GRAMMY-winning soprano Rene Flemingwill launch a webinar series exploring the impact of music and arts on human health and the brain.

Music and Mind Live with Rene Fleming will feature scientists and practitioners in the "intersection music, neuroscience, and healthcare" including child development, pain and anxiety and management in conversation with the singer, according to a statement. The first webinar will happen Tuesday, May 19 at 5 p.m. EST/ 2 p.m. PST withDr. Vivek Murthy.

Murthy will discussmusic, loneliness and isolation as well as his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.The series will alsoinclude a Q&A portion.

Fleming, an arts and health advocate, said now is the time to talk about how art impacts health.

"Research is revealing amazing things about the way arts influence human health and the brain, Fleming said in a statement. With our working lives halted, the covid-19 pandemic has also fostered an explosion of creativity and good will. What better time to examine our need as human beings to create and experience the arts, and the basis of this in science?"

Fleming's role as theArtistic Advisor to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts inspired her to create the series..

The webinars can be watched live on Facebook. Those who cannot tune into the livestream can catch a replay on theKennedy Center's website. The live episodes can also be watched on the Kennedy Center's Facebook and YouTube.

See the full schedule of the series below:

May 19 Music, Loneliness, and Isolation

Vivek H. Murthy, MD (former US Surgeon General, author)

May 26 "Community of Voices, Sound and Music Perception, and a Resource for the Future"-

Julene Johnson, PhD and Charles Limb, MD (University of California San Francisco); Sunil Iyengar (National Endowment for the Arts)

June 2 At Home with Children: Musical Tool Kit

Miriam Lense, PhD, (Vanderbilt University Music Cognition Lab); Sara Beck, PhD (Randolph College)

June 9 "Integrative Approach to COVID-19 and the Mind"

Deepak Chopra, MD (The Chopra Foundation)

June 16 "Using Music for Health and Wellbeing during COVID-19"

Wendy Magee, PhD (Temple University); Tom Sweitzer, MMT, MT-BC (A Place to Be)

3 Songs That Are Helping Me Manage My Mental Health During Quarantine

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Tarriona Tank Ball, Waxahatchee, The War On Drugs & More To Perform At Free Voter Registration Virtual Concert - Recording Academy | Grammys

Rasheed Samir Gresham, 45, proudly flashed the 46 laminated card certifying him as a licensed medical marijuana patient and cultivator in Missouri. Hes also a licensed caregiver who can legally provide small amounts of medical marijuana to approved patients. Greshams proudest possession, however, was his adhesive business sticker. It features him in caricature dressed in a leprechauns outfit standing next to a black pot filled evergreen cannabis. Balloon lettering introduces: Sheed with the Weed.

Greshams exuberance is understood once I heard his story. Twenty years ago, while living in New Jersey, he was apprehended with six- and one-half ounces of marijuana. Because he wouldnt cooperate with police and prosecutors, he says, they made an example of him. He was sentenced to 13 years in New Jerseys state prison. He was released after serving nine years. And he relocated to St. Louis.

Two decades later and Gresham finds himself in a changed society. The drug that sent him to prison is now legal in the state for medicinal purposes. In 2018, voters overwhelmingly backed Amendment 2 that approved the growing, cultivating, testing, and selling of medical marijuana through dispensaries.

The legal and illegal marijuana business is estimated to generate $40 billion this year alone, with more than a dozen cannabis stocks trading on Wall Street. This robust economic growth will result in new businesses and jobs and millions in tax revenues for participating states.

Gresham is ready to make his mark.

Its definitely an opportunity, especially in Missouri, he said, adding, We already know how its been done in other states, the numbers are there, the opportunities are there. This is happening. You cant stop it.

For Grisham, AKA Sheed with the Weed, this moment represents a rare opportunity for African Americans to reap the benefits from a trade they know well but where penalized disproportionately in America for decades.

Were at the front of a new frontier. But, as someone who spent time in prison for selling weed, Im also behind the frontier. Now, because its legal, its about getting your foot in the door, setting up a structure, a brand, standing on that brand, and building wealth.

The marijuana industry holds tremendous promise for all entrepreneurs. However, evidence suggests that barriers, like lack of capital and systematic economic racism, that have kept many minorities out of other mainstream industries, also exist in the new world of legalized cannabis. Blacks face the familiar challenges of competing in a burgeoning, multi-billion-dollar industry where they are under-resourced, undercapitalized, underrepresented, and, some say, unrecognized in this new frontier.

The nations coronavirus pandemic and instances of police brutality, which disproportionately impact people of color, have brought much-need attention to their plight. The new buzzword on the streets, the news, in politics, and in corporate America is Social justice. President Donald Trump and his 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, have both pledged to explore new investment opportunities in low-income, minority communities.

Cory Elliott, photo submitted

The booming US marijuana industry could be the perfect economic jump-off point. The Cannabis Trade Industry states that by 2023, cannabis both medical and recreational is on pace to become a $100 billion industry. The US cannabis industry today employs at least 250,000 Americans which is five times as many jobs as the coal industry. Echoing Gresham, its happening!

Theres a savory sense of poetic justice to the idea of the legalized marijuana industry becoming a new avenue for opportunity and wealth-building for a population that has suffered the most from its illegal usage.

The American Civil Liberties (ACLU) recent report, The War on Marijuana in Black and White, concluded that Black people are 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, notwithstanding comparable usage rates. Between 2010 and 2018 alone, of the six million people arrested for marijuana possession, blacks were more likely than whites to be arrested in every state, including those with legalized marijuana.

The ACLU report also noted that blacks are nearly six times more likely to be incarcerated for drug-related offenses than their white counterparts. Almost 80 percent of people serving time for a federal drug offense are black or Latino.

The damage to individuals, families, and communities of color is multiplied exponentially when the ramifications of the 49-year-old War on Drugs implemented under the Nixon administration, is factored into the equation.

A persons arrest for even tiny amounts of marijuana comes with enormous collateral consequences. A drug conviction can forever impact their ability to obtain a decent job or business loan, receive public housing or student financial aid, threaten their immigration status, take away child custody rights, and basically ensured that future generations are locked in poverty.

Its a reality that Rasheed Gresham has experienced first-hand:

You dont do the bid by yourself; you do the bid with your family. When this happens, everybodys a victim; me, my mother, my father, my grandparents.

The whole country is also the victim of the failed war on drugs. Enforcement of marijuana laws, according to the ACLU, costs about $3.6 billion per year without diminishing the use, desire, or availability of the drug.

By legalizing marijuana, billions of taxpayer dollars thats been blown to disproportionately target, arrest and incarcerate black people can now be theoretically reinvested into wounded and broken people and communities.

Today, the $64,000 question for states, including Missouri, is whether the growing legalized marijuana industry is ready to step up and be the great social and economic equalizer for populations of color.

Cory Elliott has become an expert of sorts as it pertains to Missouris foray into the medicinal marijuana industry. Elliott, as a consultant, helped two firms prepare applications to meet the licensing requirements established by the State of Missouri.

In June, the black-owned firm, West End Cannabis, didnt win a single license with all dispensaries located in underserved areas in North St. Louis. Elliott was disheartened that West End, with its specific social justice components, won nothing.

The West End Cannabis team was really focused on providing medical marijuana to low-income communities, Elliott explained. They also had a social justice piece aimed at trying to provide positive opportunities for populations negatively impacted when (marijuana) was illegal. All their dispensaries would have been in low-income neighborhoods. For none to be awarded was very disappointing.

It was disappointing because Elliott, a former SSM health care administrator, was drawn to the developing legal marijuana industry precisely because of its potential to uplift low-income communities and individuals. She committed her time and talent to both firms because of their belief and commitment to social justice. She was able to identify trade groups for both firms to train low-income communities in the marijuana industry. She was able to negotiate the reduced cost of marijuana for low-income patients successfully. She was looking forward to marijuana, making a positive change in African American communities.

The CEO of Elliott Holding Company became interested in marijuana as an alternative treatment for illnesses such as anxiety, Alzheimers, and Crohns disease, epilepsy, and migraines in which she suffers. But, she added, it was the social justice piece that resonated and convinced her to use her skills, passions, and experience to enact positive change within the industry.

Missouri, Elliott maintains, has yet to recognize the benefits of social justice endeavors strategically intertwined with its burgeoning cannabis industry. Exhibit A, she says, is that out of the 1,163 applicants for dispensary licenses, few African American groups vying for the meager 192 permits were selected.

Its a concern shared by James Forbes, part of the Ohio-based Standard Wellness team that was awarded 3 Missouri cultivation licenses, 3 manufacturing licenses for the development of infused products but no dispensary licenses.

Forbes, who is Asian and African American, says hes one of the few people of color on Standard Wellness board. His heart, however, is firmly rooted in the social and economic justice movements. In 2013, he co-founded Good Life Growing, LLC, a St, Louis social enterprise dedicated to combatting food insecurity by creating urban farms on vacant properties and training low-income urban farmers to grow and sell fresh food.

Like it was during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s, Forbes worries that the legalization of marijuana will exclude felons, like the country did with bootleggers, while rewarding those with wealth, political clout and resources.

You saw so much new wealth created based on a demand that was always there, Forbes said. Its just that the government regulated who the winners and losers were.

Black entrepreneurs comprise a bit more than 4 percent of the legalized cannabis business. Whites, according to Marijuana Business Daily,account for 81 percent of marijuana business owners.

To date its painfully obvious that the winners in the cannabis game are not those from underserved black or brown communities.

The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association (MoCannTrade) is serious about diversity in trade, according to its Executive Director, Andrew Mullins. Since its inception in 2018, Mullins said ensuring diversity has been one of the associations core values.

Our board composition, as well as our industry committees, work to reflect diversity in geography, gender, race, and experience. We, in an ongoing way, continually try to represent these values to our membership and the rest of the industry to ensure equity when and where possible.

Gresham, Elliott and Forbes dont dispute Mullins claim. When organizations, lobbyists, and potential business owners were working to make marijuana legal in Missouri, they said, there was plenty of talk about diversity and opportunity. Since its been legalized, not so much.

Several states and cities have introduced or launched social equity programs to increase the participation of minorities in the cannabis industry. These initiatives vary from state-to-state and have various levels of impact, according to a 2020 survey conducted by blunttruthlaw.com.

Ohios social equity program set aside 15 percent of its medical marijuana licenses for minority-owned firms. Before it was later deemed unconstitutional, the state awarded more than 16% of its licenses to minority business owners.

Michigan, California and Illinois-where medical and recreational marijuana is legal-were credited for their robust social equity programs. Michigan has reduced licensing fees for applicants living in disproportionately impacted communities. Cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland offer low- or no-interest loans, grants, and technical assistance to cannabis license applicants along with business training in the competitive cannabis industry. Illinois was cited as a state with one of the most progressive marijuana business licensing frameworks in the country. The moniker was earned in part because Illinois awards a significant number of points in its recreational license evaluations to members of disadvantaged communities.

Even without specific social equity legalization, Oklahoma found a way to address racial disparity by offering an unlimited number of dispensary licenses. In contrast, Missouri received more than 2,200 applications for medical marijuana cultivation, dispensary, and manufacturing facility licenses with plans to award less than 350 actual licenses.

Oklahoma was also credited for low licensing fees. California, for example, according to the Associated Press, requires a $1,000 application fee, a $5,000 surety bond, and an annual license fee ranging from $2,500 to $96,000, depending on projected revenues. In Oklahoma, the article stressed, a dispensary license costs $2,500, can be filled out online and is approved within two weeks.

Its worth noting that, in less than two years, Oklahoma where only medical cannabis is legal there are more than 2,300 dispensaries and the industry, in 2019, generated $54 million in tax revenue.

Call it what you will, social justice or social equity, there are commendable efforts to even the legalized cannabis playfield. Still, critics stress that minorities who were caught up in the illegal marijuana trade will never gain access or opportunities until the industry addresses their predicament.

Those advocating for more minority inclusion insist that attention must be given to those scarred by the war on drugs. The Marijuana Record Expungement Movement is expanding across the country. The idea is to help people remove marijuana convictions from their records so they, too, can participate in the industry. Missouri, which doesnt disqualify individuals with previous convictions from obtaining a patient or cultivation license, is among states like New Hampshire and New Jersey that have expungement initiatives pending.

Obie Anthonys personal experience is the motivation for his interest in the expungement movement. In 1995, at the age of 19, Anthony was accused of robbery and murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. With the help of The Innocence Project, Anthony was released in 2011 after serving 17 years in prison. He sued Los Angeles for wrongful imprisonment and won an $8.3 million settlement.

In 2015, Anthony founded Exonerated Nation, a nonprofit based in Oakland, CA, that works with exonerees, like him, to rebuild their lives. Just as Anthony was sent to prison, California in 1996, sparked a national movement by becoming the first state in the country to legalize marijuana for medical use. Since then, other states have legalized the medicinal and recreational use of cannabis.

Anthony, whos working to spread Exonerated Nations mission across the country, recognizes the life-changing potential of a new industry that welcomes exonerees and former marijuana felons into the fold.

This is that rare opportunity where we can bring not only money to disadvantaged communities but programs, jobs, businesses, and so forth. Tax revenues generated from marijuana sales can help build self-reliance through ownership and participation.

Gresham and Forbes introduced me to Anthony, who applied for a Missouri dispensary license but was denied. Still, he remains hopeful about initiatives aimed at expunging the records of felons who can then transform skills theyve honed on the streets into legitimate business enterprises.

Surprisingly, several individuals echo Anthonys sentiments, saying that good, old-fashioned tenacity, creativity, and due diligence will be the keys to unlocking the stubborn doors of systemized resistance within the cannabis trade.

Because Jim Crow laws forbade black people from participating in mainstream businesses, they did what they had to do for simple survival. Without licenses, they secretly bartered goods and services and created their own underground economies. Many, with few other options, gravitated to the illegal drug trade where they employed street-level supply & demand, marketing, and competitive techniques to generate income.

Weed has been my whole life since childhood. I come from the underworld, the streets, Gresham explained. So, if I learned how to do illegal sales and connect with hundreds of people, whats stopping me from taking that same energy, same knowledge, the same rules that applied then and doing it nowlegally?

Anthony also expounded on the potential of transforming once illegal skills into legitimate businesses in an industry that is now legal.

They already know the product, how to budget, what needs to be spent, and what to expect in return. Just to not be concerned about the copsthat awareness alone helps us become more creative, more connected. So now were able to bring others in and create something amongst ourselves. Its transformative; they can set up businesses modeled after what they already understand and build off that.

Because gaining a dispensary license can be cumbersome and cost-prohibitive in many states, some advocates encourage minorities to focus on ancillary businesses within the weed industry. Opportunities abound they say, in signing up medical marijuana patients, manufacturing cannabis-based products like oil or candles, providing educational and technical services, marketing, public relations, and creating cannabis-related curriculum for universities. Forbes, for example, is also an owner of Tiger Fiber LLC, a hemp business.

Gresham insists the primary caregiver category serves as an immediate opportunity for minorities. The Missouri Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) defines a primary caregiver as someone 21 years of age or older who is responsible for managing the well-being of a Qualified Patient. Primary caregivers, who are also patients like Gresham, can obtain identification cards to cultivate medical marijuana plants for their exclusive use or that of their patients. They can be compensated for taking care of patients. Additionally, caregivers can possess legal amounts of cannabis for themselves and/or their qualifying patients.

