August 2006
The Archives
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North America, Studies
The “Crackberry”?
There were a couple of articles last week on Foxnews.com about the supposedly addictive nature of the wireless handheld device, the Blackberry, which has been dubbed by some as the “Crackberry”. “BlackBerry ‘Addicts’ Argue Devices Have Changed Lives” belied the device’s nickname - “infamously addictive” according to a write-up at Wikipedia “because of the ability to read e-mail that is received in realtime, anywhere” - and the description of its users as yet another group of “addicts”, by citing a study by the executive recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International that found three-quarters of 2,000 executives interviewed worldwide “said they believe mobile communication devices primarily enhance their work/life balance rather than impede it.”
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Latin America, War on Drugs
Constitutional Rights vs. The Drug War
In its continuing effort to crack down on drugs, the government of Guatemala has suspended some of its citizen’s rights under the country’s constitution in several areas alongs its border with Mexico in conjunction with a law enforcement effort aimed at tackling their drug problem.The two week order allows expanded search powers for the authorities and restricts the rights of local citizens to carry firearms, congregate for protest and hold meetings.
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Europe
UK Students to Face Random Drug Tests
In a battle of civil liberties and anti-drug fervour, students at certain schools in the UK are to face random drug tests from next term.
The move was announced by the company being contracted to supply the testing kits - Preventx.
The move has had predictable responses from predictable groups but the general argument remains the same.
Civil libertarians point out that random drug tests impinge on the rights of students and also use the fact that drug use among teenagers has significantly decreased since the 1990s. They also point out that testing may result in increased rates of truancy among students not wishing to be tested (or caught).
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People
King County Bar Association’s Drug Policy Project
“This project isn’t for fringy, ponytailed pot smokers.”
That is the (slightly amusing assessment of Roger Goodman, the director of the King County bar association’s Drug Policy Project.
And from the sounds of the project, that isn’t far off.
Since 2000 the King County Bar Association has been calling for a major overhaul on the status quo surround drugs - a situation that they maintain was clogging up the local court system with petty drug cases and reducing the amount of time able to be spent on more important cases.
King County is sending minor street drug users and sellers through drug
courts instead of incarcerating them; its average daily jail count is
down from 2,800 to 2,000. The Washington Legislature was persuaded to
cut back drastically on mandatory drug-possession sentences,
apportioning funds to adult and juvenile drug courts, and family
“dependency” courts. Tens of millions of dollars have been saved. -
Treatment
Theodore Dalrymple on Drug Treatment
In his latest column for City Journal (“Treating” Drug Abuse, 25 August 2006), Theodore Dalrymple has excoriated an editorial in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry that endorsed the use of a drug treatment technique called “contingency management treatment”, whereby drug abusers are rewarded for passing urine tests by, in one example, being given vouchers (“positive reinforcers”) to spend on retail goods and services. Noting that the scheme is predicated on the notion that the consumption of drugs can be halted voluntarily, the inescapable conclusion must be that addiction “is not a disease in any reasonable sense of the word”. Ipso facto, if
it is not a disease, there can be no treatment for it, only “treatment.”
What is then left is plain and simple “bribery”; a moral hazard that the editorialist, psychologist Nancy Petry of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, simply ignored or failed to see.
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Latin America
World Record Drifters Were After Cocaine?
In a strange tale, three Mexican fisherman who had been drifting in a boat accross the Pacific Ocean for nine months have now been accused in their home country of being after drugs.According to the fishermen, they were on a trip to do some shark fishing when they ran out of fuel for the two outboards on their 27 foot vessel. They subsequently began to drift west accross the Pacific during which time two of the five crewmen persished.
After nine months they were picked up by a Taiwanese fishing trawler and flown home to Mexico.
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Kids and Drugs, Studies
OTC stands for “Over The Counter”? Maybe it’s more like “Other Toxic Compounds”
One would think that with all the educational initiatives out there to keep kids up to snuff on the dangers of alcohol abuse and illicit drug usage that maybe we as adults and parents might actually make some decent headway from time to time. Alas it looks to be a frustrating exercise in futility more often than not. Every week a new study or survey seems to come out illustrating just how successful we are at succeeding or failing our young people regarding dangerous behaviors.
This week the study that caught my eye was about some research that found almost one in ten kids have resorted to using over the counter medications to get high. When I say resorted I’m assuming that booze and drugs are readily available to youngsters and that maybe either they’ve become bored with the usual weed/beer/pill type of buzz or aren’t getting enough of an allowance to afford the usual list of popular substances. Maybe it’s just my suburban surroundings and knowing what upscale things kids nowadays need in order to be part of the status quo, but the lack of disposable income just doesn’t cut it as an explanation for me.
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Entertainment, North America
Miami Vice
I saw Miami Vice a few days ago. What a disappointment. While ostensibly a big screen version of the hit 80s TV series, the only real similarities are with the title, its main location, the fast and slick vehicles and the names of the main characters. While this isn’t a problem in itself - Miami is a different place compared to then and what is the point of an exact remake anyway - I think it was a lazy and mainly commercial decision by Michael Mann to trade on the name. -
People
The Scourge of the Drug Accusation
A Major from the Israeli military has been demoted to private, given a 30 day jail term and been discharged from the IDF for possession of cocaine.
The catcher?
He tested negative for any trace of any drug in his system.
This makes it an interesting case. According to the story, he was caught in a car with a civilian to whom he had given money to purchase the drug. There was no word on who the drug was intended for, but with the negative test of the Major, we might be able to surmise that the civilian was the intended recipient.
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The Media
If Drugs Were Legal
There’s an interesting docudrama up on Google Video at the moment called “If Drugs Were Legal” made by the BBC as part of thei “IF” current affair series.
It’s made up of a bunch of different interviews and dramatised scenes. Of course, that means it is going to have obvious biases but it also raises a lot of interesting points and is well worth a look when you have a spare hour.
One point that kind of interested me was the contention that in an environment in which drugs are legal, current pharmacutical companies are in the best position to take advantage of the recreational drug use market. That in turn would subject the overall drug industry (both therapeutic and recreational) to the normal demands of a market. In turn, the demand for recreational drugs and its massive profits would produce a situation in which commercial imperative would see such companies turn their primary interest to the more lucrative field of recreational drugs - including the driving of demand for the product.
Rehabology
Rehabilitating the Debate on DrugsBecause The Debate is The Point
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