Welcome to News2020.com where we hope to serve up the latest sceptical slant on the 'Drugs War' lunacy. Bringing together the most relevant third party news feeds and a commentable editorial blog, allowing you to have your say on recent events, we hope the site offers a platform for sane voices and reasoned debate. News2020.com strives to be a resource for highlighting cannabis related news, politics, stories and features from around the world and with XML driven breaking news, recommended links, visitor comment, and our own fun twist on the news we hope you choose to bookmark News2020.com now."The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this" Albert Einstein........
.: What is News2020.com
News, Free Speech and Sane Analysis with Latest RSS / XML News Feeds, Alerts and Updates - The Place to Visit for a Comprehensive and Rational Look at Today's Breaking News - The News and Events that Matter to You - 'Counterculture' News - The latest fix of news delivered to your PC or Mobile Device - Cutting through the hype and hysteria with News2020.com
.: Site News
March 2007 : Announcing the 'pre beta' (sloppy and buggy!) launch of our new format. Everything looks a little bare at the moment, but be assured, things are definitely afoot. We hope you check out the feeds from our editorial team's favourite sites or check out some of the other links we list too. Get the latest fix of news and comment with news2020.com in 2007
Seattle's Hempfest Again Draws Multitudes Goldenseed.co.uk
August 23rd 2008
Last Saturday and Sunday, Seattle's Myrtle Edwards Park, a mile-long strip of land fronting Puget Sound just north of downtown, once again played host to the Seattle Hempfest. And once again, the Hempfest lived up to its reputation as the world's largest marijuana "protestival."
With a core staff of around a hundred, led by the indefatigable Vivian McPeak, and about a thousand volunteers who worked to set up the event, keep it running smoothly, and tear it all down at the end of the weekend, Hempfest is not only a celebration of cannabis culture but also the living embodiment of the grassroots cooperative activism that has flourished for years in Seattle.
From its beginnings as a small pro-hemp event 17 years ago, Hempfest has become the coming out party for America's cannabis nation, which in Seattle includes not only youthful stoners, wizened hippies, and Mr. Bong Head (a guy wearing a working bong contraption on his head), but punks, Goths, ravers, uncostumed twenty- and thirty-somethings, families with children in strollers, and -- the biggest cannabis celebrity in town -- travel writer Rick Steves. Steves once again called for the US to follow the lead of Europe in relaxing marijuana laws.
Over the event's two-day span, an estimated 150,000+ people showed up to see and be seen, listen to four stages worth of live music, peruse the hundreds of vendors' stands for the newest technologies and best buys on glass pipes, t-shirts, hemp items, and other pot-related accoutrements and accessories.
And to get high in public with their comrades. Seattle police have for years now had an accommodation with Hempfest, even more so since the city's voters told law enforcement very clearly in 2003 that marijuana should be the city's lowest law enforcement priority. Police were on the scene, patrolling the park's sidewalks in pairs, but appeared oblivious to the open pot-smoking going on all over the place.
In effect, Hempfest is not only the largest marijuana protestival in the world, it is also a massive act of civil disobedience. Even though Seattle has its lowest priority policy and Washington state has decriminalized pot possession, marijuana use and possession is still against the law. As one speaker addressed the crowd, pointing out this fact and telling listeners that despite all the progress they had made, they were still criminals, the crowd responded with an enormous cheer.
The only real tension at Hempfest occurred when a small group of sign-holding fundamentalist preachers berated the passing crowds, telling them they were going to hell for their sins. That sparked occasional heated discussions. At one point Saturday, Hempfest organizers were heard threatening to send a squad of transgender people to scare off the fanatics.
Some Hempfest attendees took a break from browsing, shopping, and listening to music to actually listen to between-band speeches by activists calling for further marijuana law reform. While decriminalization and legalization were predictably common themes, this year's Hempfest emphasized two other issues: The promotion of hemp and the battle over Washington state's medical marijuana law, especially the ongoing fight over what are appropriate quantities of marijuana allowable for patients. The state is currently tangling with patients and advocates over what constitutes a minimum 60-day supply of their medicine. An earlier proposal called for 35 ounces of marijuana, but Gov. Christine Gregoire sought a review of that, and the state is now recommending a 24-ounce limit.
Besides between-band speeches, political activism also took place throughout Hempfest at the Hemposium tent, although in an indication of the role politics played in the larger festival, crowds in the tent numbered in the dozens, as opposed to the tens of thousands listening to music.
"Every single patient I know will not be in compliance with the 60-day rule. It's not going to work. It's driven by law enforcement, not science," said Douglas Hiatt, a lawyer who represents medical-marijuana users, as he spoke at one of the Hemposium sessions. Hiatt was among the activists calling on patients and supporters to come out for an August 25 action in support of higher limits.
But for most Hempfest attendees, the event was a party, a celebration, not a political seminar. While that may be a disappointment to activists, it is also a demonstration of the breadth and scope of Pacific Northwest cannabis culture. It has gone mainstream, with all the apolitical apathy abundant in the broader culture.
And if Hempfest was a little too mellow for your taste, you could always check out Methfest, not a celebration of amphetamine culture but a scary rock music show put on in nearby Belltown.
Britain's Drug War Not Working, Think-Tank Finds' now there's a supprise, still keeps them in work eh !!! DRCNet
August 1st 2008
Traditional drug war law enforcement tactics have not worked in Britain, according to research released Wednesday by the UK Drug Policy Commission. The commission is a non-governmental body that lists among its objectives providing "independent and objective analysis of UK drug policy."
In the study, Tackling drug markets and distribution networks in the UK: a review of the recent literature, the researchers reported that British drug markets are "extremely resilient" and that increasing seizures of drugs had had little impact at the street level. Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on drug enforcement, "there is remarkably little evidence of its effectiveness in disrupting markets and reducing availability," the authors concluded.
"We were struck by just how little evidence there is to show that the hundreds of millions of pounds spent on UK enforcement each year has made a sustainable impact and represents value for money, and no published material to allow comparisons of different enforcement approaches," said Tim McSweeney, one of the authors of the review.
"All enforcement agencies aim to reduce drug harms and most have formed local partnerships to do this, but they still tend to be judged by measures of traditional supply-side activity such as seizure rates," said the commission's David Blakey. "This is a pity as it is very difficult to show that increasing drug seizures actually leads to less drug-related harm. Of course, drug dealers must be brought to justice, but we should recognize and encourage the wider role that the police and other law enforcement officials can play in reducing the impact of drug markets on our communities."
Still, the authors of the report suggested that law enforcement does have a role to play, particularly in focusing on drug markets with the most "collateral damage," such as gang violence, human trafficking, and drug-related criminality. Police need to work closely with local communities, the authors said, as well as recognizing the unintended and unanticipated consequences of enforcement measures, such as a "crackdown" that merely moves dealers to nearby neighborhoods.
Southwest Asia: Former US Anti-Drug Official Accuses Afghan Government of Complicity in Drug Trade -- US and NATO Not Doing Much Either, He Complains DrugwarChronicles
July 27th 2008
Former State Department official Thomas Schweich, who was the US government's point man in the effort to wipe out the opium and heroin trade in Afghanistan until last month, has accused Afghan President Hamid Karzai of protecting drug traffickers and obstructing anti-drug efforts in an article to be published in the New York Times magazine on Sunday, but which appeared on the newspaper's web site Wednesday night.
"While it is true that Karzai's Taliban enemies finance themselves from the drug trade, so do many of his supporters," Schweich wrote. "Narco-corruption went to the top of the Afghan government," he wrote, adding that drug traffickers were buying off hundreds of police chiefs, judges and other officials. Schweich accused Karzai of resisting heightened anti-drug efforts and opposing the eradication of opium poppy fields, long a dream of US drug warriors.
"Karzai was playing us like a fiddle," Schweich wrote. "The US and its allies would fight the Taliban; Karzai's friends could get rich off the drug trade; he could blame the West for his problems; and in 2009 he would be elected to a new term."
The Karzai government wasn't the only problem, Schweich wrote. He criticized both the US military and NATO forces for indifference, if not outright hostility, toward the anti-drug battle and argued that failing to cut Taliban profits from the drug trade means fighting could continue indefinitely.
"The trouble is that the fighting is unlikely to end as long as the Taliban can finance themselves through drugs -- and as long as the Kabul government is dependent on opium to sustain its own hold on power," he said.
Almost everyone is to blame for the Afghan drug mess, the now-retired drug warrior fumed. "An odd cabal of timorous Europeans, myopic media outlets, corrupt Afghans, blinkered Pentagon officers, politically motivated Democrats and the Taliban were preventing the implementation of an effective counter-drug program," he said.
In a Thursday press conference in Kabul, Karzai rejected Schweich's charges."As I had said two years ago, Afghanistan never takes the blame (for the drugs threat). The Afghan nation due to desperation, war... has been forced to resort to this issue," Karzai replied when asked to respond to Schweich's comments. "Without doubt, some Afghans are drugs smugglers, but majority of them are the international mafia who do not live in Afghanistan," he said.
