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The420Guy
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Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 04
23 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stanford@crrh.org>
To: restore@crrh.org
Subject: US: Drug Makers Invest In War Against Drugs
Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.2.20001206042553.04ff9c80@mail.olywa.net>
Pubdate: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Source: Gainesville Sun, The (FL)
Copyright: 2000 The Gainesville Sun
Contact: voice@sunone.com
Address: P.O. Box 147147 Gainesville, FL 32614-7147
Fax: (352) 338-3128
Website: : Local & World News, Sports & Entertainment in Gainesville, FL
Forum: https://www.sunone.com/interactive.shtml
Author: Cory Reiss
DRUG MAKERS INVEST IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS
WASHINGTON - The White House and the courts have some fitting financial
allies in the war on drugs: pharmaceutical companies.
As the country fights drug addiction on many fronts, some pharmaceutical
companies would like one particular response from judicial systems and the
government to succeed.
A nonprofit group called the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals, which lobbies for drug courts, receives relatively small but
telling contributions from one pharmaceutical company and a subsidiary of
another.
In return, the companies get access to the rapidly growing drug court
system, in which nonviolent offenders receive treatment instead of jail
time. Drug courts are potential markets for the companies' products,
including testing equipment and a drug to treat addictions.
The links could portend a new direction for drug companies - which have a
powerful lobbying force in Washington - into a judicial movement that is
seeking national acceptance. Although the contributions are legal, and the
companies likely derive little, if any, benefit from them now, some worry
that addicts and the courts could become exploited.
"The question of potential ethical conflicts always looms out there and
needs to loom out there," said Randy Monchick, drug treatment court
administrator for North Carolina. "NADCP needs to seriously consider that
and be aware of it."
DuPont Pharmaceuticals and Roche Diagnostics, a subsidiary of the drug
company Hoffman-La Roche Inc., are in the midst of commitments to give the
drug court association $100,000 each over four years. DuPont
Pharmaceuticals makes naltrexone, a drug used to treat heroin addiction and
alcoholism, and Roche Diagnostics sells drug-testing equipment. Other
sponsors include BI Inc., an electronic monitoring and supervision company,
and a newsletter publisher.
Drug Courts are special judicial programs spreading through the country at
a rate of about 100 a year with the help of federal seed money. They offer
treatment and supervision for nonviolent drug offenders who can avoid jail
by completing the program. There are more than 530 drug courts nationwide.
Nearly 300 more are planned.
DuPont spokesman Tom Barry said the company made its pledge to promote
education about drug courts and their expansion to help alcoholics, a
growing drug court field. "This is not a marketing effort," he said.
The money from DuPont and Roche originally was intended for the National
Drug Court Institute, a training and educational organization formed by the
association and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in
1997. The institute receives $1 million a year in federal funding.
But the Association of Drug Court Professionals in 1998 diverted the
corporate funding to its own coffers. Association president Jeffrey Tauber
said the companies complained they weren't getting enough exposure through
the institute, and the association anticipated concern about the mix of
public and private money at the institute.
Tauber said corporate funding is less than 3 percent of the association's
annual budget.
Robert Weiner, spokesman for White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
said it makes sense for the public and private sectors to tackle
drug-related crime together.
"The American team effort can feel very proud that crime is at its lowest
levels," he said.
Barry said DuPont does not heavily market naltrexone, sold by DuPont as
ReVia, because generic versions are common.
Nevertheless, the association is a vehicle for getting ReVia into drug courts.
Circuit Court Judge Patrick Rob presides over a drug court in Buchanan
County, Mo., in which a handful of driving-while-impaired offenders are
prescribed ReVia as part of their treatment. Rob said he got that idea at
an Association of Drug Court Professionals convention two years ago, where
he heard a presentation about using naltrexone to treat alcoholics in drug
court. The association only knows of a few drug courts using naltrexone.
Tauber, a former California municipal court judge, said it's only natural
that companies give to causes that are good for the country and for them.
"These folks, sure, are interested in the survival of drug courts and their
health because they are ultimately customers," Tauber said.
