alli kraus

Please sign the Syringe Exchange Program Ban Position Statement

2012-02-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

Syringe Exchange Program Ban Position Statement
Position Statement on U.S. Congressional ban on the use of federal funds to support syringe exchange programs
We, the undersigned, condemn the December 2011 reinstatement of the U.S. Congressional ban on the use of federal funds to support syringe exchange programs (SEPs). The ban on U.S. federal funds for SEPs was enacted in 1988, but had been repealed by Congress in 2009, after 8 U.S. federally funded reports and a plethora of international research consistently showed that SEPs can reduce syringe-sharing, HIV prevalence and incidence and are cost-effective.
Furthermore, there is overwhelming consensus on a core package of comprehensive HIV prevention services for people who inject drugs, which includes SEPs in addition to drug treatment (including medication-assisted treatment for opioid dependence), HIV testing and counseling, antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive people who inject drugs, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, condom programs for people who inject drugs and their sexual partners, targeted information, education, and communication for people who inject drugs and their sexual partners, vaccination, diagnosis, and treatment of viral hepatitis, and diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. Denying SEPs access to U.S. federal funds, severely limits the provision of these other critical services that usually are offered at SEPs and will prevent the US from reaching its national and international targets on HIV prevention.

After nearly three decades of extensive research, there is no convincing scientific evidence that SEPs are accompanied by serious negative consequences, including increased illicit drug use, crime, injection frequency, multi-person use of contaminated syringes, initiating of drug use, recruiting of new drug injectors, or discarding of syringes in public places. Instead, there is convincing scientific evidence that SEPs have been associated with cost-effective reductions in and cessation of injection drug use and increased enrollment in drug treatment programs.
The reinstated ban on U.S. federal support for SEPs directly conflicts with current policies of the U.S government, including PEPFAR, the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. This policy change will undermine the recent call from the Obama Administration for an AIDS-free generation, and is a major setback for HIV prevention both domestically and globally. The ban will also prevent HIV prevention researchers from meeting their ethical obligation to provide trial participants with best standard of care. Given that people who inject drugs account for 30% of global HIV infections outside of sub-Saharan Africa, we urge the U.S Congress to immediately repeal the U.S. ban on the use of federal funds to support SEPs, which we consider a deadly public policy.
sign here

AFTER you sign,
Please remind yourself that it is time to stop focusing on HIV prevention as the primary purpose of syringe access. HIV prevention is one of numerous, critical reasons to support syringe access. Even an HIV cure would not reduce the need for or importance of syringe access.
(See below, for one example)

question...

2012-02-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

Why are gay men who have no anal sex
a massively higher funding priority than
women who have unprotected anal sex with strangers?
I am genuinely curious.
If there is a practical explanation, I want to know what it is.
If there is not, go ahead and add this to my list.

money might not buy love...

2011-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

... but it puts a hell of a ding in mortality.

Hepatitis C Surpasses HIV as Cause of Death in U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Multiple Cause of Death File. CDC WONDER Online Database: http://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10.html

check out some of the spending disparities here

The Growing Burden of Mortality from Viral Hepatitis in the United States, 1999-2007
Abstract:
Background: The increasing US health burden and mortality from hepatitis B and C are insufficiently appreciated.
Methods: National multiple-cause-of-death data for 1999-2007, about 22 million records, were analyzed for any mention of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and, for comparison, HIV infection. We assessed age- adjusted mortality rates, socio-demographic characteristics, and potentially preventable co-morbidities in HBV- and HCV-infected decedents in 2007.
Results: From 1999-2007, the HBV-related death rate was nearly constant while deaths with hepatitis C increased significantly (annual mortality rate change, +0.18 deaths/100,000 per year) to 15,106 deaths in 2007; by comparison, HIV deaths declined to 12,734 deaths in 2007. Of HCV-related deaths, 73.4% occurred among persons aged 45-64 years. Co-morbidities associated with increased odds of HCV-related mortality included: chronic liver disease (adjusted odds ratio [ORadj,], 32.1); HBV co-infection , alcohol-related conditions; HIV co-infection; and being a member of a minority group . Like HCV, most deaths in HBV-infected persons occurred in those aged 45- 64 years (59.4%). Factors increasing odds of HBV-related death included: Asian/Pacific Islander identity (various models, ORadj, 13.1 – 17.2); chronic liver disease); HCV co-infection ; HIV co-infection (ORadj, 4.0); and alcohol-related conditions.
Conclusions: Our analysis indicates that by 2007 HCV had overtaken HIV as a cause of mortality and that deaths in HCV-infected persons were isproportionately among middle-aged persons and minorities. To achieve declines in mortality similar to those seen with HIV will require new policy directions and commitment to detect and link chronic hepatitis patients to care and treatment.

Harder Hating Jerry

2011-10-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

On October 9, Jerry Brown signed SB 41 & AB 604 into law.
Victories for common sense, human rights, and evidence-based policy,
these laws:
•protect needle exchange staff and volunteers from criminal prosecution
•eliminate the requirement for local authorization of syringe exchanges and pharmacy sales of syringes without a prescription
•increases the number of syringes that may be legally purchased, sold or possessed from 10 to 30

These laws are especially important in places such as Fresno and Modesto, where, despite massive need, local officials had refused to authorize syringe exchange or pharmacy sales.

what the hell was I doing when I should have been watching this movie?

2011-08-13T01:58:00.000-07:00

hint*

2011-08-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

On Idyllic Cape Cod, Growing Drug Problem Fuels a Rise in Property Crimes
•...Thieves have smashed the windows of dozens of cars parked at the beach, grabbing GPS devices and iPods. Flat-screen televisions have been taken from isolated summer homes. Purses snatched out of the sand have been found in the woods, missing only cash. And while not all of the thefts can be linked to drug abuse, the police say many of those arrested for the crimes admit they wanted money for pills.
“They just tell you straight up front, ‘I’m an addict, I have a really bad Percocet problem,’ ” said Sgt. Cleve Daniels of the Dennis police. Mug shots lining a bulletin board at the Police Department are mostly “people active in the local drug trade,” he added. ...•

*there is one methadone clinic in Barnstable County

cute fest.

2011-08-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

adopt this dog!

2011-07-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

*updated because Pascal was adopted!*
(his picture links to currently available dogs)

please.

2011-06-12T21:48:00.000-07:00

Guess what? Kids are kids. Sure, some of these kids will grow up to be gay, trans, gender queer. Some will grow up to be straight, adhering to the most stereotypical gender roles. For now, they are kids. Last time I checked, nail polish and mohawks are means of expression, not requirements of any sex or gender identity. Good parents will be supportive, listen to their kids, and attempt not to force rigid social norms onto their boys who want to wear heels or their daughters who want mohawks.
Boys can be boys and wear nailpolish. Girls can be girls, play football and have spiked hair. ( I should know)
Let's go ahead and get over ourselves, maybe stop forcing our neuroses onto our kids.

Boys Will Be Boys? Not in These Families.
By Jan Hoffman

More Doomtree Magic: Bottom of the Hill (5/5)

2011-05-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

yeah, you missed out. big time.
I LOVE them. As if my insane passion for their music wasn't enough, between songs, both Sims and Dessa made me laugh. They are legitimately funny. Anyway, if you are still not listening to doomtree, the time has come for you to work that shit out.

on Twitter: @SIMSdoomtree & @dessadarling

opiate overdose and more weak journalism

2011-04-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Neither of these articles mention naloxone, a safe, effective way to reverse opiate overdose. Naloxone should be more accessible and a much bigger part of these discussions.
Administration Wants Tighter Painkiller Rules
Ohio County Losing Its Young to Painkillers’ Grip
Maybe if we get hysterical about a drug problem, do nothing to keep people from dying, punish addicts and people who actually need pain killers, ... yeah, that's gonna work.

snuggletude

2011-02-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

a little bit of history repeating

2011-02-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

Condoms do not encourage sex. Condoms encourage safer sex.
Clean needles do not encourage drug use. Clean needles encourage safer drug use.
Crack pipes do not encourage crack use. Wait for it. Crack pipes encourage safer crack use.
This means smoking from glass and not plastic and not having to share crack pipes, which increases the risk of infection.
That all sounds obvious, but my beloved city seems pretty confused about the issue.
I am especially thrilled that mayoral candidates are committed to running their campaigns on the backs of crack smokers.

