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“We need a full blown enquiry into drugs and criminality. The law is an ass where drugs are concerned.” September has proven an interesting month – with David Cameron (Tory MP) calling prohibition unworkable and calling for a debate on legalisation, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs meeting to discuss the possible re-re-classification of cannabis, the Senlis Council meeting in Afghanistan to discuss the possibility of producing opium legally and the Sun publishing an article exploring legalisation (yes, the Sun newspaper)! Transform too have been busy producing a new leaflet and annual report, recruiting new trustees (still spaces if anyone’s interested – see below) and being in various media re: Kate Moss, David Cameron and the possible reclassification of cannabis. Transform volunteers did a sterling job in contacting the Sun and David Cameron congratulating them on their respective stances – and both (we’ve heard) had an overwhelming response – so well done all of you. -Please keep your comments, ideas, media contact and stories coming. e-mail: info@tdpf.org.uk , -Pass this onto your friends; subscribers can join by visiting: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Contact.htm -All previous newsletters are viewable on our website should you have missed them or only just signed up: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Newsletter.htm -Please swap web links with us! -Make a donation – as ever we need financial support to maintain the organisation… Thanks for reading! Until next month, Fran Kellett. Contents *Royal Society of Arts Drug Report *David Cameron, Tory MP calls for more liberal drug laws! *Kate Moss ‘scandal’ *Resonance Radio *National Links ---- 2. INTERNATIONAL NEWS ---- *Eradicated poppy debts in Afghanistan paid off in daughters… *Senlis Council meeting in Afghanistan *S praying coca plant threatens regional rich biodiversity in S America *LEAP rider coverage *Marijuana surpasses wheat as largest crop in Canada *International Links ----3. WHAT TRANSFORM HAS BEEN UP TO----- *Cannabis ACMD briefing *Transform in the news *Publications *Become a Trustee! *Write to your MP if you have one – or visit them! *Help with our fundraising! **The Royal Society of Arts Commission on Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy publish their recent study on drugs, and ask the question: “ Is drugs policy working? If not, why not?” Transform were one of the first agencies consulted on this project. The first 5 of the project reports have now been published and although they don’t actively call for legalisation there are some promising noises. “ The government's current drug strategy seeks to tackle drug abuse first and foremost as a means of reducing crime. Treatment is most easily accessed through the criminal justice system, and the success of the strategy is measured more in terms of crime reduction than by the more general criterion of 'harm reduction' - harm to drugs users and their families as well as harm to communities, the economy and the taxpayer. Have we got our priorities right?” For more read here: www.rsadrugscommission.org ----- **David Cameron, Conservative Mp calls for a debate on legalisation: “ David Cameron, the Tory leadership contender, believes the UN should consider legalising drugs and wants hard-core addicts to be provided with legal "shooting galleries" and state-prescribed heroin.” Two opinion pieces in the Sun (Tony Partington) and the Independent (Johann Hari), were very supportive: To read the breaking story click here: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/MediaNews_LatestNews_07_09_05.htm Read Johann Hari’s comment piece in the Independent http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=669 ---- **The Sun "Why NOT legalise drugs...it worked fine the last time" “Up until the late Sixties, the law had little to say about people addicted to heroin. They got prescriptions for it from their family doctor, just enough to keep them quiet. Addicts were regarded as creatures to be pitied rather than prosecuted, and there were only a handful of them…. In the late Sixties, at America's urging, we and many other countries signed up to the War On Drugs. All over the world, drugs were outlawed and users and dealers prosecuted and imprisoned. Kids were urged to Just Say No. Illegality gave drugs an extortionate value, far more than the worth of their ingredients. Even in today's buyers' market. 50p may sound cheap for an ecstasy tab, but what does it cost to produce? Pennies, probably. There's still a big profit there. Somebody thinks it's good business….. It's not as if we are winning the War on Drugs. The latest UN report shows 200million drug users worldwide up 15 percent on last year. Dealers raked in £177BILLION , more than the economic output of 90 percent of nations.” To read the full article click below: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/MediaNews_LatestNews_12_09_05.htm ---- ** Kate Moss ‘scandal’ As I’m sure you’re aware the above model got herself into a bit of bother when someone filmed her allegedly doing a line of coke (or 5)… provoking an astonishingly hysterical outburst from the tabloid media, even by there standards (mostly from Mirror – who usually have a quite sensible line of drugs). All very disappointing even if subsequently there has been some more thoughtful consideration in the broadsheets. Transform were contacted a number of times for comment and Steve was interviewed on both ITN news channel & ITV evening news. This whole miserable business has raised some interesting issues, not so much questions about legalisation, but more about how the media handle this kind of story, what is private and what is in the public interest regards stories of individual drug use (compare for example to the way the media covered the ashes cricket team’s 48 hour drinking bender). Anyway a few links for you to peruse: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=16133522%26method=full%26siteid=94762-name_page.html - the initial blow by blow Mirror story