drugs are bad?

Twenty percent of scientists admit to using performance-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a survey released Wednesday by Nature, Britain's top science journal.

The overwhelming majority of these med-taking brainiacs said they indulged in order to "improve concentration," and 60 percent said they did so on a daily or weekly basis.

The 1,427 respondents -- most of them in the United States -- completed an informal, online survey posted on the "Nature Network" Web forum, a discussion site for scientists operated by the Nature Publishing Group.

More than a third said that they would feel pressure to give their children such drugs if they knew other kids at school were also taking them.

"These are academics working in scientific institutions," Ruth Francis, who handles press relations for the group, told AFP.

The survey focused on three drugs widely available by prescription or via the Internet.

Ritalin, a trade name for methylphenidate, is a stimulant normally used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, especially in children. Modafinil -- marketed at Provigil -- is prescribed to treat sleep disorders, but is also effective against general fatigue and jet lag.

Both medications are common currency on college campuses, used as "study aids" to sharpen performance and wakefulness.

"It doesn't seem to be causing too much trouble since most [students] use the drugs not to get high but to function better," Brian Doyle, a clinical pyschiatrist at Georgetown University Medical Centre, told a US newspaper last month. "When exams are over, they go back to normal and stop abusing the drugs."

Other experts expressed more concern about what the survey revealed.

"It alerted us to the fact that scientists, like others, are looking for short cuts," Wilson Compton, director of epidemiology and prevention research at the US National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), told AFP.

Ritalin, he noted, can become addictive, even if it has proven safe and effective when taken as prescribed.

The third class of drugs included in the survey was beta blockers, prescribed for cardiac arrhythmia and popular among performers due to its anti-anxiety effect.

Of the 288 scientists who said that had taken one or more of these drugs outside of a medical context, three-fifths had used Ritalin, and nearly half Provigil. Only 15 percent were fans of beta blockers.

More than a third procured their meds via the Internet, with the rest buying them in pharmacy.

Other reasons cited for popping pills were focusing on a specific task, and counteracting jet lag.

Almost 70 percent of 1,258 respondents who answered the question said they would be willing to risk mild side effects in order to "boost your brain power" by taking cognitive-enhancing drugs.

Half of the drug-takers reported such effects, including headaches, jitteriness, anxiety and sleeplessness.

Wilson of the NIDA expressed surprise at the rate of substance abuse shown, but cautioned that the survey did not meet rigorous scientific standards.

"This is a volunteer poll of people responding to an Internet survey. There might be an over-representation," he said.

But previous research has shown that, as the boundary between treating illness and enhancing wellbeing continues to blur, taking performance-boosting products continues to gain in cultural acceptance.

"Like the rise in cosmetic surgery, use of cognitive enhancers is likely to increase as bioethical and psychological concerns are overcome," opined Nature in a commentary.

In the survey, 80 percent of all the scientists -- even those who did not use these drugs -- defended the right of "healthy humans" to take them as work boosters, and more than half said their use should not be restricted, even for university entrance exams.

More than 57 percent of the respondents were 35 years old or younger.

Suddenly vice is part of the mainstream political dialogue - legalize that s&$t?

Gov. David Paterson said Monday he used cocaine in his 20s and smoked marijuana when he was younger. In reference to cocaine, Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he "tried it a couple of times" when he was "about 22 or 23."

"And marijuana probably when I was about 20," he said on the NY1 cable news station. "I don't think I touched marijuana since the '70s."

He said "more Americans have tried a lot more during that period of time and gone on to lead responsible lives and hopefully have lived their lives to their fullest."

Paterson was lieutenant governor under Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned this month amid a prostitution scandal.

Last week, Paterson and his wife, Michelle Paterson, disclosed they each had committed adultery several years ago during marital strife. The couple were separated for a "couple years" at the time, David Paterson said Monday.

In Monday's interview, Paterson pointed out that he had acknowledged to a television journalist after a 2006 gubernatorial Democratic primary debate that he had used illegal drugs.

The NY1 interviewer, Dominic Carter, noted that few people paid attention to Paterson's revelation in 2006 because he was running for lieutenant governor.

Oh word? Moses was all high up? - not Moishe's words

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

More Gangster News, For Fans of The Wire

From the Philadelphia Inquirer. Click here for more gangster tales that Morty and Moishe recommend...

Kingpin: 'I broke the code'
On the stand four days, Camden drug lord Raymond Morales ratted on major players. He did good business, he said. His regret: Testifying.

By Troy Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
In the last 15 years, perhaps no one has contributed more to the misery of drugs and violence on Camden's streets than Raymond Morales.

A former cocaine wholesale and retail kingpin, Morales secretly pleaded guilty in federal court in 2005 and helped investigators dismantle his organization and target his old customers.