Line by Line (procrastination)

2011-02-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

A fun and addicting drawing tutorial:
Line by Line
by James Mcmullan

To facilitate offline use, I put together this pdf of the second through eighth entries.

What war does to our soldiers & a fundamental flaw in our healthcare:

2011-02-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, you should read Lawrence Wright's Scientology article. This too:

The Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Celexa, Effexor, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan, Restoril, Xanax, Adderall, Ritalin, Haldol, Risperdal, Seroquel, Ambien, Lunesta, Elavil, Trazodone War
By Jennifer Senior
•...20 percent of the soldiers who’ve deployed in this war report symptoms of post-traumatic stress and major depression.The number climbs to almost 30 percent if the soldiers have deployed more than twice....
So grim is the problem that this summer, the Army released a remarkably candid suicide report. “If we include accidental death, which frequently is the result of high-risk behavior (e.g., drinking and driving, drug overdose),” it concluded, “we find that less young men and women die in combat than die by their own actions. Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy.”
In other words, nearly as many soldiers are dying at home today as are dying abroad.
...
In fact, this residential facility that Chiarelli is visiting is different. It treats alcohol and substance abuse, PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, depression, and pain management all under one roof. Stephen N. Xenakis, a psychiatrist and former commander at Eisenhower, was an early proponent of this kind of integrated program. Like many doctors, he believes that one of American medicine’s greatest failings is its fragmentation into narrow-caliber silos, with doctors seeing ailments solely in the context of their own specialties. No population, says Xenakis, suffers more outrageously from this structural deficiency than returning soldiers. Doctors seldom take the totality of their extraordinary experiences into account. “Soldiers are in an environment that has dust particles and toxins we don’t even recognize,” Xenakis tells me. “There are pressure waves and blasts. They’re carrying packs, at altitude, that weigh 90 pounds. They’re in a different sleep cycle than normal. They’re in situations that are almost always stressful, if not traumatic.” Yet when they return home, he says, they’re shunted into all those individual silos, with each specialist seeing only what he or she is trained to see: A headache. Insomnia. Paranoia and irritability. A ruined knee. “So as doctors,” Xenakis continues, “we say, ‘Okay. We’re going to track this psychological problem, and we’re going to track this immunological problem, and we’re going to track their headaches and their musculoskeletal pain and their insomnia.’ ” He slowly breathes out. Though he retired in 1998, Xenakis has been urging the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to consider integrated medicine for quite some time. “When in fact it’s a system problem we’re dealing with,” he says. “And that’s how you get this poly-drug problem.”...•

don't miss this: The Vick dogs make a comeback

2011-01-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

This could get interesting.

2011-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is the same man whose first 3 months as police chief focused on jailing drug addicts and blowing the sherriff's budget out of the water.

George Gascón plans volunteer community courts
Phillip Matier & Andrew Ross
..."'In many cases, we are criminalizing people we don't need to,' Gascón said, adding that the current system is financially 'unsustainable.'"...

Sorry, Ronald Rice. You are just wrong.

2011-01-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

At least 30% of the almost 6000 people living with HIV in Newark, NJ contracted it through injection drug use. Drug treatment and pharmacy syringe sales are both important. One does not obviate the other.

N.J. Senate panel passes bill allowing over-the-counter sale of syringes to combat HIV, hepatitis
By Susan K. Livio
..."Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), who was an outspoken opponent of the needle exchange program, voted no on this bill. He argued that making it easier for drug addicts to use doesn’t help them or their communities.
'You’ve got the needles, now come here and fight for drug treatment,’ Rice told his colleagues and other supporters of the bill. 'That’s what you should be doing.'’’

when dogs show us that there is, in fact, good in the world

2011-01-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday:
The little dog who was left to die in a snowstorm
"OK folks, I know this is a long shot, but here goes…
This morning, as a buddy of mine drove to work via the Williamsburg Bridge, he noticed something: a small gray dog chained to the pedestrian walkway, shivering, completely drenched and half-frozen. As you probably heard, New York had a very big snow storm last night; we’re almost certain her owners left her out in it overnight to die."

Today:
She Found A New Home!!
"My girlfriend and I just got back from dropping off our unexpected pal to her new home with a very warm and loving married couple, who I have no doubt will make amazing, responsible, and caring owners. You’ll just have to trust me when I say: this dog is going to have a great, great life. Her new owners have promised to send some pictures as soon as she gets acclimated, which I will post here." ....

Drug Court Savings

2010-12-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

Portugal's drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons
By Barry Hatton

....San Francisco's drug court saves the city $14,297 per offender, officials said. Expanding drug courts to all 1.5 million drug offenders in the U.S. would cost more than $13 billion annually, but would return more than $40 billion, according to a study by John Roman, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center....

Postsecret & Merrill Singer

2010-12-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

"People readily, if perhaps with a sheepish smile, can admit they are addicted to their morning cup of coffee without the least fear that their morality, sanity, or competence will be questioned or that they might face criminal charges and a potentially long prison sentence.
In the nineteenth century, the same was true of heroin or cocaine addiction. All of this changed early in the twentieth century as a push for criminalization gained momentum" (Singer 2006: p55).

Needle Exchange in Iran (and what the US should notice)

2010-12-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

An Enlightened Exchange in Iran
by Tina Rosenberg
This is a story about a courageous policy in an unexpected place. In this place homeless shelters have vending machines selling clean syringes for injecting drugs. Drug users are not prosecuted as long as they are in treatment programs. Drug addicts are given clean needles and methadone maintenance therapy ─ available on a widespread basis even in prison. These tactics have worked to reduce crime, lower H.I.V. rates among drug users and keep AIDS from spreading out into the general population. The place is not Amsterdam. It is Tehran....

follow-up piece:
How Iran Derailed a Health Crisis
So how did Iran do it? How did a conservative theocracy decide to deal with its drug addicts as if it were Canada?... The science behind harm reduction is solid ─ but the politics are acutely dangerous.....

let's try this again...

2010-11-09T19:30:00.001-08:00

when do we start imprisoning drug manufacturers? Prescription opiates are responsible for an increasing proportion of overdose deaths, so they are next, right?
oh.
wait.

Des Moines man sentenced in heroin death
DES MOINES, Iowa —Federal prosecutors say a Des Moines man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for his role in the heroin death of another person.
Federal officials said Tuesday that Shawn Sweeney appeared last week before a federal judge and was sentenced to 188 months in prison after pleading guilty to distributing heroin. He also was given three years of supervised release and must pay $100 to a crime victims' fund.
Prosecutors say Sweeney distributed heroin to another man who distributed to an individual who died Jan. 24, 2009, in Ames after ingesting the drug.

HIV Prisoner Segregation in SC and Alabama

2010-09-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

To reiterate, these programs are unjust, unconstitutional, and, wait for it, enormously expensive. yeah, phenomenally thorough thinking on all fronts.