Elliott doesnt believe the caregiver route is the most viable avenue to wealth building in black communities:

If youre talking about signing people up (as patients and caregivers); yes, but thats a one-shot thing. Its a different track and definitely not the path to riches or economic participation.

Its abundantly clear that addressing racial inequities in the mushrooming marijuana industry is an ongoing challenge for minority entrepreneurs. Although systematic barriers abound, this article outlines numerous initiatives and opportunities with the potential to positive change. Whats also clear is that Missouri, the Show-Me State, has a rare opportunity to demonstrate a progressive pathway to truly inclusive minority participation in the arena of legalized cannabis.

Sylvester Brown, Jr., pictured, above, photo from Facebook, is a former columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, founder of the Sweet Potato Project, an entrepreneurial program for urban youth, and author of When We Listen: Recognizing the Potential of Urban Youth.

Go here to read the rest:

Social Justice & Beyond: Where's the opportunity? Greenway Magazine - Greenway

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A New York grand jury on Thursday indicted two former leaders of the Mexican federal police force, including one who oversaw the anti-narcotics units that were specially vetted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and were linked to two brazen massacres in Mexico that left dozens, possibly hundreds, of people dead and missing.

The indictments marked a stunning fall from grace for Ramn Pequeo Garca and Luis Crdenas Palomino, who had been celebrated by U.S. national security and diplomatic officials as trusted partners in the fight against Mexican drug cartels.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury found that instead of combating the cartels, there was evidence that the men had been collaborating with and accepting millions in bribes from them. Crdenas Palomino had served as the director of regional operations for the federal police force between 2006 and 2012. During that time, Pequeo was head of the federal police anti-narcotics division, which controlled the DEAs Sensitive Investigative Units.

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A ProPublica investigation in 2018 found that those units had a long history of deadly leaks to drug traffickers. One of those leaks triggered a spree of violence in Allende, a Mexican ranching town about 40 minutes from the U.S. border. The massacre left scores of innocent people dead. Another leak sparked a deadly attack on innocent guests at a Holiday Inn in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

Thursdays indictments do not link either Pequeo or Crdenas Palomino directly to those incidents. However, they make clear that the disastrous leaks were part of a systemic problem that reached to the highest levels of the Mexican government. And they provided more evidence of the tragic consequences of the United States role in Mexicos drug war.

The indictments are part of an investigation into Mexican government corruption that began after the conviction of Mexicos most wanted drug trafficker, Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn, in February 2019. In December, prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York arrested their first big target, Genaro Garca Luna, the former head of Mexicos federal police force and a man so powerful that The New York Times described him as that countrys Eliot Ness, one of the Americas most famous federal law enforcement agents.

Pequeo and Crdenas Palomino were two of Garca Lunas chief lieutenants. Beginning in 2006, when Garca Luna was appointed to a cabinet-level position as Mexicos security chief, the three men were celebrated on both sides of the border as the bold, new architects of Mexicos fight against drug cartels. All three men worked closely with senior U.S. security and diplomatic officials. The United States poured hundreds of millions of dollars in training and equipment into their efforts and began sharing increasing amounts of highly sensitive intelligence.

That fight led to the arrests of dozens of kingpins but also to record numbers of deaths and disappearances. It did not stop the flow of drugs across the border. Still, Mexican and American authorities defended the fight, saying the bloodshed was a necessary evil in their efforts to dismantle the cartels. And while allegations of corruption swirled around Garca Luna and his team, and evidence emerged that the intelligence channels were leaky, senior American authorities, at least for a time, appeared to shrug them off.

The indictments Thursday make clear thats changed. They allege a staggering degree of cooperation between Garca Luna, Pequeo and Crdenas Palomino and one of the worlds most notorious drug cartels. The police officials agreed not to interfere with the Sinaloa Cartels drug shipments, most of which ended up in the United States, and to provide its leaders with sensitive information about law enforcement operations targeting the cartel, as well as its rivals. Moreover, the indictment alleges, the officials targeted those rivals for arrest, instead of Sinaloa members, and assigned corrupt officials to oversee security agencies in regions of Mexico where the Sinaloa Cartel had its operations.

One of the first U.S. cases against Garca Lunas police force came in 2018 when a former chief of Mexicos SIU, and Pequeos right-hand man, turned himself in to U.S. authorities in Chicago and, later, pleaded no contest to charges that he had used his position for years to collaborate with drug traffickers. Several months after that, the trial against Chapo Guzmn included testimony from a cast of major drug traffickers who described delivering suitcases of cartel cash to Garca Luna and his aides.

Upon hearing the news of the indictments, Andrew Selee, a longtime expert on Mexico at the Migration Policy Institute, said, Thats incredible, and added that they would force us to rethink everything we thought we knew about the recent anti-narcotics efforts in Mexico.

Eric Olson, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, was similarly stunned and said the arrests showed the ruinous results of U.S. policies in Mexico that prioritize law enforcement.

Now we see theres a trade-off to turning a blind eye to people like Garca Luna, he said. If you turn a blind eye, youre going to pay a price in the long run. The price is democracy and rule of law. How is that in our interest?

Thursdays indictments against Pequeo and Crdenas Palomino followed months of unsuccessful efforts by U.S. law enforcement agents and prosecutors to convince the two men to cooperate in the case against their former boss. Both remain at large in Mexico.

Meanwhile Garca Luna, who is alleged to have amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune in drug money, remains in custody at a federal jail in Brooklyn. Prosecutors yesterday announced that he was being indicted under the so-called Kingpin Statute, designed to target precisely the kinds of criminal leaders he was once sworn to fight. A legal expert pointed out that the statute requires prosecutors demonstrate that Garca Luna ran a criminal organization of five or more people, suggesting that there are more indictments to come.

Continue reading here:

New York Grand Jury Indicts Two Former Leaders of Mexicos Drug War for Cartel Connections - ProPublica

The photo is for illustrative purposes.

A ranking Commission on Human Rights (CHR) official warned the Philippines could face sanctions from the international community if Congress would approve the call of President Rodrigo Duterte for the controversial return of the death penalty in the war on illegal drugs.

CHR Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit said such sanctions could suffer consequences like the removal of the Philippines from the list of countries that benefit from lower tariffs in the European Union.

Besides, reinstating the death penalty by lethal injection would violate a UN-sponsored agreement known as the International Covenant on Civil and Political that commits to its abolition and which the Philippines is a signatory by ratifying it in 2007, Dumpit said.

There is no "opt-out provision" in the agreement as Dumpit explained in a TV interview: "It's all about commitment. It's all about confidence whether you as a state party will be able to comply and not renege on those commitments."

Dumpit insisted that reviving the death penalty would not be a deterrent, arguing that solid police work, intelligence work and proper implementation of the laws would help contain the commission of heinous crimes like illegal drugs.

Opposition Congressman Edcel Lagman of Albay province agreed with Dumpit but on another tack particularly on its repercussions to government appeals for the commutation of the death penalty on Filipinos convicted abroad.

Lagman warned the Philippines would lose its moral ascendancy in negotiating for the lifting of such death sentences already imposed on about 100 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) mainly due to illegal drugs.

Besides, only 37 countries are implementing the death penalty "both in law and in practice" with China, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia and South Africa accounting for 90 per cent of executions, according to Lagman.

"President Duterte's recommendation to the Congress to reimpose the death penalty aggravates his failure to disclose and discuss his administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic which is a death sentence to countless Filipinos," he lamented.

But world boxing idol and Senator Manny Pacquiao, a staunch Duterte ally, ignored the arguments of Dumpit and Lagman in advocating the revival of the death penalty, which the country abolished during the time of then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and replaced it with life imprisonment.

Pacquiao cited the urgent need for its revival, pointing out that drug lords, both foreign and local, have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to flood the country especially shabu (crystal meth), also known as the "poor man's cocaine."

Pacquiao noted that foreign drug lords in particular have capitalised on the absence of capital punishment to operate with impunity in the Philippines while it is busy containing the rapid spread of the virus.

The House has already approved the return of the death penalty but several bills are pending before the Senate, including those filed by Pacquiao and another Duterte supporter freshman Senator Ronald dela Rosa, the former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

See more here:

Philippines warned over revival of death penalty in war on illegal drugs - Gulf Today

Five years ago, Yales Department of Psychiatry formally integrated anti-racism education and advocacy into its resident training program.

Through theSocial Justice and Health Equity(SJHE) curriculum, a mandatory part of the four-year program, residents learn to recognize their own biases and appreciate the lived experiences of minority patients. They gain a deeper understanding of the history of racism in medicine and the tools needed to advocate for equal access and treatment for all patients. Its one of just a few such programs in the country, and its mission is ambitious to eradicate mental health disparities through training and interventions.

The social justice curriculum is an important part of our broader effort to improve the culture of our department with respect to diversity and inclusion, and to bring the many legacies of racism to an end as rapidly as we can, said department chair Dr. John Krystal.

Racism is a major contributor to poor health outcomes. Racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than whites, are less likely to receive care, and are more likely to receive poor quality care,according to reportsfrom the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Minorities also make up a larger percentage of the homeless and incarcerated populations, and are especially susceptible to mental health disorders due to their environments. Racism adds to stress, depression, and anxiety, the reports show.

We talk about power and privilege. We talk about the racist war on drugs. We think this is just as important as psychopharmacology.

Dr. Ayana Jordan

About one-third of the members of each incoming Yale psychiatry residency class in recent years have come from groups underrepresented in medicine, and the programs anti-racism curriculumhas become a national model. Dr. Robert Rohrbaugh, residency program director and deputy chair for education and career development, said Howard University, UCLA, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine have all consulted with or sought advice from Yale as theyve developed similar anti-racism, advocacy-oriented programs.

A decade ago, when Yales psychiatry department first recognized the need to incorporate cultural awareness into its training, Dr. Esperanza Diaz, medical director of the Yale Hispanic Clinic and associate director of the psychiatry residency program, took the lead. She developed programming that trained residents to better understand patients backgrounds and motivations.

What began as a cultural competency course would expand over the years into the formal Social Justice and Health Equity curriculum, which has been a collaboration among faculty, residents, and community members since its inception.

Current curriculum director Dr. Ayana Jordan said every resident brings his or her own socialization and upbringing into the room. They have to learn, she said, how not to intentionally or unintentionally propagate racial disparities.

During discussions, said Jordan, We talk about power and privilege. We talk about the racist war on drugs. We think this is just as important as psychopharmacology.

The curriculum is taught through faculty-led case studies, group discussions, and listening sessions with community leaders. Until recently, there were three tracks: structural competency, which addresses how neighborhoods and social factors impact mental health; human experience, about understanding patient experiences and examining personal biases; and advocacy, in which residents develop skills necessary to advocate for patients and challenge inequities.

A new fourth track focuses on a critical examination of the history of psychiatry.

You cant think about changing a system unless you think about the history of how it got that way, said Rohrbaugh.

He cited the Civil War doctor who invented a psychological disorder called drapetomania, an insane impulse to flee attributed to runaway slaves, for instance, and therise in diagnoses of schizophrenia for Black menassociated with civil rights protests in the 1960s as a means to identify them as dangerous.

Said Jordan: Psychiatry has been one of the main contributors to racism. If our residents dont understand that, are we doing our job?

By directly addressing racism and its effects, Yales program attracts residents that raise issues, Diaz said, individuals who are socially conscious and like to change things.

First-year resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun is an example.

I chose the Yale Department of Psychiatry because they were truly invested in these issues, said Calhoun, a 2011 Yale College alumna. Our program director talked about systemic racism and white supremacy, and that was very powerful.

Half of the 16 first-year psychiatry residents at Yale who entered the program in 2019 and 35% of residents across all four years identify as underrepresented minorities, a marked contrast with the national average. In 2017, the most recent year for which data are available, just 17.3% of the nations first-year general psychiatry residents and 15.2% of general psychiatry residents overall identified as underrepresented minorities, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

This transformation of the residency has effectively created a pipeline of exceptionally talented people, some of whom we have been able to recruit to our faculty, Krystal said.

When there are too few racial or ethnic minorities in a program, minority students get burned out, or they end up feeling gas-lit isolated and questioning the veracity of their ideas, said Flavia DeSouza 16 M.D., 16 M.H.S., a fourth-year resident and co-director of the curriculum,

Providing a curriculum that attracts and encourages Black psychiatry residents, SJHEs leaders said, helps the field expand the number of Black providers, yielding critical representation for Black patients who may be wary of health-care interventions.

I validate their experiences, and I talk to them about my experiences, said Calhoun, who notes that she was just 4 years old when she first became aware that white skin is seen as the ideal in the U.S.A., and I didnt look like that.

In February, Calhounparticipated in a Grand Roundsfor the pediatrics department in which she described her experiences with racism in medicine. In June at another Grand Rounds, she called on the audience to help me protect our Black children from racism. On June 5 she spoke over a megaphone on the steps of the Yale Sterling Hall of Medicine at a White Coats for Black Lives rally following the police killing of George Floyd.

This white coat does not protect me, she told 300 assembled physicians. We are scared every day. We worry about our families every day.

Calhouns father, Dr. Joshua Calhoun who also graduated from Yale College (1978), completed his residency in child and adolescent psychiatry at Harvard and is the medical director of Hawthorn Childrens Psychiatric Hospital in St. Louis. He will not walk home at night in his affluent residential neighborhood, she said, because hes been stopped by the police so many times and hes concerned that things will turn violent.

Recounting their own experiences with racism and having to explain its pervasive damage has been exhausting work, the physician-advocates said. But they are hopeful that the groundwork theyve laid in Yale Psychiatry can serve as a blueprint for other departments and universities.

The time is right for the conversation, said Jordan. Its been time.

Originally posted here:

For Yale's emerging psychiatrists, confronting racism is in the curriculum - Yale News

August 1, 2020, 10:05 AM

5 min read

Keeda Haynes believes she brings a unique perspective to the race for Tennessee's 5th Congressional District. After spending over three years in prison for a crime she says she didn't commit, she hopes a spot in Washington will allow her to speak for vulnerable constituents -- and make a little history as well.

Haynes, a former public defender, is in a three-way race that includes 17-year Democratic incumbent Rep. Jim Cooper.

The primary election, which is slated for Aug. 6, has no Republican in the race so the winner will almost certainly be elected to Congress come November.

"I have a unique perspective that a lot of people don't have. ... I've been a defendant and defender," Haynes told ABC News. "I really saw just how this war on drugs really decimated Black and brown, low-income communities."

If elected, the progressive Democrat would make history as the first Black woman in Tennessee ever elected to Congress. The state has only had two Black representatives elected to Congress, with the last candidate elected over two decades ago, according to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Along with supporting criminal justice reform and the Black Lives Matter movement, the 42-year-old Haynes is also passionate about issues such as providing access to affordable housing, raising the minimum wage and reducing student loan debt.

"We are reimagining each and every system so that Black lives can matter across every single spectrum," she said.

Haynes, who is from Franklin and later moved to the state's capital of Nashville, was the second of five children. She graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in criminal justice and psychology. But just two weeks after graduating college, she had to turn down a position as a legal assistant because she had to report to federal prison.

