World: Discoverer of LSD Urges Medical Use of the Drug – Q2 2003 Discoverer of LSD Urges Medical Use of the Drug
Published by Reuters - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: Reuters
VIENNA (Reuters Health) - The man who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD 60 years ago this week says its use should be allowed under controlled circumstances, including to help psychiatric patients.
Dr. Albert Hofmann, now 97, made the discovery of the properties of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory in Basel, Switzerland, on April 19, 1943.
The road to the discovery started in 1929 when he shunned the synthetic chemistry so fashionable at the time to work on the chemistry of natural products.
By 1935 he had become interested in the alkaloids of ergot, a fungus that grows on rye. It had poisoned thousands in the Middle Ages by contaminating bread, although medieval midwives had also used it tentatively, and sometimes lethally, to induce childbirth.
Three years later, Hofmann developed the first artificial ergot alkaloid, clearing the way for its safer use in obstetrics. Then, looking for other uses, he produced a twenty-fifth derivative -- labeled D-lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25.
It aroused no special interest, and testing was discontinued after Hofmann noted that experimental animals showed some signs of disturbance.
From his home in Rittimatte, in Burg, Switzerland, the retired researcher told Reuters Health how, five years later, he came to fully appreciate what had happened to the animals when "on a peculiar presentiment," he synthesized a batch of the abandoned LSD-25 and experienced his first "trip" after spilling some on his hand.
Hofmann said: "I noticed strange effects coming over me in the lab. I was not sure what caused them. I thought maybe it was the chloroform. But then I began to realize that it must have been the LSD-25."
Three days later, on April 19, he decided to do a test by ingesting 400 micrograms, "a massive dose of five times the recommended amount."
"The lab assistant took me home and called a doctor. It was a hellish trip at first. But as I was coming out it was wonderful."
Years later -- after many others had repeated Hofmann's trip -- the drug was banned worldwide for researchers and chemical adventurers alike, a move that Hofmann said caused him great sadness.
"The problem was that in the beginning there was not enough care taken," he argued. "It came on the drug scene very quickly, especially in America. The doses people were getting were not controlled, were not right."
"I believe the answer is to make it possible for doctors to get access to it for therapeutic use like they do heroin or morphine. There are so many potentials for it -- people who respond to no other treatment other than LSD, for example. But it is banned, even though many, many doctors want to use it."
He claimed the drug is safe if carefully controlled, but the ban makes it more attractive and dangerous. "It is glamorous to chase something that's banned."
"I hope the ban is lifted," Hofmann added. "I am 97 now, and this is my hope for the future."
But Dr. Fabrizio Schifano, a senior lecturer at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London, told Reuters Health: "Nothing useful came out of the research of that time."
The consultant psychiatrist and pharmacologist sees no need for a relaxation of the ban.
"In twenty years I have never had the idea of giving psychedelic drugs to any of my patients," he said. "They have enough problems. I would like to say it should be banned forever, but I really don't want to offend a great researcher."
http://www.reuters.com/
World: Thais swear to stay drug-free – Q2 2003 Thais swear to stay drug-free
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
An estimated 40,000 Thais have taken an oath against using drugs at a ceremony in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, 76 kilometres (47 miles) north of Bangkok.
The event, led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, comes at the end of the second month of a controversial drug crackdown.
Nearly 2,000 people are thought to have been killed since the crackdown began on 1 February, provoking international concern that the police are operating a "shoot-to-kill" policy .
But Prime Minister Thaksin defended his policy at Friday's event, saying: "The drugs problem is a threat to national security. Thus my government has declared war on drugs and placed drugs eradication as the nation's most urgent agenda."
Leaders from five major religions - Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism - took part in the oath-taking ceremony, encouraging their followers to abstain from drugs.
High death toll
The Thai crackdown targets producers and traffickers accused of bringing large amounts of drugs, mainly methamphetamines, into the country.
The authorities have already arrested more than 40,000 people on drugs charges, and seized 517 million baht ($12m) in assets belonging to suspects.
But it is the high death toll which has especially concerned the international community.
Police have said that only 42 of the dead were shot by police, with the remainder being killed as a result of in-fighting between drug gang members.
But human rights groups accuse the Thai Government of encouraging security forces to carry out extra-judicial killings on drugs dealers.
On Wednesday the Thai Government said 95 military personnel had been implicated in drugs trafficking since the crackdown was launched.
Seventeen of the 95 have already been arrested and the remainder are undergoing investigation, Defence Minister Thammarak Issarangkun Na Ayutthaya said.
Of those arrested, six were fired, seven suspended and the rest face disciplinary action, he said.
Most of the drugs that are brought into Thailand are said to come from neighbouring Burma or the so-called "Golden Triangle" region where the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos meet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
World: Crack Serbian police arrested – Q2 2003 Crack Serbian police arrested
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
Serbian police have reportedly arrested 15 members of an elite unit suspected of involvement in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic two weeks ago.
The detainees are all members of the 300-strong Unit for Special Operations (JSO), which was disbanded on Wednesday on the orders of the Serbian Government, the Associated Press news agency reported.
