Posts Tagged ‘Drug Enforcement Administration’

Fake drugs, real problems: Spice, Bath Salts & 2C-E

Apr 14th, 11 / 8 Comments

In December, we reported on the DEA’s ban on five chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana, more commonly known as “spice.” Since then, more than 20 states have independently outlawed synthetic cannabinoid chemicals or moved to take them off the shelves. But synthetic marijuana is still readily available — its manufacturers staying a step ahead of the law through the development of new formulas mere molecules apart from the illegal ones.

Now there is a new synthetic doppelganger growing in popularity: “synthetic cocaine” sold under the guise of bath salts. (If you haven’t heard of it, watch this Today Show story). The effects of this new designer drug, made with chemicals like methylenedioxypyrovalerone, have been compared in the media to those of cocaine, MDMA, and even LSD. Whatever the high may be, the American Poison Control Center says bath salts have resulted in 1,511 trips to the emergency room this year. And the horror stories in the media connected to the chemical are mounting: Last month a 22-year-old Rutgers University student was allegedly beaten to death by her bath-salt-snorting boyfriend. Weeks earlier, authorities in Kentucky said a young woman driving on a highway after using bath salts became convinced her 2-year-old was a demon. She allegedly pulled over, dropped the child on his head, and walked away carrying her 5-year-old. In January, Neil Brown of Fulton, Missouri, slit his face and stomach with a hunting knife after allegedly taking bath salts.

Despite the stories about the dangers of synthetic cannabis and cocaine and the attempts to outlaw some of them, these drug imposters aren’t difficult to find, as I discovered after just five minutes of telephone calls to smoke shops in my area. I called a dozen smoke shops in the Phoenix area asking if they carried bath salts and spice, which banned the primary spice chemicals earlier this year. Only one shop said no, and the clerk referred me to another shop; another said yes and corrected me. “Um, herbal incense, you mean,” the guy on the phone said.

Another synthetic drug called 2C-E, has been garnering attention after a mass overdose at a party in Minnesota that led to one death. On March 16, 19-year-old Trevor Robinson died in Minneapolis after overdosing at the party; ten others at the party went to the emergency room after using the chemical. Reportedly similar to LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, 2C-E is a synthetic hallucinogen developed more than 30 years ago by DEA licensed psychopharmacologist, Alexander Shulgin. Like other designer drugs when they first hit the market, 2C-E is not a controlled substance in the U.S. and, like the others, synthetics with similar chemical structures are also legal and available online. Minnesota legislators are weighing a ban on the chemical.

So why the sudden shift to designer drugs? Are harsh penalties nudging thousands to try “legal” alternatives? Are we just bored of getting high au naturel? According to a report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime last year, global drug use is shifting towards synthetic drugs as demand for coke and heroin declines in developed countries and rises in the developing world. This is in large part due to Obama’s Afghan counterinsurgency strategy, coca eradication efforts in Colombia, and a fungus outbreak affecting the source of 89 percent of the world’s opium. Read more here.

The chemical synthetics may be more dangerous than the illicit drugs they replicate — especially in the case of chemical-drenched spice over naturally-grown marijuana. But is banning these chemicals the answer? The Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates legalizing marijuana and ending the drug war, says banning “spice” and other synthetic drugs just creates an illegal market for those chemicals as well. ”When policymakers outlaw a drug, they give up all control over it,” Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, told USA Today. “Instead of handing Spice and other drugs over to organized crime to make and distribute, it would be better to regulate the drugs to prohibit young people from getting access.”

What do you think?

-David Robles with AJC

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Drug Policy, Synthetic Drugs

This Week in Drugs (March 27, 2011)

Mar 27th, 11 / 2 Comments

Northern Arizona University associate professor Veronica Perez Rodriguez is reportedly safe after being briefly kidnapped in Juarez, The Arizona Republic reported. The 35-year-old anthropology professor was visiting her family last Friday when armed men abducted her in what is known as “express kidnapping.” Rodriguez was released in less than 24 hours, but it is unclear if she was forced to pay a ransom.

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, approximately 230,000 people have been displaced by Mexico’s drug war, the Associated Press reports. The report is based on independent studies by local researchers; the Mexican government does not compile figures on people who have had to flee their homes because of turf battles between drug enterprises. “An estimated half of those displaced crossed the border into the United States, which would leave about 115,000 people internally displaced, most likely in the States of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz,” the report states. According to the study, Mexico has done little in response to the mass displacement of its people, although a government census suggests an exodus in some areas.

Hundreds of Mexican news outlets agreed on Thursday to first-ever guidelines for covering the drug war that has drastically increased risks for journalists, The Los Angeles Times reported. Since Calderon’s term, 22 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, at least eight in direct response to reporting on crimes and corruption. The guidelines also urge news organizations to unite against threats to journalists, such as by jointly publishing stories. Under the 10-point accord, the companies should draw up standards for showing violent images such as decapitated bodies and provide more context when reporting on drug violence.

