MONEY APPARENTLY DOESN'T STINK

A Reuters news article cites an interview with Antonio Maria Costa, Diretcor of UNODC, in which he states there's evidence that bank bailouts have utilized funds derived from the illicit drug trade. "Often drug money is the only readily available liquid asset these days," he said, but he declined to name any specific banks or countries. Datelined Vienna, 25 January, the full story (in German).

The interview in PROFIL / Vienna, Austrian weekly magazine (in German)

DENYING AMERICA’S HEROES ACCESS TO “GOLD STANDARD” ADDICTION TREATMENT:

An AP report (summarized in Join Together, 23 Jan 09) describes the steadily increasing number of military becoming addicted to opiate painkillers. And yet, the Dept of Defense health insurance plan for active and former military and their dependents, TRICARE, denies coverage for maintenance treatment. Meanwhile, US taxpayer funds, through PEPFAR, are being used to expand methadone treatment in Viet Nam. Go figure...

CALIFORNIA BUDGET CUTS END PATIENT CARE BUT PERHAPS NOT EMPLOYEES' JOBS...

That is the story in The Orange County Register, Jan. 25. (California). To quote: "The county methadone clinic will close in June...[but]all workers will keep their jobs... " Go figure. Whatever the explanation, it sounds like patients will be abandoned.

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION:

a Wall St. Journal article 9 Jan described deaths of staff of needle exchange services as “heroin program’s deadly toll.” In fact, it’s not the work or the workplace, but the disease of addiction that causes death. Whether an addict who has achieved abstinence works in a harm reduction program or on Wall Street, is a health educator or earns a living shining shoes, the risk of relapse – and death – exists. One must applaud those who, with minimal compensation and generally very little appreciation from the community, toil to ease the lot of those who are generally reviled and shunned by society.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (JAMA, 14 Jan 09): “ADDICTION IS A CHRONIC BRAIN DISEASE …”

Yet again a clear, unqualified statement by the most authoritative experts, key staff (including the director) of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (JAMA, 14 Jan 09). This article calls for “improving public health and safety” by providing treatment, including - very specifically- methadone treatment, to drug-using offenders in the criminal justice system. “Intervention opportunities” at all stages of the process are described, from arrest to “community reentry,” but – disappointingly – no mention is made of increasing access to and use of treatment outside the criminal justice system. And yet, the proportion of “prisoners (80-85%) who could benefit from drug-abuse treatment [but] do not receive it” is precisely in line with estimates for users in the general community.

Unquestionably, as the authors note, “Opiate agonist medications used for the treatment of heroin addiction . . . are underused in correctional populations” – but exactly the same observation applies to opiate-dependent individuals in all settings in America. And the underlying reason is identical: “Addiction remains a stigmatized disease not often regarded … as a medical condition …”