Here is the SAMSA's latest "State Estimates of Nonmedical Use of Prescription Pain Relievers."

The Denver Post hyperventilates:

Six percent of Coloradans said they used prescription painkillers — such as Percocet or Oxycontin — for nonmedical purposes in 2010 and 2011, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That was second only to Oregon, where the rate was 6.37 percent.

How about reading the fine print? [More...]

What I'm reading on guns today:

• Gun sales spike after Newtown, other mass slayings
• Denver gun show draws huge crowd despite long background-check times (Same in Ohio, Wisconsin, NJ, RI,NC, Nevada, Iowa, Idaho, and many other states, with most citing fears of new gun laws.)
• California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall
• Colorado gun-control advocates and foes mobilize for new legislation

The Journal News, a Westchester County, NY paper, has stirred a lot of outrage over its publication this week of a map with the names and home addresses of those with permits for handguns. The story's headline was "Where are the Guns in Your Neighborhood?" Here is the interactive map.

Since that's where I grew up, I went right to my old neighborhood and clicked on all the dots. While it brought a sense of nostalgia, it also felt like a complete privacy intrusion.

Are gun owners now going to be stigmatized like sex offenders?

The Journal News defends its publication decision here. [More...]

The NRA held a press conference today calling for armed guards in schools.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

The NRA says our existing gun laws are sufficient.

Mr. LaPierre said Friday that thousands of gun laws already are on the books. He suggested, though, that the prescription was not more legislation, but more security in schools.

Former Congressman (and DEA Director) Asa Hutchinson will lead their effort to get Congress to adopt their ideas. [More...]

In an interview airing today with Barbara Walters, President Obama says his administration will not interfere with the recently passed marijuana laws in Colorado or Washington legalizing recreational marijuana use. Walters asks him if he supports marijuana legalization. His response:

"I wouldn't go that far," Obama replied. "But what I think is that, at this point, Washington and Colorado, you've seen the voters speak on this issue."

"... as it is, the federal government has a lot to do when it comes to criminal prosecutions," Obama said. "It does not make sense, from a prioritization point of view, for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law, that's legal."

This may be the most-watched Barbara Walters interview ever. It airs tonight on 20/20. You can watch Obama's answer here.

Does this mean DOJ will not challenge the laws' provisions on licensing and sales?

It's official. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has signed Amendment 64. Adult possession of small amounts of marijuana is no longer a state crime in Colorado.

Hickenlooper also issued an executive order today forming the 24-member Force on the Implementation of Amendment 64. Its membership will include lawmakers and stakeholders representing the interests of prosecutors, defense lawyers, the medical marijuana industry, backers of Amendment 64, the addiction treatment community, public health institutions, cities, counties, “a representative of marijuana consumers,” employers and employees, among others.

Its meetings will be public, and the targeted date for its recommendations to the governor is Feb. 28.

Congratulations, Coloradans. You did it. Voting matters.

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group and member of the Global Drug Commision, has an op-ed at CNN on the failure of the war on drugs.

Here we are, four decades after Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971 and $1 trillion spent since then. What do we have to show for it?

The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world, with about 2.3 million behind bars. More than half a million of those people are incarcerated for a drug law violation. What a waste of young lives.

[More...]

In November, Washington voters passed I-502 (full text here) which provides that adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana or specified amounts of marijuana-infused products is not a state crime and creates a regulatory scheme to license sellers. The initiative is now law and went into effect today.

The vote on Colorado's Amendment 64, legalizing adult possession and setting up a regulatory framework to distribute and sell it, was certified by the Secretary of State today, and will become law by January 5.

The New York Times reports the Justice Department and Obama Administration are considering filing lawsuits to upend both states' laws, but a decision doesn't appear to be on the immediate horizon. [More...]

How much trouble can your insta-messaging and texting get you into? Plenty.

Two former stockbrokers, age 34 and 32, who later went to law school together and are now lawyers, were indicted yesterday in the Southern District of New York for insider trading while they were stockbrokers. One is a lawyer in Denver. He was arrested today at his home in Lousiville, CO.

They texted about wanting to avoid jail and not end up like Martha Stewart. The odd thing about the Indictment: The "unindicted co-conspirators" (my translation: cooperators) made $700k. The Colorado lawyer made $2,500.00. (His indicted pal made $130 k.) The unindicted co-conspirator who started spreading the word is from Australia and returned there when he learned of the investigation.

Not only did this young lawyer get indicted for his $2,500. gain, the Southern District of New York is asking he be held without bond. The lawyer made his first appearance in court in Denver today, and according to the docket, he was remanded into custody and detention hearing will be held tomorrow. He's got a good lawyer, and I can't imagine he won't be granted bond, but still, seeking pre-trial detention seems like overkill by the U.S. Attorney's office. [More...]

Washington's Initiative 502, which decriminalizes adult possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, is already having an effect. Today, the elected prosecutors of Washington's two largest counties, King (which includes Seattle) and Pierce, announced they will dismiss more than 220 pending cases with marijuana possession charges. They have decided to apply I 502 now, rather than wait until the Dec. 6 effective date:

"I think when the people voted to change the policy, they weren't focused on when the effective date of the new policy would be. They spoke loudly and clearly that we should not treat small amounts of marijuana as an offense," [DA]Satterberg said...."There is no point in continuing to seek criminal penalties for conduct that will be legal next month."

Seattle police and the King's County Sheriff also announced they will immediately cease arresting people for personal possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Via the New York Times: U.S. Rethinks a Drug War After Deaths in Honduras

All joint operations in Honduras are now suspended. Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, expressing the concerns of several Democrats in Congress, is holding up tens of millions of dollars in security assistance, not just because of the planes, but also over suspected human rights abuses by the Honduran police and three shootings in which commandos with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration effectively led raids when they were only supposed to act as advisers.

DEA's FAST program began under George W Bush. (Obama has extended it.) FAST stands for Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team. In plain English, squads of commandos. It operates in Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Belize. Here's a powerpoint about it.

The Administration's total Drug War budget for 2013 is $25 billion. [More.]

To read this "exclusive" report by a news service called GigaOM, one would expect news in the ongoing lawsuit brought by a former New York prosecutor against the major cell phone companies for gouging the FBI, federal and state law enforcement agencies for compliance with wiretap orders.

A former New York prosecutor, John Prather, claims AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint regularly charged law enforcement agencies 10 times what they should have for routine wiretaps. He’s now suing on behalf of the FBI and state and city police departments to recover many millions of dollars for overcharging that allegedly took place for almost 20 years.

The case provides a window on the evolving world of wiretaps during an era of increasing surveillance. But the case is complicated because Prather stands to get a big chunk of money if the case succeeds and, as the phone companies argue, he may not be a real whistle-blower in the first place.

First, the lawsuit is not new. It was filed almost a year ago. Second, it's a Qui Tam lawsuit which means the prosecutor is essentially a bounty hunter who collects a portion of any proceeds awarded (like a whistleblower), usually about 15 to 25%. [More...]