Keeda Haynes, a 42-year-old former public defender who was previously incarcerated for a crime she says she didn't commit, is running for Congress in Tennessee.

Keeda Haynes, a 42-year-old former public defender who was previously incarcerated for a crime she says she didn't commit, is running for Congress in Tennessee.

At 19, she started dating a man in Nashville for a few years and began accepting packages for his cellphone and beepers shop, she told ABC News. She later found out that those packages actually contained marijuana. She spent three years and 10 months in prison -- on what was initially a seven-year mandatory minimum sentence -- on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

In 2006, Haynes was finally released from prison while continuing to maintain her innocence. She went on to pass the bar exam and work in a public defender's office for over six years.

Her historic run comes as a record number of Black women are running for Congress across the U.S. In 2019, a record number of Black women were serving in state legislative offices, according to The Center of American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. In the last two years Black women saw the largest gain in representation at the state legislative level since 1994.

Haynes' advice for young Black girls hoping to follow in her footsteps is to remember that you have the ability to make the impossible possible.

"Prison did not deter me from doing what I said I was going to do," she told ABC News. "There will be people that will tell you that you can't do things and that things are impossible, but you have to stay focused."

Haynes called late civil rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis, who was laid to rest Thursday in Atlanta, an "iconic figure" in the fight for justice and equality, and expressed eternal gratitude for the work that Lewis accomplished throughout his remarkable life.

"Even in the face of police violence, he still believed in something bigger and still fought for liberation. ... I personally feel obligated to do this work in his name," Haynes said.

See the original post here:

Formerly incarcerated woman runs to be 1st Black woman in Congress from Tennessee - ABC News

A county infographic depicting Project Trellis its support program for the local cannabis industry, which includes the equity program.

###

Although Humboldt County has been awarded nearly $3.7 million in funding for its Cannabis Equity Program a state-funded local project designed to lift up communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition residents of Humboldt County have yet to receive any of those funds.

Thats not entirely the countys fault, however. Of the $3.7 million awarded to the county by the Bureau of Cannabis Control, the county has only received around $1.3 million in the first round of funding, with the other $2.4 million coming at a later date.

Humboldt received the $1.3 million in April, and the only money its spent so far has been on overhead. Scott Adair, economic development director for the county, that agency did not have strict criteria for how the funds should be used. Essentially, its only guidance was that the funds have to be spent in conjunction with the countys equity program, and that funds must be used within a year.

It has been frustratingly slow. And we get it, Adair told the Outpost. People are anxious to get the funding out and we are too. Things are moving very quickly now and I just want to give my reassurances to the public that we are also equally interested in getting this funding out into the community as quickly as possible.

So whats the hold-up, you might ask?

Well, there was a debate about Proposition 209, the amendment to the California Constitution that prevents discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, and how that might affect the distribution of funds within the Equity Program.

We had to have some conversations with our county counsel and with the state and it looks like we are fine and can move forward, Adair said.

This hold-up caused the California Center for Rural Policy, the agency that helped prepare the assessment, to make an update to the final report, which will have to be sent back to the Board of Supervisors before any funds are dispersed.

Once they approve that, we can then immediately go to a Notice of Funding Availability and start the application process, Adair said.

The COVID-19 pandemic also slowed the process down quite a bit, and caused a lot of the Economic Development department to redirect most of its resources to helping businesses currently struggling with the pandemic.

In fact, half of our team got moved over to the countys Emergency Operations center for about two months and during that time we were not giving the Trellis program, or the Equity Program, the amount of attention and staff time that it needed to move forward quickly, Adair said.

Because of this, the decision was made to permanently hire someone who solely focuses on Project Trellis and the Cannabis Equity Program. Adair said people have been vetted, interviews scheduled and that he hopes to hire someone for the position in the very near future.

If someone gets hired in the next two to three weeks and the CCRP makes the needed updates to the assessment by mid-August, Adair hopes to have the new assessment to the Board of Supervisors by mid-September, meaning that funds could be distributed as early as this fall.

We are definitely going to have an application period this fall, Adair said. I do not want to see this go into 2021, because we only have until April of 2021 to expend the first round of funds.

Adair estimates the maximum amount of funding a person can receive will be around $15,000, and will be based on the need of the applicant. The grants will essentially be a reimbursement program based on education and training costs, licensing or permit fees and other expenses that can be barriers preventing people from entering into the legal side of the cannabis industry.

When the county put together its application for Cannabis Equity funds, included in the report had to be a rough estimate of how many people would qualify for the grants. The county came up with a minimum of 1,531 people who will qualify for funding. This was based off of the number of cannabis permits that had been granted and a few other factors.

If we just go off of the number of licenses that Planning and Building recorded, then thats for a business, Adair said. It doesnt include how many individuals that even work at that business. There could be black market operations that still exist out there, or workers who are working for black market operations, who may have been hesitant to come forward and identify themselves, but some of this funding is to help those operations come into compliance.

###

The Outpost emailed a few further questions about the program to Adair. Here are the exact questions and his answers.

If a person was never arrested/convicted of cannabis-related charges nor had their immediate family, are they still eligible for funds? If so, why?

Yes. Arrest and or conviction is not the sole requirement for eligibility, its just one of many potential criteria which can be met for the program. There are other ways that persons were adversely impacted by the war on drugs which did not include arrest or conviction.

Do you feel that Humboldt has received a disproportionate amount of funds from the state for the Cannabis Equity program? Why or why not? (Context: The County of Humboldt received $3,798,264.15 in both rounds of funding which is one par with some urban areas such as the City of Long Beach, which received $3,613,991,77 and the City of Sacramento who received $5,029,075.27.)

No. A lack of competition made it easier for Humboldt County to secure a larger award. Our County was one of the first to act (i.e. when the funding was announced) and many other jurisdictions were not able to apply for funding or meet the criteria before the deadline. As we understand it (vis-a-vis our discussions with our state counterparts) new funding is going to be made available in future years. As such, it is anticipated that there will be opportunities for other communities to also apply for funding. This also means that were not sure yet what the denominator is, or if the amount of funding that Humboldt has received when compared to all anticipated future distributions of said funding is (or will be) disproportionate. Personally, I find it equally important to remind persons that the hills and mountains of Humboldt County served as ground zero for military backed operations related to the war on cannabis and that our neighborhoods and streets were the backdrops for police actions against those individuals who were cultivating it. The gravity and magnitude of past military and police activity in our community leads me to believe that the size of Humboldt Countys award is defensible. (C.A.M.P., Operation Green Sweep, etc.)

If people are making $100,000 or more in the cannabis industry will they qualify for the grants? How impacted could one be if they are making a six-figure salary?

I can see the argument here, and the point that is being made. Why should an individual who is doing well economically receive or benefit from an equity grant? The legislation behind SB1294, and the direction given to us from the state (i.e. for how we can disburse these funds), is very clear. This program is designed to provide recompense for those populations, communities and neighborhoods who are adversely impacted by the criminalization of cannabis and by the war on drugs. Eligibility is therefore based on the adverse impact of those prior actions, and is not based on an applicants assets, finances or income. Meaning that participation in the program is not based on whether or not an individual is financially deserving of the funds, but whether or not an applicant meets the criteria.

See the article here:

Humboldt Has a Bunch of State Money to Promote Equity in the Cannabis Industry. So Where is It? - Lost Coast Outpost

Stop denying your racism

Dear Editor:

We entered this world in a profound sense of love, but along the way we learned to hate. How does this happen? Our memory works through the catalogue of stereotypes as a shortcut to thinking too much. Our preconceptions blind us with mental shortcuts, justifying what we see as normal. But what if that normal wasnt ideal?

When we see a homeless person, do we see someone who lost everything and gave up on their dreams? When we see the cornered minority being questioned by multiple police, do we see the systemic permission to harass the populations of colour with rare adverse consequences? We tell ourselves that it couldnt happen to me, so it cant be with them.

I am First Nation, and I was adopted and raised in the very white community of Kelowna in the 1970s. The white view was all Id been exposed to as I grew up. Into adulthood, things grew complex and I had to face the fact that I held racist views against my own people.

To change this, I switched my view to all First Nations being virtuous and good. Then I worked for the local band and found that they too can be corporate dictators just like every other company I worked for. While putting together a community computer lab in the centre of the reserve, my greatest lessons came from the kids who frequented the place. I realized I had a truly fortunate upbringing.

We learn stereotypes from the family or the community we grow up with.

Now those tides have turned.

The world was outraged by the actions of a cop. Domestic terrorism was used to permit the militarization of police forces. The War on Drugs was its most effective tool. Racial profiling and unrestricted bullying by police directly feed the prison industry. These actions have gone unceasing through centuries fuelled by anger and insecurities of both the aggressors and the targets. Yet the recent public outcry is shifting our views on what a secure society looks like.

Perception changes depending on the angle. We all contain a little prejudice in our past. We can cover it, contain it, and oppress it but it will not help. A proper purging requires dialogue, either with someone else or with just your pen and paper. Put it out there like a confession kept private. Hide from it no more. The pain of dealing with it is called growth, and the relief of getting past moves us all towards a better society.

Darrin LR Fiddler

Marijuana Party of Canada

Kelowna-Lake Country

A bad case of Trumpitis

Recently, I have written about our southern neighbour The Donald and I felt justified in doing so. Never in the history of the United States has a president said and done so much about so little and shown so little empathy for fellow human beings and more interest in the dollar than anything else.

Democracy as we once knew it seems to have lost its grass roots meaning of government by the people, for the people, and of the people.

What about here at home? It would appear that democracy has taken a back seat from its original meaning as well. Of course, I am referring to issues such as the WE Charity. Our illustrious leaders have bounced around this issue like a ricocheting bullet bouncing off rocks. It seems that the premise of going ahead with things and then asking for forgiveness later is the order of the day. It seems like a case of Donald Trumpitis. It centers on if you can minimize the issues in your own mind, its alright.

Both Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau are implying the old adage, I didnt know the gun was loaded. That argument is weaker than a wet and soggy piece of tissue paper. Of course, they must have known, especially Morneau as finance minister. In his position, one would think that accountability would be first and foremost.

Apologies by both men just dont get the job done. They both should have known better but seemed not to. The lame duck apologies dont make the situation right and questions the ethics of each man. Saying Im sorry might be likened to putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound and expecting it to heal perfectly.

The fact that both men had vested interests that were, in fact, conflict of interests, speaks for itself. Morneaus family vacation expenditure of $40,000 and Trudeaus family members gratuity payment appear to show clear indifference to anything that would reflect ethics with respect to their relative political positions.

As I said, democracy as we know it seems to have changed immeasurably. In my opinion, unless there is a realistic look at things, democracy could be on a downhill spiral. Perish the thought! It begs the question be asked what were the sacrifices of thousands of people 75 or so years ago for?

Ron Barillaro

Penticton

Liberal amount of razzle dazzle

Dear Editor:

In the movie Chicago, Richard Gere plays the role of Billy Flynn, a super-slick, fact-twisting, incurably corrupt lawyer. Flynns modus operandi is summarized in the lyrics of the song, Razzle Dazzle. Give em the old razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle em... Give em an act with lots of flash in it and the reaction will be passionate. Give em the old hocus pocus, bead and feather em. How can they see with sequins in their eyes?

After watching Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus performance vis--vis the WE Charity, I cant help thinking of him as Canadas very own Billy Flynn.

Lloyd Atkins

Vernon

Obama selling lies at funeral

Dear Editor:

I was watching the news tonight and was absolutely sickened by former United States President Barack Obamas speech at John Lewiss funeral today. He took away from remembering a great civil rights leader, a brave man who marched the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery and took a baton on the head for his beliefs. He also walked with the late Dr. Martin Luther King.

He served the American people for many years as a great political leader for the Democratic party and at his service, former president Barrack Obama took the stage to sell a lie to all who were listening, and Im sure there were millions online and TV. He said recently, in Portland, government troops are arresting mostly peaceful protesters. If you have seen the mostly peaceful protest in Portland you know thats not entirely accurate, It looks like a war zone. Almost like the siege at Khe San in Vietnam back in 1968. There are Molotov cocktails, lasers being shot into officers eyes, fireworks and rocks thrown. There is no such thing as a peaceful protest in Portland. As I am writing this letter, the news just had a breaking report: Antifa stabbed a reporter in Portland; fortunately he lived. He was a black reporter being stabbed at a Black Lives Matter mostly peaceful protest.

The real deal in Portland (Chicago and Minneapolis) is there is lawlessness and mayhem. The President tries to help and is beat up for doing so because its against the constitution. Apparently in the United States a mayor has to ask for help.

Its a sad state of affairs on a day a great man was put to rest, these very ideals he fought for, took a police baton on the head for, and served our American friends. Shame on Barack Obama for electioneering at Lewiss funeral. Shame on the American Democrats. Its vampire politics.

Doug Rosen

Kelowna

The Theatre of the Absurd

For those of us who enjoy watching political theatre, there was a double billing in Ottawa on July 28 and 30. The Kielburger Keelhauling played in a four-hour marathon on Tuesday, followed by the seemingly shipwrecked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his girl Friday, Katie Telford for almost as long on Thursday. These performances before the parliamentary finance committee proved good entertainment for the audience on live television, but with many lines definitely blurred between fact and fiction.

The Kielburger brothers, who co-founded the WE Charity, were trying to impersonate Bill Clintons appearance before the Grand Jury prior to his impeachment trial in 1998. His was a textbook display of non-answers and evasive tactics in dealing with Ken Starrs prosecutors reaching his zenith, or nadir, depending on your point of view when he answered the lawyer: It depends what the meaning of the word is is? He was known as Slick Willie in his native Arkansas, and the Kielburger Kids tried their best to be just as slick, but certainly didnt do themselves nor their multi-layered organization any favours.

Childish evasive tactics remained the order of the day when the PM spent 90 minutes before the same committee on Thursday, and those listening close enough could hear Little Richards early rock n roll standard: Slippin and Slidin playing in the background, as he tried to be slick, too.

Following the PMs most uncomfortable turn in the hot-seat, up rode Telford swearing to tell the truth as she took her turn in the saddle of the bucking bronco. Many watching her on Thursday remembered that fictional moving bill she claimed as expenses when relocating from Toronto to Ottawa in 2015. A large chunk of the over $80,000 she charged taxpayers, including over $23,000 made out to herself in cash, had to be returned. Not a great start for someone pledging to bring transparency, honesty and integrity into the Prime Ministers Office, but shes now settled into her job of preparing her boss for parliamentary jousting.

Hopefully, the farcical fiasco at Ottawas Theatre of the Absurd goes into summer recess for a short while.

Bernie Smith

Parksville, B.C.

Originally posted here:

Letters to the Editor: Tuesday, August 4, 2020 | Opinion - pentictonherald.ca

White House meets with hemp groups on CBD enforcement; McConnell says marijuana banking non-germane to COVID bill; Senators press USDA on hemp regs

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This issue of Marijuana Moment, and our original reporting that is featured in it, are made possible by the generous support of 479 Patreon sponsors. Cannabis industry professionals receive valuable rewards for pledges of $25 and up.Check out the perks of being a sponsor on our Patreon page.https://www.patreon.com/marijuanamoment/ TOP THINGS TO KNOWPresumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is proposing federal aid to help states expunge cannabis and other convictions.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is hosting several hemp industry groups for meetings about CBD enforcement policy this week and next week.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that including marijuana banking provisions in coronavirus relief legislation, as the House did, would be non-germane.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) sent a letter calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to change several restrictive hemp regulations. They say that despite the temporary suspension of a rule allowing only labs certified by the Drug Enforcement Administration to do THC testing, USDAs site still lists only those facilities.

