Heroin addicts who can’t quit using and don’t respond to methadone treatment can be helped by maintenance doses of heroin, according to a study conducted by researchers at King’s College London.

Reuters reported May 28 that heroin maintenance, while obviously not a cure for addiction, at least kept most of the hardcore addicts in the study away from street drugs, which in turn helped prevent use of dirty needles and other unhealthy behaviors. In fact, about two-thirds of the heroin-maintenance group tested clean for the presence of street drugs, a far better performance than among methadone patients, two-thirds of whom typically test positive for use of street drugs.

Some of the study participants stayed in the program for more than two years and were able to get jobs and reconnect with family members, researchers added. “People are not only physically getting better, but they’re getting back into society,” said study author John Strang.

The findings were published in the May 28, 2010 issue of The Lancet.

Our traditional justice system has been inadequate to the task of breaking the cycle of substance abuse and crime. Four out of every five offenses are committed by someone with a drug or alcohol problem; and we just keep locking them up!

In just the past 20 years alone, state prison systems have added 1 million new cells to incarcerate the 2.3 million adults now behind bars in the U.S. That’s far more than any other country on the globe with 1 out of every 100 adult Americans currently serving time. Approximately one-half of these individuals are addicted to drugs or alcohol and most do not pose a serious threat to public safety.

Prison for these individuals has accomplished little to stem the tide of crime or substance abuse. Upon their release from prison, two thirds of drug abusers commit a new crime and virtually all relapse quickly to drug abuse. And yet, despite these disappointing figures national expenditures on corrections well exceed $60 billion annually. On average, states spend $65,000 per bed, per year to build new prisons and $23,876 per bed, per year to operate them. Despite the staggering cost to incarcerate these individuals, most return to their communities without treatment, without jobs and without hope.

Given the abysmal outcomes of incarceration on addictive behavior, there’s absolutely no justification for state governments to continue to waste tax dollars feeding a situation where generational recidivism is becoming the norm and parents, children and grandparents may find themselves locked up together.

The addicted in prison truth is:
We want them to have self-worth
So we destroy their self-worth
We want them to be responsible
So we take away all responsibility
We want them to be positive and constructive
So we degrade them and make them useless
We want them to be trustworthy
So we put them where there is no trust
We want them to be non-violent
So we put them where violence is all around them
We want them to be kind and loving people
So we subject them to hatred and cruelty
We want them to quit being the tough guy
So we put them where the tough guy is respected
We want them quit hanging around losers
So we put all the losers in the state under one roof
We want them to quit exploiting us
So we put them where they exploit each other
We want them to take control of their lives, own problems and quit being a parasite on society
So we make them totally dependent on us

I am speaking up about this matter because I have personally been addicted to Meth for 17 years (other drugs and alcohol 30 years total). I am clean and sober for many years, but unfortunately I had to go to another state (other than my home state of New Mexico) to go to Rehab. A recovery friendly community made all the difference in my miracle

Please help stop the war on drugs. Prohibition has never worked and never will.
Thanks, Ken Larson

August 21, 2009

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.

The law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution; the law goes into effect on Friday.

Anyone caught with drug amounts under the personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory – although no penalties for noncompliance are specified.

The maximum amount of marijuana considered to be for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams – the equivalent of about four marijuana cigarettes. Other limits are half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.

LEAPing to legal drugs

(J.R. Oppenheim/Daily News)

Drug warriors from across the country are banding together to ask people to support the legalization of drugs.

Judges, prosecutors, prison wardens, corrections staff and police officers have organized to educate the public about the damage and cost of the war against illegal drugs.

The premise of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, is the war on drugs cannot be won and the benefit of regulating, taxing and controlling these substances far outweighs the cost in tax dollars and human lives trying to suppress them.

“We are spending more than $80 billion a year to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate people in the war on drugs,” said Mike Jones, a speaker for LEAP who was visiting Otero County during the county fair this weekend.

Jones, who now lives in Rancho de Taos, spent 20 years with the Gainesville, Fla. police department. His first year there was spent as an undercover narcotics agent, and his last three years were as deputy chief of police.

“It was obvious to me the effort to control drugs was doomed to fail,” he said. “It was impossible to achieve. We were spending time dealing with narcotics when we could have been using resources in different ways.”

Jones said his anti-drug war position was not popular in Florida.

A few years ago, after he retired to New Mexico, Jones found LEAP on the Internet, joined the cause, contributed, bought bumperstickers and volunteered for the speakers bureau.

