A new report reveals the cities in Europe with the highest concentrations of cannabis and cocaine use, based on sewage surveys. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dutch cities including Amsterdam and Rotterdam took home some of the top spots for the cities with the highest concentrations of cocaine and cannabis use, respectively, and ranked high in several other categories. 

Spanning the course of a week during spring 2023, a team of researchers tested the water in sewage treatment plants in 88 cities in 24 European countries, NL Times reports. The study was conducted by researchers associated with the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).  

Once researchers collected samples of sewage, they then calculated the concentration of six drugs in the wastewater per 1,000 residents to make the results comparable. The drugs researchers checked for are methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis, and ketamine. 

The Dutch cities that opted to participate among the 88 cities were Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leeuwarden, Utrecht, and Eindhoven. By leaps and bounds, The Netherlands ranked very high for drug use, with at least one Dutch city in the top five cities in terms of drug use concentrations—for almost all measured narcotics. 

Rotterdam is the cannabis capital of Europe, according to the report, being the city with the highest concentrations of cannabis residues in its sewage, out of the 88 European cities surveyed. The city came in second place for MDMA as well. Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, and Rotterdam ranked third to fifth place for cocaine use, after Antwerp and Tarragona. 

Cocaine is the most popular drug in Amsterdam, ranking third, based on the sewage samples that were collected. Some results were surprising. Leeuwarden’s drug use, for instance, is surprisingly high, NRC reports.

Leeuwarden came third and Amsterdam fourth in terms of cannabis use. Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht are all in the top five for MDMA, while Leeuwarden came in seventh place.

“If you look at the demographic profile of Leeuwarden, it is not a city with many students or tourism,” says Trimbos researcher Laura Smit-Rigter, coordinator of the Drugs Information and Monitoring System. The drug residues measured in the city are very telling, she said. “In Leeuwarden it is on the high side, yes.”

Last October, Mayor Sybrand Buma (CDA) of Leeuwarden was shocked when he saw the figures on drug use in his city. He told Dutch outlet Omrop Fryslân, “These are things that I know as mayor, but if you look at everything together, you see how serious the situation is here in Leeuwarden.”

Trimbos researcher Laura Smit-Rigter revealed that she wants to be cautious, adding that Dutch cities are no different than any other large European cities. “Based on this measurement, you can see that Rotterdam has a clear metropolitan profile, just like Amsterdam and other major European cities. That involves some drug use.”

For Smit-Rigter, the drug residues in the wastewater are one of the pieces of the puzzle of drug use. “These figures tell us something about the total consumption. They say nothing about who the users are or how often they use. We also don’t know whether they are tourists, commuters, or residents of those cities.”

Dutch Cities and the Reasons Why Drug Use is High

More research is needed to paint a clearer picture before jumping to conclusions about Dutch cities.

“In-depth research is needed for a complete picture of drug use in Dutch cities,” said Ton Nabben, researcher and criminologist specializing in drug use among nightlife crowds and at-risk youth. Nabben follows the latest developments in drug use for platforms like the Jellinek prevention and Addiction Science Netherlands (VKN).

He does not immediately have a logical explanation for the sheer amount of drug residue in the Rotterdam sewers, leaving him at a loss for words. “I can’t place it. Rather, it raises more questions.”

Meanwhile, The Netherlands government confirmed that its pilot program was set to kick off December 15, 2023. “The most recent planning shows that two legal growers are expected to be ready for delivery to coffee shops in the fourth quarter of 2023,” the Dutch government wrote. “This is sufficient to start the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. In this phase, participating coffee shops from these municipalities may offer both legally grown and tolerated products. The next two growers are expected to start supplying coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in February 2024.” Breda and Tilburg are located in the southern part of the country, near the border of Belgium.

The Netherlands pilot program for cannabis could help reshape the country’s standing by providing regulated cannabis product instead of the legal gray area that dominates currently.

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Attorneys for the Biden administration contend that Prince Harry’s admissions in his best-selling 2023 memoir, Spare, of using cannabis, cocaine, and magic mushrooms don’t necessarily prove the royal’s drug use. The lawyers suggested that he might have exaggerated these claims to boost book sales, the Telegraph reports. Such arguments come after Prince Harry’s immigration status is being pulled into question. 

