How are Mexico's drug laws affecting us?

As I mentioned in a recent post, drug violence in Mexico has been escalating to a disturbing degree, from affecting tourism numbers to actually seeing hitmen invade a Mexican treatment center and brutally kill people trying to get well. This does not bode well for the Mexican-American border, nor for the Mexican citizens as well. An article in the New York Times today talked about the new laws decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana and harder drugs in Mexico. Good questions brought up here- will US citizens go across the border for easier access to drugs? How will the Obama administration react? And how will this policy affect the Mexican citizens?

A variety of experts chimed in on this. One, Tony Payan (a political science professor at University of Texas-El Paso) mentioned that the new law was designed simply to combat the rampant police corruption- i.e. police demanding bribes to let people off for small possession charges- and NOT to curb violence. However, I really liked his viewpoint on this, quoted here: "it is a solid first step to pave the way for 1) distinguishing between drug use and drug abuse 2) paving the way for fully medicalizing abuse, that is, reinforcing the idea that we should treat drug addicts much as alcoholics and offer them help instead of prison time, and 3) focusing state resources on the production, trafficking and distribution networks." This is what we, vocal opponents of the US drug war, have been saying for years- that we should be going after the big drug kingpins and allow users better, and more comprehensive, access to drug treatment as opposed to putting them in jail.

I was, however, disappointed to see the response from Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation. She states: "Drug users are not innocent. They support the vicious drug cartels. Without their demand for drugs, the supply side has no purpose." However, this has been the response of government entities for the last 30 years, and we've made almost no progress. This is like comparing abstinence only education vs. comprehensive sex education. There will ALWAYS be demand for drugs- addiction will not go away if we someone slam the channels of drugs shut. People will find something new to be mind-altering- maybe even the internet- to fill the void. So we should be focusing more on the education of "what-happens-if" instead of "just say no."

Here's a breakdown of the new decriminalization laws:



Here's something funny.

Be sure to check out Writers in Treatment, a great new nonprofit organization in Los Angeles looking to help struggling artists get well. They'll be hosting an event here in LA co-sponsored by Hazelden; as more details emerge I'll post them. A great cause, and we're glad to see someone supporting them.

As always, follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. And see you this week.

Really, California? Really??

I opened the paper yesterday to see a disturbing headline: "California might act to jail more drug offenders." Great. We really need more criminals, and less people in recovery. The question here, you bureaucratic imbeciles, is who does this make the world better for? Is prison somehow better at rehabilitating drug addicts than drug addiction treatment? How does this make sense?!? We already have 3.2 percent of our population in prison; do we need more? Two weeks ago, federal regulators ordered California to cut their prison population; so, oh government of ours, what the hell?

"While one side of the government is addressing prison overcrowding, another side seems to be acting directly counter to that goal," said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director of the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. Here's a fun fact- the mere $120 million for California government funded drug treatment has been cut in half from 2006. Last month, legislators here in California decided to cut 1.2 BILLION from the prison budgets. Why not full, oh, say, 1/10th of that money into drug treatment and help cut down recidivism rates? Why not focus and develop better treatment programming and staff so that the people you have turned into criminals can have a shot at a better life? I mean seriously, people, COME ON. Open your eyes. Prison is not rehabilitation when one is dealing with drug addiction. Addiction treatment will create change. Develop better programming- and laws- and we won't need nearly as many prisons. But will special interest groups be upset? Who cares?? It will be better for our entire population.

Here's a quick excerpt from a New York Times article from a couple of weeks ago:

"R. Gil Kerlikowske, who in May was sworn in as the Obama administration’s director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is a supporter of drug courts as an alternative to mandatory drug sentencing. The new drug czar and the man nominated as his deputy, A. Thomas McLellan, are viewed by many addiction experts as representative of a sea change in thinking about treatment: away from the punitive, toward more acceptance of nuances and complications of addiction.

“Ten years ago, if you would have asked me this question about addiction, I would have said it’s obviously a moral failure and I don’t know why people can’t pull themselves up from their bootstraps and handle this and get themselves totally clean,” Mr. Kerlikowske, a former police chief in Seattle, said in an interview. 'But we can be going in a different direction. We can look at this from different viewpoints now.'"

So let's build out our drug courts if we can't change the laws. But if we change the laws, we'll have less need for punishment- divert people with possession charges to treatment and allow them a chance to get better. Legal consequences can be a GREAT motivator for people to get well. Allow them that option. Please. We beg you.

So California? I say, get it together. Make us better. Stop creating problems for yourself.

Here's a video on Prop 5, the drug treatment bill that failed to pass in 2008:




A special thanks goes out to Adi Jaffe with the All About Addiction blog for his guest post on Take Part which got me fired up about this.

My friend Jane Mintz of Real Life Interventions recently started an online school for intervention training- check it out here. Pretty cool option, and helps with accountability. This is a training available for her newly designed intervention model, the Field Model of Intervention. Great user interface as well.

Here's something funny.

As always, follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. Support my advertisers! And see you this week.