Afghanistan produces more than 90% of the world's opium. Production has expanded dramatically since the US invaded and overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.
MAPSNews July 18th 2008--NIDA Delays Vaporizer Research, Averts MAPS Lawsuit
Dear Eugene,
There’s heaps of exciting news to report this month. Here's what's going on:
* * * Dues-paying MAPS members are empowering staff, scientists, and volunteers to carry out pioneering research and educational projects. To donate, learn about the benefits of MAPS membership, or purchase books, clothes, art, and other merchandise, visit: www.maps.org/catalog * * *
MAPS’ annual Board of Directors meeting took place from June 14-June 15, shortly after the end of MAPS’ Fiscal Year on May 31, 2008. Board members John Gilmore, Ashawna Hailey, and Rick Doblin reviewed the exciting and fruitful year together. Doblin spoke later on the phone with Marybeth Home, the fourth Board member, to obtain her input on what had been discussed. After reviewing the past twelve months, the board members considered this past year to be MAPS’ most successful year ever. MAPS had an annual income this year of roughly $1.65 million and expenses of roughly $1.4 million, and we made progress on a wide range of important projects.
A key decision was made by the Board about MDMA/PTSD research. The data that MAPS has been receiving from the U.S. MDMA/PTSD study has been so promising that the board members have decided to move ahead and expand the research further, to develop MDMA into a prescription medicine. We had previously been thinking that we would wait to compare the data from the MDMA/PTSD research with data from the psychedelic/ end-of-life anxiety research before deciding which patient population to prioritize. It’s now clear that the data from the MDMA/PTSD study is so promising that it deserves to go forward, independently of whether we later decide to move forward with the psychedelic/end-of-life anxiety studies.
The Harvard MDMA/cancer-anxiety study (PDF), our Swiss LSD/end-of-life anxiety study (PDF), and our proposed psilocybin/cancer anxiety study are all progressing more slowly than we’d anticipated. Depending on the results, we may decide at some future point to go forward, to expand those studies as well, but right now we’re just in the early Phase 2 stage of those studies.
MAPS is planning ahead of time for growth, because if a Democratic president is elected in the next election, then research might be prioritized over politics, and the DEA might issue a license to Professor Craker for marijuana cultivation, breaking the U.S. government’s monopoly on selling marijuana for research. If Senator Obama is elected and follows through on his statement that the medical marijuana issue should be resolved through scientific research, MAPS will have to figure out how to build the organization so that we can simultaneously handle multiple drug development efforts, and carry forward with our ambitious goals.
On June 18th, after a five month review process, the National Institute of Drug Abuse-Public Health Service (NIDA-PHS) finally responded to our revised vaporizer research protocol, submitted for review January 16, 2008. The submission included three supportive letters from peer-reviewers, confirming the scientific merit of the study and urging NIDA-PHS to approve it. By responding, NIDA/PHS avoided MAPS filing another lawsuit for unreasonable delay, which we’d intended to file in the middle of August.
MAPS has still been waiting two years and nine months for NIDA/PHS to respond to our September 2005 reply (PDF) to their rejection of our previous vaporizer protocol (PDF), which we initially submitted in June 2003, after which it took them more than two years to evaluate! We submitted the revised protocol in January 2008 to see if that might motivate NIDA to respond, which it has.
According to Rick, “The review is filled with issues designed to delay and exhaust us, that have little importance to the safety or relevance of the intended research, but I don't think it will deter us for too long. We'll respond thoroughly and quickly before the end of July, and then wait yet again for a reply. Now that NIDA/PHS are familiar with the issues and have articulated their concerns, their response to our comments should be faster. We're already making progress in that the strategy of delay has been overcome and a review was issued.”
If this situation weren’t so genuinely tragic for all the sick people who might benefit from this research, then it would simply appear ridiculous. All MAPS is requesting to do is purchase ten grams of marijuana--something virtually any high school student in the US could obtain--so that we can move forward with a study of a non-smoking delivery system for marijuana that might benefit people suffering from a wide range of debilitating, difficult-to-treat illnesses.
“The FDA has thirty days to review complicated human protocols. With NIDA/PHS’s dysfunctional review process, they have provided us with powerful evidence for why we need to break the NIDA monopoly on the supply of marijuana that can be used in research,” said Doblin.
As mentioned in the May update, MAPS is now covering all transportation, lodging and food expenses for subjects in Dr. Donald Abrams’ medical marijuana and opiate interaction study at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Abram’s study, which is being sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is designed to evaluate whether or not patients who are using the opiate drugs Oxycontin or MS Contin (or Kadian) for pain will receive less benefit if the drugs are used in conjunction with marijuana administered by a vaporizer. Although NIDA doesn’t realize it, this is a very good example of the benefits of cooperation between NIDA and MAPS since we’re helping a NIDA study to succeed by using MAPS funds to supplement a NIDA grant.
This is one of only two active studies currently underway in the United States in which marijuana is being given to patients. (The second study is in MS patients). Dr. Abrams’ research--which will include twenty-four subjects and is still seeking nine more--will provide clinical evidence to help evaluate whether cannabis, when added to conventional narcotic pain drugs, will reduce the effectiveness of the opiates, or can provide added relief and thereby allow reduced doses of these narcotics.
The study is taking place at the San Francisco General Hospital and requires a five-day inpatient stay.
After four years and one million dollars, Michael Mithoefer’s U.S. MDMA/PTSD study is achingly close to being completed. On June 20th, subjects # 18 and # 19 completed their final follow-up evaluations, two months after their last experimental MDMA sessions. On July 1, subject # 20 completed the final two-month evaluation. MAPS Clinical Research team collected all current data at a recent site visit last weekend and brought it safely back to MAPS headquarters. All that now remains to complete the study is for subject # 21 to have her third and final experimental session scheduled for July 18th, and then for her to complete the two month follow-up after that in the middle of September. Then the study will be finished and we’ll analyze the data, prepare a report to the FDA, write a scientific paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal for publication, and start planning further studies with this team.
MAPS received a $25,000 donation from The Libra Foundation to enable Michael and Annie Mithoefer to write up the results of our US MDMA/PTSD study, refine the treatment manual, develop the training program, and travel to conferences and share the results of their study with their colleagues. We would like to express our deep appreciation to the Libra Foundation for this generous donation.
We’re seeking an additional $50,000 to cover the rest of the post-study expenses, as we lay the foundation for Phase 3 studies.
MAPS Clinical Research Associates Valerie Mojeiko and Josh Sonstroem conducted site visits in Lyon, France and Barcelona, Spain, to meet with researchers interested in conducting MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD studies (MDMA/PTSD Treatment Manual (PDF)) .
In Barcelona, the team met with Dr. Jordi Riba, MD and Psychologist Jose Carlos Bouso, PhD. MAPS’ first MDMA/PTSD study started in Madrid, Spain in 2000, under the direction of Jose Carlos Bouso. Unfortunately, this study was shut down in 2002 as a result of pressure from the Madrid Anti-Drug Authority. We’d like to renew MDMA/PTSD research in Spain, both as a symbol that we’ve overcome the political suppression of scientific research and because we need to treat more subjects.
Mojeiko and Sonstroem also traveled to Lyon, France to meet with researchers interested in conducting a study there. This hospital was promising and seems equipped to do this type of research, but the researchers are still in early negotiations with hospital administrators about whether they are ready to pursue a study with MAPS.
The second session for the first non-responder in Dr. Peter Oehen, MD’s Swiss MDMA/PTSD study took place on July 3rd. MAPS is currently testing different modifications of the protocol design in our different MDMA/PTSD studies. In the Swiss study we’re testing the use of a slightly larger dose in non-responders, 150 milligrams, followed by a supplemental dose of 75 milligrams. The larger doses were well-tolerated, with no problematic blood pressure increases. According to Dr. Oehen, the patient made some progress, although he suspects that the progress may be due primarily to having received additional MDMA sessions. The second non-responder will have her additional sessions in August and September. Three more patients are waiting for screening.
On June 27th, Dr. Peter Gasser conducted the second and final LSD session with the first subject in our Swiss/LSD end-of-life anxiety study. We’re investigating LSD-assisted psychotherapy in twelve subjects suffering from anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. After the experimental session, the patient made some beneficial life changes including intensifying his social contacts and going back to school. We are looking forward to seeing if his positive shift will be captured in the data.
