Drug War Chronicle #1223 - Sept. 20, 2024 table of contents with URLs lead story Drug Death dropping.

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1223 -- 9/20/24
Phillip S. Smith, Editor,psmith@drcnet.org
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1223
A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
APPEAL: Help Us Respond to the Opportunities and the Challenges of This Time:
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/help_us_respond
Table of Contents:
1. FATAL DRUG OVERDOSES ARE IN DRAMATIC DECLINE [FEATURE]
The numbers are still horrifically high, but dropping fast, for a variety of reasons.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/fatal-drug-overdoses-dramatic-decline-feature
2. JAPAN TO PUNISH POT USE WITH UP TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON, NE MEDMJ INITS CERTIFIED FOR BALLOT, MORE... (9/13/24)
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has filed a marijuana legalization bill in Pennsylvania, the Mexican city of Culiacan is at a standstill amid fears of intra-cartel clashes, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/japan-punish-pot-use-7-years-prison-ne-medmj-inits-certified-ballot-more-91324
3. BIDEN SIGNS BILL TO STUDY ILLICIT DRUG FINANCING, COLOMBIAN COCA COMPANY SUES COCA-COLA IN TRADEMARK FIGHT, MORE... (9/16/24)
The White House has released its annual list of international drug war scofflaws, cartel faction violence continues in Sinaloa, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/biden-signs-bill-study-illicit-drug-financing-colombian-coca-company-sues-coca-cola-0
4. DEA SIMPLIFIED "ACCEPTED MEDICAL USE" DRUGS STANDARD, FOUR FACE DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUGS IN BALI, MORE... (9/17/24)
The head of the Senate Drug Caucus files a bill targeting imported drug analogs, the toll rises from Sinaloa Cartel factional strife, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/dea-accepts-simplified-test-drugs-accepted-medical-use-four-face-death-penalty-drugs-bali
5. SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES DOOBIE ACT, AR MEDMJ INIT APPEARS POISED FOR VICTORY, MORE... (9/18/24)
A bill to reauthorize the drug czar's office has been filed, the Czech Republic is moving toward marijuana legalization, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/senate-committee-approves-doobie-act-ar-medmj-init-appears-poised-victory-november-more
6. DRAMATIC DROP IN OVERDOSE DEATHS REPORTED, IDAHO MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION INIT FILED, MORE... (9/19/24)
The Democratic candidate for governor in West Virginia says legalize marijuana, the Seattle city council approves neighborhood exclusion orders for drug offenders, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/dramatic-drop-overdose-deaths-reported-id-2026-marijuana-legalization-init-filed-more
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1. FATAL DRUG OVERDOSES ARE IN DRAMATIC DECLINE [FEATURE]
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/fatal-drug-overdoses-dramatic-decline-feature
The numbers are still horrifically high, but dropping fast, for a
variety of reasons.
Fatal drug overdoses have declined
dramatically, according to the latest data from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC). The provisional drug overdose
count (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm) for
the 12-month period ending in April shows a ten percent decrease in
overdose deaths. While overdose deaths appear to have plateaued in
2021-2022, they declined by three percent between 2022 and 2023, a
decline that has only accelerated.
Drug overdose deaths, which had been on the increase during the
century's first two decades, exceeded 100,000 per year by mid-2021 and
peaked at more than 111,000 per year in the summer of 2023. But by
April of this year, the toll had dropped to 97,309.
"This is exciting," said Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National
Institute On Drug Abuse [NIDA]. "This looks real. This looks very,
very real," she told National Public Radio
(https://www.npr.org/2024/09/18/nx-s1-5107417/overdose-fatal-fentanyl-death-opioid)
(NPR).
"The trends are definitely positive," said Dr. Keith Humphreys, a
nationally respected drug policy researcher at Stanford University.
"This is going to be the best year we've had since all of this
started," he told NPR.
The CDC's provisional data did not include any breakdown by substance,
but according to NIDA
(https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig2),
in recent years, fentanyl and its derivatives have been implicated in
between two-third and three-quarters of all overdose deaths, followed
by cocaine and methamphetamine, which are each involved in about
one-fifth of overdose deaths.
There could be even better news coming. Some researchers think that an
even larger decline in overdose deaths will become evident once the
provisional data is updated.
"In the states that have the most rapid data collection systems, we're
seeing declines of 20 percent, 30 percent," said Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta,
an expert on street drugs at the University of North Carolina. The
decline could be saving "roughly 20,000 lives" per year, he told NPR.
Different factors are at play to account for the decline. Part of it
is users simply growing familiar with fentanyl, part of it can be
attributed to harm reduction measures such as the widespread access to
the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone. And part of it probably
has to do with the ending of pandemic era isolation and social
dislocation.
"Expansion of naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder --
these strategies worked," said Dr. Volkow at NIDA.
"We've almost tripled the amount of naloxone out in the community,"
said Brad Finegood, who directs the overdose crisis response in
Seattle "A year ago when overdose deaths continued to rise, I was
really struggling with hope," he told NPR. "Today, I have so much
hope," Finegood said.
"This is the largest decrease on record and the fifth consecutive
month of recorded decreases," said Dr. Rahul Gupta, head of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office),
calling for more money treatment and health services in poor Black and
Native American communities where overdose deaths remain high. "There
is no way we're going to beat this epidemic by not focusing on
communities that are often marginalized, underserved and communities
of color," Gupta said told NPR.
Still, the decline in overdose deaths already has been striking --
especially in the eastern and central US. In Vermont, they are down 22
percent. In Ohio, they are down 31 percent. In Misssouri, 34 percent.
"While the mortality data for 2024 is incomplete and subject to
change, Ohio is now in the ninth consecutive month of a historic and
unexpected drop in overdose deaths," said Harm Reduction Ohio in a
statement
(https://www.harmreductionohio.org/ohio-overdose-deaths-down-by-one-third/).
"A fifteen or twenty percent [drop in deaths] is a really big number,
an enormous impact, said Dasgupta, calling for more research to
determine how to keep the trend going. "If interventions are what's
driving this decline, then let's double down on those interventions."
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