SC prisons brace for lawsuit over inmates with HIV
By Meg Kinnard
September 21, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina prison officials say they have no plans to stop segregating HIV-positive inmates despite the threat of a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department.
The state faces a Wednesday deadline to change the practice, which prison officials say is best for inmates and prison employees.
         All state prisons "are safer from a public health perspective and a security perspective as a direct result of this program," Corrections Department attorney David Tatarsky wrote in an August response to the Department of Justice.
         More than 400 HIV-positive inmates are housed together at maximum security prisons in Columbia, including some who would not usually be in such high-security facilities. Infected prisoners attend activities with other inmates, including work, school and faith-based programs, but eat and sleep separately.
        "Many inmates with HIV suffer disparate treatment from other similarly situated inmates without HIV," the department wrote to South Carolina officials in June, when it gave them three months to make changes.
         Alabama, which has 250 HIV-positive inmates, is the only other state that segregates them. Both were criticized in a report issued earlier this year by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, which said officials should house all inmates together and give prisoners condoms and syringes to slow the spread of AIDS.
         The report argued that HIV-positive inmates don't have access to the same programs and jobs as other prisoners and are wrongly stigmatized. They are also prevented from participating in work-release programs, meaning they can't earn credits to shorten their sentences.
         "That inevitably means that they serve longer sentences and are essentially being warehoused for no reason other than a medical condition," Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU's National Prison Project, said Tuesday.
        Corrections officials have offered a compromise that would also allow infected inmates to attend work-release programs, but Director Jon Ozmint has said DOJ shot down that proposal.
In the mid-1980s, 46 of the nation's 51 prison systems housed HIV-positive prisoners separately from the general population, but most have since stopped. Most recently, Mississippi stopped segregating its 152 HIV-positive inmates in May, sending them to prisons around the state.
         The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Alabama officials said they have not been threatened with a lawsuit. South Carolina prison officials were not available for comment Tuesday, but said in an Aug. 20 response to the DOJ that they do not intend to change their policy."

how to make chrome worth using on a mac:

2010-09-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

The Extensions:
Context Menu Search
Copy Title+URL to clipboard
FreshStart - Cross Browser Session Manager
Search Box
YouTube Video Downloader
Send from Gmail
FlashBlock
Auto Bit.ly

Applescripting Language for Chrome....
tell application "Google Chrome"
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Google Chrome"
set PageURL to value of text field 1 of tool bar 1 of window 1
end tell
(for an example of a finished script, see mail_bitly_and_title.scpt.)

guess I am finished complaining...

2010-08-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

computer help

2010-08-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

you know you are back in SF when...

2010-08-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

your dog wants to wear a hoody:

&
produce costs less than rent:

semen & HIV

2010-08-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

HIV-1 Populations in Semen Arise through Multiple Mechanisms
PLoS Pathogens

Maybe I am easily impressed, but this finding seems amazing to me.
•The types and distribution of HIV genotypes found in an individual's semen can differ significantly from those found in his blood.
•The immune system related proteins found in semen indicate that relative to blood, semen may be particularly conducive to viral replication.
__________________________________________

Abstract
HIV-1 is present in anatomical compartments and bodily fluids. Most transmissions occur through sexual acts, making virus in semen the proximal source in male donors. We find three distinct relationships in comparing viral RNA populations between blood and semen in men with chronic HIV-1 infection, and we propose that the viral populations in semen arise by multiple mechanisms including: direct import of virus, oligoclonal amplification within the seminal tract, or compartmentalization. In addition, we find significant enrichment of six out of nineteen cytokines and chemokines in semen of both HIV-infected and uninfected men, and another seven further enriched in infected individuals. The enrichment of cytokines involved in innate immunity in the seminal tract, complemented with chemokines in infected men, creates an environment conducive to T cell activation and viral replication. These studies define different relationships between virus in blood and semen that can significantly alter the composition of the viral population at the source that is most proximal to the transmitted virus.

Anderson JA, Ping L-H, Dibben O, Jabara CB, Arney L, et al. (2010) HIV-1 Populations in Semen Arise through Multiple Mechanisms. PLoS Pathog 6(8).

HIV disclosure charges

2010-08-16T14:08:00.001-07:00

These cases seem to almost always involve male defendants. This week, female defendants in Germany and Michigan.

German Pop Singer on Trial for Concealing H.I.V. Status From Sexual Partners

HIV positive woman pleads no contest, gets 11 months in failure to disclose case
(Michigan Messenger)

A.8396 & S.8227

2010-08-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Say what you will about David Paterson, these laws represent some triumph of rationality and scientific evidence over bullshit.

A8396A
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to hypodermic syringes
•This bill would add language to the penal law to make it explicit that a person is not criminally liable for possessing syringes and drug residue in or on syringes that the person has a right to possess based on his or her participation in the Public Health Law's Syringe Exchange Program (SEP) or Expanded Syringe Access Program (ESAP).

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends Penal Law 220.03, the misdemeanor offense of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree, to provide that a person does not commit this crime when he or she possesses only a residual amount of a controlled substance that is in or on a syringe that he or she possesses pursuant to a needle exchange program set forth in Public Health Law 3381.

Section 2 of the bill would add similar language to Penal Law 220.45, to make it explicit that a person does not criminally possess a hypo dermic instrument when he or she possesses a hypodermic needle or syringe pursuant to Public Health Law 3381. ....

S8227
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to HIV testing
•This bill: (1) revises the informed consent requirements associated with HIV/AIDS testing, while ensuring that adequate patient protections are maintained; (2) tailors counseling information based on HIV test results; (3) updates current testing requirements to reflect medical advances; (4) and facilitates authorization for testing in the case of certain occupational exposures to HIV infection.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of this bill amends Public Health Law (PHL) 2781 to authorize HIV related testing to be part of a signed general consent to medical care, or documented oral consent when the test being ordered is a rapid HIV test. Such consent would be durable and remain in effect until it is revoked or expires. Patients will be provided an opportunity to decline HIV testing, and testing will only be done with full patient consent after the patient is provided with pre-test counseling informa tion. In all instances, a physician will be required to provide oral notification to the patient whenever an HIV test is performed and this shall be noted on the patient's medical record. The provisions of this section regarding oral informed consent for a rapid HIV test shall not apply to tests performed in a facility operated under the correction law. ....

KRAUS--Esther Rochelle

2010-07-28T03:17:00.000-07:00

obituary here

...

2010-07-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

Service
Wednesday, 2pm
Temple Shaaray Tefila
250 East 79th Street

Harm Reduction News: the Vienna Declaration & US Federal Funding

2010-07-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Vienna Declaration
•The criminalisation of illicit drug users is fuelling the HIV epidemic and has resulted in overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. A full policy reorientation is needed.•

Sensible Rules, Soon
....State and local health officials are eager for the new rules so they can move forward and are pressing the Obama administration to avoid placing unnecessary restrictions on already proven programs. They are especially worried about how the new rules will interpret a provision of the statute that gives local police departments some say in where needle-exchange programs can be located. It is important to protect the interests of local residents and businesses, but forcing exchange sites to the far edges of a city or town would utterly defeat their purpose. ....

my thoughts exactly

2010-07-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

hiking snugget! Mt Burdell version

2010-05-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

it's not the tar; it's the fentanyl, stupid. (or, another AP asshat)

2010-05-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

The AP misses the boat, again.
What they describe is, in fact, impossible. They are describing the effects of fentanyl, not heroin. Trust me, addicts would be a lot more excited about black tar heroin if the purity was ever 90%.Heroin does not magically disappear in post-mortem toxicology tests. Fentanyl, on the other hand, requires a specific and often excluded test.
Try again, fools.

AP IMPACT
Deadly, ultra-pure heroin arrives in US
WINFIELD, Mo. — Mexican drug smugglers are increasingly peddling a form of ultra-potent heroin that sells for as little as $10 a bag and is so pure it can kill unsuspecting users instantly, sometimes before they even remove the syringe from their veins. ....

so all of the delicious beer I have tried recently, not just a coincidence?

2010-05-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

Heads Up
Tastings With Craft Beers
By Eric Smillie
YOU could be forgiven a bit of indecision when ordering a drink at Beer Revolution in Oakland, Calif. While its coolers glisten with bottles of the world’s choice beers, the bar offers a list of exquisite and rare brews that changes daily — it could take an enthusiast months (or a visit to a potentially far-flung brewery) to catch some of them again.
Painted a deep red appropriate to its name, Beer Revolution (464 Third Street; 510-452-2337; beer-revolution.com), which opened earlier this year, is the latest in a growing number of tasting bars in northern California and Oregon that combine a hyperactive tap list with an exhaustive selection of bottled craft beers that patrons can sample in-house or take away. “There’s a huge craft brewing movement — every month there’s a new small craft brewery opening,” said Rebecca Boyles, a co-owner of the shop with her husband, Mark Martone, who is known as Fraggle. “There’s literally a beer revolution going on,” Mr. Martone said ...

world hepatitis day is May 19th

2010-05-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

ccfay: I miss you a lot.

