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Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Preliminary assessment of the efficacy... [Rheumatology (Oxford). 2006] - PubMed - NCBI
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2006 Jan;45(1):50-2. Epub 2005 Nov 9.Preliminary assessment of the efficacy, tolerability and safety of a cannabis-based medicine (Sativex) in the treatment of pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis.
Source
Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath BA1 1RL, UK. David.Blake@rnhrd-tr.swest.nhs.uk
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
To assess the efficacy of a cannabis-based medicine (CBM) in the treatment of pain due to rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
METHODS:
We compared a CBM (Sativex) with placebo in a randomized, double-blind, parallel group study in 58 patients over 5 weeks of treatment. The CBM was administered by oromucosal spray in the evening and assessments were made the following morning. Efficacy outcomes assessed were pain on movement, pain at rest, morning stiffness and sleep quality measured by a numerical rating scale, the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and the DAS28 measure of disease activity.
RESULTS:
Seventy-five patients were screened and 58 met the eligibility criteria. Thirty-one were randomized to the CBM and 27 to placebo. Mean (S.D.) daily dose achieved in the final treatment week was 5.4 (0.84) actuations for the CBM and 5.3 (1.18) for placebo. In comparison with placebo, the CBM produced statistically significant improvements in pain on movement, pain at rest, quality of sleep, DAS28 and the SF-MPQ pain at present component. There was no effect on morning stiffness but baseline scores were low. The large majority of adverse effects were mild or moderate, and there were no adverse effect-related withdrawals or serious adverse effects in the active treatment group.
CONCLUSIONS:
In the first ever controlled trial of a CBM in RA, a significant analgesic effect was observed and disease activity was significantly suppressed following Sativex treatment. Whilst the differences are small and variable across the population, they represent benefits of clinical relevance and show the need for more detailed investigation in this indication.
Free full text
- PMID:
- 16282192
- [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
via ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
British foreign aid: India tells Britain 'we don't need the peanuts you offer us' | Mail Online
If India doesn't want our aid, stop it now, Cameron told after country labels £280m-a-year donations as 'peanuts'
Last updated at 2:52 AM on 6th February 2012
David Cameron was under intense pressure last night to slash the £1billion in aid Britain gives to India after the country said it no longer wanted the money.
India's finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said the booming country should 'voluntarily' give up the £280million a year it receives from Britain.
He told the Indian parliament: 'We do not require the aid. It is a peanut in our total development spending.'
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, left, shakes hands with India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on a visit to London in July last year
It also emerged that in a leaked memo dating from 2010 India's then foreign minister Nirupama Rao suggested India should not accept any further aid from Britain's Department for International Development because of the 'negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by DFID'.
Sources in Delhi suggested British officials begged India to accept the aid. One commented: 'They said British ministers had spent political capital justifying the aid to their electorate.
'They said it would be highly embarrassing if [India] pulled the plug.'
The revelations raised fresh questions last night for ministers who have been struggling to defend the Indian aid programme in the face of criticism from the public and Conservative MPs.
They also risk raising fresh questions about the Coalition's controversial decision to pour billions more into foreign aid at a time of deep spending cuts at home. Tory MP Philip Davies called for the Indian aid programme to be cancelled immediately.
Mr Davies said: 'India spends tens of billions on defence and hundreds of millions a year on a space programme – in those circumstances it would be unacceptable to give them aid even if they were begging us for it.
'Given that they don't even want it, it would be even more extraordinary if it were to be allowed to continue.
The British Government, headed by Prime Minister David Cameron (right) and Deputy PM Nick Clegg (left), apparently begged India to accept its aid
'There will be millions of hard-pressed families wondering why on earth the Government is wasting money in this way.'
Fellow Tory Douglas Carswell said: 'This is concrete proof that Britain's aid programme is run in the interests of Whitehall officials and the DFID machine.
'The fact is that India's economy is growing much faster than our own. We should be encouraging free trade with them and trying to learn from them rather than handing out patronising lectures.'
Tory MP Peter Bone urged ministers to abandon the 'vanity project' of pursuing a target to hand out 0.7 per cent of the UK's entire national income in aid.
He said: 'India has its own foreign aid programme so it is absurd for us to be still giving them aid. They are more than capable of looking after their own issues.
'As for the 0.7 per cent target, it is a vanity project that is being pursued for no good reason at all. I do not understand the Government's position on this and I don't think the British public do either.'
Some critics in India have also questioned the value of the aid, warning that much of it is lost to corruption and bureaucracy.
Rejected: RAF Typhoons fell to second place, despite the belief that controversial aid packages would secure the India contract for Britain
Poor: India is a rich nation and receives billions in aid, yet millions still live in extreme poverty
As recently as 2010 the country was the biggest net recipient of British aid, receiving £421million.
Despite India's rapid economic development the International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell decided last year to approve a further £1.1billion in aid over the next four years.
The timing of the latest revelations is particularly embarrassing for ministers, coming in the wake of India's decision last week to reject the British-built Typhoon fighter jet as preferred candidate for a £13billion defence deal.
Mr Mitchell said last year that the continuing aid programme was partly 'about seeking to sell Typhoon'.
Booming: Industry in India is set to overtake Britain in the next decade. Here a General Motors India employee works on the assembly line in Halol, near Ahmedabad
India has named the cheaper but less capable French-built Rafale as its preferred option.
Supporters of Britain's aid programme to India point out that, despite rapid economic development, the country remains home to about a third of the world's poor.
