Thursday, November 03, 2022

Opinion: With investment, Alberta's agri-food industry can help feed the world

Opinion by Stan Blade - 

A tractor is reflected in the Agri-Food Discovery Place building windows while tilling a field at University of Alberta farm in Edmonton

If your mental image of agriculture includes a photogenic red barn and a person holding a pitchfork, you should know that things have changed.

Alberta is an agri-food powerhouse with a history of innovation: a significant player in the $8-trillion global food system (World Bank, 2019). The province’s agri-food sector has an estimated annual value of $56 billion (Simpson Centre, 2021) and employs 275,000 people (Statistics Canada, 2021) in primary production, food processing, grocery retail, and food and beverage services.

But this sector faces multiple challenges, some of them global. Even though we have the resources right here in Alberta to address them, the solutions must be driven by public and private investment in research and innovation.

This September, I welcomed first-year students to the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (ALES) at the University of Alberta. I reminded them that they will be engaged with some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Managing our natural resources in a sustainable manner. Addressing the impact of climate change on food, forestry and energy sectors. Improving productivity to feed the world’s population.

Our students will graduate with the mindset, education and skills needed to take on these global challenges and move us into the future. However, Alberta’s agri-food sector needs to come together to set clear targets for what that future will look like.

Researchers in the ALES faculty work across the spectrum of agriculture, food, nutrition and human health to support the sustainability of communities, economies and the globe. Their work leads to innovations that contribute to the profitability and competitiveness of the sector.

They are using the latest tools in genomics to enhance the yield and quality of crops, increase feed efficiency in cattle and control greenhouse gases. Our 25,000 acres of research farms and ranches are helping explore how to manage carbon by locking it into our soils. Food scientists are working to improve food safety and teaming up with industry to create new plant protein products for a burgeoning market. Our researchers are collaborating with Indigenous communities to establish food sovereignty by developing community-led systems to produce, distribute and consume food.

We also believe the faculty has the opportunity — and responsibility — to provide evidence-based information to the public, governments and our partners in industry about the complex issues facing the sector. To that end, we have hosted forums on animal welfare, transgenic technologies, lab-grown meat and the implications of multinational agri-food company consolidation.

With concerted effort, collaboration and investment, I believe Alberta has the capacity to double its agri-food exports to $25 billion by 2030 using sustainable practices. But achieving such a target will require investing in research and innovation. It will require a clear understanding of what’s at stake and a strong commitment — from our many communities, the private sector, research institutions and governments — to build the sector.

There are hopeful signs that the opportunity is being recognized. In 2021, $11.3 billion was invested in global agri-tech (Investment Monitor, 2021). The ALES faculty’s recent partnership with SVG Thrive, an agri-food innovation incubator, is an example of how agriculture and food technology has captured the attention of venture capital markets.

The potential impact of these investments can be summed up in one sentence from my personal hero, Dr. Norman Borlaug, the only agricultural scientist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His innovative research and humanitarian advocacy are said to have “saved more lives than any person who has ever lived,” as the World Food Prize phrased it. In the 1990s, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Borlaug and he paraphrased a quote for which he is famous: “The first essential component is adequate food for all.”

This is our time. Alberta has all the elements — remarkable people, extensive natural resources, crucial infrastructure — to lead Canada and the world in implementing the next generation of innovation to create food-secure, economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable communities.

Stan Blade is dean, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta.
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Nutrien sticks to fertilizer expansion plan despite demand drop

By Rod Nickel - TODAY - 

FILE PHOTO: An interior view of the storage warehouse is seen at Nutrien's Cory potash mine near Saskatoon© Reuters/Nayan Sthankiya

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -Nutrien Ltd, the world's biggest fertilizer producer, intends to follow through with plans to expand production capacity of potash and nitrogen, despite a sharp pullback in potash demand due to high prices, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Nutrien is increasing Canadian potash production by 20% to an annual 18 million tonnes by 2025, helping to address tight global supplies related to sanctions against Russia and Belarus, the second- and third-largest producers after Canada.

Prices rose so high, however, that Nutrien's sales in North America and Brazil, its top two potash markets, disappointed investors during the third quarter.

"We view this as a temporary lull and our confidence in the outlook for the fundamentals of our business has not changed," CEO Ken Seitz said on a conference call.

Nutrien on Wednesday cut its full-year adjusted earnings forecast for the second time. Its shares plunged 12% in Toronto.

In an interview, Seitz said Nutrien has flexibility to adjust when it brings additional potash volume to market by 2025, but is not seeing reason to alter its plans.

"If the world changes on us, for sure, we can adjust our plans, pare back capital," Seitz said.

But the ratio of global grains stocks to use is at a 25-year low, requiring multiple crop seasons to rebuild, he said.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a significant wheat exporter, has crimped Ukrainian shipments. Droughts in China and the United States have further limited global grain supplies.