/ FEDERALThe Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing changes to rules for reporting theft or loss of controlled substances.Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen tweeted, On Day One I will pardon all those who have been imprisoned for victimless crimes. Anyone convicted and incarcerated for possessing or using an illegal drug will be pardoned. End the War on Drugs now.Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) tweeted, Democrats released their socialist wish list (disguised as COVID19 relief) over two months ago, so we would forget that it included items like:Marijuana banking.Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tweeted, Legalize marijuana nationwide and expunge records for cannabis-related offenses.Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) criticized Democrats for including three trillion dollars of marijuana banking in their coronavirus relief bill.Washington State Democratic congressional candidate Jason Call tweeted, It may seem an insignificant thing compared to healthcare, the environment, housing, and justice reform. But legalizing marijuana is an integral component of the general reforms that are needed. Rep Lee could not have gotten this more wrong.Tennessee Democratic congressional candidate Christopher Hale tweeted, Why is it that kids and veterans in Tennessee who smoke marijuana have criminal records but Wall Street executives who committed massive fraud and wrecked our economy do not? Ill be the most pro-weed Congressman God ever made.Florida Democratic congressional candidate Jen Perelman tweeted, Decriminalize & legalize marijuana./ STATESA former Maryland delegate who pleaded guilty to soliciting and accepting bribes from medical cannabis companies was sentenced to two years in federal prison.Nevada regulators are investigating three dispensaries for allegedly selling marijuana products that failed microbial testing.Maines top marijuana regulator said cultivation, manufacturing and processing facilities should be able to open by the end of September, with sales beginning by the end of the year.The Oregon Cannabis Commission Patient Equity Subcommittee will meet on Tuesday.Montana regulators will hold a hearing on proposed hemp rules on August 13.Alaska regulators will consider marijuana business license applications and rules on August 19 and 20.Marijuana Moment is already tracking more than 1,500 cannabis bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they dont miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.

/ LOCALThe Plymouth, Ohio Village Council approved a marijuana decriminalization proposal./ INTERNATIONALSt. Lucias government is drafting legislation to legalize marijuana.Dominicas government is moving ahead with plans to decriminalize marijuana./ SCIENCE & HEALTHA study found that in the first randomised clinical trial of cannabidiol for cannabis use disorder, cannabidiol 400 mg and 800 mg were safe and more efficacious than placebo at reducing cannabis use.A review found that industrial hemp biomass is an excellent alternative candidate for biofuel production and has higher cellulose content compared with other agricultural residues./ ADVOCACY, OPINION & ANALYSISThe San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board is encouraging local officials to target landlords when seeking to close unlicensed marijuana shops./ BUSINESSAphria Inc. reported quarterly net revenue of $152.2 million and a net loss of $98.8 million.The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company reported that $303 million in quarterly revenue for its cannabis-focused Hawthorne unit.The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a number of people with allegedly defrauding investors in several marijuana businesses.A Marijuana Business Daily analysis concludes that the number of people working in the U.S. cannabis industry will increase to 240,000-295,000 by the end of the year.

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House to vote on protecting state cannabis laws this week (Newsletter: July 29, 2020) - Marijuana Moment

Arnold Trebach, who died last week at the age of 92, started the Drug Policy Foundation in the heat of Ronald Reagan's war on drugs. It was the same year that Joe Biden, a Democrat who is running for president this year as a criminal justice reformer, wrote the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which prescribed new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses and created the notorious weight-based sentencing distinction that treated crack cocaine as if it were 100 times worse than cocaine powder.

It did not seem like an auspicious time to be urging a reconsideration of drug prohibition. Three years later, when President George H.W. Bush announced yet another escalation of the war on drugs while waving a bag of crack on national television, Biden, then a Delaware senator, delivered the Democratic response. "Quite frankly," he said, "the president's plan's not tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough to meet the crisis at hand." Calling drug use "the No. 1 threat to our national security," Biden said "what we need is another D-Day, not another Vietnam."

In this context, with Democrats outbidding Republicans in their zeal to deploy violence against people with politically incorrect pharmacological tastes, it took a certain kind of chutzpaha good kindto start an organization dedicated to the proposition that there might be a more tolerant approach. But Trebach, a middle-aged lawyer and professor of justice at American University, figured someone should be talking about downside of this bipartisan chemical crusade and suggesting an alternative he called "drug peace."

Even before he started the Drug Policy Foundation, Trebach's skeptical treatment of the war on drugs in the courses he taught prompted a telegram to the president of American University. "Close your doors immediately," it said. "Do not continue to corrupt any more American youth." The idea that questioning current policy was tantamount to corrupting "American youth" suggests the level of debate that was typical at the time.

"We must convince people that it is respectable, it is rational, it is decent, to oppose current drug laws," Trebach toldReason in 1987, the year he published The Great Drug War. "The major thing I want to do is replace hate with love or intolerance with tolerance. The drug law does not deal with some of the major problems connected with drug abusecrime and corruption. The law only makes the corruption worse, makes the crime worse, and does not help the simple addict. I know of no addict who has been helped by being treated as the enemy."

In The Great Drug War, Trebach highlighted the cruel, perverse, and invasive consequences of using force to prevent people from altering their consciousness in ways politicians did not like. The fallout included widespread drug testing, humiliating border searches, civil asset forfeiture, imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders, police corruption, undertreatment of pain, misinformation about the relative hazards of drugs, coercive "rehabilitation" programs like Straight Inc., vain and destructive efforts to stamp out drug production in other countries, and a running battle between domestic marijuana growers and cops determined to eradicate their crops and livelihoods.

"We are losing the great drug war because our leadershave declared all users of illicit drugs to be 'the enemy,'" Trebach wrote. "Thus, they refuse to distinguish between drug use and drug abuse, between responsible drug use and compulsive addictive use." They have "therefore declared at least 50 million Americans to be enemies of the state."

The book's subtitle originally touted Radical Proposals That Could Make America Safe Again, although Trebach stopped short of recommending the legalization of all drugs. In the 2005 edition, which did call for a broad dismantling of prohibition, the subtitle was changed to Rational Proposals to Turn the Tide, a revision that may have been motivated by marketing considerations but also reflected a change in public opinion that Trebach helped bring about.

The percentage of Americans who favored legalizing marijuana had by that point begun an upward trend that would lead to majority support within a decade. Meanwhile, politicians were beginning to question the mandatory minimum binge that politicians like Biden had promoted. Two years later, Biden himself would introduce a bill aimed at eliminating the unjust and irrational distinction between the smoked and snorted forms of cocaine, which had led to strikingly unequal treatment of black drug offenders.

Trebach's D.C.-based organizationwhich in 2000 merged with Ethan Nadelmann's Lindesmith Center in New York, an amalgam now known as the Drug Policy Allianceplayed a seminal role in encouraging that evolution in thinking by bringing together antiprohibitionists from across the political spectrum. As my formerReason colleague Virginia Postrel noted in 1989, the Drug Policy Foundation's conferences offered fresh perspectives on drug use and addiction that went beyond "medicalization," which would treat consumers of currently illegal substances as patients rather than criminals. These were gatherings where libertarians influenced by Thomas Szasz and Milton Friedman mingled with public health specialists, left-leaning critics of the carceral state, and conservatives troubled by the myriad ways in which prohibition undermines law and order.

Writing forReason in 1988, by which time he had turned fully against prohibition, Trebach argued that even the "worst-case scenario" of substantially increased addiction under legalization would be better than the disastrous consequences of the war on drugs. "Everything we know about the dynamics of drug use suggests that the real scenario will be even better," he wrote. "If we legalize the currently illegal drugs, teach temperance and moderation regarding all drugs, and treat addicts and cancer patients alike with compassion and sound health care, the whole topic will be reduced to a mid-level and, hopefully, boring issue of national health policy."

We have not yet reached the point where drug policy is boring. But discussion of the subject is notably calmer, more compassionate, and less reflexively punitive than it was in the 1980s, when Trebach dared to question the aggressive, indiscriminate approach favored by Democrats and Republicans alike. The ongoing collapse of marijuana prohibitioncombined with the shift embodied by Biden, who now says he wants to abolish the mandatory minimums and death penalties he once championedsuggests that Americans are thinking about drugs a little more rationally than they did a few decades ago. That's no small achievement, and Trebach's advocacy, as he hoped, helped make opposition to the war on drugs respectable.

Here is the original post:

RIP Arnold Trebach, Who Helped Make Opposition to the Drug War Respectable - Reason

WASHINGTON (AP) Reflecting presidential candidate Joe Bidens careful positioning, a key Democratic Party committee on Monday approved a 2020 platform that presents a liberal outline for the country but rejects many policies pursued by the lefts most outspoken progressives.

The document, approved by Democrats platform committee on a voice vote, now goes to more than 4,000 Democratic delegates who will vote by mail on whether to approve the document ahead of the partys August convention, which will take place almost entirely online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final draft endorses universal health care coverage but, as Biden does, calls for a public option insurance plan to compete in existing private insurance markets as the next step. Committee members overwhelmingly rejected amendments to more explicitly endorse the single-payer insurance model like what Bernie Sanders pushed.

In a lengthy passage demanding an overhaul of the criminal justice system, Democrats decry the effects of a decadeslong war on drugs. But committee members rejected an amendment calling to legalize marijuana. The same section demands an end to police violence against Americans, but it does not endorse some activists calls to defund the police.

In total, the platform is part of Bidens effort to balance the center-left establishment that has been his political home for decades with the partys ascendant progressive wing represented by high-profile figures like Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In fact, the drafting process included a series of policy committees that Bidens campaign convened with Sanders campaign after the Vermont senator finished as runner-up in the nominating fight. Ocasio-Cortez was included in that process, while Warren has emerged as a key policy adviser who talks regularly with Biden.

Bidens goal has been to avoid the kind of rancor that hobbled Hillary Clintons general election campaign four years ago, even as President Donald Trump and Republicans lambaste the former vice president as captive to a radical left.

The platform committee voted repeatedly Monday not to modify language that would push the party closer to embracing Sanders Medicare for All health insurance model, sticking with Bidens preferred language promising to build on the 2010 health care law signed by President Barack Obama.

Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former health commissioner for the city of Detroit, argued that the coronavirus outbreak demonstrates why the country needs a single-payer system like Medicare for All rather than just an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

We have an opportunity to go bigger because this moment demands it, El Sayed said, arguing for an amendment that was eventually defeated.

Cecilia Muoz, who was director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Obama, countered that the platform was already shaping up to be the most progressive ever proposed by Democrats. She also noted that it incorporated the work of the Biden-Sanders task forces that had labored to craft language to appeal across the Democratic spectrum.

Im proud and thankful that the Biden-Sanders unity task force has outlined such a progressive statement on our partys views on this issue, Muoz said. I believe we should retain that language, the language that they negotiated.

On climate, the platform calls for rejoining international alliances of nations agreeing to sharp reductions in carbon pollution. Biden, after working with progressives, agreed explicitly to the goal of making the nations energy grid carbon neutral by 2035. That detail does not appear in the platform. The document also makes no mention of some Democrats Green New Deal legislative proposals that includes even more aggressive timelines.

The partys discussion of law enforcement reflects the nations reckoning with systemic racism.

Our criminal justice system is failing to keep communities safe, the draft reads, adding that police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation. The platform calls for strict national standards governing the use of force and for the nation to reimagine policing for the benefit and safety of the American people, with the U.S. Justice Department taking a more active role in collecting statistics on police violence and investigating departments where it is alleged. But the document stops short of activists calls to defund the police, reflecting Bidens position on the matter.

Trump has sought to link Biden to the activists calls for eliminating traditional law enforcement.

Still, Democrats draft language on policing and law enforcement is significantly sharper than a much shorter section on the matter in 2016. That platform called for improving police-community relations but emphasized: Across the country, there are police officers inspiring trust and confidence, honorably doing their duty demonstrating that it is possible to prevent crime without relying on unnecessary force. They deserve our respect and support.

Read more:

Democratic committee OKs platform with progressives' input - The Associated Press

Detroit Dozens of federal agents are being assigned to Detroit to root out violent criminals under an expansion of a Trump administration "law-and-order" initiative, although authorities insist agents here won't getinvolved in protests, as they have inother cities.

Detroit U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider joined Wednesday with leaders from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service to detail enhancements to what is being described as Operation Legend.

Those include the creation of an ATF unit to focus on gun violenceas well as a mix of new permanent and temporary agent assignments to target gun and gang violence, fugitive apprehension, illegal firearms and drug trafficking.

"The amount of violent crime plaguing our city was unacceptable," Schneider said during a news conference inside the ATF offices in Detroit."More and more, our children are being caught in the crossfire and murdered in senseless gun violence."

The announcement comes as the state's largest city has experienced a surge in gun violence and the White House listed Detroit as one of several cities in the country where federal agents will bedeployed as part of a Trump program to curb violence.

Schneiderhas noted homicides in Detroit are currently up 31% and shootings 53% in recent months.

"This is a flood of more resources that we haven't seen before," he said. "The violent increase here in Detroit is significant."

Overall, 19 new permanent ATF agent assignments will be added in Detroitand 30-plusother ATF and FBI agents will be reassigned or sent in from across the country for temporary detail work.

The FBI is directing personnel already working in Detroit to the initiative. ATF is bringing in special agents from other sites nationally. Some are currently undergoing training at the federal law enforcement trainingcenter in Georgia.

Matthew Schneider, United States Attorney, Michigan, shows the many weapons taken off the streets of Detroit and announced the expansion of Operation Legend at ATF Headquarters in Detroit on Wednesday, July 29, 2020.(Photo: Max Ortiz, The Detroit News)

The project will be funded in part with a $1 million Bureau of Justice Assistance grant. Another $100,000, officials said, will be used toward "acoustic gunshot detection technology and equipment."

The effort, Schneidernoted, is an extension of Operation Relentless Pursuit, a program rolled out in Detroit last winter by U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

ATF Special Agent in Charge James Deir said Wednesday that 15 agents are detailed here on a 90-day assignment and a handful of others will be here permanently.

The enforcement group will target gun violence in police precincts including the 6th, 2nd, 8th and the 12th, he said, adding it's a "priority mission" and "Detroit matters."

"Senseless gun violence is taking over the streets of Detroit," he said. "Whether we want to admit it or we want to stick our heads in the sand, at the end of the day, statistics do not lie."

Deir said recent spikes in violence havehomicides in the 6th Precinct up 42% and nonfatal shootings 67%; in the 2nd Precinct, homicides have gone up 25% and nonfatal shootings 123%; the 8th Precinct also has seen homicides surge by 25% and nonfatal shootings climb 80%; and the 12 Precinct, he said, has a homicide rate that's up 90% and 44% more fatal shootings.

"What is happening on the streets of Detroit has to end," he added. "I think those stats speak for themselves."

The Trump administration's program, referred to as Operation Legend, builds off the crime-fighting strategy that'scommitting $71 million toward battling drug trafficking, street gangs and other violent crime.