DFID claims that its programme saves 17,000 lives a year. International development minister Alan Duncan said last week that scrapping the aid programme 'would mean that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people will die who otherwise could live'.
Last week it emerged that plans to enshrine the 0.7 per cent aid target in law have been delayed because of fears of a public outcry.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: 'India itself has got 60 million children into school in recent years with their own money but more than 30 per cent of the world's poorest people live there.
'There are states the size of Britain where half of all children suffer from malnutrition. We will not be in India for ever but now is not the time to quit.
'Our completely revamped programme is in Indian's and Britain's national interest and is a small part of a much wider relationship between out two countries.
'We are changing out approach to India. We will target aid at three of India's poorest states, rather than central Government. We will invest more in the private sector, with our aid programme having some of the characteristics of a sovereign wealth fund.'
via dailymail.co.uk
FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists | Reuters
WASHINGTON |
(Reuters) - Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.WASHINGTON
These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.
The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.
Routine encounters with police can turn violent "at the drop of a hat," said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI's counterterrorism division.
"We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement," he said.
In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a "sovereign citizen" in traffic.
Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit.
Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.
"We are being inundated right now with requests for training from state and local law enforcement on sovereign-related matters," said Casey Carty, an FBI supervisory special agent.
FBI agents said they do not have a tally of people who consider themselves "sovereign citizens."
J.J. MacNab, a former tax and insurance expert who is an analyst covering the sovereign movement, has estimated that it has about 100,000 members.
Sovereign members often express particular outrage at tax collection, putting Internal Revenue Service employees at risk.
(Reporting By Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)
via reuters.com
2011 Abril - Revista Envío - They’re Threatening Us with “Open Inferno” Mining
Panama
They’re Threatening Us with “Open Inferno” Mining
Having long lived in extreme poverty, Panama’s indigenous people are now also being threatened with eviction from their lands by mining concessions. Panama’s bishops have spoken out firmly against this: “Not all investment is desirable. Such is the case of mining, which together with deforestation, has become the greatest threat to environmental sustainability…”
Jorge Sarsanedas
In 1979, Daniel Núñez, bishop of Panama’s David diocese, wrote: “The children play outside with smiling faces, despite the worms and malnutrition. Their mother weaves a multicolor chácara [an elaborately patterned string bag], while a naked months-old baby crawls around her. The grandmother brings water and firewood together with two children; the father and two other children come from clearing brush and are received joyously. There’s a breeze and the tranquility is palpable. In the midst of their poverty there’s a lot of affection among them; there’s love. Some are baptized and others aren’t, but Jesus’ message of liberation is beginning to awaken in their hearts. It could be a scene from a Guaimi house in any part of the Tabasará district. They don’t know it, but they’re under threat.”
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge in Panama since these words were written in a pastoral letter. Many things have changed, including in the indigenous zones, but many others haven’t.
Seven indigenous peoples
A legally defined territory of some 4,000 square kilometers called Ngäbe-Buglé District has existed in Panama since 1997, the product of a long and bloody struggle. Other laws defined other indigenous districts: Kuna Yala District (1953), Enbera and Wounaan District (1983), Kuna District of Madungandí (1996) and the Kunas’ Wargandi District (2000).A little over 110,000 Ngäbe and Buglé indigenous peoples live in the Ngäbe-Buglé District, 55% of a total population of 200,000. Seven indigenous peoples currently live in Panama: the Ngäbe, Buglé, Kuna, Enbera, Wounaan, Naso and Bribri. There are also Ngäbes, Bugles and Bribris in what is today Costa Rica and Kunas, Enberas and Wounaans in what is now Colombia.
To work out the law for the Ngäbe-Buglé District, an Organic Act was first approved, which the government changed last August without the consensus of those affected. There are more schools and health posts in the zone now, as well as some poorly constructed roads. The indigenous presence is also “felt” more in the media; more indigenous people are studying at university; the political parties have thoroughly inserted themselves in their territories; many projects have been developed, and a lot of money has been invested.
And yet, 95% of the population of this district is still living in poverty—75% of them in extreme poverty—while 60% are considered “illiterate” in Spanish and treated as pariahs because they speak their own languages and have a different-colored skin. Many now migrate to western Panama and to Costa Rica every year; in fact so many head to that neighboring country that Panama doesn’t have a large enough labor force for its coffee harvest. They emigrate to get better paid jobs, but those who only go as far as the Panamanian cities of David and Santiago end up even poorer and more marginalized, as many research studies have shown.
Why did they go?
As if the problems these peoples already have weren’t enough, projects and more projects are now being proposed for “the country’s development.” All have a history behind them…In 1977, the project to exploit Cerro Colorado—considered the second largest copper (gold and silver) deposit in the world—hovered over the Ngäbe-Buglé District like an eagle ready to swoop. Since then technical studies have analyzed—and denounced—the mortal danger in which the indigenous of the entire district found themselves, as well as the negative consequences of this particular mining exploitation not only for these communities but for the whole country.
It was documented at the time that an “open cast” mine—wouldn’t it be better to call it an “open inferno” mine?—meant ecological and ethnic death for many communities. International solidarity abounded and many united to confront the “monster.” The project was denounced by multiple groups, and especially by Bishop David Núñez, who later was joined by all the country’s Catholic bishops.