Dr. Halpern has submitted a series of protocol changes to his Institutional Review Board (IRB) for his MDMA/cancer-anxiety study that will facilitate enrollment and completion of the study. So far, just one subject has been enrolled and completed the study, with promising results. Dr. Halpern is trying to open the study up to enrollment from subjects who are from all over the country, instead of just subjects from one oncologist, who will still evaluate all patients. Dr. Halpern is also seeking permission to offer an optional open-label Stage 2 series of two MDMA sessions to people who were randomized for the low-dose placebo in the first round of the study. According to MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, these protocol changes are “the key having a study that’s got tremendous promise, but is going too slowly, to having a study that could live up to its promise.” These protocol changes will take about three months or so to be reviewed, and hopefully approved, by two IRBs and the FDA.
MAPS has agreed to donate $2000 towards the publication of several essays and a bibliography of scientific papers about the religious use of the Amazonian shamanic brew ayahuasca and is ready to accept an additional $2000 from a donor who wants to support education about ayahuasca. The book was edited by Bia Labate and it contains scientific articles and a bibliography of papers about ayahausca, as well as other resources. Supporters will be commemorated on the title page. MAPS is seeking to raise a total of $3500 to supplement the $2000 that we’re donating to cover the publication costs for 2000 copies. The Trance Foundation has donated $1000 and Julian Babcock has donated $500 so far. MAPS has previously donated $1500 toward the costs of translating the book, which has been published in Portuguese. Richard Wolfe and The Cottonwood Foundation have also already donated $1500 each toward the translation expenses.
From our perspective, the most amazing media coverage of the study was an editorial (not just an article or op-ed) in the Baltimore Sun (MAPS permalink) endorsing the renewal of psychedelic research and citing both Roland’s psilocybin/mystical experience study and MAPS’ US MDMA/PTSD study!
Here's a key quote, “Instead of continuing a policy of fear and loathing, the government is now open to the possibility that this class of drugs may have uses that don't involve turning on, tuning in and dropping out.”
Here's the conclusion that by extension also applies to medical marijuana, “Instead of banning drugs that are perceived as bad simply because of their recreational use, scientists should be encouraged to pursue legitimate study--lest we miss out on a valuable medicinal tool.”
The editorial raises the possibility that MDMA could help U.S. vets returning from Iraq. This editorial--in a leading newspaper in a major US city—signifies that a significant cultural shift is taking place.
There is a fascinating article by Martin A. Lee (author of Acid Dreams) (MAPS permalink) in the July issue of Cannabis Culture magazine about James Ketchum, MD, a retired army colonel and psychiatrist, who ran a US government-sponsored program in the 1960s, testing an unusually potent form of synthetic THC (one of the psychoactive components of marijuana) on soldiers in an attempt to develop a secret military weapon.
The article details an interesting slice of history that very few people are familiar with, and paints a portrait of a complex and fascinating man who is difficult to pigeonhole. The article discusses Ketchum’s membership and fundraising activities with MAPS, and how he praised the work that MAPS is doing. Ketchum is the author of Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten. A personal story of medical testing of Army volunteers with incapacitating chemical agents during the Cold War (1955-1975). The book has a foreword by Alexander Shulgin and is available on the MAPS Website.
Since we see so much potential in allowing our members a chance to sign up their friends for MAPS membership, we are extending our membership drive for one more month until August 15. We will be holding a raffle for people who bring in new MAPS members, with a chance to win glassware from Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin’s lab signed by the legendary chemist. For each friend who becomes a MAPS member before August 15th as a result of your recommendation, you will be given one ticket into a drawing to win a signed piece of glassware, accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. Just tell your friend(s) to let us know you suggested that they become a MAPS member by mentioning your name in the notes field if they join on-line, or by mentioning your name if they call the office or join by mail.
If you are the person to sign up the most members, MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD would like to personally thank you by flying you to Boston for dinner!
MAPS needs to grow in order to fund our promising research studies. The psychedelic research renaissance, and our struggle to conduct medical marijuana research, has come this far thanks to you and others like you. And our continued success depends on this community effort. To participate, go to: www.maps.org/donate
MAPS received a generous $5000 donation from Seth Hollub for purchasing a shade structure and banners and covering some expenses for MAPS to have a table at a number of festivals this summer, in order to further enhance our outreach efforts. We did a pilot test at Harmony Festival this Spring that went really well. MAPS is planning to have booths this summer at Earthdance, Emerge-N-See, and Shambhala Festivals, and perhaps other festivals. If you are planning to be at any of these events and are interested in volunteering at the table please contact our new Outreach Coordinator Jenwynn at:
As we’ve mentioned before, you are all invited to come and camp with us at Burning Man Festival this year, in Entheon Village. MAPS is coordinating a lecture series about psychedelic research which will take place at Entheon Village. It looks like it’s going to be another exciting year. MAPS staff will be participating this year in creating the third incarnation of Entheon Village at Burning Man. This camp was first established in 2006 for MAPS' 20th Anniversary (which was also Burning Man's 20th Anniversary). Entheon Village will have a different focus this year than in the prior two years, when the emphasis was on offering a wide range of experiences in art, science and spirituality (the fruits of psychedelics) to the larger Burning Man community. This year, Entheon will focus instead on enhancing the communal living experience for the people at Entheon Village. The camp will offer an organic, vegan meal plan with meat option, communal eating and gathering spaces, showers, potties, etc. It will be located off the Esplanade and closer to Center Camp. Entheon also plans to forgo all-night music and dance parties, but will still offer, in a large dome and other structures, music and dancing, a lecture series, holotropic breathwork, and other activities. Entheon Village will also include the zendo for meditation. For more information, and to register to camp at Entheon Village, see the Entheon Village Web site.
MAPS is delighted to welcome Randy Hencken to the MAPS community. On July 7th, Randy became the new MAPS Director of Communication and Marketing. Randy has a Bachelors of Science in business management, and a master’s degree from San Diego State University’s (SDSU) School of Communication. Randy developed a profound understanding of the potential, and the risks, of psychedelic psychotherapy in his job as program coordinator at the Ibogaine Association in Mexico, prior to his return to academics.
Randy is passionate about drug policy reform and is the founder and president of SDSU’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). He recently organized a demonstration and press conference in San Diego with SSDP that reframed the media’s perspective on a recent heavy-handed DEA raid at SDSU, and called into question whether or not the drug bust would have any effect on drug abuse problems at the university. Randy also interned for the Drug Policy Alliance in San Diego. Welcome Randy!
This isn’t really a farewell, as I’ll still be working with MAPS. However, now that MAPS has found an excellent new Communications and Marketing Director (to replace Jag Davies, who went to work for the ACLU last November), I’ll be bowing offstage, and Randy Hencken will be taking over and writing these monthly email news updates from now on.
Working with everyone at MAPS these past eight months have been a real joy, inspiring and educational. I’ve long admired Rick Doblin’s near-miraculous ability to communicate across great cultural divides, to patiently and persistently navigate his way through bureaucratic mazes and blockades--that appeared impassable even to the Hindu deity Ganesh--and to make the seemingly impossible happen with psychedelic research. I was really happy to be able to work so close with him and everyone else at MAPS these past few months. Although I’ll be leaving you all in Randy’s very capable hands, this certainly won’t be the last that MAPS members will be seeing of me. I’ll be editing the MAPS Bulletin this summer, and I’ll also be organizing and editing a special edition of the Bulletin next Spring on ecology and psychedelics. (Please contact me if you would be interested in contributing: davidjay@maps.org)
I’m grateful to have had this time with everyone at MAPS and will continue my alliance with this dedicated team of public policy reformers and researchers until therapeutic psychedelic experiences are legally available to all who need them. I think that our planet is currently in a deep ecological and spiritual crisis, and that there isn’t a whole lot of time left to save our biosphere from serious damage. I’ve personally witnessed how psychedelic experiences can psychologically transform people, how those very human traits that seem to be at the root of our problems as a species--ecological blindness, greed, ego-centeredness, rigid belief systems, fear, prejudice, anger, pain, etc.--can transform into a greter sense of compassion, empathy, and ecological awareness. Personally, I don’t know of anything else besides psychedelics that can so consistently and so completely transform people, in such positive, healthy ways, so quickly--over night, like Scrooge in The Christmas Carol. This knowledge motivates me, and it’s why I believe so strongly in what MAPS is doing.
Puerto Rico Ex-Officials Say Legalize It DrugWarChronicles
July 1st 2008
A former health secretary and an ex-university president are calling for the legalization of marijuana in Puerto Rico in a bid to reduce the prison population and prevent young people from being exposed to criminality. According to a report by the Associated Press late last week, their plan to tax marijuana sales, with proceeds going to drug treatment programs, is also supported by other former public officials and a medical doctor.
"The fight against drugs, using punishment, has not worked," said José Manuel Saldaña, former president of the University of Puerto Rico. "This is a social reality." People should not go to jail for smoking pot, he added.
According to the Puerto Rico Department of Corrections, 24% of the island territory's 13,500 inmates are doing time for drug offenses. The department estimates that 80% of crimes are "drug-related." More than 21,000 minors under age 18 were arrested in "drug-related" incidents between 1990 and 2005, according to police statistics.
