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Reuters Health

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new treatment that can be given on an outpatient basis resulted in a statistically significant reduction in methamphetamine use by addicted individuals, according to the first clinical study of the protocol.

Of the 50 patients who entered the study, 36 men and women completed the study. The subjects reported using meth on 80% of the 90 days prior to treatment, but only 28% were using methamphetamines 84 days following the first day of treatment, representing a 65% reduction in drug use.

"I think we've found the first clinically effective treatment for methamphetamine addiction," the study's lead author, Dr. Harold C. Urschel III, told Reuters Health. Urschel, an addiction psychiatrist, works for Research Across America, a Dallas-based company that performs independent clinical research, reported the findings last week at the annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Previously, he noted, if he had got a 25% to 30% reduction in drug use among meth addicts with treatment, "I'd be just jumping for joy. Urine tests showed that the study participants were telling the truth about their use or abstinence about 85% of the time.

PROMETA consists of a series of intravenous and oral treatments given in a doctor's office over the course of 30 days. Developed by the for-profit company Hythiam, Inc., it consists of FDA-approved drugs used "off-label," meaning the FDA has not approved their use for this condition.

PROMETA consists of an anti-anxiety drug from the class known as benzodiazepine antagonists, and a drug that modulates one of the brain's main signaling systems, GABA. Also included are nutritional supplements.

Among the 31 people who completed a series of questionnaires measuring their drug craving, 30 reported a reduction in craving, while one reported no change.

Meth addicts often drop out of treatment in the first few days, Urschel noted, largely because the drug has damaged their brain so concentration is extremely difficult. But in the current study, he said, "the patients' memory and concentration almost uniformly across the board came back," as soon as the first day of treatment. "That alone allows the people to focus on sitting in intensive outpatient treat and learn the skills necessary to staying sober."

While the mechanism for the protocol's effectiveness is not clear, Urschel said the main hypothesis is that it somehow restores the function of the GABA system, which has been damaged by drug or alcohol use. In healthy people, he noted, the neurotransmitter helps people to stay calm and relaxed. Treatment may restore its function, reducing anxiety.

The current study did not include any psychosocial interventions, which are usually part of the PROMETA protocol. Urschel said that the results would probably be better if the drug compound was given with these interventions.

· UN hails untold success story but urges vigilance
· Study reveals 22% cut in worldwide poppy growth

The Guardian : 27.6.06

Opium addict and poppy farmer Kya Teh smokes an opium pipe in his hut in north-eastern Myanmar. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA

Opium poppy cultivation has been almost eradicated in Asia's Golden Triangle, the border zone between Burma, Thailand and Laos that was once the world's most prolific supplier of opium, according to a report published by the United Nations yesterday.
The area of land being used for poppy farming has fallen by 22% worldwide, reflecting declines in the world's three biggest producers of opium: Afghanistan, Burma and Laos.

The UN's 2006 World Drug Report described south-east Asia as an "overlooked success story", where governments had succeeded in slashing poppy cultivation. Laos, once the world's third biggest heroin producer, declared itself free of poppy cultivation in February. It used a "carrot and stick" approach, striking agreements with farmers to stop growing poppies or risk seeing their fields destroyed. The Burmese government reduced the area under cultivation by 26% to 32,800 hectares (82,000 acres) last year.

But the report warned: "Sustaining these remarkable achievements may, however, largely depend on the availability of socio-economic alternatives for the farmers who have given up a source of their livelihood."

In an illustration of the difficulties, it emerged that even as the report was being published, new figures indicated a resurgence of poppy farming in Laos. Since February, an estimated 2,500 hectares have been brought back under poppy cultivation, driven by an opium price that has increased by 5% this year to $550 (£303) a kilo.

"The situation remains fragile, especially in the more vulnerable remote northern locations," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime. "We need to ensure that this victory against drugs proves to be lasting."

In Afghanistan, the area of land under poppy cultivation fell last year for the first time since 2001, but the country still accounts for 89% of global production. The report said: "Within a few years, Asia's notorious Golden Triangle, once the world's narcotics epicentre, could become opium-free. But in Afghanistan, while the area under cultivation decreased in 2005, the country's drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal."

The UN report also revealed that ecstasy seizures have surged. Global seizures of the drug, which is mainly manufactured in Europe, passed eight tonnes in 2004, up from less than five in 2003. Global cocaine seizures reached a record high in 2004, up to 588 tonnes. The increase was the result of better cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the improved sharing of intelligence, the report said.

The area of coca cultivation in Colombia had been increasing, despite sustained US-backed eradication efforts since 2000. Colombia accounts for 54% of coca cultivation globally, followed by Peru (30%) and Bolivia (16%), according to the study.

Most cocaine continues to be used in the Americas, particularly North America, which accounts, with 6.5 million users, for almost half the global market, according to the report.

Cocaine use in Europe is rising. Almost 25% of cocaine users are in west and central Europe, the UN study said.

Consumption of cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug, continued to increase. An estimated 162 million people used cannabis in 2004.

Assessing the range of illicit drugs, from heroin to cocaine as well as marijuana, amphetamines and ecstasy, the report concluded: "Drug control is working and the world drug problem is being contained." Levels of cultivation and addiction are much lower than they were 100 years ago, it said.

UK 'too soft on cannabis dangers'
Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 27/06/2006)

New strains of highly potent cannabis are as dangerous as heroin and cocaine and the drug can no longer be dismissed as "soft and relatively harmless", the United Nations said yesterday.

In an implied criticism of Britain's decision to downgrade cannabis, Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said that countries got the "drug problem they deserved" if they maintained inadequate policies.

His comments indicated deep unhappiness with the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C. Heroin and cocaine are Class A substances, attracting the toughest penalties for possession and trafficking.

"Policy reversals leave young people confused as to just how dangerous cannabis is," said Mr Costa, introducing the Vienna-based organisation's annual report.

"With cannabis-related health damage increasing, it is fundamentally wrong for countries to make cannabis control dependent on which party is in government. The cannabis pandemic, like other challenges to public health, requires consensus, a consistent commitment across the political spectrum and by society at large."

Mr Costa said that cannabis was now "considerably more potent" than a few decades ago. It was "a mistake" to dismiss it as a soft drug.

"Today the harmful characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin," he said.

The UN report estimates that 160 million people use the drug worldwide, with a growing market for stronger strains - known as skunk, among other names - which are far stronger than when most of today's policy-makers were young.