Having already gotten a sizable quantity of gold out of the country, the companies involved—Codemin and the Canadian Río Tinto Zinc, the latter remembered for calamitous reasons—decided not to exploit the mine for strictly economic reasons: the price of copper at the time simply wasn’t high enough. They gave a fig about the warnings of social, ecological, cultural or even political effects. After that breathing space, however, they’re back on the attack.
Stealthily, driven by money
Meanwhile, with the Cerro Colorado project shelved, they turned their sights on Veraguas, the gold mine in Cañazas. They were there for ten years getting gold out and leaving behind contaminated rivers, soil and, above all, people. When they left, all they bequeathed us was a lunar landscape and many sick people.As all these project need electricity, they next went after the beautiful, abundant and deep rivers that bathe our small country: Cobre, San Pablo, Tabasará, Viguí, San Félix, Changuinola, Teribe and several others. They had already exploited the Río Bayano in the eastern part of the country in the seventies, building a dam that flooded part of what is today the Kuna District of Madungandí. The Kunas are still waiting for their benefits and compensation. The peasants and indigenous people of the Río Cobre have been struggling for eleven years to keep from being thrown off their land. In Valle Riscó, the Ngäbe have suffered evictions, dispossessions, loss of lands and crops, marginalizing of communities, and the destruction of the ecology and the Protector Forest of Palo Seco, all to the construction of the Chan-75 dam.
The government has done nothing. It conceded legally reserved land to AES, the largest electricity generating company in Panama, a subsidiary of the US AES Corporation, but didn’t want to recognize the indigenous people’s land “because it was a National Park.” There are now studies on the volumes and possibilities for the Tabasará, Fonseca, Teribe and other rivers that suffered from this plundering, and they are being used as an excuse not to grant the Nasos their territory.
With great stealth, as if to keep many people from finding out, the Canadian Dominion Minerals company was granted a concession for over 24,000 hectares in 2006 with no environmental impact study, to exploit a copper, gold, silver and molybdenum deposit in the middle of the Ngäbe-Buglé District, the Fortuna Forest Reserve and the Palo Seco Protector Forest. The Environmental Authority, on which the laws on reserves and districts depend, said nothing. Nor have the owners of these lands been consulted. Can we assume that the criterion of a “doctor” who stated that “the Indians aren’t the owners because they haven’t bought those lands” is prevailing? Not until April 2009 did the Supreme Court suspend the mining company’s actions, and then only temporarily. So the sword is still hanging over the heads of the Chorchas and all Panamanians.
Is there such thing
“Clean mining” has been the banner proclamation of exploitation, as is currently the case in Coclé-Colón, where Petaquilla Gold and Minera Panamá are exploring for copper, gold and silver. But the reality is that there’s no such thing as clean mining; in all cases it’s an oxymoron.
as “clean” mining?Panama’s Chamber of Mining recently declared that “if mining weren’t good, there wouldn’t be so many mines in Chile, Peru and Brazil.” But history and the evidence in those three countries point to dirty and polluting mining there. We have only to look at ourselves in the poisoned mirror of the Cañazas mine in Panama, the Cerro de Pasco mine in Peru or the Ixtahuacán mine in Guatemala, or at the destruction caused by gold mining in the Amazon.
How can this be stopped?
With international copper and gold prices now rising, they’re back wanting to exploit Cerro Colorado and other mines in Panama, and the Panamanian government has already taken various steps to permit it. These include approving a reform to the 1963 Mining Code, which has sparked the opposition of all of the country’s environmentalist groups. Another, as mentioned above, was to reform—with neither consultation nor consensus—the Organic Act of the Ngäbe-Buglé District, thus opening the way for “authorization” of this mining exploitation.Those opposed to this outrage have banked on organization, consciousness-raising and commitment. The first step has been to “organize the rage” produced by the determination to exploit riches by going over people’s heads, even killing them if necessary; by the willingness to destroy the country to assure the wealth of a few; and by innocent people, like indigenous children, seeing their future poisoned because they were born on land covering riches. The organization of that rage has been reflected in community groups, traditional authorities, solidarity groups, civil society, pastoral groups and international support.
The consequence has been two months of a very strong confrontation between the government and the indigenous people backed by many social groups. After demonstrations and protests, the issuing of communiqués and the blocking of highways, in which people were wounded, beaten and imprisoned, we got the government to back off and repeal the unconsulted mining law. Right now there’s a testy and tense dialogue going on to legally prohibit mining exploitations in the Ngäbe-Buglé District.
The second step is consciousness-raising. Much still needs to be said to the entire country. Incredibly, there are still supposedly well-educated professionals (doctors, engineers, etc.) who think that culture is synonymous with backwardness, that land is only possessed by purchase and that all investment is progress. We’re frequently surprised by the racist statements and justifications born of the ignorance of many Panamanians.
The third is commitment. Panama’s Catholic Church spoke clearly in a January 13 Bishops’ Conference Communiqué. “Not all investment is desirable. Such is the case of mining, which together with deforestation has become the greatest threat to environmental sustainability in the region. In general, countries have weak laws regarding foreign investment and lax regulations that do not guarantee that contaminating substances such as cyanide are handled safely for the health of the population. Nor have legitimately recognized consultations been conducted to truthfully inform affected communities and make sure their demands are recognized.”
