NYC Legalises Safe Consumption | Global Drug Survey 2021 Results Released | UAE Overhauls Drug Laws
All the drug policy and related news from the past week in one place.
Hello!
Happy Friday and welcome to issue #67 of Drugs Wrap, a weekly compilation of the top stories in drug policy from across Australia and around the world.
Fairly quiet on the home front this week but big news on the international side of things as the Global Drug Survey released its 2021 findings. Overall, drug use appeared to decline during the pandemic, however Australia appears to have been much less affected than other countries, possibly owning to the limited impact the pandemic has had here comparatively. I covered this one for The Latch this week and the full story is below.
Domestically, South Australia has passed legislation making it the toughest state when it comes to drug driving laws. A positive drug test while driving will now result in an instant loss of licence, going once step further than the suspension of licence applied in some of the harsher states like NSW. Of course there are myriad issues with this, not least of all the fact that road side drug testing does not accurately measure impairment and makes no exception for medicinal cannabis patients.
Elsewhere, New York has become the first city in the US to legalise safe consumption rooms, laws passed in response to the regions rising opioid epidemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he hoped NYC could become a model for other cities across America.
And in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates has overhauled its drug laws, removing harsh minimum sentencing laws and shifting its focus towards rehabilitation and support rather than criminalisation. This is a big step for a region with notoriously draconian penalties that restrict people who use drugs from accessing treatment and funnel them into the criminal justice system.
If you’re enjoying the wrap, feel free to pass it on to friends or colleagues and give it a follow on Twitter. You can also follow me for inane musings and throw a few dollars my way to help keep the wrap going.
You can also follow the Drugs Wrap Psychedelia playlist on Spotify for new ‘psychedelic’ music caught in the email filter.
Let’s get to it.
2021 Global Drugs Survey Results Reveal Australia Was the Drunkest Nation on the Planet During the Pandemic
New data released today by the Global Drugs Survey has found that Australians reported getting drunk 27 times during 2020, compared with the global average of 14.6.
Data gathered from over 32,000 people across 22 countries shows that Australian’s top the list in heavy drinking, with Denmark, Finland, and the US following behind.
Aussies actually consumed alcohol on considerably fewer days than the top ranking countries for consumption, 106 day out of the year, compared to the leading French 132 days, suggesting that while we drink less frequently, we go harder when we do.
Other data gathered through the GDS has also found that one in four of those who used psychedelics in the past 12 months reported microdosing, with three-quarters saying they experienced no side effects from the practice.
Around half of people taking prescribed medications for mental health conditions who also microdosed said that they reduced or stopped their medication entirely as a result.
Globally, the use rates of most illegal drugs decreased in the last 12 months, during the pandemic and associated restrictions.
Even among those who continued to use illegal drugs during the pandemic, the rates of seeking emergency medical treatment fell.
‘While it may indicate that home-based use was less likely to result in harm, it may also be that there were less people around, like staff, to call for help’, said Dr Monica Barratt.
’Using while home alone is a risk factor for overdose and may have contributed to elevated rates for some drug types’.
The Global Drug Survey has recently launched their 2022 survey and is currently collecting responses from people, including those who only drink alcohol or don’t consume any drugs or alcohol. You can add your information here and the data will be used to inform drug policy debate and create new harm reduction techniques.
An Opioid Reversal Programme has Saved Dozens of Canberrans. Now There are Calls to Roll it Out to Families across Australia
New research released by the Burnet Institute last week found making the opioid reversal medication Naloxone freely available across Australia and free of charge would save hundreds of lives.
It found most opioid deaths in Australia involved prescription opioids — used by 3 million Australians.
The study found that scaling up the take-home naloxone program to include other states, and reaching 90 per cent of people who were prescribed medium and high opioids would save over 650 lives.
‘A lot of people use drugs at home, and it's often at home where people find them overdosed or unconscious, and if they've got naloxone on hand then there's a very good chance that the person will be saved’.
Calls for Specialist Drug Court in Geelong
Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur has used parliament to call on the state government to establish a dedicated drug court in Geelong.
McArthur asked attorney-general Jaclyn Symes to explain why Geelong was still without a specialist drug court despite the Law Reform, Drugs and Crime Prevention parliamentary committee recommending one as a measure to address the impacts of ice in 2014.
