June 27, 2007

Push to legalize Afghanistan's opium trade. by Katharine Sanderson. Encouraging Afghan villagers to make morphine legally from poppies could help stem the illegal opium trade and free farmers from the clutches of the Taliban, suggests a report released today.
Poppy for Medicine

"The local production of finished poppy-based medicines in Poppy for Medicine project villages would represent for project participants an increase in the village’s total revenue, and a move up the poppy value chain. This makes the business model of the Poppy for Medicine projects essentially different from both the illegal and the Indian legal opium systems, in which the farmers sell raw opium at the farm gate, having added very little added value. The local production of medicines under a licensed Poppy for medicines project would ensure that Afghan farming communities truly benefit from the mark-up between the production costs and retail prices of morphine."

Afghan opium production 'soars' By Imogen Foulkes. Opium production in Afghanistan is soaring out of control, the annual UN report on illegal drugs says.

The Purple Brain: America's New Reefer Madness. More than 70 years in the making, the long-awaited sequel to the notorious 1936 film, Reefer Madness has arrived. It's called The Purple Brain...

Indonesia's drug problem lies in myths and hearsay. Bramantyo Prijosusilo, Ngawi, East Java
Hemp, marijuana, antidrug campaigns and common sense by Syamsul Rizal, Banda Aceh, Aceh

December 4, 2006

Meth: The Overstated Addiction: Methamphetamine abuse is not as prevalent as the government would have you believe. By Margaret Dooley, Drug Policy Alliance.
National Methamphetamine Awareness Day - November 30, 2006

Meth use up on East Coast, but report's news not all bad By Lara Jakes Jordan Associated Press. Washington | Methamphetamine use is increasing along the East Coast after years of largely being confined to rural areas west of the Mississippi River, a government report shows. But officials nationwide are finding fewer meth labs where the highly addictive drug is cooked - a bright spot in the nation's war against a drug the White House describes as dangerous as cocaine and heroin.

The meth menace. Easy & addictive drug is creeping up social ladder BY AUSTIN FENNER and TINA MOORE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS. Methamphetamine - once considered the drug of choice in the backwoods - is moving up in society. Experts say methods for "cooking" the drug have become less noxious over the past decade, making meth labs a friendlier fit for apartment buildings like the one on Manhattan's East Side, where federal agents announced a bust last week.

Asia sees rise of meth megalabs. War on drugs - As controls on ingredients improve the outlook in the U.S. and Mexico, cartels in Asia pose risks to North America Sunday, December 03, 2006 STEVE SUO. MANILA, Philippines -- Drug agents descending at dawn on a warehouse outside Manila in November 2003 glimpsed what could be the future of America's methamphetamine supply. Printable format?

Car thieves paid in ‘ice’ and beautiful women. LUXURY car theft ring leaders using bait such as the drug “ice” and pretty women to entice and hook young men to do their bidding, reported Nanyang Siang Pau. Ice, or methamphetamine hydrochloride, causes euphoria and excitement and is highly addictive.