This assertion comes in light of a case that a D.C. court is currently reviewing, which revolves around whether the U.S. government should be ordered to disclose Prince Harry’s visa application due to his use of illegal substances. DHS lawyers insist that releasing such paperwork, which would have inquired the shunned royal about his history of drug use, would be “an unwarranted invasion of Prince Harry’s privacy.”

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has been pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for several months to release these documents, citing the admissions made in his widely read memoir, Spare, as the basis for their argument. As High Times reported, The Heritage Foundation wants Prince Harry to be deported because he wrote about using drugs.

Spare also contains revelations such that William and Kate encouraged him to wear his infamous Nazi costume to a Native and Colonial–themed costume party in 2005, his body count while serving in Afghanistan (25), physical fights with William, and that he worked with a medium to try to get in touch with the ghost of his late mother, Princess Diana. 

In an effort to protect his privacy and immigration status, as well as those who helped him obtain such protected status, DHS attorney John Bardo informed the court that “the book does not constitute sworn testimony or evidence” confirming the Duke of Sussex’s actual drug use. “Just because it’s written in a book doesn’t mean it’s factual.”

Nile Gardiner, head of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, dismissed the idea that the Duke had invented his drug use stories as a “preposterous argument.” “This is Prince Harry’s own book,” he remarked after the hearing. “He has never refuted any content in his book… that includes the detailed accounts of drug use.”

Perhaps the most “preposterous” takeaway is that one’s immigration status would come into question for indulging in recreational drugs. 

Per Newsweek, in Spare, Prince Harry wrote the following about enjoying cannabis: 

“I don’t remember how we got the stuff. One of my mates, I expect. Or maybe several. Whenever we found ourselves in possession, we’d commandeer a tiny upstairs bathroom, wherein we’d implement a surprisingly thoughtful, orderly assembly line. Smoker straddled the loo beside the window, second boy leaned against the basin, third and fourth boys sat in the empty bath, legs dangling over, waiting their turns. You’d take a hit or two, blow the smoke out of the window, then move on to the next station, in rotation, until the spliff was gone. Then we’d all head to one of our rooms and giggle ourselves sick over an episode or two of a new show. Family Guy. I felt an inexplicable bond with Stewie, prophet without honor.”

The court was informed that there are three potential methods by which the Duke could have entered the U.S.: either by falsifying his drug use on his immigration form, obtaining a waiver, or entering with a diplomatic visa.

At the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse hearing, Bardo said it was “entirely possible” that the Duke was granted entry into the U.S. on a “category A” visa, which is designated for diplomats and foreign officials visiting on official business. “He remains a part of the British Royal Family and retains the title of Duke,” Bardo noted.

Gardiner expressed skepticism about Prince Harry being deemed a diplomat, stating it was “highly unlikely” since “he had no official role on behalf of British people, his own relationship with the Royal family, that was at a low point as the judge himself actually referenced in his remarks.”

The Heritage Foundation previously contended that the ex-royal relinquished his privacy rights when he “sold every aspect of his private life for, in some estimates, over $135 million,” noting that his privacy claims have faced “widespread public ridicule.”

In Friday’s court hearing, Samuel Dewey, a lawyer for the Heritage Foundation, brought up the Duke’s recent appearance on Good Morning America earlier this month, where he mentioned he had thought about applying for U.S. citizenship. 

Back in October 2019, Prince Harry, along with his wife, Meghan Markle, who reportedly dealt with a ton of racism and hate while actively living in England as part of the royal family, moved to California, stating their intentions to step down within the royal family. While the Duchess, Megan, started applying for U.K. citizenship, she didn’t finish the process. Because she’s already a U.S. citizen, the couple’s kids have dual citizenship. Per U.S. immigration regulations, “any applicant who holds any titles of heredity or positions of nobility in any foreign country must renounce such title or position.”

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It’s already fairly well known that music festivals tend to come with plenty of illicit drug use. The activity is so common at festivals, and in dance scenes as a whole, that organizers and attendees alike are becoming increasingly more equipped to combat potential overdoses through a variety of measures.

