XPost: alt.drugs.pot, alt.hemp.politics, rec.drugs.cannabis
From: bliss@mouse-potato.com

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1071 -- 6/21/19
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1071

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. MOST HEROIN ADDICTS DIDN'T START BY BEING PRESCRIBED PAIN PILLS,
DESPITE DRUG CZAR'S CLAIMS [FEATURE]
The drug czar's office is making misleading claims about the origin of
heroin addiction, and that has consequences. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/most_heroin_addicts_didnt_start

2. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A sticky-fingered Louisiana lawman heads for prison, so does a cocaine distributing Texas bailiff, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

3. CHRONICLE AM: CO HITS $1 BILLION IN CANNABIS TAXES, POMPEO DOUBLES
DOWN ON COLOMBIA CROP SPRAYING, MORE... (6/13/18)
Colorado has raked in a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenues,
Cincinnati decriminalizes, Bonaroo harm reduction protest, Pompeo pushes Colombia coca crop spraying, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/13/chronicle_am_co_hits_1_billion

4. CHRONICLE AM: NY LEGALIZATION EFFORT CONTINUES, BRAZIL DRUG SURVEY SUPPRESSED, MORE... (6/14/19)
The New York legislature has less than a week to get marijuana
legalization done, a bid to open research on Schedule I drugs dies in
the House, the Brazilian government appears to be suppressing a drug use
survey that undercuts its war on drugs, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/14/chronicle_am_ny_legalization

5. CHRONICLE AM: CA ACTS TO BOOST STRUGGLING CANNABIS INDUSTRY, WV
STUDENTS FACE DRUG TESTS, MORE... (6/17/09)
California officials are cutting legal operators some slack in a bid to
boost the marijuana industry, Virginia's attorney general calls for
marijuana decriminalization, West Virginia is demanding students seeking
free community college tuition undergo drug testing, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/17/chronicle_am_ca_acts_boost

6. CHRONICLE AM: CLOCK TICKING ON NEW YORK LEGALIZATION BILL,
PSYCHEDELIC REFORM HOPES SPREAD, MORE... (6/18/19)
New York lawmakers only have until tomorrow to pass a marijuana
legalization bill, China gripes about legalization in the US and Canada,
the movement to decriminalize psychedelics is spreading, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/18/chronicle_am_clock_ticking_new

7. CHRONICLE AM: NO NY LEGALIZATION (YET), COLOMBIA TO RESUME AERIAL
COCA SPRAYING, MORE... (6/19/19)
The House could vote on a series of marijuana amendments soon, New
York's bid to legalize marijuana this year runs out of time, Colombia's president says the spraying of coca crops (and farmers) with herbicides
will recommence soon, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/19/chronicle_am_no_ny_legalization

8. CHRONICLE AM: CORY BOOKER PLANS MASS DRUG PRISONER CLEMENCIES, CA
SAFE INJECTION SITE BILL DELAYED, MORE... (6/20/19)
Corey Booker wants to grant clemency to thousands of federal drug
prisoners, a pair of drug reform amendments pass the House, the Russians
move to start cultivating marijuana and opium, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/chronicle_am_cory_booker_mass_clemency

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================

1. MOST HEROIN ADDICTS DIDN'T START BY BEING PRESCRIBED PAIN PILLS,
DESPITE DRUG CZAR'S CLAIMS [FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/jun/20/most_heroin_addicts_didnt_start

As part of its campaign to stem opioid addiction and overdoses, the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug
czar's office) has launched an education campaign called The Truth About Opioids (https://opioids.thetruth.com), but some of the material it is presenting has more than a whiff of spin to it -- and could imperil the
ability of pain patients to get the relief they need.

The web site declares in big, bold letters that "80% of heroin users
started with a prescription painkiller, (https://opioids.thetruth.com/o/the-facts/fact-1008)" and highlights the
words "80%," "heroin," "started," and "prescription" in lurid purple.
The graphic suggests that heroin users were prescribed opioids,
developed a habit, and then went on to junk, with the further
implication that a way to reduce heroin addiction is to tighten and
reduce the prescribing of opioids.

