“There is a strong argument that prohibition has caused or created many of the problems associated with the use or misuse of drugs.”-- Final Report of the Crime Reduction Review
Contents
1. UK News
- STOP PRESS! RSA report released
- ACPO head calls for heroin prescribing
- Home Office report leak
- Links
- Upcoming events
2. International News
- UN INCB Annual Report 2006
- President Musharraf backs purchase of Afghan opium
- High profile Irish supporters of drug law reform
- Head of Catalan Interior Department calls for legalisation
- Namibian Combating Abuse of Drugs bill review
- Canadian former police officers in support of legalisation
- US Drug Tsar gets a frosty reception in Canada
- Mayor of Vancouver officially supports substitution treatment
- Mexican legislation to decriminalise first-time possession
- FARC, the world's leading cocaine cartel
- University of Mississippi may lose monopoly on growing marijuana for research
3. What Transform Has Been Up To
4. What You Can Do
- Donate
- On line activism
- Media
- General
1. UK News
STOP PRESS!
The RSA has finally published its long awaited drugs report. Lots of great stuff in it and it has received loads of good media coverage. It’s a bit ambiguous about legal regulation of drugs but none the less, progress for the national debate. Read more here:
and Danny’s article for the Guardian comment is free website here:
ACPO head calls for heroin prescribing
Ken Jones, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) adds his voice to those calling for heroin to be made available on prescription, while insisting he is not a legaliser
Meanwhile, a leading Scottish QC calls for legalisation of cannabis and rethink of all drug laws
New Home Office report leak highlights their own lack of faith in the War on Drugs
Restricted Home Office strategic policy briefing, Final Report of the Crime Reduction Review, recommends the Government take control of the drugs supply
Links
Daily Dose
In short, the best drug news source in the world...brilliant! Subscribe today
Upcoming Events
Unhooked Thinking conference 9th - 11th May, Bath
Danny Kushlick will be speaking at the plenary session on Thursday 11th May, on the topic of The War on Drugs and Conflict
International Harm Reduction Conference 13th - 17th May, Warsaw
Danny will be chairing the parallel plenary session, Alcohol, Tobacco and Illicit Drugs: Regulatory Frameworks and Harm Reduction, on 17th May
Lib Democrat Drugs Law Reform Forum 8th June, Taunton Deane
Danny will be speaking at this public meeting, along with Jeremy Browne, MP
2. International News
United Nations International Narcotics Control Board releases 2006 Annual Report
The good news is that heroin use seems to have stabilised or even declined in many parts of Western Europe; the bad news is that Europe has become the second largest illicit market for cocaine. The UN web site also contains press releases and previous years' reports
President Musharraf backs purchase of Afghan opium (Pakistan)
Prospect Magazine is a subscription-only web site, so you'll have to read the Transform blog for a brief discussion on the usefulness of purchasing Afghanistan's poppy crop. Steve has an article on this issue in the latest edition of Druglink magazine, which will be posted on the blog shortly
High profile supporters of drug law reform put their heads above the parapet (Ireland)
National treasure Gay Byrne comes out in favour of legalisation, while the Deputy Mayor of Dublin says it's time to take a new approach to the drugs problem because "we are so clearly losing the war on drugs."
Head of Catalan Interior Department calls for legalisation (Spain)
Public dissent over 'Combating the Abuse of Drugs' bill (Namibia)
Review of law passed last year recommends no change to harsh sentencing for drugs possession, consuming or dealing illegal drugs
More former police officers in favour of drug legalisation (Canada)
Robert Marshall, formerly of the Winnipeg Police Force, and Hunter McDonald, a former Mountie, come out in support of legalisation due to the huge public expenditure wasted by prohibition and the effective funneling of funds into organised crime
The Winnipeg Sun
Victoria Time Colonist
For lots more cops for drug law reform visit leap
US Drug Tsar visits Canada...and gets a slightly frosty reception (Canada)
Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy (CFDP) dismisses propaganda being spread by the US Drugs Tsar while he's on tour in Canada
Transform blog
Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy
Mayor of Vancouver backs 'substitution treatment' (Canada)
The official press release from the Mayor's office highlights the need "to separate the people with addictions and mental illnesses from the criminals," and provides some background to the thinking on providing prescription drugs to 'chronic addicts'
City of Vancouver
Vancouver Courier
Crystal Meth BC
Legislation to decriminalise first time possession (Mexico)
Proposed legislation to let those caught with a minimal amount of illegal drugs for the first time avoid prosecution - will the Americans let them do it?
FARC, the world's leading cocaine cartel (Columbia)
Claiming that 9 out of every 10 grams of cocaine to enter the USA pass through the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) at some point, Michael Braun, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) bigwig, argues against legalisation and control. He is DEA, so may be a bit biased...
University of Mississippi may lose monopoly on growing marijuana for research (USA)
First steps towards opening up the licenses to grow research-grade marijuana...
The Daily Journal
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
3. What Transform Has Been Up To
Blog
As usual, we've been very busy since the last newsletter. One time-consuming exercise has been upgrading our blog: Since we've started putting a bit more time and energy into the posts it has been getting linked all over the place, now getting 1000 unique hits every week. For a six-month old blog, in a very niche field, with no promotional budget, that's pretty darn good.
