MANILA - The Philippines is looking for other bilateral partners after it halted negotiations for loan agreements with 18 governments that supported a UN investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

This despite Malacaang's earlier statement that rejecting loans and grants from those backing Iceland's call for an inquiry into the drug war would have no effect on the economy.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has directed the agency's International Finance Group to review affected projects and find other sources of assistance, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Sunday.

We are currently in exploratory talks with our other bilateral partners on how they can assist the Philippine government in funding the grants that were previously under negotiation but were suspended on orders of the President," he said in a statement.

Dominguez emphasized that Malacaang's order to suspend negotiations of loan agreement "does not mean a permanent cancellation of the talks."

It only meant a deferment pending the assessment of the Philippines relations with the 18 countries, which would be done by the Department of Foreign Affairs, according to the DOF.

The department said only a 21 million-euro "small project loan" from France for the Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit and a Germany-funded program worth $36 million were affected.

The Philippines has found a substitution for France's loan, while it was still looking for a donor for the German program, the DOF said.

Existing loans and grants with a total of $197.03 million would not be affected by the President's orders, it added.

Of this figure, $172.4 million was from Australia, $4.8 million from Italy, $1.11 million from Spain, $9.74 million from France, and $8.98 million from Germany.

Department of Finance, DOF, Rodrigo Duterte, foreign aid, UN, United Nations, Iceland

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PH seeks other bilateral partners after shunning aid from anti-drug war nations - ABS-CBN News

The Pacific Northwest likes to read, and what better way to get book suggestions than to ask around? In this monthly feature, we ask prominent Northwest residents what books theyre reading, rereading and recommending and why.

This month: Longtime Metropolitan King County CouncilmemberLarry GossettandGirmay Zahilay, who is running against Gossett in the November general election, share their literary picks.

What book are you reading now?

The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson.

What book have you reread the most?

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

What book do you recommend other people read and why?

I recommend people read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates because of his knowledge and strong analysis of race relations in the U.S. His book inspires people of all backgrounds, it has sold millions of copies and remains a popular read.

compiled by David Gutman

What book are you reading now?

I recently started reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond.

What book have you reread the most?

My honest answer is the Harry Potter series. I am not ashamed.

What book do you recommend other people read and why?

Everyone, especially those who want to shape policy, should read The New Jim Crow. I have had friends in my life who didnt understand race, racism and the state of our country until they read this book. Michelle Alexander, the author, draws a clear line from slavery, to Jim Crow, to the war on drugs and mass incarceration and how each is a form of social control based on race. Its an illuminating book and a great first step for understanding institutional racism and shaping just policies.

compiled by Marcus Green

Continue reading here:

What influential locals are reading right now: Larry Gossett and Girmay Zahilay - The Seattle Times

CARACAS Venezuela once had one of the best health systems on the continent. Now, after years of economic and political crisis, its barely able to contain the spread of infectious diseases that were previously controlled or completely eradicated.

It's hard to say how bad the situation really is, since the country has not released any health data since 2014. But cases of malaria have more than tripled, according to The Pan American Health Organization, while diseases like Chagas, spread by a parasite that can cause heart failure, are appearing in urban areas where it was previously unheard of.

Basic supplies like needles and gloves are also constantly in shortage, and drugs often have to be shipped from neighboring countries like Colombia. Vaccines, too, are scarce.

To help the situation, doctors and medical students have filled in where the governments long been absent, providing critical treatment to people who have little to no access to specialists and gathering data to get a clearer picture of the current crisis.

But its not just Venezuelas problem anymore. With over 4 million Venezuelans having fled the country since 2014, their needs are overwhelming neighboring countries as well.

"Before, we exported oil. Now unfortunately we are exporting diseases, said Dr. Jos Felix Oletta, who was Minister of Health before Hugo Chvez came to power. Now we have the re-emergence of these diseases that are a risk for our population but also a challenge for the continent.

Cover: Dr. Hernn Carrasco and his team inspect blood samples from kissing bugs at the at the Tropical Medicine Institute, in Caracas. Dr. Carrscos research focuses on mapping the state of Chagas disease in Venezuela. (Credit: Ramn Campos Iriarte)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

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Venezuelas Losing Its War on Infectious Diseases - VICE

MANSFIELD Nearly 40 years ago, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse public enemy number one."

Since then, law enforcement has been engaged in a war on drugs across the nation and abroad. Battles are now being fought by multiple agencies across Ohio with the common goal to protect and defend their homes and communities from this very real threat. State and local law enforcement agencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Ohio National Guard have all joined forces to combat what has developed into an opioid epidemic at home.

In the state of Ohio, our guard members are at law enforcement agencies doing criminal analysis as well as civil operators providing prevention and education support to community based organizations across the state, said Maj. Ryan McMaster, 179th Airlift Wing intelligence officer, who also currently serves as the Ohio National Guard Counter drug coordinator. We have about 40 folks participating in these activities across the state.

Ohio has been heavily struck by the opioid epidemic that has devastated the nation, stealing loved ones from families and tearing apart communities. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Ohio ranked second in highest rate of drug overdose deaths involving opioids in the United States in 2017.