_____________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Terry F
23 -0800From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stanford@crrh.org>
To: restore@crrh.org
Subject: US: Drug Makers Invest In War Against Drugs
Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.2.20001206042553.04ff9c80@mail.olywa.net>
Pubdate: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Source: Gainesville Sun, The (FL)
Copyright: 2000 The Gainesville Sun
Contact: voice@sunone.com
Address: P.O. Box 147147 Gainesville, FL 32614-7147
Fax: (352) 338-3128
Website: : Local & World News, Sports & Entertainment in Gainesville, FL
Forum: https://www.sunone.com/interactive.shtml
Author: Cory Reiss
DRUG MAKERS INVEST IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS
WASHINGTON - The White House and the courts have some fitting financial
allies in the war on drugs: pharmaceutical companies.
As the country fights drug addiction on many fronts, some pharmaceutical
companies would like one particular response from judicial systems and the
government to succeed.
A nonprofit group called the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals, which lobbies for drug courts, receives relatively small but
telling contributions from one pharmaceutical company and a subsidiary of
another.
In return, the companies get access to the rapidly growing drug court
system, in which nonviolent offenders receive treatment instead of jail
time. Drug courts are potential markets for the companies' products,
including testing equipment and a drug to treat addictions.
The links could portend a new direction for drug companies - which have a
powerful lobbying force in Washington - into a judicial movement that is
seeking national acceptance. Although the contributions are legal, and the
companies likely derive little, if any, benefit from them now, some worry
that addicts and the courts could become exploited.
"The question of potential ethical conflicts always looms out there and
needs to loom out there," said Randy Monchick, drug treatment court
administrator for North Carolina. "NADCP needs to seriously consider that
and be aware of it."
DuPont Pharmaceuticals and Roche Diagnostics, a subsidiary of the drug
company Hoffman-La Roche Inc., are in the midst of commitments to give the
drug court association $100,000 each over four years. DuPont
Pharmaceuticals makes naltrexone, a drug used to treat heroin addiction and
alcoholism, and Roche Diagnostics sells drug-testing equipment. Other
sponsors include BI Inc., an electronic monitoring and supervision company,
and a newsletter publisher.
Drug Courts are special judicial programs spreading through the country at
a rate of about 100 a year with the help of federal seed money. They offer
treatment and supervision for nonviolent drug offenders who can avoid jail
by completing the program. There are more than 530 drug courts nationwide.
Nearly 300 more are planned.
DuPont spokesman Tom Barry said the company made its pledge to promote
education about drug courts and their expansion to help alcoholics, a
growing drug court field. "This is not a marketing effort," he said.
The money from DuPont and Roche originally was intended for the National
Drug Court Institute, a training and educational organization formed by the
association and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in
1997. The institute receives $1 million a year in federal funding.
But the Association of Drug Court Professionals in 1998 diverted the
corporate funding to its own coffers. Association president Jeffrey Tauber
said the companies complained they weren't getting enough exposure through
the institute, and the association anticipated concern about the mix of
public and private money at the institute.
Tauber said corporate funding is less than 3 percent of the association's
annual budget.
Robert Weiner, spokesman for White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
said it makes sense for the public and private sectors to tackle
drug-related crime together.
"The American team effort can feel very proud that crime is at its lowest
levels," he said.
Barry said DuPont does not heavily market naltrexone, sold by DuPont as
ReVia, because generic versions are common.
Nevertheless, the association is a vehicle for getting ReVia into drug courts.
Circuit Court Judge Patrick Rob presides over a drug court in Buchanan
County, Mo., in which a handful of driving-while-impaired offenders are
prescribed ReVia as part of their treatment. Rob said he got that idea at
an Association of Drug Court Professionals convention two years ago, where
he heard a presentation about using naltrexone to treat alcoholics in drug
court. The association only knows of a few drug courts using naltrexone.
Tauber, a former California municipal court judge, said it's only natural
that companies give to causes that are good for the country and for them.
"These folks, sure, are interested in the survival of drug courts and their
health because they are ultimately customers," Tauber said.
_____________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Terry F
