Decriminalisation Moves in London | Cops Crack Down Over New Years | Russia Requires Foreigners to Take Drug Tests
All the drug policy and related news from the past week in one place.
Hello!
Happy Friday and welcome to issue #68 of Drugs Wrap, a weekly compilation of the top stories in drug policy from across Australia and around the world.
I’m back! Happy New Year to everyone reading, lets hope this year is the year we finally get a handle on the pandemic and some real progress on drug policy. We live in hope. We have to.
Bit of a round up wrap this week, with several ‘best of 2021’ articles in the cannabis and psychedelic sections. Although it’s a little quiet on the domestic front, there’s been some interesting developments in the international space, not least of all the suggestion that the Mayor of London might decriminalise some drugs for younger people. Although it’s a pretty lightweight move, it’s interesting to see the cracks appearing in the steadfast European bastion of the ‘tough on drugs’ approach. Hopefully this can build into something much more significant.
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Let’s get to it.
85 People Arrested at Sydney’s Field Day Festival as Cops Crack Down on Drugs
Not normally the kind of piece I would share but a good excuse for a bit of a rant.
NSW police have arrested and charged 85 people with drug-related offences at Sydney’s Field Day music festival on New Year’s Day, down from the more than 120 arrested last year.
A police operation targeting ‘anti-social behaviour, alcohol-related crime, and illegal drug use’ was deployed at the Domain in the inner city, including several sniffer dogs.
Police detected and seize MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin (mushrooms), LSD, cocaine and cannabis. Over 80 attendees were arrested for possession and two for supply.
Driving through Sydney on New Years Eve you would think we were back in the darkest days of lockdown when the military patrolled the streets. Seeing a blue wall of officers outside festival spaces begs the question ‘who are they here for?’
It’s been proven again and again that strong police presence pushes people who use drugs to consume in far more dangerous ways. If we can afford ‘crack downs’ on people using drugs recreationally, surely we can afford harm reduction strategies to actually minimise the use of these drugs too. A tale as old as time but frustrating nevertheless.
Cancer Causing Drug & Animal Dewormer Found Cut Into Cocaine Bound For Australia
A cancer-causing drug banned in the 1980's has made a comeback amid a stark warning to partygoers.
The Australian Federal Police discovered traces of phenacetin mixed in a 558-kilo cocaine shipment intercepted by Border Police before it reached Australian shores.
The drug was banned almost 40 years ago after links to cancer and kidney damage were discovered.
‘Drugs are often cut to a low purity using a range of potent chemicals and fillers’, AFP Commander Forensic Operations Paula Hudson said.
‘Levamisole, an animal worming agent that can cause serious skin infections in humans, is often detected in cocaine, which is mainly produced in the Americas’.
‘Phenacetin, a drug that is banned in most countries because it causes cancer and damages kidneys, is also being added to cocaine in a bid to boost the profits of illicit drug dealers’,
This Week in Weed
More Than 40 Per Cent Of Australians Want Legal Weed
New Cannabis Laws Take Effect Across The U.S. With The New Year
2021 Year in Review: NORML’s Top Ten Events in Cannabis Policy
Revealed: How Injured and Sick Workers Are Being Denied Access to Medicinal Cannabis Subsidies
Around the World
US Feds Announce Funds For Drug Harm Reduction Studies, Including On Decriminalisation And Safe Consumption Sites
A top federal health agency is seeking to promote studies into the efficacy of a variety of harm reduction policies—including decriminalization and safe consumption sites—as part of a push to combat the overdose epidemic.
While the Biden administration has yet to take a position on policy proposals to authorize safe consumption facilities, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) put out a pair of requests for applications (RFAs) on Wednesday for an effort that will provide funding for efforts to investigate how that and other harm reduction policies could help address the drug crisis.
Specifically, NIH wants to establish a Harm Reduction Network that seeks to “increase our understanding of the effectiveness, implementation and impact of existing and new harm reduction practices to address the ongoing opioid crisis and substance use disorder more broadly.”
One of my favourite stories of the week also comes from the US, where the Drug Enfrocement Administration has published an ‘emoji drug guide’ to help give readers ‘a better sense of how emojis can be used in conjunction with illegal drug activity’.
‘Emojis, on their own, should not be indicative of illegal activity, but coupled with a change in behavior, change in appearance, or significant loss/increase in income should be a reason to start an important conversation,” the document said.
NZ: Chris Bishop Says Sorry After Chlöe Swarbrick Again Accuses Opposition of 'Lies' About Drug Testing
NZ National Party MP Chris Bishop has apologised for apparently getting his facts wrong about drug testing at music festivals after being called out on Twitter by Chlöe Swarbrick.
Bishop claimed on the social media platform that attendees at this year's Rhythm & Alps festival would be able to test their recreational drugs but not be able to test themselves for COVID-19.
But the Green Party MP pointed out that isn't the case.