Fresh from a long and hard civil war, El Salvador is now struggling as Mexican drug gangs have begun utilizing the Central American nation’s new, U.S.-funded highway to traffic cocaine north, The Los Angeles Times reports. “El Caminito,” or the little pathway, is being infiltrated by street gangs with roots in Los Angeles and Mexican drug cartels using secretive networks left over from the civil war and the new land route to move drugs. Combined with El Salvador’s use of the U.S. dollar as official currency that makes it easier to launder money, the conditions set the scene of a new chapter in the violent turf wars of Mexican drug cartels.”

U.S. Border Patrol agents recovered more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana in two separate incidents Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Ajo Station agents used surveillance to locate 31 bundles of marijuana hidden in brush in the first incident. In the second, agents followed a suspicious vehicle later found abandoned containing 30 bundles of pot.

Months after the release of the first Wikileaks cables, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual resigned last week, The Economist reported. Although the Mexico City cables were “milder than most,” a furious Felipe Calderón criticized Pascual’s “ignorance” and believed he should go. Pascual’s assessments of Mexico’s mishandling of the drug war and the “grey” senior members of Calderón’s National Action Party, his relationship with the daughter of a leading opposition politician and the fact that he is an expert on the delicate subject of failed states likely all contributed to his ousting.

Four men straw purchasing guns in North Texas bought more than $100,000 in assault rifles over the past six months, including one that was used in a shootout in Mexico that killed eight, federal authorities allege. NBC reports that the men are accused of purchasing 129 assault rifles since October, usually two at a time, that have been used in Mexico’s bloody drug war. They face federal charges of conspiracy to deal firearms without a license.

Federal regulators are forcing banks on California’s North Coast to investigate the financial transactions of clients who may be dealing marijuana, including many operating legally in the medical marijuana industry, according to The Press Democrat. Bringing the local banks into the drug war and instructing them to spend time and money in search of illegal activity has led some banks to simply close the bank accounts of medical marijuana dispensaries to avoid the hassle.

A Las Vegas medical marijuana advocate was arrested in a raid of her house after Metro Police suspected she and her husband of selling marijuana, 8 News Now reports. Medical marijuana patient Rhonda Shade says about  40 mature plants were confiscated by police. Read more here. Read about recent medical marijuana raids by the DEA in West Hollywood here and in Montana here.

Meanwhile, a new report shows medical pot sales have grown to rival Viagra, Time reports. Sales have reached $1.7 billion in states where it is legal, compared to annual Viagra sales of $1.9 billion. The report’s editor, Ted Rose, “noted that 1 in 4 Americans lives in a state in which medical marijuana is legal, and that nearly 25 million people in those states have medical problems for which the drug can be prescribed.” Rose projects sales to reach $8.9 billion in five years.

A new study by CUNY Professor Harry Levine and attorney Loren Siegel shows New York City has spent $75 million arresting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana in 2010 alone. Each arrest costs at least $1,000 to $2,000 and 50,383 people arrested for marijuana in 2010. Most of the marijuana confiscated is found through controversial “stop and frisk” practices. The NYPD made 600,000 recorded “stop and frisks,” and many additional unrecorded stops last year.

As of Thursday evening, all ten representatives and all five senators of Seattle’s state legislative delegation has gone on the record in support of taxing, regulating, and legalizing marijuana, Slog reported. The unheard of uniform support for legalization in Seattle represents a significant shift in the mainstream acceptance of marijuana.

-DR & AJC

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Drug Policy, Drug War History, Guns, Mexican drug cartels, This Week In Drugs, U.S.-Mexico border

This Week in Drugs (Feb. 25, 2011)

Feb 25th, 11 / 1 Comment

Federal authorities have launched a nationwide crackdown on drug cartels following last week’s murder of a U.S. agent in Mexico. Arizona’s acting Special Agent in Charge, Doug Coleman, said several hundred DEA agents teamed up with hundreds more federal and local officers, resulting in 31 arrests. “The overall message here is that we as U.S. law enforcement are going to do something when we see that a cartel in Mexico is going to target U.S. agents,” Coleman told The Arizona Republic. By Thursday morning, law enforcement nationwide had seized more than $4.5 million in cash and nearly 20 guns, arrested more than 100 people and confiscated about 23 pounds of methamphetamine, 107 kilograms of cocaine, 5 pounds of heroin and 300 pounds of marijuana. Read more about the crackdown from The Washington Post here.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon will meet with President Obama next week to address the drug war’s increasing violence, especially the murder of a U.S. agent near Mexico City, Business Insider reports. Mexican defense officials told The Wall Street Journal the attack was a mistake in identity, however some believe the agents may have been targeted by the cartel. Either way, U.S. lawmakers are considering ways of arming U.S. agents in Mexico, something that has not been allowed since a 1990 agreement. Read more from Fox News here.