JSO commander Dusan Maricic was among those arrested - his deputy Zvezdan Jovanovic was detained earlier in the week on suspicion of carrying out the assassination.
The arrests come amid reports that the crackdown on organised crime has led to soaring prices for illegal drugs and increased criminal activity by addicts.
The JSO, better known as the "Red Berets", is said to have close links to the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic.
The Serbian authorities have accused the unit's former commander, Milorad Lukovic, of masterminding the killing.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in the crackdown, which began after Mr Djindjic was shot outside government buildings in Belgrade on 12 March.
Addicts warning
Meanwhile, Mr Djindjic's assassination has had unexpected consequences for Serbia's drug users, Reuters news agency reported.
The government crackdown which followed the late prime minister's murder has targeted organised crime, sending drug prices soaring on the streets of Belgrade.
Police have stepped up security at pharmacies to prevent raids by addicts looking to steal tranquillisers.
The government in turn has warned the public that drug users may turn to violence as they try to sustain their habit.
Hospitals and clinics have reported an increase in the number of drug users seeking help.
The country's only clinic specialising in drug addiction said that 900 people a week have been coming through its doors since Mr Djindjic's killing, an increase of almost 80%.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
World: Drug lords ‘want Thai PM dead’ – Q2 2003 Drug lords 'want Thai PM dead'
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said that drug barons who have been targeted in a government crackdown are threatening his life.
Mr Thaksin told reporters that drug kingpins had put a bounty on his head in retaliation for a war on drugs which has killed more than 1,000 people since it began on 1 February.
"Reports have come from our intelligence units that a group of international mafia bosses want to kill me," Mr Thaksin said. "This is not a mere threat, they are real," he added.
Mr Thaksin's administration has been accused by human rights groups of pursuing a shoot to kill policy against perceived drug dealers. Bangkok says that most of those who died were the victims of inter-gang fighting, and 31 were shot by police in self-defence.
Mr Thaksin said his personal security had been tightened. He said he now travelled in an armoured van rather than his usual sedan, and that sniffer dogs were scouring Government House.
He refused to confirm the price on his head, but Thai media quoted security sources on Wednesday as saying that drug kingpins living along the Thai-Burmese border had offered a bounty of 80m baht ($1.89m) to assassinate Mr Thaksin.
An official from the Office of Narcotics Control Bureau (ONCB) told the French news agency AFP that drug lords from Burma's ethnic Wa group, who are blamed for producing most of the methamphetamines that flood Thailand, could be responsible.
"We believe the Wa are behind the reward because they are the group which has been affected most from our war on drugs campaign," he told the agency.
But Mr Thaksin said he was not afraid.
"If someone calls and threatens me, I feel nothing... Dogs who bark don't bite. The dog who bites will not bark," the prime minister said.
The boosted security follows the fatal shooting at the weekend of an aide to Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, who is overseeing Thailand's drugs war.
Thailand is the world's largest consumer of methamphetamines - a powerful and addictive stimulant known locally as "ya-ba".
About 5% of the population regularly abuse the drug, according to the International Narcotics Control Board.
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World: One in 10 Jamaican fliers is a drug mule – Q2 2003 One in 10 Jamaican fliers is a drug mule
Published by The Guardian - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: The Guardian
A UN report will this week claim that one in 10 of all passengers on flights from Jamaica is smuggling drugs.
Publication of the report follows similar figures released last year by British police and Customs officials, which estimated that around 20 people on each flight from Jamaica were 'drug mules'.
Phil Sinkinson, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Kingston, has said that the figures were probably an underestimate.
Each mule, most of whom are women, is paid as much as £1,500 a trip and swallows up to half a kilogram of cocaine in tiny packages.
In some British women's jails, up to half the prisoners are drug mules. Dozens of British women are also held in Jamaican prisons after being caught smuggling drugs for 'Yardie' gangs.
The process is fraught with risk for the mules, who can die if the bags burst during the flight.
The report from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) uses the dangers to try to dispel the myth that drug trafficking can lead to growth and prosperity in developing countries.
The INCB also raises concerns about the 'worldwide repercussions' of the decision of the British Government to reclassify cannabis as a Class C drug. The INCB believes that drug liberalisation in Europe and North America makes it difficult to counter cannabis cultivation in other regions, especially Morocco.
The report will accuse advocates of cannabis legalisation of misinforming the public amid recent research by the British Lung Foundation which found that smoking three joints of cannabis can be as harmful as 20 cigarettes. Cannabis, far from being a harmless drug, also affects the brain and can induce heart attacks, according to the INCB.
On a global level, it dismisses the belief that the drug trade has benefited communities in Asia and South America. It argues that the heroin trade in Afghanistan contributed to the civil wars that plagued the country in the 1990s.
It is estimated just 1 per cent of the money spent on drugs by users in the developed world finds its way into the pockets of growers in the Third World. The violence and corruption surrounding the illicit drug trade also make it unsuited to long-term economic development.