http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1576759,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1572791,00.html ---- **Resonance Radio A new radio station on 104.4fm – available in London and online. “The Good Drugs Guide” hosted by Piers Gibbon will be a regular slot on Thursday evenings. Transform’s Steve Rolles will be on it tomorrow (6th October), and we’re likely to be on it in the future. Tune in! Resonance Radio: http://www.resonancefm.com/ --- Useful links to UK drug news http://www.drinkanddrugs.net - Drink & Drug News http://www.thehempire.com - Cannabis news (and wider drug issues), quality free monthly news email and great website. The best and most up to date of the cannabis oriented sites. **This month their newsletter has a feature on the recent meeting of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) who will decide whether cannabis will be re-classified again, and the media farce surrounding this. http://www.dailydose.net - excellent daily/weekly round up of news (free subscription) , links and a peerless searchable UK drug news archive. www.crew2000.co.uk and www.palad.org.uk - affiliates to Transform and well worth a look to see related campaigns around the country. www.ldan.org.uk - London Drug and Alcohol Network. ---- 2. INTERNATIONAL NEWS ---- ** Daughters pay the price in poppy war “Sharecroppers take loans from drug traffickers to plant their poppy crops. After every harvest, they repay them in poppies, which are turned into heroin”. If their crops have been eradicated – the debts still stand, and for very poor farmers (which many are) their only wealth comes in the form of their daughters, who are being sold off to repay debts… Read the appalling detail here: ----- **The Senlis Council met with Afghan officials to discuss the possibility of licensing Afghan opium production. “ Given the extraordinary opium production figures and their associated dangers, the Afghan government, the international community, aid agencies and other stake-holders are currently faced with the urgent need to respond to this huge industry. The country runs the risk of becoming a failed state if the illicit drug issue is not effectively addressed very soon.” For more information on the feasibility of opium licensing in Afghanistan, visit here: http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/afghanistan_initiatives/feasibility_study More detail on the International Symposium held in Kabul: http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/events/kabul Media coverage of the meeting: Afghani Government dismisses legal poppy cultivation: “The Afghan government has rejected a call to legalise poppy cultivation in the country, following a recent report advocating for its legitimate production. “Poor security in the country means there are simply no guarantees that opium won't be smuggled out of the country for the illicit narcotics trade abroad”, Afghan Minister for Counter Narcotics, Habibullah Qaderi, said in the Afghan capital, Kabul. “Without an effective control mechanism, a lot of opium would still be refined into heroin for illicit markets in the West and elsewhere”, he claimed”. Article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/56aaf8a8e56d02b2b7dca815ae1131dd.htm ----- **Coca spraying in S. America causing untold ecological damage: “Colombian authorities said that farmers are burning huge areas of virgin rain forests within the (national) parks and poisoning rivers with chemicals to continue with the production. In the meantime, pesticides sprayed by authorities keep threatening productive lands and endangered species across the region”. Read more on this cheery story here: http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/16215_coca.html ---- ** (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) LEAP campaigner rides across the US He just keeps on ridin’. Howard Woolridge from ‘Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’ is still on his horse riding across America in the name of legalisation (wearing a tshirt saying ‘Cops say legalise drugs – Ask me why). One of the more entertaining articles on his ride is here: http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=3271 ---- ** Wheat overtaken by ‘pot’ as largest growing crop in Canada “ Cities such as Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto may each have as many as 20,000 pot factories according to some estimates….creating a C$10 billion ($8.5 billion) market that's three times the size of the nation's biggest legal crop, wheat”. (‘Pot’ is a US/Canada term for cannabis – also used ironically in the UK by some hipster/retro types) Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=a._fi8mZA4jo&refer=Canada ---- ** International Links On a drug and media front: http://www.mapinc.org is a great site – it collects many of those articles that you end up having to pay for and touts itself as “a worldwide network dedicated to drug policy reform”. Encod - European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies. Check out their ‘latest bulletin’ http://www.encod.org/BULLETIN7.pdf Drug Policy Alliance -- the leading US drug policy reform organisation http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm The International Anti-Prohibitionist League: (the are politically affiliated to the transnational radical party) http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/index.html Transnational Institute Drugs and Democracy Project
