Documents

Analysis of Drug Trafficking Ledgers.  (Microgram Journal  2017; 14(1-4):1-8)

Analysis of “Marijuana Edibles” – Food Products Containing Marijuana or Marijuana Extracts – An Overview, Review, and Literature Survey.  Microgram Journal  2017;14(1-4):9-32.

Robert W. Patterson: Before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, for a Hearing Entitled Oversight of DEA’s Confidential Source Program

The 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment is a comprehensive strategic assessment of the threat posed to the United States by the trafficking and abuse of illicit and prescription drugs. This report combines federal, state, and local law enforcement reporting; public health data; news reports; and intelligence from other government agencies to provide a coordinated and balanced approach to determining which substances represent the greatest drug threat to the United States. Over the past 10 years, the drug landscape in the United States has shifted, with the tripartite opioid threat (controlled prescription drugs, fentanyl, and heroin) having risen to epidemic levels, impacting significant portions of the United States. While the current opioid crisis has deservedly garnered significant attention, the methamphetamine threat has remained prevalent; the cocaine threat was in a state of steady decline, but appears to be rebounding; and due in part to the national discussion surrounding legalization efforts, the focus of marijuana enforcement efforts continues to evolve. Drug poisoning is the leading cause of injury death in the United States. Drug poisoning deaths are currently at their highest ever recorded level and, every year since 2009, drug poisoning deaths have outnumbered deaths by firearms, motor vehicle crashes, suicide, and homicide. In 2014, approximately 129 people died every day as a result of drug poisoning. Analyst Note: The information in this report is current as of August 2016.

Louis J. Milione: Before the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, for a Hearing on Treating the Opioid Epidemic: The State of Competition in the Markets for Addiction Medicine

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division (PFD) Intelligence Program conducted a comprehensive analysis of illicit drug and diverted pharmaceutical abuse in Pennsylvania (PA), as measured through drug-related overdose death data. According to the most recent reporting by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Pennsylvania ranked eighth in the country in drug overdose deaths in 2014 (21.9 per 100,000 people).

Chuck Rosenberg: Before The Committee on The Judiciary United States Senate for a Hearing on Oversight of the Drug Enforcement Administration

Chuck Rosenberg: Before the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate for a Hearing Entitled Deadly Synthetic Drugs: The Need to Stay Ahead of the Poison Peddlers

Colorado’s state laws legalizing marijuana do not limit how much marijuana can be grown within a private residence. Further, there is no mechanism at the state-level to document or regulate home grows, even large ones. This has led to a proliferation of large-scale marijuana grow operations in hundreds of homes throughout the state. Much of the marijuana produced in large home grows is shipped out of Colorado and sold in markets where it commands a high price. 

Although growing a large number of marijuana plants within private residences can fall within the parameters of state law, it presents potential risk to the occupants, homeowners, and neighbors of these residences, as well as to first responders who are called to them. Marijuana grows often cause extensive damage to the houses where they are maintained and are increasingly the causes of house fires, blown electrical transformers, and environmental damage. Much like the “meth houses” of the 1990s, many of these homes may ultimately be rendered uninhabitable. 

The threat posed by heroin in the United States is serious and has increased since 2007. Heroin is available in larger quantities, used by a larger number of people, and is causing an increasing number of overdose deaths. In 2014, 10,574 Americans died from heroin-related overdoses, more than triple the number in 2010. (See Chart 1.) Increased demand for, and use of, heroin is being driven by both increasing availability of heroin in the U.S. market and by some controlled prescription drug (CPD) abusers using heroin. CPD abusers who begin using heroin do so chiefly because of price differences. 

Jack Riley: Before the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women’s Issues Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate for a Hearing Entitled Cartels and the U.S. Heroin Epidemic: Combating Drug Violence and Public Health Crisis

Louis J. Milione: Before The House Judiciary Subcommittee Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations U.S. House of Representatives for a Hearing on Synthetic Drugs

In April 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division (PFD) Intelligence Program conducted an analysis of drug availability and abuse for the State of Delaware. Delaware is home to 935,000 people in three counties: New Castle (including the city of Wilmington), Kent, and Sussex.1 The primary drug threats to Delaware are heroin and diverted prescription opioids, as measured through information regarding drug availability, seizures, treatment admissions, and drug-related overdose deaths. In 2014, Wilmington ranked third on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual list of the most violent cities of comparable size, and it ranked fifth in violent crime when compared to all cities with populations greater than 50,000.2 As a result, Wilmington was included in the Department of Justice’s Violence Reduction Network in 2014. In 2015, the Office of National Drug Control Policy designated New Castle County as part of the Philadelphia/Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). 

Chuck Rosenberg: Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies

Louis J. Milione: Before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform United States House of Representatives for a Hearing on the Heroin Use and Opioid Abuse Epidemic

The objectives of the discussion guide are to have students process and interact with the content covered in the film and then answer questions to demonstrate their understanding of the material.

Louis Milione: Before the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate for a Hearing Entitled Attacking America's Epidemic of Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse

The 1995 “Research on Drug Evidence” Report [From the 11th ICPO / INTERPOL Forensic Science Symposium]  Microgram Journal  2016;13(1-4):5-48.

The 2010 “Research on Drug Evidence” Report [From the 16th ICPO / INTERPOL Forensic Science Symposium]  Microgram Journal  2016;13(1-4):387-509.