For four days, Morales recently sat on the witness stand for the first time, testifying against three men with whom he did business, and giving a remarkably frank and chilling description of his long reign at the top of the drug world.
...
Morales' business ties to some of Camden's most notorious crime figures stretch back to the early 1990s, when he said he used the menacing Sons of Malcolm X street gang as muscle. Gang members eagerly provided their help so they could have more access to his wholesale cocaine, he said.

The Sons controlled vast swaths of the North Camden drug trade for more than a decade and were best known for the 1992 "test night" shootings, in which gang members had to show their loyalty by killing random civilians. A former member, convicted as a juvenile in one of the test night shootings, is scheduled to testify this week.

Years later, a competitor tried to contract a hit on Morales with Leonard "Pooh" Paulk. Paulk, described as another of the city's largest wholesalers, warned Morales instead.

Paulk is the stepfather of Camden basketball legend Dajuan Wagner, who played three years for the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. Paulk was given a life sentence on drug conspiracy charges in federal court in 2005.

Morales's testimony also was remarkable for the way he described his business, dealing with many of the same issues as legitimate executives and applying many of the same economic theories.

For one, he offered a money-back guarantee on the quality of his drugs. And he griped from the stand about expenses cutting into his profit - though his expenses included paying bail bondsmen and lawyers and the toll of stick-up artists.

The wild card, of course, was the violence. Morales once had a drug dealer killed for representing his own, inferior cocaine as having come from Morales' supply.

"Nothing's normal in the drug trade," he said. "Every day's different."

Morales was wildly successful. Investigators said his business grew so large and was able to buy so much cocaine at once, that he drove out his competitors - a strategy not unlike Wal-Mart's.

At his height, Morales said, he was moving 70 kilos a month from his connection with a group of "Arizona Mexicans."
...
His drug-corner "manager," Dennis Rodriguez, testified in this same trial that they pioneered the sale of $5 bags of crack rather than the corner standard $10 bags. Addicts, he said, often showed up with $8 or $9 and haggled.

The $5 bags were a sensation.

"We were selling more coke than ever. Customers were coming out of everywhere," Rodriguez testified. "We were number one."
...

Continuing on the drug theme - Colombian drug lord killed

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan authorities confirm a man slain in the Andean city of Merida is Wilber Varela, one of Colombia's most-wanted drug lords, Venezuela's top counter-drug official said Friday.

Fingerprints of the man who was found shot to death Wednesday matched those of Varela, said Col. Nestor Reverol, head of the National Anti-Drug Agency.

Varela, alias "Jabon," or "Soap," was Colombia's most notorious drug trafficker on the run.

The underworld is awash with tales of his brutality that made him a household name in Colombia.

Colombia's police chief, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, reminded reporters that Varela, a former police officer himself, had entered the drug underworld as a hired killer.

"Wilber Varela in the last few years was truly the main leader of Colombian drug-trafficking organizations," he said Friday in Bogota.

But wait? I thought drugs were to tune out? These kids today, striving to get ahead not fall behind (from Ben Casnocha's blog)

Performance Enhancing Drugs...For Your Mind

My dear friend and loyal reader Massimo from Switzerland asks:

In the local paper today there was an article about the abuse of pharmaceuticals for the purpose of performance improvement in exams and the learning period (especially to improve the short term memory).

They claim that 25% (!) of the college students in the US take "stimulating drugs" or cognitive enhancers such as Ritalin or Modasomil.

Is the use of those brain boosters a topic among students and in the media? Will we have to undergo an anti-doping test after our exams in the future? What are your thoughts about it?

I believe that the use of cognitive enhancing drugs in schools is one of the most underreported stories. From talking to friends and from my own observations, virtually every competitive college campus in America has a lively black market for Ritalin and Adderall and other drugs which help you focus and memorize. As someone who has never used such drugs, I'm annoyed there isn't more policing. Or at least more exploration of the ethics. There has been some chatter about the astonishing increases of high schoolers conveniently diagnosed with a learning disability right before taking the SAT -- so as to secure extra time -- but less about taking performance enhancing drugs when you don't have a clinical need.

But it's more complicated than it seems, this use of technology to gain an edge. For example, should students be able to use a laptop during a test to type out an essay? If so, does this give an unfair advantage to those who can type fast?

Anyway, the use of drugs to get an edge isn't limited to the classroom. According to this L.A. Times article and others, it appears executives and other high stressed people are catching on the wonders of cog-boosting pharma. I feel more OK about adults doing this. Maybe it's because the real world doesn't claim to create a "level playing field" of competition, as schools do.

The bottom line for me is that as mental drugs become cheaper and more effective, and as certain neuroscience technology like fMRI trickle down to the rich and eventually the masses, we're going to have a host of important ethics questions on our hands. To me, far more interesting questions than whether professional baseball or football players are taking steroids.

