Operation Ironside Raises Privacy Concerns | The Rise of Performance Enhancing Drugs | 83% of American's Think Drug War a Failure
All the drug policy and related news from the past week in one place.
Hello!
Happy Friday and welcome to issue #43 of Drugs Wrap, a weekly compilation of the top stories in drug policy from across Australia and around the world.
Big news this week with the AFP and FBI’s combined sting of over 800 suspected drug high-level drug dealers across the world. The organisations developed and distributed a supposedly anonymous encrypted messaging app called ‘An0m’ amongst gang-related suspects and watched over years as they spoke openly about drug shipments and dealings.
While it’s good these dangerous people have been caught, the strategy has raised concerns over individual privacy and the overreaching powers of the state into the private lives of its citizens.
The cannabis section this week has joint Australian and international stories - something that will likely continue - and looks at why NY colleges won’t embrace cannabis, even though it’s now legal in the state.
In psychedelic news, ibogaine analogues have been shown to ‘cure’ stress in mice, while researchers are also exploring the potential healing properties of muscimol, the active ingredient in the iconic fly agaric mushroom.
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Let’s get to it.
Operation Ironside: AFP and FBI Use Encrypted Chat App To Net Drug Gangs With Concerning Privacy Implications
The big news this week, and probably the biggest of the month, is the joint international police force operation locally known as Ironside. The AFP has worked with the FBI as well as police forces around the world to round up over 800 high-profile members of organised crime groups suspected of large-scale drug dealing, extortion, and murder. PM Scott Morrison said:
‘The operation puts Australia at the forefront of the fight against criminals who peddle in misery and, ultimately, it will keep our communities and Australians safe’.
The story received the usual apoplectic coverage with images of guns, drugs, and big, shirtless men covered in tattoos. Questions around the means by which data was acquired however still remain and there is some suggestion that surveillance laws may have been overstepped. There is also the suggestion that surveillance was conducted in Australia due to our ‘weak’ privacy laws as it would not have been legal to obtain that level of data in other countries, though those countries can still use that information in prosecution. Concerningly, Australia may use the bust to further enhance its own powers to spy on its citizens.
The ABC suggest Australian organised crime may revert to face-to-face meetings if they no longer trust encrypted messaging software, something the police have grappled with since it became widespread.
The CATO Institute has also penned an op-ed questioning how much difference the current ‘largest drug bust in history’, as stories with similar headlines occur virtually every month. My personal guess? Not much.
How Can Opioid Deaths be Reduced?
New international research has provided hope by confirming the effectiveness of ‘game-changing’ opioid agonist therapy (OAT), such as buprenorphine and methadone.
It found that receiving OAT is associated with a lower risk of multiple causes of death among people with opioid dependence, suggesting that increasing access to, and retaining treatment of OAT are ‘critical’ for reducing death rates.
Mission Australia Appointed as Lead Agency of the Youth Local Drug Action Team for Coffs Coast.
MISSION Australia has been appointed as the lead agency of the Youth Local Drug Action Team (LDAT) for the Coffs Coast. The LDAT will work to prevent and minimise alcohol and other drug related harm in the Coffs Coast community through early intervention, targeted education, outreach and engagement.
It will aim to focus on prevention and harm reduction community initiatives, including building leadership development, community gardening and the development of a regional Good Sports club program.
$100 Million Gambled on Pokies in One Week Led Police to Historic Cocaine Bust
An alleged plot to import a record-breaking three tonnes of cocaine into Australia from South America was uncovered after a man was observed laundering $100 million in one week at the Star casino’s poker machines early last year.
A probe of the man’s finances led to a major operation spanning the Pacific Ocean that culminated in the arrests this week of three men, including two who have worked at Sydney Airport and one who was on parole for a 16-year sentence for previous drug importation offences.
Murders and Meth Labs: Should You Know If Your House Was Once a Crime Scene?
Real estate agents have to disclose material facts about a property. But does that include a murder that happened 50 years ago? A suicide that occurred recently? Or a neighbour who deals meth? SBS reveals the rules and experiences of property owners whose homes have a history.
Tom's Been Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Eight Years, and Like Many Others, He Feels Trapped in a Cycle
According to the Australia Talks National Survey 2021, one in three men aged 25-29 say looking at what other people post on social media makes them feel worse about themselves.
‘The average person looking at a fitness model on social media wouldn't realise most of them are juiced up. A lot of fitness people deny using drugs to get their bodies looking that way because of sponsorships’.
According to the most recent Australian Needle and Syringe Program Survey, performance and image enhancing drugs were reported as the last drug injected by between 4 per cent and 7 per cent of respondents over the period 2012 to 2019.
