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Mattersofsubstance Mattersof Substance. february 2013 Volume 24 Issue No.1 www.drugfoundation.org.nz Future drugs All around the world, things are rapidly changing. There are signs the War on Drugs may be running out of steam, new technologies promise new treatment possibilities, and scientific developments may be altering the very nature of drugs themselves. Here in New Zealand, bold new policy initiatives mean the treatment landscape will soon look vastly different. CONTENTS Future ABOUT A DRUG FEATURE: drugs 16 BI INTO BINGE CoveR: slowly the world COVER is starting to realise the STORY FEATURE: 26 War on Drugs has failed. RUSSIAN What does the future hold for 06 DRUG drug policy and recovery? POLICY 22 NZ NEWS BI BINGE? 02 Future drug policy treatments drugs FEATURES Become 20 22 26 30 a member The Drug War Crime and punishment: Putting the ‘bi’ How we see things in retreat? the sorry state of into binge from our front gate The NZ Drug Foundation has been at The UN has been forced to Russian drug policy Recent reports about In 2011, Russell School the heart of major alcohol and other act on the War on Drugs. Russia treats its addicted bisexual binge drinking are became the centre for a drug policy debates for over 20 years. Where to from here? citizens with cruelty. flawed and the reporting battle against Big Alcohol. During that time, we have demonstrated What’s going on behind ridiculous. What’s actually Where is it at now? a strong commitment to advocating the Iron Curtain? going on? policies and practices based on the best evidence available. You can help us. A key strength of the NZ REGULARS Drug Foundation lies in its diverse membership base. As a member of the NZ Drug Foundation, you will receive information about major The Director’s Cut 01 alcohol and other drug policy challenges. You can also get involved in our work to find Events 01 14 28 36 solutions to those challenges. GuesT eDiToRial: oPiNioN: Q&a: News 02 Our membership includes health promoters, Why the uN needs Where now for Russell Brand About a Drug 16 civil society opponents of cannabis He’s a world famous primary health and community organisations, Viewpoints 34 Executive Director of the law reform? comedian in recovery. researchers, students, schools and boards UN office on Drugs and A majority in the US now Matters of Substance asks Q&A 36 of trustees, policy makers, and addiction treatment agencies and workers. Crime, Yury Fedatov looks support it. him about drugs, fame Mythbusters 37 at the role NGOs play in and pears. Membership and subscription enquiries combating drug harm [email protected] internationally. or visit our website. www.drugfoundation.org.nz matters of substance is published matters of substance invites Brand development/ NZ Drug Foundation by the NZ Drug Foundation. feedback and contributions. If graphic design 3rd Floor, 111 Dixon Street All rights reserved. Neither this you’re interested in contributing Insight +64 4 801 6644 PO Box 3082, Wellington, publication nor any part of it a guest editorial or article, please [email protected] New Zealand may be reproduced without contact us: www.designedbyinsight.com p +64 4 801 6303 matters of substance prior permission of the [email protected] February 2013 NZ Drug Foundation. p +64 4 801 6303 Vol 24 No 1 ISSN 1177-200X THE DIRECTOR’s cuT SOCIAL @tim_burgess Can’t we give Lance Armstrong a break? I tried riding a bike once on drugs. If anything, it was a lot harder. I was in a hedge within seconds. 19 JANuArY @reedfleming My parents are going away for the weekend. Dad: “How much wine have you packed?” Mum: “Heaps.” #ItsInOurDNA 23 NovemBer @ghetsuhm Woo. Taking the whisky-soaking ’m not convinced cannabis deserves all the cake fruit out of the oven has cleared my attention it gets. sinuses. And possibly dealt to that pesky When it comes to drug policy reform, sobriety... 20 NovemBer shouldn’t we be looking at all substances, à la Portugal, rather than single out cannabis? That’s certainly the view of the @damianchristie New Zealand. So clean we even New Zealand Law Commission, which I call our beer and our drugs Pure. 27 NovemBer recommended our obsolete drug law be Ross Bell replaced with a cautioning and health Executive Director referral process for all substances, albeit @j20r I don’t have to be drunk to talk about my with a fast track referral for more harmful drugs like methamphetamine. feelings, it’s just coincidentally when I usually choose to do it. 29 NovemBer The Commission’s argument is that New Zealand’s ‘drug problem’ is fundamentally a health and social issue best addressed through health-focussed drug law which seeks to reduce harm from all substances, not just the common one. We strongly back this position. KEY EVENTS & DATES Yet much of the drug law debate in New Zealand, and globally, is dominated by cannabis. school of addiction I understand why this is; cannabis is the world’s most popular Christchurch, New Zealand illicit drug. 4 of the 5 percent of the world’s adult population that ARCH The theme for DAPAANZ’s School of Addiction is people with drug use problems who have cognitive impairment – clinically assessing uses illicit drugs use cannabis. 