News: SF Opening SIFs, ICC Opens Philippines Inquiry [#133]

This Week in Drugs

This week, Sam and Sarah talk about the latest drug news. They start off with one of the biggest stories of 2018 so far: San Francisco moving ahead with safe injection sites, which will open around July 1, on the same timeline that Massachusetts is implementing sales of marijuana to adults. It’s then a bunch of ups and downs: a judge’s recommendation for a defendant to be sterilized brings up some questions of how consensual it really was, the FDA is trying to convince the public that kratom should be treated like heroin and other opioids, and the International Criminal Court is finally opening an inquiry into extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. All of these stories are major threads in the current drug policy discussion, so updates will surely be on the way in the coming weeks and months.

News Updates:

• SF safe injection sites expected to be first in nation, open around July 1
• Judge suggests drug-addicted woman get sterilized before sentencing, and she does
• FDA Weaponizes ‘Opioid’ Label Against Kratom Consumers
  • FDA press release from Tuesday
• Philippines drugs war: ICC announces initial inquiry into killings
  • Statement from opposition politician Gary Alejano

Headlines:

• In an op-ed on Wednesday, David Keene, a former president of the National Rifle Association, said that medical marijuana patients should be able to buy and possess firearms, writing, “Trading a constitutional right for pain relief is a choice no one should have to make.” Thus far, the NRA as an organization has failed to stand up for patients’ gun rights.
• On Monday, February 5th, US District Judge Brian Cogan ordered information about jurors in the trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will be kept from Guzman, his lawyers, the prosecution, and the media. Jurors will also be escorted to and from the court by federal marshals.
• Now that its marijuana law is at least partially implemented, Maine is now the only state in the US that protects employees from being fired or disciplined for marijuana consumption in their personal time. This also means employers, including the state government, can no longer screen potential hires for marijuana before deciding whether to give them a job.
• The Mississippi House voted 113-2 on Tuesday to advance a bill titled “Urine Trouble.” If passed by the Senate, the legislation would outlaw the sale and purchase of synthetic urine.

Forecast:

• Tuesday, February 27, in Arkansas: Arkansas will announce the winners of the state’s medical marijuana cultivation licenses. They received 95 applications for only 5 licenses, so it’s an incredibly competitive process. The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission says they will probably not release the winners of the 32 dispensary licenses until April, since it’s taking much longer to score the 227 applications for those licenses.
• Tuesday, February 27, in NYC: the Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of Academic Engagement will host a Drug Researchers’ Roundtable about “Naloxone as a Technology of Solidarity in the History of Opioid Overdose and Overdose Prevention.” The event is free.

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