This Week in Weed
WA’s Two Pro-Cannabis MP’s Push for Cannabis Legalisation & Decriminalisation in Inaugural Speeches
As Medicinal Cannabis Rockets Globally, Here’s How Australia Can Become a Production Powerhouse
SAS-B Approvals Back Up After April Blip
New Evidence Shows Opioid Use and Pain Decline, Quality of Life Goes Up After Cannabis Treatment
Why New York Colleges Won’t Embrace Weed — Even Though It’s Legal
Law Enforcement Action Partnership Joins Cannabis Freedom Alliance Steering Committee
Around the World
Poll Shows 83% of Americans Believe So-Called 'War on Drugs' an Abject Failure
New polling released Wednesday reveals that an overwhelming majority of Americans think the so-called "war on drugs" is a total failure, underscoring broad support for a new approach that puts public health over criminalisation and a militarised response to the illegal narcotics trade that has lasted for decades.
In other US news, Biden’s DEA administrator nominee Anne Milgram says she’ll end ‘drug war policies’, despite having previously spoken out against cannabis decriminalisation.
In Texas, the notoriously conservative state appears to be shifting away from the policies of the past. Texas has just announced it will expand its medicinal cannabis programme and has recently announced funding for trials into the efficacy of psychedelics for mental health treatment.
There is also this excellent long-form read from The New York Times on the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in capturing confused senior citizens duped into becoming drug mules.
MPs Call for Drug Safety Testing Amid Fears of Rise in UK Festival Deaths
Women whose children died at festivals after taking drugs have urged the UK government to support “life-saving” substance-checking services after an influential parliamentary committee warned it was concerned there would be a surge in youth drug deaths this summer without action.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee last month called on the home secretary to introduce widespread drug-checking services after it reviewed the evidence and heard “compelling” arguments that it saved lives.
NZ Should (Almost) be Proud of Drug Checking Progress
Dr Fiona Hutton has penned this op-ed in Newsroom questioning the problem’s MP’s appear to have with harm reduction methods:
‘Drug checking, an evidence-based harm reduction intervention, has been in the news and debated in Parliament recently. I was thrilled to see the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill receive its first reading and be widely supported by the majority of politicians in the House. This is excellent news and a testament to the tireless campaigning efforts of KnowyourstuffNZ (KYSNZ), as well as to the political will to follow the evidence and make courageous decisions around drug law reform that will undoubtedly save lives’.
‘I was, however, less thrilled to note the lack of evidence-based debate from some politicians, as well as the errors in citing the results from my own research report, errors replicated in a blog by the mouthpiece of a well-known “pro-family” organisation’.
Police Killing Leads to Calls for Reform in the Philippines
Lilibeth Valdez, a 52-year-old mother, was killed on Monday in Quezon City by an off-duty police officer who appeared to be drunk. The killing was caught on video, igniting demands for police to fulfil a promise made four years ago and begin wearing body cameras.
The Department of Justice promised the United Nations Human Rights Council in February it would investigate some drug war killings, and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra admitted for the first time the police had failed to examine many weapons used in the drug war.
President Rodrigo Duterte, however, said earlier this week some cases would not be investigated due to national security concerns and said deaths in anti-drug operations may be inevitable in the future.
Malta: Overcoming Addiction: ‘Recovery is Lifelong; Drugs are Monster We Must Fight Against Every Day'
Luke Magri struggled with drug addiction in his teens, having had his first experience with drugs at the young age of 14. Now 33, Luke works with Caritas to help others overcome drug abuse, passing on what he has learnt and his experiences in the hope that others too can live life free from addiction.
The Psychedelic Selection
Harnessing the Therapeutic Potential of Muscimol
Do Psychedelics Just Provide Comforting Delusions?
Aphrodite Health Is Here To Shift The Narrative: The First Psychedelics Company ‘For Women, By Women’
Deepak Chopra Did LSD for the First Time in a Lab and Felt His Consciousness Shift While Staring at a Photo of Mother Teresa
‘We’re All Hurting, We Need Answers’: Why Former Pro Athletes are Leading the ‘Psychedelic Revolution’
8,000-Year-Old Elk Teeth Reveal Psychedelic Stone Age Dance Tendencies
A Small Dose of an Ibogaine-like Drug Cures Stress in Mice
Psychedelics Patent Claim Raises Questions From Researchers Who Say They Did It First
Silo Wellness Partners with Mushe Inc. to Establish First Legal Brick & Mortar Psychedelic and Functional Mushroom Shop in the Western Hemisphere
Listen: Psychedelics — The Curious Journey From Medical Lab to Party Drug and Back Again, ABC
Listen: Rick Doblin: How Legal Psychedelics Work to Deepen our Self Awareness
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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