Schneider said newly assigned DEA agents assigned to Michigan under Operation Legend executed a search warrant in Detroit last week and found drugs, nine guns, including assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and three body armor vests.

Schneider has said the federal help will mean more funding for Detroit and hopefully more agents to work alongside local partners.

Gov. GretchenWhitmer told CNNs Erin Burnett Wednesday that its fine for federal authorities to come in and supplement local police forces in combating crime. If the federal governments intention is something different, thats not going to be OK, Whitmer said.

What we are worried about, of course, is that the federal government is going to come in and do what they did in Portland, Whitmer said. That is not acceptable. That is not necessary. We have seen peaceful protests in Detroit.

Activists Tristan Taylor and Nakia Wallace during a Detroit Will Breathe picket at entrance to 1155 Brewery Park in Detroit, Michigan on July 29, 2020.(Photo: Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)

The Justice Department last week noted plans to send resources to Detroit, Milwaukee and Cleveland as Trump vowed federal agents would head to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to aid local law enforcement amid ongoing protests in the wake of the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, noting "a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence."

Schneider, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and police Chief James Craig have stressed the daily rallies and marches in Detroit won't be a focus of Operation Legend.

"There are no federal troops coming to Detroit or any other area in Michigan to interfere with protesters," Schneider reiterated Wednesday.

Deir notedATF resources already have been in Detroit for more than a week.

"To be clear, ATF and none of my federal partners here are going to be driving around the streets in unmarked cars to somehow make contact or swoop up protesters and demonstrators," he said. "Its not going to happen.I have no interest in that. Its not my mission. Its not our lane.

At the same time Wednesday, outside the office, protesters with Detroit Will Breathe gathered to oppose Trump's initiative.

We don't need vigilante federal agents brutalizing the black community, because that's what they're coming to do. We need resources. So that's why we're out here, said Lloyd Simpson, a Detroit Will Breathe organizer.

Organizers believe bringing more police force into Detroit will cause violence.

We vehemently oppose Operation Legend. ... The thing is is that police are causing violence in our communities," added Simpson, noting three recent police-involved shootings in the city. "What we need is we need federal dollars for support in our communities, not police."

Duggan and Craig, in a statement released Wednesday, said the additional federal agents were not prompted by the city but acknowledged a dire need to"address the unacceptable level of gun violence."

"So long as those staff are used in the continuing effort to enforce federal laws on illegal gun trafficking and gang violence, DPD will continue its strong partnership with those agencies," the statement read.

The city's statement notes the police department has responded to protests over the last two months by "relying on the support of the Detroit community, not by asking for intervention by the National Guard or Homeland Security."

Schneider said there are people in the community whosay "we don't want federal agents in Detroit."Butfederal agents "have been in Detroit for decades," he said.

"Some of what we are doing is no different than what I did as an assistant U.S. attorney many years ago when my bosses were (former U.S. Attorney General) Eric Holder and President Barack Obama," he said. "I'm doing the same thing now as I did then; working with the FBI, ATF and DEA to make our community safer."

Federal agencies have been providing information, training, financial assistance and manpower to local law enforcement for decades, but the practice ramped up in the 1980s and 1990s with increased narcotics use, and the War on Drugs.

However, Detroit police didnt officially begin entering federal task forces until 1994 because former Mayor Coleman Young didnt support them.

During the Young years, some officers said, Detroit police sometimes had to resort to clandestine, unauthorized meetings with FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents to share information, according toaDetroit News report from July 5, 1994, announcing the citys first official Detroit police-federal task force.

Detroit Board of Police Commissioners chairman Willie Bell, who was a police officer throughout Youngs administration, said the late mayor was suspicious of federal law enforcement agencies. Thosepartnerships began in Detroit as Young left office.

Given the issues hed had with them before, he wasnt in favor of bringing in federal agents, said Bell, referring to FBI investigations into Young, which were uncovered by The News in 2000. He was strongly against it.

Bell said during his time as an officer, he didnt notice any hardships Detroit police endured by not augmenting their force with federal agents but he said, things are different today.

Local police are always more effective than federal agencies, because they know the community, and people can relate better to the local officers, he said. And without community cooperation, youll never have effective law enforcement.

"With the protesting and the increased violence, and all the reckless driving, DPD is stretched thin. It would be foolish not to take advantage of an offer for help.

Bell said the police board will carefully monitor the federal agents working in Detroit.

Recent Detroit Police-federal initiatives include Detroit One, an effort to get illegal guns off the streets, which was launched in 2013 by former Detroit U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and former Mayor Dave Bing, and Operation Ceasefire, also started in 2013, which aims to stop gang violence.

The collaborations do not always go smoothly.

In 2015, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Mitchell Quinn was working with a Detroit police task force when he fatally shot 20-year-old Terrance Kellom. Last year, a federal jury cleared Quinn of wrongdoing in a wrongful death lawsuit.

In February, there was a flap between Craig, the DEA and ATF after an informant, Kenyel Brown, allegedly went on a crime spree that left six people dead. Craig complained the federal agencies wouldnt admit Brown was one of their informants. Brown shot himself in the head in an Oak Park backyard as he fled from policeand later died from the injury.

Detroit Will Breathe picket at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Detroit, Michigan on July 29, 2020.(Photo: Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)

The program to assist local law enforcementto track down the most violent offenders also is targeted atMemphis, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Albuquerque, Barr said in December when he announced the initial program alongside Craig and leaders of the FBI, ATF, DEA and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Detroit has shared a portion of $10 million that went out to several cities, Schneider said.

That funding, he added, has enabled the office to get about 400 fugitives off the streets, tackle more gun violence cases, bring more charges and get more offenders behind bars.

Schneider said the operation beganwith U.S. Marshals. Officials planned to augment that withother agents from ATF, FBI and DEA. But the plan was curtailed when the pandemic hit.

cferretti@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Ariana Taylor contributed.

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Feds: Operation Legend will add agents to focus on Detroit gun violence - The Detroit News

Manila (CNN Philippines Life) In 2019, James Cuenca starred in what was then promoted as the wokest film of the year, a two-and-a-half-hour long action-thriller titled KontrAdiksyon. In it, he played Alexis, an anti-drug war activist who abandons his advocacy after a gang of masked meth addicts break into his comfortable middle-class home, rape his wife, and kill his family. Alexis begins to work with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in support of Oplan Tokhang. After getting fired, he becomes a vigilante and kills several drug users. The big plot twist comes when a congressman who opposes extrajudicial killings is exposed as the head of a massive drug cartel. His plan is to funnel drugs into government-funded rehab centers (one of which is lavishly shown) so that detainees attack PDEA agents, leaving them with no choice but to shoot. The movie takes glee in implicating the political opposition in this grand conspiracy, and all throughout, every government talking point on the drug war is upheld.

Oggs Cruz, a film critic for Rappler, called KontrAdiksyon blatant propaganda. Palanca Award-winning writer Njel De Mesa, who wrote and directed the movie, is a public supporter of Rodrigo Duterte, and created online videos to bolster his 2016 campaign. After Dutertes election, De Mesa was appointed to the board of directors at the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). When KontrAdiksyon was released, the president gave a speech at the premiere (I don't give a shit about human rights, he said.) De Mesa denied that his movie was propaganda: I did this project not because I needed the money but because I wanted to move people and I want people to open their hearts and understand each others point of view.

KontrAdiksyon grossed 300,000 on its first day, prompting several theaters to pull it out. De Mesas movie had high production value, a plot tailor-made for drug war hawks, and an endorsement from the president. Still, the political base it pandered to never fully materialized.

While the Duterte era has certainly made its mark on cinema, with several films and documentaries examining the drug wars adverse effects on the Filipino poor, a small group of movies also exists in contrast to them, attempting to justify Oplan Tokhang as a necessary crackdown. But, like KontrAdiksyon, none of them have been successful financially or critically. And its mostly because none of them are good.

The 2017 film Kamandag ng Droga, for instance, is not so much a movie as it is a series of dismal just-say-no sketches, spliced together to chaotic effect. A zombie-like drug user climbs up a telephone pole and dies of electrocution. Teenagers take drugs at a concert and die. The singer at the concert, dejected at having had her spotlight stolen, gets depressed and takes drugs. She dies too. Christopher De Leon plays a father who incessantly asks his son whether he might be on drugs. The son is not on drugs, but is so saddened by his fathers lack of faith in him that he breaks down and takes drugs (Christopher De Leon is later revealed to be on drugs.) The son enters a coma. With all hope lost, his mother, Lorna Tolentino, euthanizes him by removing his oxygen mask, which isnt how euthanasia happens.

At one point, Mocha Uson, who does not play herself, appears. Her brother is on drugs. She gets help from Dante L.A. Jimenez, the president of Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), who does play himself. After reassuring her, he turns directly to the camera and talks to the audience about VACCs services. Duterte comes out to give a speech, urging the public to report drug users so that they can be shot by the police (Or do it yourself if you have the gun. You have my support.) Persida Acosta and Senator Koko Pimentel also make cameos. This movie is not backed by Duterte, said Peach Caparas, the associate director, in a promotional interview with the government-owned Peoples Television Network. Kamandag had a 100,000 opening.

Photo from KAMANDAG NG DROGA/FACEBOOK

In another 2017 movie, DAD: Durugin ang Droga, Allen Dizon plays a father whose drug addiction fractures his family, sending his wife and son on their own respective roads to vice. The movie uses this scenario not to provoke a meaningful discussion on substance abuse, but to impart a flimsy legitimacy to what Duterte has often framed as a crusade against the collapse of the Filipino family.

But none of that really matters, because like its fellow not-propaganda flops, DADs political messaging is largely sidelined by its inability to be a good movie. There are several glaring blunders in production: out-of-focus camerawork, shoddy sound, and some very jarring creative choices. The film does have the greatest flashback of all time, tweeted the film critic Philbert Dy. Black and white, with all the actors playing the same characters, 20 years younger [...] Rey Abellana is wearing a cap with 1996 on it, so we know what year it is. In one scene, Dizons character hooks up with a woman in his car. The next day, the woman has departed, but her dress is still in the car. DADs final scene, its literal ending, is a clip of Duterte saying My God, I hate drugs. I have not been able to find anything about how much this movie grossed.

In an email interview, Dy talked to me about the failure of these movies in appealing even to Dutertes base. Movies are a business, and they dont really seem to be the best way to get a message out now, he wrote. Theres just too much competition, and no one's going to sit through a cheap-looking flick with the title DAD: Durugin ang Droga when they could be watching the new Avengers movie. And theyre also all laughably bad. Good films have a hard enough time getting word-of-mouth. Bad films like these have zero chance of capturing the public imagination.

If theres one filmmaker whos come close to giving his pro-drug war projects a patina of seriousness, its Brilliante Mendoza, who has directed two of the presidents State of the Nation Addresses (SONA). Mendozas technical skill as a director, as well as his access to production funding, lend his movies a sort of aesthetic gravity, even though his drug war plotlines are almost completely devoid of nuance. His series Amo, which became the first Filipino show to be picked up by Netflix, is about a drug-dealing teenager named Joseph, though Mendoza mostly uses him as an excuse to render the ugliness of crime. In Amo, corruption within the police system is acknowledged; Derek Ramsay plays Josephs uncle, a dirty cop. But the police force at large is mostly depicted as a fair, merciful entity, with many drug pushers walking away unscathed.

Mendoza has also directed a full-length movie, Alpha: The Right to Kill, which also stars Allen Dizon. Like Amo, it examines police corruption only as a systemic anomaly, not as a feature of an innately broken institution. Extrajudicial killings are also upheld as a valid form of law enforcement. As Dy pointed out, Alpha makes it very clear that everyone who is killed was wielding a gun and threatening the lives of policemen.

For Cruz, the Rappler film critic, the apparent sobriety of Mendozas camera is also what makes his work so insidious. [Mendoza,] whose documentary-style of filmmaking has been lauded in various circles as reflective of reality, is using the same style in a depiction of a society that favors Duterte's anti-drug war, he told me in an email. Note that Mendoza's films are never blatant like the rest of the B-flicks that have come out of the propaganda machine. Its politics is reflected by the decision the director has made to create a Philippine society that is consumed by narcotics in a style that apes journalism.

Brilante Mendoza's "Alpha" made the film festival rounds in Asia and Europe (such as in Bucharest, San Sebastian, and Warsaw) and won accolades. It's cumulative worldwide gross is $2,632. Screencap from SINGAPORE FILM FESTIVAL/YOUTUBE

In 2018, just before Amo was released, a Change.org petition was started by Luzviminda Siapo, a woman whose 19-year-old son was killed by unidentified gunmen after a neighbor tagged him as a drug dealer. In the petition, Siapo urged Netflix to cancel the show. Netflix refused. Netflix offers a diverse choice for consumers to decide on what, where and when they want to watch, a rep for the company told BuzzFeed. "We understand that viewers may have opposing opinions but leave it to them to decide. Netflix doesnt share view counts for its shows, so theres no way of knowing how many people watched Amo. Nevertheless, its been consistently criticized for its poor pacing, the flatness of its characters, and its skewed depiction of the drug war.

Alpha didn't do so well either. Though Mendozas films have always fared better as festival contenders than as commercial prospects, Alpha only had an international gross of $2,632 according to IMDB, a sharp decrease from Mendozas previous film, Ma Rosa, which grossed $88,390.

If propagandas success rests on the impact of its reception, then it is true that none of these projects were good at being propaganda. But at the same time, it would be a mistake to read their failure as indicative of a disapproving public. Pro-drug war rhetoric continues to be propagated through much more effective means: Facebook trolls, fake news, lopsided police reports. Dutertes base may not have been able to reinforce the governments narratives cinematically, but, box office hits or none, those same narratives continue to hold sway over Filipinos, destroying real lives as a result. We cannot forget that Oplan Tokhang was the platform that put the president in office. Duterte promised the people action, he cast himself as their hero, and he thrilled voters with visions of state-sanctioned murder. That movie sold.

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The pro-drug war movies that tried to make a case for Oplan Tokhang - CNN Philippines

July30, 20206 min read

Racial and gender diversity in the marijuana industry "is still lacking especially in ownership and executive positions,"according toMJBizDaily Research Editor Eli McVey.

While the industry has taken steps to improve, more is required from it, McVey noted.

RELATED:One Million Cannabis Cans Sold: How Two Entrepreneurs Tapped Into A Hot Market

With the national spotlight currently focused more intently on civil justice reform, changes could be on the horizon.

Minority business leaders say there are significant barriers incritical institutions that keep many from becoming significant players in the space.

Mark Slaugh, CEO of regtech companyiComply, told Benzinga he feels hes made a mark in the industry since launching in 2011 and can stand on his credentials. However, the power structures in place created a negative experience for him and other minorities in the space.

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"Being a minority in cannabis, in Colorado, has not been the most positive experience and is quite isolating when I can literally count the number ofminority cannabis business ownersthat I know on one hand," Slaugh said.

See Also:How The 'War On Drugs' And Foster System Harm Minorities And Low-Income Families

The CEO also reported instances where his attempts at collaboration have been dismissed, while also being targeted for hostile takeovers.