At the same time, some countries are highly dependent on income from drugs: 10-15 per cent of the GDP of Afghanistan and Burma comes from the production of opium poppies. As illicit production in these countries grew, economic growth and living standards fell.
Neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, which reduced or eliminated poppy cultivation, witnessed economic growth during the same period.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
UK: Country faces HEROIN flood, Blair warned – Q2 2003 UK faces heroin flood, Blair warned
Published by The Guardian - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: The Guardian
Drugs investigators have told Tony Blair they fear a big increase in heroin smuggling into the UK this year because of intelligence suggesting that stockpiles of opium in Afghanistan and Pakistan are much greater than anyone realised.
Members of the inter-agency drugs action group, made up of the security services, the national crime squad, customs and excise and the police, have told ministers that unless the Afghan production of heroin is curbed, "traditional law enforcement cannot hope to win" the war against the traffickers.
They fear that the post-conflict opportunity to drastically restrict poppy growing in Afghanistan, the source of 75% of the world's heroin and more than 90% of Britain's supply, may have been lost. Good ideas, they say, have not been translated into "real work" on the ground, so the country's farmers have had little incentive to stop cultivating the poppy plants.
Customs and the police had high hopes that the ban on poppy growing in Afghanistan which began in July 2000, and the military action to find Osama bin Laden, would have significantly cut the supply of the drug to Europe.
But ministers are now being told that there does not appear to have been any impact.
While customs officers seized record amounts of heroin in the last three months of 2002, they say the size of the shipments and the methods used show that the smugglers are not short of stock.
In one operation last October, officers at Dover found 300kg of heroin in hessian sacks in a Turkish-registered lorry. No special attempt had been made to hide the drugs.
Investigators believe that any group willing to attempt "a kamikaze run like that" is not overly worried about where the next shipment is coming from.
The fear is that stockpiles of heroin from Afghanistan's bumper crops of 1998 and 1999 have not been exhausted, meaning the UN and other agencies substantially underestimated the size of the yields.
These stores will soon be replenished by a 2002 poppy harvest that is expected to produce 270 tonnes of refined heroin, enough to supply the world market for a year.
"If we still have not seen the back end of the stockpiling, it makes you wonder what is going to happen when the new crop enters the supply line," a Whitehall source said.
The agencies have been working with police in Iran - including training frontline officers - to try to stop heroin crossing the Afghan border into the country, one of the traffickers' favoured supply routes to Europe.
Terry Byrne, director general of the law enforcement division of customs, confirmed yesterday that the signs were "ominous".
"It is troubling that at the end of 2002, when heroin detection rates are at record levels, prices seem relatively stable," he said. "We had hoped that the stockpiling from the bumper harvest before the Taliban ban would by now have shown signs of being exhausted. They do not seem to have been.
"If current cultivations in Afghanistan produce bumper stockpiles, that could have a very damaging impact for more than just the next year. The international community has got to support the Afghanistan administration in doing something about this."
There are signs, however, that drug investigators are having more success against cocaine traffickers, probably because a series of joint operations launched up to three years ago against gangs in the Caribbean and South America has been coming to fruition.
The wholesale price of a kilo of cocaine in the UK soared from£20,000 last April to £29,000 by December. In one area last November, traffickers were seeking £32,000 per kilo, a sure sign that they are having difficulties.
Cooperation between British and Jamaican investigators has had a big impact on the amount of cocaine brought into the UK by drug "mules".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
UK: Drug gangs go to London’s diamond dealers for cash – Q2 2003 Drug gangs go to London's diamond dealers for cash
Published by The Guardian - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: The Guardian
Criminals are laundering their profits in new ways and Hatton Garden is braced for a flood of stolen gems
Millions of pounds in stolen diamonds are set to be 'fenced' through London's Hatton Garden in the coming months as drug gangs from around the country increasingly turn to the gem trade in a bid to launder their cash.
Experts say diamonds are fast replacing more traditional methods of money laundering and that the trade is set to grow even more rapidly following the theft of £65 million worth of diamonds in Antwerp - the centre of world diamond trading - last month.
According to Hatton Garden jeweller Joel Grunberger, it is only a matter of time before the stolen gems begin to appear. 'Some of the diamonds are certain to end up in London because Hatton Garden has a number of people whose history is not exactly squeaky clean.'
Grunberger was a consultant on the Guy Ritchie gangster film, Snatch, which begins with a diamond robbery on an Antwerp dealer. 'Honest dealers work cheek-by-jowl with the villains. I don't mean that they sell to the villains, but within the businesses there are unscrupulous people. Everyone knows the Brink's-Mat gold haul came to Hatton Garden,' he said.
The gem trade appeals to money launderers because, following the introduction of new banking regulations, it is one of the few remaining industries where large cash transactions can be carried out with complete anonymity. 'It is all based on trust, so there is no paper trail,' says money laundering expert Peter Lilley. 'There is an environment of almost complete secrecy and it is a very cash-intensive marketplace. These are all things that money launderers find very attractive.
