THE POT MYTH OF "OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE LEGALIZED AND ALL IS GOOD"

AZ Central

My Turn: Why Bernie Sanders is wrong about legal pot

Ed Gogek, AZ I See It October 22, 2015

Doctor: The Democratic presidential candidate can't have it both ways: Free health care and legal marijuana simply don't go together.

During last week’s Democratic debate, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said the United States should model its social policies on Sweden, Norway and Denmark — countries that provide free health care, free college and paid family leave.

But by saying he’d vote to legalize marijuana, Sanders made it much harder to convince Americans to adopt these programs.

Swedish history shows why.

In the 1970s, Sweden did what we’re doing now: told police to ignore drug possession and only pursue serious crime. But drug abuse soared, so the country reversed course. Today, Sweden and its neighbors have some of the world’s toughest drug laws, including tough marijuana laws.

None of the Scandinavian countries have decriminalized marijuana. Nor do they permit its medical use. An 84-acre autonomous district in Copenhagen is allowed to flout marijuana laws, but the rest of Denmark enforces them strictly.

This doesn’t mean jailing drug users. Sweden uses the threat of jail to get substance abusers into treatment, and because crime is mostly caused by substance abuse, this policy prevents crime — so well that over the past decade the country has closed four prisons.

Tough marijuana laws also help keep Swedish socialism affordable, and that’s why supporting legalization is a problem for Sanders. People already worry about what his programs would cost.

For example, a Rand Corporation report says California spends $110 million yearly on schizophrenia hospitalizations caused by marijuana; for the whole U.S., that’s over $1 billion per year. Marijuana also causes addiction and injuries from auto accidents, which are expensive problems to treat.

How can Sanders ask America to pay for free health care if he’s promoting a marijuana policy that would make health care more expensive?

Research on postal employees, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1990, found that marijuana users had more disciplinary problems, more absenteeism and higher turnover. A 2012 study showed that marijuana users have less commitment to work. One company already left Colorado, citing employees who were too stoned to be productive.

Sanders wants the U.S. to require paid family leave and a high minimum wage. But if at the same time we legalize a drug that causes poor work performance, it could bankrupt businesses.

A University of Maryland study found that college students who used marijuana, even occasionally, studied less, skipped more classes, earned lower grades and were less likely to graduate. How can Sanders ask America to pay for free college, and then promote a drug policy that leads students to waste the experience?

Sanders deserves credit for promoting policies that would give American families the same financial security citizens in other rich countries enjoy. The Scandinavian programs he supports — free health care, free college, a living wage, good pensions and family leave — would greatly benefit most Americans.

However, it’s hard to take seriously someone who would also increase the cost of these programs unnecessarily. By endorsing marijuana legalization, Bernie Sanders has made himself a less convincing salesman for the ideas he cares about most.

Dr. Ed Gogek of Prescott is an addiction psychiatrist and author of "Marijuana Debunked: A handbook for parents, pundits and politicians who want to know the case against legalization."

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/10/20/bernie-sanders-legal-marijuana-sweden/74285522/

COERCIVE TREATMENT? OLD ARGUMENT WITH FRESH EYES

New York Times

The Opinion Pages

Should Drug Addicts Be Forced Into Treatment?

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker wants to give hospitals the power to commit substance abusers. Is this the right approach?

 Drug Addiction Recovery Often Starts With Coercion

Robert L. DuPont, a psychiatrist, is the president of the Institute for Behavior and Health Inc. He was the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse from 1973 to 1978.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 11, 2015, 3:21 AM

Addiction hijacks the brain. Families dealing with addicted loved ones know this. Research shows that 95 percent of people suffering from substance use disorders do not think that they have a problem or need treatment. Few addicts enter treatment without meaningful coercion, most often from families or the criminal justice system.

The challenge in responding to this seemingly simple question about coerced treatment is in the details. Surely not everyone who is addicted to drugs should be committed to treatment. The opposite is also true. Some addicts should be committed to treatment against their will. Not all coercion is commitment and not all commitment has the force of law.

Two good examples of effective coercion that overcome addiction are HOPE Probation and the state-based Physician Health Programs, both of which are enforced by intensive random monitoring and permit no use of alcohol or other drugs. While these two programs share many similar features, they deal with very different populations of serious substance users: one with convicted felons on probation and the other with  

physicians. Both are voluntary in the sense that individuals can choose to not abide by the program requirements, but in both cases the consequences may be serious. For probationers in HOPE, the risk of failing is prison and for physicians in P.H.P., it is the loss of a medical license. Both programs produce excellent outcomes for most participants.