The Pinal County (AZ) Sheriff’s Office reported Wednesday morning the arrest of 102 suspects and the seizure of 3,200 pounds of marijuana after a four-day operation in the Vekol Valley and Silver Bell Mountain areas, The Arizona Republic reports. The drug and human trafficking-focused operation also resulted in the recovery of seven stolen vehicles and 12 firearms.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill Tuesday outlawing the sale of synthetic marijuana, commonly known as ‘Spice,’ the Phoenix Business Journal reports. The federal and state government are moving to make Spice and its sister compounds, once legally sold at smoke shops, illegal.

Months after Butte County, Calif., law enforcement coordinated raids on seven marijuana dispensaries, the District Attorney’s Office has yet to file criminal charges or return confiscated money to the dispensary owners, Toke of the Town reports. More than 100 law enforcement officers on served search warrants June 30 on seven marijuana dispensaries and 11 residences.

A 10,000-square-foot hydroponics store enthusiastically marketing itself as the “Wal-Mart of weed” will open tomorrow in Sacramento, The Sacramento Bee reports. The first national franchise for a company that bills itself as a supply and training destination for legal pot growers, weGrow attracted national attention for its unfettered embrace of pot culture.

Washington’s largest newspaper, The Seattle Times, published an editorial last Friday calling for the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana in the state of Washington. According to Seattle’s alternative news site The Stranger, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske contacted the newspaper to speak personally with the editorial board after the editorial appeared. Seattle Times editorial writer Bruce Ramsey told The Stranger that the White House called “right after our editorial ran, so I drew the obvious conclusion… he didn’t like our editorial.” The meeting, scheduled for next Friday, hasn’t stopped The Seattle Times from publishing pro-pot editorials like one urging House Speaker Frank Chopp to allow a hearing on House Bill 1550, state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson’s bill to legalize marijuana and sell it through the Washington state liquor stores.

A man in Fitchburg, Mass., became the 10th to die in US drug enforcement operations this year after being shot by a state trooper on Tuesday, StoptheDrugWar.com reports. According to the police, 21-year-old Roger Padilla refused to pull over, leading the trooper on a brief pursuit to a cul-de-sac. The trooper stepped out of his black, unmarked SUV and repeatedly commanded Padilla to exit. According to police, Padilla began driving his car toward the trooper at which point he was fired upon and killed.

New Colombian criminal bands are springing up to take over cocaine production and fill a void created by the U.S.-backed drug war, Reuters reports. Linked to former paramilitary groups, the gangs have slaughtered human rights activists, public officials and civilians, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Finally, the wealthy Mexican city of Monterrey has become a ‘city of massacres’ as drug war violence erupts in the streets. Watch the PBS NewsHour video here:

-David Robles

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Drug Policy, Drug War History, Guns, Mexican drug cartels, This Week In Drugs, U.S.-Mexico border

This Week in Drugs (Feb. 5, 2011)

Feb 5th, 11 / 2 Comments

Mexican authorities in Guadalajara were scrambling Tuesday night to regain control of the country’s second-largest city after violent clashes between criminal gangs and police, the Associated Press reports. The suspected drug cartel gunmen used grenades and forced civilians out of their cars, using them as roadblocks on major streets. Fernando Guzman Perez, interior secretary of the state of Jalisco, said the seven coordinated attacks were likely in retaliation for  recent arrests of drug cartel members.

This prompted American officials to warn U.S. citizens not to drive at night in certain areas of Guadalajara, the AP reports. A message on the website of the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara posted  Thursday said the consulate had prohibited U.S. diplomatic personnel from traveling the highway to the airport at night, and that it “recommends that U.S. citizens consider similar precautions.”

The Ladies Professional Golf Association canceled the Tres Marias Championship in Morelia, Mexico, over safety concerns regarding the violence from the drug war. LPGA spokesman David Higdon told the AP that its security firm “determined the safety issues were too severe” but the association hopes to return next year if conditions have improved.

Emilio Gutierrez Soto, the Mexican journalist who fled across the border after saying he received death threats due to his critical coverage of the Mexican military, spent seven hours pleading his case to Immigration Judge Robert Hough in El Paso before it was rescheduled for May 9, 2012. The AP reports that Gutierrez and his son were placed in immigration jail for seven months but that Gutierrez has obtained a work permit and is supporting his son and himself with odd jobs in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Border Patrol Agent Bryan Gonzalez was allegedly fired for talking to a fellow agent about Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and stating his opinion on the matter of legalization of marijuana. Gonzalez has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his termination violated the First Amendment.