The study claimed that a ''significant'' number of cannabis users had experienced panic attacks, paranoia and "psychotic symptoms" during cannabis intoxication - dangers heightened by the growing availability of stronger varieties.

It said: ''Despite early claims to the contrary, cannabis dependence is a reality. Many people who use cannabis find it difficult to stop, even when it interferes with other aspects of their lives, and more than a million people from all over the world enter treatment for cannabis dependence each year.

''Research indicates that younger users, whose brains are still developing, may be especially vulnerable to the negative effects of cannabis. Despite its normalisation in some countries and its occasional celebration in popular culture, it should be noted that cannabis is a powerful drug that has recently become more powerful in many parts of the world.''

Britain downgraded cannabis two years ago in an effort to free police resources to concentrate on ''serious'' drugs, such as crack and heroin. A review of that decision in January this year retained the current classification.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said the UN report indicated that "the Government's seriously confused course of action on cannabis has led to chaos and confusion".

The Home Office emphasised that cannabis remained illegal even if its classification had been lowered. It claimed that its use had declined among young people.

A spokesman said: ''It is harmful and illegal and no one should take it."

The report also expressed concern about growing cocaine use, particularly in western Europe, where demand was reaching "alarming levels".

"I urge European Union governments not to ignore this peril,'' Mr Costa said. "Too many professional, educated Europeans use cocaine, often denying their addiction, and drug abuse by celebrities is often presented uncritically by the media leaving young people confused and vulnerable."

A report from the European Union's Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said that drug deaths in Europe were at their highest ever.

She was a well-loved grandmother and a respected community figure. She was also a drug dealer and addict. Julie Bindel on the strange life and death of Lillian Taylor

Wednesday June 21, 2006
The Guardian

The funeral of Lillian Taylor was like that of any other well-loved and respected figure. Scores of people attended to pay their respects and share the grief with her family. The funeral cortege was adorned with flowers spelling "Mum" and "Nan". Her death was sudden and unexpected and the mourners' grief was raw. Passers-by might have assumed that Taylor was a pillar of her community - and in a strange, mixed up way, she was.
What would have surprised those casual onlookers is the way Taylor died. In 2002, during a police drugs raid on her home, she swallowed a lethal amount of cocaine in an attempt to conceal it. The inquest into her death concluded last week that she need not have died, and that lessons should be learned from the mistakes made by police and medical professionals present when she was in custody.

But her death raised other questions - not least, what led a 50-year-old, otherwise respectable, woman to become a drug dealer?

Taylor grew up and lived all her life in Fleetwood, Lancashire. She came from a close-knit, working-class family and enjoyed a happy childhood. She had children and grandchildren and an extended "family" of friends and neighbours, who were often round at her small but cosy council house. She was known as someone who was always willing to help those in need. But at the time of her death, Taylor had also been addicted to amphetamines for 20 years.

Her drug use was probably linked to her marital break up, and the pressures of having young children to care for and not much money. Taylor dealt amphetamines and anti-depressants to fund her habit, and also, it seems, out of a warped sense of public service. "Lillian was well aware that a lot of folk in the area use both prescribed and illegal drugs," says one police officer who knew Taylor. "And although she was breaking the law, and was wrong to deal in them, she probably thought she was doing those people good, giving them what they needed."

Taylor's sister, Jennifer Bidle, claims she made only tiny amounts of money from selling drugs. "She only dealt in the neighbourhood, and never to kids," she says. According to Bidle, most of Taylor's money went on her grandchildren. "She never really wanted anything for herself, just for her family to be OK." Taylor always owed money to her suppliers. She would never turn down a request from women in the community who were depressed and anxious and needed something to help them get through the day. "Lillian knew better than anyone how those women would feel if they could not get their fix," Bidle says.

All this sounds sentimental justification. Yet many people who knew her, including the majority of police officers who came across her, did not consider her a typical drug dealer. At the inquest, one police officer described her as a "lovable rogue". Certainly, she did not conform to the usual dealer stereotype. Ten years ago, a weekly women's magazine ran a piece on Taylor, painting her as a kindly neighbour who sold speed to housewives anxious to lose weight.

Value system

Taylor had a clumsy, if well-intentioned value system when it came to drugs. She was strongly opposed to heroin use. And although Taylor started using cocaine two years before she died, after the death of her mother, she would not deal in it because it is a "hard" drug. Amphetamines, she believed, were justified because they are available on prescription.

Taylor was a contradiction. She used and sold drugs, but she was seen, by some at least, as a kind of community resource. In an age of zero-tolerance towards drugs, what she did seems inexcusable. Yet her role was complex. She understood that women living lives of poverty and abuse wanted to block out reality with the drugs she supplied, and she also attempted to provide a rudimentary rehabilitation service, which may have prevented some youngsters from slipping into heroin use, and helped some to break the addiction.

Places on drug rehabilitation programmes were relatively hard to get in the Fleetwood area, mainly due to the large number of drug users. Lancashire Drug Action Team admits that there are still difficulties for people who need these services, though waiting times have dropped over the last 12 months.

Fleetwood is an area known for its high crime, low employment and rampant drug use, especially amphetamines, although in recent years heroin and crack cocaine have begun to take over. Taylor would allow addicts to "do their rattle" (drug-takers' parlance for coming off heroin) at her home, supplying sleeping pills and methadone to ease withdrawal symptoms. Family members would find heroin addicts sleeping on the sofa, and on one occasion when the house was full, a young man sleeping in her cupboard, trying to keep away from drugs.

It was a bitter, if not entirely unexpected, blow when some members of Taylor's family also became drug users, despite her attempts to keep her drug habit private. "When Lillian's oldest daughter started using heroin, Lillian was devastated," Bidle says. "But she tried not to blame herself, because she was dead against it and made it plain to everyone who would listen." Taylor's family were aware of her drug use, but never discussed it. "We were all very close," Bidle says, "but none of us ever talked to her about the drugs, although we all knew what she was doing."

March 16 2002 was an ordinary Saturday in the Taylor household. Family and friends were visiting and the atmosphere was relaxed. Stephen Jones, an 18-year-old heroin addict from Wales, was staying at the house, doing his rattle. Taylor had taken him in because he was trying to get clean but could not find a place on a drug rehab programme. Joanne, Taylor's eldest daughter who was visiting at the time, recalls: "All of a sudden we heard the door crash open and men shouting, 'Police, nobody move, this is a drugs raid.' They were masked up and looked like Robocop."

