Things are getting interesting in the US. Just as the UK descends into drug war madness and does its best to paper over the cracks that have started to appear in the drugs policy (more about that later) the whiff of change is forcing its way onto the agenda on the other side of the pond. For some weeks now the calls to legalise cannabis (“legalize pot” as Americans have it) have been gathering ground and are well on the way to being mainstream. On Thursday the US “Drugs Czar” dropped a bombshell (Wall Street Journal):
he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,”
adding
“We’re not at war with people in this country.”
It’s early days, but things are certainly changing over there. Interestingly at no time has anyone in the US mentioned to role of the UN and the limitations it may impose on what the US decides to do in its own country and it’s pretty clear that if they decide to legalise cannabis, they will simply do so. All this is starting to get the drug warriors worried. Fox news – well known for it’s right wing bias – came out with this studio “discussion” last week
Notice the way that studio debate is framed, still very much with the assumption that the war on drugs is legitimate.On the same day as the Drug Tzar was shocking the drug warriors the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy announced that cannabis potency is going up in the US. According to the Baptist Press:
WASHINGTON (BP)–Marijuana continues to become more potent and to cause mental impairment and traffic fatalities, according to a report released by the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy May 14.
“[L]evels of THC — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — have reached the highest-ever levels since scientific analysis of the drug began in the late 1970s,” an ONDCP news release stated, sparking another round of marijuana-related media reports.
Sound familiar, where have we heard all this before?
Now the thing is, not only is this going to act as advertising for the cannabis trade but by the drug control agencies own measure it’s an indication of failure. How so? First the ONDCP is telling people that the product has got better, there’s more bang for the buck. Second, a decrease in potency (read increase in contamination) is regarded as an indicator of success for prohibition, therefore an increase in strength is obviously an indication of failure. It’ll be interesting to see how this debate unfolds, but unfold it is going to.
This side of the pond we’re getting used to the press simply reprinting police and government hand-outs without question and it happened again on Tuesday 12th with a claim by SOCA – the Serious and Organised Crime Agency – that the Cocaine trade is “in retreat”. This rare bit of good news for drug warriors was repeated throughout the day by the BBC and other broadcasters and media with very little examination, although credit to Transform’s Danny Kushick for putting up an alternative viewpoint on the Today programme. But what of the claims made by SOCA?
It’s of interest to point out here that I buy video kit for work and I’m in the process just now of getting quotes for new cameras for my TV studio. It’s a fact of life that these cameras now cost a hell of a lot more than they did a little before Christmas, the reason being of course the Pound has dropped in value against the US Dollar.
According to the Telegraph which was typical in the way it carried the story:
The head of enforcement at the Serious Organised Crime Agency said prices per kilo had jumped from £39,000 last year to more than £45,000 as a result of undercover work and seizure operations.
Now, Cocaine is imported and it’s paid for in Dollars, like my TV cameras so is it any real surprise that the wholesale cost in Pounds Sterling has gone up? No of course it isn’t, this rise is easily explained by the currency fluctuations and has nothing whatsoever to do with the “undercover work and seizure operations”. Of course, the Telegraph along with all the other media outlets just reported what they were told to report without question. In fact since last summer the Pound has dropped from almost $2 to around £1.50. The rise from £39,000 to £45,000 is exactly what we would have expected given the exchange rate changes.
But there was more to the SOCA story as they were proud to trumpet the apparent decline in purity levels of street cocaine. As noted above of course, decreasing levels of purity is a mark of success for prohibition forces. So is there another explanation for this decrease in purity? This blog has remarked before about the dodgy science which underpins prohibition, not least of all the totally unscientific way samples are collected. The claim of a decrease in street purity is based on police seizures. Now it’s always been the case with white powders that each level of dealer adds a bit more sucrose (if you’re lucky), so what this decrease in purity could be telling us is there are just more low level dealers putting out Charlie than there used to be.
But what of the impurities SOCA is so proud of introducing to the Cocaine trade? Transform carried an interesting blog from Axel Klein, Lecturer in the Study of Addictive Behaviour, Centre for Health Service Studies at the University of Kent
On May 12th a government agency reported that rising levels of dangerous adulterants including boric acid, an insecticide, and tetramisole hydrochloride used as worm powder are being added to cocaine sold in UK drug markets. This is alarming as the largest group of consumers in UK retail markets are 16-24 year olds. It seems extraordinary that the exposure of school children and students to toxic substances sold in an unregulated market, with minimal information about content or health risk is the direct result of government policy.
Again, a point not picked up in any of the media reports. When will the point come, if it hasn’t already, that the adulterants are more dangerous than the cocaine? Indeed, we could well be past that point already.
It’s depressing to see that although the US is moving away from a war on its own people, our government certainly isn’t.
Finally, there’s the question of Spice. Spice is a “legal high” being sold in “Headshops” around the country. The media has been going all out warning people that this stuff is like a powerful version of cannabis and no doubt increasing sales of the stuff in the process. It will probably be made illegal, but its shown the scale of the problem the drugs policy faces in that there is a huge demand for recreational drugs. All they can do is to plug leaks every time they show, meaning the drugs policy is being fought on ever more fronts, a sure sign of a policy in crisis.
It is worth pointing out though that Spice isn’t cannabis, it’s not even natural. Whatever the problems cannabis may or may not have, at least we have a good idea of how to deal with them. Spice is new and untested, nothing more than a commercial exploitation of a repressed demand. If we had legal cannabis, we wouldn’t have stuff likeSpice. Make no mistake, Spice is a(nother) problem caused by prohibition.
RE: Spice
The active compound in Spice (or one of them) is known as JWH-018. Like THC and CBD it acts upon the cannabinoid receptors which, no doubt, is why it gets you high. However they are chemically different — this means they metabolise differently in our body. Although THC and CBD metabolize without any ill-effects there is concern that the same cannot be said for JWH-018.
In summary, because Spice is such a new product and JWH-018 is such a new compound we cannot say if there will be trouble down the line for Spice users.
Although it is possible spice has unkown effects and may pose potential long term harm. Anyone who has ever smoked the herbal blend will know it has very little psychoactive effects if any at all and as for long term usage it tastes like crap making it quite impractical it is also fair expensive. The only reason the bourgoies twats are considering making it illegal is to promote a “tuff” attitude to drugs in lue of the videos of people taking salvia on youtube which is another legal high. So they will spend our tax money on even more pointless prohibition shit to try and gain votes.
I think i speak for the majority in saying “bring on the revoloution”
Hmmm – Spice – I have long thought that a way to liberalising attitudes to the banned psychoactive substances such cannabis is to draw the attention to the number of equally psychoactive substances that are not illegal. There are thousands of plants and plant extracts that get you high and many of them are more poisonous and more harmful than the ones our society has bothered to confiscate from us. So it comes back to equal treatment under the law – If I am not arrested for possessing, growing or selling something such as Salvia divinorum then why should there be penalties for cannabis. No one has been able to give me an argument that tells me why this is so.