Former South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has recently spoke out on America’s drug war by calling the government’s response a failure and advocating the end of drug prohibition, The Post & Courier of Charleston, S.C., reports. Ravenel, who is still serving a term of three years of probation for a 2007 cocaine conspiracy charge, called drug abuse a “medical, healthcare and spiritual problem, not a problem to be solved with a criminal justice model.”

The largest medical cannabis dispensary in Berkeley, Calif., the Berkeley Patients Group, owes the state $6 million in taxes and interest from three years when it did not pay, reports The 420 Times. The group disputed the tax in 2007 saying medical marijuana should be left untaxed like other medicines, but lost its case. Now, California wants the money.

Washington Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson of Seattle has once again called for the state legislature to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and over, My Ballard reported. Dickerson says legalization could generate $400 million every two years and ease the budget shortfall.

With Republicans in the House looking to limit spending in the next fiscal year, supporters of drug policy reform are suggesting cutting the DEA’s budget. Marijuana Policy Project’s Steve Fox told Talking Points Memo, “The entire federal budget dedicated to keeping marijuana illegal and carrying out all the enforcement measures to do so is really something that is long past its prime.”

-DR

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Drug Policy, Drug War History, Mexican drug cartels, Social programs, This Week In Drugs, U.S.-Mexico border

This Week In Drugs (Jan. 22, 2011)

Jan 22nd, 11 / 1 Comment

With Amanda covering of the horrific Tucson shootings and my own trip to Mexico City, it’s been an eventful break for us here at CrawfordOnDrugs.com, but the drug war never sleeps.

Police in Monterrey, Mexico found five mutilated bodies outside the wealthy city last Tuesday, part of a series of attacks that have killed 23 people. Reuters reports the bodies of the five men, their arms and legs chopped off, were dumped on a street in the town of Montemorelos just south of Monterrey. Part of the same string of killings, three brothers were killed in a drive-by-shooting while they were eating tacos, gunmen killed five men in a working class neighborhood, and a woman died of a heart attack after witnessing the multiple homicide. Nine others were killed within a span of 24 hours.

In a surprise move by President Alvaro Colom, hundreds of Guatemalan troops flooded the northern state of Alta Verapaz last month to combat Mexico’s feared Zetas drug gang in small towns near the border, Reuters reported. What the president has declared a “state of siege,” has been extended for another 30 days as the military struggles to block cartel destabilization and “recover governance in Alta Verapez.” Read more about the long reach of the drug war here and watch a video on Mexico’s increasing role in the production of our Meth here.

Mexican journalist Marcela Turati Munoz has compiled the stories of victims of the drug war in her new book, “Fuego Cruzado,” Spanish for ‘crossfire.’ CNN reports that Turati hopes the book, for which she interviewed the families of slain victims in 10 states across Mexico, will give voice to the innocent victims of drug war violence and encourage others to “reflect on what happened before and think about what type of society we are forming, with so much suffering, so much pain and so many losses.”

A journalist on the other side of the conflict, Emilio Gutierrez Soto arrived at a federal court Friday to plead his case for U.S. asylum, claiming he fled across the border with his 15-year-old son after receiving death threats for his critical coverage of the military in Mexico’s bloody drug war, the AP reports.

AFP reports that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make a one-day visit to Guanajuato, Mexico on Monday to discuss tackling Mexico’s violent drug gangs and the financial crisis with Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.

Mexico’s former president Vicente Fox, once known for being hard on crime and drugs in particular, told Time that his views have shifted dramatically in favor of complete legalization of the production, transit, and sale of prohibited drugs. “Prohibition didn’t work in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the apple,” Fox says. While there have been countries in the past who have decriminalized the personal possession of many drugs, none has ever legalized them fully due to rigid U.N. treaties. Fox says the country cannot wait for the whole world but should instead plow on with reform.

To read about the results of Portugal’s 10-year experiment with the decriminalization of all drugs, listen to NPR‘s story here.

Arizona legislators are moving to pass a bill that would classify synthetic cannabis as a dangerous drug prohibited for sale, transfer, or use under Arizona’s Criminal Code. To read more about synthetic cannabis (a.k.a. “Spice”), check out my story on the DEA’s temporary nationwide ban here.

Sold under the same guise as synthetic cannabis, which is marketed as “incense,” a synthetic drug sold as “bath salt” is flying off the shelves of head-shops across the nation WMBB.com reports. A psychoactive stimulant in the form of a white powder that is snorted, the packaging of brands like “Blue Silk,” “White Lightning” and “Mojo Diamond” all say they are not for human consumption, making it available legally.

In Utah, police shot and killed a man within seconds of storming his parents’ home in a drug raid that resulted in a small amount of pot and an empty vial of what may have contained meth. Todd Blair, 45, raised a golf club when the narcotics strike force entered his house. Within seconds, without demanding he drop the club or raise his hands, Sgt. Troy Burnett fired three shots, killing Blair. To read the full story from the Salt Lake Tribune, click here. To see the video of the raid, go here.

