A couple great anti-drug stories ran over the weekend. Here's one from Calivna Fay from the Drug Free America Foundation expressing strong concerns regarding moves to legalize medical marijuana in New York state. With an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana coming up, it's as important as ever to get the facts out about the drug.

The New London Day in Connecticut ran a great column on medical marijuana as well. Here's a portion:

"Every symptom or disease cited by the advocates of medical marijuana has other appropriately researched, and medically approved, alternatives for treatment. There currently is no way to control the dosing, contamination from other chemicals or molds, and harmful effects on the lungs and immune system in ingested or inhaled marijuana.

Cannabis is often the first illicit drug that the young people of Connecticut are introduced to, second only to cigarettes. There is an association between a drop in scholastic performance, criminal behavior, mood or anxiety problems, and future drug dependence with the regular use of marijuana. Perception of harm is a very strong deterrent to the use of drugs by young people. This bill would send the wrong message."

Finally, it looks like internet users looking to score or sell illegal drugs have one more reason to look over their shoulder. Police in New York have begun to crack down on drug deals taking place on the popular Craigslist.org classified site. The New York Daily News has the story (registration required).

The National Association of Counties published an enlightening story on the dangers children face from being exposed to toxic materials used to make meth. The story highlights a facility in Cumberland County, Tennessee called House of Hope. The House of Hope is a short-term care facility where children taken from their meth-addicted parents are cleaned up, checked out, fed and allowed to stay with a trained volunteer until a foster parent can arrive. The facility is the brainchild of Sheriff Eucle "Butch" Burgess and a handful of people who were concerned about how to deal with this growing, endangered population of meth orphans. The facility has done a fantastic job saving children and relies on no government funding. Here's an excerpt from the story:

"They are scalded with hot water. They are forced to drink bad milk because no one remembered to buy fresh. They are left in hot cars for hours on end while their parents score a fix. They are sexually abused. They are beaten. They are abandoned. Sometimes they die.

They are the children of methamphetamine users and in counties across the country police and child welfare workers are grappling with ways to deal with these so-called meth orphans.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, in 2004 children were present at 20 percent of all meth lab busts. However law enforcement officials note that the number of children affected is probably much higher because although there may not be children present at the time of the bust, there is often evidence—clothes, toys, baby bottles—that a child lives in the home where meth is being cooked. Because of the toxic dangers surrounding meth labs counties have had to come up with new ways to deal with the children they find in these places."

The Bush Administration's National Synthetic Drugs Action Plan identifies best practices to assist drug-endangered children, including protocols for reporting incidents, protecting confidentiality; safety procedures for children, families, and responding personnel; and continuing medical care.

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South Carolina's largest newspaper ran Director Walters' Op-Ed today regarding Columbia's community action against drugs. Director Walters recently visited the area to see first-hand how community leaders are coming together to prevent young people from using illegal drugs.

Yet another European study is out today on the harmful effects of marijuana use. This time, researchers have linked cannabis with the risk of bone loss and osteoporosis. The research was led by the University of Aberdeen the study was published in the Nature medicine journal. The UK's Scotsman sums it up:

"Excessive use of cannabis might lead to brittle bone disease, new research has shown.

Scottish scientists found that the drug can cause increased bone loss, which in turn leads to osteoporosis. The findings add to a growing body of evidence on the dangers of cannabis and prompted campaigners to renew their calls for the government to rethink its drugs law."

Some headlines from news sources covering the study:

• Marijuana might cause brittle bones (The Washington Times/UPI)
• Cannabis Compounds Blamed for Bone Loss (Nature) NOTE: This story contains an interesting photograph comparing bone loss in mice
• Brittle Bone Fears For Cannabis Users (The UK Herald)

Last month, ONDCP reported on new research showing more links between marijuana use and mental illness. See our previous post on this topic.