2010-04-26T23:43:00.000-07:00

junky's christmas (or, more scary heroin art I cannot believe I only just discovered)

2010-04-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

yup, a claymation film about heroin. A William Burroughs story in claymation, narrated by William Burroughs and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. (IMDB)
How had I not seen this?

where has this been my whole life? (or google image-search life, anyway.)

2010-04-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Drug-Takers
"Karen, a drug addict w. nylon stocking around her arm to make vein pop out as she uses hypodermic needle on an eyedropper which addicts call a "spike" to shoot up w. heroin."
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: February 1965
Photographer: Bill Eppridge

dork-a-palooza: art and software

2010-04-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

Nathan Sawaya, Lego Sculptor

software
Even as lifehacker struggles for relevance, (can someone explain advantage of calibre over stanza?) they offer the occasional gem.
So far, cloudapp seems quite handy, especially for quickly sharing screenshots and the like.
via

Last but not least, even though Chrome for mac still needs much improvement, its full screen mode looks great and proves very useful for viewing maps and book previews.

an uplifting article and an encouraging article

2010-04-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

the times runs an almost identical article every few months, but I love it nonetheless:
For the Battle-Scarred, Comfort at Leash’s End
By Janie Lorber
WASHINGTON — Just weeks after Chris Goehner, 25, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased.
Aaron Ellis, 29, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog — and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years.
The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society....
....Under a bill written by Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, veterans with P.T.S.D. will get service dogs as part of a pilot program run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Training a psychiatric service dog and pairing it with a client costs more than $20,000. The government already helps provide dogs to soldiers who lost their sight or were severely wounded in combat, but had never considered placing dogs for emotional damage....
....But when Gloria Gilbert Stoga, who runs Puppies Behind Bars, received an application from Maj. James Becker, she decided, with support from his doctors, to take a chance on a veteran who had just left inpatient care.
Major Becker, 45, suffered two severe brain injuries in separate explosions, earning two Purple Hearts in his three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he came home last winter, his 24-year-old daughter, also an Iraq veteran, was being treated for leukemia.
In Major Becker’s mind, home started to resemble Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. His P.T.S.D. symptoms worsened, and a suicide attempt in July landed him in San Diego Naval Medical Center for seven months. A few weeks after leaving the San Diego hospital, Major Becker flew to New York to collect his dog, Annie, and participate in a two-week training session with Puppies Behind Bars. Still, he said he spent a lot of time alone in his room “because it’s easier to deal with four walls than it is to come out and deal with crowds.”
But within days, Annie was beginning to pull him out of his shell. “She helps me meet people,” he said, describing how people are attracted to the dog.
He added, “I like to think it’s going to get better.
[I had to make sure to include the Al Franken and Puppies behind Bars details, in case your heart requires more than vets' therapy dogs to melt completely.]

(my) City Endorses New Policy for Treatment of H.I.V.
By Sabin Russell
In a major shift of H.I.V. treatment policy, San Francisco public health doctors have begun to advise patients to start taking antiviral medicines as soon as they are found to be infected, rather than waiting — sometimes years — for signs that their immune systems have started to fail.
The new, controversial city guidelines, to be announced next week by the Department of Public Health, may be the most forceful anywhere in their endorsement of early treatment against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. ....
Dr. Katz said that despite cuts in health budgets, a policy to add to the number of H.I.V. patients taking expensive drugs made economic sense. “H.I.V. medications have been continually proven to be cost effective,” he said, “and in this case, it is also the right thing to do.”....

I love the annual peep show!

2010-04-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

you know you are nutty when...

2010-04-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

another possibility in my quest for convenient ways to send text messages from my computer

2010-03-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

I think I am pretty hooked on google voice for computer texting. I am nonetheless pleased to see that other options have improved. Google talk in gmail has had sms capability for a while, but since it incorporates all of the messiness of google contacts, I never liked it very much. The newer version works more simply; you have the option of entering the number you want to text without having dig through hundreds of gmail contacts.

things I hope are fake include...

2010-03-24T20:30:00.001-07:00

charging the drug buddy: this increasingly popular approach cannot possibly help

2010-03-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

if you use drugs with someone who overdoses, you get charged with homicide or manslaughter. The 112 government bodies who failed to keep drugs out of the country, to make drug treatment a viable option, or make naloxone readily available?

Rock County teen sentenced in overdose death
A 14-year-old Edgerton girl accused in the drug overdose death of a 13-year-old boy has been sentenced to state custody for the next five years. ....

Man goes to prison in girlfriend's fatal overdose
By Christy Gutowski
....Brett M. Johnson was sentenced to four years in prison for supplying his girlfriend, Jill Przespolewski, with heroin last year in his grandmother's home on the 900 block of Columbia Court in Carol Stream.
Johnson called 911 at 7 a.m. March 25, 2009, after he awoke and found the 33-year-old Clarendon Hills woman unresponsive. Police said Johnson admitted repeatedly driving into Chicago to buy heroin and crack cocaine for them during a two- to three-day binge. He said his girlfriend only snorted heroin when with him. ....

foolish fourteen year olds...

2010-03-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

may be the ones to convince mainstream America that laws require nuance.
Your half-naked teenager may help illuminate the drastically disparate realities underneath superficially similar acts.

Rethinking Sex Offender Laws for Youth Texting
By Tamar Lewin
....In most states, teenagers who send or receive sexually explicit photographs by cellphone or computer — known as “sexting” — have risked felony child pornography charges and being listed on a sex offender registry for decades to come.
But there is growing consensus among lawyers and legislators that the child pornography laws are too blunt an instrument to deal with an adolescent cyberculture in which all kinds of sexual pictures circulate on sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Last year, Nebraska, Utah and Vermont changed their laws to reduce penalties for teenagers who engage in such activities, and this year, according to the National Council on State Legislatures, 14 more states are considering legislation that would treat young people who engage in sexting differently from adult pornographers and sexual predators.....

Virginia, Oklahoma, Mississippi.... I give up.

2010-03-11T21:08:00.000-08:00

Yeah, my blue state, elitist, snobby butt is staying put.

Oklahoma Senate passes amendment to opt out of federal hate crimes protections
....State Sen. Steve Russell, R-Oklahoma City, said the newly passed Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends hate crimes law protections to include actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability, oversteps the bounds of the federal government and hinders free speech and religious freedom. ....
.....“The law is very vague to begin with,” Russell said. “Sexual orientation is a very vague word that could be extended to extremes like necrophilia.” read the rest of the article here

Miss. prom canceled after lesbian's date request
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi county school board announced Wednesday it would cancel its upcoming prom after a gay student petitioned to bring a same-sex date to the event.
"Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year," school board members said in a statement. ....

more reasons I still love John Kerry and will never understand what the hell goes on in Virginia...

2010-03-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

Outdated, unnecessary ban on blood donations should be lifted
by John Kerry

Cuccinelli asks colleges to rescind policies protecting gay state employees
By Rosalind S. Helderman

catholic needle exchange

2010-02-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

Their reasoning seems pretty nutty, but I will take it.
Albany, N.Y., diocese defends needle exchange; some Catholic scholars disagree
By Daniel Burke
In launching a needle-exchange program recently, the Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., said the decision came down to choosing the lesser evil. Illegal drug use is bad, but the spread of deadly diseases is worse.
The medical evidence is clear, the diocese said when it began Project Safe Point in two Upstate New York locations through the local branch of Catholic Charities. Public health studies document that exchanging used syringes for new ones can reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS and even lead drug abusers to treatment and recovery. ....

Just amazing.

2010-02-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

This show was just unbeliveable.

I love POS.

Love him.