'Another huge benefit is that diamonds are very easy to transport, much more so than gold. It is much easier to put a few thousand pounds' in diamonds into a suitcase and take it across a border than it is to do the same thing with the cash equivalent.'
Lilley's book on money laundering, Dirty Dealing, identifies both Antwerp and Hatton Garden as being extremely vulnerable to the attentions of organised crime.
The strength of the links between Hatton Garden and the underworld was first highlighted five years ago when diamond merchant Solly Nahome was gunned down outside his north London home. A professional hitman pumped four bullets into him before escaping on a waiting motorcycle. As well as having an office in Hatton Garden, Nahome was financial adviser to the notorious Adams family, a north London clan said to control a drugs and crime empire worth more than £100m.
Nahome was already known to the police as an international criminal specialising in fraud and money laundering. He was said to have met with members of the Adams family three or four times a week and arranged for £25m to be hidden in property deals and offshore accounts.
More recently, police have identified a drug smuggling ring operating among Jewish diamond traders working between Tel Aviv, Antwerp and Hatton Garden. A few weeks after Nahome was executed, a suspected Russian Mafia figure who had been arrested during a fraud investigation in Hatton Garden was shot dead in Antwerp.
Terrorists are also known to exploit the lack of security in the gem trade. Earlier this year it emerged that one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants had visited Hatton Garden in the run-up to the 11 September attacks to raise funds for al-Qaeda.
London's gemstone dealers buy large quantities of stones from Antwerp, where half the world's diamonds are traded. The diamond district, a maze of tiny streets close to the train station, turns over more than £30 billion each year. It is one of the densest concentrations of valuables anywhere on Earth and, with dozens of CCTV cameras, 24-hour security guards and a dedicated police station, is considered one of the best-guarded districts in Belgium.
The robbery at the Diamond Centre, which took place over the course of a weekend three weeks ago, has been described by police as 'a piece of genius in its simplicity'. The thieves managed to bypass highly sophisticated security systems to enter a vault containing 160 safety deposit boxes used by cutters and traders to store their wares. They forced open 123 of the boxes and ended up ankle-deep in a mass of diamonds, gold, jewellery, stocks, bonds and cash.
Although they stole huge quantities of valuables, they were simply unable to carry it all and had to leave masses behind. When police cleared out what remained in the vault it filled 17 large bin liners. Conservative estimates say the haul was worth at least £65m, but the true amount will never be known because many of the owners of the safety deposit boxes will not come forward.
'The reason many people have safety deposit boxes is because they don't want to declare what they have, which makes it harder for the police to trace the stolen goods,' said Grunburger.
Although police have made four arrests, they have yet to recover a single gemstone.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
UK: Home-grown CANNABIS outstrips imports from Morocco – Q2 2003 Home-grown cannabis outstrips imports from Morocco
Published by The Guardian - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: The Guardian
The majority of cannabis now consumed in England and Wales has not been smuggled in but is actually grown here, according to a study to be published next month.
The research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reveals that there has been a sharp rise in recent years in domestic cultivation, particularly in home-grown cannabis for personal use.
It appears a new breed of British gardener has emerged. But rather than messing about in the back garden they spend their time in the cupboard under the stairs tending their plants. In their case the answer doesn't lie in the soil but in trays of water under lights as their crop is produced hydroponically, without soil.
It has become such a popular pastime that for the first time domestically cultivated cannabis has overtaken Moroccan hash or resin as the major product in the British cannabis market. At least 3 million people a year now use the drug.
The rise in home-grown British "grass" has led to a thriving legal business in cannabis seed, which is available from UK-based seed companies, and specialist growing equipment which is legally available from gardening outlets, "hydroponic growshops", and over the internet.
The research by South Bank University's criminal policy research unit and the national addiction centre at Kings College, London, is partly based on interviews with 37 home cultivators, mainly men in their 20s and 30s. Most had jobs or were students.
It says that the government's strategy of focusing on the more harmful drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, means there is now a strong case for the law to treat the small-scale cultivation of cannabis for personal use or use by friends in the same way as simple possession, and only attract a fine or warning. The
study says this would not clash with Britain's obligations under international drug treaties.
The research identified five types of cannabis growers in Britain, but says many of them did it to ensure quality of product, to save money, or as a way of avoiding contact with dealers. There is a wide variety of growing technique.
There has been a trend to use premium seeds rather than imported cannabis bush seeds, and to grow them under more lights, with an average of 4.5 bulbs generating 1067 watts, compared with two bulbs pumping out 421w four years ago.
The types identified were:
· Sole-use growers: cultivate cannabis as a money-saving hobby, for personal use. Have 12 to 24 plants, using natural fertilisers and soil mixtures more often than hydroponics.
· Medical growers: motivated by perceived therapeutic value. All those interviewed were supplying multiple scelerosis sufferers and had been charged by police.
· Social growers: grow to ensure good-quality supply for themselves and their friends. They give it away or charge nominal price. Average two dozen plants.
· Social/commercial growers: grow for profit but restrict sales to social networks. Motivation is to supplement income. Have between two and 100 plants.