The proposal for marijuana legalization comes as part of a broader package that includes tougher penalties for drug traffickers. It comes as the island is getting ready to begin drug treatment programs aimed primarily at the abuse of heroin and crack cocaine.
Saldaña was joined by former Health Secretary Enrique Vázquez Quintana in pushing for legalization. They have been discussing the proposal with prison officials and legislators, he said.
But lawmakers have said they only want to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes -- if that. Corrections Secretary Miguel Pereira told the AP he favors drug treatment programs legalizing marijuana, but only for medicinal, not recreational, use. "It's a proposal that we should be open to discussing," he said.
Two recent incidents involving SWAT teams are adding fuel to the fire in the emerging controversy over the routine use of such paramilitarized police units to prosecute the drug war. In Chicago, the Chicago Police Department has been hit with a $10 million lawsuit over a September raid on a social club. Meanwhile, in Florida, the Pembroke Pines Police Department Special Response Team, a SWAT-style unit, shot and killed a 46-year-old homeowner in a dawn raid June 13 that netted a whopping three-quarters of an ounce of marijuana.
(There is even more trouble on the SWAT front. Read StoptheDrugWar.org blogger Scott Morgan's post about the murder prosecution of raid victim Derrick Foster and the killing of raid victim Ronald Terebesi, Jr., here. StoptheDrugWar.org is committed to ending these abuses. Sign our online petition here.)
In the Chicago raid, raw video of which is available here (part one) and here (part two), Chicago SWAT team officers dressed as if heading for combat in Baghdad hit the La Familia Motorcycle Club as it was being used for a birthday party. Officers exploded stun grenades, pointed assault weapons at people cowering in hallways, and, according to the attorney who filed the lawsuit, did so without producing a search warrant.
Attorney George Becker said police also stole $1,500 from amusement machines and $1,000 from a safe they broke open during the raid. Becker also said five women at the club were strip-searched by female officers in front of male officers and club patrons. Becker said those parts of the raid were not recorded because officers pointed surveillance cameras at the ceiling.
"It looked to me like the Chicago Police Department is engaging in military-type activity," said Becker after showing the raid video.
But police are unrepentant. "We believe the officers acted within department guidelines in executing the legal search warrant," Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
Although police said an informant had told them a shipment of drugs was destined for the building, they seized only a small quantity of drugs and one hand-gun. Two arrests were made -- one on a bond forfeiture warrant and one for reckless conduct.
Police in Pembroke Pines, Florida, are also unrepentant about their SWAT raid that left Victor Hodgkiss dead. Police have released few details about what exactly went down during the dawn raid, except to say they he was shot and killed after confronting them as they entered his home on a no-knock drug search warrant. The raid netted one arrest -- of the girlfriend of Hodgkiss's son, who was charged with possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.
"We use SRT for all narcotics warrants," Pembroke Pines Deputy Police Chief David Golt told Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel columnist Mike Mayo, who wrote a scathing column denouncing the reflexive resort to SWAT-style tactics. "You never know what you're going to encounter."
As Mayo noted in his column: "In this case, a 46-year-old man with a concealed weapons permit and no record of violent crime encountered his demise in his home of 14 years."
Police did not say whether Hodgkiss was armed when he was shot, but they did say they recovered a weapon from the home.
The Hodgkiss killing bears eerie similarities with another Florida SWAT killing, the 2005 shooting death of Philip Diotaiuto, a 23-year-old bartender shot 10 times by officers after he grabbed a gun as they burst into his home in a dawn raid that netted little over an ounce of marijuana. No charges were ever filed against those officers, but a civil suit filed by Diotaiuto's family is pending.
In both cases, police were aware their target had a weapons permit and used that to justify their resort to SWAT team tactics. In both cases, people ended up being killed over trivial amounts of marijuana.
SWAT team policing excesses are nothing new, but seem to be on the upswing as the units, originally designed for hostage and other dangerous situations, are increasingly used routinely for drug search warrants and other law enforcement purposes. The Cato Institute's Radley Balko has compiled the primary source book for SWAT killings and other abuses, 2006's Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.
Outdated drug laws intended to lock non-violent offenders in jail results in more leeway and fewer arrests for violent criminals and predators.
Police in Hollywood and the DEA teamed up to close down a legal medical marijuana dispensary in Hollywood, California. The photo almost appears to be from another time; when the protesters and the media were on one side of the line and the police stood firmly on the other. Today some police are seeing it differently, these just aren't them.
Photos by Shay Sowden and LAist
(SALEM, Ore.) - Imagine a town, somewhere in the United States. At the local police station, Officer Joe is pouring himself a cup of coffee at the start of his shift, when a call comes in. A citizen thinks she smells marijuana coming from her neighbor’s house.
Joe proceeds to respond to the call, driving the 30 or so odd miles to the house. Just then, another call comes in. An armed man has taken 27 children hostage at the local elementary school – now 25 miles away from Joe’s location.
In this extreme example, there can be no doubt that Joe should abandon his investigation of the marijuana smell and proceed immediately to the school. No officer in his right mind would consider putting children’s lives at risk, in order to pursue the smell of cannabis, would he?
But on a larger scale, when we fund drug enforcement to the tune of 70 billion dollars every year, we are effectively putting lives at risk by not funding other important police work.
Officers are only charged with enforcing the laws that “we the people,” through our legislators enact, and according to the priorities these legislators reflect through their funding of all of the various departments of law enforcement. We must demand that our leaders choose to prioritize the health and safety of our nation’s communities, over policing the personal morals of the citizens of the “Land of the Free.”
As a nation, we’ve lost sight of the forest for the trees. We’ve charged law enforcement officers with the awesome responsibility of not only preventing violent crime and apprehending violent criminals, but we’ve further empowered them to act as the morality police, saving America from the evils of everything from cigarette smoke to cannabis to sex toys to, of all the crazy things – certain kinds of fat! Where does it end?
The U.S. currently incarcerates more people for non-violent crimes, than for violent crimes. We lock up more of our citizens per capita than any other nation, even Russia, China and Cuba. Yet, according to national data from the FBI for 2006, the clearance rate for all violent crime was an abysmal 44.3%. Our current approach is not working. In all of this often politically-driven chaos, our priorities have been perverted.
It’s time to reprioritize.
For decades we’ve waged a “War on Drugs,” supposedly designed to prevent and deter the abuse of ten substances through their prohibition. Instead of encouraging our citizens to abide by the laws of the land, this war on some drugs encourages entrepreneurial anarchy in a game “won” by survival of the most corrupt and callously capitalistic.
It has driven the major funding for organized crime and terrorism, created and maintains a black market so enormous that it rivals the wealthiest industries on Earth, and which has become directly responsible for far too much of the vigilante violence in our communities. It encourages everyone who would dare to taste the forbidden fruit to live outside of, and develop disrespect and disregard for, the laws of our land.
Instead of seeing heroes among police officers, suburbanites like me grow up to become adults who fear law enforcement. We view them as potential threats, terrorizing patients who need medical marijuana and pursuing and persecuting cannabis consumers, while child rapists are given slaps on the wrist – some never spending a single day in jail, even for raping multiple children. And that only includes the small percentage of predators that are caught.
Additionally, NIDA reports indicate that survivors of sexual assault are 4-10 times more likely to abuse illegal drugs, than those who do not suffer abuse. Incarcerating non-violent survivors of rape for using drugs to self-medicate anxiety, depression and other symptoms of PTSD, while allowing their perpetrators to roam our streets with impunity, does not make us safer.
A legislator once challenged me on the issue of medical marijuana. He said that he didn’t want to support an amendment to a funding bill which would have protected medical marijuana patients. His reason for objecting, however, surprised me. He said that he didn’t want to single out marijuana from every other medicine. He wanted to see all drugs regulated equally.
This makes perfect sense to me. As a patient with Crohn’s Disease, who relies on medical marijuana to ease severe symptoms, I couldn’t really argue with his logic. I could only ask him whether he felt it would be a wise investment of our scarce resources to send the DEA to break down my door, terrorize my five young children, and haul me off to jail, just for taking my medicine? He had to admit that would be a very poor use of our resources, and I’m thrilled to say he’s supported the Rohrabacher - Hinchey Medical Marijuana Amendment for four years in a row.
I keep coming back to that meeting with the Congressman in my mind, because I’d very much like to see his vision come to fruition. By regulating all drugs equally, effectively ending prohibition once and for all, we could accomplish what the originators of prohibition first promised – actually reducing drug abuse and violent crime in our nation.
No longer can we afford to funnel tens of billions of dollars annually into a “War on Drugs,” which effectively ensures the perpetual funding of organized crime and terrorism. We must not waste the precious time of our law enforcement officers in chasing down the sick and dying who need medical marijuana, while child rapists roam our communities, knowing that their chances of even getting caught, let alone doing any time in prison, are very low.