“After 40 years of fighting the drug war, drugs are cheaper, stronger and easier to get than ever,” Jones said. “So after 40 years we haven’t achieved our goals. Any company failing at goals and objectives for 40 years wouldn’t be in business.”

Over that 40-year time period, Jones said, violence associated with drugs has continued to escalate. He said it’s like a chess match with the good guys coming up with new ways to fight and the bad guys matching by coming up with violent solutions every time.

More money poured into the drug war means “more troops, more guns, more violence and the drugs continue to flow,” Jones said.

By legalizing and regulating drug use, not only would the violence be eliminated, but negative health issues would be reduced, impurities and mystery substances would be eliminated, Jones said.

The first step, he added, is for lawmakers and policy makers to take swift action.

“Citizens need to advise their representatives to end the insanity and move forward,” he said.

The goal of LEAP is to education people on the issue, Jones said.

“This is not a partisan issue,” he said. “It effects everyone. One of our members will tell you his views are just to the right of Atilla the Hun but drugs need to be legal.”

LEAP does not advocate the use of legal or illegal drugs, Jones said.

“We believe that [it] is a personal decision attached to personal responsibility.”
Contact Elva K. Österreich at eosterreich@alamogordonews.com.

In spite of the nationwide prohibition of street drugs, New Mexico and Otero County, as well as the rest of the United States, has a persistently growing drug problem with increasing numbers of younger students using drugs and alcohol.

With that is the typically disastrous results of addiction, incarceration, unintended pregnancies, failing grades and school drop-outs. While education and law enforcement are making strides in stopping the illegal drug trade while educating our youth about the consequences of drug use, drug and alcohol use continues to be a devastating problem, suggesting once again that peer-pressure can be a stronger force than education.

Making drugs illegal has, no doubt, been a deterrent to the vast majority of Americans. On the other hand, this has put the burden of the drug war on law enforcement and the judicial system, especially since 1986 when Congress enacted mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which mandated judges to deliver fixed sentences to individuals convicted of the crime of addiction, regardless of culpability or other mitigating circumstances.

Overwhelmingly, drug defendants 85 percent of them are nonviolent, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums. Yet many mostly minorities and the poor are convicted of felonies and receive mandatory minimum sentences of five to 10 years or more. Also, those addicted at the time of their incarceration are generally still addicted upon release and still need treatment.

While giving a big boost to the private prison industry, incarcerating drug offenders is expensive for the tax payer. In New Mexico, the average cost of incarceration is $30,000 per inmate per year. The average cost of probation and parole in New Mexico is $1,533 per person per year. According to a 1998 study conducted at the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, the average cost for drug treatment per year is between $1,800 for regular outpatient care and $6,800 for long-term residential care.

For each person that receives treatment, rather than being incarcerated, New Mexico could save between $22,000 and $27,000 per year (prison savings less probation/parole and treatment costs), according to the Drug Policy Alliance.

The American Medical Association has given formal recognition to the disease concept regarding addiction since 1956. Medically, addiction is classified as a chronic disease similar to other chronic diseases such as Type II diabetes, hypertension, asthma and cardiovascular disease. Research conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse has shown that they all have similar relapse rates.

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder that should be managed with all the tools at medicine’s disposal. While lifestyle choices may be a contributing factor in diabetes, lung cancer or cardiac disease and is the only factor in an addict’s first use. No one regards lifestyle choice as a reason to withhold treatment for any of these conditions, except for addiction.

Just as it takes an average of seven attempts for a smoker to quit tobacco, we should understand that relapse is an integral part of the disease of any addiction. We should treat the addict with the same care and compassion we treat diabetes or cardiac patients struggling to make prescribed lifestyle changes.
Ken Nicholson represents Peace & Justice, of La Luz. This column is provided as a service of the Otero County Community Health Council and the Alamogordo Daily News as a way to provide the latest in health and wellness information, services and events. This column is submitted by OCCHC partners and does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the OCCHC.

Giving credit where credit is due while holding my nose, Glenn Beck has shown a rare moment of intelligence and sanity in his interview with Andres Rozental, former Foreign Minister of Mexico.

I will, however, question the Fox News statistic stating that US marijuana use is down 24% since 1998.

“The addict’s brain is malfunctioning, as surely as the pancreas in someone with diabetes. In both cases, “lifestyle choices” may be contributing factors, but no one regards that as a reason to withhold insulin from a diabetic.” “Addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin flood the brain with the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical that induces a sensation of pleasure and trains the subconscious to remember everything that preceded that sensation.

