““As readers of our report will quickly discover, all of our recommendations and suggestions are founded on two core beliefs. One is that drugs and other psychoactive substances are simply not going to go away. People have used them for thousands of years, widespread demand exists, supply is plentiful, and the illegal-drugs industry, not to mention the alcohol, tobacco and legal drugs industries, are among the best organized and most market-oriented in the world. Prohibition is no more a viable policy in Britain today than it proved to be in America during the 1920s and 1930s.With regard to illegal drugs, young people, in particular, are often told ‘Just say no’. That may sometimes be good advice. The only trouble is that there are, and always will be, large numbers of people who, for whatever reason, ignore that advice and choose to say yes. Drugs are a fact and, in our view, need to be accepted as a fact. We believe, as our choice of title suggests, that policy and the administration of policy should be based on a cool appraisal of the facts, not on fantasy and wishful thinking. In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous prayer:
God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed;
Give us the courage to change what should be changed; and
Give us the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”-- RSA report March 2007
Contents
1. UK News
- RSA Report
- Independent on Sunday's cann-apology
- Effect of smoking bans on children
- Cultivation charge for pensioner
- Links
- Upcoming Events
2. International News
- Brazil should legalise drugs to fight crime says governor of Rio
- Peru coca farmer protest
- Catholic outcry at 'Pope on Dope' play
- Is the War on Drugs really a War on Minorities?
- Australian report concludes that prohibition is ineffective
- Australian Football League drug testing
- Moscow exhibition depicts destructive power of drugs
3. What Transform Has Been Up To
- Recruitment
- Spreading the word
4. What You Can Do
- Donate
- On-line activism
1. UK News
RSA report
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce much anticipated report Drugs-Facing Facts, highlighting the misguided nature of UK drugs policy, was released in early March and immediately attracted a huge amount of comment from politicians and the media. It is another landmark report eloquently and authoritatively p0ointing the way forward. Well worth a read and also having as a reference.
RSA report
Commentary and critique on the Transform blog
Danny Kushlick's article on the Guardian's Comment is Free
BBC news coverage
Guardian coverage
DrugScope press release
Independent on Sunday ends its decade long campaign to legalise cannabis
In a surprising attack of retro drug war posturing The IOS has decided to end its support for the campaign to decriminalise cannabis, largely on the basis of new knowledge about the mental-health impacts of new 'Skunk', apparently 25 times stronger than in the good old days when cannabis was harmless, or something like that. Lazy journalism and ill thought out leader ahoy! Transform have taken them to task with a forensic debunk of the worst reefer madness in the coverage, and then a follow up blog on ensuing coverage.
Transform blog deconstructing IOS original 'apology'
Round 2 of deconstruction and debunking on Transform blog
Sadly, the murders of Steven Bayliss and Nuttawut Nadauld by their allegedly cannabis-using friend have only added to the current outbreak of 'skunk' hysteria
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=41974&in_page_id=34
http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2038696,00.html
Smoking ban having adverse effect on children in the home
Cause for concern in Scotland as US study reveals children suffering from exposure to tobacco fumes as more adults stay at home to smoke. An interesting piece of research on one of the side effects of the smoking ban.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=341192007
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=919963
Cultivation charge for cannabis-growing pensioner
The Gran-abis story is back in the news. Its medical cannabis so only peripherally relevant to the recreational use debate, but the media love it because they can put 'drugs' and 'Granny' in the same headline.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2028957,00.html
Links
Some interesting drug policy reform blogs from around the world (well actually they're are all from the US, but anyway):
Drug War Rant:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/
Drug Policy Alliance
Dare Generation Diary (student for sensible drug policy)
http://www.daregeneration.blogspot.com/
Upcoming Events
Drugs Health Alliance launch, early May
http://www.drugshealthalliance.net/
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
Global 2020, the alliance of international groups campaigning for drug legalisation and regulation by 2020, will also be meeting
Lib Democrat Drugs Law Reform Forum 8th June, Taunton Deane
Danny will be speaking at this public meeting, along with Jeremy Browne, MP
'After the War on Drugs: Tools for the Debate' launch early June, London
The long awaited follow up to Options for Control is almost with us! We will have more details about the official launch in the next newsletter.
Criminal Justice and Social Justice: New Directions 5th & 6th July, London
http://www.crimeandsociety.org.uk/projects/cjsjconf2007.html
2. International News
Rio governor suggests Brazil should legalise drugs to fight crime (Americas)
Governor Sergio Cabral sticks his head above the parapet to tell the world that prohibition is killing millions of people worldwide. He suggests legalisation and regulation of drug production and supply as a way to reduce the number of deaths.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/02/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Drugs.php
Peru’s coca farmers protest, request to suspend eradication (Americas)
Elsa Malpartida, Andean Parliament representative and leader of Peru’s coca growers’ movement illuminates further suffering caused by the ‘War on Drugs’. Eradication of poor farmers ‘illicit drugs’ crops simply brings misery to the farmers and does nothing to dent the overall production of drugs for the profit of drug cartels.
