In The News

Negotiators Meet Again; Minds Don't

February 19, 2003
Negotiations over cheaper medicines for developing countries and agricultural tariffs have again failed to make headway in preparation for the next meeting of the World Trade Organization's Doha round. The inaugural meeting of the Doha round, with the September 11 tragedy still in mind, seemed to unite rich countries in recognizing the need to tackle the problems facing developing nations....

Patent Your Heritage

Tina Rosenberg December 15, 2002
Online libraries in the making will soon document and patent the traditional and biological heritage that is being exploited by pharmaceutical companies in the industrialized world. India is leading the crusade against the misappropriation of their medicinal patrimony by shielding it instead of trying to take it back from foreigners who patented it. This online library will provide a translation...

Tainted Soybeans Raise Fears About ‘Biopharming’

Mike Toner November 17, 2002
The discovery in a Nebraskan grain elevator of genetically modified crops for chemicals amongst crops meant for the nation’s food supply has led to the quarantine of a half-million bushels of potentially contaminated soybeans. This is the latest in a series of incidents in which the government has been forced to take drastic measures against the potential contamination of the nation’s food...

U.S. Raids Foil Plots to Send Arms to Al Qaeda and Others

Eric Lichtblau November 7, 2002
The DEA and the FBI now, more than ever, share a common enemy: terrorism. Federal agents recently thwarted two deals that included the exchange of drugs for weapons believed to be destined for Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. In the first deal, two Pakistanis and an American were in the process of exchanging heroin and hashish for four Stinger antiaircraft missiles that were allegedly...

Kazakhstan: President Orders Study on Effects of Decriminalizing 'Soft' Drugs

Zamira Eshanova October 12, 2002
No longer simply transit areas for drugs from Afghanistan, Central Asian countries are now seeing increasing rates of drug use and addiction. In a radical move to deal with the problem, the president of Kazakhstan is considering whether the Dutch experience of legalizing 'soft' drugs like marijuana could help curb his country’s demand for harder, more devastating drugs like heroin....

China Raises Estimates of HIV-AIDS Cases to 1 Million

Elisabeth Rosenthal September 6, 2002
China's "closed attitude" toward its growing AIDS epidemic opened slightly today when officials acknowledged that at least a million Chinese were infected with the disease and appealed for international assistance. Officials also admitted that the Chinese government had been aware of the growing AIDS problem as early as 1995. This confession was issued in compliance with the...

US Coordinates Drug Sweep in the Balkans and Central Asia

David Binder August 25, 2002
In an era in which technology has made physical distance seem irrelevant, drug enforcement officials must find newer methods to compete with the increasingly flexible and multinational drug trade network. In the summer of 2002, the Drug Enforcement Administration, working with 25,000 officials in 15 nations, managed to prove the effectiveness of multinational operations in combating the trade in...