After being taken to the police station, Taylor was interviewed and left in a cell overnight. She did not admit to swallowing the package until just before 10.30pm, more than six hours after the raid, no doubt concerned about being in even worse trouble if she admitted possession of cocaine. She had begun to feel unwell, and asked to see the forensic medical examiner (FME). On examining Taylor he concluded that she was "probably lying" and, rather than advising that Taylor be taken to the hospital, he suggested regular checks by the custody sergeant.

At 3.12am, Taylor was found dead in her cell. Police claimed at the inquest that she had been checked at 2.45am and was "sitting up" and appeared fine. Joanne was also arrested at the raid, and awoke to be informed of her mother's death a few cells away from her. "I can't tell you how that felt," she says. "All I could think of was they let her die like a dog."

Although Taylor was known as "small time" in the drug-dealing world, police had to justify the raid on her home. "Taylor was allegedly responsible for contaminating a number of people's lives," one officer said in his statement to the inquest. Another claimed that "there was a young lad of about 14 there when we raided who was hooked on heroin because of her. She ruins people's lives." The "young lad" was Jones, the 18-year-old doing his rattle. Jones has since hanged himself in prison, having gone back on heroin. "There was no one else to help him," Joanne says.

Lancashire police last week declined an offer to comment on the case.

The jury at the inquest concluded that Taylor was not afforded adequate care while in police custody, and that had she been, her life may have been saved. They were able to make criticisms of the lack of care she received in custody despite her being a small-time drug dealer.

Bidle says: "The verdict is brilliant because it is obvious that the jury did not look at Lillian and think, 'She's just a junky scumbag,' or 'Her family are no-hopers.'" While Taylor was both a criminal and a drug addict, she had a sense of right and wrong. She saw herself as helping those needing to block out the pain of life by self-medication, and trying to help them steer clear of violent dealers and heroin.

Difficult question

How people such as Taylor should be dealt with by the authorities is a difficult question. Chris Ford, a GP based in north London, who trains medical professionals to work with drug users, believes the lack of adequate medical care Taylor received is not unusual for people in her situation. "It seems to me that this woman received bad care because she was seen as a bad person, as are other drug users and dealers."

A neighbour of Taylor's, who asked not to be named, says that since her death the only thing that has changed in terms of drug use in the area is that most amphetamine and anti-depressant addicts are now going to "proper" dealers, who use strong-arm tactics to recover debts and who also sell heroin and crack cocaine.

In the meantime, Taylor's family members regret their silence about her drug problem. Bidle says: "Lillian did a lot of good to a lot of people, but she was a fool to herself. Maybe we should have talked to her more about her own problems with drugs. After all, she has ended up dead."

The new face of addiction

Crystal meth has ravaged the US and is beginning to be manufactured here. Should we panic, asks Fran Yeoman

Times: 17.6.06

Britain is to get a new Class A drug, it was announced this week. Methylamphetamine, more commonly known as crystal meth, is to join the toughest category of illegal drugs after a recommendation by a government committee. Possessing it could soon land users in jail for seven years. Dealers might get life.

Meth might not yet be a household name in the UK, but it has wreaked havoc in America, and senior police officers caution that it may be mainstream here within two years. British newspapers are already describing it as a “creeping menace” that is “more deadly than crack”. Beyond the fear and media rhetoric, how worried should we be? A growing band of British users already knows the effects of crystal meth, a powerful stimulant that can be smoked, swallowed, snorted or injected. “Richard”, a 29-year-old professional from London, has smoked it twice. “I had heard about its supposed euphoric effects and that it was sexually liberating,” he says. “But both times I quite quickly became paranoid, withdrawn and irrational. On each occasion I could not sleep for three days afterwards. It was hideous. I was literally banging my head against the wall trying to get to sleep.”

Many other users get completely hooked, though. The drug creates a huge high that, in effect, knocks out production of the brain’s feel-good dopamine system and thus quickly creates dependence as the user turns to the drug to keep feeling good. The pull of the drug is extremely strong even though one of its sideeffects is a rampant tooth rot, according to a study by Creighton University, Nebraska, known as “meth mouth”. American news reports tell of jailed addicts having to have all their teeth removed, then heading for the nearest meth dealer on the day of their release.

Police intelligence reports have identified five meth labs in London and production on the Isle of Wight. There are signs that it is being made in other parts of Britain, including Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Coventry and Teesside. Falling prices have led to an increase in crystal sales outside the gay club scene, where it first appeared. The Association of Chief Police Officers thinks it is also being imported into the UK by a Filipino criminal network. When it was discovered in Middlesborough earlier this year, Karl Sheldon, of the drugs charity Addaction, said: “It is going to have a wide-reaching effect on families and communities because it is easily produced, highly addictive and cheaper than cocaine.” Richard Cazaly, the man named by police as responsible for the stabbing of Abigail Witchalls last year, was a meth user.

Meth may not yet be a problem on the scale of other drugs in Britain — we are the biggest European users of cocaine — but it is gaining a foothold. And it is meth’s meteoric and disastrous spread overseas that is causing alarm here. Meth use in America has exploded since the late 1990s and the scale of the problem is startling. An estimated 12.3 million Americans had tried the drug by 2003 and in the same year more than 10,000 meth laboratories were found by police. Deborah Durkin, of the Minnesota Department of Health, says that in her state many cities went from “Not a problem” to “Help!” in six months to a year.

One town in Arizona has just created a separate school for its crystal-addicted teenagers. On a recent trip to London, the New York police chief Anthony Izzo told the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology: “Crystal meth makes crack cocaine look like a Hershey bar.”

The problem is not just American. Methylamphetamine use has grown dramatically in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand, and there are an estimated 35 million users worldwide. Professor Hamid Ghodse, of the UN’s drug control agency, said earlier this year: “If I want to pick one major drug pandemic today, it is methylamphetamine. It has not yet affected much of Western Europe and the UK but, as we know, as drug misuse occurs in North America, sooner or later it gets here.”

If it does, the threat to British drug users would be severe, says Dr John Marsden, of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. “Methylamphetamine is an ugly customer,” he says. “It seems to be more addictive than cocaine and in humans it appears to result in a state of psychosis indistinguishable from paranoid schizophrenia.” Another worrying feature of methylamphetamine is that it can be manufactured easily — although it is a volatile and risky process — from common chemicals.

A proliferation of small, domestic laboratories in the US has made the drug difficult to eradicate. The key ingredients in its manufacture include ephedrine, found in many decongestants. British manufacturers have altered the formulation of their products to make this process harder but there are worrying indications that more domestic labs are starting here, using chemicals bought online.

