She died last night.

[cornermouse]

Her father came home from prison for his visit and now Jayci Yaeger is gone. It looks like she really was waiting for him. The love of a child.

[seabeyond]

1. are you talking about the little girl, dying, wanting dad from prison. he was there

cause of drugs?

so they let him out

and she died?

hadnt heard they let him out to visit

thanks for the update

[cornermouse]

3. Yep.

CBS announced that she died last night.

[malaise]

2. Too sad

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/20/earlyshow/main3953431.shtml


Farewell you innocent child

[cornermouse]

4. Something is wrong with a world in which children die.

We lose a piece of our future every time we lose a child.

[malaise]

6. Yes indeed

It is always sad.

[bananas]

14. yes

:cry:

[rasputin1952]

7. "Would you know my name...if I saw you in heaven?..."

So sad...the first thing I thought of was Clapton's "Tears in Heaven"...:(

[Clear Blue Sky]

5. At least they let the dad visit her before she died.

[susankh4]

8. I am happy that she got to be with her dad one more time.

Peace, sweet one. Peace.

[mucifer]

9. They need to change some of these laws.

[BoneDaddy]

10. How infinately sad

this situation was. I am glad some compassion ruled the day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Oh how sad.

Glad he got to be with her before she was gone.

[mainegreen]

12. This is both the sweetest and saddest thing I've read all day.

:(

[JI7]

18. yes

just glad her dad got to be with her, it's sad enough that a child has to deal with something like cancer and lose their life.

[madokie]

13. Now you've gone and done it

:cry: just glad I type by touch. No person should ever be incarcerated for drugs ever. Its never the right course of action to take, never.

[Mabus]

15. Oh man, that hurts

:cry: That really hurts.

[riderinthestorm]

16. Just heartbreaking all around.

:cry: Thanks for posting the update

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Meanwhile, in TROTW, "Portugal's Drug Users Go To Experts' Panel, Not Jail"

A new Portuguese law eliminates jail time for possession or use of small amounts of any illegal drug and instead sends drug users to a panel of experts, who provide assistance.

Jail sentences have been replaced with mandatory counseling or treatment and possibly community service or a fine of up to 30,000 escudos, about $130. The panels consist of a psychologist, a social worker and a legal adviser, who decide what action to take.

The new approach is drawing fierce criticism, especially from conservative politicians who argue that a wave of foreign ''drug tourists'' will head for Portugal. ''We are offering sun, beaches and any drug you like,'' said Paulo Portas, leader of the conservative Popular Party.

Still, in shifting the focus of the police anti-drug efforts to traffickers instead of users, Portugal's Socialist government has joined a European trend toward treating users as victims who need help, not punishment.

more: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E1D91439F936A35752C1A9679C8B63


Portugal last week followed the example of Spain and Italy in decriminalising the use of drugs such as cannabis and heroin, enabling drug addicts to seek help instead of facing persecution as criminals.

"The idea is to get away from punishment towards treatment," said Carlos Borges, a government policy spokesman. "We consider a drug-dependent person to be sick, not a criminal."

The decision taken by MPs on Thursday reflects less a liberalising impulse – the social policy instincts of Portugal's ruling socialists are fairly conservative – than a pragmatic response to the mounting problem of drug use, especially among the young.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/070900-03.htm


But there is hope. Powerful united voices are demanding fresh policies. The Rome consensus has been signed by the Red Cross/Red Crescent movements in more than a hundred countries. The 47 countries of Council of Europe have unanimously backed a new drugs convention. Both documents call for practical, evidence-backed policies that build on the health solutions that work and the harsh punitive policies that do not work.

The greatest reduction in drug harm on the planet has been in Portugal. They de-penalised drugs in 2001 and have now halved the total of drug deaths - in addition to saving a fortune in court, prison and police costs. Pragmatic policies of drug-injection rooms have been successful in many European countries and Australia.