· Commercial growers: sell to any customer. Grow their own crops to guarantee high quality to secure supply and premium prices. All use hydroponics. One said he earned £2,500 a month out of it.
The study says police forces differ in how they deal with cultivators. Some are cautioned, some charged with trafficking under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act which on third conviction carries a minimum seven year sentence, and others are charged with the lesser offence of cultivation.
The report says there were 1,960 cannabis production offences in the UK in 2000, with just under a quarter dealt with by police caution. The rest went to court, with 240 ending in a prison sentence.
Mike Hough, of South Bank University, said the study showed that if the government treated cultivation for personal use in a similar way to possession,and introduced administrative fines for non-commercial cultivation, it could be done within the limits of UN drug conventions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
UK: Zero tolerance conceals drug use in schools – Q2 2003 Zero tolerance conceals drug use in schools
Published by The Guardian - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: The Guardian
Schools' zero tolerance policies towards drugs may be counter-productive because they encourage children to conceal drug problems, according to Home Office research.
Experts who studied the drug habits of 300 hardcore young offenders concluded that low or zero tolerance policies "may not be helpful".
The research was published as the drugs minister, Bob Ainsworth, unveiled a new £40m programme of drug treatment services for young offenders.
Mr Ainsworth also announced £30m for drug work in young offenders institutes' secure units, £22m for councils to provide specialist youth workers, and £15m for schemes that use sport to steer young people away from drugs.
He said: "Vulnerable young people need prevention and treatment before the problems escalate."
The Home Office report said that zero tolerance policies encouraged "children to conceal rather than deal with their drug use".
It warned that those pupils excluded from school as a result of using drugs were not necessarily the only or the worst offenders.
The study's conclusions contrast sharply with guidance from the Department for Education and Skills, which has increased headteachers' powers to expel drug dealing pupils.
The charity DrugScope said the research showed that zero tolerance drug policies led to drug problems being ignored rather than dealt with effectively.
Helen Wilkinson, director of information and policy at the charity, said: "Research shows drug use among excluded children is much higher than for those in school.
"A range of disciplinary and supportive measures is necessary. We should be helping children with problems. Throwing them out simply exacerbates the problem."
But general secretary of the Secondary Heads' Association, Dr John Dunford, said: "We would reject any notion that drug people should not be excluded from school.
"I think schools can safely ignore the views of this Home Office research.
"Selling drugs is a crime outside school and it has to be dealt with severely inside school as well."
Last May the DfES said children caught dealing drugs at schools should be expelled with no chance of a reprieve, even for a first-time offence.
A fifth of the group studied for the Home Office report had dealt drugs, shoplifted, sold stolen goods or gone joyriding at least 20 times in the previous year.
More than 85% had used cannabis, alcohol and tobacco but heroin and crack cocaine use were still comparatively low.
"There was no evidence of a progression towards heroin or crack cocaine use or dependence despite the diverse drug use amongst the group," said the report.
The 293 young people surveyed by researchers from Essex University were all being supervised by youth offending teams - 52% were 15 or 16 years old while a handful were under 14.
The Home Office today also published reports showing 42% of young homeless people had taken heroin and 38% crack cocaine - about 20 times the average.
Young people who had been in care also reported higher than average drug use, with 10% using crack or heroin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
World: Thai PM denies drugs dirty war – Q2 2003 Thai PM denies drugs dirty war
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied accusations that his government is operating a shoot-to-kill policy against anyone operating in the drugs trade.
An anti-drugs campaign in Thailand has claimed up to 600 lives in two weeks, and has sparked growing international concern.
But Mr Thaksin said on Friday that "everything had been done according to the law".
The prime minister's comments followed the publication of a news release by human rights group Amnesty International, which alleged the Thai Government was encouraging extra-judicial killings in its eagerness to crack down on drug trafficking.
Mr Thaksin dismissed the accusation. "In fact, we do follow the law," he told reporters.
He argued that police have acted in self-defence.
"There is nowhere on earth that police ask suspects who are about to fire a gunshot to go to court first," the prime minister added.
The police themselves have admitted to killing only 15 of the victims. They said that other deaths were the result of inter-gang warfare.
The way that many victims have been shot and the fact that no investigations of their deaths have taken place has led some Thais to suspect there is an official shoot-to-kill policy in place.
"The effect of the government's campaign against drugs trafficking has been a de facto shoot-to-kill policy of anyone believed to be involved in the drugs trade," Amnesty alleged in a statement late on Thursday.
Amnesty said this shoot-to-kill policy had been supported "at the highest level".
Donna Guest, researcher into Thailand and Burma at Amnesty International, admitted that the group had not done its own investigations, but said reports coming from within Thailand were damning.
"Evidence is very suggestive of at least some extra-judicial killing," she told BBC News Online, noting the Thai police's past record for such abuses and the severe pressure on security officials to stem the drugs trade or lose their jobs.
Ms Guest said that Thailand's Forensic Science Institute had reported that the authorities were obstructing the work of pathologists, and that bullets had been removed from corpses.