Do we want to cut crime in our nation by half?
Do we want to eliminate drug dealing overnight?
Do we want our police officers spending our scarce resources to pursue people who prefer cannabis to cocktails, or do we have more important work for them to do?
It all comes down to our priorities.
To learn more about prohibition and why “cops say legalize drugs,” please visit: LEAP.cc.
For more information about medical marijuana and prohibition, please visit: ParentsEndingProhibition.org (currently undergoing revision).
Erin Hildebrandt wears many hats. She's wife to Bill Hildebrandt, mom to five beautiful kids, activist, artist, legally registered Oregon medical marijuana patient, public speaker, and an internationally published writer. She co-founded Parents Ending Prohibition, and her writing has been printed in Mothering Magazine, New York's Newsday, and Canada's National Post, among many others. Erin has been interviewed for a front page story in USA Today, and she has been published in the American Bar Association Journal. Speaking as a survivor of child sexual abuse, Erin also appeared on the Geraldo Rivera show. She has also testified before Oregon Senate and House committees, and Maryland Senate and House committees. We are very pleased to feature the work of Erin Hildebrandt on Salem-News.com.
Vietnam Ponders Drug Decriminalization
News2020.com
May 17th 2008
The Vietnamese National Assembly is considering legislation that would make drug use an administrative violation -- not a crime. Under current Vietnamese law, drug use is a criminal offense, a violation of Article 199 of the country's criminal code, and is punishable by up two years in prison.
But Truong Thi Mai, chair of the Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs, told a press conference last Friday the committee had recommended scrapping Article 199. "Being addicted to or using drugs should be considered a disease, and should only be subject to administrative fines," Mai said. "We cannot jail hundreds of thousands of drug users, can we?"
In actuality, Vietnam does not typically jail drug users; instead, it confines them in mandatory drug detoxification centers for up to two years, or in some centers, up to five years. Local governments maintain lists of drug addicts in their areas and send them to detox centers at their discretion. Few drug users are actually prosecuted under Article 199, so the impact of a decriminalization move would be mostly symbolic.
Still, that would be a good thing, said Le Minh Loan, a police chief and former director of counter-drug efforts in a province with one of the country's highest heroin addiction rates. "I think it makes sense to drop the article," Loan said. "Few countries in the world sentence drug addicts to prison terms."
Vietnamese drug rehabilitation efforts are not particularly effective, Loan said. "The rate of relapse into drug use is very high."
While Vietnam has harsh laws for drug dealing -- 85 people were sentenced to death last year for drug offenses and nine more so far this year -- those laws have had little impact on drug use in the Southeast Asian nation. Harsh enforcement is not working, said Mai. "Many people have been sentenced to death for trafficking heroin, but heroin trafficking is still rampant," Mai said. "The traffickers know that the laws are strict but they are still trafficking narcotics."
MAPSNews: May 17th 2008 -- Albert Hofmann Passes the Torch
Dear Eugene,
There’s some bittersweet news and lots of exciting new things to report this month. Here’s what’s going on:
*** MAPS needs your generosity to empower staff, scientists, and volunteers to carry out pioneering research and educational projects. To donate, learn about the benefits of MAPS membership, or purchase books, clothes, art, and other merchandise, visit: www.maps.org/catalog ***
Dear News2020 May 16th 2008
MAPS is bursting at the seams with exciting news this month. Here’s what’s going on:
*** MAPS needs your generosity to empower staff, scientists, and volunteers to carry out pioneering research and educational projects. To donate, learn about the benefits of MAPS membership, or purchase merchandise, visit:www.maps.org/donate ***
Continuing the biannual tradition that the Gaia Media Foundation started with the LSD Symposium in 2006, the World Psychedelic Forum (WPF) was held this year in Basel, Switzerland from March 21st to 24th. The WPF drew a crowd of almost 2000 psychedelic intelligentsia from 37 countries, and it gave the psychedelic community a tremendous opportunity to gather and network. Albert Hofmann, now past 102, sent his grandson to give a presentation on his behalf, and received a few visitors at his home.
Rick also appeared on a question and answer panel titled “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Psychedelics,” along with Dennis McKenna PhD, Dale Pendell, and Kathleen Harrison PhD, and he moderated a panel called “From Problem Child to Wonder Child" featuring Russian ketamine researcher Evgeny Krupitsky, MD and MAPS Staffer Valerie Mojeiko. Mojeiko gave a presentation titled, “Psychedelic Emergency Services: Lessons from Burning Man to Boom to Beyond,” (Powerpoint available) and she also presented preliminary results from MAPS’ exploratory outcome study of ibogaine-assisted therapy in the treatment of opiate addiction (Powerpoint & MP3 audio file available).
MAPS cosponsored the conference and donated $5000 for expenses. In addition to paying expenses for MAPS staff, MAPS paid some or all of the expenses for a number of researchers to attend and speak at the conference including Stan Grof MD, PhD, Michael and Annie Mithoefer (MD and RN), Sameet Kumar PhD, Evgeny Krupitsky MD, Peter and Verena Oehen (MD and RN), Sandra Karpetas, and John Harrison PsyD candidate.
More about the conference will be covered in an article by Mojeiko in the Spring MAPS Bulletin--which will be shipped to members by the end of this month. I’m happy to report that some exciting new developments came out of this conference, as well as another conference in Paris the following week that is reported in the related item.
We would like to extend our immense gratitude to the volunteers who helped us with the event in Basel---Judith, Jonah, Joey, John, and Martha. Thanks so much for your valuable help!
An interview with Rick Doblin about the conference and MAPS’ Swiss LSD research appeared in a Basel newspaper shortly after the conference. Another article appeared in a Basel paper about the WPF that was slightly critical about the conference, but it said Rick’s comments were balanced, and Michael Mithoefer’s research was solid.
One of the main accomplishments of the conference in Basel was that, as a group, psychedelic research organizations were able to really come together and discuss the MDMA therapist training protocol. Rick Doblin reports that “The good thing that happened in Basel is the sense of the different teams--from MAPS and Heffter to the European organizations--all really working together, over and above these organizational barriers. So it seemed to me like we really bridged these gaps, and now I feel like we’re coordinating on critical design and other issues.”
In Basel we were able to narrow down our objectives for the MDMA therapist training protocol, in order to focus on what’s most important—establishing it as a training program for psychedelic therapists.
MAPS initially planned to do some side studies with the MDMA research that won’t be necessary because of new collaborations.
For example, we were considering measuring levels of the “bonding” hormone, oxytocin, in MDMA-treated subjects. We were considering this because it may shed some light on the bonding that often occurs with people on MDMA. It would be good to learn if MDMA stimulates oxytocin, but we decided not to add it to the therapist training protocol because another team is gathering that information, and if we did it during our therapist training it would interfere with the therapeutic teaching and learning that we’re trying to do. Since our primary goal is to train therapists to better understand how to use MDMA in therapy, we’ve decided to drop the oxytocin measurements. However, there are a few measurements of emotional sensitivity and judgment that we’re considering adding to the training protocol that may help in the training process.
We’re gathering information about professions where personal experience in the technique being used is part of the training process, such as in meditation and yoga, and statements from psychedelic researchers who have found their own personal experiences with these drugs to be helpful to them in psychotherapy.
After the Basel conference MAPS President Rick Doblin and Director of Operations Valerie Mojeiko took the train to Paris and spoke at another conference, held at the Université René Descartes, called “Hallucinations in Philosophy and Cognitive Science.” This was a free symposium that drew a smaller, yet very engaged academic audience of about thirty people. Doblin gave a talk on the overall strategy and rationale of psychedelic drug development. Valerie spoke about MAPS ibogaine outcome studies and psychedelic emergency services.
Doblin and Mojeiko used their visit to Paris assess the feasibility of bringing psychedelic research in France. We’ve been making substantial progress with our research agenda and decided that we could afford to invest two days in a long-shot search for a team of French researchers who might be interested in exploring the possibility of conducting a MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD pilot study in France. (See news item below.)
Prior to the Paris conference, MAPS President Rick Doblin sought referrals to potential French researchers from French psychiatrist Dr. Jacques Mabit (who founded Takiwasi), a drug abuse treatment center in Peru that uses ayahuasca and other plant medicines within a shamanistic context. Dr. Mabit suggested that we contact Dr. Olvier Chambon in Lyon. Fortunately, Dr. Chambon was interested in exploring the possibility of working with MAPS and said that, while he wasn’t able to come to the Paris conference, he could meet with Rick in Basel.
While in Basel, Doblin--along with MAPS researchers Michael and Annie Mithoefer--met with Dr. Chambon to explore the possibility of conducting a MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD pilot study in France. They discussed how the study might be designed, how to conduct MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, the protocol design and approval process, and whether there is a clinic that would be willing to host the MDMA/PTSD experiment. Both psychiatrists are interested in exploring the possibility of conducting this research. Everyone at MAPS is excited about the possibility of starting MDMA/PTSD research in a new country that hasn’t seen legal psychedelic research since the late 1960s. We’d be designing a small pilot study that will help us determine if we can replicate the promising results obtained in our U.S. MDMA/PTSD study.