Russia re-entered this week a pact to free Ukraine shipments, but urged the United Nations to also ease Russia's fertilizer and food exports.

Seitz said U.S. Midwest farmers, who apply fertilizer in fall after harvesting, as well as in spring, are showing more interest now at the reduced potash prices.

Prices have tumbled during the past six months, though not enough to stimulate further demand, Scotiabank analyst Ben Isaacson said in a note.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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Harvest in Alberta finishes with above-average crops

Quinn Campbell - Yesterday

Magrath area farmer Gary Stanford has been busy getting all of his machinery tucked away before the cold snap hits in just a few days. He said after a tough start, his crops rebounded this season.


The Reid family harvest their wheat crop near Cremona, Alta., 
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh© JMC

"This year we were very concerned about our harvest and by the first of June we had no moisture, but we had good rains in June and the beginning of July and so we had a fairly good crop," said Stanford.

"It was more of an average crop for us in this area."

Alberta Wheat and Barley Commission agronomy specialist Jeremy Boychyn said overall, Alberta crops did well.

Read more:
Southern Alberta farmers seeing average yields, high costs this harvest

"This harvest went relatively smoothly which was nice to see, things going into the bin well," said Boychyn. "Yields ended up being average or above the five-year average which was great to see, quality was also good across the province."

The final Alberta crop report shows hard red spring wheat, canola and dry peas were above their five-year averages, while durum wheat and oats were lower. Quality for malt and feed barley was steady with the five-year average.

Stanford said his crops in southern Alberta are on par with the rest of the province.

"Spring wheat went to 35 for bushel, but last year, you know, our crops were like 10 to 20 with the drought that was on."

Read more:
‘We need inches of rain to recover’: Alberta ranchers and farmers desperate for a downpour

This summer's lack of moisture is being felt as we head into winter. A heavy snowfall would help top up the depleted soil, but Boychyn added when we start to warm up again is when we really need to see some precipitation.

"We really need more rainfall in the spring to continue to help with germination, continue plant growth through the season to produce a good crop that producers can bank on," Boychyn said.

One advantage to the hot dry summer, farmers were able to wrap up harvest two to three weeks earlier than the five-year average.
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Big agriculture warns farming must change or risk ‘destroying the planet’

Dominic Rushe - Yesterday - The Guardian

Food companies and governments must come together immediately to change the world’s agricultural practices or risk “destroying the planet”, according to the sponsors of a report by some of the largest food and farming businesses released on Thursday.


Photograph: Jeff McIntosh/AP

The report, from a task force within the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a network of global CEOs focused on climate issues established by King Charles III, is being released days before the start of the United Nation’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.

Related: Waterlogged wheat, rotting oranges: five crops devastated by a year of extreme weather

Many of the world’s largest food and agricultural businesses have championed sustainable agricultural practices in recent years. Regenerative farming practices, which prioritize cutting greenhouse gas emissions, soil health and water conservation, now cover 15% of croplands.

But the pace of change has been “far too slow”, the report finds, and must triple by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping temperature rises under 1.5C, a level that if breached, scientists argue, will unleash even more devastating climate change on the planet.

The report is signed by Bayer, Mars, McCain Foods, McDonald’s, Mondelez, Olam, PepsiCo, Waitrose and others. They represent a potent political and corporate force, impacting the food supply chain around the world. They are also, according to critics, some of those most responsible for climate mismanagement with one calling the report “smoke and mirrors” and unlikely to address the real crisis.

Food production is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity and a number of the signatories have been accused of environmental misdeeds and “greenwashing”. Activist Greta Thunberg is boycotting Cop this year having called the global summit a PR stunt “for leaders and people in power to get attention.”

“We are at a critical tipping point where something must be done,” said task force chair and outgoing Mars CEO, Grant Reid. “The interconnection between human health and planetary health is more evident than ever before..” Big food companies and agriculture must play a big part in changing that, said Reid. “It won’t be easy but we have got to make it work,” he said.

Agriculture is the world’s largest industry. Pasture and cropland occupy around 50% of the planet’s habitable land and uses about 70% of fresh water supplies. The climate crisis is challenging the industry across the world but the group’s call for change comes as the industry – which employs 1 billion people – is facing supply chain issues in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and soaring inflation. It also comes amid mounting skepticism about promises to change from companies that have contributed to climate change.

Related video: WION Climate Tracker: US farmers practice regenerative agriculture to reduce emissions   Duration 2:30   View on Watch


These current issues must not detract from the need for change, the report argues. “With the inflationary environment and widespread supply chain disruption, it would be easy to reduce our focus on the longer-term challenge of scaling regenerative farming. But we believe it’s vital we maintain a sense of urgency. We must take action now to avoid more acute crises in the future,” its authors write.

