drugs

RECENT POSTS

March 5, 2012 | 1:15 PM | By

Seattle philanthropy seeks changed mindset in world murder capital

Flickr, Curtis Gregory Perry

Down with Drugs

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is in Mexico and soon will be on his way to Honduras, meeting with Central American leaders to figure out an effective strategy for combating the surging, deadly drug trade.

Many Latin American leaders say the so-called ‘War on Drugs,’ which emphasizes aggressive law enforcement, has failed and only led to increased violence. Some want to explore de-criminalizing drugs.

The Obama Administration and others remain steadfastly opposed to legalization, and appear to be planning stepped-up hemispheric drug enforcement actions.

But what if the illicit drug trade is just a symptom of the real problem?

“What’s really needed is a new mindset, about changing the culture so that the people with wealth and power in these countries invest in improving the lives of their own citizens,” said Mauricio Vivero, executive director at the Seattle International Foundation.

Puget Sound Business Journal

Mauricio Vivero

Vivero just got back from Honduras, which some have dubbed the current murder capital of the world, where he met with business leaders, politicians, philanthropists and development experts. He attended a meeting in San Pedro Sula called by the Honduran government and World Bank and featuring the Central American Leadership Initiative — an organization launched in 2007 by Bill Clapp, co-founder of the Seattle International Foundation, along with other business leaders in the region.

Biden is headed to Honduras Tuesday in part because the drug cartels are moving there, forced south due to the crackdown in Mexico.

The fight against drug cartels often resembles pushing on a balloon. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Politics, Bill Clapp, business, Central America, drugs, Mauricio Vivero, public-private partnership, Seattle International Foundation
October 28, 2011 | 8:30 AM | By

Bridging the gap between industry and those fighting diseases of poverty

A new global initiative launched this week in Geneva aimed at combating neglected diseases in poor countries by getting drug companies to share their patents and discoveries can be credited in large part to one Seattle woman’s religious upbringing.

But probably not in the way you think.

Tom Paulson

Melinda Moree and colleague Don Joseph at work in Seattle's Caffe Fiore

“I grew up in a very religious household, with rabid ideology,” said Melinda Moree. “So I do everything I can to make sure any discussion I’m involved in is not driven by ideology but by a pragmatic focus on problem-solving.”

Moree, who I caught up with recently at a coffee shop on Queen Anne, is chief executive officer of BIO Ventures for Global Health. Yes, it’s a fairly boring name but what they do, which I’ll get to in a bit, is quite exciting with the potential for transforming biomedical research and saving millions of lives.

The ideology Moree is currently working against is not rabid religiosity but an ideological rift that she thinks prevents progress in global health. Namely, the ideological gap between the public sector or humanitarian organizations and the profit-seeking drug and biomedical industry.

“There’s been an especially rocky relationship between the private sector and public sector over intellectual property,” she said.

Activists contend patents protect drug company profits at the expense of the lives of the poor. The drug industry, in turn, say activists and humanitarian organizations simply don’t understand that drugs and vaccines don’t just appear by magic. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, BIO Ventures for Global Health, drugs, Melinda Moree, patents, World Intellectual Property Organization
November 23, 2010 | 12:26 PM | By

A pretty big deal: A daily pill to prevent HIV infection

NIH

Anti-HIV drug Truvada

Medical researchers have shown that taking a common anti-AIDS drug can be used to prevent HIV infection in sexually active men by more than 70 percent — or even up to 95 percent if taken with complete diligence.

This could be a pretty big deal.

As a new UN report states, we are making progress against HIV/AIDS worldwide but too many (nearly 2 million people) are still getting infected every year. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Science, drugs, HIV-AIDS, pre-exposure prophylaxis, Truvada
July 22, 2010 | 9:27 AM | By

War on Drugs Spreading AIDS

Drugs

Flickr, Curtis Gregory Perry

That’s one of the key points of the Vienna Declaration, an international statement issued this week at the 2010 AIDS Conference calling for a more rational approach to reducing illicit drug use.

Drug use is fueling a raging HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe, experts say, and the “War on Drugs” has failed worldwide to either curb drug use or discourage the illicit drug trade.

Dr. Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society:

“We have to recognize that the war on drugs has not only failed to reduce illicit drug supply and use, but it has also resulted in a range of human rights violations, drug market violence and HIV and HCV epidemics among users.”

FILED UNDER: Health, drugs, HIV-AIDS