The web site then asks readers if they are "shocked," "ah-ha,"
"outraged," or "fired up" by the information. It is only if readers
scroll down the page that they are informed that the basis for the
statistic is a 2013 study (https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/DR006/DR006/nonmedical-pain-reliever-use-2013.htm)
of "Heroin use and heroin use risk behaviors among nonmedical users of prescription opioid pain relievers." (Emphasis added.)

That's right, even though the graphic shouts out that people prescribed
opioids then went on to become heroin addicts, the science it uses to
back its claim is about recreational pain pill users. That's deceptive.

Misleading claims about prescribing opioids and the potential for opioid addiction are, of course, nothing new. Twenty years ago, PurduePharma infamously claimed (https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/purdue-pharmas-sales-pitch-downplayed-risks-opioid-addiction)
that the risk of addiction from OxyContin was so low as to be
negligible, a marketing tactic that helped kick into overdrive the pain
pill phase of the current wave of opioid use.

But the drug czar's office, with its misleading suggestion that being prescribed opioids leads to heroin addiction, tips the pendulum too far
in the other direction. There are real world consequences to using such
faulty information. The Drug Enforcement Administration cited that 80%
figure last year when it ordered steep decreases in the supply of
prescription opioids, and it claimed in the Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/19/2018-08111/controlled-substances-quotas)
that patients got addicted "after first obtaining these drugs from their
health care providers."

"The 80% statistic is misleading and encourages faulty assumptions about
the overdose crisis and medical care," Pain News Network columnist Roger
Chriss argued in a column (https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/4/23/do-80-of-heroin-users-really-start-with-a-prescription)
last year.

And now, a new study (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10550887.2019.1609336)
from researchers at Penn State University published in the Journal of
Addictive Studies bolsters that claim. Concentrating on southwestern Pennsylvania, an area with high levels of addiction, the researchers
conducted surveys and in-depth interviews with drug users to determine
their drug using histories. The sample size was small, with 125 people
surveyed and 30 interviewed, but the results were illuminating.

The researchers found that two out of three of those interviewed got
their first prescription opioids not from a doctor's prescription, but
either bought or stole it from a family member or friend. Another 7
percent bought their drugs from a stranger or a dealer. And only one out
of four (26 percent) began with opioid medications prescribed by a doctor.

"What emerged from our study -- and really emerged because we decided to
do these qualitative interviews in addition to a survey component -- was
a pretty different narrative than the national one. There's a lot about
that narrative that I think is an overly simplistic way of thinking
about this," said lead author Ashton Verdery, PhD, an assistant
professor of sociology, demography and social data analytics at Penn State.

"We found that most people initiated through a pattern of recreational
use because of people around them. They got them from either siblings,
friends or romantic partners," he continued. "Participants repeatedly
reported having a peer or caregiver in their childhood who had a
substance use problem. Stories from childhood of witnessing one of these
people selling, preparing, or using drugs were very common. Being
exposed to others' substance use at an early age was often cited as a
turning point for OMI (opioid misuse) and of drug use in general."

Among study participants, recreational drug use -- or polysubstance
abuse, in public health speak -- was common, Verdery noted, and usually
began not with prescription opioids but with drugs such as alcohol,
marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and prescription sedatives and
stimulants.

"It is important to note that interviewees universally reported
initiating OMI only after previously starting their substance use career
with another drug (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, cocaine). Opioids were
never the first drug used, suggesting that OMI is likely associated with
being further along in one's drug using career," he added.

Researchers studying opioid addiction need to be aware of the role other substances play in the process, Verdery said. Understanding how opioid addiction is intertwined with other drug use is necessary to figure out
the correct steps to take to prevent addiction before it takes hold.

"We think that understanding this mechanism as a potential pathway is
worth further consideration," said Verdery. "It's not just that people
were prescribed painkillers from a doctor for a legitimate reason and,
if we just crack down on the doctors who are prescribing in these
borderline cases, we can reduce the epidemic."

It's not nice for the drug czar's office to promulgate deceptive and
misleading information about why people are getting strung out on
heroin. It results both in limitation on access to opioid pain
medications for those who need them and in obfuscating the realities of
how heroin addiction happens -- and how best to deal with it.

================ ...
___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>
Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)