Sunny George Verghese, chief executive of Olam, one of the world’s largest suppliers of cocoa beans, coffee, cotton and rice, said: “We can not continue to produce and consume food and feed and fiber in the way we are doing today unless we don’t mind destroying the planet.”

“The only way out for us is how we transition to a more resilient food system that will allow us to meet the needs of a growing population without the resource intensity we have today.”

The report studied three food crops, potatoes, rice and wheat, and has made policy recommendations it will present at Cop27.

The task force’s members are working to make the short-term economic case for change more attractive to farmers. “It’s just not compelling enough for the average farmer,” said Reid. More widely the report argues industry and government must also work harder to address the knowledge gap and make sure farmers are following best practices. Thirdly, all parties involved in the agriculture industry from farmers to food producers to government, banks and insurers need to align behind encouraging a shift to more sustainable practices.

“It involves change for all the players including the government, private, public companies and others. No one player can do this on their own, this has to be a collaboration of the willing. What needs to happen now is action and delivery,” said Reid.

Over the next six months, the group will assess how they can spread the task force’s work with the aim of establishing a common set of metrics for measuring environmental outcomes, establishing a credible system of payments for farmers for environmental outcomes, easing the cost of farmers transitioning to sustainable practices, ensuring government policy rewards farmers for greening their business and encouraging the sourcing of crops from particular areas converting to regenerative farming.


Devlin Kuyek, a researcher at GRAIN, a non-profit organization that works to support small farmers, said it was increasingly difficult for big agricultural and food companies to ignore climate change. “But I don’t think any of these companies – say a McDonalds – has any commitment to curtail the sales of highly polluting products. I don’t think PepsiCo is going to say the world doesn’t need Pepsi.”

Kuyek pointed out that Yara, another signatory to the report, is the world’s largest supplier of nitrogen-based fertilizers, “which are responsible for one out of every 40 tonnes of greenhouse gas emitted annually.”

“It’s pretty disingenuous,” said Kuyek. “Small, local food systems still feed most of the people on the planet and the real threat is that the industrial system is expanding at the expense of the truly sustainable system. Corporations are creating a bit of smoke and mirrors here, suggesting they are part of the solution when inevitably they are part of the problem.”

Considering the controversial histories of some of the companies involved in the report, Verghese said he expected criticism and scrutiny. “All companies have to stand up to the scrutiny of being attacked if there is real greenwashing. There is no place to hide,” he said. “As far as Olam is concerned we are very clear on our targets, we have had the confidence to make these targets public. All of us have progressed along the sustainable journey. It is not that we have not made mistakes in the past but as we have become better at this we are willing to be subject to scrutiny.”

Both Reid and Verghese said the scale of the issues the world’s food supply is facing can not be underplayed but that more governments and companies were becoming convinced of the need for urgent change. “I believe change can be made,” said Verghese. “I am optimistic. The fact that these kinds of coalitions are emerging is very positive. We are all otherwise very strong rivals and competitors. We hate each other’s guts, we don’t come together on anything unless there is a huge crisis. Everyone is recognizing there is a huge crisis. We need to come together.”
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Canada to start targeting draws for skilled immigrants next year

By Julie Gordon - TODAY

Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser attends a press conference with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in Ottawa
© Reuters/BLAIR GABLE

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will do targeted draws for skilled immigrants for the first time starting next year, allowing it to cherry pick applicants with the most in-demand skills for the regions of the country that most need workers, the federal immigration minister told Reuters.

A key focus will be on recruiting more doctors and nurses, but only for provinces that make it easier for health workers to validate their foreign credentials and start practicing when they arrive, Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview late on Wednesday.

"We can do a targeted draw beginning in 2023. That will allow us to select workers by the sector that they work in and the part of Canada that they are going to," said Fraser.

"This means we will be able to bring a greater focus to welcome more healthcare workers ... in jurisdictions that will allow them to practice."

In Canada, many economic immigrant candidates are ranked based on language, education and other skills, and those with the highest overall score are invited to apply for permanent residence status.

The change will allow Canada to filter for specific skills and sectors, or for people who will move to specific regions.

Related video: Canada announces new immigration target of 500K per year by 2025
Duration 1:32   View on Watch

Canada is struggling with an acute shortage of workers. The most recent job vacancy data showed there were 958,500 open roles in Canada in August and 1.0 million unemployed people.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government this week boosted its immigration goals and said it aimed to bring in 1.45 million new permanent residents over the next three years. The targeted draws will be under Canada's federal "high skilled" category, accounting for roughly 21.1% of newcomers over that period.

Business groups have said the government needs to do more on immigration to help companies grappling with a historic labor shortage.