British drug agencies are keen to avoid panic. The American example is a powerful warning of crystal meth’s potential, but it is also an imperfect reflection of UK drug culture, and we do not necessarily face problems on a similar scale. Cocaine is readily and cheaply available here, limiting the need for an alternative stimulant.

Nevertheless, DrugScope agrees that reclassification “seems sensible”. Harry Shapiro, the charity’s head of publications, says: “Reclassifying crystal meth could have a pre-emptive value in enabling police resources to be directed towards the drug.” The Conference on Crack and Cocaine (Coca), a drugs training charity, has launched a crystal-meth course for drugs workers, focused on transferring the skills developed while dealing with cocaine addicts.

Meanwhile, the Home Office is attempting to get European legislation passed controlling the chemicals involved in meth production.

One newspaper reported recently that Britain is “on alert” over this “wild drug”, and concern is certainly growing that if strong action is not taken now, the American nightmare could be replicated here. For Commander Simon Bray, head of the Metropolitan Police’s working group on methylamphetamine, it is better to be safe than sorry: “We had a false start when cocaine started arriving and took our foot off the accelerator. That was a mistake. If meth was to take off here in the way it did in Minnesota or Georgia we might not have much time. They thought it was not a problem, and now look.”

Among Richard’s social group, meth use is already on the increase. “I tried it about 18 months ago. Back then I didn’t know anyone who took it. Now I know quite a few and it is definitely becoming more prominent. At one party recently there were loads of people injecting it.

“There needs to be better support networks. If you get into trouble with other drugs you know where to go, but that’s not the same with crystal meth. I feel lucky that I had a bad reaction. It was enough to stop me taking it again. Otherwise I don’t know where I’d be.”

What's the dope?

Classic signs of methylamphetamine addiction include twitching, dental rot (known as “meth mouth”), weight loss, sleep and eating disorders, irritability, paranoia and psychosis, according to University of New Mexico research.

Crystal meth was first made in Japan in 1919. It was given to Allied soldiers during the Second World War to help them stay awake.

Street names include Tina, ice and Nazi crank, after rumours that Hitler injected it twice a day.

The singer Rufus Wainwright has been a crystal-meth addict.

Black Britain : Friday 16 Jun 2006

No evidence cannabis leads to schizophrenia in black men.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Dele Olajide states the black community must vociferously challenge the assumption that smoking cannabis causes schizophrenia in black men and explains how alcohol abuse can lead to increased violence in relationships.

Dr Dele Olajide is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in South East London. and is using the occasion of National Men’s Health Week, which has focused on mental health this year, to speak out on two issues which he feels have not been properly explored and which are more myth than fact.

The use of cannabis among black men is an extremely controversial area. Cannabis is also referred to as ganga, marijuana, herb, weed or skunk - a more potent form of cannabis favoured by young people. The debate centres on the view of some academics that cannabis use causes psychosis among black people.

As Dr Olajide pointed out, previously the debate was that psychosis was caused by a genetic condition: “But all research on genetics and schizophrenia among black people has not been conclusive,” although some speculate that environmental causes are the reason for the apparent prevalence of schizophrenia among black people, especially black men. But Dr Olajide is not of that opinion: “I myself do not believe that because there is no evidence of direct causality.”

According to Dr Olajide all the research suggests is that cannabis may be contributory along with other factors. If all of the other factors are not present a person could smoke cannabis and it would not lead to psychosis. A large number of people, both white and black smoke cannabis who never develop psychosis.

“What we can say is that if you are predisposed to psychosis or schizophrenia and you start smoking cannabis it is likely to exacerbate your symptoms to make it worse,” he told Black Britain. This is because the experience of paranoia can be intensified with cannabis use. It also intensifies the feeling of being relaxed and causes demotivation, which is a common symptom of schizophrenia.

But Dr Olajide warned: “What we must fight and challenge in the black community is the blanket assumption that cannabis use in the black community is causing an epidemic of schizophrenia. That I disagree with and I think we must resist it and challenge it on every occasion.”

He pointed to the number of people- both black and white who smoke cannabis including undergraduates across the country who do not become schizophrenic and was critical of the suggestion that black people who smoke cannabis do: “Even scientists who advise the Home Office agreed that there is no evidence to suggest a direct link between cannabis use and schizophrenia at the moment,” he said.

Black Britain asked Dr Olajide to comment on the experience of Devon Marsden who was sectioned after being examined by a psychiatric doctor and after being questioned about his cannabis use. His response was that
it is common for someone who might experience paranoia for other reasons to be assumed to be suffering from cannabis psychosis when it is learnt that the person smokes it: “That label is increasingly sticking to black
men,” he said.

But jumping to such conclusions is dangerous because it prevents investigation into other possible causes of schizophrenia: “For example, racism is a major, major cause of psychological stress in black people. Even people who are so-called ‘normal’ experience a pernicious impact of racism on their lives,” he said.

Dr Olajide said that within the pool of socially deprived black men there will be many who smoke cannabis but this does not necessarily mean that it causes schizophrenia and there is no such evidence to support that theory. Large scale research in Sweden and the Netherlands has looked at this but has found no significant evidence of any associated cause of schizophrenia.

· Police fear stimulant could replace crack cocaine
· Illicit labs uncovered as drug is sold to clubbers

The Guardian : 12.6.06

Crystal meth, the highly addictive stimulant, is to be officially ranked as a class A drug in Britain following warnings from senior police that it could become mainstream within the next two to three years.
The Guardian has learned that the government's drug experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), have recommended the listing to the home secretary, John Reid, following police evidence that a small number of "domestic" laboratories have been uncovered in Britain.

Although the regular use of the drug has, until now, been confined to small sections of the gay club scene and some male saunas, a fall in prices has led to it being sold to mainstream clubbers as a drug that costs about the same as crack cocaine, but lasts much longer.

Senior British police have been alarmed by reports from America and Australia about its very rapid growth in popularity. The number of illegal labs producing it exploded in the US from 3,800 in 1998 to 8,500 in 2001, peaking at 10,200 in 2003. It is now more popular than cocaine or heroin in parts of America.

The class A listing means police will target meth abuse and illicit laboratories. At present, its class B status means it is not the subject of any targeted law enforcement activity.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has told the council that the drug is being imported from America and south-east Asia by a Filipino criminal network. But reliable intelligence reports have already identified five meth labs within London and a number of small domestic labs on the Isle of Wight.