So, we thought we should treat our readers with the respect they deserve and make it look a little fancier. We've also included buttons for social bookmarking sited DIGG, REDD IT, and DEL.ICIO.US in the hope of raising the profile and drawing even more people into the discussion about UK drugs policy.
Please do have a look: Transform blog - get involved in the discussions and click those little social bookmark site buttons!
Many thanks to our volunteer Ben who has been putting in the hours on our blog ...often fixing our silly formatting mistakes!
Media
Transform continues to keep a healthy media profile: Steve had a lively discussion with George Galloway on TalkSport radio, which you can listen to on the blog here:
Transform blog
Danny was quoted in the Scotsman in response to David Cameron's alleged drug use and the Chair of the Transform Board of Trustees, Mike Jay, was quoted in the Guardian regarding the history and continued use of LSD.
The RSA report has sparked a drug debating frenzy that saw Steve on sky news, Radio 5 drive time with Nicky Campbell and The world Tonight on Radio 4, and Danny in the Guadians Comment is free page here: Comment is Free(again – please get involved in the online debate).
Publications
The finishing touches are also being made to our next publication, Tools for Debate, which should be available in print and via the web site by late May.
Staff
At the same time, we've been recruiting our new Business Development Manager; interviews are taking place soon and we'll introduce our new team member in the next newsletter.
Last, but not least, we're very pleased to have a new Treasurer, Paul Crawford Walker, come on board. For more information about our Board, and how you might join, please visit the Transform web site:
Transform People
Transform Trustee Recruitment
4. What You Can Do
Donate
It's stuck record time, but...puh-lease sign up online to make a regular donation, however small, to Transform.
Thanks to the generosity of those of you who already make regular donations, we are going to fall short by only £1000 of our web-fundraising target for the financial year ending 31st March 2007.
However, we still need at least eight new donors to sign up for £10/month (£120/year) before the end of March. Remember, if you Gift-Aid your donation, your £10 is worth £14 to us! Come on...the drugs laws won't change by themselves...
To find out how you can support us please check Support Transform
Our secure online donation page administered by the Charities Aid Foundation: Donations can be one off or regular, large or small. Please give generously - we need your support. Transform relies solely on donations from individuals and charitable trusts to maintain its work. Transform Funding
We can also accept ‘Give as you earn' payroll donations: Please look into the possibility of getting Transform on the list of nominated/ suggested charities at your place of work. Visit your payroll office to pick up a donor instruction form and visit the CAF web site, or give us a call and we can help sort it all out – or come and give a talk at your work place. Our registration number is: 000476760.
Online activism
The Internet gives you the opportunity to engage the drug law reform debate as never before. There are literally thousands of online forums, discussion groups, and media feedback opportunities where you can get involved and inject a little common sense into the debate. Several are linked above – let us know if you find useful forums and we will link them here. Many online media outlets now allow visitors to comment on news stories and opinion pieces. These are widely read and an easy way to put some progressive views and intelligent arguments into the public domain. You can try the media weblinks below for starters - and there are many more. We are getting together a more extensive collection of such links for the what you can do guide so please send us relevant links, for national, local or specialist media.
BBC, Have Your Say: BBC
The Daily Mail (just click on 'Comments' at the top of any news item): Daily Mail
The Guardian, Comment is Free: Comment is Free
The Sun, Have Your Say: The Sun
The Times, Comment section: The Times Online
Transform Action Alert email list
Sign up for our Action Alert email list - we promise we won't bombard you with emails! Just fill out the on-line form, typing 'Action Alert' in the message box
Google Alerts
You enter the key words (e.g. Drugs + Transform) and Google does the work for you, sending you emails about news stories containing your chosen key words - helps keep you informed and enables you to respond quickly to politicians/media outlets if you are the email or letter-writing type...
No 10 Downing Street web site
You can sign up for a regular newsletter from No 10, letting you know when ministers will be holding question and answer sessions on-line
E-Petitions
mySociety (the people behind www.theyworkforyou.com) are working in partnership with No. 10 to enable us all to submit petitions to the Prime Minister with greater ease.
Transform has recently started a petition, calling for the review/consultation on the drug classification system – promised by the Home Secretary in January- to commence. Following a report from the Science and Technology Committee that condemned the classification system as ‘not fit for purpose' the Government then reneged on its promise of a review.
We have 259 signatures so far, so please add your signature today! We don't expect we'll get as many as the road-pricing petition, but we can try, and we're asking our newsletter subscribers to spread the word.
Media
Visit our extensive selection of hints and tips for engaging with the media: What you can do
We have recently put online an archive of letters we have had published over the years. As well as being an entertaining read it provides a useful guide to what letters editors like to publish. Check it out here: Published letters . If you get letters published let us know and we will put them in the newsletter.
General
The National Council of Voluntary Organisations is going to officially launch it's Campaigning Effectiveness programme in March at an event in London
For more great ideas, please check http://www.tdpf.org.uk/AboutUs_WhatYouCanDo.htm
Transform Drug Policy Foundation, Easton Business Centre, Felix Rd, Bristol, BS5 0HE, Telephone: +44 (0) 117 941 5810
Transform Drug Policy Foundation is a registered Charity no. 1100518 and Limited Company no. 4862177