-DR

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Drug Policy, Drug War History, Mexican drug cartels, This Week In Drugs, U.S.-Mexico border

Chemical-laced “Spice” soon to be illegal

Dec 17th, 10 / 12 Comments

The DEA has implemented a temporary ban on the chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana, a.k.a. Spice or K2, effective Dec. 24. The chemical-drenched product was developed in response to prohibition of marijuana — and has proven more dangerous than natural cannabis. CrawfordOnDrugs’ David Robles explores the issue.

by David Robles

Cigarette smoke unfurling from his mouth, 23-year-old Kevin Tighe shakes his head and crosses his arms, the bong-lined shelves behind him eerily spotlighted in the fluorescent glow of the head shop. Packets and vials of synthetic marijuana are displayed in the glass case before him, but he says he hopes all of it will be gone in a few days.

“I will do whatever I can to help get this stuff off the street,” he says.

Tighe works at a shop in Tempe making and selling pipes, bongs and, until recently, synthetic cannabis commonly known as “Spice.” Sold as herbal incense and often labeled as “not for human consumption,” synthetic cannabis products like Spice and K2 have become increasingly popular, especially among teens and young adults. “Spice” is promoted as a safe and legal alternative to a marijuana, but the American Association of Poison Control Centers has received nearly 2,000 reports of people becoming ill after smoking synthetic cannabis products since the start of 2010, compared to about a dozen such reports in 2009.

The spike in poisonings has  prompted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to use its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily control five chemicals used in the making of synthetic cannabis. A November 24 press release from the DEA specified that possessing or selling products containing the chemicals JWH-018; JWH-073; JWH-200; CP-47,497; and cannabicyclohexanol will be illegal in the United States for at least one year beginning Dec. 24 while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services studies whether “Spice” should be permanently controlled.

“These products have not been tested on people and because most evidence is anecdotal, it is important to do further research,” says Barbara Carreno, a spokeswoman for the DEA. “You’re taking a chance with your physical and psychological health when you use [synthetic cannabis].”

Tighe explains the process for producing the synthetic cannabis once made in his smoke shop: Employees weighed out 56 grams of Pedicularis densiflora (commonly known as Indian Warrior herb) and sprayed it with a mixture of 40 mL of acetone and 3.6 grams of a chemical he calls “J-dub,” a moniker for one of any number of analgesic chemicals found naturally in cannabis including those recently banned by the DEA. The mixture is left to sit overnight, allowing the acetone to evaporate leaving only the “J-dub” coated potpourri.

Dr. John W. Huffman, the Clemson University organic chemist whose research is responsible for first synthesizing the many analogues of marijuana’s active ingredient Tetrahydrocannabinol, told the Associated Press in November that the chemicals “are dangerous and anyone who uses them is stupid.” According to Huffman’s Clemson University profile, his research through the National Institute on Drug Abuse focused on “the potential development of new pharmaceutical products and an exploration of the geometry of both the cannabinoid brain and peripheral receptors.” The chemicals began being used by manufacturers of synthetic cannabis in countries like China and Germany before eventually finding their way to the United States. Of the 450 synthetic cannabinoid compounds developed through his research, three will be illegal under the new DEA rule.

Although the effects of smoking synthetic cannabis are not widely known, reports include vomiting, seizures and hallucinations. Tighe says he believes it is also very addictive.

“[The shop] has been broken into three times; all three times our ‘Spice’ stash was cleared out but they didn’t break or steal anything else,” Tighe says. “They probably got away with $3,500 of product.” He attributes the theft to a gripping addiction to spice, noting that some customers buy more than two packets a week.

After the break-ins, shop security was tightened with extra locks, security cameras and an extra metal door. A thief attempting to break into the shop was caught on the new security cameras, his face recognizable to the shop employees as a returning “Spice” customer.

A young man in his early thirties, chatting with his mother-in-law over his cell phone, walks into the shop and buys a gram of King Krypto brand “herbal incense.” Tighe says the man, who is a regular, picks up a sparkling package adorned with the Rastafarian lion at least weekly. At an average of $20 a gram, synthetic cannabis can be purchased online, through magazines, smoke shops, head shops, and at some convenience stores and gas stations, raising worry for many parents.

On Dec. 2, parents and community members in Tempe, Ariz., attended an informational workshop on synthetic cannabis hosted by the Tempe Union High School District’s No Parent Left Behind University program. A speaker at the event, Stephanie Siete, Director of Public Relations for Community Bridges, Inc., says synthetic cannabinoids are between five to 15 times as potent as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

“The effects are not marijuana. They are much more intense,” Siete says. “The bottom line: People are getting really sick.”

Siete’s presentation on the dangers of synthetic cannabis included a video message from an Indianola, Iowa, family whose son committed suicide after suffering a “K2 induced panic attack” within an hour of smoking the fake pot back in June 2010.

