Record Cocaine Seisure 'Perfromative' and 'Futile' | Federal Cannabis Decriminalisation Passes US House | World's Largest Darknet Market Shutdown
All the drug policy and related news from the past week in one place.
Hello!
Happy Friday and welcome to issue #76 of Drugs Wrap, a weekly compilation of the top stories in drug policy from across Australia and around the world.
Seems like it’s all about weed this week, with the US House of Representatives passing the MORE Act that would federally decriminalise cannabis in the country. This is the second time an act like this has passed, however it’s not at all certain that it will pass the senate. With the Biden administrations hostile approach to cannabis, despite election promises, it could be another few years before the drug is decriminalised federally.
In Australia, police in NSW have been roasted online for boasting about the penalisation of a 20-year old medical cannabis patient who failed a roadside drug test. Australia has seen medicinal cannabis prescriptions explode over the past year, and it seems clear that more states will have to adopt the Tasmanian model of exempting medical users from the ineffective driving restrictions.
Also in Aus, a study promoted by Drug Free Australia claiming CBD causes cancer has been torn apart by commentators and scientists online for its mangled approach to data analysis. The story was picked up in a number of publications but seems like little more than propaganda compiled by a doctor with a dubious medical history.
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.
AFP’s 416kg Cocaine Bust: Futile, Performative and Dangerous
‘The seizure of 416kg of cocaine off the Yorke Peninsula dominated mainstream media headlines last week. Journalists around the country brainlessly regurgitated the glowing press release spoon-fed to them by the Australian Federal Police’s public relations department’.
‘Reporting diligently lauded the 21 March operation as the largest illicit drug seizure in the history of South Australia, aggrandising the bust as an apparently monumental win against crime. Yet such coverage only obscures the reality of drug policing in Australia’.
‘Greg Chipp, CEO of NGO Drug Policy Australia, believes such seizures have little to no effect on the Australian drug market’.
“By the Australian Crime Commission’s own admission, the illicit drug market in this country is worth $10 billion. Seizures have minimal impact on what is a buoyant and resilient market,” he said.
“If anything, seizures lead to increasing drug prices and profitability, which incentivises the market to fill the gap. It’s a self-defeating process, like a cat chasing its tail.”
‘The amount seized is purportedly worth $166 million on the street – a mere drop in the ocean in the context of Australia’s gargantuan market. Rather, seizures of this kind are used as publicity tools to bolster the image of the police force, justifying their very existence and going a long way to maintaining high government funding’.
Attack on Albo Drug Comments ‘Desperation’
Can’t read this one as it’s behind The Australian paywall but it’s a good example of the absolute shit storm we’re in for in terms of drug policy during the impending election.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has been attacked for his drug policy record, supposedly for his support for decriminalisation (which he has recently stated he doesn’t support) and for safe injection rooms (which feels like it should hardly be a controversial topic, but here we are).
I only include this piece to demonstrate how divisive and vicious the next few weeks are going to become, with people who use drugs and progressive policies to protect them likely to be weaponised by both sides. Strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Data Reveals Antipsychotic Drugs Linked to Chemical Restraint in Aged Care Still Widespread
‘New data shows one in five aged care residents is being given antipsychotic medication — mind-altering drugs that the aged care royal commission linked to chemical restraint’.
‘The mandatory data, collected for the Department of Health from more than 2,400 aged care homes, reveals a heavy reliance on the use of the drugs in the sector. Elderly residents are more likely to be given the drugs if they live in rural areas, and half do not have a diagnosis of psychosis’.
New Species of Psychedelic Mushroom Believed to Live in Kakadu National Park
‘Soil samples taken from Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks in the Northern Territory have revealed traces of what scientists believe is a new species of psychedelic mushroom’.
‘The discovery was made by Alistair McTaggart, a fungal genetics researcher at University of Queensland, who is leading a project to curate Australia's first legal collection of native "magic" mushrooms’.
"I was researching the distribution of another magic mushroom called gold tops, and found DNA sequences of this unknown fungi," Dr McTaggart said.
"This mushroom was discovered from DNA sequences in the soil and we can be very confident that it would produce psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound."
‘Dr McTaggart said it was hard to know what the mushroom would look like, but he felt "Kakadu's magic mushroom" could look like Psilocybe brunneocystidiata, a species discovered in the 1970s in rainforests in Papua New Guinea’.
"I would love to get my hands on one, or for anyone to get their hands on one, so we can make a spore-print and then preserve its biodiversity in a herbarium."
Audio Files Are Being Used as Digital Drugs
Interesting one from Drugs Wrap supporter and head of the Australian division of the Global Drug Survey, Dr Monica Barratt (hi, Monica!) into the psychoactive effects of music made with binaural beats.
‘A binaural beat is an illusionary tone created by the brain when presenting two tones separately to each ear that slightly differ in their frequency. It’s claimed binaural beats can have a psychoactive effects on the brain, although there’s limited research on their efficacy and safety. Now a new study published in Drug and Alcohol Review has captured how and why people use the tones’.
‘Respondents mainly used binaural beats to relax or fall asleep (72%) and to change their mood (35%), while 12% reported trying to get a similar effect to that of psychedelic drugs’.
‘Monica Barratt of RMIT University in Melbourne said the latter motivation was more commonly reported among those who used classic psychedelics.
“Much like ingestible substances, some binaural beats users were chasing a high,” she said.
“But that’s far from their only use. Many people saw them as a source of help, such as for sleep therapy or pain relief.”
