As the hysteria over Mephedrone in the mainstream media builds towards fever pitch, the SNP have tried to prove to the world that their agenda is set by the tabloids EVEN MORE than the Labour party.

Nice hair Fergus

SNP MSP Fergus Ewing has trumpeted how he has written to the UK government demanding a ban on mephedrone, and now Alex Salmond claims he won’t wait for them to take action. Yesterday’s Daily Record carried the headline ‘Alex Salmond ready to ban legal drug mephedrone before UK government,’ which conveniently ignores the fact that the Scottish Government doesn’t legally have the power to do any such thing.

In fact what’s being proposed at Scottish level is a package of education materials getting put together for distribution to schools and young people. This is, of course, something that SSY would support, as long as the information was based on actual science and not tabloid bullshit. Unfortunately, the SNP’s rush to embrace the tabloid driven BAN IT NOW!!! campaign doesn’t fill us with confidence.

A sane and scientific perspective is hard to come by in the whole debate. You have to turn to Leftfield favourite Professor David Nutt, the man the government sacked for telling the scientific truth about drugs.

One reason that the government hasn’t quite got round to doing as the tabloids command them yet is that their own scientific advisory committee is in chaos after they sacked Professor Nutt, and many of his colleagues resigned in sympathy. The man picked by the government as the new head of the committee, Prof. Les Iverson, has hinted that he will recommend banning mephedrone.

However, Prof. Nutt says: “”The Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs could say that one confirmed death is enough evidence to make mephedrone a controlled drug, or they could say they believe in the precautionary principle, but neither of those is scientific and if they do go down that route then they will have lost scientific credibility. It is an open question whether mephedrone is more or less harmful than MDMA [the main component of ecstasy]. We really don’t know, but I would say that they are probably similar.”

As an alternative to banning, Prof. Nutt recommends “some sort of regulated use for MDMA or mephedrone where people, maybe in clubs, could have access to small amounts, safe amounts under guidance”.

Of course, the voices of people who actually know what they’re talking about, like drugs workers or Prof. Nutt, are being totally drowned out in the media authoritarian frenzy. But sooner or later our society will have to come to terms with the actual scientific facts, rather than the insane pseudo-science of the “anti-drugs” lobby. That is, prohibition has always done far more harm than good, and has never prevented people from taking drugs. The main social consequence of banning drugs is that you make the people that sell them into extremely rich criminals. Potential mephedrone dealers will no doubt be very glad of the free advertising they’re getting, just before the government opens up a tax-free black market for them to profit from.

Bonus: Check out Prof. Nutt’s scientific paper ‘Equasy’, where he shows that more people are hurt and killed by taking part in equestrian activities (horse riding basically) than through taking ecstasy. As he says in the paper:

“coverage of the classification of cannabis and the ongoing review of ‘ecstasy’/ MDMA has shown that the arguments about relative drug harms are occurring in an arcane manner, at times taking a quasi-religious character reminiscent of medieval debates about angels and the heads of pins!”

Specious reasoning alert! The ongoing campaign by the media to give drug dealers a new product to sell got another boost today, as yet another death was supposedly linked to the currently legal drug Mephedrone.

A young woman from North Yorkshire was found dead at her home, prompting local police to speak out against the drug. In a damning statement, that conclusively puts the blame on Mephedrone for this tragedy, DCI Nigel Costello said:

“Although at this time it cannot be determined whether mephedrone is present within the deceased’s system or whether the drug played any part in her death, the police would like to warn people about the use of the drug and its potentially lethal consequences.” (My emphaisis, obviously, since he was talking.)

Of course, the story has been written up as ‘6th victim of the killer drug!!11!’ by the hysterical media desperate to milk a good old fashined drugs crusade. This is despite the fact that the only link here is, maybe, according to friends, the victim might have taken Mephadrone (along with other substances) at some point in the two days leading up to her death. Hmmm.