Tempe Union High School District Associate Superintendent Gregory Wyman attributes the increasing number of “Spice”-related cases to curiosity and availability and says educating kids and parents is vital.

“Just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s safe,” Wyman said. “[Designer drugs have] kind of grown exponentially and because everything is so new, it’s what makes education for parents and for kids so important.”

At the parent workshop, Mojgan Kavian says her eighth grade son at Kyrene Middle School met a boy on the bus who was put in time out for selling “Spice” he says was given to him by his older brother.

“It’s amazing how normal it is for that kid that he’ll tell [my son] on the bus about it,” Kavian says. “He told me it wasn’t a big deal. He said, ‘Mom, it’s legal.’”

In the final weeks before the official DEA ban on the chemicals used to make “Spice,”  Tighe says he will continue to offer the only advice his job allows him:

“Until it’s out of the store I tell my customers whatever they do with it when they leave the store is their business but it’s not for human consumption. I tell them I wouldn’t smoke it.”

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Drug Policy

This Week In Drugs (Dec. 3, 2010)

Dec 4th, 10 / 0 Comments

According to classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the U.S. has lost confidence in the Mexican army’s competence and ability to win the drug war, the UK’s Guardian.co reported. This comes in stark contrast to the insistence by Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his administration that the state is succeeding in winning the drug war that has been responsible for more than 28,000 deaths in four years. The documents show a growing panic in the Mexican government and the fear that it could “lose” entire regions to drug trafficking organizations.

USA Today is reporting on the growing number of women working for criminal gangs in Mexico, participating in everything from extortion and kidnapping to murder.

Meanwhile, a report by the National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that criminals smuggle between $18 billion and $39 billion each year across the Southwest border into Mexico. The El Paso Times reports that U.S. agents have seized about $41 million in cash leaving the United States at border crossings but without full-time inspections of outbound traffic, they have seized only a fraction of the cash smuggled south.

Methamphetamine production continues to be a problem — both in Mexico and in the U.S. Last week, The Washington Post reported that Mexico is now the number one source of meth in the United States. Then, this week The Wall Street Journal countered with this story on the rise of meth labs in rural areas of the U.S. — in part due to interdiction efforts in Mexico.

With drug war violence continuing to rage in Mexico, Fox News is asking why the Obama administration is ignoring the drug war. See Greta Van Susteren’s report here.

Others are criticizing President Obama for not acting more boldly when he issued his first presidential pardons this week. Politico reports that four of the nine pardons were for people convicted of cocaine-related offenses. However Obama did not act to reduce lengthy sentences related to the controversial crack vs. powder sentencing disparity. And Politico notes that, ironically, some of the people pardoned served relatively minor sentences compared to the lengthy sentences they would receive under current mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug crimes.

Police and military in Rio de Janeiro launched a massive sweep of the Alemao favela complex in northern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday morning in search of drug gang leaders and their illegal products. The complex, a labyrinth of slums that is home to numerous drug gangs, was stormed by 2,600 police and soldiers with armored vehicles. At least 35 people have died, 174 arrested and 123 detained since surge began last Sunday. The effort comes as the city and others prepare for Brazil to host the 2014 World Cup soccer matches and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Also in Brazil, a surprising discovery when authorities busted a Brazilian drug lord: he turned out to be a Justin Bieber fan. Perez Hilton is reporting that authorities discovered an oversized mural of the youthful pop star and tween heart throb when they busted a man considered one of the areas top drug traffickers.

In Pinal County, Ariz., more than two dozen people have been detained in recent weeks and thousands of pounds of marijuana have been seized in the Vekol Valley, the Arizona Reublic reports. On November 17, the Deputies arrested a 17-year-old boy and seized 12 bundles of marijuana. The next day, the drivers of three trucks believed to be headed to pick up illegal immigrants on I-8 were arrested. Later the same day, authorities observed seven people carrying large burlap bundles of marijuana on their backs near I-8. For a complete list of arrests and seizures in the past week, see the story here.

Soon, a new drug will be regulated by the DEA: the herbal incense known as Spice, which is often described as synthetic marijuana, will soon be illegal. The agency announced that this month they would finalize rules to ban the chemicals used to make the substance, which has been legally sold in smoke shops in Arizona and most other states but which has been the subject of increasing scrutiny and outlawed in 15 states. The federal ban is temporary and begins on Christmas Eve. Read more here.

–AJC & DR

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Drug Policy, Drug War History, Mexican drug cartels, This Week In Drugs, U.S.-Mexico border

This Week In Drugs (Nov. 19, 2010)

Nov 19th, 10 / 2 Comments

Across the border from southeast Texas, the Mexican town of Ciudad Mier has become a ghost town after some 300 families were forced to flee the violent turf war between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, National Public Radio reported. The Lions Club in the nearby town of Miguel Aleman has been made into a shelter for fleeing residents, making it the first refugee camp of the Mexican cartel war. According to Mier residents, all but a dozen of the town’s 6,500 residents have fled the violence.