Our struggle
In numerous zonal and national Catholic Church meetings, bishops and pastoral agents (priests, nuns and committed lay people) who work in the country’s districts have demonstrated our concern about the mining projects, given that the marginalization and extreme poverty are now exacerbated by the growing threat of dispossession and the despoiling of their ancestral territories by mining concessions and hydroelectric projects in the name of “national progress.”Many indigenous accounts support this struggle. As a Church, we must remain at the side of these peoples even if we have to pay a high price. It’s the only task the Gospel of Jesus Christ asks of us.
Jorge Sarsaneda, sj, is a member of the national indigenous pastoral coordinating body.
via envio.org.ni
Time To Decriminalise Drugs? – South African Medical Journal
An article published in the Feb 2011 edition of South African Medical Journal (SAMJ). The article, written by JP de V van Niekerk, editor of SAMJ and former Dean of the UCT faculty of Health Sciencies, broadly covers the failed war on drugs and how South Africa needs to rethink its drug policies. JP de Van Niekerk will also be on on radio today at 3:30pm and will be discussing these issues further. You can tune in on 567 Cape Talk if you’re in Cape Town, or radio 702 if you’re in Johannesburg. Alternatively, you can stream it online.
The drug trade has increased globally in intensity and reach, and substance abuse in South Africa has escalated rapidly. Drug misuse is a major social, legal and public health challenge despite the war on drugs, in which the USA has a disproportionate influence. Why this lack of progress and what can be done about it?
The use of psychotropic substances is as old as human history. Some use drugs as part of religious observations. The majority of people who partake of drugs use them for recreational purposes. Some become addicted and may cause harm to themselves, their families and society. If drugs are bad it seems logical to wage war on them. However, although ‘get tough’ measures sound attractive they are often counterproductive.
Attempts to stem evil
Over the centuries, countries, societies and communities have fruitlessly tried to regulate perceived evils, often related to powerful human needs and drives, namely sex, food and seeking happiness. The Victorians were obsessed with what they perceived as the evils of sex, leading to distorted teachings and actions and much unnecessary emotional suffering.
Despite alcohol having been used since antiquity, many countries have tried prohibiting its use. The most familiar is the failed prohibition experiment in the USA from 1920 to 1933. Breweries and distillers in surrounding countries flourished as widespread bootlegging and organised crime took control of the distribution of alcohol in the USA. Countries have gone to war over drugs: the Opium Wars (1839 – 1842, 1856 – 1860) resulted from trade disputes between China and the British Empire after China sought to limit illegal British opium trafficking. China lost the wars and had to tolerate the opium trade. War-torn Afghanistan now cultivates as much as 90% of the world’s opium, its trade also supporting the Taliban.
In the USA Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs in 1970. Another lifestyle result of human excesses is the rising tide of obesity, though war has not yet been declared on foods.
Harmful substances
The International Narcotics Control Board established by the United Nations under the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, lists a vast spectrum of narcotic drugs, psychotropic agents and precursors ‘under international control’. However, the substances that cause by far the most damage to individuals and societies, namely alcohol, cigarette smoking and prescription medicines, are not illegal. (To this we should perhaps add the lifestyle matters of food and sex?)
Harmful drugs are regulated according to classification systems that purport to relate to the harms and risks of each drug. Nutt and colleagues found that the current classification of drugs is unscientific, unsystematic and arbitrary. Using an evidence-based expert delphic procedure they developed and explored a rational scale to assess the harms of illicit drugs and also included five legal drugs of misuse (alcohol, khat, solvents, alkyl nitrates and tobacco). They provide a systemic methodology and process that could benefit regulatory bodies in assessing the harm of drugs of abuse. Their ranking, based on categories of harm (physical harm, dependence, effects on families, communities and society), differed from those in current use. Tobacco and alcohol together account for about 90% of all drug-related deaths in the UK. They are the most widely used unclassified substances, but were both ranked in the top 10 higher harm group and cannabis (marijuana) in the lower 10 (out of 20). Drugs that can be taken intravenously, such as heroin, carry a high risk of death and score highly. Their results also emphasise that excluding alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary and that there is no clear distinction between socially acceptable and illicit substances.
Effects of the drug wars
Declaring war means that one must have enemies. In the USA these are the drug dealers but also the users. A large percentage of the population has used and currently uses illegal recreational substances such as marijuana and cocaine. Apprehending these ‘enemies’ has resulted in the USA having the world’s largest prison population, 738 per 100 000 people (other examples per 100000 people are 335 for South Africa, 124 for the UK and 30 for India). A large sector of the population is thus criminalised.
Producer countries have been politically destabilised by the US war on drugs. Huge profits made from cocaine and other drugs from countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, largely because they are illegal in the USA, have resulted in flourishing drug cartels. Those controlling the supply routes to the USA through Mexico and Caribbean countries wreak havoc through their criminal paramilitary and guerrilla groups, with murder, kidnapping, bribery and corruption, money laundering, etc. Coca has been cultivated for centuries in the Andes. Its legitimate uses include chewing the leaves for their mild stimulant and appetite suppression effects, and as a tea that reduces the effects of altitude sickness. Coca farmers are often at the difficult and potentially violent intersection of government-sponsored eradication efforts, illegal cocaine producers and traffickers seeking coca supplies, anti-government paramilitary forces trafficking in cocaine as a source of revolutionary funding, and the hardships of rural subsistence farming. Further pressure to grow coca for the cocaine trade is caused by the dumping of subsidised surpluses of fruit, vegetables, grain, etc., mainly by the USA and European Union.
