tagged w/ Clean Needle Exchange
-
Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank.Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around... more
-
-
Here is a look at the new program for kids 18 to 23.
http://www.nololinhiv.org/
Cable Positive, the cable industry’s AIDS action organization, teamed with The Motorola Foundation to form the first Youth AIDS Media Institute University (YAMIU), which brought 17 young AIDS activists from the northeastern United States to Washington, DC, for a brainstorming session to develop a youth-focused multiplatform effort to fight HIV.
http://twitter.com/NoLOLinHIVHere is a look at the new program for kids 18 to 23.... more
-
-
This year's needle exchange could result in stopping the use and circulation of more than 130,000 needles possibly infected with HIV or hepatitis C, program officials say. As a result, 600 addicts who -- while still using drugs -- will hopefully not join the ranks of New Jersey's 27,000 intravenous drug users infected with HIV.This year's needle exchange could result in stopping the use and circulation of... more
-
-
Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution
"The failure of the drug war has led a few of its braver generals, especially from Europe and Latin America, to suggest shifting the focus from locking up people to public health and “harm reduction” (such as encouraging addicts to use clean needles). This approach would put more emphasis on public education and the treatment of addicts, and less on the harassment of peasants who grow coca and the punishment of consumers of “soft” drugs for personal use. That would be a step in the right direction. But it is unlikely to be adequately funded, and it does nothing to take organised crime out of the picture."Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution
"The failure of... more
-
-
Those heading up our national police force must be so glad people have other things on their minds these days.
Otherwise, Canadians might be howling about the Mounties' latest antics and demanding our political leaders hold them accountable.
Because, as we know, our elected officials refuse to utter the least critical word about the RCMP unless there is public pressure or they fear electoral ramifications.
Even then, I'm sure they get sick at the thought.
This week, we learned that the RCMP used taxpayers' dollars to hire researchers to author papers that undermine Insite, the supervised injection site in Vancouver opposed by the Mounties and the Conservative government.
Pivot Legal Society, the admirable advocacy group working on behalf of the poor and dispossessed, made the discovery through an access to information request
Internal RCMP correspondence turned over to the organization reveals a covert police plan to finance politically motivated research and use morally questionable tactics to advance its drug-war agenda.
Some of the internal e-mails handed over to Pivot are quite disturbing.
In one, an RCMP officer refers to B.C.'s Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS - a nationally renowned repository of some of the top AIDS research in the world - as the "Centre for Excrements."
Another e-mail sent to several recipients, including a prominent Vancouver public-relations specialist, suggests stacking a local radio call-in show with callers who are against Insite.
An RCMP spokesperson said this week that the force sponsors research like this all the time.
If that is the case, we have a big problem.
It is clear what the RCMP's intentions were. The force asked two separate academics to write reports about Insite that it obviously hoped and expected would cast the drug treatment centre in a poor light.
When neither report did, the RCMP commissioned two more, one by the director of a national drug-prevention organization that opposes Insite.
This time the RCMP got the results for which it was looking.
Appalling.
The RCMP has no business inserting itself into the debate around our drug treatment programs, especially in this manner.
The RCMP's job is to fight and prevent crime.
I don't see how getting involved in the discussion around Insite, particularly in such a vile, partisan way, fits within the parameters of the RCMP's mandate in this country.
What the RCMP did here was secretly finance studies that were little more than inflammatory and scurrilous attacks on the credibility of the science behind Insite, while the internal RCMP e-mails reveal the disdain with which some members of the force hold organizations that don't share their view of the world.
The Centre of Excrements. Imagine.
The man who heads the Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS is one of the most respected AIDS scientists in the world.
Julio Montaner is also an enthusiastic supporter of Insite and believes fervently in the good it does.
But the RCMP doesn't, so it pays for questionable research that it feeds to the Conservative government, which is then trotted out by the federal Health Minister as evidence that Insite should be closed.
And apparently this is fine.
Dianne Doyle, the president and CEO of Providence Health Care, the faith-based health-care organization that runs Dr. Montaner's centre, doesn't think it is, and yesterday called on the media not to let this matter die.
She's right, but she should have also demanded that our political leaders take a position.
The RCMP polices more than two-thirds of the province of B.C., and yet you seldom hear a provincial politician say a negative word about the force, no matter how egregious its conduct.
A spokesman for provincial Solicitor-General John van Dongen said yesterday that the minister would have no comment on the matter, referring questions to RCMP headquarters in Ottawa.
What an all too predictable and craven position to take.
Those heading up our national police force must be so glad people have other things on... more
-
-
Healthcare Should Be Free For Everyone.
-
-
Ro_Lew
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
Once again the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has been caught using taxpayer money to influence politics. I urge you to amend federal law to prohibit the Drug Czar and his deputies from using taxpayer money to lobby or campaign. A recent investigation by the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) used taxpayer money to boost support for Republican candidates in 2006. U.S. Drug Czar John Walters and his deputies traveled to almost twenty events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress in the months prior to the election. The taxpayer-financed trips were orchestrated by President Bush's political advisors and often combined with the announcement of federal grants or actions that benefited the districts of the Republican members. A November 20, 2006, memo from Sara Taylor, the former White House Director of Political Affairs, summarizes the travel Drug Czar John Walters took at her request. An agency e-mail sent the following day describes how Karl Rove commended his agency (and three cabinet departments Commerce, Transportation, and Agriculture) for "going above and beyond the call of duty" in making "surrogate appearances" at locations the e-mail described as "the god awful places we sent them." That e-mail, as well as e-mails that followed, show that ONDCP officials were proud of the commendation they received from Mr. Rove and the political travel they took using taxpayer dollars. According to ONDCP's liaison to the White House, Douglas Simon, "Our hard work...in preparing the Director and Deputies for their trips and events" allowed them to travel "thousands of miles to attend numerous events all across the country." The Drug Czar and his staff also routinely use taxpayer money to campaign against proposed state laws they personally don't like. During the 2002 election, for instance, ONDCP's campaigning on a Nevada ballot initiative was so intense that the state's Attorney General complained in a letter to the Nevada Secretary of State that, "it is unfortunate that a representative of the federal government substantially intervened in a matter that was clearly a State of Nevada issue. The excessive federal intervention that was exhibited in this instance is particularly disturbing because it sought to influence the outcome of a Nevada election." More recently, ONDCP officials traveled to New Mexico four times in 12 months at taxpayer expense to lobby state legislators to oppose a proposed medical marijuana bill. They conducted similar lobbying trips to other states. In 2006 Congress included a provision in the ONDCP Reauthorization Act that prohibits ONDCP from using the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to support or oppose legislation, regulations, ballot measures or candidates. I urge you to expand this ban to prohibit ONDCP officials from using any taxpayer money to lobby or campaign.
Sincerely,
Drug Policy Alliance
Once again the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has been caught... more
-
-
The failure of the war on drugs is that we policy makers fail to see that police cannot be all things to all people. And that, in our democratic society, police alone cannot embody and represent the entirety of our rule of law. The rule of law is more than just enforcement. The rule of law is a trust between the people, policy makers and police that given a reasonable regulatory regime most citizens will choose to live within the regime leaving police free to better protect us all from the limited population of predators who try to thrive on marginal illegal market demand.
The failure of the war on drugs is that we policy makers fail to see that police... more
-
-
GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE.AS FAR AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they to have there story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not stress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness . Beyond a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all it's sham ,drudgery and broken dreams;it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy .....GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN... more
-
-
GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE.AS FAR AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they to have there story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not stress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all it's sham ,drudgery and broken dreams;it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy .....GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN... more
-
-
