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Twilo's Closure Fails To Reduce New York Drug Casualties

Author: Skrufff
Friday, September 7, 2001
The level of hospital admissions for ecstasy overdoses in Manhattan has been unaffected by the recent closure of Twilo, the New York Times reported this week, despite authorities' attempts to blame the club for the city's ecstasy problems. Puritanical Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, one of the chief architects of the city's all-out assault on club-land remains unrepentant however, telling the Times he wants to go further.

"These clubs, I hate to use this term, but their body counts keep rising," said Washington. "The clubs are just dumping people at the hospitals. I've succeeded in closing a number of these. And I'm going to continue to do it."

Despite the Deputy Mayor's renewed boasts, the Times challenged the link between nightclubs and ecstasy.

'The steady stream of overdoses may also point to a trend law enforcement officials and researchers have cited for months: Ecstasy has evolved from a club drug to something commonly used among friends and at small parties," they suggested.

In more drug-related news, A Dutch international drug policy expert flew into Jamaica this week and advised local authorities trying to legalise cannabis to look towards Europe and Canada for support.

"The trend in the countries of the EU (European Union) is clearly towards decriminalisation, which is the general international trend," said Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a Criminology expert from Utrecht University. "The one big exception is the United States." Mr Boekhout van Solinge also stressed the importance of applying harm reduction policies rather than punishment to genuinely reduce the dangers to both drug users and society.

"This (harm reduction) is becoming the new model internationally," he told the Jamaican Gleaner (the island's most influential newspaper). "You accept that illicit drugs are going to be used, but instead of focusing on fighting them, you try to live with them for the lowest harm or costs, both medically and socially."

<http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com> (Jamaica Gleaner)

Jonty Adderley
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