A new study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy underscores the impact of these harm reduction strategies and consciously incorporating them into events, looking at the amount of drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals, the common trends and what may have helped to prevent them.

Moreover, the researchers ultimately confirmed that mobile medical care, drug testing and increased consumer education and awareness could have prevented these largely unintentional deaths.

Examining Modern-Day, Drug-Related Deaths at Australian Festivals

Researchers note the high prevalence of drug use among festival attendees compared to the general population, citing a study finding that 44% of over 5,200 surveyed Australian music festival attendees reported past-month use of illicit drugs. That said, it’s no surprise that more instances of drug use often result in increased cases of drug-related harm.

To examine the prevalence of drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals, researchers conducted a descriptive case series study using the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) looking at relevant data between July 2000 and December 2019.

The study noted a total of 64 deaths, predominantly males (73.4%) aged in their mid-20s (ranging 15-50 years old). MDMA and alcohol were the most common substances across the study period, reported respectively in 42 (65.6%) and 30 (46.9%) cases and with alcohol co-detected with MDMA in 14 (33.3%) cases. 

Deaths were primarily associated with toxicity from MDMA and other stimulants (19 cases), toxicity from other drugs or drug combinations (11 cases) and either natural causes (10 cases) or external injuries (24 cases) in the setting of drug use, like those involving motor vehicle or train collisions or a passenger or driver using drugs. The majority of cases involved unintended harm, with 11 deaths (17.2%) related to intentional self-harm.

Drug-Related Harm Reduction at Music Festivals

So, what exactly are the ways to prevent a drug overdose at these events?

Authors note that there is limited evidence surrounding the efficacy of specific law enforcement-related approaches. While drug detection dogs have been utilized in Australian festivals for more than two decades, researchers note some research showing this can actually increase risk of drug-related harm. They also mention that this method may “paradoxically increase the risk of overdose,” with attendees potentially leading to festival goers hiding drugs internally or quickly consuming drugs to avoid arrest.

There’s drug checking and testing, which allows members of the public to analyze drugs to confirm if they contain any potentially dangerous or unexpected substances and how much of a substance is actually in a given powder, pill, tablet and so on. 

Researchers note the body of research finding that this option indeed demonstrates a reduction in drug use and related harm. Combating the notion that people may be more inclined to use drugs with the ability to test them, researchers cite a recent study finding that festival attendees are no more likely to use drugs at festivals whether drug testing is provided or not.

Music festivals also tend to have mobile paramedics, peer harm reduction workers, chill-out spaces and may even incorporate specific physical design elements to reduce the risk of drug-related harm.

Preventing Overdose Through Drug Testing and Other Measures

Authors note that in these 64 cases, the most common cause of death was MDMA toxicity. While there are a variety of factors associated with increased risk of adverse effects surrounding MDMA usage, researchers highlight the variability in dose amounts as a key factor. For this study, the average MDMA concentration among the deaths was above a range usually associated with toxicity, showing an opportunity for harm reduction by drug checking and testing.

“Drug checking is not merely an analytical process; counsellors are available on-site to discuss analytical results and provide important harm reduction interventions,” researchers write. “This approach is favoured by festival patrons and has resulted in positive outcomes including changing dosing patterns, trust of health providers, and increased drug harm reduction knowledge.”

However these services are still in their infancy in Australia, despite being available throughout Europe and North America for a number of decades.

“Harm reduction strategies such as roving first aid volunteers, mobile medical care, spaces to rest, hydration stations, and drug checking services, may best address some of the risks associated with illicit drug use at festivals, in addition to increased consumer education and awareness,” authors conclude. “It is important to understand the factors involved in these incidents in order to inform policies around harm reduction and law enforcement at music festivals in future to prevent further deaths.”

In an interview with online music magazine and community platform Resident Advisor, co-author Dr. Jennifer Schumann underscored the findings around harm reduction, citing that two in three Austalians support drug checking services along with recommendations from coroners throughout the region to implement these services.

“It’s possible that information about the drugs these people were taking, along with harm-reduction advice from drug-checking service counsellors, may have prevented death in some cases in our study,” Schumann said.