Baby Steps Toward Sanity

January 21, 2008

MONTPELIER, Vt.—Vermonters get to weigh in this week on a bill before the Legislature that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
more stories like this

The state Senate Judiciary Committee plans a public hearing Wednesday on a measure that would make possession of four ounces or less punishable by a civil penalty instead of criminal prosecution. Also on the agenda: a bill that would stiffen the penalties for selling heroin and cocaine.

"I think both are public policy issues that ought to be explored," said state Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, who chairs the committee.

Sen. Hinda Miller, one of the sponsors of the marijuana bill, said it would help Vermont courts focus on more important crimes if passed.

"It's time to be realistic and look at the world as it is," said Miller, D-Chittenden.

This is pretty funny

January 24, 2008

In Taxing Illegal Drugs, the Trouble Comes in Collecting

By ANNE BARNARD

The Tennessee tax authorities slapped a young concertgoer with $11,506 in taxes and penalties when he was caught with marijuana-laced Rice Krispie Treats. North Carolina collected $11 million in taxes last year on illegal drugs and moonshine. And in Alabama, the rare drug user who chooses to pay state taxes on a stash is issued a sticker to place on the package that declares, “Say no to marijuana.”

Strange as it may seem to levy a tax on a commodity that no one is supposed to have, 29 states have passed laws that impose taxes on illegal drugs and controlled substances, and on Tuesday, Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed that New York become the 30th.

The plan was part of a package of new or increased taxes and fees that the governor proposed in an effort to close an estimated budget deficit of $4.4 billion.

Across the country, a variety of drug tax laws have sparked legal disputes over issues like the constitutional protection against double jeopardy and the weight of spiked baked goods — as in the case of William Hoak, the Tennessee man who argued in court that he should have been taxed only for the weight of the marijuana in his Rice Krispie Treats, not for the cereal and marshmallows.

The laws have evolved over the past 20 years in response to court challenges. Some were struck down for violating the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination; new laws then specified that taxes could be paid anonymously and that authorities could not report the taxpayers to the police.

North Carolina levied taxes so high that a federal appeals court ruled that the state unconstitutionally penalized drug dealers twice for the same crime: once with jail and once with the tax.

“It’s just a veiled attempt by the government to get these guys to come in and incriminate themselves for possessing drugs,” Jonathan A. Street, Mr. Hoak’s lawyer, said.

But officials say the taxes give states a new and easier way to seize drug money, handing law enforcement a tool to hobble the drug trade and replenishing state coffers along the way. Mr. Spitzer’s aides say the tax could bring in $17 million a year. That figure is extrapolated from the take in North Carolina, which revised its law in response to the federal court ruling and devotes an entire division of its Department of Revenue to enforcing it.

Paying the proposed New York tax — $3.50 per gram for marijuana and $200 per gram for other drugs — would not allow the taxpayer to keep illegal drugs, and the governor does not intend the tax to be a step toward drug legalization, said Robert Megna, who was confirmed as state tax commissioner on Tuesday.

But in order to make the laws constitutional, states must create at least the theoretical opportunity for drug users and dealers to pay the tax legally, said Verenda Smith, government affairs associate at the Federation of Tax Administrators in Washington.

For example, imagine that there is a drug dealer in North Carolina who wanted to do everything by the book. He would go to the authorities — anonymously, of course — and pay a tax based on the weight and the type of drugs he was holding. He would be given a tax stamp, not unlike the tax stickers on cigarette packs. The dealer could then place the stamp on his quarter-ounce bag of marijuana or kilo of cocaine to show that he had paid the tax.

Almost no dealers actually do this, nor does Mr. Spitzer expect them to. The vast majority of revenues from the tax are collected after law enforcement officials seize the drugs, said Kimberly Y. Brooks, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

Officials look for the tax stamps on drugs, but not surprisingly, almost never find them, Ms. Brooks said.

Officials then can assess how much tax is owed, and the payment can be taken either from any cash found with the drugs or from the dealer’s other assets.

“It’s really about cutting the drug dealers off at the knees,” said Ms. Smith of the tax administrators group. “It kind of goes back to the Al Capone model.” Proving tax avoidance is much easier than proving a drug crime, she said, so the tax laws help the authorities keep seized drug money even when a suspect accused of dealing drugs goes free.

Since North Carolina’s law was passed in 1990, only a few dozen people have voluntarily bought the stamps. “They’re mostly stamp collectors,” Ms. Brooks said.

Ms. Smith said she had heard of only one drug dealer who paid the tax regularly, a young man in Oklahoma.

“For a drug dealer, apparently he was a very likable kid,” she said, adding that he decorated his bags of drugs with the tax stamp. “So when they caught him, they had to give him his money back. He had paid the tax.”