The government has hinted in the media that they may very soon turn Mephadrone into a class B drug, as part of their highly scientific system of having three grades of nastiness based on how much shite has been talked in the papers. That would put it on the same level of harm and illegality as that other noted, scientifically proven killer, cannabis. Possession of a class B drug can be sentenced with up to 5 years in jail, and dealing with 14.

Of course, all the current pseudo-scientific madness will serve to do is hype Mephedrone up to potential users. Meaning there’ll be a lovely pre-existing market when they ban it, waiting to be taken advantage of by professional dealers. But the papers and the government won’t be caring, as they’ll have moved on to whatever next we’re supposed to be terrified of/enraged by/FUCKING BAN NOW, THIS AN OUTRAGE AAAARRRGGHHH!!!11!

Before any of these nutters say anything, Leftfield would also like to express our sympathy for the family of the victim in this tragic death. It’s just we also have no interest in using a tragic death to make a bunch of unproven nonsense that goes on to further a right wing, authoritarian drug war with the aim of putting more young people in prison. That would be a textbook example of being a bastard, tabloids.

Bonus: check out this bizarre Sky News ‘Investigation’, in which they say “nobody knows what mephedrone does to your body”, and go on to say that the main effects are “putting you in a good mood” (holy shit!), but that possible side effects “may include death”.

Who seems more reasonable, the reporter above, or this worker from Drugs charity Release?

(Incidentally, youtube comment of the week has to go to user zonked23, who on the above video writes “Take loads of drugs fuck the system.”)

Double bonus competition: A jiffy bag stuffed to the gunnels with legal highs for anyone who can prove to Leftfield they actually call Mephedrone ‘Miaow Miaow.’

http://www.crew2000.org.uk/glossary/Mephedrone/13.html

This guy decided it would be a good idea to change his name “Fuck, the Drug War.” What’s also funny is that his name was ALREADY “Fuck Censorship.” Now everyone knows there are serious limits to dissent in America, but how much censorship is there in a society that allows you to have “Fuck Censorship” as YOUR NAME?

Regardless of our own personal views of his decision, SSY would like to assure Mr. the Drug War that he’s welcome at one of our stalls to sign a Legalise Cannabis petition any time.

(via GOOD.)

Leftfield would be the last blog to ever suggest that The Sun newspaper, as a bastion of journalistic integrity and proud defender of the truth, would ever stoop so low to tell lies on their front page. As such, we were utterly shocked and OUTRAGED today on our stroll to the shops to learn that not only is the government in the ‘GRIP’ of the unions (presumably the same union who’s action Gordon Brown described the other day as ‘unjustified and deplorable’) but that drugs are killing OUR CHILDREN! But hey look, a suspiciously free one pound bet!
Anyway, arriving home, I decided to do a little bit further investigation into this claim that ‘meow meow’, ie. the quasi-legal drug mephedrone (or bubbles, m-cat or ‘plant food’) ‘killed’ two teenagers.
While clearly absolutely tragic – two boys aged 18 and 19 collapsed and died on Monday following a night-out – what follows is less set-in-stone evidence that ‘drone lay behind their deaths, but more tabloid and police scaremongering and much stretching of the facts to suit their agenda that mephedrone = mega dangerous and needs banned straight away. Note also that the government’s Advisory Council on Drugs is expected to reach a decision on the drug within the next two weeks – if there was ever a time for ramping up the tabloid campaign to ‘BAN’ it, this is it.
In this vein, the article quotes Detective Chief Inspector Mark Oliver, who tells us that “We need to get the message across that this drug is dangerous and you may die if you take it”.

It seems that the specific circumstances of this case are slightly more complicated though – the Sun reports that “Officers believe both lads…  also had access to heroin substitute methadone which they used to bring them down from the high of mephedrone.”
In other words, that mephedrone may have  ’contributed to’ and been ‘linked to’ these deaths, is being taken and used by the Sun to mean that is absolutely, 100% lay behind them.

“It is not clear how the authorities know the drug is involved or whether the figure is the result of a single incident.”

Looking shifty: Steven Purcell gets the sweats

After the resignation of the leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell on Tuesday, it’s hard to find someone with a bad word to say about him.

Even SNP First Minister Alex Salmond, who once told Purcell to grow up, has been being nice about him.

So where do you go if you want to see someone be critical of this knobhead? Most of the media are, today at least, keeping cautious about the rumours about his resignation, since it was announced by his expensive high-powered solicitors. We wonder why that could be?

The official reason for Purcell standing down is that he is “exhausted and stressed”. But last week he seemed to be on good enough form to go to a fancy dinner at the Hilton with Gordon ‘Citric Idiot‘ Brown and Rangers manager Walter Smith to raise money for the Labour Party. But over the course of the weekend, things changed, and word started to come out on Monday he was standing down.

It’s easy to see why he would be stressed, following a major scandal at Strathclyde Passenger Transport, the public body responsible for running the subway and other public transport in Glasgow. Labour councillors have been in the top posts at this body for a long time, but recently it began to emerge that despite SPT bosses’ huge salaries, they’ve been making ridiculous expense claims, which added up to £520, 000. Free junkets enjoyed by top managers included trips to football games, expensive restaurants, £117,573 in foreign trips around the world, and even a Neil Diamond concert (where they undoubtedly had a few bottles of Red Red Wine).

Back of an SPT train

When this all started to come out several top managers were forced to resign. How this is linked to Purcell’s resignation remains to be revealed. Relations between the council and SPT have been severely strained by the affair. Tensions haven’t been helped by the slow pace of building up transport links needed for the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Almost everyone who has commented on Purcell’s resignation has been quick to praise his role in bringing the Commonweath Games to Glasgow. But was the successful bid such great news for Glasgow as all the mainstream parties would like us to believe?

The current budget for the cost of the games is £288 million, but of course nobody believes such huge projects will ever stay inside their budget. Meanwhile, the race is on to for property developers and lazy rich people everywhere to get their hands on land in the East End and other extremely poor parts of Glasgow. Many know that if they own land they will get huge payouts from public funds for them. And after the Commonwealth Games, the long term effect is likely to be a wave of gentrification. That means that new housing and investment will mean that poor people can’t afford to live in areas they grew up any more.

It shouldn’t surprise us that this took place under Purcell’s leadership. Before he was leader of the council he was responsible for Development and Regeneration Services. What that really means is that he was at the head of efforts to use capitalist economics to transform Glasgow, and make sure it has no future as a working class city.

Purcell’s other greatest achievement was completely pissing off parents across the city when he decided to close 25 schools and nurseries, many of them in less well off areas like the Wyndford. This idiotic decision has been fought all the way by the city-wide Save Our Schools campaign. The fight included parents going into their children’s schools to occupy them.

Many were asking themselves why there was a bottomless pit of cash for the one-off Commonwealth Games, but nothing for the long term educational needs of Glaswegian pupils.

The full story behind Purcell’s resignation will take some time to come out. The announcement that today he came out of a drugs and drink rehab clinic may be the first sniff of the truth, but it’s still unclear why he was there. We do hope however that his recent experience in rehab, surrounded by people with serious addiction problems, will open his mind on the issues surrounding drugs in Glasgow.

Say hello to our new leader, Glasgow.

Glasgow urgently needs more support services for those with addiction problems. But Scotland as a whole needs to take a radical new approach, and recognise that the war on drugs has been lost. It’s time to stop treating people with problems like criminals, and give them the help they need through the NHS.

Unfortunately there seems to be little sign of the Labour Party as a whole taking this on board. The interim leader replacing Purcell is Jim Coleman, a man who has made a career out of being anti-drugs, and opposed several different education and support organisations. Whether this stance has any bearing on his selection as city leader remains to be seen.

When people were protesting against the war in Iraq, “No war for oil!” was one of the main slogans around the world. Of course it’s easy to see that at a simple level the reason why Britain and America invaded Iraq was to do with oil.

But things are rarely simple and straight forward when it comes to the operation of big, nuclear armed empires trying to control the world. For example, as much as the war in Iraq was about American control and access to Iraq’s oil fields, it was also about making sure that when that oil was bought and sold on the world market it was done in dollars, not euros.

The same is true of the long, and escalating, war in Afghanistan. On one level the reason British and American soldiers are killing and dying there is clearly to do with oil pipelines, and keeping strategic control over Asia in a battle for world domination. These big reasons why the war grinds on are about to be explained in an upcoming SSY pamphlet looking a bit deeper into why we should campaign for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

But in any big war operation like this, there are secondary reasons why the governments of NATO are willing to commit lives and huge amounts of money. Something that’s been overlooked as a reason motivating the war in Afghanistan is the global importance of the heroin economy.

Estimates put the value of the global heroin trade at more than $64.82 billion per year. Today, over 90% of that product originates in Afghanistan. Only a small proportion of these massive profits can be held in cash or recycled through unofficial banks. The vast majority has to be laundered through the global financial system. In other words, the drug trade contributes billions of dollars a year to the revenues of major global banks.

Poppies being grown for heroin production in Afghanistan

Just because something is illegal doesn’t mean that when it’s traded for huge profits it isn’t a vital part of the world economy. The story of the growth of the heroin trade since the 60’s is one that’s inextricably linked with the history of US imperialism and its wars around the world. There’s a long and well documented history of the involvement of US government agencies like the CIA in the drug trade. During the US wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, American support was given to anti-communist rebels that used heroin production to fund their operations with the support and approval of the CIA. The areas where the drugs were produced were known as ‘The Golden Triangle.’

Later persistent allegations surfaced that in the 1980s the CIA collaborated in assisting the Contra rebels (who were waging war against the left wing government in Nicaragua) in selling crack cocaine into the US. This was uncovered by investigative journalist Gary Webb. The point of the operation was to generate a stream of profits through the drug trade that provided the money to sustain the Contras’ war. If the CIA has asked the US Congress for this funding they would have had to justify its use, but crack money provided funds whose use they weren’t answerable for.

With black communities across the US flooded with crack cocaine, many affected by the resulting wave of social disruption blamed the CIA and US foreign policy. By 1996 CIA Director John Deutch was forced to appear at a public meeting in Watts, Los Angeles to answer to the allegations. Despite his denials of CIA involvement in the drug trade, he was confronted by a former LAPD Narcotics Officer turned independent investigator, Mike Ruppert, who told the meeting he had direct evidence of CIA involvement in trafficking crack.

The point of all this background history is to show that the CIA and other US government and military agencies have long had involvement in the highly profitable global drug trade. The profits from this trade have helped to provide funding for secret military operations not subject to any kind of democratic scrutiny.

Beginning in 1978 the CIA embarked on its biggest operation ever, which was to fund and arm warlords and Islamic fundamentalists to make war against the Soviet-backed left wing government of Afghanistan. They worked hand-in-glove with the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency This war dragged on throughout the 80s, draining lives and resources from the USSR, and contributing greatly to its final collapse. The mujahideen rebels, equipped by American arms and money, were eventually able to drive the Soviet armies out, and then depose the government.

In the chaos of the war and its aftermath Afghanistan became the world’s leading supplier of heroin. As you might expect, very little of the profits are made by the actual farmers. The money is made by government officials, police, warlords and power brokers. Indeed, the western-backed President Hamid Karzai’s own family have been implicated in the drug trade.

Of course, when the mainstream media reports on the Afghan heroin trade, they usually do so to imply that it provides funding to the Taliban and al Qaeda. However, the truth is that the vast majority of the profit goes to NATO allies, people who our forces maintain in power. Many of these same forces work with figures in the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment, providing a major source of income to Pakistani state (another US ally.)

In fact, in 2000, before the American invasion and while they were still in power, the Taliban actually banned the growing of poppies needed to produce heroin. The Afghan heroin trade temporarily collapsed in value, cutting off a massive source of revenue for the Pakistani state. And ultimately, the impact was felt on the profits of western banks through which the money would have been laundered.

When the US and its allies invaded in 2001, revival of the heroin trade proved to be one of the main ways to finance the operations of the Northern Alliance, the western backed gang of brutal warlords now in power in many parts of Afghanistan. Some of the warlords have become millionaires as a result.

In addition, there is a significant profit being made by someone in the marketing of the chemical precursors needed to manufacture heroin in Afghanistan. Acetic anhydride, a chemical needed as part of the process, is regularly intercepted being smuggled into Afghanistan. The trade in this chemical is thought to be worth $45 million. A portion of that money makes its way back to western chemical corporations as profits.

There are an estimated 16 million opiate users worldwide, and the main market is in Europe, where the annual profits are estimated to be around $20 billion. One of the main ways that peace could perhaps be achieved in Afghanistan would be to do something to curb the demand for illegally produced heroin in Europe.

In Scotland, the SSP and SSY has campaigned for years in favour of a system of clean, pharmaceutical heroin being prescribed to addicts via the NHS. We’ve been villified, even effectively being called drug dealers by the Daily Record. But the fact remains that heroin on prescription is a safer way to help people with an addiction than the current system of blanket prescribing methadone. In a pilot scheme in the English town of Widnes where this was tried the effect was a drop to virtually zero levels of acquisitive crime by drug users, as well as new infection rates for HIV.

Pharmaceutical heroin

The urgency of removing the need for Scotland’s 50,000+ heroin users to buy from the illegal market was illustrated graphically last year. At least 9 people were killed after using heroin that was contaminated with anthrax.

But at least part of the reason that the pilot scheme in Widnes was shut down was that it threatened the profits of pharmaceutical companies manufacturing methadone. And at least part of the reason that NATO forces remain entangled in the Afghan war is that our allies rely on the heroin trade, which in turn produces a tidy profit for western banks. In the wake of the economic collapse of 2008, banks are now less keen than ever to ask too many questions about where their money is coming from. As UN drug official Antonio Mario Costa puts it:

“Interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities, and there were signs that some banks were rescued in that way. . .At a time of major bank failures, money doesn’t smell, bankers seem to believe.”

What all this shows is that the fight against the war in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the fight to change society here. Their problems are largely a result of our governments’ policies. A socialist drug policy in Scotland would go a long way to ending the misery caused by illegal heroin in Scottish communities. But it would also go a long way to pulling the fuel from the fire of the war in Afghanistan, giving the Afghan people a chance at last to have peace and determine their own future.

The Daily Mirror have continued in their fine tradition of providing us with important information about celebrities as a public service. This time, they’ve broken the news that Daniel Radcliffe, who plays teen wizard Harry Potter in some famous films, might have been caught smoking a joint.

According to other party-goers, he was staggering around saying “I love weed.” and let a girl draw a comedy beard on his face. Hilarious!

He has come out and categorically denied it, though. Aww. We were going to invite him to be keynote speaker at our next Legalise Cannabis event, but it looks like we’ll have to make do with this slightly less famous Harry Potter actor.

The Governments chief scientific advisor, shortly before enjoying a ketamine sundae

Chief drugs advisor to the Government David Nutt has been sacked from his post, after a string of “controversial statements” – the most recent being that LSD and Cannabis were less harmful than alcohol.

He’s already enraged the Government and Tory Tabloids by saying that Ecstasy was less dangerous than horse riding, and argued that Cannabis should not be upgraded to a class B drug.

The Government clearly are no longer interested in having scientists independent of party politics take part in an informed discussion about drug use in the UK. Ecstasy and LSD like all drugs are harmful, but they are not Heroin or Cocaine.

Most people who use Ecstasy or LSD do so recreationally, and the deaths caused by these drugs and the harm caused to families could be reduced if the Government supported a harm reduction strategy instead of a “just say no” policy which simply has no effect on most users.

Cannabis itself is clearly less harmful than Alcohol or Tobacco and it’s a disgrace that someone is fired for expressing the feelings of what the majority of Police, NHS workers and the general public know – that the abuse of Alcohol and Tobacco is much more widespread and damaging than that of Cannabis.

Leftfield isn’t “pro-drugs”, we are pro-recognising reality – people throughout Scotland and the UK use drugs regularly. Many of them have no intention of stopping because they don’t feel that drug use negatively impacts on their lifes.

Any drugs policy enacted by the Government should take alcohol into account and recognise that folk will take drugs, and do everything they can to reduce the harm it can do to people who do use them. The exception to this rule is Heroin, which is virtually impossible to take recreationally, and should be provided in a pure, safe form to addicts so they don’t die of overdoses and so they don’t commit crime to feed their habit.

Alongside that the Government should start considering why people abuse drugs – in Scotland, especially alcohol – as part of a strategy for people to have healthier lives.

SSY candidate for Drugs Tsar

As part of our cunning plan to gradually infiltrate and corrupt the mainstream media/take over the world with our nasty red politics, our Legalise campaign is totally, like, ALL OVER the Herald’s letter page today.  Sort of. Okay, I had one letter published. It’s a start isn’t it?
Give us three months and Fox news will be nothing but 24 hour rolling SSY propaganda. No joke.

After the Government made its humiliating and stupid u-turn last year, making cannabis a Class B drug, up from a Class C drug* SSY had a successful march/minor jog (thanks strathy police) in Glasgow, from George Square to Kelvingrove Park.

A lot of the opposition to legalising cannabis comes from concerns about mental health, and tries to back it up with science. But the reality is that the governments scientific panel of advisers on drugs didn’t want the law toughened up on cannabis.

The government ignored them so they could look tough on drugs, regardless of what the facts are.

The reality is that most mental health problems caused by cannabis inflame pre-existing disorders, or are caused by “skunk” – super strong cannabis. If weed was legal we could stick warnings on the packets and regulate the content the same way we do with tobacco.

Even though cannabis causes social harm in terms of mental health in some cases, these aren’t being prevented cos the drug is kept criminalised. No one can seriously say that cannabis – even if ALL the stories on it are true, which they aren’t – does more harm to society than alcohol, tobacco, or deep fried king ribs in rolls but we don’t ban them.

We don’t ban them because we know it doesn’t work. People don’t take stuff which is always healthy for them, have taken drugs and will always take drugs.

This hasn’t stopped the media scare campaign though, with the Daily Mail running a story that folk who had injected (!!!) THC had “transient psychotic symptoms” – ie paranoia.

Wow, folk who get stoned get paranoid for a wee bit, shock horror. The Daily Mail also covered a story saying 40% of teenagers knew someone who had been damaged by cannabis.

Lets get them to do the same survey about alcohol – if it’s not 100% and includes themselves, they’re lying bastards.

It’s about time we had a worked out drug policy in Scotland that dealt with ALL drug abuse in an adult manner, took cannabis out the hands of drug dealers and stop criminalising folk for smoking a drug that is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.

If you want to show your opposition to hypocritical drug laws, there is only one place to be,

LEGALISE CANNABIS MARCH

AUGUST 22nd
ASSEMBLE GEORGE SQUARE 12pm
MARCH TO KELVINGROVE PARK                                                           FOR  DJ’s AND BANDS!

* A class B drug is a drug which is treated more harshly by the law than a class C drug, and class A is treated harsher than class B. Has no relation to actual quality of drug itself.