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President Bush and President Karzai held a joint news conference today to discuss the progress of freedom and democracy in Afghanistan. Here's what President Karzai had to say about the threat of drug cultivation in the newly democratic nation:

"PRESIDENT KARZAI: On the drugs issue, yes, yes. Mr. President, indeed, Afghanistan is suffering from the cultivation of poppies, which is undermining our economy. It's giving us a bad name, worst of all. Just after the inauguration, a day after the Vice President and Secretary Rumsfeld left Afghanistan for the U.S., we called a meeting of the Afghan elders and representatives and spoke to them about the curse of poppies in Afghanistan. Their response to that was very positive. A lot of provinces that were the biggest producers of poppy refrained from producing poppies. Three years ago I saw a report in the press that the province of Nangarhar, which used to produce poppies, has now reduced poppies by 80 percent. The same as in Helmand, the same as in Badakhshan, the same as in other areas where poppies were grown.

So we are hoping that Afghanistan this year will have something between 20 to 30 percent reduction in poppies all over the country, and that is a lot. When I was addressing the Afghan people a few months ago, I was not expecting the response to be so positive, or that we will have poppy reduction by so many percentages in a year."

Click here to watch video of today's news conference

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Director John Walters visited Idaho to address the 21st Idaho Conference on Alcohol and Drug Dependency yesterday. The Idaho Conference on Alcohol and Drug Dependency is an annual conference that gathers prevention and treatment advocates and providers throughout the entire state. Along with giving the keynote speech, Director Walters received briefings and updates from Idaho Judiciary Leadership and Access to Recovery Administration.

Click here to learn more about the Administration's plan to increase availability and funding for drug treatment in America.

Everyday we hear about more and more school districts across the Nation considering and implementing random drug testing programs for their students. Here's a sampling of news stories from just the past few days:

• Task force considers drug tests (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania)
• Avon Schools to Begin Random Drug Testing (Avon, Indiana)
• Steroid tests could start in Fort Zumwalt (O'Fallon, Missouri)
• Board says yes to drug testing (Grapevine, Texas)
• School issues drug test mandate (Snohomish County, WA)

Also, the Boston Herald ran a great editorial today with the headline "Drug Testing To Save Teens" expressing support for random drug testing and Governor Romney's plan to test students in Massachusetts. Here's an excerpt:

"Surely Herb Levine, who knows something about kids, would have found out early on that his son was addicted to OxyContin, or better yet, kept him from getting hooked in the first place, if he had any way of doing so.

Drug testing, Levine says, would have helped his son and can help other parents. So Salem, along with New Bedford, is leading the way in establishing drug testing programs in high schools to complement early education and intervention programs available to younger students.

The Romney administration, to its credit, has picked up that ball and run with it as part of a comprehensive substance abuse strategy quarterbacked by Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. Drug testing with parental consent, expanded treatment and alternative high schools for recovering addicts are the key elements."

Here's how the editorial responds to critics of the plan:

"Opponents are already lining up at the prospect of Johnny having to pee in a cup in the nurse's office, even if Johnny's mom or dad asks for the testing.

`We think you have to develop approaches that work and respect kids' rights,'' an ACLU staff attorney told the Globe.

Rights? We'll take teens alive and angry at their buttinsky parents any day."

Drug legalizers want you to believe a lie—that our prisons are filled with marijuana smokers. In fact, the fast majority of drug prisoners are violent criminals, repeat offenders, traffickers, or all of the above. Today, we're releasing a new analysis of marijuana incarceration data to help dispell this modern urban myth.

To read Who's Really In Jail For Marijuana click here.

Here's an excerpt:

"We are more concerned about marijuana today. Studies long ago established marijuana as a risky substance. For youth, it is the single largest source of abuse and dependency. But compelling new research shows an increased public health threat.

First, marijuana potency has more than doubled within the past 10 years. Second, kids are using marijuana at younger ages, during crucial periods in their development, and thereby increasing risks that extend into adult life. And third, research from many nations now implicates marijuana's role in mental illness.

Youth marijuana use elevates risks of depression, psychosis, even schizophrenia. For those with predispositions to mental disorders, the risk is compounded. Some studies show marijuana can trigger the onset or increase the severity of mental illness."