"I've never been offered investment, strategic partnerships, or a buyout that didn't try to take advantage of what I've built and hijack it for the purposes of privilege," he said. "While no one has been overtly racist, there seems to be a sense of elitism among a select few who are culturally different than myself."

Barriers exist in financial institutions as well.

Marie Montmarquet is a 13-year industry veteranand co-founder ofMD Numbers Inc., a brand with a line of vertically integrated cannabis products.

There is no blueprint for industry success in the nascent market, Montmarquet explained. However, minorities often face additional challenges due to a lack of capital and real estate.

Most minoritiesdo not have accessto bank lending, lines of credit or other loan opportunities," Montmarquet said, citing howthe issue spans across all industries.

The co-founder says she had beendenied property and banking during most of her cannabis career.

Dhaval Shah, CEO of Lullaby Wellness, echoed similar sentiments, noting alack of investmentin minority ventures.

Investors just aren't backing enough minority-owned businesses, and you see it everywhere," Shah said.

There wererespondents who reported feeling welcome in the space.

"The cannabis community has largely welcomed me with open arms, said Rob Mejia, founder of the cannabis education platformOur Community Harvestandadjunct cannabis professor atStockton University. There is a feeling of excitement for the future, and Ive been surprised by the amount of expertise and connections Ive been able to access."

RELATED:Critics of "Big Weed" Fret Over Retail Cannabis Slotting Fees

Still, there are oversights stemming from the failed drug war, saysiComply's Slaugh.

"The cannabis community has to understand the impact of the war on drugs on Black and other communities most affected," he said."Cannabis legalization is accelerating, yet the people most impacted by its prohibition are being denied access to a multi-billion dollar market and the opportunity to create generational wealth legally."

The CEO, who said many people like him grew up with families broken by marijuana-based prison sentences, said minority owners need more access to begin creating a level marketplace.

"Without access to education in legal market opportunities, investment and capital, and resources to run a cannabis business effectively, we are being marginalized to MSO companies and white wealth taking what we built," he added.

See Also:65 Outstanding Black And Hispanic Men Leading In Cannabis

Others emphasized that having representation in all aspects of the market, from billboards to the boardroom, is required.

Martine Francis Pierre, a growth and marketing strategist, is a recent entrant to the sector. While building her marketing brand and establishing a hub for Black-owned businesses, she noted how numerous companies lack diversity in its leadership.

"Within weeks, I realized that the big issue so many of these major cannabis brands had came to being inclusive across the board," Francis Pierre said. "We're talking about corporate offices, but even more so when you scroll through Instagram or going through billboards. You do not see Black or brown faces."

Many respondents called for states to revise their cannabis programs, overhaul their licensing processes, and vetsocial equity programs to determine theiractual impact on affected communities.

"The silver lining in the industry is that these points are being heard by local governments and, more importantly, entire states," noted iComply's Slaugh, who wants to see more people of color being educated on the market opportunity while receiving adequate assistance as their company develops.

Its simply not enough to provide the opportunity without the engagement of the people most impacted by the mistakes and detriments of the past," Slaugh said.

Montmarquet hopes to see more minority owners in the space as well. The co-founder noted that those entrepreneurs must be ready for the seemingly ever-changing cannabis industry landscape.

RELATED:7 Relaxing Cannabis Strains For Stress Management

Montmarquet also offered some advice tobusiness hopefuls.

Educate yourself as much as you possibly can, she said. If you have researched the laws, permit process, regulations, costs, taxes etcetera, for the area you want to operate in, that will allow you to make decisions more confidently and faster.

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Barriers Prevent The Cannabis Industry From Being Inclusive - Green Entrepreneur

Federal police clash with protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse as the city experiences another night of unrest on July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

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As I see white mothers and mayors being teargassed on the streets of Portland, Ore., one word keeps bubbling up from my bleeding heart: Welcome. Welcome to the world of secret police and nighttime raids. The world where you can be snatched by an unidentified officer in an unmarked van. The world where you get to see an attorney, maybe, after the government is done beating you. Welcome to the world as experienced by brown people with foreign-sounding names in this country since 9/11.Ad Policy

Welcome, and let us now join together to battle the enemy we all clearly have in common: the Department of Homeland Security. Because, while Donald Trump is currently responsible for deploying this army disguised as an agency against peaceful white protesters, the DHS has been deployed against peaceful immigrants regardless of status, peaceful citizens who look like recent immigrants, and peaceful worshipers who pray while Muslimor, simply, brownsince its inception.

White moms (and dads, and now vets) are being assaulted by the government, but we should have dismantled their attackers a long time ago. The people of Portland are merely the latest victims of a department that has been terrorizing innocent victims since it was formed.

The Department of Homeland Security has been a disaster from the very start. It was created by the 2002 Homeland Security Act, a post-9/11 bill that is basically what a spooked herd of antelopes would write while running away from a lion. The department was given a broad mandate: Prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, which is Congress-speak for apple pie good, everybody else bad. Because terrorism isnt really a defined term, we end up with the situation in which we find ourselves todaywith Trump people deploying DHS agents to defend statues in Portland while the department ignores white supremacists in Charlottesville.

To fulfill its mandate, the DHS absorbed a hodgepodge of other agencies, but (as this Washington Post article from way back in 2005 explains) the process of determining which agencies to place under the DHS umbrella was haphazard, resulting in an incoherent collection of powers. This was predictable. The DHS was, after all, George W. Bushs idea, and the departments organization reflects his administrations general incompetence. There are examples of this chaos and inefficiency throughout the DHS, but I always come back to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Part of the DHS mandate is to assist in the recovery from terrorist attacks that occur in the United States, and so the DHS took over FEMA. That doesnt make a lot of sense when you consider that terror attacks are relatively rare, while an angry planet is consistently buffeting our country with storms and fire. From 1979 to 2003, FEMA was a wholly independent agency, and if you dont think that matters, Id like to introduce you to some people in Puerto Rico who received thoughts, prayers, and a roll of Bounty, The Quicker Picker Upper, thanks to DHS-led recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria.Current Issue

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The DHSs broad mandate is the reason Trump can turn whole sections of the department into his personal storm troopers. It would be illegal, say, for commandos operating under a directive from the Central Intelligence Agency to be deployed under Trumps Operation Legend to protect statues; the CIA is not allowed to operate on domestic soil. It would be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act for Trump to deploy the Army, because the armed forces cannot be used for domestic police actions. And it would be illegal to deploy FBI agents on the streets to keep the peace against citizens who are not charged with nor suspected of committing federal crimes.

But with the DHS, Trump doesnt have to worry about any of this. The DHS isnt hamstrung by any of the laws that normally prevent the government from using troops on domestic soil, because preventing terrorist attacks can mean pretty much whatever the president says it means, including teargassing protesters to protect federal buildings from meanies.

Still, the reason the DHS has teeth doesnt actually have much to do with terrorism. For much of its existence, the department has been used to continue this countrys war on drugs. Homeland Security was given control over Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to, get this, monitor connections between illegal drug trafficking and terrorism, and that is why this Frankensteins monster of an organization has troops to deploy against citizens far from the border. The Wall of Moms are, in many ways, just the latest victims of this countrys drug war against its own people.

An organization that can deploy troops on the ground in your town at the sole discretion of the president, without consent from state or local officials or oversight from Congress, is too dangerous for any president to have control overnot just this one. Some weapons cannot be used for good, even when theyre wielded by those with the best of intentions. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote three books you could consult for a more thorough examination of this point.

The DHS has been a Trojan Horse for state-sponsored violence since the day it was written into existence. Its just that, up until now, brown people have borne the brunt of the violence. It is Muslims who have been snatched out of line at the airport and questioned without an attorney. It is Mexicans whose homes and places of business have been raided. It is brown children who were denied toothbrushes in those cages at the direction of (wait for it) former director of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

The brutality and terror being visited upon Portland is just a taste of what some communities of color have been experiencing for going on 20 years. And moms in Portland know it. These moms are out there putting their bodies on the line to protect protesters. They know what the government is capable of doing.

Still, some pundits are more interested in saving the DHS from Trump than saving us from the DHS. Writing in The Atlantic, former DHS official and author of Security Mom Juliette Kayyem came to this conclusion about the future of the agency: If progressives respond by demanding the abolition of Homeland Security, much as many demanded an end to ICE, they will give Trump the fight he wants. To blame the bureaucracy is to lose sight of the real problem: Trump himself.

Frankly, I expect this view to hold sway with the next Democratic administration. Instead of removing the power Trump has abused, moderate Democrats promise only to use the power more appropriately. Dont give unaccountable power to that guy. Give it to me, because Ill use it only against the people who deserve it. Promise.More from Mystal

For politicians who arent likely to be rounded up and sent back to where they came from, Im sure Trumps use of the DHS seems like an aberration. But of all the aberrant things Trump does, his use of the DHS is not one of them. The aberration is the people hes using it against.

When Trump is gone, I hope our elected officials remember that. I hope they remember that tear gas stings regardless of the color of your eyes. I hope they remember that people who use leaf blowers for their livelihoods are just as deserving of rights and respect as dads who now use leaf blowers to thwart tear gas. I hope they remember to remove the structure Trump used against us, as opposed to just removing Trump from atop the structure.

Now that the leopards are eating white faces, I hope Congress stops writing legislation calling for face-eating leopards.

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Trumps Secret Police Have Never Been a Secret to Brown People - The Nation

The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold, members of Grizzly Bear and more will partake in the Vote Ready livestream concert/voter registration drive, August 14th starting at 7 p.m. ET.

The free virtual concert was put together by the voter registration group HeadCount and Fort William Artist Management and will be part of the Live From Out There livestream series. The show will feature original, self-recorded and socially distanced performances, and those that want to attend can secure a free eTicket simply by verifying their voter registration status (international viewers and those under 18 can get a ticket by pledging to vote in the next election theyre eligible). Free eTickets will be available through August 13th at 6 p.m. ET, after which theyll cost $20.

The Vote Ready show will boast performances from Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear of Grizzly Bear, TV on the Radios Kyp Malone and Jaleel Bunton, Kevin Morby, Hand Habits, Tarriona Tank Ball, Ziggy, the Suffers Kam Franklin, the Building, and Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla of Our Native Daughters.

This is a first of its kind event, HeadCount executive director Andy Bernstein said in a statement. We love the idea of serving up original performances to anyone who checks their voter registration status. We applaud the artists and Fort William Management for their leadership, and we hope it inspires many more similar events in the future.

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The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee to Play Virtual Voter Registration Concert - Rolling Stone

Americans too often resort to the metaphorical use of the term war when confronting societal problems, the war on poverty and the war on drugs being among the more famous examples. It should not surprise, then, that policymakers and pundits alike have turned to war as an analogy for the nations response to the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Critics, however, have been rightfully skeptical about the utility of comparing what we are going through to war. As Cynthia Enloe argues, mobilizing for war is far different than mobilizing a society to provide effective, inclusive, fair and sustainable public health.

If militarized metaphors are ill-chosen, the public debate over Americas pandemic response still offers important insights into not only how societies react to crises but also what strategists might learn from these public responses. What should strategic planners take from this moment in history as they think about war? Namely, that those involved in the making and study of strategy should consider the role of public consent as an element of strategic planning.

In a large sense, the inability of national leaders to communicate a coherent narrative to the American public and gain its consensus on why sacrifices are necessary to combat COVID-19 accounts for Americas relatively dismal response. Much of the ensuing debate has centered on tensions between sacrificing personal comforts for the greater good and preserving individual freedoms. Calls for social distancing and mask wearing have been wrapped into arguments over the infringement of civil liberties with some outraged protestors even linking mandates to the Holocaust.

Such tendentious reactionism has demonstrated that emotion plays an important role in how citizens decide what government initiatives they will or will not support. For those in the national security field, these public responses should merit attention. As the late Colin Gray noted, societies and their cultures make war and peace, not just policymakers. War, Gray contended, is a social institution.

Certainly, other historians and theorists of war have wrestled with this idea, B.H. Liddell Hart being foremost among them. In Strategy, first published in 1954, Liddell Hart spoke in retrospect of military commanders in the American Civil War, like Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, having to adjust themselves to the psychology of a democracy. As servants of a democratic government, they had less rein than an absolute ruler, firmly in the saddle. Thus, faced with these inevitable handicaps, officers needed to reconcile with the inconvenient reality that military efforts rested upon a popular foundation. To the British theorist, even the chance of continuing to fight at all depended on consent of the man in the street.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, this sentiment would not have been unfamiliar, especially to Americans who had just come out of World War II. Laying aside the military, economic, and diplomatic implications of the Mighty Endeavor, the decision to undertake the 1944 invasion of France fulfilled another requirement one that, for Gen. George C. Marshall, was a hallmark of American grand strategy: Strategy had to consider the role of morale on the home front.

In making this point, one needs only to recall Marshalls most frequently quoted observation, a statement that has become a dictum in some circles. Why, Marshall was asked in 1949, had he been so persistent in pressing for the earliest invasion of Western Europe? Because, he replied, a democracy cannot fight a Seven Years War. This statement was Marshalls way of acknowledging a factor that could frustrate the implementation of American grand strategy, however logical its formulation: the potential problem of war weariness.

Marshall had flagged this problem during the Washington Conference of 1943 when he addressed the implications of postponing an invasion across the English Channel. It would mean a prolongation of the war in Europe, and thus a delay in the ultimate defeat of Japan, which the people of the United States would not tolerate, he said. While casting a shadow on strategic planning throughout the war, the problem of war weariness became more acute in 1944 and 1945. Historian Charles Brower argues that a major consideration guiding the deliberations of the Joint Chiefs during the wars final year was the requirement to maintain the commitment of the American people to the presidents grand strategy. And, no one was more emphatic than Marshall in stressing the need to develop strategy that could contain the problem of war weariness.

In using the term war weariness, historians are not putting words in Marshalls mouth. He used the term himself when expressing concern about maintaining political will on the homefront during the period between the end of the war in Europe and the defeat of Japan. Perhaps paradoxically, the defeat of Germany rather than reinforcing commitment to the war with Japan could have had the effect of exacerbating what Marshall called the great impatience of Americans for a return to normalcy. He highlighted this problem in off-the-record remarks for the Academy of Political Science in New York in April 1945:

Once the fighting ceases in the European Theater the natural reaction of almost every man will be an overwhelming desire to return home, to get clear of the tragic scenes of destruction to rejoin his family and resume his civil occupation. His family will be equally impatient and probably even more articulate. Appeals will be made to our representatives in Congress to bring pressure on the War Department. The papers, columnists, the broadcasters, will carry the reflection of this great impatience.

With the global wars end came similar debates on the merits of universal military training, a plan that proposed that every able-bodied young American shall be trained to defend his country. During the Truman years, however, domestic political considerations ensured that universal military training would ultimately stall in Congress. As military historian Russell F. Weigley maintained, the American electorate wanted a return to tranquility after the long years of depression, New Deal social revolution, and war; they wanted their boys home from the army, not committed indefinitely to be called into it. Public sentiments, in short, had proscribed strategic planning choices.

Even in an era of limited war, senior military officers and civilian policymakers alike fretted over maintaining the consent of men and women in the street. During the long American war in Vietnam, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, head of the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Saigon, in both official correspondence and in public forums, used the word attrition to express his concern over maintaining morale during what he considered would be a long pull. As Westmoreland wrote the Joint Chiefs in June 1965, he saw no likelihood of achieving a quick, favorable end to the war. Thus, he urged that we should prepare US and world opinion for the rigors ahead.

