Drugs and Prisons

by John LeeGoogle+ Twitter Facebook

© Prisoner 159753

While differences in politics or philosophy can lead to debate about the best course of action for bettering our national drug problem, no one who looks at the statistics that illustrate the consequences of drug abuse and addiction can deny the enormous monetary and human costs of drugs.

Any conversation on the social costs of drug use must surely contain at least a mention of the enormous numbers of Americans who are or have been incarcerated due to either the use or sale of illegal drugs.

Some of the facts:

• In 2008, according to the Department of Corrections, there were 7,308,200 Americans in the corrections system. On a per capita basis, America has far more of its citizens in jails than any other country in the world. Following America are Russia, Rwanda, St Kitts & Nevis and Cuba.

• In 2007, it cost a state prison an average of $67.55 per day to jail a drug offender. In 2007, state prisons held 253,300 men women and minors, which totals up to a daily cost of $17,110,415 and an annual cost of $6,245,301,475.

• In 2008, states spent $52 billion in jailing people, which is more than twice the amount that was spent on public assistance of all kinds ($25.1 billion)

• In 2006, of those held in state prisons on drug offences, Of the estimated 265,800 prisoners under state jurisdiction sentenced for drug offenses in 2006, 27.1 % were white (27.1%), 44.2% were black and 21% were Hispanic. Blacks account for just over 12% of the total American population.

• In 2000, the average drug felony offender in federal prisons had been sentenced to 75.6 months, which is just slightly less than the average sentence of 86.6 months given to federal offenders who had committed felony violent crimes. ¹

• Since 1992, more than 5 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana. In 1999 - 60 000 Americans were serving time for marijuana offenses.

• Every extra dollar that is spent by local, state or federal governments on substance abuse treatment yields an eventual social costs savings of $7.46²

Read more: Drugs and Prisons 

Marijuana Amotivational Syndrome?

by John LeeGoogle+ Twitter Facebook

© Banalities

Is there any truth to the stereotype of the lazy, half-witted, burnt out marijuana smoker?

Amotivational Syndrome...The Facts 

Amotivational syndrome, a collection of observable consequences of heavy marijuana use that includes apathy, lethargy, reduced concentration, lowered intelligence and a lack of desire to partake in meaningful activities of upwards mobility; has never been clinically proven as factual or real.

No Clinical Causal Link

Problematically, the difficulties inherent in proving a casual link between marijuana usage and such a wide collection of behavioral changes prohibits a clinically demonstrable relationship, and some marijuana users, even heavy smokers, do not seem to display the characteristic traits of the amotivational syndrome.

Governmental propoganda?

A fact not last to marijuana advocates who argue of governmental propaganda and the propagation of myth, something that government have in the past been guilty of, and some would argue remain guilty of to this day. This is unfortunate, as there are enough legitimate risks of marijuana usage to give weight to arguments against its use, without resorting to half truths and myth.

Some Real Statistics About the Harms of Marijuana

But although amotivational syndrome cannot be proven as a casual result of marijuana usage, there are certain statistics that do illustrate the correlation between marijuana use and lowered academic and professional success and accomplishments.

• Marijuana users are less likely to finish high school
• They get lower grades in high school and in college than do non smokers
• They perform lower on tests of intellectual capacity
• They self report a decreased ability to excel professionally
• Heavy marijuana users self report that their marijuana habit decreases their ability to perform complex work tasks well, to learn new tasks professionally and that their marijuana usage has hampered their upwards professional climb.

Marijuana and Developmental Delays in Teens

Marijuana usage is conclusively and casually linked to a reduction in ability to consolidate new memories for about 24 hours after you smoke; which for heavy or daily marijuana smokers means all the time. Essentially, marijuana can decrease your ability to learn.

Psychologists argue that when a teen starts smoking marijuana heavily, they lose the ability to consolidate the emotional and social learning necessary for a real transition out of adolescence and into adulthood. Marijuana blunts the emotional response to external stimuli, and as such when under the influence of marijuana, teens do not appropriately experience complex emotional and developmental challenges, and do not learn healthy was to navigate the emotional and psychosocial landscape of adulthood.

The earlier teens start smoking, the greater the deficit in learned social behaviors, and the greater the eventual harms.

So there is no direct evidence linking marijuana usage to amotivational syndrome, but marijuana does cause decreased academic, professional and general life performance. It does lessen the ability to learn, and when younger teens smoke marijuana heavily, they do not effectively develop emotionally and do not learn effective and appropriate ways to deal with emotional and social challenges in life.

Does It Make You Lazy?

And although marijuana cannot be conclusively linked to amotivational syndrome, most marijuana smokers will concede that under the influence of regular intoxication they are not as likely to accomplish worthwhile goals, and are more likely to focus on transient and meaningless pleasures of stimulation.

• Far less likely to crack the books, and far more likely to play video games.
• Far less likely to look for a new job and far more likely to watch a movie.

Scientists may not be able to prove a casual link, but marijuana smokers know that while high, they just aren’t as motivated to accomplish in life.

Read more: Marijuana Amotivational Syndrome? Does Marijuana Addiction make you Lazy? 

New Small Device Uses Laser to Help Police Quickly Identify Drugs

By Join Together Staff | February 1, 2012 | 1 Comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs & Legal

Police in Massachusetts are using a handheld device with a low-power laser that helps them to quickly identify drugs. The device, which looks like a game console, is called the Thermo Scientific TruNarc.

The device can be used to scan small bags of drugs, and gives police almost instant identification, according to the Associated Press. Police in Quincy, Massachusetts, who have been testing the device for six months, say it saves them time and money. Police departments in Chicago and Los Angeles also have been testing the device.

