Recovery Month 2011 – Get Involved.   SAMHSA has been sponsoring National Recovery Month, every September.  The intention is to promote the societal benefits of treatment for substance use and mental disorders, celebrates people in recovery, lauds the contributions of treatment providers, and promotes the message that recovery in all its forms is possible.  It is a worthwhile investment, since addictions is such an intertwined affliction to the American People.  An practicing addict will drag down many others.  Alcohol, methamphetamine, and many pill addictions that lead to heroin, etc.. are all drugs that suck in so much of Americas resources.    Link by Mary S.

Robbie Gennet: End the Drug War by Rescheduling All Drugs. 
The $320 billion annual global drug industry now accounts for 1 percent of all commerce on the planet. The war on drugs is a failure. All that taxpayer money spent with no real impact on lowering taxpayer consumption. Yet simply adjusting the methodology and basis of our drug scheduling could change it all, using a new set of standards based on empirical data and facts, not misleading rhetoric propping up the status quo.  link by Mary

World Drug Report 2011

Many illicit drug markets have reached global dimensions and require control strategies on a comparable scale. In that context, there is a need to better understand these transnational markets and the manner in which they operate. The yearly World Drug Report is a contribution towards that objective.

Portugal’s Drug Policies pay off, US eyes lessons.   12/26/2010

Drugs in Portugal are still illegal. But here’s what Portugal did: It changed the law so that users are sent to counseling and sometimes treatment instead of criminal courts and prison. The switch from drugs as a criminal issue to a public health one was aimed at preventing users from going underground.  Portugal with an estimated 100,000 people — an astonishing 1 percent of its population — were addicted to illegal drugs. So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a groundbreaking law in 2000.  Now, the United States, which has waged a 40-year, $1 trillion war on drugs, is looking for answers in tiny Portugal, which is reaping the benefits of what once looked like a dangerous gamble. White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske visited Portugal in September to learn about its drug reforms, and other countries — including Norway, Denmark, Australia and Peru — have taken interest, too.  Post by Mary.

Florida’s treasure coast is a stretch of pacific beach from Sebastian to Palm Beach.  Tragic drug overdoses there, are not uncommon.  With little help from the state,  The St. Lucie Sheriff’s Department took  action following the loss of Jaclyn Kinkade, a local beauty, who found herself hooked on prescription  pain killers.   2010 treasure coast overdoses were recorded at 91.  In fact, all of Florida recorded  1270 overdose deaths in the fist half of 2010.   That’s 7 deaths per day.  What makes this alarming, is that, this is prescription drugs we are talking about.  In 2009, prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) was passed in Florida and it is on the chopping block.  The Florida Pain Clinic Society supports monitoring, however,  the  “less government is more” crowd led by Governor Scott’s opposition want to get rid of it.    42 other states have PDMP and States in the Southeast U.S. are frustrated with Florida’s position as the America’s biggest illegal prescription drug source.  links by JJ