It’s a particularly relevant topic Down Under, with renewed calls for more safety measures after nine people were hospitalized in January from suspected MDMA overdoses at Melbourne’s Hardmission Festival.

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After a major media outlet sounded the alarm about Elon Musk’s suspected psychedelic use, officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were called in, but quickly cleared the billionaire’s company of wrongdoing. This is just the latest round of NASA safety reviews of SpaceX after a series of pot- and psychedelic-related stunts by Musk.

Thanks to a Jan. 6 explosive, snitchy report in The Wall Street Journal about Elon Musk’s alleged rap sheet of drug use, including ketamine, LSD, cocaine, MDMA, and shrooms, NASA was forced to investigate. The Wall Street Journal raised concern about Musk’s “mental-health issues” in its report, supposedly linking it to psychedelic drug use in the workplace.

Business Insider reports that the WSJ revealed that some executives at SpaceX said they were troubled by Musk’s erratic behavior at a 2017 all-hands meeting when he allegedly “slurred his words and rambled for around 15 minutes.” Two days later, SpaceX released a video recording of one of its all-hands meetings from the same year at X. It’s not clear if that’s the same meeting, but it was obviously posted as a response to the WSJ story.

In SpaceX’s video of the 2017 all-hands meeting, Musk stumbles over his words, and in one instance, he confused the day for Friday instead of Tuesday and announced incorrect timing for a series of SpaceX launches. SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwellb corrected him twice in the video.

But in the video, he explained that he was deprived of sleep. “Sorry, I’m like slurring my words and I want to try to enunciate my words,” Musk says at another point. “Sorry, I got almost no sleep last night, brain’s not working properly.”

Musk slammed The Wall Street Journal on X, tweeting, “After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. 

“The Wall Street Journal is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird.”

It’s not the first time the publication has come after him for the same reason: The Wall Street Journal reported in a juicy article last July that Musk was taking ketamine.

“The agency does not have evidence of non-compliance from SpaceX on how the company addresses the drug- and alcohol-free workforce regulations,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Thursday in a statement. “We expect our commercial partners to meet all workplace safety requirements in the execution of those missions and the services they provide the American people.”

Since buying Twitter, Musk changed its name to X, changed the concept of verified accounts with a blue check mark, and reinstated controversial accounts such as Donald Trump’s account, or suspected Neo Nazi accounts.

The Blunt that Started it All

Most of these controversies surrounding drug use can be traced back to a single incident nearly six years ago, when NASA and government officials lost their minds after he smoked a blunt on camera.

Musk shared a blunt with Joe Rogan on his show in 2018, shocking Tesla investors in the process. The high-profile smoke session was live streamed via YouTube on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Musk also reportedly sipped whiskey during the recording of Rogan’s podcast, which included conversation about luxury watches, artificial intelligence, and Mars.

Rogan and Musk had been talking for about two hours when the show’s host pulled out a blunt to smoke, explaining that it was “marijuana inside of tobacco,” according to media reports.

“I think I tried it once,” Musk replied.

Before taking a hit, Musk clarified with Rogan that he would not be breaking the law.

“I mean, it’s legal, right?” he asked.

High Times’ Jimi Devine asked if that was the most expensive blunt of all time—given the safety review SpaceX was forced to undergo because of the blunt.

NASA ended up paying SpaceX $5 Million to conduct the review, and it was the first time it’s been reported that taxpayers footed the bill for it. Boeing, SpaceX’s rivals in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program outsourced trips to the space station so the agency can focus its time on more distant efforts like Mars, were also forced to go through a review.

The Washington Post reported last fall that the reviews would take months and involve hundreds of interviews that would dive into the workplace culture at SpaceX and Boeing. 

Musk also tweeted last year that the test flight of SpaceX’s highly anticipated Starship rocket—eventually en route to the moon and Mars—was delayed from its original launch date on April 19, 2023, and rescheduled for a new day, April 20. It’s the second time he’s joked about the holiday on social media.

On August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted he was mulling over taking Tesla private, quoting a price of $420 per share for the buyout.