The Metropolitan police says it knows of several significant meth dealers within the gay club scene in London who have made massive profits in recent years.

Detective Inspector Jason Ashwood, author of the Acpo paper, who works in the Met's drugs directorate, said: "Meth is arguably as much a hazard as crack cocaine and heroin, and more of a hazard than ecstasy and LSD. Previous concern about reclassification and 'stoking up' media interest has been overtaken by events." He said the "undisputed difference" between meth and other drugs is that it can be relatively easily manufactured at home. "The chemicals are available within the UK and the internet gives endless guidance on making," he added.

Acpo says domestic meth production quickly leads to squalor, with addicts consumed by the process and paying attention to little else. Families and neighbours are put at risk of fire, explosion and toxic fumes, with just one or two "cooking cycles" sufficient to render a building uninhabitable.

The effects of meth include psychosis and paranoia, and the ability to binge for days or weeks. It has a particularly addictive effect that could be compared to crack cocaine and heroin. As it is sold in powder, tablets or crystal and can be snorted, smoked, injected or swallowed it appeals to all classes of drug users.

Data from the 2005 national gay men's sex survey confirms its use but it is still a minority activity with less than 3% of respondents saying they had used the drug in the previous year.

Harry Shapiro of Drugscope, the drugs information charity, said it was sensible to classify meth alongside crack and heroin given international evidence on the social and health impact of its use.

"Although rates of usage in the UK remain low at present, reclassifying crystal meth could have pre-emptive value in enabling police resources to be directed towards the drug as part of the strategy to focus on class A drugs," he said.

At a glance

· Colourless, odourless form of d-methamphetamine. Usually smoked, but may be injected

· Widely used during second world war to keep soldiers alert. In the 1960s it became popular in the US among people working long shifts, and athletes before officials moved to restrict use in 1965. Now illegal both in the US and UK

· Hitler is said to have injected it daily. Produces immediate high which may last 12 hours or more. Cocaine sells for $100 to $150 a gram in the US, meth about $25

· World Health Organisation estimates 35 million people use it or its derivatives

Armed drugs gangs are expanding their operations from cities into provincial towns, police chiefs have revealed.

Dealers are deserting urban districts because drug markets have reached saturation point.

Towns such as Nuneaton, Rugby and Bolton have become targets for the gangs and figures for reported gun crime indicate that localised turf wars are under way.

Keith Bristow, the head of gun crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Eighteen months ago, two thirds of all gun crimes occurred in the major cities - London, Birmingham and Manchester.

Now that figure is around fifty per cent. We are seeing organised drug gangs taking over new markets, and guns are facilitating the move - they are the tools of their trade."

Mr Bristow, the deputy chief constable of Warwickshire Police, said there had been a "natural move" by gangs from Birmingham to Coventry to smaller surrounding towns.

He said: "While gangs from the cities use guns to take over new markets, local dealers are using them to protect their territory."

Home Office figures show that gun crime declined by five per cent in London in 2004-05, but rose by 33 per cent in Essex, 47 per cent in Cambridgeshire and 54 per cent in Kent.

Gun offences fell by one per cent in Greater Manchester during the same period but rose fourfold in Lancashire.

They fell six per cent in the West Midlands but doubled in the West Mercia force area, which covers rural Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

There was also a small rise in the Thames Valley police area, covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Victims there include Mary-Ann Leneghan, a 16-year-old murdered by a south London drug dealer who had extended his business to Reading.

One senior barrister, who has defended gangland suspects for almost 20 years, said: "Drug dealers are leaving London and moving down the Thames Corridor in particular.

It's all to do with territory - there's too much competition for dealers in the cities now. All my cases used to be in major cities, but now I am all over the place."

Petra Maxwell, a spokesman for the charity Drugscope, said: "There are only a certain amount of people in one place who will take drugs, no matter how little a gram costs. If consumers from cities are saturated, dealers will have to turn elsewhere."

Home Office figures show that there were 107,000 drugs seizures in 2004. Cocaine finds were up by 14 per cent, heroin up six per cent and crack up three per cent. Cannabis and ecstasy seizures were down.

NEIGHBOURS from hell are to have their housing benefit axed under tough new plans announced by Tony Blair today.

The Prime Minister made the surprise announcement as he resumed control of the Government following his week-long holiday
The radical plan is sure to trigger anger among some Labour MPs but Mr Blair is determinedto bringin a new law this year. Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton revealed details after a Downing Street summit on antf-sodal behaviour "We've got to provide help and support to fam-ilies and individuals involved in this anti-social behaviour But there have got to be very clear rules about all this as well," said Mr Hutton. "I don't thinkit is reasonable to say to ordinary hard-working families who are getting up early in the morning that you are going to be asked indefinitely to go on paying the housing costs of people whose behaviour in your local commu-nity is making your life an absolutely misery"
The plans would help cut the annual £11 billion spent on housing benefit. Mr Hutton said that, as a first step, those who refused to attend programmes to improve their behaviour would have their benefit cut. But those who continued to misbehave would have it removed completely.
Mr Blair triggered a Cabinet revolt when he floated the idea in 2002 of cutting child benefit of truants. The plan was later ditched. After a fortnight of rows over John Prescott's role Mr Blair, returning from Italy, sought to reassert his authority by summoning senior Cabinet ministers to today's launch of the new measures. He also announced moves to withhold Whitehall funding from councils that fail to issue anti-social behaviour orders by next April and disclosed new figures showing how many parents had been forced to keep their children in check.
In an unprecedented move, TV cameras have been invited to film the Cabinet committee in charge of the issue. Mr Blair was given an update on the Respect Action Plan, launched in January to co-ordinate the crackdown. He was told new parenting orders are working to nip the teenage thug problem in the bud and some 13,000 persistent truants in 200 schools have been targeted.
A new campaign will urge residents to get involved in protecting their own areas. Downing Street said new powers would be accom-panied by more money for youth service projects. A No 10 spokesman said: "Everyone deserves the right to be protected from thugs and yobs in their local neighbourhood."
Meanwhile, the Chancellor was setting out his priorities for a Gordon Brown premiership. Mr Brown told the CBI Britain should embrace the benefits of immigration and globalisation to avoid a return of unemployment. He stressed no real trade reform could occur without the scrapping of the EU's Subsidies for farmers. He also attacked the trend in Europe of "economic patriotism", and to rebut his Tory critics he pledged a continued tough stance on public-sector pay.