The Catholic Spirit: ‘Pope and Witch’ draws Catholic protests (Americas)
A Catholic web site reviews a weird, fictional play about the Pope put under a spell by a witch and forced to call for the legalisation of drugs. He then gives all the churches money away to the poor. Controversial.
http://www.catholic.org/diocese/diocese_story.php?id=23190
The War on Drugs Is Really a War on Minorities (Americas)
Alternet highlight the current crisis in the USA where racism could be considered as accepted and encouraged by the Presidents of the last two decades. Alternet document the extreme over-representation of black and Latinos in prisons for drug charges and the complete neglect by US leaders to address the issue.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/49782/
Australian Crime Commission recent report claims that prohibition is ineffective (Oceania)
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/acc_ctte/aosd/report/report.pdf
AFL defends drugs policy (Oceania)
Australian Football League tests its players not only for performance enhancing drugs (cheating) but also for illicit drugs (personal choice - which could have been used outside working hours). It turns out that quite a few partake in the ‘hard’ stuff, and don’t seem to be put off by the drug test policy.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21465632-2862,00.html
Moscow Wax Figure Exhibition Highlights Graphic Dangers of Drugs (Europe)
Moscow – not actually March news, but I found this web page in March! It’s a waxwork exhibition depicting the life of a drug addict from birth to death. File under 'Weird'.
http://www.mosnews.com/images/g/s119.shtml
3. What Transform Has Been Up To
Recruitment
We are very pleased to welcome John Moore to the Transform team. John has worked for a range of ex-prisoners and homeless voluntary sector organisations since 1984. He was the founding Director of Penrose Housing Association for ten years where he developed a range of innovative projects for ex-prisoners and mentally disordered offenders. He has a degree in Economics from Kent University and is just completing his Masters degree in Criminology at Middlesex University. He is active in the European Group for the Study of Deviancy and Social Control.
Starting later in April, John will be responsible for developing Transform's strategy and overseeing fundraising.
The job advertisement for office Administrator went out so long ago, we're afraid you might have forgotten - if you are interested in the post, please visit http://www.tdpf.org.uk/AboutUs_JobVacancies.htm - the deadline for applications is next Monday, 9th April.
We are also very excited to welcome Karen Haas on to the Board of Trustees. She currently works as a resettlement officer in Bristol, providing advice and assistance to people with a history of problematic drug use. Karen has nearly 20 years experience of working in the statutory and voluntary sectors, including over 10 years as a policy officer at the Department of Health.
Spreading the word
Transform has received a great deal of media exposure this month, mostly in response to the RSA report being released; Steve Rolles also had an article published in DrugLink about purchasing the Afghan opium crop for legal morphine production and one of our Board members, Axel Klein, had an article in the Independent education supplement regarding the failings of prohibition.
Danny spoke about well being at the UK Public Health Forum (UKPHA) 15th Annual Public Health Forum - read the transcript of his speech here.
Steve has been given a regular 2000 word column in Drugs and Alcohol Today, a leading drug policy publication - keep your eyes out for it this summer!
Steve also worked with Michael (one of our volunteers) on a briefing to the New Zealand government regarding piperazines.
The web site is growing ever more popular, getting the highest ever number of daily hits in March. The blog is bringing in a lot of this traffic, and we have to thank our volunteer, Ben, for his help in improving the functionality of the blog and the web site.
4. What You Can Do
Donate
We don't do chuggers, we don't do junk mail with free pens, or those pesky magazine inserts, we don't knock on doors or do sponsored parachute jumps. Maybe we should but for now we rely on your good will as our supporters. Setting up a five pound a month donation is really easy on our secure online donation page, administered by Charities Aid Foundation. It takes seconds, literally, but is massively important for us. So please....you know how it is.
We'd like to thank all the individuals and Trusts that have supported us along the way - without you, we could not have gotten this far. More all the information you need to start supporting Transform, please see Transform Funding
Online activism
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. We did have some fun this past month trying to get onto the Matthew Bannister programme on BBC 5 Live but, clearly, there were also quite a few other people wanting to express their opinions about cannabis.
Mainstream media feedback
If you hear something you agree or disagree with in the media, make sure the journalists find out about it! Most major media outlets have some kind of internet feedback mechanism, even if it is only emailing the journalist directly. Even if you don't want to make any comments yourself, it can often be enlightening to see what other people are saying.
Here are a few to start with...
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
Early Day Motions
An early day motion has been introduced by MP Joan Ruddock, calling for the government to place greater emphasis on harm reduction, rather than crime reduction, in its drugs policy. Please write to your MP, saying that you support this motion.
Early Day Motion Parliamentary web site
Transform guidance on lobbying policy makers
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