385,000 adult New Zealanders have 7–9 M them and how to adapt for them. used cannabis in the past year and about half of us have tried it; www.dapaanz.org.nz/school-of-addiction 9 percent of whom will be cannabis dependent. The total social cost of cannabis in New Zealand is $314 million, excluding the 2013 international Harm Reduction Conference cost of enforcing cannabis prohibition (which is $116 million). vilnius, lithuania So any talk about drug policy reform necessarily will focus on this UNE This 23rd conference is a must-attend for harm reduction high prevalence. 9–12 J practitioners from around the world. Daily, it seems, a growing evidence base is emerging on the health www.ihra.net/conference and social harms of cannabis. Last year New Zealand research received global attention when it found a link between early and Mental Health and addiction Nursing Conference heavy use of cannabis and IQ loss. This month other research auckland, New Zealand UNE queried whether cannabis use increases stroke risk. A new For all nurses who want to get a better handle on mental health Canadian study highlighted the road safety risks of cannabis 19–21 J and addiction best practice. impaired driving. Rather than supporting the status quo criminal www.conference.co.nz/mhn13 justice response to cannabis, this evidence reinforces a challenge against it, and towards a new public health approach where we Through the Maze: Cannabis and Health prioritise prevention, harm reduction and treatment interventions. auckland, New Zealand OVEMBER The New Zealand Drug Foundation is hosting a conference about You must excuse the serious cognitive dissonance displayed in cannabis. Essential to attend for all AOD people. this editorial. I’ve argued that cannabis shouldn’t get special 27–29 N www.drugfoundation.org.nz attention in drug policy debates, yet, based on shear prevalence alone the attention is deserved. I’m sure I’m not the only one confused and, to help, the Drug Foundation has decided to convene an international symposium starring cannabis. Follow us To our international friends, I extend a very warm invitation Join us online to visit us in late November this year to attend New Zealand’s drugfoundation.org.nz/connect second “Cannabis and Health” conference. Our website provides more detail. matters of substance February 13 01 NEWS NZ. 03 ‘Crack’ in dairies 04 Animal testing 05 “Alcohol and trampolines do not mix. That’s just asking for trouble.” A new synthetic drug AnimAl rights activists marketed as Crack hit sparked fears over the shelves of Auckland whether Associate dairies in late 2012. Minister of Health Peter Dunne’s proposed regime Drug Foundation Executive Former trampoline for synthetic drugs will Director Ross Bell said and aerobics coach 01 include animal testing. even illicit drug users Stephanie McMillan were “gobsmacked” at the Mr Dunne was quick to commenting on statistics PrisON SMOking ban unlaWFUL naming of the product. point out that, while released by ACC, which “The industry has crossed animal testing was show over 39,000 claims The High Court has ruled the line by branding a mentioned in scoping for trampoline-related the Department of Corrections’ product Crack and having documents, no final injuries over the past drug paraphernalia on it. practices had been settled four years. and that he had expressed ban on smoking in prisons It’s just one big piss-take Of those, 126 were aged a preference for no animal because they know they over 65. out of order. can get away with this,” testing. In late December, Justice Murray Gilbert ruled the ban said Mr Bell. Non animal-based testing “I can just was “unlawful, invalid and of no effect” because it falls Associate Minister of methods, such as those outside the scope of rule-making power under section Health Peter Dunne said put forward by Johns imagine it; a 33 of the Corrections Act. the packaging was alarming. Hopkins University, were family occasion, also in the document. Despite the ruling, Corrections is still enforcing the ban, “The issue with it seems a few drinks, with Corrections Minister Anne Tolley saying it had to relate as much to the Legislation for the a grandkid been successful and they would not back down. way in which it’s being synthetic drug testing “If we need to change the law to maintain this, then that presented as being an regime is likely to telling nana or is what we will do,” said Mrs Tolley.
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