This Week in Weed
Specialist Firm Urges TGA to Rethink Position on Delta-8 THC
WA Patients Forced Interstate by ‘Nonsensical’ THC Rules
SAS-B Approvals Bounce Back With Queensland Still Leading the Pack
Deadly Pot Shop Robberies Underline the Need for Cannabis Banking Reform While the Senate Dithers
Federal Cannabis legalisation is Stopped In Its Tracks
TGA Insists There Will Be No Shortage of Medicinal Cannabis in Australia
The US House of Representatives Has Voted to Decriminalise Cannabis
Big Problem With Australian Road Rule Around Medical Cannabis
The Pandemic Could Be Behind a Medical Cannabis Boom in Australia
Medical Cannabis Study Project Twenty21 Begins in Australia
Over-the-Counter CBD Sleep Pill Piques Big Pharma Interest
Around the World
Germany Shuts Down Darknet Platform Specialising in Drugs
‘German investigators on Tuesday shut down a Russian-language darknet marketplace that they say specialized in drug dealing, seizing bitcoin worth 23 million euros ($25.3 million)’.
‘Prosecutors in Frankfurt described Hydra Market as the world’s biggest illegal darknet marketplace. They said they seized its server infrastructure in Germany. The shutdown was the result of investigations underway since August, in which US authorities participated’.
‘The Hydra platform had been active at least since 2015, German prosecutors said. They added that, as well as illegal drugs, forged documents, intercepted data and “digital services” were offered for sale. They said that it had about 17 million registered customer accounts and more than 19,000 registered sellers’.
In Brazil, 80,000 Incarcerations in One Year is What the UNODC Calls ‘Excellent’
‘Early last year, TalkingDrugs reported on the partnerships between UN agencies and the Brazilian government in an attempt to breathe fresh life into the failed campaign for a drug-free society’.
‘The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are sponsoring President Jair Bolsonaro’s bloody drug wars with funds and human resources, working together with the Brazilian government to establish the Centre of Excellence for Illicit Drug Supply Reduction (COE)’.
‘The COE’s first report, detailing how drug traffickers adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic, was published last December. Reading through it, at first, I did not feel like commenting. Watching side events at the 65th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, however, where the fetishisation of drug supply reduction was frequently displayed, alongside the annual commitment to design and implement further strategies to dismantle the illegal drug markets, I felt the urge to discuss some of the findings brought in the report’.
‘What was the impact of the combat of illegal drug supply during the first year of the pandemic in Brazil? A short answer: the incarceration of over 80,000 people, most of them Black and Brown men with low levels of formal education and, therefore, small chances of entering the legal labour market during what is one of the hardest economic crises that Brazil has ever experienced’.
Thailand: UNODC Executive Director Forges Bonds in the War on Drugs in the Golden Triangle
‘UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Southeast Asia and Pacific Regional Office organised a trip to the Golden Triangle region near Chiang Rai with the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Mae Fah Luang Foundation to review the drug situation in Thailand and the Mekong subregion.
‘One of the efforts the group saw was a royal initiative as part of the Doi Tung Development project, which has been transforming opium plantations into fertile land for highland crops including cold-climate plants and vegetables, helping hill tribes who depend on agriculture’.
‘Ghada Waly, UNODC’s first female executive director, was present with the group. She has served in the position since February 2020’.
‘According to the executive director, transnational drug trafficking groups are among the most crucial problems that have to be addressed in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Drug use is among the most pressing ones.
‘Those are issues and challenges at the heart of UNODC’s mandate but are also common and interconnected challenges throughout the region’.
‘“It is essential to be able to count on committed partners like Thailand to support efforts in the region, including through South-South cooperation (the technical cooperation among developing countries in the Global South),” Ghada Waly said’.
Mixed Results for Oregon's Pioneering Drug Decriminalisation
‘Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to decriminalise drugs after being told it was a way to establish and fund addiction recovery centers that would offer people aid instead of incarceration’.
‘Yet in the first year after the new approach took effect in February 2021, only 1% of people who received citations for possessing controlled substances asked for help via a new hotline’.
‘With Oregon being the first state in America to decriminalize possession of personal-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs, its program is being watched as a potential model for other states’.
‘Some are questioning whether the approach is proving too lenient, but others say the new system has already had a positive impact by redirecting millions of dollars into facilities to help those with drug dependency issues. The funds come from taxes generated by Oregon’s legal cannabis industry and savings from reductions in arrests, jail time and probation supervision’.
Taliban Clamp Down on Drugs, Announce Ban on Poppy Harvest
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Sunday announced a ban on harvesting poppies, even as farmers in some parts of the country began extracting the opium from the plant that is needed for making heroin.
The Taliban warned farmers that their crops will be burned and that they can be jailed if they proceed with the harvest. The harvest and planting seasons vary across Afghanistan. In the Taliban heartland of southern Kandahar the harvesting has begun but in the east of the country some farmers are just beginning to plant their crop.
The decree was announced by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid at a news conference in the capital of Kabul. The order also outlawed the manufacturing of narcotics and the transportation, trade, export and import of heroin, hashish and alcohol.
Teens Who Misuse Drugs Rarely Shake the Issue as Adults: Study
‘A long-term study has found that more than 60% of teens who report heavy use of alcohol, cannabis, and/or other drugs continue to have a drug problem as adults, often involving misuse of prescription medications’.
‘The findings follow decades tracking more than 5,300 high school seniors, up until age 50’.
‘"There has been some work suggesting most people age out of substance-related problems, but these studies have not adequately accounted for the severity of the substance-related problems," said study lead author Sean Esteban McCabe. He is director of the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor’.
‘"We found that most U.S. adolescents with severe substance use disorder symptoms persisted with multiple symptoms in middle adulthood”’.