Grieves and Dessa,

definitely check them out.

wow.

hep C & detachable needles

2010-02-15T20:56:00.001-08:00

this is from a press-release and conference abstract. If these findings withstand repeat testing & peer-review, this is huge-
Certain Syringes More Likely To Spread Hepatitis C Virus Among Drug Users
•...This is believed to be the first study establishing the survival of HCV in contaminated syringes and the duration of potential infectiousness. HCV is transmitted through blood-to-blood contact. There is currently no vaccine against HCV, and treatments are problematic because of limited efficacy, high cost and side effects. Untreated, HCV can cause severe liver disease and even death. HCV infection from people sharing contaminated syringes is one of the most common and predictable consequences of injection drug use.

The Yale team simulated the most common scenarios of injection drug use in order to measure the longevity of the residual virus-blood mixture left in syringes after injection. After loading blood spiked with HCV into various syringes and depressing their plungers, researchers tested the residual blood for the presence of infective HCV immediately and after storage for up nine weeks.

They observed a prolonged survival of HCV infection at all storage temperatures, with viable amounts measured even at nine weeks in tuberculin syringes that have detachable needles. They observed far less viable HCV in insulin syringes with attached needles.

“This tells us that syringes with detachable needles are the most dangerous in terms of potential HCV infection, because they are far more likely to transmit a surviving virus,” said lead author Elijah Paintsil, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine.•

race & the criminal justice system: NYPD follow-up & how the Census counts prisoners

2010-02-14T22:34:00.000-08:00

Urban, Rural Areas Battle For Census Prison Populace
by David Sommerstein
An urban-versus-rural battle is brewing over the census because prison inmates are counted as residents of the prisons where they are locked up. That inflates the population of the mostly white, rural towns that have the prisons.
Higher population means more political representation — and often more money for schools, road crews and other services. Activists say the counting unfairly shifts political and economic power away from the poor city neighborhoods most inmates came from....

& follow-up to this post:
glad to see that the NYPD has improved not one bit under Bloomberg

links to the original reports from the Center for Constitutional Rights
CCR's Report on Racial Disparity in NYPD Stops-and-Frisks(pdf)
CCR's NYPD Data Used in Report (MS Excel spreadsheet)

glad to see that the NYPD has improved not one bit under Bloomberg

2010-02-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

Jim Crow Policing
By Bob Herbert
....An overwhelming 84 percent of the stops in the first three-quarters of 2009 were of black or Hispanic New Yorkers. It is incredible how few of the stops yielded any law enforcement benefit. Contraband, which usually means drugs, was found in only 1.6 percent of the stops of black New Yorkers. For Hispanics, it was just 1.5 percent. For whites, who are stopped far less frequently, contraband was found 2.2 percent of the time.
The percentages of stops that yielded weapons were even smaller. Weapons were found on just 1.1 percent of the blacks stopped, 1.4 percent of the Hispanics, and 1.7 percent of the whites. Only about 6 percent of stops result in an arrest for any reason.
Rather than a legitimate crime-fighting tool, these stops are a despicable, racially oriented tool of harassment. And the police are using it at the increasingly enthusiastic direction of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. ....

Thursday night! Benefit for the CA Emergency Supply Fund

2010-01-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

SFmoma

2010-01-25T21:49:00.000-08:00

so many teases. A whole room devoted to Gerhard Richter. The Fishers own half of his work. I expected mind blowing. Not so much. I still love him. Of three Richard Serra pieces,
one great one and two unremarkables.
Enough complaining. Even though I had already seen all of the Diane Arbus photos in the exhibit, they are still amazing. Even though I only saw a few Robert Bechtle's, I loved being reminded of how much I like him and how well he portrays San Francisco.
Some of the video installations floored me as well:
Pipilotti Rist, I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much
Bruce Conner, Three Screen Ray

prison AIDS walk

2010-01-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

This is amazing:

Housing Works has long provided housing and services to help formerly incarcerated people get their lives on track. Now, through a federal government grant, Housing Works has implemented an innovative new program that sets people up with care before they get out of prison. The Housing Works program targets HIV-positive and high risk minority ex-offenders moving to New York City. The program has just begun in September, and seven people have already been connected with care and treatment at Housing Works.
“I always tell people that planning for re-entry starts the day you’re locked up,” said Ray Rios, Housing Works central intake/outreach program director.
And the good will goes both ways.
The prisoners at Otisville Correctional Facility held an AIDSWalk on World AIDS Day (December 1) where one-quarter of the prison participated in the walk. They raised $240 for Housing Works. The inmates joked that they wish they could have given $240,000; they all make less than 25 cents a day.
Housing Works

free NYC - Irving Penn at MOMA

2010-01-11T17:02:00.000-08:00

I love Irving Penn (and really wish he was not always described as a fashion photographer - he was infinitely more.) Ten or so of his photographs are on display in the MOMA lobby. They are free to see and well worth it.

If you do have the time and money for a full visit, the best Gabriel Orozco is the easiest to miss; it is in the stairwell with exhibit computers.

save california needle exchange!

2010-01-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

heroin and hysterics

2010-01-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

nyc.gov has already removed its new injection safety flyer, Take Charge Take Care, from its website. (I have made it available here.)
This flyer elicited plenty of nonsense repsponses. My only real criticism is of its reliance on the same magical thinking incorporated into most injection safety information.

yesterday

2010-01-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

@alli_k: 3 hallways of close-up flower photographs on the way to a pelvic exam. Subtle.

@nharlotekk: clearly, you need a briefcase full of sausage

AP asshat

2009-12-25T17:30:00.000-08:00

Actor Charlie Sheen Arrested in Colorado
....Sheen is the son of actor Martin Sheen. His screen credits include ''Platoon,'' ''Wall Street'' and the ''Hot Shots!'' movies. He nearly died of a drug overdose in 1998 but received court-ordered rehabilitation.
4You mean AND received court-ordered rehabilitation, asshat.

Merry jew-on-xmas!

2009-12-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

The real thing at the ONDCP?

2009-12-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

Addiction on 2 Fronts: Work and Home
By Sarah Kershaw
WASHINGTON — His son had been dead from an overdose only three months when A. Thomas McLellan, among the nation’s leading researchers on addiction, got a call from the office of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Would he accept the nomination to be the government’s No. 2 drug-control official?
Dr. McLellan, 61, makes no secret of his cynicism about government — “I hate Washington,” as he put it in an interview — and he had no intention of leaving his job as a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and scientific director of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia. ....

Drug Dependence, a Chronic Medical Illness Implications for Treatment, Insurance, and Outcomes Evaluation
A. Thomas Mclellan, David C. Lewis, Charles P. O’Brien, Herbert D. Kleber
JAMA, October 4, 2000—Vol 284, No. 13
The effects of drug dependence on social systems has helped shape the generally held view that drug dependence is primarily a social problem, not a health problem. In turn, medical approaches to prevention and treatment are lacking. We examined evidence that drug (including alcohol) dependence is a chronic medical illness. A literature review compared the diagnoses, heritability, etiology (genetic and environmental factors), pathophysiology, and response to treatments (adherence and relapse) of drug dependence vs type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and asthma. Genetic heritability, personal choice, and environmental factors are comparably involved in the etiology and course of all of these disorders. Drug dependence produces significant and lasting changes in brain chemistry and function. Effective medications are available for treating nicotine, alcohol, and opiate dependence but not stimulant or marijuana dependence. Medication adherence and relapse rates are similar across these illnesses. Drug dependence generally has been treated as if it were an acute illness. Review results suggest that long-term care strategies of medication management and continued monitoring produce lasting benefits. Drug dependence should be insured, treated, and evaluated like other chronic illnesses.
JAMA

Sentiment I could have never predicted experiencing:

2009-11-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

I almost wish Ralph Nader was running.
guns AND prisons? please.
Gun opponents up in arms as Jerry Brown aids NRA
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
It may come as a surprise to many of his Democratic supporters, but Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown has gone to bat for the National Rifle Association.
The NRA's cause: urging the U.S. Supreme Court to guarantee the ability of gun owners across the land to keep and bear arms.
Last year, the high court struck down a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., ruling for the first time that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms applies to individuals who keep a gun at home for self-defense. But the court made it clear the ruling applied only to the District of Columbia, a federal enclave.
Now, gun advocates are challenging Chicago's handgun ban, asking the Supreme Court to rule that the Second Amendment equally applies to the states. And there was no shortage of states - 34 in all - jumping on the bandwagon in support of the court hearing the case.
In July, before the court agreed to take the case, Brown went so far as to file his own friend-of-the-court brief asking that Chicago's gun ban be overturned - arguing that if the court doesn't act, "California citizens could be deprived of the constitutional right to possess handguns in their homes." ....