Police traditionally have needed to use chemical test kits to identify drugs. The substance is placed in a plastic pouch that contains vials of chemicals. The officer breaks the vials in the pouch and shakes it, and checks to see what color the substance turns. Cocaine turns blue, for instance.

Each substance has its own testing kit. That means police officers may have to use several kits before they positively identify the substance they are testing. The officers must handle the drugs, and potentially could be exposed to them. Once an officer identifies a substance, it must then be sent to a state lab to confirm the findings, which could take weeks or even months. This causes delays in prosecuting cases, the article notes.

TruNarc employs the same scientific techniques used in the lab, the company says. The officer holds the sample bag against the device and presses a scan button. The device does a quick analysis and provides a result.

Police say it can be effective as an initial screen, but a second lab test would still be necessary to prosecute the case in court. The article notes the device cannot test for marijuana.

Each TruNarc device will sell for just under $20,000

RIDE FOR RECOVERY!

GREAT NEW ROUTE for a day on the bike 8th Ride for Recovery & Family Picnic set for June - now with a two-state ride Advance Registration Opens Sunday June 3rd NJ-PA Motorcycle Poker Run Family Pig Roast Picnic Live Music, Children's FunReserve Tickets Now Event Registration Now Open Ride / Picnic Registration - $20 * Second Rider - $10 Picnic Only - $10 * * Children 12 and under free   Click on the Event Registration (top right in this email).   Get your Ride for Recovery Raffle Tickets Win a Harley-Davidson Wide Glide       (or $7,500 cash option) Plus $1,000 & $500 prizes Tickets $10      at the Store All proceeds from the Ride for Recovery benefit the patient care programs at Livengrin, for people working hard to recover their physical health, emotional strength and ability to make the right choices for their future.    Great Ride Shirts and Hoodies Available Now  To Learn More Event Registration & Ride Store   Support the Foundation Ride Kickoff Partner

During its 45 years of service, well more than 100,000 people have come to Livengrin to learn how to be healthy, sober and a part of their families, work and communities again.  You can play a role in a person's success story - make a contribution, volunteer, and tell someone about the help and hope to be found at Livengrin.  There's information, guidance and much more to learn throughout our website.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Today you are a winner.  It doesn't matter where you have been or what you have done.  There is always a reason for us to self medicate and a lot of times that reason is because we have spent a life time of listening to peoples verbal abuses and somehow they have managed to convince us that we are NO GOOD and UNWORTHY of the wonderful gifts this life has to offer.  Well I am here to tell you it doesn't matter what they have to say, it matters what God has to say! Our creator has said that you are special and that you deserve the very best that life has to offer.  We can take a punch and the bruise will go away in a week or two but when were hit with words of hurt they can remain a lifetime. Today we are going to take the sting out of those words and believe what our creator says that we are special, important and loved! Today your a WINNER!!   REMEMBER JESUS LOVES YOU!

Canadian Doctor Uses Amazonian Herbal Medicine Called Ayahuasca to Break Addictions

by John LeeGoogle+ Twitter Facebook

Dr Gabor Maté is a family physician in Vancouver Canada and over the past few years he has provided an Amazonian addiction remedy to between 150 and 200 addicts in East Vancouver – and many, he says, have had significant breakthroughs.

Called ayahuasca, this hallucinogenic is taken as a spiritual aid in several religious traditions of the Amazon basin and has been used in ritual for thousands of years. The drug is legal for spiritual use in the US and a Health Canada study on the substance found that it produced no adverse effects and provided spiritual benefits.

Dr. Mate says he first became interested in ayahuasca after learning of addiction treatment clinics in Peru using the herbal medicine which had ‘cure’ rates many times better than that typically seen in North American and Europe.

Working in some ways similarly to the African origin opiate treatment medication Ibogaine, Dr. Mate talked to journalists about  how ayahuasca helps people to break free from addiction, saying, ayahuasca is not a drug in the Western sense, something you take to get rid of something. Properly used, it opens up parts of yourself that you usually have no access to. The parts of the brain that hold emotional memories come together with those parts that modulate insight and awareness, so you see past experiences in a new way. The natural human response to pain is to escape it. That’s the essence of addiction. Ayahuasca allows users to hold pain and not run from it.”

36 year old Megan Hames of Vancouver is one of the almost 200 people who have received ayahuasca treatment from Dr. Mate. Describing her experience, she says, “Ayahuasca saved my life. It enabled me to look at all those dark things I buried long ago … to unleash them and the pain, so that I could move forward.”

*Nov 13th Story Update

In the wake of media reports on Dr Mate’s successes with ayahuasca, Health Canada officials sent him a letter which asked that he immediately cease his use of the drug, which remains a controlled substance within Canada, and threatened prosecution should he fail to comply with the demand.

Based on this, the doctor says he will no longer, for the moment, use ayahuasca in his clinical practice, saying, “I have no intention of breaking the law. But I hope to get permission to use it in therapeutic context. I’m surprised no one thought to talk to me before sending the letter, but I suppose someone in Ottawa is just doing their job.”

Health Canada has previously allowed the use of ayahuasca for spiritual practices, but the director of Ottawa’s Office for Controlled Substances, Johanne Beaulieu, said, “For a controlled substance to be used in Canada, there’s a process that needed to be undergone. We’d welcome scientists like Dr. Maté talking to us before they start their work. Our intent is not to stop research or treatment. It’s to ensure the safety of Canadians.”

Read more: Canadian Doctor Uses Amazonian Herbal Medicine Called Ayahuasca to Break Addictions