Canada's healthcare system is buckling under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic and a nursing shortage. But the country has also struggled to accredit healthcare workers once they arrive, meaning many foreign-trained doctors and nurses do not end up working in their field.

The provinces are responsible for healthcare in Canada.

"I'm not interested in conducting a targeted draw for healthcare workers that are going to come to Canada and not be permitted to practice their profession," Fraser said.

He added the federal government would work with provinces to ensure a clearer pathway and go ahead with targeted draws for those provinces that ease the transition.

As immigration levels ramp up to record highs, questions are mounting on where the newcomers will live. Canada already faces a housing shortage.

Fraser said the government would focus on welcoming more skilled construction workers to help build new housing supply and on selecting newcomers for areas with the "absorptive capacity" to take them.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa, Additional reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Matthew Lewis)


Canada Plans To Give Thousands More People Permanent Resident Status — But Quebec Doesn't

Thomas MacDonald - MTLBLOG

Canada unveiled an ambitious plan to welcome tens of thousands of additional permanent residents in the next few years. But the Quebec government, which selects its own immigrants, is standing its ground on its resistance to higher immigration levels.


MTL Blog

The federal plan calls for 500,000 new permanent residents nationwide by 2025, a big increase from the record 405,000 in 2021.

The goal is to address the country's labour shortage, specifically in the health care, manufacturing, construction and STEM sectors. The federal government also wants to boost immigration to less populous areas through targeted programs for Atlantic Canada, the north and other rural communities.

It has further vowed that a minimum of 4.4% of new permanent residents outside Quebec will be francophone by 2023.

"Last year, we welcomed the most newcomers in a single year in our history," federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said in a statement. "This year's immigration levels plan will help businesses find the workers they need, set Canada on a path that will contribute to our long-term success, and allow us to make good on key commitments to vulnerable people fleeing violence, war and persecution."


Quebec, meanwhile, is sticking to its own immigration levels, which it determines through its unique immigration powers.

"We acknowledge the immigration thresholds presented by the federal government" and "reaffirm that it is up to Quebec to determine its permanent immigration targets," newly minted Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette tweeted.

"The annual threshold in Quebec is 50,000 in order to respect our capacity to receive, francisize and integrate immigrants."

She also called on the federal government to transfer more immigration authority to the province.

"Our position remains the same: we need more powers in immigration if we want to protect the French language."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
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Most US pet food CONTAINERS contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’, study finds

Tom Perkins - Yesterday 


Much of America’s pet food packaging could be contaminated with PFAS “forever chemicals”, creating a potentially dangerous exposure to the toxic compounds for cats and dogs.

Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters© Provided by The Guardian

In a recent study public health advocate the Environmental Working Group (EWG) checked 11 bags of pet food and found that all of them contained the substance, including several at extremely high levels.

“This represents a significant source of PFAS in the home environment,” said Sydney Evans, a science analyst with the EWG.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 12,000 compounds used to make products resist water, stains and heat. They’re called “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down, accumulating in humans and animals. PFAS are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, birth defects, kidney disease and liver disease.

The chemicals are likely used in pet food bags to make them repel grease. For cats, the highest levels were detected in the Meow Mix Tender Centers salmon and chicken flavors dry cat food, at more than 600 parts per million (ppm). Purina Cat Chow Complete chicken showed over 350 ppm, while Blue Buffalo, Iams and Rachael Ray Nutrish all had detections of under 100 ppm.

For dogs, Kibbles ’n Bits bacon and steak flavor registered just under 600 ppm, followed by Blue Buffalo’s Life Protection Formula chicken and brown rice recipe at 150 ppm. Other dog foods made by Purina, Iams and Pedigree had much lower amounts. While some of the PFAS levels are considered by public health advocates to be high, no legal framework to measure it exists.

A second test checked some of the bags for individual PFAS compounds, like PFBA, which is known to cause liver and kidney problems, and harm the immune system in humans.

The study did not check the pet food for PFAS, though based on past research that found the chemicals leached from fast food wrappers into human food, it’s likely that the chemicals are contaminating the products, the EWG said. The chemicals can also separate from bags and end up in homes.

No “top pet food manufacturers” appear to have committed publicly to stop using PFAS in their packaging, the report states. Despite pressure from public health advocates, the Food and Drug Administration has refused to ban the use of PFAS in food packaging, and efforts to do so via legislation have died in Congress.

“We need strong new state and federal actions to eliminate sources of PFAS pollution … and end unnecessary uses of PFAS in pet food packaging and in products found in and around the home,” Evans said.
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BLAMING THE WORKERS
Suncor reducing contractor work force by 20 per cent to improve safety, efficiency

CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. is reducing the size of its contractor work force by 20 per cent as part of its effort to improve safety and performance at its oilsands operations.



