"Health & Medical News"

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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The U.S. military intercepted the lowest amount of cocaine in 2007 in five years, and officials say smugglers have gotten better at avoiding detection, the Associated Press reported Jan. 14.

“The bad guy is moving faster than we’re moving,” said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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Researchers in Texas are binding cocaine to deactivated cholera proteins to create a vaccine that fools the body into attacking cocaine molecules, thus making the drug ineffective, the Associated Press reported Jan. 1.

Researchers Tom and Therese Kosten of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston recently requested Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin a multi-institutional trial of the vaccine, as early as this spring.

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The Bush administration recently said that cocaine supplies have tightened and prices are rising, but officials in some U.S. cities are unconvinced of the federal government’s claim of an “unprecedented cocaine shortage,” NPR reported Dec. 26.

In December, U.S. drug czar John Walters announced that, “The latest DEA reporting indicates a sharp increase in the street price of cocaine, with a 44 percent increase reported in price per pure gram between January and September of 2007.” Walters said that drug “seizures are having a profound effect on availability of drugs in the U.S.”

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The U.S. Sentencing Commission has ruled that recent changes to the federal sentencing guidelines for crack-cocaine offenses will be applied retroactively, meaning that up to 20,000 current prisoners may be able to apply for early release, USA Today reported Dec. 12.

The commission previously voted to reduce the disparity between crack-cocaine penalties and the penalties for offenses involving the powdered version of the drug; that change went into effect Nov. 1. In its latest action, the panel defied the Bush administration and voted unanimously to apply the lower crack sentences to offenders currently serving time.

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In a 7-2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a judge’s decision to violate federal sentencing guidelines and impose a shorter prison term on a man convicted of possession of crack cocaine, the Associated Press reported Dec. 10.

Weighing in on the controversy surrounding sentencing disparities for crack and powdered cocaine, the high court said that a judge had the discretion to sentence crack offender Derrick Kimbrough to 15 years in prison rather than the recommended 19 to 22 years.

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A new study suggests that providing monetary rewards to cocaine users may not be an effective way to get them to overcome their addictions.

The study by researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory found that cocaine users have less sensitivity to monetary rewards than nonusers. Moreover, researchers found that the heaviest cocaine users were least able to improve their behavior in response to monetary incentives.

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Some Ohio lawmakers think they have the answer to the disparity between penalties for crack and powder cocaine offenses: make the powder penalties as harsh as those for crack.

The Associated Press reported Oct. 25 that the Ohio Senate unanimously passed a measure that equalizes penalties for possession and trafficking of crack and cocaine by increasing the penalties for the latter. The Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers had called upon lawmakers to end what was viewed as a racially biased disparity by lowering the crack penalties to match those for powdered cocaine.

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The group Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) said that a recent decision to ease federal penalties for crack cocaine offenses should be retroactively applied to offenders already in prison, the Austin American-Statesman reported Nov. 3.

Congress went along with the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recommendation that crack penalties should be reduced by about 10 percent to bring them into closer alignment with penalties for powder-cocaine offenses. But FAMM President Julie Stewart said that the policy shift doesn’t go far enough because it was not retroactively applied.

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A recent rise in the street price and drop in the purity of cocaine in the U.S. had federal and Mexican antidrug officials claiming a big victory, Reuters reported Oct. 1.

Between January and June, the average price of a gram of cocaine on U.S. streets increased 24 percent, while purity fell 11 percent. “This impact is historic, this is real progress,” said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

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