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Cannabis use around the world continues to eclipse other drugs––and is increasing. Opioids, meanwhile, continue to cause the most harm.

Those are just some of the takeaways from the United Nations’ annual “World Drug Report” for 2023.

“Drug use continues to be high worldwide. In 2021, 1 in every 17 people aged 15–64 in the world had used a drug in the past 12 months. The estimated number of users grew from 240 million in 2011 to 296 million in 2021 (5.8 per cent of the global population aged 15–64). This is a 23 per cent increase, partly due to population growth,” the report’s “executive summary” said. 

According to the report, cannabis “continues to be the most used drug, with an estimated 219 million users (4.3 per cent of the global adult population) in 2021.” 

That number is also trending upward––perhaps a byproduct of legalization in the United States and elsewhere. But the report also showed a gender divide when it comes to pot use.

“Use of the drug is increasing and although globally cannabis users are mostly men (about 70 per cent), the gender divide is reducing in some subregions; women account for 42 per cent of cannabis users in North America,” the report said.

Opioids, meanwhile, “continue to be the group of substances with the highest contribution to severe drug-related harm, including fatal overdoses,” according to the report. 

That will come as little surprise to those in the United States, which has been mired in an opioid epidemic for more than two decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people in the U.S. who died from a drug overdose in 2021 “was over six times the number in 1999” and the “number of drug overdose deaths increased more than 16% from 2020 to 2021.”

Among the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2021, more than 75% involved an opioid, according to the CDC.

The CDC says that the “rise in opioid overdose deaths can be outlined in three distinct waves.”

“The first wave began with increased prescribing of opioids in the 1990s, with overdose deaths involving prescription opioids (natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone) increasing since at least 1999. The second wave began in 2010, with rapid increases in overdose deaths involving heroin. The third wave began in 2013, with significant increases in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly those involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl. The market for illicitly manufactured fentanyl continues to change, and it can be found in combination with heroin, counterfeit pills, and cocaine,” according to the CDC.

The UN’s report said that an “estimated 60 million people engaged in non-medical opioid use in 2021, 31.5 million of whom used opiates (mainly heroin).” Opioids remain “the leading cause of deaths in fatal overdoses,” the repot said, accounting “for nearly 70 per cent of the 128,000 deaths attributed to drug use disorders in 2019.” 

“Opioid use disorders also accounted for the majority (71 per cent of the 18 million healthy years of life lost owing to premature death and disability in 2019,” the UN report said.

According to the report, “most drug use disorders are related to cannabis and opioids, which are also the drugs that lead most people to seek drug treatment, but opioids remain the most lethal drug.”

“Among all countries that ranked the drugs leading to drug use disorders, the majority (46 per cent of countries) reported cannabis in first place, 31 per cent of countries reported opioids in first place, mainly heroin, whereas amphetamine-type stimulants, in particular methamphetamine, were reported in first place by 13 per cent of countries. The ranking in each country is determined mainly by two factors: prevalence of use and dependence potential,” the report said.

The UN report also provided a regional breakdown of drug use.

“There are clear regional differences in the primary drug reported by people entering drug treatment: in most of Europe and most of the subregions of Asia, opioids are the most frequent primary drug of people in drug treatment, whereas in Latin America it is cocaine, in parts of Africa it is cannabis, and in East and South-East Asia it is Methamphetamine,” the report said.

The report also identified an uptick in intravenous drug use.

“An estimated 13.2 million people were injecting drugs in 2021,” the report said. “This estimate is 18 per cent higher than in 2020 (11.2 million). This increase is due to newly available estimates in the United States of America and in some other countries. Eastern Europe (1.3 per cent of the adult population) and North America (1.0 per cent) remain the two subregions with the highest estimated prevalence of people who inject drugs, and, in absolute terms, North America now has the highest number of individuals that report injecting drugs, ahead of East and South-East Asia.”

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Fentanyl caused a majority of fatal overdoses in Los Angeles County for the first time last year, with nearly 60% of the area’s overdose deaths attributed to the increasingly popular opioid. Fentanyl replaced methamphetamine as the county’s most common drug cited as the cause of accidental drug or alcohol overdose deaths, according to a new report from the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Amanda Cowan, executive director of Community Health Project Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times, adding, “These communities are just being decimated.”