Interim CEO Kris Smith told analysts on a conference call Thursday that more than half of the work force reductions have already been completed, with the remainder on track to be completed by the first half of 2023.

He said the decision to reduce the number of contractors working on Suncor sites was the result of "a thorough review of the make-up of our front-line work force" and aimed at reducing the number of exposure hours that put the company at risk for workplace injuries or fatalities, as well as improving efficiency and competitiveness.

“My priority has been to remove distraction from the organization and to focus our employees on safe, reliable operations in our biggest opportunities," Smith said on the call.

Suncor's safety record has been under the microscope in 2022, ever since U.S.-based activist investor Elliot Investment Management publicly called for change at the Calgary-based energy company.

Since 2014, there have been at least 12 fatalities at Suncor's oilsands facilities in northern Alberta, including five since 2021. That's more than all of its industry peers combined.

Smith — who stepped into the CEO role in July to replace Mark Little, who stepped down from the top job one day after a 26-year-old contract worker was struck by equipment and killed at Suncor's Base Mine — said Suncor is also enhancing its contractor management processes, and partnering with experts to ensure managers in all departments and operations have the latest safety training and education.

The company is also installing collision prevention technology on over 1,000 pieces of mobile mine equipment to eliminate what it calls a "key risk" within its operations. Fatigue management systems will also be completed across all of Suncor's mines by early 2023, Smith said.

On Wednesday evening, Suncor reported a net loss of $609 million in the third quarter, the result of taking a $3.4-billion writedown against its share of the Fort Hills oilsands mine.

The net loss, which works out to 45 cents per common share, is in contrast to an $877-million profit, or 59 cents per common share, in the prior year's quarter.

Suncor announced last week it will buy out Teck Resources Ltd.'s 21.3 per cent stake in the Fort Hills oilsands project for approximately $1 billion. The agreed-upon sales price reflects a lower market value for the mine, resulting in a non-cash impairment charge.

On an adjusted basis, however, Suncor said it earned $2.6 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, or $1.88 per share, more than double the $1 billion or 71 cents per common share it earned on an adjusted basis in the same three months of 2021, thanks to significantly higher crude oil prices and upstream production.

Suncor’s total upstream production increased to 724,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in the third quarter of 2022, compared to 698,600 boe/d in the prior year's quarter. Refinery crude throughput was 466,600 barrels per day and refinery utilization was 100 per cent in the third quarter of 2022, compared to 460,300 barrels per day and 99 per cent in the third quarter of 2021.

Suncor has said it will hold an investor presentation on Nov. 29 to provide additional information about its plans to improve safety and performance, as well as the results of its review looking into the possible sale of its retail division.

Suncor, which recently sold its wind and solar assets as well as its exploration and production assets in Norway, is trying to streamline its portfolio to focus on its "core business."

Eight Capital analyst Phil Skolnick said that could mean Suncor is about to embark on an oilsands "buying spree." He said in the aftermath of the deal to acquire Teck's share in Fort Hills, he wouldn't be surprised if Suncor is also in negotiations with French company TotalEnergies SE for its remaining 24.6 per cent stake in the Fort Hills project.

"We could also see (Suncor) looking to acquire CNOOC and Sinopec's combined 16.2 per cent interest in Syncrude (China has been reported to be looking to exit Canada)," Skolnick said in a research note.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SU)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press



Suncor quarterly profit more than doubles, beats estimates on crude rally
Yesterday 
SU Rising fast

(Reuters) -Suncor Energy Inc said on Wednesday its third-quarter adjusted profit more than doubled and beat analysts' expectations, as the Canadian energy major was supported by higher oil and refined product prices.

Global crude prices have recently cooled from 14-year peaks touched earlier in 2022, but were still 30% higher year-on-year during the quarter as Russian sanctions and OPEC+ lower output plans kept supply tight.

Excluding items, Suncor's adjusted earnings more than doubled to C$2.57 billion ($1.87 billion), or C$1.88 per share, beating analysts' consensus of C$1.83 per share, as per Refinitiv data.

Total upstream production for the reported quarter was 724,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with last year's 698,600 boepd.

Its refinery crude throughput rose 1.4% to 466,600 barrels a day with a refinery utilization of 100%.

Last week, Suncor had said it will buy Canadian miner Teck Resources' stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project in Alberta for C$1 billion, expanding its stake in the project to 75.4% from 54.1%.

Before the stake expansion, the Calgary, Alberta-based firm took an impairment charge of nearly C$3.4 billion in the reported period against its share of the Fort Hills assets.

($1 = 1.3716 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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US authorities relax regulations on prescription opioids

Thu, November 3, 2022 


US health officials issued new recommendations Thursday to relax restrictions for doctors prescribing opioids for pain, despite the risk of addiction.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revised principles issued in 2016 in an attempt to curb the opioid overdose epidemic in the United States.