Mexican police detained a minor last Friday and are looking for another in connection with disturbing photos and videos posted online depicting torture and murder by supposed Gulf Cartel executioners, the Associated Press reported. Pedro Luis Benitez, the attorney general of central Morelos state, commented on the trend of increasingly younger cartel gunmen: “It is easy for [the cartels] to give them a firearm, making it appear as it if were a plastic weapon and that it is a game, when in fact it is not,” Benitez said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon also commented on the use of young mercenaries by the cartels: “In the most violent areas of the country, there is an unending recruitment of young people without hope, without opportunities.”

Amid the rampant drug cartel violence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s medical workers are increasingly at the front lines of the drug war the AP reported. According to Physician Ramon Murrieta Gonzalez, the president-elect of the Medical College of Mexico, 15 doctors have been shot to death in Ciudad Juarez in the past two years, more than 250 Ciudad Juarez doctors now commute across the border from El Paso, and 30 percent of the city’s private practices have closed. “We are in the middle of a war without choosing to be,” Murrieta said. “Commandos assassinate wounded men in the hospital – once in the surgical suite while they were operating on the patient. This is a grave danger to the entire country.”

In a recent interview with CBS, Calderon told Peter Greenberg that the United States’ drug consumption is largely to blame for the drug war raging to the south. “My concern is, according to the official data in the United States, consumption of drugs is growing every single year. Second, at the same time the United States is the largest provider of weapons to criminals in Mexico,” Calderon said. (See the segment from Calderon’s interview here and read more about the flow of arms to Mexico here.)

In the U.S., though, the government wants you to believe we’re winning the drug war, and they’re pledging to keep fighting it in the same way. DEA nominee Michele Leonhart, a Bush holdover who is widely abhorred by drug policy reformers, is one step closer to confirmation by the U.S. Senate. In a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Leonhart reiterated her opposition to marijuana legalization and pledged to continue to enforce marijuana laws, even in states where medical marijuana is legal. Drug reform groups hoped she would face tough questions about the agency’s actions on medical marijuana, but that did not materialize. Instead Senators grilled her on DEA rules that make it more difficult for some nursing home patients to get prescription medications.

In the aftermath of the historic consideration of marijuana legalization in California, the DEA reissued a guide coaching parents and opponents to legalization. “Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization” takes on what the agency describes as “myths about drug legalization” and boasts of progress in fighting drug use and trafficking. You can see the guide here.

Meanwhile, a study in the British Journal of Criminology reports of the success of drug decriminalization in Portugal. Described as one of the first evidence-based examinations of drug decriminalization, the study found that decriminalization did not lead to increases in drug use, as predicted. “Indeed, evidence indicates reductions in problematic use, drug-related harms and criminal justice overcrowding.” Read the study here.

-DR & AJC
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This Week in Drugs (Nov. 5, 2010)

Nov 5th, 10 / 7 Comments

By David Robles

As of Friday mid-afternoon, Arizona Proposition 203 to legalize medical marijuana had narrowed its loss to about 4,600 votes, according to campaign manager Andrew Myers. Myers told CrawfordOnDrugs he is optimistic the measure will pass because early ballots are trending in favor of medical marijuana. There remain about 300,000 early and provisional ballots left to count, he said.

California’s attention-getting Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana for recreational use by adults was defeated Tuesday, thanks in part to the elderly, Salon.com reported. According to a tweet from AP’s Jennifer Agiesta, six in 10 California voters under 30 say they voted “yes” while seven in 10 seniors say they voted “no” on Proposition 19. Although the  marijuana measure was defeated Tuesday, many proponents of marijuana policy reform believe that marijuana legalization is a matter of when, not if. Plans for new campaigns to legalize the drug by 2012 have materialized not only in California, but Colorado as well. Although the outcome is unknown, marijuana policy has become a mainstream issue.

Read more here.

Despite the astounding number of accidental deaths related to prescription drug abuse (seven every day in Florida), Gary Martin of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office told addiction prevention and treatment professionals attending a conference on prescription drug abuse that “the misuse of prescription drugs is second only to marijuana abuse as a drug problem.” U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske (who called for an end to the “War on Drugs”) told the Broward and Palm Beach New Times that legalizing marijuana would not answer the country’s problems, saying, “Marijuana is not medicine…Treatments should be determined by scientists and not by voters.”

According to a new British study that takes societal effects into consideration, alcohol is more destructive than crack cocaine and heroin. The study evaluated and ranked substances on how destructive they are to users and society as a whole. Heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine were the most lethal to users, but alcohol ranked above heroin and crack cocaine as having the most dangerous wider social effect.