Read the entire piece here.

The San Antonio Express-News reports (free registration required) on yet another Texas school district implementing a random drug testing program. The New Braunfels school district's policy calls for a 45-day suspension from extracurricular activities, completion of a drug awareness program and retesting. For a second positive test, it's a one-year suspension from extracurricular activities and drug counseling. They will include steroid testing as well. Here's what one school board trustee said about the program:

"Trustee Lee Edwards said the goal of the testing is to give kids a reason to stand up to peer pressure to do drugs.

"If it stops 10 kids today, it's worth it," he said. "If it keeps one kid out of the emergency room, it's worth it. If it stops one teen pregnancy, it's worth it."

Director Walters was in Dallas, Texas last week, participating in numerous events around the Dallas area. He started out the day by participating in the Frisco Police Department’s yearly event to celebrate National Law Enforcement Week, which started Sunday and ends May 21st.

Following the Frisco Police event, Director Walters visited the Frisco High School to hear first hand about their local Student Drug Testing program. Currently, the school district is randomly testing students in all three highs schools who participate in athletics, and plan to expand the program to include testing for steroids. This is a perfect example of seeing the community in action against Drugs. To learn more about drug testing, click here.

Finally, we visited the Nexus Recovery Center, which focuses its treatment on helping women and children. The Facility was established in 1971 and each year the center helps more than 1,200 adult women, 150 adolescent girls and 330 accompanying children heal from the devastating effects of substance abuse.

In related news, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News (free registration required) the Grapevine-Colleyville, Texas school district has decided to implement a drug testing policy for their students. According to the story:

"Grapevine-Colleyville school trustees voted unanimously Monday night to implement mandatory drug testing and drug education for students involved in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Trustee Jesse Rodriguez said that he is dismayed when people refer to Grapevine-Colleyville as "the poster district for steroid use" and that the board is sending a clear message to students: "You need to be clean if you want to play on our team."

The district's drug policy calls for testing 10 percent to 40 percent of those students involved in high school activities for all illicit drugs, including steroids, at a cost of $27,000 a year. Testing will begin next school year.

The funds will come from the district's budget and will not be passed on to parents as additional pay-to-play costs. The district is also looking into grants that might help pay for testing.

Students can be retested several times throughout the school year. Positive results can lead to counseling sessions and suspension from extracurricular activities....

...Grapevine-Colleyville joins at least 22 North Texas districts that have mandatory drug-testing programs, a recent News survey showed. At least eight of those test for steroids.

In a recent district survey of nearly 1,400 people, more than 63 percent of parents, students and community members said they favored random drug testing."

We have completed our fourth and final student drug summit and once again, we were pleased with the level of involvement by the community of Portland, OR.

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As we traveled the country to educate teachers, administrators, and community leaders about student drug testing we were continually impressed with the interest of individuals about the subject and their already current involvement in drug abuse treatment and prevention efforts.

In Portland, we met Shirley Morgan, the founder of the Mt. Hood Coalition Against Drug Crime. Shirley started the coalition as one person on one street. She then found a way to link to other forces within her community to help build a dynamic and powerful force against illegal substance abuse. Through grassroots organizational efforts that were formed in August of 1998, the Coalition has recruited over 85 members and established 18 active committees.

Shirley Morgan is just one of many individuals who are making a difference in this country. We thank everyone who we met through these summits for the part they are playing in making their community’s drug free. The Mt. Hood Coalition Against Drug Crime created an anti-drug billboard for their area (see photo).

Pro-drug groups have failed in their latest effort to legalize marijuana. The New Hampshire Senate voted against legalizing Hemp last week.