McArthur said she had also posed questions about a Geelong drug court to Court Services Victoria chief executive Louise Anderson in recent Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings.
She said Anderson indicated that ‘if there is the demand’, CSV would be open to ‘contemplating’ a drug court in Geelong but that it would be a matter of consultation between the ‘government and the court’.
‘There is demand,’ McArthur said.
Drug Drivers To Lose Their Licence Under New SA Legislation
South Australians will now face much harsher penalties for dangerous or drug driving offences. The State Parliament has recently passed new laws which will see drivers stripped of their licence upon returning a positive roadside drug test.
The Road Traffic Amendment Bill 2021 was recently passed through the legislative council and will ensure greater road safety for SA drivers.
Road Safety Minister Vincent Tarzia said the new legislation is part of a crackdown to remove dangerous drivers from SA roads.
‘Drug drivers have no place on our roads and this Bill has shut down a dangerous loophole that afforded some irresponsible motorists with the opportunity to continue driving despite a positive drug test’.
These new laws will allow South Australian Police to enforce an on the spot, instant three-month loss of licence if a positive roadside drug test is returned.
This Week in Weed
Could Germany Take Over as Europe’s Cannabis Capital?
Australia Doesn’t Need to Legalise Cannabis, but We Should at Least Give it a Shot
“Yes,” Many South Australians Want Cannabis Legalised
Study Finds 52.3% of Emergency Medicine Doctors Prefer Medical Cannabis Over Opioids When They are Equally Effective
SAS-B Approvals Break 100,000 in 2021 as November Number Hits 12,508
Greg Hunt Rejects Petition to Legalise Cannabis
THC in Blood and Saliva are Poor Measures of Cannabis Impairment
Around the World
NYC OKs Safe Sites for Drug Use, Aiming to Curb Overdoses
The first officially authorized safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics have been cleared to open in New York City in hopes of curbing deadly overdoses, officials said Tuesday.
The privately run “overdose prevention centers” provide a monitored place for drug users to partake. Also known as supervised injection sites or safer consumption spaces, they exist in Canada, Australia and Europe and have been discussed for years in New York and some other U.S. cities and states. A few unofficial facilities have operated for some time.
Proponents see the facilities as pragmatic, life-saving tools for stopping overdoses, which are claiming a record number of lives in the U.S. and its most populous city.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said:
‘I’m proud to show cities in this country that after decades of failure, a smarter approach is possible.’
Honduras Presidential Election: A Referendum on the Nation’s Corruption and Drugs
Hondurans head to the polls on Sunday in the first general election since US federal prosecutors laid out detailed evidence of intimate ties between drug smugglers and the Honduran state.
The country’s past three presidents, as well as local mayors, legislators, police and military commanders have been linked to drug trafficking in what US prosecutors have described as a narco-state.
One brother of the current president, Juan Orlando Hernández, is serving a life sentence in the US on trafficking charges, while Hernández himself has been accused of seeking to ‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos’.
Sunday’s election is seen by many as a referendum on the corruption that has allegedly permitted drug traffickers to infiltrate the government all the way to the top.
UAE's New Drug Laws Cut Sentences and End Mandatory Deportation for Expats
The UAE has overhauled its drug laws to cut minimum sentences, provide leniency for first-time offenders and put a sharper focus on rehabilitation over punishment.
In a series of sweeping changes, people convicted of drug use and possession will serve time in secure detention offering treatment and education programmes rather than in prison with other convicts.
Deportation for expats in drug use and possession cases is no longer mandatory, with judges able to decide if someone convicted is allowed to stay.
First-time offenders can receive minimum sentences of three months as part of an approach aimed at integrating drug users back into society but imposing tougher punishments for serial offenders.
Carrying food, drinks or any other products which contains marijuana, hashish or THC, found in cannabis, will no longer be a criminal offence. Instead, such items will be confiscated and destroyed.
The new legislation was outlined in the Official Gazette and will come into effect on January 2.