The Thai leader promised that police would investigate.
"When we clean up a house, dust billows. Don't panic," Mr Thaksin told reporters.
But Amnesty was less phlegmatic.
"It is a sad fact that after 10 years of significant improvement in Thailand's human rights record, the government has now taken a big step backwards," the group said.
Amnesty urged Bangkok to initiate an independent inquiry into the killings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
World: Concern at Thai drug crackdown – Q2 2003 Concern at Thai drug crackdown
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
Diplomats in Thailand say there is growing international concern over the rising death toll since the government announced an all-out campaign against drug dealers at the beginning of this month
It has been three weeks since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to stamp out drugs in Thailand, and the killing seems to be getting out of hand.
Every day newspapers and television programmes show grisly pictures of alleged drug dealers lying in pools of blood, all with guns and bags of methamphetamine pills in their hands.
Official figures put the death toll at more than 600, although the police say that only 300 of these were on an official black list and that nearly all were killed by their rivals.
Suspicious
But the striking similarity among the victims- all shot execution-style- and the fact that no investigations of their deaths have taken place, has led many Thais to suspect that there is an official shoot-to-kill policy in place.
Several ministers have suggested that drug dealers should be wiped out, and local police forces are under strong pressure to show quick results in the fight against drugs.
International human rights organisations have already expressed their deep concern over the killings, which they say have cast a shadow over Thailand's relatively favourable human rights record.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
World: Thai PM says officials peddling drugs – Q2 2003 Thai PM says officials peddling drugs
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has accused over 700 government officials of being involved with drugs trafficking.
Mr Thaksin said the suspects included police and army officers, education and health ministry officials, village leaders and local administrators.
He was speaking as controversy mounted over his latest drugs crackdown, after the Thai interior ministry announced that the death toll since the campaign began on 1 February had risen to nearly 600.
The ministry's figure was at odds with figures from the police, which said only 319 people had been killed.
The crackdown has prompted human rights groups to accuse the police of operating a "shoot to kill" policy, although the ministry said that nearly all the dead had been killed in inter-gang shoot-outs, and police were only responsible for eight deaths, all in self-defence.
Mr Thaksin said some officials implicated in trafficking had already been sacked and that several police officials who had been obstructing investigations had been transferred.
Public support
Mr Thaksin promised to take 'decisive action' on provincial governors who had failed to take sufficient action on the war on drugs.
But critics say that this could pressure local police officials to take action against innocent people.
Mr Thaksin promised a war on drugs when he was elected in 2001.
His latest campaign is thought to have wide support among the public, as Thais are desperate to tackle the high rate of methamphetamine addiction in Thailand.
So far police say that they have confiscated over 6 million methamphetamine tablets and arrested over 15,000 people since the latest campaign started.
There are thought to be up to three million methamphetamine addicts in Thailand, which is known locally as "ya-ba".
Police officials say that they are already seeing the results of the crackdown as it has driven up the price of a methamphetamine pill from 80 baht ($1.86) to 300 baht ($7).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
World: Thaksin targets Burma drugs trade – Q2 2003 Thaksin targets Burma drugs trade
Published by BBC News - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: BBC News
The Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, has gone to neighbouring Burma in an attempt to persuade the military government there to do more to curb the production of drugs.
The Thai authorities have launched a tough campaign against drug dealers, which has seen more than 80 people shot dead in the past week.
Since he came to office two years ago, Mr Thaksin has tried to build a more co-operative relationship with Burma, but his efforts have so far done little to reduce the flow of narcotics into Thailand from north-eastern Burma.
A former telecoms tycoon, Mr Thaksin likes to present himself as a man of action - so he has given his government until the end of April to rid Thailand of the scourge of drugs.
No surprise then, that drugs are at the top of his agenda during this visit to Burma, also known as Myanmar.
But in keeping with his emphasis on co-operation and not confrontation, Mr Thaksin will also be offering his Burmese counterparts help in developing their tourist industry.
Rebel control
It is doubtful, though, whether the Thai prime minister will come home with anything more than the promises of action which have been given many times before by Burma's military rulers.
Most of the drugs coming into Thailand are produced in an area of Burma controlled by the Wa ethnic minority, who have been given a free hand by government troops in return for helping fight other ethnic rebel groups.
The Wa army still operates factories which churn out hundreds of millions of highly addictive methamphetamine pills - most of which end up in Thailand.
An added complication is that senior Thai officials are also believed to be involved in the drugs trafficking.
The high-profile anti-drugs campaign launched last week by Mr Thaksin has already resulted in the deaths of more than 80 alleged drug dealers - most of them shot in fights with police or rival gangs.
But the powerful figures who really run this lucrative trade may remain untouched.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
UK: ECSTASY testing kits prove unreliable – Q2 2003 Ecstasy testing kits prove unreliable
Published by NewScientist.com - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: NewScientist.com
Ecstasy testing kits, used by clubbers to screen out dud pills are unreliable, according to a "blind" test of pills with known ingredients.
