Public Health

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Doing "Katrina Time"

It has been a scandal festering for a year now. Thousands of people being held in the Orleans Parish Prison and other facilities when Hurricana Katrina hit a year ago today are still behind bars. They have never seen a judge or had a hearing. They just sit. While the rest of the local criminal justice apparatus is up and running, the courts remain a mess and most of the public defenders are gone.

Latin American Ex-Presidents Sign Anti-Prohibitionist "Vienna Declaration"

The authors of the Vienna Declaration are seeking to throw out the old prohibitionist drug policy paradigm in favor of one based on science and evidence. This week, the declaration picked up significant political support -- three former Latin American presidents.

Feature: Drug War a Devastating Failure, Scientists and Researchers Say in Vienna Declaration

With the 2010 World AIDS Conference in Vienna looming, researchers and scientists have authored an official conference declaration lambasting drug prohibition as a horrid failure and calling on governments, international organizations, and the UN to make fundamental, evidence-based changes in drug policy. They want you to sign it, too.

Conference: New Directions: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy, June 17, Capitol Hill, DC

A coalition of organizations -- StoptheDrugWar.org is a partner in it -- is presenting the first full-day conference on drug policy reform on Capitol Hill. And it's free.

Europe: Anthrax-Tainted Heroin Death Toll Up to Ten

Although Scottish authorities have yet to find any dirty dope, they have found another heroin user dead of anthrax.

Feature: Fired Up in Albuquerque -- The 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference

The Drug Policy Alliance's 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference took place in Albuquerque last weekend. It was quite a show. Here's a scene report.

Europe: British Science vs. Politics Battle Explodes As Top Drug Advisor Fired for Heresy

The British government seems to think that if drug policy is not supported by science, you need to trash the science -- and the scientist -- not the failed policy. It fired a leading voice for science- and evidence-based drug policies last Friday for what amounted to heresy against official dogma.

Public Health: Feds Finally Issue Warning on Tainted Cocaine

More than a year after the DEA quietly reported that a veterinary anti-parasitic agent was showing up in cocaine, and after at least two US deaths linked to the tainted drug, federal public health officials have finally issued an alert warning doctors, treatment centers, and public health professionals of the menace.

Feature: Tainted Cocaine Sickening, Killing People, But Feds Slow to Act

An Associated Press story at the end of August raised the alarm about levasimole-tainted cocaine, but the problem has been emerging for years. Now, while waiting for the feds to act, harm reductionists and public health workers grapple with how to respond.

Feature: Mexico and Argentina Enact Drug Decriminalization

The drug policy wheel is turning, and the US and its hard-line repressive drug policies are becoming increasingly isolated in the hemisphere as in the past week alone 150 million Latin Americans came under one form of decriminalization or another.

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