Together with alcohol, nicotine and amphetamines, these make up the five drugs generally considered the hardest to give up; right now, some 22 million Americans are hooked on at least one of these substances. While each causes a distinct form of intoxication and a different range of side effects and health problems, all five hijack the same pathway, deep within the brain.”

Excerpts from “What Addicts Need” by Jeneen Interlandi and printed in Newsweek, March 3, 2008.

The following are my notes from the Forum on Substance Abuse held by the Otero County Chapter of PDA June 25th – Ken Nicholson

The Otero County chapter of Progressive Democrats of America hosted a panel discussion on the substance abuse situation in the county. Panel members Dr. Gil Heredia, physician and chair of the Otero Libertarian Party, Sharon Hodges of the New Mexico Department of Health, and Ken Larson, Certified Peer Specialist and Recovery Mentor presented a comprehensive survey of the drug problems we are facing in Otero County to an interested audience of local activists. Al Kissling of PDA NM was the moderator.

Dr. Heredia said that the so called “War on Drugs” was having a more devastating effect on our community than the actual use of drugs. He cited the emphasis of the drug war being on law enforcement and leading to incarceration rather than treatment and rehabilitation. When those caught in the system have finished their time, they are released back into the community, still addicted, without the root of their situation being addressed. Heredia noted the high cost of incarceration versus treatment. Also, drug crimes are crimes against oneself and not directly against the community. He said that if drugs were legal, market forces would pressure dealer profits, and the supply of drugs would dwindle. One community activist added that the prison industry has lobbied for mandatory minimum sentences to the benefit of the private prison industry while removing judges’ discretion.

Sharon Hodges added that part of our problem is our proximity to the Mexican border and that the “border war” was now spilling into Southern New Mexico, causing a variety of new problems such as drugs laced with other harmful chemicals. Hodges stated that even marijuana was being spiked and bore no resemblance to the relatively benign drug of the ’60s. She added that the present drug situation is wreaking havoc on affected families.

Ken Larson, who mentors at the Wright House and several other recovery facilities, agreed that drugs were now coming primarily out of Mexico. He noted that although local law enforcement agents have done an excellent job of seeking out and destroying meth labs in the county, meth amphetamine is coming in by the truck load from Mexico. Larson has talked with Border Patrol agents who said that “while one truck was being inspected, twenty other trucks had to be waived through.”

Larson estimated that there are between one thousand and two thousand addicts in Otero County who are not in treatment or incarcerated. Their ages range from 12 to 56 with the majority of addicts between 18 and 24 years of age.

The panel members agreed that we need the full spectrum of treatment options in Alamogordo, including a detoxification center to care for all the drug and alcohol addictions. The hospital is not equipped for this service and would be too expensive for the uninsured and under insured. As it is, most of the funding for detox and treatment services wind up north of I-40.

There is also a great need for comprehensive drug awareness education in the entire community starting with pre-schoolers on up to adults, many of whom are not aware that a problem even exists. The panelists were hopeful that more people would become more active, if they were made aware of the very real problems facing our community.

The Progressive Democrats of America are holding these discussions all over the state and the nation. Their purpose is to read the pulse of each community at the grass-roots level and to present all our elected officials with data unaffected by corporate spin in the hope that this will affect their behavior in office and also give the voting public issues that will incite them to vote.

Their proposed system of classification assesses harm in an “evidence-based fashion”. They use three main factors to determine the potential harm that a substance causes:

(1) Physical harm to the user, (2) Tendency to induce dependence in the user, and (3) The effect of its use on families, communities and society in general. . .  They asked two independent expert panels to score 20 different substances using this new system. . . The two panels found the method easy to use and came up with very similar harm scores for each drug.

In order of overall harm, the 20 drugs were given the following ranking . . .

(1) Heroin (most harmful).
(2) Cocaine.
(3) Barbiturates.
(4) Street Methadone.
(5) Alcohol.
(6) Ketamine.
(7) Benzodiazepines.
(8) Amphetamine.
(9) Tobacco.
(10) Buprenorphine.
(11) Cannabis.
(12) Solvents.
(13) 4-MTA (para-methylthioamphetamine).
(14) LSD.
(15) Methylphenidate (ritalin).
(16) Anabolic steroids.
(17) GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid).
(18) Ecstasy.
(19) Alkyl nitrites.
(20) Khat (least harmful).

In their conclusions they comment on what they see as its most glaring deficiencies:

“The fact that the two most widely used legal drugs lie in the upper half of the ranking of harm is surely important information that should be taken into account in public debate on illegal drug use. Discussions based on a formal assessment of harm rather than on prejudice and assumptions might help society to engage in a more rational debate about the relative risks and harms of drugs.”