Unlike the previous document, the new guide refrains from setting thresholds in terms of dosage or prescription duration.

These had led doctors to suddenly cut or drastically reduce patients' doses. States and insurance companies were also inspired to set their own limits.

Chronic pain patients had complained that they no longer had access to the drugs that would allow them to lead a normal life, and had warned of the increased risk of suicide in their ranks.

The new recommendations, compiled in a 200-page report, seek a balance. One in five Americans suffers from chronic pain and "opioids can be essential medications for the management of pain, however, they carry considerable potential risk," the authors of the document wrote.

The guidelines are not "a replacement for clinical judgment or individualized, person-centered care" or "intended to be applied as inflexible standards of care," the report says.

But it recommends caution, warning that opioids should be considered only after other pain treatments have failed, and at each step, physicians should discuss the issue with their patients.

If they decide to use opioids, they should first prescribe the lowest effective dose and then closely monitor the effects of the treatment.

If problems arise, physicians should also avoid abruptly terminating opioid prescriptions and should ensure appropriate care for those with complications.

As a precautionary measure, the agency recommends that people using opioids over a prolonged period be offered Naloxone, an antidote that can save someone who is overdosing, said Christopher Jones, a senior CDC official, at a press briefing.

Opioid prescriptions increased fourfold between 1999 and 2010 in the United States. Although the trend has reversed since 2016, they have created addictions and driven some patients to drugs like heroin and fentanyl.

Last year, the US had a record 107,000 overdose deaths, more than 70 percent of which were from illegal synthetic opioids.

chp/ube/st/caw
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DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS
Captagon connection: how Syria became a narco state

Rouba EL HUSSEINI, Jean Marc MOJON
Wed, November 2, 2022 


LONG READ

A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins but one thing crosses every front line: a drug called captagon.

The stimulant -- once notorious for its association with Islamic State fighters -- has spawned an illegal $10 billion industry that not only props up the pariah regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but many of his enemies.

It has turned Syria into the world's latest narco state, and sunk deep roots in neighbouring Lebanon as its economy has collapsed.

Captagon is now by far Syria's biggest export, dwarfing all its legal exports put together, according to estimates drawn from official data by AFP.


An amphetamine derived from a once-legal treatment for narcolepsy and attention disorder, it has become a huge drug in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia by far the biggest market.

AFP interviewed smugglers, a fixer who puts together multi-million dollar deals, and 30 serving and former law enforcement officers from Syria and beyond, as well as diplomats and drug experts in a bid to grasp the scope of the phenomenon.


Given the danger of speaking publicly -- particularly for those inside the trade -- the majority asked for their identities to be protected.

- 'I can work for days' -

In Saudi Arabia, captagon is often talked of as a party drug, but its hold extends far beyond the gilded lifestyles of the kingdom's wealthy elite.

Cheap, discreet and less taboo than alcohol, many poorer Saudis and migrant workers go to work on the drug.

"I can work for two or three days non-stop, which has doubled my earnings and is helping me pay off my debts," said Faisal, a skinny 20-year-old newlywed from a working-class background, who spends 150 riyals a week ($40) on the pills.

"I finish my first job exhausted in the early hours of the morning," but the drug helps him push through to drive for a ride-hailing service.

An Egyptian construction worker told AFP that he began taking the pills after his boss secretly slipped some into his coffee so he could work faster and longer.



"In time my colleagues and I became addicted," he added.

The retail price of a pill varies wildly from $25 for the premium tablets sold to the Saudi jetset to low quality adulterated pills that go for a dollar.

Many begin their journey to the Gulf in the lawless badlands between Syria and Lebanon.

- Border barons and tribal networks -

Hidden behind dark glasses and a mask in the middle of a vineyard in the Bekaa Valley, a Lebanese fixer and trafficker told AFP how he organised the shipments.

"Four or five big names typically partner up and split the cost of a shipment of say $10 million to cover raw material, transport and bribes," he said.

"The cost is low and the profits high," he said, adding that even if only one shipment out of 10 gets through, "you are still a winner".

"There's a group of more than 50 barons... They are one big web, Syrians, Lebanese and Saudis."

While the captagon trade spans several countries, many key players have tribal ties, particularly through the Bani Khaled, a Bedouin confederation that reaches from Syria and Lebanon to Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

A shipment can stay within the Bani Khaled's sphere of influence the whole way from manufacture in Syria to delivery in Saudi Arabia, said multiple sources, including a smuggler, an intelligence officer and Syrian army deserters.




The economics of the trade are dizzying.

More than 400 million pills were seized in the Middle East and beyond in 2021, according to official figures, with seizures this year set to top that.