Germany is nearing completion of a three-year trial under which its worst heroin addicts are given the drug on the state. The heroin was given out in seven clinics in seven cities across the country. Bob Wylie has been to Hamburg to investigate the results. The scheme has been trialled in seven German cities

If you go to Hamburg these days you can't miss the Blue Goals. They are a modern art masterpiece for the World Cup - 120 fluorescent blue goals on buildings all over the city. When the battle for the Jules Rimet Cup is in town Hamburg will host three matches including a quarter final. Big Frank Jerke says he can't wait. He'll be glued to the television and may even try to get a ticket for one of the games. Time was when that would have been unthinkable. Less than three years ago Frank was down and out, homeless and hopelessly hooked on heroin. It was around seven in the morning when I first saw him on Hoegerdamm Street on the outskirts of Hamburg's city centre. He's a big man. He stumbled off the bus and muttered "Morgen", as he passed me at the top of the steps.

Downstairs he rang the bell at the Hamburg heroin clinic. Inside he took a breath test to prove he had not had any alcohol and then he went next door into what they call the application room. There, under medical supervision, he was given a syringe with chemically pure heroin - diamorphine - diluted in water. He got up on one of the beds, dropped his trousers and injected it into his thigh.

He put his head back and closed his eyes for a few minutes then got up, left the clinic and went to work in one of Hamburg's ship repair yards - the same as he used to do all those years ago before the smack got him. "Everything is good now. I've got a nice flat of my own and a good job. Better," he says. He laughed as he left. These days his teeth are a credit to any toothpaste manufacturer.

Frank is one of 500 drug addicts in Germany who are on the heroin pilot programme. It is being conducted in seven major cities across Germany. Hamburg is the biggest trial. German doctors looked at the success of heroin on prescription in Switzerland and then the Netherlands and after years of debate the Bundestag accepted that a pilot should be set up. The project started three years ago and was based on comparing heroin maintenance with methadone maintenance.

Five hundred or so users were given heroin - they had to have failed on methadone beforehand - and 500 were given methadone. The results were published recently. On almost all counts the heroin group did better than the methadone group.

Dr Christian Haasen is the research director of the German trial. In his office at the University of Hamburg he tells me in a matter of fact manner: "The differences between the heroin group and the methadone group are statistically significant. "Those on heroin stayed in treatment longer and the drop out is less than the methadone group. They had much less illicit drug use, using street heroin and cocaine, and so have better health records."

He says he knew from other heroin trials in Switzerland and the Netherlands that there would be differences but that even he was surprised at the improvements sustained by those on heroin. These positives also affect employment prospects. At the Hamburg clinic 40 of the clients are working out of the 90 going there to get heroin.

Ludovic Leblanc, 32, is a waiter in one of the best Italian restaurants in Hamburg. His take home pay, with tips, is 2,400 euros, or £1,800. He's got a good flat in the city centre and looks every inch an aspiring head waiter when he's kitted out for work. Not bad for 15 years on heroin. Ludovic goes to the clinic twice a day - once in the morning before work and during his afternoon break.

His employer knows about it. But in his kitchen 13 storeys up above the river Elbe, I put it to him that, remarkable as his progress has been, he's still stuck on heroin.

"No, I hope to be drug free by this time next year," he asserts.

He's now on a quarter of the daily dose of heroin he was getting when he started at the clinic two years ago. "I couldn't have dreamed of that on methadone. After a year and a half on methadone the dose stayed the same and I would go to get street heroin almost every night," he said. Doctors at the Hoegerdamm clinic say one in 10 are on sufficiently decreasing doses to be described as "moving towards abstinence". But the preliminary figures for the study do not show any remarkable difference between heroin and methadone in the numbers that finish drug free.

Drug deaths are different. Since 2001 German drug deaths are down by 40%, according to Christian Haasen. A policeman made the same point about Hamburg.
Ch Supt Norbert Ziebarth is the head of youth protection for Hamburg police. At the rather imposing Polizeiprasidium HQ in the north of Hamburg he tells me that in the time of the heroin clinic drug deaths in Hamburg have dropped from 101 in 2001 to 61 last year.

The existence of the clinic, in a way, also allowed a police crackdown on what used to be Hamburg's open drug scene. There are no shooting galleries in parks or congregations of drug users at the central railway station, on the scale there used to be. The police support the trial and its extension. "It works for the worst heroin users. We support it," says Det Supt Ziebarth. Not that everyone is of the same view.

The heroin clinic experiment was introduced by the Social Democrat government of Gerhardt Schroeder. Now the conservative CDU, led by Angela Merkel, are in power. They are altogether less enthusiastic about heroin on the state.

I found that out when I met the Hamburg state minister of health, Dietrich Wersich. He disputes some of the findings of the German study and questions the costs of heroin on prescription - thus far three times greater than methadone. "The results for the heroin group were only slightly better than those of the methadone group," he says, "and they may have been due to other factors than solely the prescription of heroin, like better social services support and things like that."

Herr Wersich is also dubious about what he describes as the state becoming in effect a licensed narcotics dealer. "For us to give patients a daily kick on heroin cannot be seen as a permanent solution," he said. "Instead we have to work to get them drug free and how can you say that's being done if the government is giving them a kick on heroin every day... and besides will the taxpayer be prepared to pay for this?"

This weekend the Lancet published a research study of the Swiss heroin clinics, which have been running for 10 years. The study suggests that the Swiss model is responsible for reduced heroin use in the long term. Swiss drug deaths have plummeted in the last 10 years. The Lancet editorial points that in the same time the UK has had the highest drug deaths every year of any European country.

The last official figures for drug-related deaths in Scotland was 356 for 2004. That was almost 50% higher than the figure a decade ago.

So here's the question: Is it now time for Scotland to follow Germany and other European countries and introduce heroin clinics to give our worst addicts heroin on prescription?

The liberalisation of drug laws in Zurich has led to a massive fall in the number of new heroin users, according to a study published yesterday. Now Britain, which has the highest number of drug deaths in Europe, is being urged to follow suit

Independent 2.6.06

Drugs charities called yesterday for Britain to abandon its tough approach to heroin use after research showed one European city had cut the number of new addicts by transforming the image of heroin into a "loser drug".

The UK should follow the example of Zurich, which adopted a liberal drug policy a decade ago, and has seen an 82 per cent decline in new users of heroin, experts say.

The change has been achieved by offering drug addicts in Switzerland "substitution" treatment with injectable heroin on prescription, as well as oral methadone, needle exchange and "shooting galleries" where they can give themselves their fix.