Families faced with addiction often reluctantly, and only after many failures, use “tough love” to promote treatment and recovery while insisting that their addicted loved ones be drug-free. Families usually have to use a significant measure of coercion not only to get addicts into treatment but also to keep them there and to prevent relapse upon discharge.

As a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of addiction, I am struck by the stark contrast between addicted people who are using alcohol and other drugs actively and those who are in stable recovery. In the process of recovery there is a transition from near-universal denial of problems and rejection of treatment to gratitude for and acceptance of the coercion that got them on that path. The addict’s will is different when using drugs and when in recovery.

Recovery from addiction may or may not involve treatment. It takes years of hard work – usually with the sustained support of recovery communities. Because of the denial that characterizes the cunning, baffling and powerful disease of addiction, recovery often starts with substantial coercion.

INJECTION SITES AND DECRIMINALIZATION FOR IRELAND

Irish Government To Decriminalize Heroin, Cocaine, And Marijuana

by Carimah Townes Nov 4, 2015 8:00am

CREDIT: Andrew Breiner/Shutterstock

As the battle to decriminalize — and legalize — weed in the U.S. continues, another country is taking a giant leap towards eliminating its stringent drug laws. In the near future, Ireland will decriminalize marijuana, cocaine, and heroin possession. Medically-supervised injection rooms will also soon be available to drug users, in order to reduce the stigma of addiction.

Ireland is following in the footsteps of countries that have started to tire of the fallout from the war on drugs driven by U.S. policy.

On Monday, during a speech at the London School of Economics, Minister of Drugs Aodhán Ó Ríordáin announced plans to open the injection centers for drug users in Dublin next year. Ríordáin also divulged that the parliamentary committee on Justice, Defence and Equality strongly supports decriminalization across the board, and will work towards making that a reality in 2016.

Calling on a “radical” shift in drug policy, Ríordáin pointed to the public health implications of decriminalization and the extent to which national funds are spent on law enforcement and court efforts to crack down on drug use.

“Too often those with drug problems suffer from stigma, due to a lack of understanding or public education about the nature of addiction. This stigma can be compounded for those who end up with a criminal record due to possession of drugs for their own use,” he said. “Addiction is not a choice, it’s a healthcare issue. This is why I believe it is imperative that we approach our drug problem in a more compassionate and sensitive way.”

By decriminalizing the drugs, addicts are less likely to wind up behind bars and more likely to receive treatment. The minister cited research that treatment reduces both drug use and drug-related crime.

As for the benefits of establishing supervised injection sites, Ríordáin explained that casual drug injection in the streets of Dublin threatens the lives of users and the general public. Users can overdose and contract blood-borne diseases, and people around them can be harmed by “syringes and other drug paraphernalia.”

By opening centers where medical professionals oversee injection, drug addiction can be diverted to safer, controlled settings. The Irish Times reports that injection facilities will spring up in Galway, Cork, Limerick, in addition to Dublin.

“The drug problem is a constantly changing phenomenon,” the minister noted in his speech. “Governments around the world are constantly trying to play catch up to deal with a very sophisticated and lucrative market.”

In the past few years, countries in Europe and the Americas have decriminalized and legalized various drugs, making a sharp turn away from tough law enforcement at the heart of the “War on Drugs.”

Portugal took drastic action as early as 2001, when it decriminalized all drug use. Instead of jail time, drug users face fines and community service. The impact of the 2001 law has been significant, with drug use among adults and youth dropping ever since it went into effect. HIV is far less common among drug users, and the overdose rate is lower than every other country in the European Union except Romania.

In 2009, Mexico took a similar step by decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD, and methamphetamine.

In Colombia and Peru, cocaine possession and cultivation is legal. The drug is decriminalized in Switzerland and Germany. Both countries permit cocaine for medical use, as do the U.K, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Heroine is similarly permitted for medical purposes in Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and the U.K. Brazil could also decriminalize all drug possession in the near future. Supreme Court arguments were heard in September.

With Ríordáin’s announcement, Ireland is on its way to implementing one of the most progressive drug laws in the world.

“We need to have discussions like today in think tanks, universities, parliaments and small rooms across the globe so that we can develop a more modern and comprehensive response to tackling drug trafficking and consumption,” Ríordáin said.