Using the criminal justice system of courts and prisons is expensive and counter-productive. No prison in the UK is free of illegal drug use. Treatment, needle exchanges and building solidarity with addicts are good value and reduce harm.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/paul_flynn/2008/02/duped_on_dope.html


European Drugs Convention

8th October 2007

Europe is set for a new harm-reduction drugs convention after my report was passed unanimously at the Council of Europe.

The debate had a stirring thoughtful contribution from Tory MP Tim Boswell. He had done great work in his party group in Strasbourg. So had Mike Hancock with the Lib Dems. An unexpected and thoroughly welcome speech was made by a Canadian MP.

My views have not changed. Those of the British Government and the Pompidou Group have. Marvellous work has been done behind the scenes by the International Red Cross/Red Crescent and the Senlis Council. Two years ago, I spoke at the first declaration of the Rome Consensus which is a parallel campaign. It now has the signatures of Red Cross groups from more than sixty countries.


More international meetings are planned to promote the consensus and the convention. I have had some excited phone calls from progressive drug campaigners who understand the significance. There have been so many disappointments in the past when politicians have lost courage.

This report will be used next year by the International Red Cross to press for a world convention that will evidence based, compassionate and practical. After 49 years of futile self-defeating prohibition, international policy may be at a turning point. I must not allow my euphoria to take over, but there has been a change. I hope it's a realisation of the misery created by prohibition. Health solutions work. The criminal justice system multiplies all drug problems. This is a big first step.

For a European convention on promoting public health policy in drug control. Resolution 1576 (2007)

1. Drug addiction is a complex biological, psychological and societal problem. Scientific research and practical experience have made it possible to broaden our knowledge of it. Increasingly, this improved knowledge allows the implementation of a drugs policy focused on preserving public health, for individual addicts and for society. Although many scientific questions concerning dependency remain unanswered, the aspects linked to public health, the effectiveness of prevention and of medical treatments and improved protection of society against the resulting health risks are now better known.

2. Since the late 1960s, considerations of public health have played an increasing role in pragmatic, evidenced-based drug policy-making in many member states of the Council of Europe. The right to health provides the cornerstone principle on which such considerations are based. This right is recognised in the Council of Europe acquis (Articles 11 and 13 of the Revised European Social Charter) as well as in numerous other international and regional human rights treaties. It grants every individual the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, defined by the World Health Organization as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.

3. A number of key public health responses to “problem drug use” have emerged in past decades, including substitution treatment, needle exchange programmes and psychosocial treatment. These measures have had a marked effect on the successful long-term rehabilitation of drug users and their reintegration into society. The resultant benefits have been felt by society as a whole, through reductions in the incidence of criminal behaviour, reduced costs for health and criminal justice systems, reduced risks of transmission of HIV and other blood-borne viruses, increased productivity and ultimately reduced drug use levels.

4. However, these responses have so far been employed only on a fragmentary basis across Europe. This is despite the fact that their utility and cost-effectiveness is now widely documented. According to estimates cited by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), for example, every dollar invested in opioid dependence treatment programmes may yield a return of between $4 and $7 in reduced drug-related crime, criminal justice costs and theft alone. When savings related to health care are included, total savings can exceed costs by a ratio of 12:1.

5. Moreover, recent world trends have provided additional proof of the abject failure of efforts to reduce the production and supply of drugs. The current illegal drugs market in Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of heroin, provides ample evidence of the ineffectiveness to address the drugs problem in a comprehensive manner. Despite six years of military action to restrict the poppy crops in the country, the United Nations have confirmed that poppy crop production in Afghanistan has increased by 60% for the year 2006-2007 compared to the previous year.

6. Steps being taken in the European Union as part of the EU Drugs Strategy 2005-12 aim to achieve a high level of health protection by complementing EU member states’ action in preventing and reducing drug use and dependence and drug-related harm to health and society. In particular, the strategy places a high priority on improving access to a range of public health orientated responses that can reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with drug dependence. However, it is clear that special efforts need to be taken in relation to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where political and infrastructural obstacles have hindered the implementation of such responses. The escalating HIV/AIDS pandemic in these regions provides an added urgency to this imperative: 80% of HIV cases with a known route of transmission in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are due to injecting drug use.