I enjoyed this too much not to share.

2009-11-21T14:39:00.000-08:00

In Defense of New York
By Charles M. Blow
Representative John Shadegg of Arizona really knows how to put on a show.
Earlier this month, he used a live baby as part of a quasi-ventriloquist act on the House floor. Creepy? Yes. Still, we let it slide.
But he doesn’t get two passes in a row. Monday, he took a swipe at Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City for saying that the city could handle the security for the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Shadegg sniped, “I saw the mayor of New York today said ‘We’re tough. We can do it.’ Well mayor, how are you going to feel when it’s your daughter that’s kidnapped, at school, by a terrorist?”
Say what you will about New Yorkers, but question our toughness, you will not.
Whether a civil or military trial would provide the best chances of securing a conviction while simultaneously signaling to the world a righting of America’s moral compass is a fair debate. But questioning whether New York City can handle the trial is an insult.
(By the way, what’s with this business of the mayor’s daughter being kidnapped? It sounds like the plot of a Jackie Chan movie.)
We New Yorkers live with the threat of terrorism every day — on our trains, in our high-rises, in our plazas. But we’ve learned to cope. Not by being afraid, but by being vigilant. Bringing Mohammed to Manhattan isn’t going to move the needle much.
A police spokesman told Reuters that “eight terrorism plots against the city have been scuttled since 2001, including plots to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and the retaining wall at ground zero.”
Yet the city didn’t blink. Schools still opened, trains still ran and the Naked Cowboy still serenaded gaggles of grown women who giggled like schoolgirls.
So Mr. Congressman, how many terror plots have been squashed in your district? Take your time. I’ll wait.
We love this city, and nothing and no one will make us afraid to be in it. We refuse to be cowed by cowards — not by those hiding in the Hindu Kush or by those hyperventilating in the halls of Congress.
And what galls us most is having watched for years as politicians like Shadegg used fear-mongering about 9/11 and the threat of attacks as a political tool.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani used it to sidestep the extreme racial divisiveness he fostered in the city. Former President George W. Bush used it as a Trojan horse to ravage our civil liberties. Dick Cheney is still using it to shield his transgressions.
Let us be clear: The fear tactics that work in the hinterlands don’t work here.
We rose from the ashes of the Twin Towers. We don’t need a puppeteering politician from Phoenix lecturing us about being tough in the face of terror.

whiskey and the narc!

2009-11-18T09:10:00.000-08:00

proud of this guy. really.

2009-10-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Chicago Club Accused Of Racism Over Dress Code
by David Schaper
Six college students from St. Louis accuse a popular Chicago nightclub of using a dress code banning baggy pants to racially profile them, denying them entrance to the club on a recent Saturday night. ....
Murayi says he tried pleading with the bouncer and a manager. Another student suggested that they all go back to their hotel and change, but Murayi says the manager told them they still wouldn't be allowed in.
"Alarm bells went off in my mind automatically," said Murayi, a double major in math and economics from Aberdeen, Md. He says he has been targeted by such dress codes before.
"A lot of times, baggy-jeans policies are used, in my opinion, to reject a certain demographic, mostly black men, from being allowed entry into certain places," Murayi said.
Murayi and other Washington University students say white members of the class who wore pants that were just as baggy were allowed into Mother's. In an experiment of sorts, he exchanged jeans with white student Jordan Roberts to see if Roberts could get in.
"Jordan's about 3 inches shorter than me and about 40 pounds lighter than me," Murayi said. "He said he felt like a clown; his pants were ridiculous, but he just walked up and was allowed in." ....

let me get this straight....

2009-10-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

police officers deserve forgiveness, but drug runners without two quarters to rub together have to rot in prison? where did we find this guy?

New S.F. chief seeks amnesty for officers
Heather Knight,Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Discipline cases against dozens of San Francisco police officers would be dismissed under an amnesty program proposed by Chief George Gascón.
The new police chief told The Chronicle on Wednesday that he wants to see "the great majority" of roughly 75 discipline cases pending before the civilian Police Commission end with little or no punishment for officers accused of minor misconduct.
Those cases, he said, include charges such as use of inappropriate language, being discourteous, failing to properly fill out a police report or a first-time misdemeanor drunken-driving arrest. They would also most likely involve first-time offenders rather than officers with a long history of complaints against them.
"We don't get anything out of taking a pound of flesh," Gascón said. ....

Sep 2, 2009 7:44 pm US/Pacific
New SFPD Chief To Make Tenderloin A Priority
There is an air of desperation in San Francisco's Tenderloin as the needy line up for soup kitchens, and those suffering from mental illness or drugs make the streets their home. But San Francisco's new police chief is planning on making the cleanup of the Tenderloin a priority of his administration. ....

worth repeating

2009-10-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

even though you know Dan Choi's story, his interview on out in the bay is well worth your time.
Lieutenant Dan Choi: He chose to come out on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC in March and one month later he was discharged from the U.S. Army — even though he is an Arabic translator, a West Point graduate, and has served in Iraq. Meet Lt. Dan Choi, a Christian, a first generation Korean-American, and a brave and unapologetic leader of the push to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Choi talks with host Marilyn PIttman about his ordeal, his ideals, and his new role as a gay leader.
download it here

monty mommy

2009-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

more snuggeting

2009-09-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

sunday is heroin day in the nytimes

2009-09-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

apparently Russia has not been paying attention.

2009-09-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

Russia, Plagued by Heroin Use, to Press U.S. on Destroying Afghan Poppy Crops
By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — During talks this week with his American counterpart, Russia’s top drug enforcement official, Viktor P. Ivanov, will press the United States to step up efforts to destroy Afghan poppy cultivation, which he said was feeding a devastating drug problem in Russia. ....
“I would call on the United States to use defoliation from the air,” Mr. Ivanov said. ....

The main source of heroin to Boston is Colombia, where we have spent billions on poppy and coca eradication. >>
Low Price, High Power Raise Heroin Deaths
BOSTON -- A lethal combination of rock bottom prices combined with a spike in the potency and availability of heroin on Massachusetts streets has led to an increase in the number of heroin-related deaths in recent years. ....
read the article here and look at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Death report here

Wales OD prevention program = headline tease

2009-09-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

I responded to this headline with curiosity and enthusiasm. Upon reading the article, not so much. I was imagining texting codes that triggered situation-specific advice or the steps to follow for rescue breathing .... something of substance, anyway. Certainly not already ubiquitous, unproductive catch phrases:
Addicts get text overdose advice
Drug users in Swansea are being asked to sign up to be sent mobile texts on what to do if they overdose and how to reduce their addiction risks.
Messages such as "Overdose: Don't panic. Put them in the recovery position, dial 999" will be sent out.....

TEXT EXAMPLES
•OVERDOSE: Don't panic. Put them in the recovery position, dial 999, ask for an ambulance and stay with them until the ambulance arrives
•OVERDOSE:If someone is going to inject it is safer NOT to use on their own. Don't mix drugs
•DUMPING WORKS ( gizmos, spokes, spoons or fliters in public spaces is NOT OK. Keep everybody safe and dispose of them properly
•NEVER SHARE cookers, spikes, spoons or filters. Identify your own works to avoid any mix ups.

oh boy

2009-09-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

Van Jones resignation

2009-09-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I must be reading an Onion article; a community organizer from San Francisco signed a petition about the Iraq war and supports Mumia? uh, news at 11.

