Tag Archives: drugs

trans-boundary organized crime

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This sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it is true: Chinese gangsters with ties to the Chinese government are in league with Mexican gangsters to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, and in at least some cases enslave those smuggled people on farms operating in the United States. Relatedly, Chinese gangsters with ties to the Chinese government are known to be laundering drug money through Canadian banks including TD (i.e. Toronto Dominion) bank.

None of this should be an excuse for racism of course. The gargantuan and inasatiable U.S. demand for drugs is the root driver of these problems, criminalization of said drugs creates the profit incentive, and organized crime exists to exploit opportunities like this while minimizing risks (to itself). Organized crime tends to be ethnicity based because recent immigrant groups have social ties to each other and to people and organizations in their countries of origin. And particularly in the case of human trafficking, it is the immigrants themselves who are typically exploited by criminals belonging to their own ethnic group. The risk of violence to those of us not directly involved would seem to be low, other than people who get caught up in the illegal drug marketplace in one way or another.

Nonetheless, all this needs to be smashed. And it can be smashed by traditional law enforcement, inside our traditional borders. Human trafficking and borderline or outright slavery in particular just have to be smashed without mercy. The Oklahoma story above is particularly disturbing where it sounds like law enforcement knew for quite a while that armed guards were confining and forcing people to work against their will, within the boundaries of the United States.

August 2024

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Obviously, there were plenty of goings-on in the U.S. presidential election campaign in August. I’ve talked about that elsewhere, and everybody else is talking about it, so I’ll give it a rest here.

Most frightening and/or depressing story: Human extinction, and our dysfunctional political system’s seeming lack of concern and even active ramping up the risk. We have forgotten how horrible it was last time (and the only time) nuclear weapons were used on cities. Is there any story that could be more frightening and/or depressing to a human?

Most hopeful story: Drugs targeting “GLP-1 receptors” (one brand name is Ozempic) were developed to treat diabetes and obesity, but they may be effective against stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, alcoholism, and drug addiction. They may even be miracle anti-aging drugs. But really, it seems like the simple story is that most of us in the modern world are just eating too much and moving our bodies too little, and these drugs might let us get some of the benefits of healthier lifestyles without actually making the effort. Making the effort, or making the effort while turbo-charging the benefits with drugs, might be the better option. Nonetheless, saving lives is saving lives.

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: I did some musing about electric vehicles in August. The hype bubble seems to have burst a bit, as they did not explode onto the international commercial scene as some were hoping/predicting. This is partly because public infrastructure has not kept pace with the private sector due to sheer inertia, but I always detect a whiff of the evil oil/car industry propaganda and political capture behind the scenes. Nonetheless, just as I see happening with computer-driven vehicles, the technology and market will continue to develop after the hype bubble bursts. In a way, this almost starts the clock (5-10-20 years?) for when we can expect the actual commercial transition to occur. It will happen gradually, and one day we will just shrug, accept it, assume we knew it was coming all along, and eventually forget it was any other way. And since I seem to have transportation on the brain, here is a bonus link to my article on high speed trains.

the latest miracle drugs

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I remember when we were all supposed to take a baby aspiring to avoid inflammation, and at least some doctors were advocating preventive statins. Maybe some are still advocating those things, but the latest miracle drug seems to be Ozempic.

GLP-1 receptor agonist medications like Ozempic are already FDA-approved to treat diabetes and obesity. But an increasing body of research finds they’re also effective against stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

www.astralcodexten.com

So maybe everyone over 40 should start popping this stuff? I’m sure that’s what the drug companies want to hear.

Meanwhile, a proposal for the FDA to approve MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was just rejected. It sounds like this may have been due to issues with the experimental trial, so somebody may try again eventually. There is also a “synthetic psilosybin” that it is rumored will be submitted for FDA approval soon. As I understand it, once a drug is FDA approved, any doctor can prescribe it for any symptom they want. So all you have to do is convince your doctor, if you can’t convince your doctor, find a doctor who is willing to be convinced.

I learned from this article that MDMA is technically an amphetamine and may affect blood pressure, so I would be hesitant to try it, or at least get used to it, for that reason. I have no such inhibitions about psilocybin, or legal cannabis for that matter. I won’t take any drug though, particularly in pill form, without knowing that it is from a regulated, quality-controlled source. The risk of contamination with fentanyl is just not worth the risk.

Fentanyl

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El Pais has a long article that goes through the entire supply chain for Fentanyl. Basically, there is a huge demand for drugs in the United States. Because they are criminalized and highly profitable, organized crime is going to find to meet that demand. Organized crime in Mexico is going to find a way to bring the chemical precursors in, manufacture the product, and move it across the border, with extremely violent consequences. Businesspeople in China (I use the term loosely as these are also gangster-like, but the actual chemicals involved are typically not even illegal) are happy to manufacture and ship these precursors to the organized criminals in Mexico. Politicians and bureaucrats at all levels get wrapped up through bribery, threats of violence and actual violence.

synthetic cocaine?