In 2022, Los Angeles County reported 3,220 accidental overdoses. Of those, more than 1,900 deaths were caused at least in part by fentanyl, according to county data. Under the county’s reporting protocols, more than one drug may be listed as the cause of an overdose death.

L.A.’s spike in overdose deaths caused by fentanyl comes at a time of record overall overdose deaths nationwide. In 2021, 107,573 people died of an overdose in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number dropped slightly last year, falling to 105,452 in 2022, a decrease of 2%

“We’re still amid the worst overdose crisis in history, and that’s obviously an emergency situation,” said Dr. Gary Tsai, director of Los Angeles County’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Control program. “We’re doing a lot of work to improve our system, but there’s obviously still a lot of work that we have to do.”

Contaminated Drug Supply Puts Lives At Risk

In its report, the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health noted that fentanyl has permeated the supply of illicit street drugs, endangering the lives of casual drug users and those with substance misuse disorders alike. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) “is cheap and easy to make quickly and in large quantities. It has been found in nearly all forms of illegal street drugs and counterfeit pills, as drug traffickers intentionally add fentanyl to their drugs to reduce costs, to enhance the effect of an existing drug, and/or to make their drugs more addictive,” the health department wrote in the report. 

“Fentanyl can also be a contaminant when handling multiple drugs with the same equipment or in unclean environments,” the report continues. “Thus, drugs containing IMF have variable and high potency, and can be more dangerous than often perceived, especially for youth who may experiment with drugs or pills.”

The county data showed a sharp disparity in the number of fentanyl overdose deaths. The largest number of fatal fentanyl overdoses were among white people and in more affluent areas of the county. But when adjusted for population, Black people and those living in high-poverty areas died of a fatal fentanyl overdose at significantly higher rates. 

“In the case of race/ethnicity, Black people account for 8% of the [county] population, and disproportionately accounted for 21% of fentanyl overdose deaths in 2022,” the report said.

Ricky Bluthenthal, a professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, said that the racial disparities in fentanyl overdose deaths are concerning, noting they have gotten worse in recent years. But he added that the problem is a national one that illustrates the need to target resources such as the lifesaving drug naloxone, a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose.

“It speaks to a national challenge that we have in the United States, related to making sure that both medication for opiate use disorder and naloxone is readily available for people who live in predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods,” Bluthenthal said.

Through his research, Bluthenthal has determined that L.A.’s supply of heroin has mostly been replaced by fentanyl, which is about 50 times more potent. 

“We are facing this really dramatic change in the illicit drug supply; looking at the figure over time, it sort of makes you want to cry,” Bluthenthal said.

The more than 1,900 overdose deaths caused by fentanyl represent a jump of nearly 1,700% in the number of fatal overdoses caused by the drug in just six years.

“This transition is wreaking havoc on people,” he added.

Tsai said that the report included some positive data points. Overdose deaths among children fell for the first time in two years. Additionally, the rate of increase in the number of fentanyl deaths dropped significantly, possibly indicating that the number of deaths may be beginning to level off. But health officials warn the community must remain vigilant to the dangers of the illicit drug supply.

“On the fentanyl front, we might be slowing down, just looking at the numbers, but there’s still so many things that can happen between now and when we get the 2023 data,” said Tsai. “All it takes is another more potent substance to come into the drug supply for that number to then shoot up.”

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Last week, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced the Substance and Possession Abuse Restrictions for Entrance (SPARE) Act to ramp up enforcement of visa laws by permanently banning immigrants from the U.S. who are accused of lying about drug use.

And the alleged criminal who was specifically named in the bill? Prince Harry.

“The Biden administration deliberately refuses to enforce our country’s immigration laws at the Southern border, and it appears they may be obstructing the fair and equal enforcement of our visa laws as well. Left-wing celebrities like Prince Harry, who have a self-recorded history of illegal drug use, should be subjected to the same standards and enforcement of our country’s immigration laws as any other alien,” said Rep. Steube. 