White House Official Resigns After G.O.P. Criticism
By John M. Broder
WASHINGTON — White House officials on Sunday tersely accepted the resignation of the administration’s special adviser for environmental jobs after a number of his past statements became fodder for conservative critics and Republican officials.
The adviser, Van Jones, a controversial and charismatic community organizer and “green jobs” advocate from the San Francisco Bay Area, signed a petition in 2004 questioning whether the Bush administration had allowed the terrorist attacks of September 2001 to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East.
He also used a vulgarity to refer to Republicans just before being appointed to his White House post early this year, and he has publicly supported Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. ....

definitely do not tax oil revenues....

2009-09-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

remember when California was forward thinking?
Billy DeFrank Center cutting all paid staff, suspending HIV testing
By Sandra Gonzales
Billy DeFrank Center announced Tuesday that it would cut all its paid staff and temporarily suspend HIV testing as it deals with the realities of a shrinking budget. ....
Since about 20% of people with HIV in the US do not know they are positive, this is really great news.... no, not so much.

and, as long as we are busy conflating health insurance with state mandated euthanasia, let's definitely conflate rapist-kidnappers with the thousands of people in prison for drug possession....
Schwarzenegger to take prison fight to U.S. Supreme Court

Ted Kennedy - what we really lost

2009-08-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

okay, my love of the man who loves Splash is no secret. The HRC's list of Ted Kennedy's accomplishments brought me to tears.
You can view a list of the bills he sponsored during the last 20 years here.

we will be the last democracy on this train

2009-08-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

Argentina rules on marijuana use
The supreme court in Argentina has ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption.
The decision follows a case of five young men who were arrested with a few marijuana cigarettes in their pockets.
But the court said use must not harm others and made it clear it did not advocate a complete decriminalisation.
Correspondents say there is a growing momentum in Latin America towards decriminalising drugs for personal use.
The Argentine court ruled that: "Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state."
Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said private behaviour was legal, "as long as it doesn't constitute clear danger".
"The state cannot establish morality," he said.
The initiative has been supported by the government - Congress is expected to introduce amendments to the current drug laws. ....

another op-ed I hope people are reading...

2009-08-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

Op-Ed Columnist
Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons?
By Nicolas D. Kristof
At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is “too expensive,” how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson?
Mr. Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California — for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the “three strikes” law resulted in a life sentence.
This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per prison inmate, it’s also an extraordinary waste of money.
Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education. ....

heroin treatment study in NEJM!

2009-08-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

Diacetylmorphine versus Methadone for the Treatment of Opioid Addiction
New England Journal of Medicine
Volume 361 — August 20, 2009 — Number 8
Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, Suzanne Brissette, David C. Marsh, Pierre Lauzon, Daphne Guh, Aslam Anis, and Martin T. Schechter
Background
Studies in Europe have suggested that injectable diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin, can be an effective adjunctive treatment for chronic, relapsing opioid dependence.
Methods
In an open-label, phase 3, randomized, controlled trial in Canada, we compared injectable diacetylmorphine with oral methadone maintenance therapy in patients with opioid dependence that was refractory to treatment. Long-term users of inject-able heroin who had not benefited from at least two previous attempts at treatment for addiction (including at least one methadone treatment) were randomly assigned to receive methadone (111 patients) or diacetylmorphine (115 patients). The primary outcomes, assessed at 12 months, were retention in addiction treatment or drug-free status and a reduction in illicit-drug use or other illegal activity according to the European Addiction Severity Index.
Results
The primary outcomes were determined in 95.2% of the participants. On the basis of an intention-to-treat analysis, the rate of retention in addiction treatment in the diacetylmorphine group was 87.8%, as compared with 54.1% in the methadone group (rate ratio for retention, 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35 to 1.95; P<0.001). The reduction in rates of illicit-drug use or other illegal activity was 67.0% in the diacetylmorphine group and 47.7% in the methadone group (rate ratio, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.77; P = 0.004). The most common serious adverse events associated with diacetylmorphine injections were overdoses (in 10 patients) and seizures (in 6 patients).
Conclusions
Injectable diacetylmorphine was more effective than oral methadone. Because of a risk of overdoses and seizures, diacetylmorphine maintenance therapy should be delivered in settings where prompt medical intervention is available. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00175357.)

New York Times article here

action alert: Needle ban fight moves to Senate

2009-08-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

click here to take action
•We are too close to lifting the federal syringe exchange funding ban to allow it to fail. Attempts to put it back in after it was removed in House committee were defeated, but by a very close margin. What did stick, unfortunately, was an amendment to deny federal funds to any SEP within 1000 feet of a school, rec center, daycare center, playground, video arcade, or anywhere groups of children may go on even an occasional basis. For almost every existing syringe exchange project, and in most cities overall, this would present a cruel barrier.
So, we have 2 important tasks - to get the overall ban removed & to get that amendment removed. The decision will most likely be made in a closed conference between Senate and House Appropriators in early September, and we need those legislators to walk in there knowing what they have to do. If your program would be ineligible to receive federal funds if this 1000 foot buffer zone is enacted, or if you care about the issue at all, this is a KEY TIME for you to act.
Send a letter directly to your Senator from our Online Action Center and ask that they resist any restrictive amendments from both the Financial Services and Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bills, and to leave the decision of how and where to offer services to the local public health and public safety communities. Feel free to use the pre-written one provided or write your own.•

I love Barney Frank (and, of course, Wonkette)

2009-08-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

A PLEASURE TO WATCH
THANK YOU BARNEY FRANK
(and Wonkette)

Action alert! Please tell Congress to extend the Ryan White CARE Act.

2009-08-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

The current Ryan White CARE Act sunsets on September 30, 2009. That's just 6 weeks away.
*The Ryan White Program provides essential medical and support services to hundreds of thousands of individuals each year. The services are a critical part of our HIV health care safety net. Congress must extend the Ryan White Program as a Stand-Alone bill by September 30, 2009 to avoid gaps in coverage.
This moment is critical. Your letter will make a difference.
Together the HIV community has reached a broad consensus for a three-year extension of the Ryan White Program. Please take a moment to urge Congress to take action and support the community consensus document by emailing your Representatives and Senators.*
TAKE ACTION NOW!

you can read more about the legislation here

evidence that a genetic variation predicts response to standard Hep C treatments

2009-08-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance
Dongliang Ge, Jacques Fellay, Alexander J. Thompson, Jason S. Simon, Kevin V. Shianna, Thomas J. Urban, Erin L. Heinzen, Ping Qiu, Arthur H. Bertelsen, Andrew J. Muir, Mark Sulkowski, John G. McHutchison & David B. Goldstein
Nature Letter • 8/16/2009 • advance online publication

Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects 170 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of cirrhosis in North America1. Although the recommended treatment for chronic infection involves a 48-week course of peginterferon-a-2b (PegIFN-a-2b) or -a-2a (PegIFN-a-2a) combined with ribavirin (RBV), it is well known that many patients will not be cured by treatment, and that patients of European ancestry have a signifi- cantly higher probability of being cured than patients of African ancestry. In addition to limited efficacy, treatment is often poorly tolerated because of side effects that prevent some patients from completing therapy. For these reasons, identification of the determinants of response to treatment is a high priority. Here we report that a genetic polymorphism near the IL28B gene, encoding interferon-l-3 (IFN-l-3), is associated with an approximately twofold change in response to treatment, both among patients of European ancestry (P 5 1.06 3 10225) and African-Americans (P 5 2.06 3 1023). Because the genotype leading to better response is in substantially greater frequency in European than African populations, this genetic polymorphism also explains approximately half of the difference in response rates between African- Americans and patients of European ancestry.

read the paper here or a Bloomberg article here

City studies safe-injection site for Toronto

2009-08-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

City studies safe-injection site for Toronto
By Michael McKiernan, National Post
A city-sanctioned study is looking into the feasibility of Vancouver-style safe injection sites in Toronto, but critics fear the study’s support for such sites is a done deal.
The study, part of Toronto Public Health’s drug strategy, comes as Vancouver’s six-year-old InSite program (pictured above) faces increasing doubts over its own future. The federal government wants it shut and has appealed a 2008 B.C. Supreme Court ruling that allowed it to continue operating. ....
read the somewhat hysterical article here

snugget, the hangover buddy

2009-08-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

better late than never

2009-08-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

I wonder why people think the South is slow and backward...
Ala. no longer bars HIV inmates from work release
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama has shed the distinction of being the only state to bar inmates with HIV from work release programs.
The American Civil Liberties Union has fought to end the practice for decades and on Thursday praised the Alabama Department of Corrections for doing so this week.
Corrections officials say all eligible prisoners with HIV have been approved to participate in the work release program.
Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said the organization is thrilled with what she called an overdue change.
Work release allows eligible inmates to hold free-world jobs, earn money, wear plain clothes and spend the day without supervision of corrections staff.