Testing kits based on reagents that change colour in the presence of chemicals in the ecstasy family are available around the world, mainly via the internet. They typically consist of one to three small chemical bottles and are designed to be portable, so that the user can carry out a test in the toilet of a nightclub for example.
The kits, which can test up to 150 pills, do not claim to measure the dosage or purity of a pill, but simply the presence or absence of MDMA - the chemical name for ecstasy - or very similar compounds. Clubbers use them to screen out pills that are likely to contain other, potentially more dangerous, substances. PMA, for example, is sometimes sold as ecstasy but has been associated with several deaths in the US, Europe and Australia.
The experiments revealing the unreliability of the tests were carried out by Rebecca Murray and colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "This is going to create a false sense of security," she told New Scientist. Murray believes the kits performed badly because the colour charts provided do not match well with the colours actually observed. Also, assessing the changes is very subjective and especially challenging if lighting conditions vary.
Better than nothing
"We'll be the first to admit that ecstasy testing kits are not terribly accurate," says Ian Baker, of DanceSafe, the San Francisco charity that supplied the test kits. "The instructions for the kit very explicitly state its limitations."
But while ecstasy remains illegal, he says, a fallible test is better than no test at all. "We try very hard to avoid giving users a false sense of security." The group sell a few hundred kits a month in the US.
Murray's team gave eight pills each to two testers who had never used the kits before. The experiments were "blind" - the researchers knew what was in the pills but the testers did not. Two of the tablets contained MDMA, while the rest were composed of other compounds sometimes found in pills such as ketamine, morphine, caffeine and d-norpropoxyphene.
The first tester rated seven of the pills, including both the MDMA tablets, as not containing the drug, the researchers told the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference in Chicago last week. The one pill the tester believed had tested positive in fact contained morphine.
Pushing purity
In contrast, the second tester thought six samples contained MDMA, rating the ketamine and d-norpropoxyphene tablets as negative. One of the testers, University of Florida toxicologist Bruce Goldberger, says: "I failed miserably."
However, testing kits have had a noticeable effect on pill purity, says Matthew Atha, director of the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, based in Wigan, UK. "The number of duds has dropped," he says.
Amsterdam based company EZ Test were the first to start marketing the kits and have sold about 300,000 tests worldwide in the past six years. "There are no 'good' pills," says Ewoud Vijfwinkel of EZ Test. "All we can give is an indication as to what is inside, that's a lot more reliable than a dealer's word on quality."
http://www.newscientist.com/
US: PCP Is Rearing Its Head in the US Again – February 2003 PCP Is Rearing Its Head in the US Again
Published by Insight - Monday 4 February, 2003
Copyright: Insight
Nearly two decades ago a Baltimore father on Christmas Eve experienced a bizarre hallucination as he gazed into the eyes of his year-old son. What the father saw terrified him. He told police that shortly after he had smoked PCP, he became convinced the boy was possessed by Satan. He grabbed a knife and cut off his son's head. Other such horrors began to surface in the 1980s when a killer was under the influence of PCP, or phencyclidine, a mind-altering drug.
"But that was the worst drug case I ever saw," recalls Michael M. Gimbel, director of the Baltimore County Department of Health's Bureau of Substance Abuse. "It's been stuck in my head for 20 years." Gimbel was greatly relieved in the 1990s when PCP all but disappeared. It had delivered so many "bad trips" that it drove its users nearly into extinction, he says. Side effects included some lasting health problems such as respiratory difficulties, slurred speech, severe agitation, flashbacks, hallucinations, lost coordination and convulsions. In some cases, PCP sent users into terrifying flashbacks or hallucinations long after even a first smoking, snorting or swallowing of the drug.
PCP first made its appearance in the 1950s as an anesthetic for medical procedures, but it didn't last long. So many patients experienced such severe confusion and delirium that its development for human use was discontinued. In the 1960s, it became commercially available as a veterinary anesthetic under the trade name Sernylan. It burst into the counterculture in 1967 during the heyday of the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco when it was sprayed onto cigarettes or marijuana. Black-market dealers called it the "Peace Pill," but users soon learned it was anything but peaceful. In 1978, due to widespread abuse of Sernylan, it was discontinued even as a veterinary anesthetic.
Incredibly, today PCP is back, bringing with it a torrent of violence and filling courtrooms with horror stories. In Washington alone there were 203 crime-related PCP cases in 2002 compared to just 31 in 1999. Nationwide, there were more than 6,000 PCP-related emergency-room visits in 2001 compared to about half that number in 1996.
"For some reason, people really fall in love with the drug," Gimbel says. "They like the feeling. It makes them feel godlike. But there's a saying on the street that sums up the drug: 'PCP will put a horse on its ass. Imagine what it will do to you.'"
"Michael," a former PCP user and dealer, calls it a drug for people who want to escape reality. "It has an all-numbing feeling," he tells Insight. "You can punch your hand through a window and you feel no pain. But you feel so awful when coming off of it that you are inclined to do more. It's not a high; it makes you forget so you don't have to deal with issues. It's a big forget-me pill."
