FW: [Transform News] April Newsletter

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Subject: [Transform News] April Newsletter

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Transform News – April 2010	Briefings	Support	Donate	Media Blog
“Meow Meow is legal so I tried it, but will banning every new drug really fix our drug problem? ” -- Dr Max Pemberton (Daily Telegraph) Contents 1. UK News Cathinone ban (ACMD) Election Manifestos IHRA Conference, 25th April 2. Events Peace in Our Time, symposium to consider an end to the war on drugs, May 13th How to End the War on Drugs: Building Peace in Latin America 3. International News Germany's new drinking rooms for alcoholics Coca Colla: the new 'real thing' in Bolivia 4. What Transform Has Been Up To Danny Kushlick Martin Powell 5. What You Can Do Read books Drug Use and Social change - A Distortion of history   1. UK News Cathinone ban Well you could hardly have missed the furore over Mephedrone and other Cathinone derived substances recently. Media driven hype and speculation has driven the pre-election political parties into tough mode and forced through a ban at unprecedented speeds, ignoring the ACMD's calls for an evidence based response, leading to the resignation of Eric Carlin. Of the 28 deaths reported as caused by Mephdrone some have already been discounted as Johan Hari writes in the Independent "The first mephedrone death was reported last November, when a 14-year-old girl called Gabrielle Price died in Brighton after apparently taking the drug. Immediately, there were calls for a ban. Three weeks later, the autopsy found the drug had nothing to do with her death: she was killed by "broncho-pneumonia which resulted from a streptococcal A infection". But the campaign didn't pause. ". Only one death has had Mephedrone linked as a contributing factor, but it is illegal now, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, so thankfully we're all safe. Election manifestos With the Election campaigns in full swing we have collected the various manifestos of most of the political parties and highlighted their drug policy. Unsurprisingly drug policy is a subject that is generally avoided, UKIP seem to have no reference, the Green Party are the most open and the main 2 parties only have limited reference to it under their crime and punishment section. Please have a look for yourselves on our blog http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/ IHRA's 21st International Conference, 25th April Transform, in collaboration with the International Drug Policy Consortium organised the Tuesday plenary session at this years' International Harm Reduction conference in Liverpool, titled 'The Next Generation of Drug Policy: Decriminalisation and Beyond'. The Session was chaired by John Ashton, and the presentation abstracts are copied below (full program available here in pdf). Please follow the link for more about the event: http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2010/04/ihra-plenary-next-generation-of-drug.html 2. Events Peace in Our Time, symposium to consider an end to the war on drugs, May 13th Speakers: Professor David Nutt , Former Chair of the ACMD, Frederico Silva , Head of Terrorism, Drugs and Corruption Unit Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, HHJ Pearce-Higgins QC , Crown Court Circuit judge,  Steve Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst for Tranform. Chaired by Paul Mendelle QC Bedford Row Chambers Venue: Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, 6.30pm May 13th Please email events@25bedfordrow.com if you are interested in attending. How to End the War on Drugs: Building Peace in Latin America An interactive event with Danny Kushlick, founder of the UK’s leading drug policy think tank Transform Drug Policy Foundation. Danny will describe how the drug war has become an orthodoxy through securitizing cocaine, and how applying an evidence based approach built on humanity, effectiveness and justice would lead to a system such as that outlined in Transform’s groundbreaking new book “After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation”. 9 June 2010, 7:30pm at Bolivar Hall, 54 & 58 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL  Tel: 020 7388-5788 3. International News Germany's new drinking rooms for alcoholics "The Sofa bar in the northern city of Kiel caters to a very particular clientele -- unemployed alcoholics. The experiment has been such a success that other cities are now hoping to follow suit. " Spiegel Online . The bar serves only soft drinks and coffee but allows patrons to bring their own drink, it gives them somewhere to belong and receive help, reduces the problems in the community and is partly funded by taxpayers. It seems like a fantastic approach which will achieve tangible positive outcomes for the individuals and communities that struggle with alcoholism. Read the full article at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,689975,00.html Coca Colla: the new 'real thing' in Bolivia Another interesting development from South America, a drink with coca has gone on sale in Bolivia, the sweet black liquid sold in a bottle with a red label looks very familiar. "A certain US soft drinks giant may disagree, but Bolivia has come up with a fizzy beverage it says is the real thing: Coca Colla. . . It is made from the coca leaf, a mild stimulant that wards off fatigue and hunger, and has been used in the Andes for thousands of years in cooking, medicine and religious rites. . . Bolivia tried to wipe out the leaf at Washington's behest. But that was before Evo Morales , an Aymara Indian and coca grower, was elected president, championing coca as a crop with legitimate uses." Guardian . Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/14/coca-colla-real-thing-bolivia 3. What Transform Has Been Up To Danny Kushlick Danny has been quelling the Mephedrone storm and advocating common sense in amongst the madness of the media's push for a Mephedrone ban. Which means he has been very very busy indeed. Martin Powell Martin attended the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. 4. What You Can Do Read Books Yes that's right, reading books can help Transform. We have updated our book list to make it easier to browse the books we've found interesting, useful or entertaining. For every book purchased by clicking through to Amazon from our book list page, they will give us 10%, which is nice of them. This months chosen book is Drug Use and Social change - A Distortion of history by Michael Shiner. Read the full review and see other books we recommend http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Policy_FurtherReading_books.htm
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