Drug prohibition inevitably leads to political and police corruption. Jackie Selebi, former head of South Africa’s police and Interpol President, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced for accepting bribes from a drug trafficker in 2010. ‘Wars’ on, for example, local growers of coca, marijuana and poppies increase the price of drugs, lessen competition, and encourage cartels by increasing their potential profits. People who become addicted to substances often cannot fund the high prices of illicit products and turn to drug running, robbery and other criminal methods to meet their needs.
Regulation/legislation
Regulations vary widely from country to country. The UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, under the auspices of which the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) was established, was regarded as a milestone in the history of international drug control by its proponents. The Single Convention codified multilateral treaties on drug control, including the cultivation of plants grown as the raw material of narcotic drugs. Its principal objectives are to limit the possession, use, trade, distribution, import, export, manufacture and production of drugs exclusively to medical and scientific purposes and to deter and discourage drug traffickers through international co-operation. The INCB monitors apparent violations of the treaties and addresses those within its mandate.
In the USA, where marijuana may be used for medical use in several states, there is a strong growing movement to have it legalised. However, the official US stance is to strengthen the war on marijuana. Elected officials are willing to acknowledge the failure of the drug war in private, but the degeneration of their political discourse and campaign tactics has made reforming the drug war synonymous with political suicide. And since politicians have short-term interests, who represents the interests of future generations?
South Africa has given much thought and effort to combating the abuse of illicit and legal substances. The Prevention and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act No. 70, 2008, and the National Drug Master Plan 2006 – 2011 seek to reduce demand, reduce harm and reduce the supply of illicit substances (including education and raising awareness) and associated crimes through law enforcement, prevention of community-based substance abuse, early intervention, drug treatment (including rehabilitation and risk reduction) and research. They are supported by many other Acts, government departments, statutory bodies, non-governmental organisations, etc. The City of Cape Town has an Operational Alcohol and Drug Strategy that recognises that the whole community is responsible for tackling the problem. This requires systematic, multifaceted, integrated responses; social inclusiveness; commitment to funding and resource allocation; and recognition that demand reduction is a key principle. The Central Drug Authority is a statutory body established to co-ordinate and direct drug counteraction across South Africa on both the demand and supply side. Further legal sanction is provided by the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act No. 140 of 1992, which determines what the legal acts are in terms of possession, distribution, manufacture, etc. of ‘any dependence-producing substance; or any dangerous dependence-producing substance or any undesirable dependence-producing substance’. South Africa is signatory to the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, and other international and regional agreements concerning drugs.
The case for decriminalisation
The war on drugs has failed! Humans have always taken psychoactive substances and prohibition has never kept them from doing so. The international evidence suggests that drug policy has very limited impact on the overall level of drug use. Making people criminals for taking psychoactive substances is in itself criminal, for one is dealing with, at worst, a vice but not a crime.
The two most widely used legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, lie in the upper half of the harms ranking. This important information should surely be taken into account in public debate on illegal drug use. Discussions based on formal assessment of harm rather than on prejudice and assumptions would enable a more rational debate about the relative risks and harms of drugs. Pragmatism is urgently needed in debates about these issues and our responses to them. The tone of our debate about responses to the treatment and supervision of drug-dependent offenders should change. Focusing on enforcement and compliance further erodes discretion for those responsible for treating and supervising such offenders. Policy should aim to reduce the harm that drugs cause, and not to embroil more people in the criminal justice system. Society should have some faith in the capacity of drug-using offenders to change, and actively assist and enable them to achieve this goal.
People with a history of drug problems are seen as blameworthy and to be feared. Stigma is a major barrier to their successful recovery and prevents them from playing a more positive role in communities and re-integrating into society. People recovering from drug dependence should be part of the normal community. Such actions have been successfully implemented in some European countries. In the USA there is increasing support for initiatives such as the California Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, that would have legalised various marijuana-related activities, allowed local governments to regulate and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorised various criminal and civil penalties.
While much of South Africa’s approach to drug abuse is progressive and enlightened, evidence-based facts and sober reflection suggest that our strategies require re-thinking.
- The Vision of the National Drug Master Plan is a drug-free society. Human history and international experience clearly demonstrate that this does not reflect reality. We should acknowledge this and develop better ways of dealing with human frailty.
- A more evidence-based, nuanced approach to the harms of drugs is required. For example, it makes no sense to legalise the use of alcohol and tobacco but not the less dangerous cannabis
(which also has beneficial effects).- Using psychoactive substances may be a vice but should not be considered to be a crime, thus criminalising a large proportion of our citizens.
- Making drugs illicit cedes their control to the drug dealer.
- Escalating the drug war makes drugs more valuable and attracts more participants into the illicit drug economy.
- Improved state control of substances, as with alcohol and cigarettes, could provide taxes and significantly reduce the roles of drug dealers.
A recent MRC Research Brief outlines strategies to effectively address substance abuse problems among young people, but decriminalisation is not mentioned. It is time to face realities squarely and rationally debate the question of decriminalisation. Vested interests in maintaining the status quo will have unexpected support from those who stand to lose the most, namely the drug dealers and those in their pay (including the law and politics). All the more reason to proceed!
J P de V van Niekerk
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controlled trial. CMAJ 2010;182:1515-1521.
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16. Kolhatkar S. Reefer sadness. Bloomberg Businessweek 2010; 7 Nov: 62-65.
McDonald’s Pulls Anti-Pit Bull Ad—We’re Lovin’ It! | Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan
McDonald’s Pulls Anti-Pit Bull Ad—We’re Lovin’ It!
