It has been hundreds of years since the Portuguese were any type of world leaders. One area where Portugal has received the most praise recently has been in dealing with addiction issues. Like their fall from glory in the middle Ages and Renaissance, the country is again in need of finding a way to solve its worsening drug problems. Portugal's famously liberal drug policy has been held up as a model for other countries - Norway is considering adopting parts of it and countries as far afield as ... [More]

Politicians cannot seem to agree on anything these days. From our Congressmen in Washington, DC to our state’s capitols, stagnation and inefficiency are the current norm. A marijuana blood limit for drivers was rejected for a third time in Colorado, as lawmakers from both parties argued about how to fairly gauge whether someone is too stoned to get behind the wheel. This according to the AP. The bill would have made Colorado the third state in the nation with a blood-level limit for mari... [More]

Is America winning the “war on drugs?” I don’t think so, and apparently, neither does the White House. According to a recent statement from the White House reported at thebostonchannel.com, the U.S. government's drug strategy should focus more on treating addiction and less on imposing harsh prison sentences. This would include more drug education classes and counseling. The White House office submits an annual report to Congress, and this year’s suggests a new national... [More]

The time has come for the entire world, secular and non-secular to band together to fight the scourge that plagues our society – drug addiction. In an effort to rid the planet from drugs one of the most notable religious figures is actively joining the fight. Pope Benedict is taking the fight right to one of the main arteries of the problem - Mexico Pope Benedict arrived in Mexico last week promising as reported in Reuters to "unmask the evil" of drug trafficking in a country ravaged by ... [More]

What are your thoughts of partisan politics? Are your views so strong you are unwilling to bend on absolutely any issue?  That sure seems to be the case today with the US Congress. I don’t know about you, but the all-or-nothing mentality in Congress these days has me pretty pissed off! The "designer drug" law written in 1986 prohibited classes of drugs before they could even be invented and before they could be found to be beneficial or harmful. The presumption behind this ban, that ... [More]

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of partisan politics! Regardless of your political affiliation, it is insane how little compromise our nation’s “leaders” are willing to give. It makes me totally sick! Not surprisingly, today, the 112th Congress is stalled, mired in partisan conflict. It seems to have been the case since I have been old enough to understand and follow anything to do with politics. Partisanship has led Congress to move too fast, and that p... [More]

The statistics show that marijuana consumption is on the rise. Logic dictates that legalizing the drug for “medicinal” purpose has made it that much easier for stoners to get high. Some local anti-medical-marijuana officials believe an increase in marijuana use in California is the result of relaxed state laws toward medical marijuana. In evaluating the statistics, it shows states that have a medical-marijuana program have a significant increase in use of those who are using mariju... [More]

Of course the title to this article is naïve. The corrupt Mexican police force that is on the take from drug cartels needs a lot more than an online drug class to curb cartel power and violence. Raids Mexican President Felipe Calderon's office did not respond for requests for comments on the CNDH findings, but it says his strategy is showing results with the capture of major gang leaders and a drop in homicides in violent cities like Ciudad Juarez, where murders fell to 1,550 so far this ... [More]

Police and law enforcement will always have to battle illegal substances and those using and abusing them.  It helps when the state and the federal government are on the same page in fighting illegal drug activity.  The State of Ohio has been trying to criminalize and ban the newer “recreational drugs” hitting the market. They currently have tackled two of these new synthetic drugs, but who knows how many to go. A law that took effect this summer places substances known ... [More]

As teens and seemingly everyone else looks to get high anywhere they can, bath salts are becoming the latest drug rage. If you follow this blog, which I know many of you do from the countless comments on both it and my onlinealcoholclass.com blog, you know I have written about this a couple of times already. As it becomes a bigger problem here in the United States it is nice to see the legal system stopping the sale of a substance that is lethal, though never intended for recreational drug use.... [More]