The new approach has medicalised drug use and removed its glamour, researchers say. Crime and deaths linked with drugs have fallen, and the image of heroin use has been transformed from one of rebellionto an illness.

"Finally, heroin seems to have become a loser drug, with its attractiveness fading for young people," said Carlos Nordt of the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich. The Lancet, which publishes the research today, accuses the Government of resisting reforms such as the introduction of drug consumption rooms - safe injecting houses for addicts - which are contributing to Britain's death rate from illegal drug use, which is the highest in Europe.

Their introduction was first recommended by the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2002. Last week a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, backed by police chiefs, urged the Government to act.

"After four years and thousands of needless drug-related deaths, a thorough trial of drug consumption rooms is a requirement the Government cannot afford to refuse a second time," The Lancet says in an editorial.

Responding to the report, Vernon Coaker, a Home Office minister, reiterated the Government's key objection, that drug consumption rooms risked increasing localised dealing and antisocial behaviour.

The Tories said they would consider the proposal. Edward Garner, shadow home affairs minister, said: "If this is to be used as a stepping stone to actually getting people off drugs we will look at it carefully."

There are an estimated 280,000 problem drug users in the UK, most taking heroin and crack cocaine, and around 2,500 deaths a year. Professor John Strang, director of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley hospital in south London, said: "If there is something magical about what the Swiss have done it is not handing out the heroin - it is the heroin mixed with routine and drudgery. All the drugs are consumed on the premises and the patients have to come in three times a day for their dose. It is extremely medicalised. The rebellious nature of drug use has been institutionalised - in the same way that punk was institutionalised when it was adopted by the fashion industry."

Writing in The Lancet, Dr Nordt and his colleague Rudolf Stohler say drug use in Zurich rose rapidly from 80 new registered users in 1975 to 850 new users in 1990. It culminated in open drug scenes at the Platzspitz ("needle park") and subsequently at the former railway station Letten.

Since 1991, when substitution treatment became available to all heroin users in Zurich, the number of new addicts has dropped sharply to 150 in 2002. The overall number of heroin addicts in the city has declined by 4 per cent a year, even though the average length of time each user spends on the drug has increased.

The researchers say the finding confounds critics of the liberal approach who predicted that it would increase drug use. Despite giving addicts readier access to the drugs they want, drug use has fallen. Deaths from overdoses and drug seizures have also declined, they say.

Supporters of the approach hailed the study yesterday as evidence that the policy works. Drug use in the UK continues to rise, figures show.

Victor Adebowale, the chief executive of Turning Point, the drugs charity, said: "Heroin prescribing should be part of the mix of getting people to succeed in treatment. Experience abroad has shown that prescribing heroin helps to stabilise some users who have tried and failed with a methadone prescription, and have been in and out of detox and rehab." A spokeswoman for Drugscope said: "We would very much like to see heroin prescribing extended here. There is a lot of international evidence that it can help entrenched drug users to stabilise their habit and move to a drug-free lifestyle."

Many robberies and much antisocial behaviour is drug-related, and a large number of addicts are homeless. Extremely pure heroin appearing on the streets can lead to a surge in deaths. A BBC survey found that three out of four people believed that illegal drugs were a problem in their local area and more than half thought that the police should be doing more to tackle it.

The spokeswoman for Drugscope added: "The problem with many drug users is that they keep going back to street drugs and drop out of treatment. Effective measures that keep them in treatment are what we need."

Five steps to a more liberal policy

* Prescribing injectable heroin: Evidence shows it can draw users into treatment, is safer, and can help long-term users stabilise their lives.

* Drug consumption rooms: Provide a safe house for drug users to inject, where they do not cause a nuisance and can be monitored.

* Methadone substitution: Offered as an alternative to street drugs it is taken orally, is safer, and gives a gentler high.

* Needle exchange: Providing clean needles reduces the risk of the transmission of diseases including HIV and hepatitis.

* Relaxing the law on cannabis: Downgraded two years ago from a class B to class C drug to free police to concentrate on suppliers.

The doctor: 'Lives have been turned around'

"Our clinic in south London is modelled on the Swiss one. It is deliberately sterile - we don't allow Led Zeppelin or joss sticks. It isn't about creating a social ambience. We are treating 20 to 30 patients - pretty entrenched cases.

"We have no published results yet but we have been very surprised at how well some people have turned round their lives. These are people who had been in treatment and doing badly, usually for years."

"Experience [from elsewhere] shows a large number move on within a year, usually to oral methadone. It is the routine and drudgery that does it. The heroin hooks the junkie into a routine that makes them think, 'I want to move on from here.' That is what the Swiss have achieved.

"But it would be a mistake in the UK to think that this endorses a liberal prescribing policy in the sense of a free-for-all. What it endorses is heroin prescribing in an incredibly rigid environment.

"Drug-users don't want to keep coming to see their drug worker three times a day. If they switch to methadone it might be once a day or once every three days."

"Heroin has been prescribed in Britain to a small group of about 500 users for years. But the scheme lost credibility because the drug can be taken away and is given in very small doses out of fear it would be sold on the black market.

"The new clinic allows high doses like the Swiss because it all goes up their arm - it has to be taken on the premises - and we don't have to be institutionally paranoid about where it is ending up."

Professor John Strang is director of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley hospital in London. The hospital has opened the first pilot scheme offering drug users heroin on prescription. Three more are planned

The former addict: 'Give them heroin'

"I agree with giving addicts heroin in very controlled conditions. I am not saying the method should be used on a 15-year-old but if someone has tried rehab, counselling and everything else but they keep relapsing and committing crimes, then I believe it should be used as a last resort.

"I was addicted to heroin for 23 years, from the age of 15 to 38. I lived on the street, squatted and went in and out of prisons.

"It wasn't a life choice at 15. I was self-medicating at home because I was brought up around alcohol and Valium, which my father used. He was aggressive. I tried to run away three times - first at 12, then 13, and then finally at 15. I ended up on the streets in London, where I met a lot of other distressed young people who were self-medicating.

"I spent quite a lot of time in prison - I think I went in a total of nine or 10 times - because you will do anything to feed your habit. It controls you and you are its servant. You will either resort to crime or to drug dealing because those are the only ways to fund your habit.

My addiction cost £200 a day and it wasn't numbing me any more, my tolerance was so high. I believed I was going to die that way.

"Every time we left prison with our medication, we'd be selling it by the time we got to the prison gates.