Last Friday, over the span of just a few hours, pit bull-rights activists showed what can happen when we raise our voices. It all started Friday morning when a McDonald’s franchise in Kansas City aired a radio advertisement promoting their new Chicken McBites (you can listen to the spot below). The ad said “Trying a brand-new menu item at McDonald’s isn’t risky. You know what’s risky? Petting a stray pit bull.” Needless to say, friends of pit bulls were not amused.
Within hours of the commercial airing, a Facebook campaign began urging people to call the fast food giant and take the ad off the air (the Facebook graphic that was posted and reposted is also below). Before too long, the phones were ringing at McDonald’s headquarters. The corporate office was initially confused, as the ad apparently wasn’t part of a national campaign, but created by the local franchise. Nevertheless, McDonald’s immediately pulled the ad and issued the following apology:
“In our effort to spread the word about our new Chicken McBites, one of our local markets ran an ad that inadvertently offended some of our customers. The ad was insensitive in its mention of pit bulls. We apologize. We are pulling the ad, and will review our creative screening process. It’s never our intent to offend anyone with how we communicate news about McDonald’s.”
Not bad, Micky D, but if you really want to apologize, we recommend a sizable monetary donation to an organization like the Millan foundation to offset the damage to pit bulls that callous prejudicial remarks like the one in your ad cause.
Pit bulls aren’t looking for special rights, just to be treated with the same respect as any other breed of dog. Continue ending the pit bull prejudice, McDonald’s, and we’ll be lovin’ you again.
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via cesarsway.com
Iowa vote fraud official - Denver Conspiracy | Examiner.com
It’s official, or is it? Once again the establishment is showing it’s cards in an obvious attempt to defraud Ron Paul of the nomination, as Iowa GOP ‘officials’ purposely disrupt and permanently invalidate the 2012 Iowa Caucus.
The official Caucus website, in conjunction with the Des Moines Register, had to come forward Thursday to claim the official results can “never be certified” after, at least, 8 different precincts turn up invalid results due to “missing votes” and changing stories.
For the first time in history, the Iowa GOP decided to change the final vote count to a “Secret location” for what was claimed to be “security concerns.” The unprecedented change in venue came as a shock to most Iowans who are used to seeing the final results tallied at State Party Headquarters in Des Moines, in full view of the public
via examiner.com
Queen commemorates over 60 years on benefits
Queen commemorates over 60 years on benefits
The Queen has visited a town hall in King’s Lynn and the nearby Dersingham Infant and Nursery School as part of her celebrations to mark 60 years of receiving an enormous amount of money at the taxpayer’s expense.
The Queen, who has been the head of the UK’s most prolific family of benefit claimants since 1952, said she felt “deeply moved” by the amount of cash she has received over the years without even having to queue up and sign for it.
The main celebrations for her anniversary will be in June when it is expected that she will cost the UK economy a further £5bn as a result of additional bank holidays.
Prime Minister David Cameron praised the Queen’s “magnificent service to waving and riding side-saddle” and called her a “source of knighthoods and nice parties”.
Among the crowds waiting for the Queen in King’s Lynn was Colleen Jenkins, who travelled from London to show her appreciation for the Queen’s unflinching dedication to living a life of unbridled luxury.
“I love the monarchy,” she gushed.
“There’s nothing more representative of what it means to be British than standing alongside a bunch of people who place massive importance upon a hugely out of touch institution that serves little purpose other than to remind us how insignificant we are.”
A set of six first class stamps, featuring portraits of the Queen enjoying varying degrees of opulence on our behalf, are also being issued to mark the monarch’s milestone.
Among the events to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be a flotilla of a thousand boats along the Thames and a chain of beacons being lit across the country, as well other members of the Royal Family visiting the 15 other countries where the Queen is head of state.
A government spokesperson said, “We felt the best way to honour what the Queen represents would be to piss vast sums of money up the wall while millions of people go without”.
via newsthump.com
Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Staying on Message - NYTimes.com
EVEN so, some say her aim-high message is a bit out of tune. Everyone agrees she is wickedly smart. But she has also been lucky, and has had powerful mentors along the way. After Harvard and Harvard Business School, she quickly rose from a post as an economist at the World Bank to become the chief of staff for Lawrence H. Summers, then the Treasury secretary. After that, she jumped to Google and, in 2008, to Facebook.
She is married to Dave Goldberg, a successful entrepreneur and the C.E.O. of SurveyMonkey, which enables people to create their own Web surveys. She doesn’t exactly have to worry about money. Or child care. (She and her husband have two young children.)
To some, Ms. Sandberg seems to suggest that women should just work harder while failing to acknowledge that most people haven’t had all the advantages that she’s had.
“I’m a huge fan of her accomplishments and think she’s a huge role model in some ways, but I think she’s overly critical of women because she’s almost implying that they don’t have the juice, the chutzpah, to go for it,” said Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Center for Talent Innovation, a research organization on work-life policy, and director of the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University.