Be reminded.

2009-08-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

I could have done without him citing Phil Zimbardo, but I am happy to see this in nytimes.
Op-Ed Columnist
Getting Smart on Crime
Charles M. Blow
After decades of supercharged incarceration rates, our bloated prison system is straining under its own weight, and policy makers are finally being forced to deal with the need to shrink it.
According to a study last year by The Pew Center on the States entitled “One in 100: Behind bars in America 2008,” the prison population of the United States has nearly quadrupled over the last 25 years while the nation’s population has grown by less than a third.
We now have more inmates per capita than any of the 36 European countries with the largest inmate populations, and our total number of inmates is more than all the inmates in those countries combined.
This comes at a cost. According to a report published last month by the Vera Institute of Justice, an independent, nonprofit research group, $1 in every $15 from states’ general funds is now spent on corrections. That doesn’t work in a recession.
Much of the rise in the prison population was because of draconian mandatory sentencing laws that are illogical — sociologically and economically. ....

uncommon news - field of opium poppies found in Oregon

2009-08-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

OPB News
Discovery Of Opium Poppies Has Law Officers Concerned
By April Baer
....McKnight is a Forest Patrol Officer for the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde. He was here -- on a remote, 40-acre clear-cut on tribal forestland, training some helpers for fire season, when he stumbled across a field of some 12,000 specimens of Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy -- gorgeous, and illicit. ....

criminalization of poverty

2009-08-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

op-ed contributor
Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?
By Barbara Ehrenreich

In case you have not been paying attention, the answer is a resounding yes. If you have the time, read the referenced report as well.
Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities
by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless

one more reason DC should get to govern itself

2009-08-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

D.C. to Offer STD Tests In Every High School
Expansion of Program Draws Praise
By Darryl Fears and Nelson Hernandez
D.C. school officials are planning to offer tests for sexually transmitted diseases to all high school students in the coming school year, expanding a pilot program that uncovered a significant number of infected children.
The program conducted last year at eight high schools found that 13 percent of about 3,000 students tested positive for an STD, mostly gonorrhea or chlamydia, according to the D.C. Department of Health.....

Close to Home
STD Tests at High School?
There is broad agreement among District educators and health officials that testing high school students for sexually transmitted diseases is a good idea ["D.C. to Offer STD Tests in Every High School," front page, Aug. 5]. But should the District conduct this testing, and provide for follow-up treatment, without telling parents when their children have an STD?
Absolutely!
True, parents' permission is required for such school-sponsored activities as sports and field trips, but this is different. Notably, all 50 states and the District allow minors older than 12 to be screened for STDs without parental consent. But this policy shouldn't be driven by legalities alone. Instead, it should be rooted in the cost of not being sufficiently diligent.
Surveys tell us that a majority of high school students engage in sexual activity, much of it unprotected, despite what some parents believe. This can have particularly dire consequences for our children and community. The District has by far the nation's highest HIV/AIDS rate. While curbing treatable STDs such as gonorrhea is vital, changing reckless behavior and preventing deadly HIV/AIDS infections is imperative.
While parents won't automatically be told the results of STD tests, they will be able to have their children opt out of the program in advance. But I hope that as they consider their children's best interest, they will embrace this intervention. I know that when my daughter entered college at 17, and despite my excellent relationship with her, I would have wanted someone to intercede, even without my knowledge, to protect her from any self-destructive behavior I might not have known about.
That said, the District can't win this struggle to alter our children's sexual behavior without parents. Parents should be included early on in the educational process. They should be invited to the schools to learn how to talk to their children about avoidance of an early sexual debut and about safe sex, as well as to be counseled to lead by example.
We need everybody in this fight.
-- Celia Maxwell, Washington
The writer is assistant vice president for health sciences, director of the Women's Health Institute and associate professor of medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Howard University.

HOPE Probation

2009-08-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

I am interested to know what happens when probation ends...

HOPE Probation
"In 2004, First Circuit Judge Steven Alm launched a pilot program to reduce probation violations by drug offenders and others at high risk of recidivism. This high-intensity supervision program, called HOPE Probation (Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement), is the first and only of its kind in the nation. Probationers in HOPE Probation receive swift, predictable, and immediate sanctions - typically resulting in several days in jail - for each detected violation, such as detected drug use or missed appointments with a probation officer.
In HOPE Probation, defendants are clearly warned that if they violate the rules, they go to jail. Defendants are required to call a hotline each weekday morning to find out if they must take a drug test that day. Random drug testing occurs at least once a week for the first two months.
If probationers test positive, they are arrested immediately. If they fail to appear for the test or violate other terms of probation, warrants for their arrest are issued immediately. Once they are apprehended, a probation modification hearing is held two days later, and violators are typically sentenced to a short jail term. The jail time may increase for subsequent violations and repeat offenders are often ordered into residential treatment.
Evaluation results indicate the program is highly successful at reducing drug use and crime, even among difficult populations such as methamphetamine abusers and domestic violence offenders."

Program Evaluation Results
"For the 745 defendants who have been in HOPE Probation for at least three months, their missed appointments rate has decreased by 80 percent and their positive drug test rate has dropped by 86 percent. For those offenders in HOPE the longest, 42 months, the decrease is even larger: 92 percent fewer missed appointments and 96 percent fewer positive drug tests."

We make me sick.

2009-08-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Attacks on Homeless Bring Push to Broaden Laws on Hate Crimes
By Eric Lichtblau
WASHINGTON — With economic troubles pushing more people onto the streets in the last few years, law enforcement officials and researchers are seeing a surge in unprovoked attacks against the homeless, and a number of states are considering legislation to treat such assaults as hate crimes. ....
A report due out this weekend from the National Coalition for the Homeless documents a rise in violence over the last decade, with at least 880 unprovoked attacks against the homeless at the hands of nonhomeless people, including 244 fatalities. An advance copy was provided to The New York Times.
Sometimes, researchers say, one homeless person attacks another in turf battles or other disputes. But more often, they say, the assailants are outsiders: men or in most cases teenage boys who punch, kick, shoot or set afire people living on the streets, frequently killing them, simply for the sport of it, their victims all but invisible to society.
“A lot of what we see are thrill offenders,” said Brian Levin, a criminologist who runs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. ....
Further, in the last several years the Internet has seen a proliferation of “bum fight” videos, shot by young men and boys who are seen beating the homeless or who pay transients a few dollars to fight each other.
Indeed, the National Coalition for the Homeless, which works to change government policies and bring people off the streets, says in its new report that 58 percent of assailants implicated in attacks against the homeless in the last 10 years were teenagers.
Michael Stoops, the group’s executive director, said social prejudices were “dehumanizing” the homeless and condoning hostile treatment. He pointed to a blurb titled “Hunt the Homeless” in the current issue of Maxim, a popular men’s magazine. It spotlights a coming “hobo convention” in Iowa and says: “Kill one for fun. We’re 87 percent sure it’s legal.” ....

hiking snugget!

2009-08-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

thank you.

2009-08-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

op-ed columnist
Anger Has Its Place
By Bob Herbert
.... The president of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a “teachable moment,” but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it — especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill.
I have nothing but contempt for that message. ....