We’re looking for volunteers who are interested in offering psychedelic emergency services at Sanctuary this August 25th to September 1st at Burning Man. If you’re interested, email Kernel at kernel@maps.org, and he will put you on a list to get the application when we send them out next month. For background information on principles for working with someone undergoing a difficult psychedelic experience, check out the MAPS’ Web page at: www.maps.org/ritesofpassage/difficultexperiences.html
Another meeting in Basel was about the psychedelic emergency services that MAPS may be helping to provide at the BOOM Festival in Portugal this August 11-18th. MAPS helped coordinate psychedelic emergency services at Boom in 2006 and is considering whether to commit to providing services at BOOM 2008.
MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD and MAPS Director of Operations Valerie Mojeiko had a productive meeting with Diogo Ruvio, one of the founders of the Boom Festival, and several of his team, along with Sandra Karpetas and Svea Nielsen, who worked at Boom 2006. There was a lot of discussion about how things could be improved from the 2006 festival, and how we could create a model program that other festivals could implement in part or in whole. At Boom and similar festivals there are often thousands of young people experimenting with psychedelics, some for the first time, and many with inadequate preparation. It’s not uncommon for some people who are ill equipped to deal with the powerful psychological energies that are unleashed to find themselves in very uncomfortable states of mind or dangerous situations. Compassionate guidance during these experiences can mean the difference between an unproductive experience with negative consequences, or a positive (though difficult) experience.
Boom organizers and local law enforcement recognize that bad drug trips can be a serious problem, and unlike in most of America, harm reduction measures can be implemented without fear of legal consequences. Rick Doblin said, “it’s a pleasure to work in a country, and with an organization, that are fully supportive of psychedelic emergency services, as we’re trying to make it a model.” The full support that we would receive at the BOOM Festival can be done, in part, because of the openness to harm reduction in the Portuguese drug policy.
MAPS is currently seeking people who might be interested in volunteering for psychedelic emergency work at the Boom Festival this year, who can pay for their own transportation to the event. Volunteers may get a free ticket and food, but would have to pay all their other expenses. We’re especially looking for people who are from Europe, are multi-lingual, and/or attend BOOM already, as well as people who have some experience in psychotherapy or healthcare. If we decide to provide services at this event, it would be good for us to have as many people there as possible who are already familiar with the festival. If you’re interested in volunteering at BOOM contact Valerie at: Valerie@maps.org. If we decide to do psychedelic emergency work at this event then you will be sent an application packet and more information on the application process as it becomes available. Stay tuned for more information in the next update.
The Spring MAPS Bulletin--which should be in member’s mailboxes by the end of the month--will contain some absolutely mind-blowing psychedelic art by Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Brummbaer, and Dean Chamberlain. This art is for sale, with fifty percent of the proceeds going to help raise funds for MAPS research. To find out more information visit the MAPS Webstore.
Stay posted for more art on the way! We are launching a new project this summer connecting artists with new opportunities to display and sell their art in MAPS publications and medical marijuana dispensaries. If you are a visual artist and are interested in donating part of the profits of your art to MAPS, or if you are a dispensary owner (or other psychedelically-oriented high-traffic shop owner) interested in displaying our artwork on your walls (for sale to customers), please contact: art@maps.org
On March 28th, Dr. John Halpern, Harvard Medical School, submitted a grant application to the American Cancer Society (ACS) seeking additional funding for his study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in twelve subjects with treatment-resistant anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer. MAPS assisted Dr. Halpern, the Sponsor/Principal Investigator, in the protocol, design, approval and funding process.
This grant application represents a major step forward, even if the grant is not awarded. For the last thirty-five years the only support for psychedelic psychotherapy research has come from private individuals or family foundations. No support has come from the pharmaceutical industry, from governments, or from major foundations involved in supporting medical research.
The American Cancer Society’s willingness to accept a full proposal seeking funding for MDMA/cancer anxiety research presents a groundbreaking development.
This provides evidence that the cultural context surrounding psychedelic psychotherapy research is changing in a favorable direction. The stigma of conducting this research has declined, and there’s been an increase in public support based on the increasingly realistic hope that promising new therapies can be developed through psychedelic psychotherapy research.
A research team at Johns Hopkins is currently seeking subjects for their psilocybin cancer study called “Psychopharmacology of Psilocybin in Cancer Patients.” This study--supported by the Heffter Foundation--will “examine whether the administration of psilocybin can facilitate mystical/spiritual experiences in cancer patients suffering from anxiety and/or depressed mood, thereby improving psychological coping and quality of life.” The principal investigators of this study are: Roland Griffiths PhD, Matthew Johnson PhD, William Richards MD (Department of Psychiatry); Michael Carducci MD (Oncology); and Sydney Dy MD (Medicine and Oncology). Patients are eligible for this study if they have a potentially life-threatening cancer diagnosis without CNS involvement, and they seem to be experiencing anxiety or depressed mood as a result of their illness.
Patients with and without disease progression are eligible, but patients with no disease progression are only eligible if at least one year has elapsed since their diagnosis; for those with disease progression, patients need to be between cancer therapies for a one month period during the psilocybin sessions, although continuing hormonal therapy is acceptable. Patients who have decided not to undergo cancer therapy are also eligible. After thorough screening and preparation, volunteers will participate in two separate day-long psilocybin sessions. Structured guidance will be provided during and after the sessions to discuss and integrate thoughts and feelings about the session experiences. Outcome measures include measures of mystical/spiritual experience, quality of life, anxiety, depressed mood, attitude about death, use of pain medication, and blood markers of stress and immune function. For further information contact the study coordinator, Mary Cosimano: mpcosi@jhmi.edu.
On April 8. 2000, MAPS received a letter from FDA concerning its review of the Swiss LSD proposal which we had submitted for review to the FDA. The protocol is already fully approved in Switzerland. We submitted the Swiss protocol to FDA for review so that FDA will accept the data that we will gather in the study.
The FDA has placed the study on Clinical Hold, as they have some questions about additional analytical data for the LSD. Other than that issue, the rest of the protocol is fine with a few minor suggestions for changes that we can easily accept. We will now start working with the FDA to address their concerns about the analysis of the LSD that we’re going to use in the study.
Two large-scale, multisite studies called “Phase III studies” are required in order to persuade the FDA that the substance that one is investigating is safe and effective. MAPS’ plan--for our MDMA PTSD research--and perhaps also for our psychedelic psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues--is to conduct one of the large Phase III studies in the U.S. (in around ten or fifteen locations), and then another throughout Europe, Switzerland and Israel (also in around ten or fifteen locations). Then we plan to cross-submit the data to the FDA and the European Medicines Agency, because both agencies say that of the two large-scale Phase III studies, one can be abroad, but the other one needs to be domestic.
By doing our research in this way, in global collaboration, we can be maximally efficient, and also utilize the unique resources that are available in each region of the world. In order to prepare the grounds for Phase III trials in the US and Europe we must work with the FDA and the European Medicines Agency so they will accept the data. This means that the protocols have to be reviewed and approved by both agencies.
MAPS is receiving donated assistance from a member within the pharmaceutical industry with expertise in clinical trial data management. We’re utilizing her expertise to create a data management system and input the currently available data from Michael Mithoefer’s MDMA/PTSD study. We’re starting now so we can report the complete results shortly after the twenty-first and final subject receives the final experimental session in July, with the study’s final follow-up evaluation in September. Our one-year follow-up evaluation will be considered a separate study.
Daniel Pinchbeck--author of Breaking Open the Head--interviewed Rick Doblin for a PostModernTimes “webisode” with animation. This is a crisp, brief and entertaining interview.
Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin--legendary psychedelic chemist, consciousness explorer, and author--had heart surgery on Tuesday, April 8th. The surgery was done in order to replace a defective aortic heart valve. He is recovering well, and we anticipate complete recovery within two to three months.
The CaringBridge Web site is being used to keep us up-to-date on Sasha's progress. CaringBridge is a nonprofit organization that helps friends and families stay connected. Anyone can use the site to check in on Sasha, read the journal entries, and send him messages by signing the guest book. Please send all your “good vibes” and “healing energies” to him! We wish him a speedy recovery.
Entheon Village Coordinator Matt Atwood, the rest of his Chicago-based infrastructure team, and MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD have prepared a complete financial accounting for Entheon Village from Burning Man 2007. The report also includes some information about plans for Entheon Village 2008. For this coming year, Entheon will focus more attention and energy on enhancing the experience of the people who camp in the village, and will de-emphasize offering music and dancing in all-night parties. Entheon will still offer the Burning Man community a public lecture series, holotropic breathwork sessions, some music and dancing, places to view art, and a zendo for meditation. Since Entheon will not be such a noise-generating Village, a location closer to center camp has been requested.
