DrugWar.com News Archive
October, 2005

Marijuana and Youth Culture (Oct. 31, 2005)
"Ground-breaking study looks at teenage attitudes."

Top Suspect in Drug Ring Is Extradited to the U.S. (Oct. 25, 2005-Free NYTimes registration required)
"An Afghan identified as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins, who has been linked to the Taliban and once boasted that selling heroin to Americans was a form of jihad, has been extradited from Afghanistan to face drug smuggling and other charges, federal officials in New York announced yesterday."

Poor not the only addicts (Oct. 24, 2005)
"Oregon State Rep. Kelley Wirth's absences from committee sessions and floor votes had become almost routine. Her personal problems were starting to overshadow her work in the Oregon Legislature. But she still shocked the state -- and even the country -- when she was booked earlier this month on suspicion of methamphetamine possession." Typical anti-drug scare story, but still, methamphetamine is one of those drugs one can find both good and bad issues with- from the US military giving it to their pilots who fly long combat missions (what keeps them from going psychotic?) to folks like those described in this article, cooking it in their basement for personal use and sales.

Breathalyzers and Open Source (Oct. 24, 2005)
"The defendants say they have the right to examine the machines that accused them, and that a meaningful examination requires access to the machines’ software. Prosecutors say the code is a trade secret."

Narcotics seized from local villagers pile up at U.S. base (Oct. 18, 2005)
"In all, perhaps 300 pounds of narcotics -- some of it carried in sacks stamped 'US food aid' -- were stuffed into the large black footlocker at the American compound outside the city."

An Interview With Lester Grinspoon, M.D. (Oct. 18, 2005)
"LG: Sativex is the kind of thing I was concerned about when I first spoke of the concept of pharmaceuticalization in 1985 to describe Marinol. At the time the federal government was under a lot of pressure to look at the medical uses of marijuana. So the government supported this little company Unimed to create Marinol, which is simply synthetic THC [tetrahyrdrocannabinol], which is identical to the THC that you find in cannabis. But that THC they put into Schedule II -- it’s so ridiculous!"

Drugs, art and the aliens who lit our way to civilisation (Oct. 17, 2005)
"This has been termed the 'greatest riddle in archaeology', and many academics have devoted their career to its study. The reason behind the sudden transformation, the majority have concluded, is hallucinogenic plants. Magic mushrooms would be a relevant example, but all over the world, man stumbled across drugs which opened the possibility for spiritual, creative thought."

The cocaine paradox (Oct. 17, 2005)
"Cocaine is an addictive Class A drug, its use widely deplored. Yet, as recent events perhaps show, its sphere of influence is wider than we might think. So, do we have a paradoxical attitude to the drug?"

Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain (Oct. 14, 2005)
"A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain."

Boomers' Overdose Deaths Up Markedly (Oct. 10, 2005)
"Californians age 40 and older are dying of drug overdoses at double the rate recorded in 1990, a little-noticed trend that upends the notion of hard-core drug use as primarily a young person's peril. Indeed, overdoses among baby boomers are driving an overall increase in drug deaths so dramatic that soon they may surpass automobile accidents as the state's leading cause of nonnatural deaths."

Susan Bell: a shameful secret history (Oct. 9, 2005)
"In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. His widow, Susan Bell, looks back on a shameful secret history."

68th Anniversary of Marijuana Prohibition (Oct. 4, 2005)
Check out the photo of the first man arrested under pot prohibition in the United States, and find out what happened to him and his customer.

Atta known to Pentagon before 9/11 (Oct. 3, 2005)
"Four years after the nation's deadliest terror attack, evidence is accumulating that a super-secret Pentagon intelligence unit identified the organizer of the Sept. 11 hijackings, Mohamed Atta, as an Al Qaeda operative months before he entered the U.S."

Cary Clack: Mr. Bennett, associating guilt with ethnicity is hardly a virtue (Oct. 3, 2005)
"William Bennett was right. Last week on his radio talk show, the former U.S. education secretary and drug czar made his now infamous comment that 'you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.'" But Cory Clark goes on to point out one could say the same thing about any enthic group and how stupid it was for Bennett to utter this comment, no matter if he did follow it with a qualification immediately.

Book puts Tulia process on trial (Oct. 3, 2005)
"Texas justice went horribly wrong in Tulia in 1999, columnists and pundits quickly agreed."