The following year, the general offered a public appraisal in which he warned that there had been no lessening of North Vietnams resolve to prosecute the war. Of note, at the same briefing, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that the American people must know that there will be no quick victory. In this way, Westmorelands concerns over the staying power of the American home front thus helped propel the word attrition to the forefront of dialogue on the U.S. military intervention in Southeast Asia. As the anti-war movement grew in strength after the 1968 Tet Offensive, those concerns proved well founded.

By the conflicts final years, both President Richard M. Nixon and his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, bemoaned the loss of public support as they attempted to depart the long, stalemated war in Vietnam. Writing to the president in September 1969, Kissinger warned of the increasing pressure of public opinion on you to resolve the war quickly. The elements of an evaporation of public consent were clearly present less than a year after Nixons slim electoral victory.

After Saigons fall in 1975, Nixon railed against the disillusionment of the mid-1960s that, to him, had been the result of a public misinformed and misled by the shallow, inflammatory treatment of events by the media. So much had public consensus mattered, the former president argued that defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory because we lost the war politically in the United States. Clearly, by withholding its consent, the American public had commanded considerable influence over U.S. grand strategy and foreign policy.

More than simply expressing war weariness or opinions on the validity of foreign wars, American citizens could also object to the loss of their civil liberties as the state waged war against real and perceived enemies abroad. Debate over the 2001 Patriot Act which enhanced, to unprecedented levels, the governments surveillance powers centered on the pull between national security and individual civil liberties. As criminal justice professor Michael Welch notes, critics asserted that routine surveillance [was] bound up with political repression. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, however, far too few Americans felt any need to speak out against the trampling of their rights. To them, defeating the threat of global terrorism outweighed their concerns over authoritarian rule in a post-9/11 America.

Thus, understanding Americas historical deliberations over national security and individual civil liberties may help us better understand what seems, to so many, an irrational reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic response. Indeed, Americans should avoid and condemn facile attacks on todays younger generation. Anyone who has read the work of C.J. Chivers or Sebastian Junger, for example, will realize that todays young men and women can endure, even at great costs, the very worst of war.

Rather, the national pandemic response should encourage an examination of how strategists should consider the will of the people in their planning. A health epidemic is not war. It is far from it. But, current debates over how best to deal with COVID-19 do offer insights into the roles that sacrifice and civil liberties play in strategic planning.

Military officers, in particular, often examine strategy as a process of balancing ends and means, but rarely do they discuss how building public consensus should be part of the larger planning process. Shaping perceptions is not just about influencing adversaries and allies behavior. It also requires an effort at home. In short, strategic dialogue to build consensus must occur at multiple levels.

This unanimity may be more difficult to achieve in conflicts where the ends themselves are debated. For example, the pandemic end state likely will not emerge for many more months to come, generating angst and fear that support dissent against mandates for social distancing and mask wearing. Thus, when considering past conflicts like those in Korea and Vietnam, one might ask if consent from the American public was more difficult to attain because an armistice or negotiated settlement seemed unnatural to them. Writing in 1956, historian Walter Millis thought Americans found the Korean conflict bewildering because it fitted none of the accepted patterns of war.

There is no doubt that the international order is as bewildering today as it was in the mid-1950s. The most recent White House National Security Strategy offers a geographic laundry list of instability, radical ideologies, and threats to American interests in Iran, North Korea, Syria, China, Africa, and so on. The world, we are told, is as dangerous today as it ever was. But, if leaders are going to call for U.S. intervention, especially of a militaristic sort, into any of these regions, then they should build compelling arguments to do so.

Are we at a moment in the nations history where Americans are less willing to voluntarily give their consent? Perhaps.

But, as Hew Strachan reminds us, strategy and war have long had intimate links to the pursuit of national self-interest. How to balance this pursuit with that of individual self-interests can be instructive for those engaged in national security. Pandemics are not wars but strategists can nonetheless learn from them by following Liddell Harts counsel to attune their strategy, so far as is rightly possible, to the popular ear.

Gregory A. Daddis is the USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History at San Diego State University and author of Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Mens Adventure Magazines.

Col. (Ret.) Paul L. Miles, Ph.D., has taught military and diplomatic history at the United States Military Academy at West Point and Princeton University.

Image: U.S. Army (Photo by Capt. Brendan Mackie)

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Sacrifice and Security: A Pandemic's Lessons on Building 'Consent' as an Element of Strategy - War on the Rocks

Driving through Humboldt County last winter, I heard radio ads for help harvesting and selling cannabis crops, as well as for products geared toward commercial cultivation. But less than 40 years ago, the same area was one of the main battlefields of Californias war on pot growers.

By the late 1960s, the three counties of the Emerald Triangle had developed a reputation for growing a high-quality product. Demand grew rapidly, and prices skyrocketed, fueling greater production. In 1983, after several unsuccessful attempts to cut down production, the state started the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP.

A search in the Chronicle archive shows decades-old photos of raids in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, backlash from local communities and more recent coverage on why CAMP is still operating today.

On July 21, 1983, Attorney General John Van de Kamp announced a coordinated campaign using federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to raid marijuana grows in more than a dozen California counties.

Were not here today to make great sweeping promises that all marijuana planting will be eradicated in Northern California this year, Van de Kamp said.

But this is a serious effort, he added, explaining the federal Drug Enforcement Administration would use spy planes to map forested, remote regions to target the raids.

After the first 10-week effort, Van de Kamp reported 65,000 plants, or about 215,000 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street-value of more than $130 million, had been rounded up and destroyed.

Van de Kamp had to admit that there was no reliable way to measure how much of the states crop had been destroyed.

They havent even scratched the surface, one North Coast grower told reporter Steve Wiegand. There are gardens so far back that even the growers have trouble getting to them.

But CAMP continued.

Barry Inman, a 22-year-old reserve police officer with a crew cut, took a machete to a marijuana garden yesterday, with the gusto of a young man who enjoys his work, Chronicle correspondent Paul Liberatore wrote in 1985 as he and staff photographer Vince Maggiora accompanied a raid in Willits (Mendocino County).

Being able to take something illegal from someone and getting the dope off the street is a good feeling, Inman said, shifting an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle slung over his shoulder.

Inman was one of about 200 reserve officers who volunteered for dope duty, Liberatore wrote, making about $10 an hour and hoping it would mean a springboard into full-time jobs in law enforcement.

The raiders knew they werent welcome. Were the bad guys, said Richard Sinclair, a reserve officer from the Monterey area. Were seen as being the system, the police state. People yell things and flip us off.

While that years CAMP efforts had already netted 29,000 destroyed plans and 16 arrests, local growers said it was primarily a good show.

They are wasting their money and time, one self-described mom and pop grower told Liberatore, There is dope all over these hills. They will never get rid of it. They will never win.

The 1990 CAMP efforts made the war on drugs idea more literal: The U.S. Army got involved. One Humboldt County operation involved 50 federal agents, 75 California National Guard troops, 60 soldiers and seven helicopters from Fort Ord.

Locals considered it an escalation. About 200 residents protested at the closely guarded gate to the wilderness camping area where CAMP was based.

Its really scary, and the whole community is up in arms, said Jake Lustig, a teenage construction worker from Whale Gulch (Mendocino County). Lustig said the heavily armed ground forces, supported by helicopters and military vehicles, gave the impression of an invading army.

Federal and state officials were pleased with the raid.

Im very proud of the way our forces have handled this and how the military has operated, Cy Jamison, chief of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said on the fifth day of the sweep.

CAMP raids continued, despite California legalizing medicinal and then recreational use of cannabis. In 2000, San Mateo County and state justice officials announced they had found more than 12,000 marijuana plants growing near Crystal Springs Reservoir, not far from Huddart Park, a record bust for the county.

But the efforts began shifting. After years of trying to contain local growers, federal officials said they would now focus on the Mexican drug traffickers who had expanded their marijuana-growing operations in public California parkland.

We dont even bother with medicinal grows, Michael Johnson, the statewide commander of the CAMP task force, told The Chronicle in 2009. What were concerned about is the destruction of the habitat.

Operation Limelight: How a fearsome, fast-talking union boss helped legalize pot, took kickbacks and ended up in prison.

Grateful Dead in S.F.: Surprise 1975 Golden Gate Park concert a Deadhead delight.

A blast from the recent past: Mitt Romney, in marching for Black Lives Matter, found inspiration in his father and an S.F. battle in 1964.

Moratorium Day: When an anti-Vietnam War march brought out squares and students.

From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspapers archive. Its part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Taylor Kate Brown, The Chronicles newsletter editor. Sign up for the newsletter here, and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Taylor at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com.

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When California declared war on cannabis growers and called in the Army - San Francisco Chronicle

The Initiative has been embraced by the local community and the nation as charitable groups and businesses such as Owens Corning roof deployment project, LG, and Goodman Air Conditioning have donated a majority of materials to assist deserving veterans.

SAN DIEGO (PRWEB) July 31, 2020

Highly decorated Vietnam War Veteran Stephen Fanter is the 2020 Semper Solaris Semper Cares Initiative recipient, a company spokesperson announced today.

Mr. Fanter, a Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart honoree, spent a year in the hospital recovering from wounds after his honorable service in Vietnam. Following his recovery, he served his community as a police officer for the City of Los Angeles and then as a Sky Marshall. Later, he dedicated his efforts to battling the war on drugs in San Diego, CA. Mr. Fanter is now retired. "In the 30+ years I have known him, I've not heard him ask for anything," his nominator said.

The founders of Semper Solaris--Kelly Shawhan and John Almond-- started the Semper Cares Initiative project. The Initiative helps veterans and their families handle high energy costs with major home improvements like solar panel installation. The Initiative has been embraced by the local community and the nation as charitable groups and businesses such as Owens Corning roof deployment project, LG, and Goodman Air Conditioning have donated a majority of materials to assist deserving veterans. They've also made commitments to future veteran recipients of the Semper Cares Initiative.

There are a number of past recipients of the Semper Cares Initiative. They are Mark Creighton, an Army veteran who was honorably discharged in 1979; Michael Gallardo, an Army veteran and amputee who served in Iraq; Tony Ybarra, a Navy Corpsman during the Korean War; Antonio Rangel, an Army veteran who served in the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1954; Paul Dugas, a Marine Corp veteran whom the Initiative honored on Veteran's Day in 2018; Povas Miknaitis, a former Marine Corp sniper who was wounded in Iraq by an IED; and Carl Schaffrina, who served in the Navy for 12 years as an Avionics Technician.

Semper Solaris is a El Cajon, CA. based company that performs a number of renewable energy and conservation services. Semper Solaris includes solar panel installation, upkeep and repair, solar panel home battery storage installation, upkeep and repair, roofing and heating and air conditioning services. Semper Solaris has received a number of prestigious awards including the 2019 Solar Installer of the Year. The company is proudly veteran owned and operated. Former Marine Corps Captain and co-owner Kelly Shawhan is passionate about renewable energy and its benefits to his customers. Their impeccable work ethic is inspired by the U.S. Marine Corp motto, Semper Fidelis, which means "always faithful." Employees do their work daily operating from the military values they learned while in their branch of service,

As the cost of grid electricity continues to rise, solar collectors have gained great popularity among homeowners in recent years--especially homeowners in states with a good bit of sunshine. With the use of solar panels to collect the sun's rays and solar batteries to store excess energy, it is possible to operate a home solely on renewable energy. Additionally, as this technology continues to make great strides in development, the cost of the solar equipment has continued to come down and that makes solar panels a more affordable option.

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Highly decorated Vietnam War Veteran Stephen Fanter is the 2020 Semper Solaris Semper Cares Initiative recipient. - PR Web

The release of a long-delayed report on Russian interference in the United Kingdom by the British cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee has inevitably revived the debate about how a democratic state can best resist Moscows meddling.

The trouble is, of course, that political point-scoring and competitive rhetoric quickly dominate such discussions. The Intelligence and Security Committee refused to grapple seriously with whether or not Russian political operations affected the outcome of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum or the 2016 Brexit vote. Along with a general lack of clarity on just how certain sources of potential influence, from oligarchs to trolls, may affect the political system, this means everyone can put their own personal spin on the issue. The risk, then, is that this simply generates a short-term storm of comment, reaching few actionable policy conclusions, that is soon overtaken by the next issue of the moment.

This would be to squander an opportunity. The administration already has a Russia strategy intended to minimize the impact of Russian activities in the short term, while working for a Russia that chooses to co-operate, rather than challenge or confront. The Intelligence and Security Committee is brutal in dissecting what it sees as an uncoordinated process in Whitehall, though, and a lack of clear tactics as to how to advance the strategy, so here are 10 suggestions.

1. Tackle the Oligarch Problem, but First Decide What It Is

Rich Russians have flocked to London, and their wealth buys them a degree of political leverage: Is this a security problem, an ethical challenge, or simply how Britain has always done business? The report raises concerns about the way that the United Kingdom has become a favored destination for rich Russians and their dirty money. Apparently, the veteran parliamentarians of a country that for decades has welcomed the wealthy of the worlds dictatorships and kleptocracies were shocked, shocked to discover that Russian oligarchs no less appreciate the charms of one of the worlds great financial centers combined with one of the worlds great cities.

The report claims that this money is also invested in extending patronage and building influence across a wide sphere of the British establishment. One particular weakness is that the Intelligence and Security Committee gives no examples of how this practice actually influenced the political process, and how the Kremlin may have benefited from this.

Of course, there are close ties between many rich Russians and the Kremlin, just as there are between many rich Chinese expats and the Communist Party, for example. Arguably, this is not a Russian oligarch issue but a wider problem of how money can buy access and leverage, distorting the democratic process on behalf of foreign interests. In this case, it needs to be tackled across the board, addressing everything from media control to political funding.

It would be nice to think of the United Kingdom becoming a superpower of ethics. Lets be honest, though: It prizes its role as a magnet for global assets. Especially while facing the potential economic hit of Brexit, no British government is going to be eager to turn away foreign cash. The priority is going to be to deal with the immediate threat that rich Russians could become Russian President Vladimir Putins lobbyists.

The British government will need the will and the powers to tackle specific cases where Russian money is buying influence at the Kremlins behest. This is a tough problem, which is really in the realm of the intelligence services rather than the police. However, being more cautious about handing out passports to rich Russians (so that they can more easily be deported or excluded) and having a register of foreign agents (criminalizing acting as an instrument of the Kremlin without declaring that role) is a start. In truth, it is no more than that, but for the present it probably represents the most that is politically feasible.

However, we also need to be honest here: Just as welcoming rich Russians into the United Kingdom and allowing them to enjoy all the benefits of a law-based democratic society did not, as the Intelligence and Security Committee notes, lead to reform in Russia, so too cracking down on them now will not put meaningful pressure on the Kremlin. Putin is committed to a personal agenda of great-power politics and building his historical legacy. If some oligarchs have to lose some of the millions they have already been allowed to steal on his watch, he will not be especially concerned.

2. Russian Organized Crime Is Not Just for the Police

The expat Londongrad set has to be seen to work within the law; an even more serious potential threat that needs to be addressed comes from gangsters mobilized as tools of the Kremlin.