Comments and questions about the report on Entheon Village 2007, as well as suggestions for Entheon Village 2008, are most welcome. Please send to: info@entheonvillage.com
The Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics was held on April 4th and 5th at the Asilomar Conference Center in California, sponsored by Patients Out of Time (POT). International experts discussed the latest research and local activists discussed state-level medical marijuana programs. Rick Doblin spoke at the conference about overall research strategies for medical marijuana in the face of DEA/NIDA obstruction of medical marijuana research, the cannabis cultivation project with Lyle Craker, and the vaporizer research project. Rick’s Powerpoint slides give some of the basic information he presented at the conference, though his speech covered more than the slides indicate.
We would like to extend our deep appreciation to the volunteers who helped us with this event-- Martha, Bonnie, and Brian. Thanks so much for your valuable help!
We are seeking a new moderator for the MAPS Forum. After 11 years of service, our current moderator Jon Frederick PhD is retiring from his position. The ideal candidate would have a thirst for new knowledge about psychedelics, be up-to-date with current research, be able to understand and enforce the rules of the forum, and be able to uphold the academic standards of the forum. We are seeking to fill this position on a volunteer basis, and we are asking for a six-month commitment of about five hours per week. If you are interested in making a generous donation of your time as the new forum moderator, please email: valerie@maps.org
The Spring MAPS Bulletin will be going to the printers next week and should be in everyone’s mailbox about three weeks later. This is a special theme edition of the Bulletin that I edited about technology and psychedelics. We got some terrific submissions and this issue is absolutely jam-packed with fascinating essays, rare information, compelling interviews, and extraordinary artwork. The Bulletin includes thought-provoking articles by U.C. Santa Cruz Mathematician Ralph Abraham, Ph.D., cultural commentator R.U. Sirius, and Penn State Information Science Professor Richard Doyle, Ph.D. WAMM cofounder Valerie Corral also wrote a special tribute to the late writer and psychedelic investigator Laura Huxley. Many other accomplished thinkers and unusually creative artists join us for this special extra-thick issue that’s simply bursting at the seams with exciting data. You'll be able to view a PDF of this Special Edition MAPS Bulletin on our website in the next few days if you can't wait until the printed one enters your mailbox (and I wouldn't blame you if you couldn't).
These are crucial times. I wonder, when future historians look back at this time, what will they say? Will they say that our sleeping species finally awoke and made a great quantum leap in its evolution? Will they see this as a time when humanity left its larval cocoon and expanded out into the cosmos? Or will they see us as having missed a golden opportunity? I think the former, and part of the reason that I think this is because I see how MAPS is spearheading a renaissance in psychedelic research around the globe. This gives me a lot of hope because I believe in the healing potential of psychedelics. If you do too, then please consider making a generous donation to MAPS today.
Should we be excited? Police agencies in Philadelphia have announced a record drug bust for the city. According to the press conference, held Wednesday by the Philadelphia Police Department, the US Attorney's Office and the FBI, the stash they nabbed consisted of 274 kilos of cocaine worth about 28 million dollars.
An FBI spokesperson told the press, "This significant seizure prevented these drugs from entering our community." But doesn't that depend on how one defines the term "these drugs"? If the term is meant to refer to that particular shipment, then yes, that specific pile of cocaine will (probably) not enter the Philadelphia community.
If, however, the term is meant to refer to cocaine itself, the type of drug, it's doubtful -- no, impossible -- that the seizure could reduce the amount of it in Philadelphia, at least not for very long. The problem is that drug traffickers are clever and industrious people, and they expect that some of the stuff that they ship to any given region is going to get intercepted. On any given day, they probably don't expect a record to get set, on that particular day. But that doesn't mean they aren't prepared if it does. Doubtless one or more batches are now moving up I-95 or some other artery, or are headed to Philly through some other means of transport, if they're not already there.
The truth is that there probably won't be a shortage of cocaine in Philadelphia for even a week, if there is any shortage of it even now. By the end of two weeks, there will be little evidence left at all that a record-sized drug bust ever occurred, other than the police records and the past media reports. Of course the authorities won't be particularly eager to inform the press that their record-sized drug bust has been completely undone by the force of the market. Ironically, media would probably not consider the lack of long-term impact from the bust to be newsworthy, because that's literally what has happened on every previous occasion.
Ultimately, the bust itself is the best proof that the bust won't make any difference. Arrests and seizures and prosecutions for drugs are the norm for the United States, in Philadelphia and everywhere else. Yet for all that effort, sustained and conducted aggressively for decades, the demand for cocaine is still so strong that the quantities in which it is found continue to set records. And that is a record of failure by any reasonable definition of the word.
So while I'm sure the press conference was exciting for the people involved in it, I'm not excited, and I don't see why I should be. When people decide that it's time to try something different, because they realize how much they've been throwing away in money and manpower and lives, that will be much more exciting than a pile of powder and a group of law enforcement brass behind a podium ever could be.
California Dr. Molly Fry Sentenced to Five Years Stopthedrugwar March 29th 2008
A federal judge in Sacramento sentenced Dr. Marion "Mollie" Fry and her companion, attorney Dale Schafer, to five years in federal prison for conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana on March 19. Fry, who used marijuana herself in connection with radical breast cancer surgery, and Schafer, who used it for back pain and a dangerous form of hemophilia, also provided marijuana to patients under California's Compassionate Use Act.
But the Justice Department prosecuted the couple under the federal marijuana laws, leaving US District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. no choice but to impose the mandatory minimum five-year prison sentenced required under the law because they had more than 100 plants.
"It is a sad day, a terrible day," Damrell said during sentencing, adding that if it were up to him, the punishment would have been less. But he also criticized Fry and Schafer for refusing to accept a plea bargain that could have left them free. "You had the opportunity to resolve this case, but you wanted to soldier on, knowing that your kid would be left behind," he told the couple.
In a departure from normal practice on the federal bench and to the delight of supporters who packed the courtroom, Judge Damrell granted the pair bail, so they will remain free while their case is appealed. Damrell, who is also presiding over the Bryan Epis case and has granted him bail too, said the exceptional circumstances of the case create "serious issues that need to be decided by an appellate court." Among those, he noted, are Fry and Schafer's claim they were entrapped.
Human Rights in the Drug War:
NGOs Slam UN Drug Bureaucracies, Demand Compliance With UN Charter StopthedrugWar.org
March 15th 2008
Using the annual meeting of the United Nation's Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna as a springboard, an international consortium of drug policy, harm reduction, and human rights groups Monday slammed the UN drug bureaucracies for ignoring numerous, widespread human rights abuses perpetrated in the name of global drug prohibition. The UN must stand up for human rights in the drug control regime, the groups said. The charge was made in a report released the same day,
"Recalibrating the Regime: The Need for a Human Rights-Based Approach to International Drug Policy," endorsed jointly by Human Rights Watch, the International Harm Reduction Association, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Program. It was presented this week in Vienna during a discussion of the worldwide human rights impact of the drug war conducted as part of a series of events countering the official CND meeting.
The CND, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), are the three UN entities charged with enforcing global drug prohibition as enshrined in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and its two successor treaties. The CND was meeting this week to review whether the UN had met its 1998 10-year goal to achieve "measurable results" in the fight against drugs, including a "significant reduction" in the cultivation of cannabis, coca, and opium.
The Monday report cites murderous campaigns against drug suspects in Thailand in 2003 -- and the prospect of a repeat of that deadly drug war by the new Thai government -- the violent police campaign against drug dealers (and innocent bystanders) in Brazil, the grotesque Chinese habit of celebrating the UN's international anti-drug day by executing convicted drug offenders, the resort to the death penalty for drug offenders in more than 60 countries, the mass incarceration of drug offenders and the racially discriminatory enforcement of drug laws in places like the United States, and much, much, more as evidence that human rights comes in a distant second to the prerogatives of drug prohibition.
In the face of this litany of human rights abuses in the name of enforcing drug prohibition, the UN agencies have remained so quiet as to be almost "complicit" in them, the report argues. There has been "little engagement" with this issue by the CND, the INCB, the UNODC -- or even the UN's human rights treaties bodies, the report said.
.
"The UN General Assembly has stated repeatedly in resolutions that drug control must be carried out in full conformity with, and full respect for, all human rights and fundamental freedoms," said Mike Trace of the Beckley Foundation, which commissioned the report. "Delegations to this week's meeting must ensure that their obligations under international human rights law underpin all CND deliberations and actions."
"Despite the primacy of human rights obligations under the UN Charter, the approach of the UN system and the wider international community to addressing the tensions between drug control and human rights remains ambiguous," said Richard Elliott of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. "This is inexcusable in the face of the egregious human rights abuses perpetrated in the course of enforcing drug prohibition, which in turn damages global efforts to prevent and treat HIV."