In his book Spare, which the bill appears to be named after, Prince Harry admitted to experimenting with cocaine at age 17, but appeared to be a bit more into cannabis and psilocybin during his early years. (About 15% of Americans have tried cocaine at some point, and half of Americans have tried pot at some point.)

“I introduced the SPARE Act because individuals should be deported immediately if they are caught lying on their visa application. If the Executive Branch is granting waivers on the basis of drug usage to individuals who enter the U.S., that information should not be hidden from the public. We must ensure no one receives preferential treatment behind closed doors.”

The bill, H.R. 5178, is in the early stages and was most recently referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Rep. Stuebe’s announcement reports that under U.S. law, visa applicants “who are found to be drug abusers or addicts are inadmissible” as well as non-citizens who admit to using controlled substances. 

The same Congressman is pushing to reschedule cannabis, at least for non-immigrants. Last January, Rep. Steube introduced the “Marijuana 1-to-3 Act” which he pushed in years prior.

The SPARE Act would require that within 60 days of receiving “credible information of an alien knowingly providing false information on controlled substance violations,” the DHS Secretary will be required to investigate the allegations, and if found true, deport those individuals. The bill  states anyone deported for this violation will be permanently barred from re-entering the country. In addition, any controlled substance violation waivers issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security may be subject to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Republican Push To Deport Prince Harry

Other conservative groups are also focused on getting Prince Harry deported.

Last March, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in operation for over 50 years, called for the deportation of Prince Harry over his admissions to past drug use including pot and cocaine.

Prince Harry is living in the U.S. on a visa, and has no plans of seeking permanent U.S. residency or U.S. citizenship, despite being eligible. He quit the Royal Family and moved to California in January 2020.

In Prince Harry’s controversial autobiography Spare, which was published this past January, he revealed that he first snorted coke at age 17 and again on a few other occasions. He also toked up after his first date with Meghan Markle. 

“I started doing it recreationally and then started to realize how good it was for me,” Harry said. “I would say it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and the pains of the past.”

Prince Harry also detailed his adventures with shrooms, talking to the toilet and having strange visions. High Times has been following reports of his pot use since at least 2017.

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Citing former president Richard Nixon, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) celebrated the 50th anniversary of the agency’s creation and the War on Drugs, wrapping up 50 years of failed attempts to curb drug abuse, according to a July 5 announcement. The DEA’s tactics are not working: Decades of research indicates that drug use is up in just about every category.

Nixon created the DEA to combat the “menace” of drug abuse on July 1, 1973. That’s just four years after Gallup first asked Americans if they’ve tried smoking pot, and only 4% said they had tried it in 1969. Now that number is up to almost half, and 45% of American teens said they had tried pot, 47% of high school students by another count. Cannabis and hallucinogen use is at an all-time high, a National Institutes of Health-supported study reported in 2022.

“The Drug Enforcement Administration celebrated its 50th anniversary on July 1, 2023,” the announcement reads. “Over the past 50 years, DEA has worked to keep American communities safe and healthy by preventing criminal drug networks and drug-related violence and deaths. 

In 1973, former President Richard Nixon proposed the creation of a new agency when he declared ‘an all-out global war on the drug menace.’ Congress heard months of testimony for the proposal and created the Drug Enforcement Administration later that year. The Drug Enforcement Administration integrated narcotics agents and U.S. Customs agents into one effective force. These agents work to remove dangerous drugs from the street and prevent them from coming across our borders.”

Are law enforcement officers at least focusing on hard drugs? The short answer is no. Police officers in the United States still make more arrests for cannabis offenses than for any other drug, according to FBI data. Pew research notes that in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2018, amounting to 40% of the 1.65 million total drug arrests in the U.S. that year were for pot.

The War on Drugs presents some ethical questions, however its roots in prejudice are reason alone to dismiss the war’s successes.

Questionable Beginnings

By today’s standards, Nixon’s comments as president are shocking, and the War on Drugs itself has been called racist. Nixon’s domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, admitted first in 1994 that the War on Drugs was specifically designed to target the Black community, and that lies were created about drugs.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people,” Ehrlichman said. “You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” Ehrlichman spoke up about the matter again later on, such as in 2016.