“I think she’s had a golden path herself, and perhaps does not more readily understand that the real struggles are not having children or ambition,” Ms. Hewlett continued. “Women are, in fact, fierce in their ambition, but they find that they’re actually derailed by other things, like they don’t have a sponsor in their life that helps them go for it.”
via nytimes.com
Nevada vote fraud official - Denver Conspiracy | Examiner.com
Sources:
Iowa Situation:
Iowa Vote Fraud Official: http://www.examiner.com/conspiracy-in-denver/iowa-vote-fraud-official
Matt Strawn, Iowa GOP Chairman, To Step Down http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/matt-strawn-iowa-gop-chairman-resigns-_n_1244186.html
Nevada Situation:
Vote count in GOP caucus continuing in Nevada’s largest county http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb/05/vote-count-gop-caucus-continuing-nevadas-largest-c/
Nevada GOP dealing with ‘trouble box’ of questionable ballots http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb/05/nevada-gop-dealing-trouble-box/
Excess Ballots Were Counted In Clark County, Nevada
Ron Paul Trounces Everyone! In Only Nevada Caucus Vote Counted On Live TV
Newt Gingrich Supporter: Everyone Is Voting For Ron Paul!
Move Over, Iowa, Nevada Has A Caucus Problem Too http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/02/05/146415698/move-over-iowa-nevada-has-a-caucus-problem-too
It is official: Elections in America are a complete hoax http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-washington-dc/it-is-official-elections-america-are-a-complete-hoax?CID=obinsite
Why Nevada’s GOP caucuses were a jackpot of embarrassments http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2012/02/05/why-nevadas-gop-caucuses-were-a-jackpot-of-embarrassments/?gta=commentlistpos#commentlistpos
Nevada! Clark County Vote Fraud http://robertwanekreports.com/nevada-clark-county-vote-fraud/
via examiner.com
Cannabis Treatment Threatens Deadly Painkiller Industry | TruthTheory
By Anthony Gucciardi
Pharmaceutical painkillers are now responsible for more deaths in the United States than heroin and cocaine combined. The pharmaceuticals are responsible for more than 15,000 deaths conservatively in 2008 alone. With no sign of slowing down, the painkiller industry is becoming wildly popular among Americans — as a result, so is the high rate of painkiller abuse. Classified as dangerous by the U.S. government, cannabis (even in THC-free form, or free of psychoactive effects) has been identified as a powerful pain reliever in more than 80 peer-reviewed studies.
You may be aware of the fact that marijuana is usually quite high in THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the compound responsible for the psychoactive effect of cannabis. In contrast, it is also low in CBD (cannabidiol) content. Both THC and CBD are known as cannabinoids, however, which interacts with your body in a very unique way. In fact, cannabinoids are key when it comes to pain relief. While this information alone is enough to shatter the traditional beliefs on government marijuana regulation, the relationship between CBD and THC is even more revealing.
What you may not be familiar with is how CBD has been shown to block the effect of THC in the nervous system. This allows for marijuana to be used with little or no psychoactive effects. Hemp, on the other hand, ishigh in CBD and low in THC. This is due to the fact that it is bred to maximize its fiber, seeds, and oil. Of course these key properties are what it is most commonly used for.
Trials Indicate Cannabis as an Effective Treatment for Chronic Pain
In a 2011 study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, researchers examined the effects of cannabinoids on chronic pain and proper sleep. What they found in their trials challenges federal government claims that cannabis has ‘no accepted medical use’. The researchers conducted 18 trials using cannabinoids in the treatment of chronic pain, and found that cannabinoids demonstrated a significant painkilling effect as well as noticeable improvements in sleep in 15 of trials. Compared, to placebo, the cannabinoids were extremely effective.
Most importantly, there were no adverse effects.
Another study, performed in 2002, reached similar conclusions. Finding cannabis to aid in pain relief as well as quality of sleep, researchers from the McGill University Health Centre stated in summary that cannabis can be used as an effective way of improving pain, mood, and sleep in some patients with chronic pain.
There are many forms of the cannabis plant, many without mind-altering properties, many of which can be utilized without adverse reactions as detailed in the peer-reviewed research. It is also quite clear that the painkiller industry simply cannot continue to wreak havoc on the lives of many, and a natural alternative must soon emerge to prevent another 15,000 plus deaths this year. Why is the federal government refusing to admit the medicinal properties of cannabis and the unique ability of this substance to curb pain, insomnia, and impaired mood? This is only one example of how the government decides what is and what is not good for your health.
via truththeory.com
Nevada vote fraud official - Denver Conspiracy | Examiner.com
Perhaps the most obvious aspect of the situation, however, may be the fact that Nevada is a known Libertarian state, Ron Paul has basically campaign there since his last attempt at the white house, his numbers have almost doubled in every state since then, yet Nevada state GOP ‘officials’ expect everyone to believe he actually received fewer votes there in 2012 than he did in 2008?
via examiner.com
Nevada vote fraud official - Denver Conspiracy | Examiner.com
After almost every Caucus thus far, the election has to be ultimately rendered meaningless. with the only real solutions being independent Grand Jury investigations, total do-overs, or simply allow the establishment and it’s minions to steal the nomination away from the people and the candidate they are actually trying to choose, and simply give it to Mitt Romney instead.
Amazingly, as state after state is ransacked by establishment backed party officials, as Romney continues to benefit from all the pre-meditated mayhem, the establishment’s media continues to act as if nothing whatsoever is happening and everything is under control, as if all this has been the plan all along.
Breaking the story of Chairwoman, Tarkanian’s resignation, while trying to be as quiet about it as possible, The Nevada Sun did their very best to spin the circumstances and cleverly word the story, attempting to leave the reader with the impression that everything was going to be ok, when the actual reality of the circumstances is obviously quite dire.