The drug war saw a particularly eventful week with the seizure of 30 tons of marijuana following the discovery of a tunnel between Mexico and California. The San Diego Tunnel Task Force discovered the 600-yard underground tunnel after observing suspicious activity involving a tractor trailer truck later found to be carrying 10 tons of marijuana packed in large cargo boxes. The tunnel connects a warehouse in Tijuana to the warehouse in Otay Mesa and is equipped with a rail, lighting, and ventilation systems.

The bodies of 18 men found in mass grave outside Acapulco may solve the mystery of 20 men who were whisked away by gunmen in late September shortly after arriving in Acapulco on vacation, the Los Angeles Times reported. In a grainy Youtube video, two beaten, bruised men confess to killing the group of 20 and reveal where they are buried. On Tuesday, police checked an anonymous telephone tip that lead to the discovery of two corpses believed to be the men who appear in the video. The 6-by-12-foot mass grave was found near the men who had an attached note that attributed their murders to a drug-trafficking gang operating in the area.

Expreso de Matamoros daily reporter Carlos Alberto Guajardo Romero died today during a confrontation between Mexican federal agents and armed gunmen in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, making him the 66th Mexican journalist killed since 2000.

At least three main papers in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas state, across from Texas, are being forced to print press releases from the Zeta cartel, Global Post reported. The press releases began arriving by email to police reporter who acts as the Zeta liaison with the press. Newspaper editor Martha Lopez says “stories” often attempt to make the Mexican army look bad, such as stories about army human rights abuses. “Some of those stories are accurate in a small way, but they are exaggerated. Sometimes they are not true,” Lopez said.

-DR

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This Week in Drugs (Oct. 15, 2010)

Oct 15th, 10 / 6 Comments

The federal government will enforce federal marijuana laws in California even if voters there legalize marijuana for recreational use by approving Proposition 19 on Nov. 2, the Associated Press reports. In a letter to former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote: ”We will vigorously enforce the CSA against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.” Holder said approval of the measure would undermine efforts to keep California communities safe from drug traffickers.

The campaign to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in Arizona, Proposition 203, put up campaign signs this week and released a new television ad. (Watch it here.) The act, if passed, will allow patients with debilitating conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and Alzheimer’s disease to use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. If the measure passes, Arizona will be the 15th state in the nation with legal medical pot. And passage looks likely: a recent Rocky Mountain Poll found 54 percent of registered voters in favor of the law, with 32 percent opposing.

A memo from within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that Mexican cartels planned to send armed hit-men into Arizona to assassinate bandits stealing marijuana near Casa Grande, The Arizona Republic reported Friday. The memo, which a spokesman for DHS said has since “proved to be inaccurate,” said members of the hit squad planned to establish positions in Vekol Valley, then send in men wearing backpacks pretending to haul loads of marijuana through the desert to trick armed thieves, called bajadores, into attacking them.

Meanwhile, the conflict between border security and environmental conservation along the border is heating up. Utah Rep. Rob Bishop released a draft report this week documenting conflicts arising from the U.S. Border Patrol’s efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border on land protected by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Government Accountability Office report shows that only four of the 26 Border Patrol stations along the border have encountered problems patrolling protected lands. Bishop and other Republicans are pushing a measure to do away with wilderness and endangered species protection at the border.

According to a post on the U.S. Department of State Official Blog, the agency has developed a secure tipline for residents of Juarez, Mexico, to report cartel crime. According to a recent survey by Mexico’s Institute for Studies on Insecurity, 78 percent of crimes go unreported in Mexico and only two percent actually result in convictions. The state department hopes that with the anonymous hotline those in Juarez who witness a crime will feel safe enough to contact the authorities and help combat the city’s rampant drug war violence.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is also turning to technology to fight drug cartels. According to The Latin American Herald Tribune, Calderon plans to launch three satellites to be used for national security and expanding telecommunications capabilities. The satellites, expected to cost about $1.5 billion, will be finished by the end of Calderon’s administration in 2012. His announcement comes as some 2,000 delegates from 122 countries convene at 18th Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union in Guadalajara.

Tijuana has seen a sharp rise in its murder rate following Calderon’s claim last week that the city is an example of success in the drug war. Since last Sunday, there have been 16 killings. Three headless bodies were also found along with a head, which did not belong to any of the bodies.

Mexican criminal enterprising are becoming increasingly involved in sex trafficking, reports the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. With profits from human trafficking estimated at as high as $6.6 billion, the organization says “conservative estimates conclude that over 100,000 women, a number predicted to increase by the end of 2010, are trafficked out of Latin America annually for the purpose of prostitution.” With other varieties of drug war violence dominating the headlines, the group said human trafficking from Latin America too often is overlooked or mislabeled as illegal immigration when, in reality, thousands of women and children are forced into sexual slavery on both sides of the border.

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Drug Policy, Mexican drug cartels, This Week In Drugs, U.S.-Mexico border