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Director Walters testified before the House Committee on International Relations yesterday regarding the success of Plan Colombia. U.S. support for Plan Colombia has lead to dramatic decreases in coca cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia over the past several years. As a result of these gains, we have attacked a principle source of income for terrorist organizations operating in our hemisphere. During the hearing, Director Walters and members of the committee praised President Alvaro Uribe for his sustained action against insurgent groups and the drug trade. Here are part of his remarks:

"At the core of our accomplishments, we have helped Colombia reverse the growth of terrorist organizations and put the country on course to end decades of rural banditry, intimidation, and shocking cruelty perpetrated by the FARC, AUC, and ELN. That central accomplishment is closely linked with our success in disrupting drug production and trafficking that for more than a decade has generated most of the money necessary to underwrite the terrorist organizations. We are uprooting narco-terrorist organizations from their former safehavens, causing them to switch to defensive tactics and a strategy of attempting to survive militarily while focusing their energies on seeking to undercut the government’s political will. The integrated U.S. military, police, counterdrug, USAID, and intelligence support to Colombia has been crucial in achieving these results."

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The San Jose Mercury-News ran our op-ed in support of drug courts today (free registration required). California studies have shown that drug courts save California taxpayers a minimum of $18 million a year through reduced incarceration rates.
Here's an excerpt:

"While California legislators consider expansion of Proposition 36 (the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act), the California Association of Drug Court Professionals met in Sacramento last week for their annual conference to learn more about ways to expand on a program that is already making a difference in their state—progress that we regard as superior to the efforts of Proposition 36.

Drug courts take on cases that involve non-violent drug-using offenders or individuals under the court's jurisdiction while they are on probation and supervised in the community. All arrestees are screened for substance abuse, and for those who test positive, supervised, drug-tested and monitored with a system of graduated sanctions. These services, as well as education, job training and housing assistance, are all coordinated by a team of professionals designated by the presiding drug-court judge.

The main goal of a drug court is not to prosecute but to provide a way for the offender to change behaviors—in other words, stay off of drugs and out of the criminal-justice system. The drug court forms a support system to build a safety net for the participating offender composed of court and treatment professionals, as well as other social-service providers."

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The third student drug testing summit in our four summit series was held last week in Pittsburgh, PA. Once again, we were pleased with the level of attendees and their interest in looking at the issues surrounding random student drug testing. The information offered at the summit is for schools and communities to use in determining if this prevention tool is appropriate for their needs.

Among our attendees were two mothers, Sharon Smith and Debbie Fowler, who both have lost their children to drug use. They realize that we are not powerless against the drug abuse problem in our county and we can and must continue to fight to protect our youth.

Sharon recently wrote us saying,

"Debbie and I met through the tragic loss of our children yes, but we have been united in our fight against drug abuse. We know how important it is to put a face to addiction. This is a disease that is ravaging our most precious resource, our children. Debbie and I have dedicated our lives to this cause. There are parents across our state and our nation who are struggling to find help for their child’s addiction. The suffering these families go through is unbearable. Debbie and I know this all to well. We know that drug prevention and education are vital to protecting our children and early intervention will keep families from loosing their children to this horrendous disease."

Sharon Smith started an organization called MOMSTELL's whose mission is to promote awareness and eliminate the stigma of drug and alcohol abuse through education, prevention, and treatment. Visit www.momstell.com for more information.

Debbie Fowler started an organization called Remembering Adam which brings a radical awareness of the murderous outcomes of drug use. The organization is led by individuals who have a passion for telling their stories of personal tragedy and loss. The organization will aggressively establish opportunities for understanding so no more die. Please visit www.rememberingadam.org for more information.

We would especially like to thank them and everyone who recently came out to the summit.

Check out this story from the Medford Mail Tribune. A group of dads have come together to start a random testing program in Medford, Oregon:

"A Medford dad wants to give kids a reason to say no to drugs. And he says random drug tests for students participating in extracurricular activities is the way to do it.

Kevin Lamson, whose son attends North Medford High School, has rallied a group of parents and plans to ask the school board at its regular meeting Tuesday to consider a drug-testing policy that would randomly test kids who play sports, participate in activities or get school parking permits. He also would like all parents to have the chance to enroll their children in the testing program, even if the kids don’t participate in school activities.

"We owe our kids every tool" to resist drugs, he said. "This is a way to say ‘I love you and I want you to have another reason to say no.’