Customs and anti-narcotics officials told AFP that for every shipment they seize, another nine make it through.

That means even with a low average price of $5 per tablet, and only four out of five shipments getting through, captagon is at least a $10 billion industry.

With Syria the source of 80 percent of the world's supply, according to security services, the trade is at least worth three times its entire national budget.

- Assad's brother -

The Syrian state is at the heart of the trade in Assad-controlled areas, narcotics experts say.

The shadowy network of warlords and profiteers Assad indebted himself to to win the war has benefited hugely from it, including Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which experts say plays a significant role in protecting the trade along the Lebanese border.

"Syria is in dire need of foreign currency, and this industry is capable of filling the treasury through a shadow economy from importing raw materials to manufacturing and finally exporting" the pills, an ex-Syrian government adviser now outside the country told AFP.


One major mover keeps coming up ==in all the AFP interviews -- Assad's much-feared brother Maher, the de facto head of Syria's elite unit, the 4th Division.

A dozen sources told AFP that the division was deeply involved in the trade, including smugglers, a regional law and order official, a former Syrian intelligence officer, a member of a tribe that smuggles captagon and a pharmaceutical industry insider.

The British Army-linked CHACR think tank and the independent Center for Operations Analysis and Research (COAR) have also pointed the finger at Assad's brother.

The Syrian authorities did not reply to AFP requests for comment after being contacted at the United Nations and through the country's embassy in Paris.

"Maher al-Assad is one of the main beneficiaries of the captagon trade," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"He receives his own share from the profit. Drug money has become a main source to pay the salaries of an armed group affiliated with the 4th Division," he added.

Some captagon labs get "the raw material directly from the 4th Division, sometimes in military bags", said a Syria monitor, with a trafficker telling AFP that it even supplied rebel groups opposed to the regime.

The division controls large parts of the porous border with Lebanon that is key to the trade, with the Mediterranean port of Latakia another of its bastions.

Caroline Rose, of the Washington-based Newlines Institute, said it has "played an active role in guarding, facilitating and running a lot of captagon in Homs and Latakia" and then "transporting shipments to state-owned ports".

The Lebanese frontier, which has never been clearly demarcated, has long been a happy hunting ground for smugglers, with captagon operations now booming in the north.

"Wadi Khaled is the new hub, the place is full of traffickers," a judicial source told AFP, referring to a remote northern border region where much of the population on the Lebanese side identifies as Syrian.

At the height of the war, arms were smuggled into Syria through Wadi Khaled. Now captagon and migrants attempting to make the perilous crossing to Europe flow in the other direction.

- Rebel involvement -



The southern Syrian provinces of Sweida and Daraa, which border Jordan, are other key smuggling routes to Saudi Arabia, with the latter also home to many drug labs.

Sweida teems with gangs transporting captagon, with Bedouin tribes bringing consignments down from major production plants around Damascus and Homs.

"The smuggling is organised by the tribes who live in the desert in coordination with over 100 small armed gangs," said Abu Timur, a spokesman for the local Al-Karama armed group.

Across Syria the money to be made from captagon trumps old enmities.

"Captagon brought together all the warring parties of the conflict... The government, the opposition, the Kurds and ISIS," the ex-Syrian government adviser said.

Even in the north, home to the last pockets where rebel and jihadist groups are holding out against Assad, the drug has forged unlikely alliances.

"I work with people in Homs and Damascus who receive the pills from 4th Division depots," a smuggler in the Turkish-dominated region told AFP.

"My job is to distribute the pills here or to coordinate with rebel groups to send them to Turkey," he said.

"This job is very dangerous and very easy at the same time."

The trafficker said he also sold pills to leaders from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group that dominates the Idlib enclave in northwestern Syria.



He said myriad groups working as Turkish proxies and under the rebel umbrella known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) had aggressively moved in on the captagon business recently.

"The area is teeming with rebel groups. It's a jungle, everyone is hungry out there and wants to eat," he said.

He said the new captagon kingpin in the region is Abu Walid Ezza, a commander from the Sultan Murad faction of the SNA.

"He has very good relations with the 4th Division, since he used to be based in Homs," the trafficker said. "He brings excellent pills."

The faction told AFP they had nothing to do with the trade.

Turkish players are also deeply involved, said one regional judicial investigator.

"Diethyl ether, a kind of chloroform, is one of the main precursors needed for (making) captagon, and most of it enters from Turkey," the source said.

- Candy machine -

Beyond the chemicals, the biggest investment for a captagon lab is a tablet press or candy-making machine.

One Chinese website even advertises a "captagon tablet press" for $2,500 that can spew out tens of thousands of pills an hour.



For a few dollars more you can get the pill stamps with captagon's trademark logo -- the two Cs that have earned it the nickname "Abu al-hilalain" (two crescent moons).

