The Overdose Crisis: Beyond Opioids

Sheila P. Vakharia, writing for New York Daily News:

Although opioids dominate the headlines, stimulant drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine never went away.

In fact, more Americans use illegal stimulant drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine than use all opioids combined, and recent data suggests they’re contributing to our skyrocketing drug overdose deaths. The latest estimates from the Centers of Disease Control suggest that the number of cocaine-involved deaths across the nation more than doubled between December 2015 and December 2017, while methamphetamine-involved deaths increased by 82% during that period.

Given the prevalence of stimulant use and the growing role of these drugs in our overdose crisis, it is time to broaden our public health interventions beyond a singular focus on opioids to address the unique risks associated with stimulants and poly-drug use.

Amen. People can love their uppers (and benzos, for that matter) too much too.

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Inside the Trump Administration’s Secret War on Weed

Dominic Holden, writing for BuzzFeed News:

The White House has secretly amassed a committee of federal agencies from across the government to combat public support for marijuana and cast state legalization measures in a negative light, while attempting to portray the drug as a national threat, according to interviews with agency staff and documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee, as it’s named in White House memos and emails, instructed 14 federal agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration this month to submit “data demonstrating the most significant negative trends” about marijuana and the “threats” it poses to the country.

In an ironic twist, the committee complained in one memo that the narrative around marijuana is unfairly biased in favor of the drug. But rather than seek objective information, the committee’s records show it is asking officials only to portray marijuana in a negative light, regardless of what the data show.

This article sheds light on one of the Trump administration's latest facepalm moments. You have to work pretty damn hard to come up with a two-page bulleted fact sheet concerning the horrifying dangers of marijuana, but leave it to the government to give it the old college try.

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Prison Officials Are Blaming Inmate Letters Soaked in K2 for Making Guards Sick

Tess Owen, writing for VICE News:

All 25 of Pennsylvania’s state prisons are indefinitely on lockdown after nearly 30 employees became ill following exposure to an mysterious narcotic substance in the last month, officials said. [...]

Most of the employees have since been cleared to return to work, and toxicology reports from the state police lab are just now trickling back in. One report from a patient who got sick on Aug. 13 had come into contact with a synthetic cannabinoid, also known as K2 or spice, according to Susan McNaughton, communications director for Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

But officials say the employees hadn’t actually consumed the drug. “Starting a few weeks ago, we saw an uptick in employees who were feeling sickened after touching inmates' property or escorting inmates,” said McNaughton. [...]

“It’s very unlikely that someone would touch a piece of paper with their hand and absorb any clinically significant amount of synthetic cannabinoid,” said Mark Neavyn, director of the fellowship in medical toxicology at the University of Massachusetts. “Unless the law enforcement officer was sucking on the piece of paper, I highly doubt it.”

I haven't ever heard of anyone getting high by placing synthetic cannabinoids onto their skin, but some psychoactive research chemicals are capable of being absorbed topically. So maybe there's something to this after all.

However, cops have also been claiming recently that they're overdosing (and dying) from accidentally touching fentanyl, which is impossible. It's certainly plausible that these officers in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) are really just intentionally experimenting with the drugs they confiscate.

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Map of Marijuana Laws by Country in Europe

Herbonaut:

Think Amsterdam still is the ‘marijuana-capitol' in the world?

Think again.

Check out this great resource for cannabis policies all across Europe.

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US Lawmakers Discuss Marijuana Legalization With New Mexican President’s Team

Tom Angell, writing for Marijuana Moment:

Two U.S. House members and one senator who participated in a recent congressional delegation to Mexico discussed marijuana legalization with officials from that country’s incoming presidential administration.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was elected in July and is set to take office on December 1, is expected to seriously considering ending cannabis prohibition as well as broader drug policy reforms, one of his key advisors has said.

America may soon find itself surrounded by countries that have legalized cannabis.

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