**Transform produced a briefing for the ACMD (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs) who were meeting to discuss the possible re-classification of cannabis. Danny (Transform’s Director) was also invited to address the council. A snippet from our briefing: “ The political context of the decision to refer cannabis back to the ACMD cannot be ignored. It was announced very publicly by the Home Secretary (who unusually made his letter to the ACMD public in a press release) in March 2005 - two months before a General Election. The pre-election period is traditionally one where the main parties showcase how tough they are on law and order issues. The Conservative party had been making political capital out of the cannabis issue, wheeling out the familiar clichés about the Government ‘sending out the wrong message' and being ‘soft on drugs' and by this point they had loudly proclaimed their intention to reclassify cannabis as class B if they won the election. At the same time the Lib Dems had been taking flak for their ‘soft' drug policy (which calls for legalisation of cannabis in the longer term) from both of the other main parties.” The briefing is here for you to view: ----- ** Our much delayed new publicity leaflet will be out SOON! Copies will be available in print in the next fortnight or to download from the website in the next few days. Take a look and get your orders in. Its very good, even though I say so myself. ----- **Our Annual Report, will be available in print or online at the end of October ---- *Transform in the Media* As ever we have been working closely with various media, mostly behind the scenes on a range of ‘silly season’ stories - here is a sample of what’s been going on in September: ** 7 th September – Danny was quoted in the Independent about the David Cameron story: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/MediaNews_LatestNews_07_09_05.htm ** 9 th September - Skrufff email newsletter (news feed service for the dance music and club community – appearing on a range of websites in the UK and abroad) on the Ketamine classification issue. **17 th September – Steve was on ITN & ITV talking about the Kate Moss cocaine story **30 th September – Venue (Bristols local listings mag) talking about legalisation in an ‘I love Bristol’ context! *For help with raising awareness through the media see below and the ‘What you can do page’ on the TDPF site here; http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Parliament_WhatYouCanDo.htm For more advice please call the Transform office on 0117 941 5810. Send in your media tips, warnings, successes and failures - we’ll include them here. *Why not comment on articles – in the Daily Mail, at the bottom of all articles there is an opportunity to comment. Get commenting! *Charities Aid Foundation Online Giving service: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/AboutUs_TdpfFunding.htm Please support Transform by making a donation at our secure online donation page administered by the Charities Aid Foundation. Donations can be one off or regular. Please give generously - we need your support. (Transform relies solely on donations from individuals and charitable trusts to maintain its work) **Publications -“After the War on Drugs - Options for Control” – now also available in Spanish and Portuguese! Transform’s groundbreaking report examines the key themes in the drug policy reform debate, detailing how legal regulation of drug markets will operate and providing a roadmap and time line for reform. The report can be downloaded as a PDF from: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Policy_General_AftertheWaronDrugsReport.htm For printed copies please contact info@tdpf.org.uk **TRUSTEES WANTED Transform are looking for up to three highly experienced individuals to join our Board of Trustees, one of whom will be prepared to step up to the position of Chair. YOUR MP: One of our volunteers visited his MP last month, who just happened to be Charles Clarke – the Home Secretary! The meeting was very positive, and various Transform materials were passed on. Transform provided a detailed briefing and training before the visit. Call us for help. Do you know who your MP is?! They may have changed since the election. Find out here: http://www.locata.co.uk/commons Try writing/e-mailing your local paper or a national paper. Look out for drug related stories in newspapers (and other publications) and respond in the letters pages. Here’s evidence to show it works: we promise ‘DJ Welch’ is not a put up job, he wrote to the Observer of his own volition: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1451131,00.html Visit online discussion & news forums and get involved in debates – post links to Transform web resources - this has a secondary benefit of raising our profile on search sites like Google. If you find online discussion forums where people are discussing drug policy - send us the links and we will include them in the next newsletter. Guardian Talk – a good place to start – there’s usually a few good drug policy threads and if you cant find any – start one! http://www.guardian.co.uk/index/talk/0,3109,162311,00.html Please pass this onto your friends - subscribers can join by visiting: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Contact.htm For other ideas and more details on what you can do see : http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Parliament_WhatYouCanDo.htm For more information and analysis: www.tdpf.org.uk Transform Drug Policy Foundation is a registered charity no: 1100518. The organisations, agencies, and information linked from www.tdpf.org.uk represent a variety of viewpoints from across the drug policy field. Transform is not responsible for the contents of sites linked on this newsletter, and does not automatically endorse linked information. Any suggested additions or corrections please email info@tdpf.org.uk If you have received this mail in error, or if would like to unsubscribe from the list, just click reply/e-mail info@tdpf.org.uk with ‘unsubscribe me‘ as the subject. If you know anyone who might enjoy this newsletter please pass it on. New subscribers can join by visiting http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Contact.htm Fran Kellett To subscribe to Transform's newsletter visit: http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Contact.htm This document accompanying this transmission may contain confidential information, which may be legally privileged. This information is intended for the use of the named individual. You are notified that any disclosure, copying and distribution is prohibited. If you receive this message in error please delete it.
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