Once the chemical precursors have been procured, it only takes 48 hours to set up a captagon manufacturing laboratory with relatively rudimentary equipment.

Which means even when drug units swoop, the captagon cooks can quickly start working again. They have even been known to set up mobile labs in the back of utility vans, especially after a recent clampdown in eastern Lebanon.

The Syrian government also acts but most seizures "are nothing but pure farce... the enforcers are themselves the thieves," said a Syrian pharmaceutical company worker interviewed outside the country. Some pharma plants are also involved in the trade, he added.

Slick videos from Saudi Arabia's customs and police boast of how they are battling captagon with state-of-the-art detection technology and dog units.

But senior security and judicial officials in the region told AFP that the traffickers are always a step ahead.

"At (Lebanon's) Tripoli port, for example, the scanner always needs repairing on the wrong day, or is inadvertently switched off," said a senior Lebanese official.

"And when arrests are made, the security services always bring the driver to court, the only guy who doesn't know anything," the official added.

Corruption also helps to load the dice in the smugglers' favour. Several anti-narcotics officials told AFP that some senior officials were on the take and had even sold off seized drugs

- 'Captagon king' –

"Captagon king" Hassan Dekko used to run his empire out of the Lebanese border village of Tfail, which sits at the tip of a tongue of land jutting into Syria north of Damascus.

But Dekko, a binational with high-level political connections in both countries, was arrested in April last year after major captagon seizures.

In court documents obtained by AFP, Dekko denied any involvement in drug trafficking.

But anti-narcotics chiefs in Lebanon claim that some of the businesses he owns, including a pesticide factory in Jordan, a car dealership in Syria and a fleet of tanker trucks, are common covers for drug barons.


However, a senior security official said Dekko's influence had been on the wane.

Several security sources as well as deserters from the Syrian army described Syrian MP Amer Khiti, who is under US sanctions, as another major figure in the business.

"Khiti is involved in smuggling captagon," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed, and he has also been named in CHACR and COAR reports.

One of his workers told AFP that he had seen captagon being delivered to a warehouse near Damascus.

"He is a good man. We don't care what he does, so long as he helps the people," the employee said.

"The Khiti family has been involved in this since before the war. They used to put pills in plastic bags and stitch them inside sheep" to smuggle them, he added.

Khiti could not be reached for comment.

- 'No smoking gun' -

With no end in sight to their economic and political crises, the fear is that captagon will become an even bigger pillar of life in Syria and Lebanon, where up to a fifth of the pills are produced.

Multiple sources told AFP that the captagon barons have built strong political connections there.

"Syria became the global epicentre of captagon production by conscious choice," said Ian Larson, chief Syria analyst at the COAR political risk consultancy.

With its economy crippled by war and sanctions, "Damascus had few good options", he added.

From the Syrian regime officials and millionaire businessmen at the top of the chain down to the villagers and refugees employed to cook and conceal the drugs, captagon dollars get spread far and wide in both countries.

"There is still no smoking gun directly linking Bashar al-Assad to the captagon industry, and we shouldn't necessarily expect to find one," said Larson, who has written extensively on the drug.



On September 20, the US House of Representatives passed an act with the catchy acronym CAPTAGON -- Countering Assad's Proliferation Trafficking And Garnering Of Narcotics Act -- but the drug has generally received scant attention in Western policy-making circles.

Meanwhile, both the dealers and those tracking them believe the captagon era is only just beginning.

"The trade will never stop, generation after generation will keep working in it," the Lebanese fixer insisted.

A senior judicial source agreed. "They are never convicted and the money is huge. Give me one reason why this would stop."

(Additional reporting by Haitham el-Tabei in Saudi Arabia and Patrick Lee in Kuala Lumpur.)


‘Captagon connection’: How Syria became a narco state

A smuggler describes the inner workings of the captagon trade in northern Syria, where the stimulant is trafficked across frontlines between areas under the control of Syrian government forces, Turkish-backed rebels, and the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group. "It's a jungle out there, everyone is hungry and everyone wants to eat.” The stimulant – once notorious for its association with Islamic State group fighters – has spawned an illegal $10-billion industry.

 

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Psychedelic Treatment with Psilocybin Relieves Major Depression, Study Shows

11/04/2020
Psilocybin

Credit: Modified Getty Image

Note: To view and download footage of Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., talking about his research, click here. To view and download footage of a research participant talking about his experience in Johns Hopkins' psilocybin study, click here.

In a small study of adults with major depression, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that two doses of the psychedelic substance psilocybin, given with supportive psychotherapy, produced rapid and large reductions in depressive symptoms, with most participants showing improvement and half of study participants achieving remission through the four-week follow-up.

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