‘Everyone’s Gagging For It’ – How Britain Got High on Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, or ‘nos’, a relatively niche drug for decades, is now the second most popular drug among 16- to 24-year-olds behind cannabis, according to the Office for National Statistics. 8.7% of 16- to 24-year-olds had taken it, up from 6.1% in 2012/2013. It is very much a young person’s drug: two in three users are under 24.
As people receded from public spaces during lockdown, piles of little silver canisters that once contained nitrous oxide cropped up instead. They were in parks, on roads, on beaches.
Politicians helped to whip up a moral panic, uniting MPs from both main parties. Home secretary Priti Patel has promised to take tough action on the gas, which is likely to include criminalising possession, and in September ordered a second review into its effects.
If the Home Office does clamp down on it further, drug policy experts – many of them former government advisers – fear that this risks criminalising the many thousands of young people who use it.
The Welsh Labour MP for Newport West, Jayne Bryant led a Senedd debate opening up a vital conversation about drug reform in Wales. While the Deputy Minister stated that necessary legislative power to review and amend drug laws are held exclusively by the UK government, the tone of the debate by and large shows both an understanding of the current problem, and a commitment to a harm reduction approach from Welsh MSs.
The ‘Cocaine Collectors’ Retrieving Smuggled Drugs in Rotterdam
As the volume of cocaine trafficked into the Netherlands through the port city of Rotterdam increases, so too does the number of young men employed by criminal gangs to retrieve the drugs from among freight arriving from Latin America. The BBC has had a rare glimpse into the dangerous work of these so-called "cocaine collectors" who provide a vital link in the European narcotics supply chain.
Mexico's Drug War Uses Drones, Human Shields, Gunships
The Mexican government is rapidly running out of tools to control the expansion of the feared Jalisco cartel on the front lines of Mexico’s narco war in the western state of Michoacan and the stalled ground effort is being supplemented by an increasingly sophisticated aerial conflict.
Jalisco, Mexico’s most militarily powerful drug gang, has begun organizing townspeople to act as human shields against army troops, which now just try to keep rival cartels apart.
Residents of Aguililla are fed up with the army’s strategy of simply separating the Jalisco and the Michoacan-based Viagras gang. The army policy effectively allows the Viagras — best known for kidnapping and extorting money — to set up roadblocks and checkpoints that have choked off all commerce with Aguililla. Limes and cattle heading out, or supplies heading in, must pay a war tax to the Viagras.
The residents want the army to either fight both cartels, or at least let the two gangs battle.
Drugs Beyond Duterte
Drugs remain at the forefront of public discourse in the Philippines today, with President Duterte accusing a presidential candidate of using cocaine, and candidates distancing themselves from drugs and even undergoing drug tests. Meanwhile, the hypocritical drug war continues: Per UP Diliman’s Third World Studies Center, at least 512 reported drug-related killings have occurred from Jan. 1 to Nov. 7 this year.
‘In an age of lowered standards, I suppose we have to welcome the fact that many of the candidates profess that they will not condone extrajudicial killings’.
But is drug policy simply a choice between killing people or sending them to “rehab centers”? Are there no alternatives? And can we also not interrogate the very paradigm that informs how drugs are viewed in our country—that all drug use is problematic and evil and must therefore be eliminated?’
The Psychedelic Selection
The Rise of Psychedelic Retreats
Driver’s Licenses to Trip on Psychedelics by 2035? Rick Doblin Maps Out the Future of ‘Spiritualized Humanity’
Meet the Therapist Making a 'Therapeutic Psychedelic Trip Through your Smartphone'
Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals Psilocybin Helped Her Overcome ‘Crippling Depression’ in ‘Red Table Talk’ About Psychedelics
Psychedelics Can Change Humanity for the Better. It’s Time to Unlock Their Power
Will the Psychedelic Revolution Bypass People of Colour?
Psychedelics May Have Long-Term Impact Treating Depression, Mental Illness - Study
Holiday Gift Guide 2021: Gifts For The Psychedelic Explorer
Study Shows People Who Use Psychedelics Were Under Less Stress During Covid-19 Lockdowns
Watch: Life of Crime: A Shocking Film About Three Decades of Addiction and Incarceration | HBO
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.
Have a story you would like to share in next week’s wrap? Get in touch.
Enjoying the wrap? Do consider donating to help keep it going.