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This article says waves of drug abuse tend to alternate between sedatives, like heroin and the current opioid wave, and stimulants, like cocaine and methamphetamine. Like opioids, people are hard at work in labs trying to create synthetic stimulants. One candidate, which according to this article is already popular in “the Middle East party scene”, is Captagon, which has effects similar to cocaine and can be as cheap as $3 per pill.

Druid app

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This app is supposed to measure cognitive impairment from alcohol, drugs, and fatigue.

Grounded in cognitive neuroscience, Druid is a breakthrough technology. It brings you a sophisticated tool that measures impairment from any cause, including cannabis and other drugs, alcohol, fatigue, illness, injury, chronic condition, or severe stress. Druid operates like a video game while it measures hundred of neurophysiological indicators.

Google Play

Seems useful for a variety of purposes. And employers could use it for a variety of legitimate purposes, such as maybe testing pilots and surgeons? People who aren’t able to do their jobs safely because they are tired or stressed shouldn’t get fired obviously, they should get to rest. You can certainly imagine employers and law enforcement using this app abusively. As for driving safely, let’s just turn that over to the computers already.

TSA doesn’t care about your weed

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Even if I were regular cannabis user (I am not, but have no moral issues with those who are unless they are driving a forklift or doing something else risky while impaired), I would not take it on a domestic flight knowing that it is still illegal under federal law. So it’s interesting that TSA has said publicly that they are not looking for it. If they happen to find it, say, because you packed it in the same bag as a weapon you were trying to smuggle on to a plane, they are just supposed to notify local police.

If the federal government really wants to, they can prosecute you as a drug trafficker even for transporting a tiny cannabis from one state where it is 100% legal to another state where it is 100% legal. The penalty for this as a first offense can be 5 years in jail and $250,000. It seems unlikely they would do this, but is a risk worth taking? If they are after you for some other reason and you happen to have committed this offense, it seems like they could use this charge as a major bargaining chip to secure your cooperation.

Now, on international flights, I really would not take it. For example, last time I went to Singapore (around a decade now) they still had that sign in baggage claim that says “death to drug dealers”. Let’s say I had a substance in my backpack in the past that was 100% legal in the time and place I purchased it, and let’s say a drug sniffing dog at a foreign airport can still detect that today. At a minimum this seems likely to increase your chances of getting searched, hassled, and having your time wasted when traveling.

What’s REALLY risky, of course, from a health perspective, is consuming a pill or other substance when you don’t know for sure exactly what it is, what the dose it, or where it came from. This alone is a reason to legalize almost everything, in my view. Then add to that all the violence that has occurred on U.S. streets and on both sides of the border to supply products that are obviously in high demand. Add in the racial biases that cause people to be treated differently. The war on drugs is just a dumb failure. Let’s end it. Legalize, tax, and make addiction and substance abuse a problem for the health care system (oh, the U.S. should really get itself one of these!)

more Philly stats

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Brookings has a report on crime in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Seattle. Homicides are up sharply in all these cities, but the overall crime picture is more nuanced. The actual stats show that while homicide is way up, other violent crimes are up only slightly. Central business districts are generally pretty safe, with violent crime and property crime mostly happening in residential neighborhoods. Nonetheless, office workers have an impression that central business districts are less safe than before the pandemic. I share that perception. This article points out that my perception may have more to do with the visible disorder of homelessness, drug use, and just general filth on the streets and on public transit. I witness all of this daily in Philadelphia. At the same time I know that these things are for the most part not a physical threat to my person. And I always try to remind myself that the person annoying me by experiencing homelessness or drug addiction on the streets of my city is having a much worse day than I am. Brookings has a solution salad at the end of their article – politicians, please do these things.

the new drug trade

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Precursors of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other deadly, yet cheap, drugs are manufactured in places like China and shipped to Mexican drug cartels, who are happy to mix them up and move them across the U.S. border. U.S. drug dealers are buying pill presses and filling them with whatever is cheapest, then stamping them to look prescriptions drugs like Oxycontin, Xanax, Adderal. Users, some addicts, and some just looking for a party, are popping these pills and in some cases dying.

It’s a mess. I wouldn’t call it a “war”. The fundamental problem is the U.S. demand for these substances, and the secondary problem is the criminalization of these substances which creates plenty of business opportunities for criminals. The less organized ones are getting caught by law enforcement, the organized ones are making a fortune, and the customers are dying, especially the younger, less well informed, and lower income ones. The makeup of the customers/victims may look a little different than some drug waves of the past, but the story has not really changed.

cigarettes with 95% less nicotine

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According to this (paywalled) Philadelphia Inquirer article, commercially produced cigarettes sold in Pennsylvania may soon be modified to be very low in nicotine. Now, who at this point is going to inhale cancer-causing smoke for no reason? I imagine a lot of people will quit, which is the point, and others will turn to the black market or other substances. There will be some irony if former cannabis dealers turn to black market cigarettes as the more profitable option.

I think cigarettes are dumb and I am against the health impacts, annoyance they cause for everyone around, and especially the disgusting trash they produce. But are we sure it is a good idea to criminalize a drug that has been legal and popular for centuries? What’s the enforcement plan for this?