"Last week, INCB President Philip Emafo stated in the board's 2008 annual report that 'To do nothing [about drugs] is not an option'," said Rick Lines of the International Harm Reduction Association. "We are here today to state clearly that doing nothing about the human rights abuses perpetrated in the name of the drug war is also not an option. In this, the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CND member states and indeed the entire UN family must speak out clearly that human rights must not be sacrificed on the altar of drug control."
The new Thai government's repeated comments that it intends to go back to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's murderous drug war of 2003, in which some 2,800 were killed, aroused particular concern among the groups.
"As the UNODC has acknowledged, there are proven methods to address drug use while protecting human rights. Murder is not one of them," said Rebecca Schleifer, advocate with the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "As a member of the CND, Thailand must be held to account for its actions on drugs, and pressure brought by the international community to ensure that human rights violations are not repeated."
The Thai may be feeling the pressure. At the Monday afternoon "side session" organized by the groups, not one but three officials from the Thai government attended, all of them expressing the view that policies have "good effects and bad," and inviting advocates to provide information to help them improve policies. Time will tell whether it was a serious offer and whether they can influence their government in a positive direction if so.
Monday's report was only part of a broader onslaught directed at the UN anti-drug bureaucracies and their seeming disdain for human rights. Last week, in the wake of the release of the INCB's 2007 Annual Report, which called for "proportionality" in the enforcement of drug laws at the same time it called for criminalizing millions of people who chew coca leaf, that organization was critiqued in a response by the International Drug Policy Consortium, a global network of national and international groups specializing in issues relating to drug use, legal or illegal.
While the consortium congratulated the INCB for its call for proportionality and a slight retreat in its resistance to harm reduction, it warned that such good news "will be rendered meaningless if the Board does not consistently reflect these principles in its ongoing work with national governments and other UN agencies."
The consortium also harshly criticized the INCB for its call for the banning of the growing and consumption of coca. "Of greater concern is the continuing intransigence shown towards the issue of indigenous use of coca products in Bolivia," the consortium's response said. "Where there is an unresolved inconsistency within the drug control conventions, and between drug control and other international obligations and treaties, the role of the INCB should be to highlight these dilemmas and help governments to find a resolution, instead of issuing rigid and non-universal declarations."
The British drug charity DrugScope, a member of the consortium, called on the INCB to do more. "Drug users are vilified and marginalized worldwide," said Harry Shapiro, the group's director of communications. "Some nations feel that any action against them is justified, including murder. We are encouraged that the INCB recognizes this is unacceptable and that a balance must be struck between the enforcement of drug laws and the human rights and civil liberties of those with serious problems."
The INCB must match its actions to its words, Shapiro said. "But DrugScope and the International Drug Policy Consortium feel that the INCB, from their position of international authority, must follow their condemnation of human rights abuses through to its logical conclusion, The INCB must offer public criticism of particular countries with the worst human rights record in this area."
Instead of UN anti-drug agencies sticking up for human rights, they have now become the objects of criticism themselves. The official international prohibitionist drug policy consensus may be holding at the UN, but it is clearly fraying, and civil society is no longer willing to sit quietly in the face of injustice, whether in Bangkok or Baltimore, Rio or Russia.
William F. Buckley, Conservative Supporter of Drug Legalization
1926-2008
March 1st 2008
William F. Buckley, the dean of American conservatism and advocate of drug legalization, died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut. He was 82.
Buckley, the scion of a wealthy Connecticut family, came to public prominence with the 1951 publication of "God and Man at Yale," a searing critique of what he saw as agnostic and collectivist tendencies among the faculty and curriculum of his alma mater. In 1955, he founded the National Review, the magazine that became the leading voice of post-war American conservatism and helped lead to the conservative renaissance that resulted in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
While Buckley spent much of his career fighting for main-line conservative causes like smaller government, he also used the National Review and his decades-long stint as the host of PBS' "Firing Line" to advance his views in favor of the legalization of drugs. Along with figures like Milton Friedman and George Schulz, Buckley was among the first conservatives to adopt an overtly pro-legalization position.
"A conservative should evaluate the practicality of a legal constriction, as for instance in those states whose statute books continue to outlaw sodomy, which interdiction is unenforceable, making the law nothing more than print-on-paper. I came to the conclusion that the so-called war against drugs was not working, that it would not work absent a change in the structure of the civil rights to which we are accustomed and to which we cling as a valuable part of our patrimony. And that therefore if that war against drugs is not working, we should look into what effects the war has, a canvass of the casualties consequent on its failure to work."
In that same article, Buckley expressed abhorrence at the degree to which drug war zealotry infected the criminal justice system:
"I have not spoken of the cost to our society of the astonishing legal weapons available now to policemen and prosecutors; of the penalty of forfeiture of one's home and property for violation of laws which, though designed to advance the war against drugs, could legally be used -- I am told by learned counsel -- as penalties for the neglect of one's pets. I leave it at this, that it is outrageous to live in a society whose laws tolerate sending young people to life in prison because they grew, or distributed, a dozen ounces of marijuana. I would hope that the good offices of your vital profession would mobilize at least to protest such excesses of wartime zeal, the legal equivalent of a My Lai massacre. And perhaps proceed to recommend the legalization of the sale of most drugs, except to minors."
Buckley's erudition, extensive vocabulary, and famously darting tongue, as well as his life-long commitment to conservative principles made him an iconic figure of the late 20th Century. His principled embrace of drug legalization made it all the easier for other conservatives to follow in his footsteps. Hopefully more will follow.
Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts
Dr John P. Morgan 1941-2008
Feburary 24th 2008
Dr. John P. Morgan, one of the leading supporters of drug policy reform within the medical and academic worlds, died last Friday in New York City at age 67. Morgan succumbed to leukemia in a case that came on suddenly, taking family, friends and colleagues by surprise, many of whom had enjoyed conversations with him at recent conferences where he had appeared quite healty
.
Morgan was a professor of pharmacology at City University of New York's Medical School from 1977 until his retirement in 2004. Though best known to the movement as coauthor of the 1997 book " Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts " -- with sociologist Lynn Zimmer, who passed away in 2006 -- Morgan has in fact been a staunch activist for drug law reform for decades. His service to the cause included a lengthy association with NORML, including many years sitting on its Board of Directors and Advisory Board, as well as on boards of the Drug Policy Foundation, now known as the Drug Policy Alliance.
Morgan was also a fixture at drug reform conferences, where, in addition to educating audiences on the intricacies of drug reform, he displayed a broad knowledge (and love of) popular music, especially pop music related to various drug cultures. On multiple occasions he gave presentations on marijuana references in classic jazz.
"Every single man and woman in this country and around the world who care about replacing prohibition-oriented policies with science/public health-based policies owe a man like John Morgan immense thanks and praise," said NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre in a statement announcing Morgan's untimely demise to the reform community.
Truly, Dr. John Morgan was a giant among advocates for a more humane drug policy. His achievements are enduring, but he will be sorely missed.
A memorial service for Dr. Morgan will be held at 2:00pm, Saturday, February 23 at City College on 140th Street and Amsterdam in Manhattan. It will be in the Faculty Dining Hall in the North Academic Center at Amsterdam and 138th street ( map ). The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations in his name be made to support Stem Cell or Multiple Sclerosis research at Mt. Sinai Hospital. Call the hospital's Development Office at (212) 659-8500 or use their online gift form here .
Read Marsha Rosenbaum's tribute to John Morgan here . Read Jacob Sullum's tribute to him on the Reason web site here .
Faced With Swollen Prisons, Idaho Ponders Reforms Stop The Drug War
Feburary 20th 2008
With nearly 7,500 people behind bars in Idaho -- more than half of them for drug offenses -- the Idaho legislature is finally beginning to move away from the "tough on crime" posturing and infliction of mandatory minimum drug dealing sentences that helped create the current crisis. A bill with bipartisan support that would give Idaho judges the option to send people convicted of drug distribution offenses to treatment instead of mandatory prison terms if they are found to be addicts is on the move in Boise.
House Bill 516 , sponsored by three Republicans and one Democrat, is in line for a full hearing at the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee this session. The bill would mark a departure for Idaho, which for years has responded to illegal drug use and sales b
A legislator once challenged me on the issue of medical marijuana. He said that he didn’t want to support an amendment to a funding bill which would have protected medical marijuana patients. His reason for objecting, however, surprised me. He said that he didn’t want to single out marijuana from every other medicine. He wanted to see all drugs regulated equally.
dge in Sacramento sentenced Dr. Marion "Mollie" Fry and her companion, attorney Dale Schafer, to five years in federal prison for conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana on March 19. Fry, who used marijuana herself in connection with radical breast cancer surgery, and Schafer, who used it for back pain and a dangerous form of hemophilia, also provided marijuana to patients under California's Compassionate Use Act.