USA Drug Epidemic: President Obama Takes Lead against Drug Abuse - killing more people than in car accidents

Heroin Applicator: Killing thousands of people yearly

President Obama sat down with those on the front lines of the U.S. heroin and opioid epidemic on Tuesday for a frank discussion about the country’s addiction crisis, calling the issue critical to his role in protecting the health of the American people.

“When you look at the staggering statistics in terms of lives lost, productivity impacted, cost to communities, but most importantly cost to families from this epidemic,” Obama said. “It has to be something that is right up there at the top of our radar screen.”

The President addressed U.S. opioid abuse, which has grown during his two terms in office, at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, a gathering of law enforcement, medical professionals, and treatment facilitators who’ve been impacted by addiction. Obama spoke on a panel for over an hour with two recovering addicts and two medical professionals, including moderator Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Since 2002, there has been a 286% increase in heroin-related overdose deaths, with a tremendous spike after 2010.

The term "responsible drug use" is a favorite saying of people who use drugs on a regular basis and want to proof they are not addicted. Unfortunately across the USA, more Americans die every year from drug overdoses than from motor vehicle crashes. 

In 2014, drug overdoses killed 47,055 people, the highest number on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority, around 28,000, involved opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin. In fact, heroin-related overdose deaths have more than tripled since 2010, totaling 10,500 in 2014. Bottom line: say no to drugs and if you run into or see a drug dealer report him or her to the police !

EU - Digest

US Drug Epidemic: Obama joins fight against opioid abuse -yearly in America more people die from drug overdoses than from car accidents

Lending his voice to the fight against a drug scourge that kills 28,000 Americans a year, President Obama told nearly 2,000 policymakers, professionals and parents Tuesday that the nation must provide more treatment for people addicted to opioids and reframe the addiction problem through the lens of public health.

“The most important thing we can do is reduce demand for drugs, and the only way that we reduce demand is by providing treatment and thinking about this as a public health problem and not just a criminal issue,” Obama said during a panel discussion at the 2016 National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit.

“Part of what has made it difficult to emphasize treatment over criminal justice system has to do with the fact that the populations affected in the past were ... stereotypically identified as poor and minority,” he said. “And as a consequence, the thinking was it is often a character flaw in those individuals who live in those communities. ... One of the things that’s changed ... is a recognition that this reaches everybody.”

Given its widespread reach, administration officials announced a wide range of actions to fight the epidemic, such as expanding access to drug treatment, bolstering efforts to ensure health coverage for substance abuse and mental health are on par with benefits for other medical services, investing in partnerships between law enforcement and communities, and providing guidance on using federal funds to start or expand needle exchanges.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy,meanwhile, said he will release a report later this year on substance use, addiction and health, similar to the landmark surgeon general’s report on smoking released 50 years ago that focused public attention on that issue.

US Drug Abuse: 't’s a plague for families and communities 

They shared their news at the fifth annual summit, organized by Operation UNITE, an Eastern Kentucky anti-drug organization launched in 2003 by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. The summit has grown from an upstart event into the major national gathering on the issue, drawing people from both sides of the political aisle.
“This is a bipartisan issue — actually a non-partisan issue,”

Rogers, a Republican who represents Kentucky’s fifth district, said in an interview. “We’re united in the drive to stop this death rage that we’re in.”

Across the USA, more Americans die every year from drug overdoses than from motor vehicle crashes. In 2014, drug overdoses killed 47,055 people, the highest number on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority, around 28,000, involved opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin.

In fact, heroin-related overdose deaths have more than tripled since 2010, totaling 10,500 in 2014.

Bottom line: believing that people are able to act responsibly when it comes to recreational, hard drugs or other opiods is total nonsense. Just say no to drugsand report anyone selling drugs immediately to the police.

 Read more: Obama joins fight against opioid abuse | WUSA9.com

The Netherlands: Amsterdam bans smoking marijuana at school, a first for Netherlands - by Toby Sterling

Amsterdam’s mayor said Wednesday he would formally ban students from smoking marijuana at school, making the Dutch capital the first city in the Netherlands to do so.

Eberhard van der Laan’s introduction of a law that in other countries either already exists or seems so obvious it wouldn’t even require a rule is the result of the Netherlands’ unique drugs policy. Under the “tolerance” principle, marijuana is technically illegal here, but police can’t prosecute people for possession of small amounts.

That’s the loophole that made possible Amsterdam’s famed “coffee shops” — cafes where marijuana is sold openly. But it has also had the unwanted side effect that Dutch children are frequently exposed to the drug in public areas.

City spokeswoman Iris Reshef says schools have always forbidden pot, but found it difficult to enforce the policy when students smoked on or near campus and challenged administrators to do anything about it.

“It’s not really what you have in mind as an educator, that children would be turning up for class stoned, or drunk either for that matter,” she said. “But it has been a problem for some schools.”

Read more: Amsterdam bans smoking marijuana at school, a first for Netherlands - thestar.com

The Netherlands: Marihuana : "the party is over - no more drug tourism to Holland" as judge backs cafe cannabis ban

A judge in the Netherlands has upheld a new law to ban foreign tourists from entering cannabis cafes.

Under the new law, Dutch residents will still be allowed into the cafes, as long as they have valid identification, or possibly hold a new "weed pass", which is also being debated.

There are about 700 coffee shops, as they are called, in the Netherlands. The cultivation and sale of soft drugs through them is decriminalized, although not legal; police generally tolerate possession of up to five grams of cannabis.

The nationwide ban is being strongly opposed by the Mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, because around a third of the city's tourists visit to smoke cannabis in the cafes. Already in November the city of Maastricht brought in a coffee shop ban for foreign tourists from all countries, except Belgium and Germany, from where the majority of foreign customers come.

The majority of the Dutch population is happy with the ban, because most of Marihuana  trade is now being controlled by criminal elements in the Dutch society.

EU-Digest

SPIEGELONLINE/NRC-Handelsblad: Marihuana Crimes in Holland: "A big problem which needs to be stopped by changing Dutch laws on the use of Cannabis"

For the complete report from the SPIEGELONLINE/NRC-Handelsblad click on this link

Cannabis/Marihuana Crimes in Holland: "A big problem which needs to be stopped by changing Dutch laws on the use of Cannabis"

The Netherlands' marijuana tolerance policy was meant to prevent use of harder drugs. But Max Daniel, who heads up the Netherlands police unit charged with combating the organized crime behind the cannabis trade, says a violent industry has developed with exports of €2 billion.

Daniel said, "One man asked his nephew to look after his house for six months. When he returned, his home was filled with cannabis plants. He got rid of them. Afterwards he was shot in the knees and told he needed to repay €18,500 ($24,800). We know there are shops that bring cannabis-growing equipment directly to people's homes. They then provide the names and addresses to criminal organizations, which come and steal the harvest. Today, cannabis is involved in nearly all major cases involving murder, weapons and drugs". When Daniel was asked why the police did not act sooner he said, "Because everyone, including the police, said: "It's only cannabis." It costs the police just as much to arrest someone for cannabis as for cocaine. But for dealing in coke you go to prison, whereas for cannabis you just have to pay a laughably small fine. So police don't have much incentive to invest in the latter. In our Dutch society, we have been brought up to believe that cannabis is not something criminal".