"I tried to give up in rehab when I was 34 but I got thrown out after 28 days for being disruptive. I remember being in tears as I walked out of the gates and I was already back on heroin by the time my train pulled into King's Cross.

"When I finally gave up at 38, it took me 12 months to stabilise myself on methadone. I have seen what methadone addiction can do."

Rob English, 42, is a former heroin addict from south London. He uses the services of Turning Point, a social care organisation

Prosecutions to soar under plan to slash limits for drug possession

Guardian: 7.6.06

Drug users caught with as few as five ecstasy tablets or five grams of cannabis - enough for about 10 joints - will be prosecuted as dealers under regulations drawn up by the Home Office, the Guardian has learned. The plan to slash the limit for cannabis possession for personal use would mean that anyone found with more could face a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
The Home Office has written to the government's experts, the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, telling them that ministers are also minded to set the threshold for possession for heroin and cocaine at two grams.

Although home secretary John Reid has yet to take a final decision, draft regulations seen by the Guardian - to be introduced into parliament shortly under last year's drugs act - will mean that those found with more than these specified amounts would be charged with possession with intent to supply. Under the act, dealers of cocaine and heroin face a maximum of life imprisonment. The plan for a 5g cannabis threshold marks a sharp reversal from David Blunkett's decision 18 months ago to ensure that cannabis possession was normally to be dealt with by confiscation and an informal warning.

The proposed thresholds are so low that the advisory committee, which discussed the issue on May 25, is believed to have warned the Home Office that they would cause policing problems. The committee suggested the cannabis threshold should be set at 28g, or 1oz. The experts also told ministers that the five tablet limit for ecstasy was low - given that they can be bought for 50p each in some areas, and some users take up to 10 in one session.

The Home Office letter to the ACMD, seen by the Guardian, says that ministers are setting thresholds at this stage only for the drugs which cause the most harm or which are most prevalent - heroin, crack, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines, and cannabis. It adds that the proposed levels for all the drugs - except amphetamines - are considerably lower than those originally proposed, because most respondents to a consultation on the proposals considered the limits excessive.

The government now proposes the following thresholds:

Cannabis

Ministers propose 5g, or less than 1/5th of ounce - enough for 10-20 joints. This compares with the original proposal of 4ozs or 133g of resin, and 500g or 20 bags of grass. The ACMD has replied that the limit should be set at 28g.

Ecstasy

Ministers propose 1.5g (equal to 5 tablets, costing £15), compared with an original proposal for 10 tablets. The Home Office says it would be more straightforward to do it by weight than number of tablets, as the drug also comes in powder form. The ACMD said the limit should be 2g or 20 tablets, as that was two days' supply.

Amphetamines

Ministers have kept the proposed threshold at 14g but dropped an alternative of 10 x 1g wraps, saying dealers would simply change the size of deals to avoid going above the threshold. The ACMD said the threshold should be 10g, and questioned the rationale for a threshold higher than other drugs.

Heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine

Ministers are "minded to set" a threshold of 2g for possession, compared with the original proposal of 7g. The proposed number of individual wraps - a maximum of 10 in each case - has also been dropped for these class A drugs.

When the ACMD's technical committee considered the issue in April, it was pointed out that even Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, had misunderstood the proposals: "Many people still think that the provisions are about setting levels that are reasonable for personal us,e and that if they are caught with amounts below the thresholds they will not be arrested for possession with intent to supply. The reality is contrary to this." Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope, an information charity, said this confusion had made ministers far more cautious. "We are concerned at the amounts being considered. The rationale for some thresholds remains unclear, and it is uncertain how many more people may be prosecuted with the more serious charge of intent to supply."

Paul Flynn, a Labour MP and drugs campaigner, said he hoped the ACMD would "give the proposals the attention they deserve, given that they come from a department in chaos. Let's hope they throw them out. I am sure that many people will throw up their hands in horror at this."

In January, Mr Reid's predecessor at the Home Office, Charles Clarke, confirmed Mr Blunkett's decision to downgrade cannabis from class B to class C. Mr Clarke conceded that the move had created confusion over the drug's legal status, but said it was based in part on the fact that the reclassification had not led to an increase in use among young adults, contrary to his expectations.

At the same time, Mr Clarke announced a crackdown on British cannabis farms and a public education campaign to stress both the harm and the illegal status of the drug.

Comment: These proposals are terribly low. And they were the inevitable outcome of a decision to proceed with the ill-considered threshold levels. The original levels proposed were unquestionably high - and probably meaninglessly so. But the position now adopted - a reversal of the previous levels, takes the situation to another extreme.

If these levels are passed - and then agreed by Parliament, then we will see prison levels soar. While there should be a huge backlash from the field, the increasingly muted and neutered commentators are unlikely to do so. Will members of the ACMD resign in protest? Will agencies refuse Home Office money on the back of this? Course not. But this is a disastrous set of proposals and all effort needs to be made to challenge these proposals.

Making a hash of the drug laws

Thursday June 8, 2006
The Guardian

The government is in a mess over its proposed limits for drug possession. Initial proposals sounded like they would effectively decriminalise small-scale dealing, however the new limits penalise even modest users of different drugs, with dealing charges now possible on modest personal purchases (Revealed: how 10 joints could lead to 14 years for dealing, June 7).
The problems are most acute with cannabis and ecstasy, for which both limits would penalise most regular users. The limits of 28g of cannabis or 20 tablets proposed by the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs would be more in line with effective current practice by police forces.

The existing law, pre-2005 Drugs Act, was flexible enough to penalise street dealers with small amounts wrapped up, but allow acquittal of regular heavy users who could satisfy the courts that their "bulk-discount" purchases were for their personal use.

As the leading agency in the UK providing expert evidence to the courts in borderline "intent to supply" cases, such new limits could result in an explosion of work, as the vast majority of intent cases are likely to be defended vigorously. That means extra costs both in enforcement and in legal aid, gridlock in the courts, and thousands of ordinary drug users stigmatised as dealers.
Matthew Atha
Director, Independent Drug Monitoring Unit

Once again this government displays its grotesquely illiberal instincts. The five grams proposal for cannabis is so utterly absurd, it is obviously a piece of New Labour spin designed to make the retreat to one ounce appear a reasonable compromise. But even this is outrageous, the vast majority of people in possession of an ounce of dope are not dealers. The fundamental point, though, is that the right to intoxication is as real as the right to climb mountains - an activity which kills a far higher prop