimums."