CEDRO Former Centre for Drug Research, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Less THC, more public health?

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 27 Apr 2013 13:48:36 GMT

This paper seeks to comment on legislative changes proposed in The Netherlands to make a legal distinction between low and high THC content cannabis. The proposed distinction is not driven by public health interests, the arguments are flawed and not substantiated. It is a political decision with benefits for interest groups.

Cohen, P. (2011), Less THC, More Public Health? Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 188-193.

Les politiques de drogue exemptées de toute rationalité. Les poursuites judiciaires contre le festival de musique de Rototom en Italie.

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 24 Jan 2013 19:38:06 GMT

Cet essai est une réaction aux poursuites judiciaires engagées contre les organisateurs du festival de musique italien « Rototom Sunsplash ». Chaque printemps aux environs de mai le festival se tenait dans les collines magiques du Frioul dans le nord de l’Italie, à côté de l’ancienne ville fortifiée de Tolmezzo qui donne sur les Alpes italiennes. Pendant trois jours des groupes de musique jouant principalement du reggae de partout dans le monde faisaient vibrer la grande scène installée à l’extérieur. Le festival organisait des conférences et des expositions dans une ambiance décontractée et multiculturelle qui attirait des milliers de jeunes italiens. En tant que conférencier invité j’ai pu observer le festival à plusieurs reprises et apprécier son infrastructure complexe. En 2011 le festival a été interdit parce que « les visiteurs risquaient de fumer du cannabis ». A la fin de 2011, en apprenant que les organisateurs du festival de musique allaient se défendre contre les accusations d’« encouragement à l’usage de drogues illicites », la ville d’Udine, capitale du Frioul, offrit le cadre solennel de sa mairie à plusieurs conférenciersi. Cette conférence d’une journée fut organisée début juin 2012 par un groupe promoteur d’une réforme des politiques de drogue appelé « Fuoriluogo ». Le texte ci-dessous est ma contribution aux réflexions de cette journée. Cohen, Peter (2012), Drug Policy as Freedom from Rationality. The prosecution of the Rototom music festival in Italy. Drugs and Alcohol Today, Volume 12, No 4, pp. 209-212. Traduction de l'Anglais: Laurent Baechler.

Drug Policy as Freedom from Rationality. The prosecution of the Rototom music festival in Italy.

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 24 Jan 2013 19:35:34 GMT

This essay is a reaction to the prosecution of the organisers of the Italian 'Rototom Sunsplash' music festival. Each spring around May the festival took place in the magical hills of Friuli in North Italy, close to the ancient fortress- town of Tolmezzo and in sight of the Italian Alps. For three days leading music bands, playing mainly reggae styles from all over the world, thunder inside its vast outdoor podium. The festival organised lectures and exhibitions, supplying a relaxed and varied cultural context that attracts thousands of young Italians. As a visiting lecturer I was able to witness the Festival a few times and appreciate its complex infra structure. In 2011 the Festival was prohibited because 'visitors would smoke cannabis'. The odd news in late 2011 that the organisers of the music festival were to defend themselves on charges of ' facilitating the use of illicit drugs' created a background against which the supportive city of Udine, Capitol of Friuli, offered its solemn City Hall to a variety of speakers. This daylong conference early june 2012 was organised by a drug policy reform group "Fuoriluogo'. The text below is my contribution to the reflections of that day. Cohen, Peter (2012), Drug Policy as Freedom from Rationality. The prosecution of the Rototom music festival in Italy. Drugs and Alcohol Today, Volume 12, No 4, pp. 209-212.

해외 전문가 의견서. 마리화나 흡연을 과연 형사처벌해야 하는가?

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 1 May 2011 13:58:14 GMT

Memorandum prepared for the Constitutional Court of Korea on request of Dr Moon, Director of KORIP, Mr Jeong Ho and Mr Jo Donghwan, September 2009.

Observation about cannabis use and cannabis policy

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 1 May 2011 13:56:06 GMT

Memorandum prepared for the Constitutional Court of Korea on request of Dr Moon, Director of KORIP, Mr Jeong Ho and Mr Jo Donghwan, September 2009.

The concept of 'drug harms'

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 16 Jan 2011 22:05:02 GMT

Drugs and Alcohol Today, Volume 10 Issue 4, December.

Die nackte Herrscherin: Die moderne Neurowissenschaft und das Konzept der Abhängigkeit

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 6 Oct 2010 20:26:38 GMT

Presentation at the 12th Plaform for Drug Treatment, Mondsee Austria, 21-22 March 2009. Organised by the Österreichische Gesellschaft für arzneimittelgestützte Behandlung von Suchtkranken OEGABS. Übersetzung aus dem Englischen: Dr. Kai Bammann, Zeven, kbammann@t-online.de.

L'imperatrice nuda. Le neuroscienze moderne e il concetto di dipendenza

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 9 Feb 2010 07:44:56 GMT

Presentazione alla 12a Piattaforma per il trattamento delle tossicodipendenze, Mondsee, Austria, 21-22 marzo 2009. Organizzata dalla Österreichische Gesellschaft für arzneimittelgestützte Behandlung von Suchtkranken OEGABS. Traduzione dall'inglese di Marina Impallomeni.

De grijze methadonmarkt: geluk bij een ongeluk?

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 3 Jul 2009 07:44:56 GMT

In de nota "Aanzet voor een rationele oplossing voor een irrationeel probleem" (Cohen en Roos,1982) die onder andere een uitgewerkt plan bevatte voor een gereguleerde verstrekking van heroine in Amsterdam, kwam het begrip al voor: De grijze markt. Het ging hier om een soort overvloei van legaal verstrekte heroine naar de straat. Gepleit werd om zo'n grijze markt te laten ontstaan, zodat "mensen die buiten de verstrekking toch (onregelmatig) willen gebruiken niet gedwongen zijn om zich op de traditionele zwarte markt te begeven" (pag 16). In de nu volgende beschouwing zal het gaan om een soortgelijke, reëël bestaande grijze markt, die van methadon. Ik zal mij hier voornamelijk beperken tot de grijze methadonmarkt in Amsterdam. Niet alleen omdat ik daar de meeste kijk op heb, maar ook omdat we nu beschikken over een paar onderzoeksgegevens betreffende die markt.

The Naked Empress: Modern neuro-science and the concept of addiction

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 5 May 2009 07:44:56 GMT

Presentation at the 12th Plaform for Drug Treatment, Mondsee Austria, 21-22 march 2009. Organised by the Österreichische Gesellschaft für arzneimittelgestützte Behandlung von Suchtkranken OEGABS

La culture de l'interdit du cannabis

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 17 Sep 2008 02:56:41 GMT

Est-ce la paresse politique et le manque d'intérêt qui permettent à cette grotesque bévue de perdurer?

Paper delivered to the conference on "Cannabis-growing in the Low Countries," University of Ghent, 3 and 4 December 2007

La cultura del bando della cannabis

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 18 May 2008 23:48:42 GMT

Is it political laziness and lack of interest that keep this farcical blunder afloat?

Paper delivered to the conference on "Cannabis-growing in the Low Countries," University of Ghent, 3 and 4 December 2007

Het oog van Antwerpen

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 30 Apr 2008 10:30:30 GMT

Voordracht bij de presentatie van de Antwerpse Drug en Alcoholmonitor 24 april 2008, door Peter Cohen

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Antonio Costa's speech opening CND 2008

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 14 Apr 2008 22:20:18 GMT

At first sight Mr Costa's speech in march 2008 yields some space for critique of the global drug control system similar to that which we have aired for decades. At second sight the space he allows for referring to this critique is no where followed up with space for a different analysis of the drug use phenomenon and the huge variety in which it occurs. A different analysis that would allow the present one size fits all drug control system to be innovated or diversified at least, at best scrapped in its entirety.

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The culture of the ban on cannabis

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 19 Jan 2008 17:32:10 GMT

Is it political laziness and lack of interest that keep this farcical blunder afloat?

Paper delivered to the conference on "Cannabis-growing in the Low Countries," University of Ghent, 3 and 4 December 2007

Crack in the Rearview Mirror: Deconstructing Drug War Mythology

craigo@cats.ucsc.edu (Craig Reinarman) — 1 Jan 2008 00:50:33 GMT

In the late 1970s, crack first came on the scene in the form of cocaine freebasing. Many of its users were stockbrokers and investment bankers, rock stars, Hollywood types, and a few pro athletes. Some of them began to get into trouble with this form of cocaine use, showing up in hospital emergency rooms and police stations. Congress passed new laws to extend health insurance coverage to include drug treatment. The treatment industry expanded the number of beds available.

In the mid-1980s, crack use spread into America's inner cities among impoverished African Americans and Latinos. Some of them began to get into trouble with this form of cocaine use, showing up in hospital emergency rooms and police stations. Congress passed new laws to extend the length of criminal sentences for crack offenses. The prison industry expanded the number of cells available.

The new laws against crack helped to drive the most massive wave of imprisonment in the history of the United States (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995: Table 1.5). The number of persons incarcerated increased each year from 1986 through 2000, helping to triple the prison population and giving the U.S. the highest rate of incarceration of any modern democracy. The number of drug offenders in prison grew eightfold, from about 50,000 in the early Reagan years to about 400,000 at the start of the second Bush administration. This bulging prison population was disproportionately comprised of poor people of color, most of whom had not committed violent crimes (Irwin and Austin, 1994; Parenti, 1999; Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001).

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Policing Pleasure. Food, Drugs, and the Politics of Ingestion

craigo@cats.ucsc.edu (Craig Reinarman) — 15 Dec 2007 18:48:39 GMT

On december 5, 2006, the New York City Board of Health passed two quite different regulations, each prompting a different reaction. One was "the first major municipal ban on the use of all but tiny amounts of artificial trans fats in restaurant cooking." The Board cited evidence that ingesting such trans fats raises the levels of an especially damaging type of cholesterol that is strongly linked to heart disease.

No one in the news accounts disputed the evidence, but the ban provoked criticism all the same because the state had trespassed into the lair of laissez-faire. A representative from the National Restaurant Association called the Board of Health's ban "a misguided attempt at social engineering by a group of physicians who don't understand the restaurant industry." A lawyer for the New York Restaurant Association invoked individual civil liberties: "I don't want to be told what to eat."

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De cultuur van het cannabisverbod

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 9 Dec 2007 23:30:15 GMT

Zijn het politieke luiheid en desinteresse die deze gaffe drijvend houden? Voordracht voor het congres 'Cannabisteelt in de Lage Landen', Universiteit van Gent, 3 en 4 december 2007.

Librarians and other subversives: Truth can be a casualty of drug wars, too.

craigo@cats.ucsc.edu (Craig Reinarman) — 8 Sep 2007 14:17:33 GMT

Editorial by Craig Reinarman. International Journal of Drug Policy 16 (2005) 1-4.

Europa og de mumlende gravsteiner

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 6 Jan 2007 00:09:45 GMT

Tale ved konferansen Veien til Wien 2008 i EU-parlamentet, Brussel, 7. november 2006.

L'Europa e i sepolcri imbiancati

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 5 Jan 2007 23:13:43 GMT

Discorso tenuto al Parlamento Europeo, Bruxelles, 7 novembre 2006.

Europe and the mumbling grave stones

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 10 Dec 2006 10:22:03 GMT

Presentation in the European Parliament, Brussels, November 7, 2006.

Looking at the UN, smelling a rat

pcohen@cedro-uva.org (Peter Cohen) — 10 Dec 2006 10:23:11 GMT

A comment on Sweden's succesful drug policy: a review of the evidence, UNODC september 2006.

The Centre for Drug Research has been discontinued

info@sasict.nl (Arjan Sas) — 10 Dec 2006 10:20:54 GMT

The Centre for Drug Research ceased to exist as an independent drug research institution per january 2004 and proceeded to finnish ongoing projects and articles. Most of the CEDRO work (theoretical and epidemiological) is published on the CEDRO website. The CEDRO website also has many publications of which many translated to major languages on drug use careers, drug policy, and the politics of knowledge construction about drugs and its history. These articles are authored by former CEDRO staff or guest researchers, as by authors considerd intereresting. The website will remain maintained till at least 2007. Questions about visits or research opportunities will have to be turned down. Questions about published CEDRO work can be directed to Peter Cohen (pcohen@cedro-uva.org).