As it turns out, just as in Iowa, the likelihood that Ron Paul should have actually been the winner is very high. Not only did CNN show live coverage of a special late evening vote count in a populated Las Vegas precinct that had Ron Paul winning by almost 60%, statistics are showing that Ron Paul may have actually won the entire caucus by approx. the same margin, had in not been for another round of State GOP election fraud that is seemingly never going to be address by the powers that be, for obvious reasons
via examiner.com
The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message - Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, will reap a fortune in its stock offering. And she hasn't stopped telling the world how women should take responsibility for their careers.
The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message
Antoine Antoniol/Bloomberg News
Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, will reap a fortune in its stock offering. And she hasn't stopped telling the world how women should take responsibility for their careers.
By NICOLE PERLROTH and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
Published: February 4, 2012
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Its Chief’s Big Tax Bill May Benefit Facebook (February 4, 2012)
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Personal Data’s Value? Facebook Is Set to Find Out (February 1, 2012)
Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, with Jeffrey Immelt, left, chairman of General Electric.
SEVENTY-TWO hours beforeFacebook’s big moment, Sheryl K. Sandberg was half a world away, hobnobbing with the likes of Bill Gatesand the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Yes, Ms. Sandberg is Mark Zuckerberg’s No. 2. And, yes, if all goes well, she will soon become the $1.6 billion woman. On Wednesday, Facebook filed to go public in a deal that, in all likelihood, will instantly make it one of the most valuable corporations on the planet.
But Ms. Sandberg, who has helped steer this social network to this once-unimaginable height, had more on her mind than securities filings and ad metrics. She was attending the annual World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, where her subject wasn’t Facebook — but women. Specifically, how women, in her view, must take responsibility for their careers and not blame men for holding them back.
Given that Ms. Sandberg is Facebook’s chief operating officer, and that all of Wall Street was hanging on last week’s news, you might think that she was absurdly off-topic. But Ms. Sandberg sees herself as more than an executive at one of the hottest companies around — more, too, than someone who will soon rank among the few self-made billionaires who are women. She sees herself as a role model for women in business and technology. In speeches, she often urges women to “keep your foot on the gas pedal,” and to aim high.
Her call isn’t simply about mentoring and empowering. It is also about business strategy. A majority of Facebook’s 845 million users are women. And women are also its most engaged users. So Ms. Sandberg is playing to a powerful and lucrative demographic, as well as to the advertisers who want to reach it. Inside Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., she is considered a not-so-secret weapon for recruiting and retaining talented women as well as men. She and Mr. Zuckerberg will need the best brains they can find to sustain Facebook’s astonishing growth.
Of course, it helps that Ms. Sandberg has personality and presentation skills. In Davos and on the conference circuit, in public appearances in Washington and on college campuses, she has a warm, disarming tone that sets her apart from many other executives, male or female.
Her talks have gone viral. On YouTube, videos of her speeches have been viewed more than 200,000 times. Some have been included in syllabuses at the Stanford and Harvard business schools. Put simply, she exudes that certain something that seems to leave many people, particularly young women, a bit star-struck.
“There have been a handful of women that could have been the ‘Justin Bieber of tech,’ but Sheryl is the real deal,” said Ann Miura-Ko, a lecturer at the School of Engineering at Stanford and an investment partner at Floodgate, a venture capital firm in Palo Alto, Calif. “Young women really want to be her and learn from her.”
Ms. Miura-Ko added: “Sheryl is radioactive plutonium when it comes to a recruiting weapon within Facebook.”
Other women in Silicon Valley have been role models. Many, like the Google executives Marissa Mayer and Susan Wojcicki, have quietly campaigned to promote women inside their companies. Others — like Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay who now runs Hewlett-Packard; Carly Fiorina, the former H.P. chief; and Carol Bartz, the former head of Yahoo — have reached pinnacles of success in tech.
But none have made promoting women a cause the way Ms. Sandberg has.
EVEN so, some say her aim-high message is a bit out of tune. Everyone agrees she is wickedly smart. But she has also been lucky, and has had powerful mentors along the way. After Harvard and Harvard Business School, she quickly rose from a post as an economist at the World Bank to become the chief of staff for Lawrence H. Summers, then the Treasury secretary. After that, she jumped to Google and, in 2008, to Facebook.
She is married to Dave Goldberg, a successful entrepreneur and the C.E.O. ofSurveyMonkey, which enables people to create their own Web surveys. She doesn’t exactly have to worry about money. Or child care. (She and her husband have two young children.)
To some, Ms. Sandberg seems to suggest that women should just work harder while failing to acknowledge that most people haven’t had all the advantages that she’s had.
“I’m a huge fan of her accomplishments and think she’s a huge role model in some ways, but I think she’s overly critical of women because she’s almost implying that they don’t have the juice, the chutzpah, to go for it,” said Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Center for Talent Innovation, a research organization on work-life policy, and director of theGender and Policy Program at Columbia University.
“I think she’s had a golden path herself, and perhaps does not more readily understand that the real struggles are not having children or ambition,” Ms. Hewlett continued. “Women are, in fact, fierce in their ambition, but they find that they’re actually derailed by other things, like they don’t have a sponsor in their life that helps them go for it.”
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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 4, 2012
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Katie Mitic, Facebook’s head of platform and mobile marketing. It is Mitic, not Mitnic. The article also misstated that Bono attended the World Economic Forum this year.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 5, 2012, on pageBU1 of the New York edition with the headline: The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message
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