‘At (R&A) this summer there will not, in fact, be drug checking services. National fought it every step of the way (and continued to spread falsity like this) and while I'm over the moon Labour Ministers finally signed off some funding, it came too little too late’, Swarbrick said.
Bishop replied: ‘Sorry. I thought there would be at R&A. My point is not about that specific festival but is about antigen testing more generally’.
Swarbrick published more tweets about the topic in a thread, including directly accusing the Opposition of lying.
She reposted two tweets she earlier published in November claiming National's Mark Mitchell was ‘spreading falsity’ while Simeon Brown was ‘retweeting fake news’.
’The drug debate in this country deserves at least a basic Google of facts from the vehement opposition to it’, she said.
‘Soz for the grouch. Few things make me as incensed as the impunity with which politicians can lie and grandstand about drugs while people get hurt because of their anti-evidence decisions and rhetoric’.
Young People Won’t Be Arrested for Carrying Weed in Parts of London
Young people caught with small amounts of cannabis in parts of London will not be arrested or prosecuted under a pilot scheme backed by Mayor Sadiq Khan.
People under 25 found in possession of small amounts of weed in the boroughs of Lewisham, Bexley and Greenwich will instead be given expert help, ranging from advice on drug harms to being protected against exploitation. Instead of being taken into police custody or receiving a criminal record, offenders will be taken back to their family homes.
The plans, which were leaked to the Daily Telegraph, are due to be officially announced later this month. A spokesperson from the mayor’s office confirmed it was “actively involved in discussions around this scheme”, and awaiting final approval for funding.
The scheme was set in motion not by Khan but by the mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, who commissioned a report by drug reform NGO Volteface into the negative impacts of young people being criminalised for low-level cannabis offences in the borough.
It’s a bold move, however critics have said that the plan does not go ‘far enough.’
Growing Expectation of Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use This Year
Campaigners are increasingly confident that a citizens’ assembly on drug use could take place this year in Ireland.
The three coalition parties, upon entering Government in 2020, committed to holding a citizens’ assembly on drug use, which advocates say could be a major opportunity to rethink drug policy in Ireland.
Independent Senator Lynn Ruane has said:
‘I think what’s important is that when we ask a question, we’re not naming specific drugs and we’re not naming alcohol or cigarettes or stuff like that’.
‘For me, it’s about drug use and harmful policy and that harmful policy hasn’t been reviewed in many, many years’.
She is also confident that the Government might be listening and willing to hold a citizens’ assembly which is predicted to come about in the first half of the year.
Russia Orders Health and Drug Checks for Foreigners
A new law has come into force in Russia requiring foreigners and long-term visitors to be fingerprinted and have regular mandatory medical check-ups.
Under the law, signed during the summer by President Vladimir Putin, foreigners staying for over three months have to be fingerprinted with immediate notice. But from 1 March they must also be checked for HIV and Aids, tuberculosis, leprosy and syphilis, as well as the "presence or absence" of use of narcotic or psychotropic drugs and new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances.
The law refers to Russia's sanitary and epidemiological security, but critics have suggested it could be more about discrimination than health.
Concerns have also been raised about the relatively poor state of Russia's health service as well as fears over lax data protection. The medical checks are expected to include blood tests, X-rays and even CT scans, and foreign workers will have to take the tests at the Sakharovo migration centre 80km (50 miles) outside Moscow.
North Korean Defector Exposes Government’s Drug Deals and Cyber Army
A high profile North Korean defector has spoken publicly about the government’s drug deals and cyber army.
Kim Kuk-song spent 30 years at the spy agency under North Korean leaders Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un before he fled in 2014.
During an interview with the BBC World News, the deflector alleges he was ordered to build a drug laboratory to raise “revolutionary funds” for then leader Kim Jong-il during the arduous march – a famine in the 1990s.
‘I brought three foreigners into North Korea and built a base to produce drugs. It was ice,’ he said.
‘All the money in North Korea belongs to Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. With that money, he’d build villas, buy cars, buy food, get clothes and enjoy luxuries’.
Latin America’s Drug Gangs Have Had a Good Pandemic
Covid-19 hit Latin America hard. Many people expected it to hurt drug traffickers, too. They were already under pressure, thanks to the legalisation of cannabis in many places and the incarceration of various kingpins in the United States and elsewhere. When covid stopped young people from clubbing, demand for party drugs like cocaine and ecstasy was expected to fall. As the global shutdown affected the supply of everyday goods, many observers thought it might make it harder for gangs to lay hands on the raw materials to make drugs, or to ship their wares across borders.
Instead the pandemic has confirmed that the drug business is resilient and adaptable. Although supply chains were initially affected, many have bounced back. Gangs have exploited the chaos of covid to attract fresh recruits, luring out-of-school children in Colombia to pick coca and hiring young “cyber-mules” to move profits around in cryptocurrencies. They have also branched out into other crimes.
Listen: 'I Was Living to Use': A First-Hand Account of How Difficult it is to Quit Methamphetamine | ABC
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I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to elders past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and I look forward to sharing all the latest with you next Friday.
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