Unfortunately, this bias is clearly evident today, as observed in the way cannabis laws are enforced. Data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) shows that due specifically to racial profiling and bias in cannabis enforcement, Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for cannabis possession, despite similar usage rates. That rate goes up to 10 times more likely than whites to be arrested for pot in certain areas such as Montana or Kentucky.

The War on Drugs Didn’t Work

In the bigger picture, DEA enforcement isn’t deterring drug use effectively, according to multiple reports by Gallup.

“The war on drugs has been raging for decades,” Jennifer Robison wrote for Gallup in 2002. “There is no sign of victory, or even detente. Although they’re swamped with anti-drug messages, kids keep taking illegal drugs, and the drugs are getting more dangerous. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System found that almost half (47%) of all high school students had used marijuana at least once. Ten percent had tried a form of cocaine.”

“Increased non-medical use—as well as racial, ethnic and class prejudice—affected public opinion,” they said. “What had been a medical condition became deviant or criminal. This shift led to a wave of laws against heroin, marijuana and cocaine.”

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A new survey studying the consumption habits of participants in the European Union (EU) reveal that cannabis use has increased, and the use of ecstasy has decreased considerably.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) recently found that cannabis and ecstasy saw the strongest changes in consumption habits. The European Web Survey on Drugs was conducted online between March and April 2021 with the intention of illuminating patterns of drug use to consider in future regulation. Throughout 21 EU countries and nine non-EU countries, the survey recorded answers from those who were 18 or older and had used drugs.

The survey results, published on January 20, recorded the drug use breakdown of the 48,469 participants. “Cannabis was the drug used most, with 93 percent of survey respondents reporting to have used it in the previous 12 months and with little variation between countries,” the survey results state. “MDMA/ecstasy (35 percent), cocaine (35 percent) and amphetamine (28 percent) were the next most reported illicit substances, with the order of the three drugs varying by country. Around a third of respondents (32 percent) reported using more (herbal) cannabis and 42 percent using less MDMA/ecstasy.” The results also show that a group of participants had used LSD (20 percent), a new psychoactive substance (16 percent), ketamine (13 percent) and heroin (three percent).

Furthermore, participants from the Western Balkans (which is made up of a Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo) also echoed the high consumption of cannabis, and decreased use in other substances—especially ecstasy. “Most respondents (91 percent) reported using cannabis in the previous 12 months, followed by cocaine (38 percent), MDMA/ecstasy (22 percent) and amphetamine (20 percent). Again, around a third of respondents (32 percent) reported using more (herbal) cannabis and 34 percent using less MDMA/ecstasy.”

In terms of where these substances were consumed, 85 percent of participants in the EU and 72 percent of the Western Balkans used these substances at home, rather than at public venues. It also takes into account that the motivation for cannabis use at home was because of a multitude of reasons. Participants wanted to relax, get high in order to improve sleep, but their use of MDMA or ecstasy was used to attain “euphoric and socialising [sic] effects.”

The study result breakdown states that the information shared by the 50,000 people included in the survey is just a small portion of the EU, but still offers a useful glimpse into the changing habits of residents. “While web surveys are not representative of the general population, when carefully conducted and combined with traditional data-collection methods, they can help paint a more detailed, realistic and timely picture of drug use and drug markets in Europe. Over 100 organisations [sic] took part in the initiative, including the Reitox national focal points, universities and NGOs.”

EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel shared a statement regarding the goal of this survey, and the amount of participation needed from organizations to sort and analyze the data. “Web surveys are a key ingredient in our monitoring of Europe’s shifting drugs problem,” Goosdeel said. “They help us reach an important target population through innovative online methods. Today’s results reveal the wide variety of drugs available across Europe and provide valuable information on emerging trends and changing patterns of use during the COVID-19 pandemic. An impressive 100 organisations [sic] joined us this time in building, translating and disseminating the survey, ensuring that this is now an invaluable tool to help tailor our responses and shape future drug policies.”

Other studies in the U.S. have shed light on other topics related to cannabis, such as targeting teens with ads on social media or an updated Gallup survey that shows that a majority of Americans support legalization.

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