In parallel, there needs to be a sharper focus on the aspects of transnational crime that pose a clear and present national security threat. Russian-based organized crime has been used to generate chyornaya kassa funds (black accounts, or deniable and untraceable moneys), carry out assassinations abroad, and even smuggle wanted agents across borders. Most recently, a Georgian Chechen was gunned down in Berlin by what seems to have been a gangster hitman, recruited by Russias Federal Security Service, and an online fraudster accused of stealing up to $2 billion is allegedly being protected by Russian military intelligence. Kremlin outsourcing of its operations to criminals continues unabated.

In the United Kingdom, despite regular rhetorical statements about taking a tough line on Russian criminality, it has in practice been a lower priority for police agencies. There have been several high-profile deaths of Russians but in practice most were probably not murders (allegations of untraceable poisons and carefully contrived fake accidents notwithstanding) and those which were essentially resulted from criminal score-settling. Only two, the murder of defector Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 and attempted killing of turned Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in 2018, have been ascribed to the Kremlin.

The threat appears limited to Russians who themselves were likely involved in questionable activities, and generally driven purely by business interests. To be blunt, for the police, this makes them less of a concern than the gangs directly responsible for public disquiet. As one police officer told me, So long as the Russians are not committing crimes on the streets, were not going to be able to justify putting resources into going after them. Instead, in the United Kingdom, Russian-based gangs largely operate as a facilitator and wholesale supplier behind the more immediately dangerous gangs. However much sense it may make from a public safety perspective to give them a lower priority, because of the wider national security concern, the National Crime Agency needs to be tasked and resourced with giving Russian gangs a harder time.

3. Fight Disinformation Through Demand, not Supply

Information operations continue to be regarded as a serious threat, even if there is still very little evidence that they actually have a major impact on peoples attitudes. At most, these efforts tend to strengthen existing beliefs of whatever shade, although that is not something to be taken lightly when it can push mild dissatisfaction into protest.

Like corruption, though, this is not something exported onto a hapless and helpless nation. You cant bribe an honest official and likewise its hard to get traction on the minds of people who are essentially content with the status quo and who trust their politicians and the mainstream media. The reason there is such an appetite for alternative narratives is that, at present, just as elsewhere in the West, the United Kingdom is going through a legitimacy crisis. Communities that feel alienated and unheard are the natural constituency for information operations peddling alternative answers, conspiracy theories, and bile.

Just as with the struggle against narcotics, its easy to focus on supply rather than demand. Already there are renewed calls for Russian foreign-language TV channel RT to be banned, for example. To be sure, RT does carry blatant propaganda (just as it also carries decent news coverage), but an outlet with just 3,400 viewers at any one time is not a serious threat. Likewise, the fad for myth-busting operations meant to counter fake news is always tempting for governments keen to be seen to act, and bureaucracies that mistake activity for impact, but there is little credible evidence they really work except as part of a wider program.

One clear organizational recommendation in the Intelligence and Security Committee report is that the Security Service (better known as MI5) ought to be responsible for the integrity of the democratic process. The implication is that the challenge comes mainly from hackers and trolls. But this isnt the case, and following this advice would be disastrous. In reality, Britains main problem consists of alienated communities. It would be unwise to basically put MI5 in charge of policing thought crime and news accuracy, let alone media education.

Of course, there should be proper media and social media regulation, but this should not be confined to Russian outlets. Instead, the harder and more important task is to address demand. In part, the answer is media education, and not just for schoolchildren but at every level, including seniors (this doesnt have to be in a classroom: as the fight against cigarettes and drugs has shown, even storylines in soap operas have their role) to create resilience against this problem. It is also a much bigger issue, about closing the trust gap and exploring how well democratic systems originally founded in the 19th-century industrial age work in the postmodern, 21st-century information era. This is, of course, way larger than just being about Russia, but is also a fundamental question that, so long as it is dodged, leaves the United Kingdom and the rest of the West vulnerable to such information operations.

4. Upping Britains Intelligence Game, a Critical and Expensive Task

Information operations are only a small part of the wider Russian active measures (covert political activities) challenge. Many of the more nefarious, involving corruption, blackmail, chyornaya kassa support for subversive political movements and the like are managed or supported by Russias extensive intelligence community. Russia needs to be much more of a focus for both intelligence gathering and counter-intelligence, but this needs to be supported with real funding, not just airy assumptions that it can be covered by working smarter.

Britain needs more and better information about the Kremlins goals and methods, not least to make the strategy to respond to it as effective as possible. Here the Intelligence and Security Committee was critical, highlighting the extent to which MI5, the Secret Intelligence Service (better known as MI6), Defense Intelligence, and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, the British equivalent of the National Security Agency) all scaled down the attention they paid Russia dramatically through the 1990s and 2000s.

One can hardly blame them, as during this time their political masters were demanding they focus on new threats, from jihadist terrorism to China, North Korea to transnational drug cartels. They have also continued to maintain the United Kingdoms status as one of the worlds intelligence superpowers, even though the Single Intelligence Account (the budget for MI5, MI6, and GCHQ) is only around one-twentieth the $85.75 billion the United States will (officially) spend on intelligence this year.

It seems likely that there will be a new Espionage Act to replace the dusty and largely ineffective Official Secrets Act (originally passed in 1911, albeit revised since), including some register of foreign agents in the style of Americas Foreign Agents Registration Act. However, the Intelligence and Security Committee did not call for an increase in spending, instead talking of smarter working and effective co-ordination the usual bureaucratese for doing more with the same.

This is not enough: The suggestion that the intelligence community should be able to mount more effective information-gathering against what is still a hard target like Russia, and also do more to counter aggressive activity from Moscow, and also maintain existing commitments to other problems and challenges all on the same budget is unsustainable. More money for U.K. intelligence will be a sound investment when set against the direct and indirect costs of everything from technological secrets lost to Russian hacking to the political impact of covert influence. These funds will also better position Britain to cope with another increasingly adversarial actor: the Peoples Republic of China.

5. A War with Russia Is Unlikely, but Planning for It Is Critical

In raw terms although these comparisons are as meaningless as they are tempting the U.K. and Russian defense budgets are quite similar. Of course, in real terms, Russias is perhaps three times as large. The United Kingdom does not need to plan to win or deter a one-on-one war with Russia, though, being both part of NATO and also on the other side of Europe. The question becomes, then, how far the Russian challenge ought to inform British defense planning and spending, something that will increasingly also mean cyber security in an age of ubiquitous connectivity and undeclared, ambiguous conflicts. Britain cannot pretend to be able or need to deter Russia itself, but it must stop trying and failing to do everything. Instead, it should make a serious commitment to being able to mount expeditionary operations as part of wider alliances, but to be able to do so in the face of the latest Russian tactics and technologies.

Britain clearly wants to play a credible role within NATO: It already spends a greater proportion of its gross domestic product on defense than most members. It also has particular interests of its own relating to defending its territorial waters and lines of communication to overseas territories, aims that sometimes rub up against Russian operations. Although the planning for the next integrated Strategic Defense and Security Review, due this year, was temporarily paused because of COVID-19, some tough decisions will soon have to be made. As the Royal United Services Institutes Jack Watling wrote, given resource constraints, the United Kingdom will be faced with a stark choice: whether to accelerate and expand the modernisation of its heavy forces, or move away from heavy forces and prioritise the development of resilient reconnaissance and fires.

So far, the government looks inclined toward the latter in order to maintain a credible rapid expeditionary capability, not least as this fits the continued commitment to a Global Britain. Nonetheless, as Moscow sells more and more of its latest kit to buyers around the world, even if they will not be facing Russia, British forces will have to be configured and prepared to fight Russian-equipped and -trained forces. Besides which, as deterrence is anchored on signaling capability and intent, the United Kingdom ought to look willing and able to take on Russian forces. There is, it seems, no escaping the continued centrality of Russia in British military thinking.

6. Cultivate Solidarity by Defending Others

Alliances also matter in responding to non-military challenges. Following the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in 2018, Moscow was surprised and shaken when Britain successfully brokered a campaign of expulsion of 130 suspected Russian spies from 28 states plus NATO. This was a striking and groundbreaking example of international solidarity of a sort that had been sadly absent until then. And since then, for that matter, but if the United Kingdom wants to be able to call on similar support in the future, it has to make preparations now and also be willing to offer it to others, and not be dependent on ad hoc responses. This ought not to be focused on NATO, nor in a time of Brexit the European Union. Rather, it should be a coalition of the willing, perhaps starting with the Anglosphere Five Eyes intelligence partners (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), expressing a willingness collectively to respond to future Russian adventurism.

7. Engagement Is a Weapon Too

The answer to Russian political war intended to divide, distract, and demoralize is generally not to try to fight fire with fire. There is not only a moral high ground to be lost a central element of Putins narrative is that Russia is simply responding to Western subversion but open, democratic societies tend to be more vulnerable to any such active measures arms race. Instead, it is worth considering how the best lessons of the Cold War can be adapted and amplified in the modern age, using soft power to counter Putins dark power.

Although hawks will nod toward historical traditions, or notions that somehow Russians are genetically predisposed to tyranny and aggression, change is not only possible but inevitable. While containing Kremlin aggression and interference, this must be balanced with a sustained and meaningful effort to engage. There is still a strong vein of Anglophilia in Russian culture: encourage and magnify this. Student bursaries, cultural exchanges, extravagant celebrations of historical ties between the two countries (remember: Ivan the Terrible even offered Queen Elizabeth I his blood-stained hand in marriage), all of this will have minimal impact today especially as the Kremlin does what it can to limit them but will reap benefits in the future, when London will be able, rightly, to tell the Russians it never abandoned them.

They have few illusions about their own leaders, so exposing their corruptions and hypocrisies is of limited real value (even though some in the West think this is their magic bullet). More broadly, using the capabilities of the modern media to support Russias brave independent media and also puncture some of the Kremlins lies would accelerate the existing decay of the regimes legitimacy. The BBC still has a powerful brand, and it can be a powerful link to Russians who increasingly get their news online. That does not mean being a propaganda arm it is important to be objective, and that includes highlighting Russian successes, too but rather, along with British academia, a counter to increasingly blatant Kremlin efforts to mobilize todays news and yesterdays history to its ends.

8. Dig in but Stay Optimistic

After all, Britain has more of a Putin problem than a Russia problem.

There can be little hope of truly meaningful improvement of relations with Russia so long as Putin and his cronies continue to govern the country. Previous attempts at resets such as U.S. President Barack Obamas in 2009 have been grandiose exercises in self-deception, as French President Emmanuel Macron will discover, if he goes ahead with a similar outreach of his own. Putins people are the products of a Soviet upbringing, the kleptocracy rooted in the lawless 1990s, and a bitter sense that Russias global status was somehow stolen by the West. It is highly unlikely that they will change.

However, that political generation is getting older. Putin could reign until 2036, but it is not clear that he even wants to or that his health would allow him to do so. The younger political elite, while dutifully echoing the Kremlins anti-Western talking points, show no signs of really being as enthusiastic about a geopolitical crusade. They are more likely to be pragmatic opportunists, who would love to return to the days of being able to steal at home, bank and spend abroad. These days, for anyone but the super-rich, it is harder and harder to travel to the West, let alone move money there, not just because of our controls, but also because the Kremlin is cracking down on capital flight.

The Russian people seem even less consumed by the strident Kremlin propaganda. Surveys show them being much more positive toward Westerners than vice versa. They do not accept the official line that their country is under threat and now that the Crimea effect has worn off show no enthusiasm for foreign adventures. Russia wont become a liberal democracy any time soon, but the United Kingdom can have reasonable relations with all kinds of hybrid reforming or even downright authoritarian states. It is the Kremlins demand for a special status, for a sphere of influence, and for the right to flout international norms and laws that causes the problem, and this is likely to prove very much a product of Putins transitional generation.

9. Know Your Enemy

While there are some able subject-matter experts within various arms of government, and a real and laudable recent effort to deepen the knowledge base within the military, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and other relevant agencies, this comes at the end of a long, sharp decline. There are simply not enough genuine experts, and the lingering influence of the cult of the generalist unkind souls would say of the amateur within the diplomatic service has often meant even those who do invest the time and effort learning Russian and, more importantly, Russia, will move to wholly unconnected postings for the sake of their careers. Back in 2017, Crispin Blunt, chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that the Foreign Offices Russia expertise has disintegrated since the end of the Cold War.

The people who are expected to implement policy ought to understand the country with which they are dealing. That policy ought to be rooted in a detailed, nuanced grasp of the country. Russia is a complex country in transition, still coping with the political and socio-cultural trauma of the end of empire and great-power status. Too often the country and even its leadership are rendered down to some oversimplified clich: mafia state, new tsarism, new Soviet Union, tyranny, whatever. Policy rooted in any such caricature, stripped of the necessary nuance and context, will be fruitless at best, dangerous at worst.

It also contributes to what might be considered a failure of tone, something which is by no means confined to the United Kingdom. The days of speak softly but carry a big stick seem to have been replaced by hector loudly, while waving a small twig. Russia, still coming to terms with its reduced status, is at times also ridiculously prickly and acutely conscious of slights to its dignity. Of course, it has practical and political ambitions, but also is run by human beings who desperately crave respect. It is possible to push back against Kremlin aggression and adventurism even while treating it with that respect, whether it means giving full credit to the Soviet soldiers and citizens who fell in World War II (not for nothing do they still call it the Great Patriotic War) or not repeating the calamitous blunder of dismissing Russia as a mere regional power. Manner and manners, idiom, and tone matter in international relations, especially when dealing with such a personalistic system where a relative handful of individuals call the shots.

10. Make Strategy Matter Again

The Intelligence and Security Committee complained that its investigation has led us to question who is responsible for broader work against the Russian threat and whether those organisations are sufficiently empowered to tackle a hostile state threat such as Russia. This is a fair point. However, the document is much more comfortable making critiques than proposing remedies beyond the aforementioned one about MI5.

If the cross-Whitehall Russia strategy is to mean anything, then the question becomes how to ensure that it genuinely drives policy across the breadth of government. This is in many ways a test case of successive administrations glib rhetoric about joined-up government or all-of-government responses. The strategy is in the hands of the National Security Strategy Implementation Group for Russia, which brings together 14 different departments and agencies under the chair of the Russia Unit in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Much has been done to involve stakeholders in discussions, but in at least some cases, the sense has been which is, of course, code for the gossip I have heard from different quarters that participants treated this as an opportunity to advance their own departmental interests, or simply to make a show of participation. The strategy needs to have teeth, and it is open to discussion whether those of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are sharp enough. If not, either they need honing or the Cabinet Office ought to be responsible for, if not running the group, at least playing a role as its genteel leg-breaker, given that this is arguably its main function in Whitehall.

The point is, after all, that all this matters. It matters not just in terms of the challenge from Moscow which, after all, needs to be taken seriously, but not exaggerated but also because the skills, policies, attitudes, and strategy adopted today are likely to be needed to face rather more problematic threats tomorrow. As China moves into the wolf warrior diplomacy phase of its rise, Britain might even want to thank the Kremlin for the early wake-up call and opportunity to build these capabilities.

MarkGaleotti is an honorary professor at University College London and a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Image: President of Russia

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Ten Suggestions for a 'Russia Strategy' for the United Kingdom - War on the Rocks