Studies in Oregon and New Jersey have found schools with random drug testing have lower rates of drug use than schools without testing policies, he said. Testing doesn’t appear to diminish participation in extra-curricular activities, the studies found."

Here's our guide for citizens interested in learning more about starting a drug testing program.

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Experts, researchers, and victims gathered today at the National Press Club to warn parents about a growing body of evidence showing the effects of marijuana use on mental health. In addition to discussing existing research, we also released a new report from SAMHSA which found that adults who first used marijuana before age 12 were twice as likely to be classified as having serious mental illness in the past year than were adults who first used marijuana at age 18 or older.

A number of prominent studies (PDF) have recently identified a direct link between marijuana use and increased risk of mental health problems. Recent research makes a stronger case that cannabis smoking itself is a causal agent in psychiatric symptoms, particularly schizophrenia. During the past three years, these studies have strengthened that association and further found that the age when marijuana is first smoked is a crucial risk factor in later development of mental health problems.

Here's the rundown:

• Young people who use marijuana weekly have double the risk of developing depression.
• Teens aged 12 to 17 who smoke marijuana weekly are three times more likely than non-users to have suicidal thoughts.
• Marijuana use in some teens has been linked to increased risk for schizophrenia in later years.
• A British study found that as many as one in four people may have a genetic profile that makes marijuana five times more likely to trigger psychotic disorders.

In addition to addressing the news media regarding this troubling trend, we will publish an open letter next week aimed at parents regarding outdated views of pot use. The letter will appear in USA Today and newspapers in the 25 largest cities nationwide, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, and will also run in The Nation, The National Journal, The National Review, The New Republic, Newsweek, Time and The Weekly Standard.

Some resources on marijuana use and mental health:

• The Link Between Marijuana & Mental Health: Survey of Recent Research (PDF)
• Our fact sheet on marijuana and mental health
• Our open letter to parents about marijuana's effects on mental health
• Transcript of "Ask The Expert" with Dr. Marc Galanter, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine

Proponents of so-called "harm reduction" policies in the United Kingdom have lost more ground. During a visit to a community center in the U.K., Tony Blair expressed strong concerns regarding marijuana use and urged parents to take consequences of cannabis use seriously. Here's an excerpt of the story from The Scotsman:

“And also I think there is increasing evidence emerging that it isn’t quite as harmless as people make out.

“So I take a very strong line on it, and a particularly strong line if there is any question of people dealing anywhere near kids and schools.”

Mr Blair denounced Liberal Democrat drugs policy, which he said would lead to the decriminalization of cannabis and mean nobody caught in possession of heroin or crack cocaine would be sent to jail.

“I think that’s just crackers as a policy,” he said."

Read Director Walters remarks before the United Nation's Commision on Narcotic Drugs.

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We saw some great examples of coordinated anti-drug efforts in Columbia, South Carolina last week. Jack Claypoole, Executive Director of the Lexington/Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council showed us first-hand how community leaders, parents and students are reaching into the lives of young people to prevent them from using drugs and drinking. Director Walters' first stop was Dutch Fork High School where he met with high school students and alcohol enforcement teams working to educate about the dangers of drinking and drug use—especially around prom and graduation season. Director Walters observed students signing pledges not to drink or use drugs on prom and had lunch with student leaders to learn more about the realities of youth peer pressure. We also stopped by Dutch Fork Middle School to watch 7th and 8th graders make their own anti-drug P.S.A's. The Middle School's "Crowd 9" ads spread the message to their peers that 9 out of 10 middle school students do not drink or use drugs.

Following our visit to the local schools, we helped launch South Carolina's new Meth Watch program. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster encouraged retailers in the state to watch out for criminals buying bulk materials for the production of methamphetamine. McMaster called meth, "the kudzu of illegal drugs." (PDF)

Here's part of The State's report on our visit:

"White House drug czar John Walters joined local and state authorities Thursday to launch the South Carolina Meth Watch program.

Pharmacies and retailers involved will receive training to help them spot suspicious sales of drugs and household items used to make methamphetamine."