7. The geographic sphere of influence of the Council of Europe makes it the ideal forum to undertake such efforts and send an unequivocal signal giving a framework to its member states to develop public health-orientated responses to problem drug use. In pursuit of this end, which has been emphasised by the Pompidou Group and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Parliamentary Assembly calls upon member states to work together to design a convention promoting public health policy in drug control. This convention should complement existing legal instruments in the areas of drug control, human rights and public health. It should consolidate scientific and medical knowledge in a framework document which may form the basis for the design of national drug strategies.

8. The Council of Europe convention should be predicated on the following three inter-related objectives to:

8.1. promote, as a fundamental human right, the right to health in the context of problem drug use;

8.2. clarify the scope of the right to health as it applies to problem drug use;

8.3. help identify good practices for the operation of the right to health as it applies to problem drug use, at the community, national and international levels.

9. In pursuit of these objectives, the convention, which should be complementary to the existing framework of national drug policies, should incorporate the following four elements:

9.1. prevention and education, including measures targeting the special needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups;

9.2. treatment, covering a range of treatment methods, including substitution treatment and needle exchange programmes, and incorporating a psychosocial component as integral to the various treatment methods;

9.3. rehabilitation and social reintegration, including treatment alternatives to imprisonment and labour market rehabilitation;

9.4. monitoring and evaluation, aimed at identifying best practices.

10. Insofar as many of the negative consequences of drug use are felt at local levels, the convention should also seek to reaffirm the principle of subsidiarity, by encouraging consideration of the ways that more local government agencies may act effectively. In this way, it is intended that health-driven drug policy responses be guided by scientific evidence as well as local conditions.

11. In order to promote the effective implementation of the convention, the Assembly calls on member states to:

11.1. extend the scope of drug demand reduction programmes, assess them and disseminate the best practices assessed;

11.2. improve access to prevention programmes in schools and make them more effective;

11.3. improve prevention methods and the detection of risk factors in certain target groups, especially young people, as well as the dissemination of these data to the professionals in order to implement early intervention programmes;

11.4. ensure that targeted treatment, re-education and social reintegration programmes are available and accessible. These programmes should incorporate tested psychosocial and pharmacological strategies, and include drug addicts not reached by existing services with particular attention being paid to specialised services for young people, and rehabilitation of drug addicts in the labour market;

11.5. develop further alternatives to imprisonment for addicts and the setting-up of prevention, treatment and reintegration services for prisoners;

11.6. improve access to harm reduction services and treatment and set up programmes preventing the propagation of the AIDS virus, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases and endeavour to reduce the number of drug-related deaths;

11.7. encourage research into the factors underlying dependency and such questions as the effects of certain drugs and effective health measures;

11.8. implement operational enforcement programmes in order to reduce the production of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, as well as synthetic drugs and trade in them, in particular by devising operational joint programmes, collecting intelligence on third countries involved in manufacturing and trading in such drugs, sharing best practice and exchanging information;

11.9. devise and implement measures targeted at money laundering and the seizure and re-use of financial products connected with drugs, in particular through exchanges of information and best practices;

11.10. encourage co-operation with international organisations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the EMCDDA, as well as with civil society and community groups from areas most affected by problem drug use;

11.11. encourage the creation, in national parliaments, of mechanisms and structures which promote public health responses to problem drug use in the national context, such as all-party parliamentary groups;

11.12. provide appropriate financial support.

1 Assembly debate on 3 October 2007 (33rd Sitting).Text adopted by the Assembly on 3 October 2007 (33rd Sitting).

http://www.paulflynnmp.co.uk/consensusspreads.htm

[aikoaiko]

19. This story is a good reminder of why I shouldn't commit crimes.

Even "victimless" crimes could cause me to be sent to prison and fail my family.