According to Michael, he started smoking PCP at age 17 in the mid-1980s and stopped five years later when he landed in prison on robbery and murder charges, although he says PCP was obtained easily by inmates. Peer pressure led him down the PCP path, he says. "All the kids were smoking it in high school, particularly girls. They really love this drug."
Some called it the "love boat" or "buck naked" because users tend to strip their clothes off while under the influence. Others called it "angel dust," "supergrass," "killer weed," "embalming fluid" and "rocket fuel." Today it is referred to as "dippers" because users dip a cigarette or marijuana joint into a PCP-laced liquid they call "water," says Washington-based private investigator Sharon Weidenfeld, who studies about 30 murder cases a year.
"I first noticed the comeback of PCP in 2000 when I investigated a murder case in Rockville, Md.," she says. "The victim was a heavy PCP user. He had just gotten a jar of [PCP-laced] water shortly before he was murdered. The victim and the people involved in smoking and selling PCP all lived about a mile away from the courthouse [in] one of the wealthiest counties in the country. Since then, PCP has played a part in most of the murder cases that I have worked on."
However, PCP now is being trafficked differently and with a new urban myth. No longer is it confined to the metropolitan underbelly -- it has become the latest club drug at suburban "rave" parties. "The comeback of PCP has given new meaning to the ad, 'Got Milk?'" Weidenfeld says. "When people smoke dippers, they often are unable to move. The common belief is that the user has only to drink some milk to become unstuck. A conscientious PCP smoker simply makes sure to have some milk on hand in case of an emergency."
The milk myth makes little sense but then neither do the PCP murders, Weidenfeld says. "The mentality of these killings is different from those that occurred as a result of using crack," she reports. "A lot of that [killing] was over who was going to be allowed to hustle and where they could do it. The PCP murders don't even have a motive much of the time, and they seldom seem to so much as trouble the killer. I had one case where the user killed his close friend, went and smoked some dippers, got a hooker and then called it a night."
What worries authorities is that teen-agers attending rave parties may have no idea that they have been slipped a hit of PCP. Many have been led to believe they are taking a hit of ecstasy, another dangerous club drug, but in reality they have been given PCP. In fact, authorities are warning that frequently drugs sold as ecstasy now have traces of PCP.
The re-emergence of the drug has sent chills through the law-enforcement community, especially in light of a recent Maryland case that police say may have been the single largest such bust in the United States, if not the world. The news barely hit the radar screen of a jaded public and appears to have been all but ignored by both major Washington dailies and local news bureaus. The Baltimore Sun was the only newspaper to report on the raid, and it was all but cursory.
The bust capped a two-month undercover operation involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Baltimore City Police Firearms Apprehension Strike Team. Authorities fear this may be only the beginning of a long nightmare to come as production facilities that formerly provided the drug operated only on the West Coast. Phencyclidine production was believed to be centered in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area and to be controlled by the Crips, a Los Angeles-based street gang. They allegedly distribute PCP to many cities in the United States using their cocaine network. But the recent East Coast PCP bust seems to center around a biker gang that police have yet publicly to identify.
Authorities discovered the huge PCP lab in Baltimore shortly after an undercover detective purchased PCP on a local street. They made one arrest, but more are pending. Police seized at least 30 gallons of PCP and the production lab found in a basement of a Baltimore home. The estimated street value of the drugs is between $50 million and $100 million. "It was one of the biggest PCP labs of its kind on the East Coast," said Edward T. Norris, then Baltimore Police Commissioner.
In addition to a south Baltimore motorcycle gang, police are investigating a Jessup, Md., business for providing chemicals to make PCP. But it is the biker gang that reportedly is responsible for distributing PCP throughout the Washington/Baltimore metropolitan area, police say. The Jessup business has been identified as Marlo Industries, which processes a series of cleaning chemicals and packages them there. The company's clients include the White House, the federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Amtrak, Andrews Air Force Base and both Baltimore and Philadelphia housing authorities. Owners of the company have declined to comment on the pending investigation.
The bust should have been a wake-up call to parents and a nation that believed PCP had been fought to a standstill. Even so, earlier signs appear to have been ignored. Two years ago, Fairfax County, Va., police encountered PCP-laced tablets during an undercover drug operation where traffickers were marketing it as a superpowerful drug that could be taken in pill form. But perhaps the scariest part of the latest bust involves the age of the customers the drug dealers were targeting. In an effort to attract younger children to the drug, small PCP tablets were embossed with a Pokemon cartoon character known as Pikachu. These confiscated PCP pills were orange in color and sold for $15 a piece.
Why is PCP making a comeback? Some users claim it's because the drug is so cheap compared even to marijuana. Amazingly, it also might be more accepted. For example, when a prankster on the set of James Cameron's Titanic spiked the clam chowder with PCP, it was made out to be a joke. Former president Bill Clinton pardoned at least three big-time PCP dealers during his final days in office. And still there has been no public campaign to tackle this problem that has produced so many nightmares and unspeakable crimes.
http://www.insightmag.com/
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