The Ohio National Guard counter-drug personnel assigned to the Cleveland DEA office have been a tremendous asset to the DEA intelligence unit, said James Goodwin, resident agent in charge of the Cleveland DEA District Office. They enhance our capabilities and our resources and they bring their experience in the military and the National Guard to working law enforcement projects.

Since 2017, numerous agencies throughout Ohio have worked tirelessly to combat this disastrous epidemic, and have had success in their work. Ohios opiate overdoses declined 22 percent from the national average in 2018, and the future for stopping this opiate epidemic is looking brighter thanks to individuals who dedicate their lives to ending this epidemic.

DEA Cleveland strives to not only react and combat drug abuse, but has an emphasis to also be proactive and raise awareness through public awareness campaigns within Northeast Ohio due to opioid abuse and overdoses.

The DEA has been able to call on professionals who are trained in multiple skill sets, some of which are members from the 179th Airlift Wing who have acquired their skill sets either in professional military training settings or their college education provided to them by the Ohio National Guard Scholarship program.

Among the Airmen working with the DEA is Senior Airman Michael Early, an operations intelligence analyst. Even though Early has only worked for the DEA a short period of time, he has seen the impact it has on the community.

Growing up I started to see people that I knew or people I went to school with overdosing, said Early. Working here and seeing all that data and the lists of people who have overdosed fatal or non-fatal, has really put into perspective how important the work we do here is because its actually making an impact on not just the community, but the community I live in.

Another area the Counterdrug Task Force supports is the Crime Strategies Unit at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office.

The CSU is committed to understanding the nature of the crimes facing our communities, said Eleina Thomas, managing attorney of the CSU at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. We are invested in identifying the crime drivers in each community.

The mission of the CSU is to harness the collective resources of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office to develop and implement intelligence-driven prosecution strategies that address crime issues and target priority offenders.

Through these partnerships, the Ohio National Guard directly supports criminal investigations connected to the illegal drug nexus.

Tech. Sgt. Michael Hilliard, operations intelligence specialist at the 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield, Ohio, and criminal analyst with the Ohio National Guard Counterdrug Task Force, actually works part-time at both the Cleveland DEA office and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office CSU.

These agencies are already cooperating, Hilliard said. I just happen to have a foot in both worlds to help from both sides.

There is definitely a connection between violent crime and drugs, said Thomas, so it has been beneficial having Hilliard at the prosecutors office.

Hes been able to bridge the gap between our office, the DEA, as well as the local law enforcement narcotics units, said Thomas. He is able to look at our cases here and see what the connections are to current investigations. Weve been able to suggest proffering certain individuals based on the information that Hilliard has discovered.

Hilliard said he is able to help law enforcement, from the beginning, identify individuals responsible and directly see that impact.

Everything from the initial, we think this person or phone is responsible, to identifying that person and actually locking them up, said Hilliard. Thats probably the best feeling, when you get someone off the streets that you know has been related to fatal and nonfatal overdoses.

Staff Sgt. Carolyn Kinzel, C-130 Loadmaster with the 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield, Ohio, and Ohio Air National Guard Counterdrug Task Force criminal analyst with the Cleveland DEA, is making an impact with her training from Ohio University in Geospatial Sciences.

Although Kinzel is a criminal analyst and works very hard to help identify and arrest drug dealers, she is also making an impact assisting the civil operators role in public health, education and prevention.

We cant just arrest our way out of this drug fight and opioid epidemic, McMaster said. We have to find innovative ways to educate and prevent drugs from coming into the hands of our youth so thats a part of the civil operators role.

Law enforcement strives to remove drugs from our communities but after 40 years of attacking the sources and dealers, its evident the addicted continue to find a way to use. Law enforcement is making efforts to protect these habitual users from accidental overdose of fentanyl, a drug many users are unaware is being mixed in to their otherwise familiar habit.

Fentanyl is a powerful, synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin, said Kinzel. Unbeknownst to users, some dealers are mixing fentanyl with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA. This is because of entanyls high potency, it takes very little to produce a high, making it a cheaper option for the dealers. In doing so, this leads to unintentional overdoses.

One of Kinzels most recent accomplishments through her work has touched the community of Cleveland, potentially saving 15,000 to 20,000 lives from accidental fentanyl overdoses.

Cleveland City Police Department had access to approximately 15,000 to 20,000 fentanyl test stripes, which gives users the ability to test their drugs for Fentanyl before consuming, potentially saving their lives. The police provided Kinzel with their overdose data, and from that she created a map that identified over 100 businesses that were in areas ranked high in overdoses to effectively place the test strips.

I jumped on this opportunity to exercise my mapping skills from my degree, I was happy to use something I studied in college to impact the community in a direct way," said Kinzel. We are directly affecting the population that needs the most help, he people who havent gotten treatment and are still addicted. Using the map that I created, we can give them these tools.

Hilliard is from Northeast Ohio, so he has the privilege of working with counterdrug in an area where he grew up. He is trying to give back and contribute to the community.

We have ways to help our community and citizens of the state beyond our one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, said Hilliard. Its not always about deploying somewhere else or hurricane and emergency response. This is an additional way that we can help the community.

Our content is free and always will be - but we rely on your support to sustain it.

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179th Airmen make impact on Opioid Epidemic | Thrive - Richland Source

Screengrab via The Department of Psychiatry at Columbia UniversityDr. Herbert Kleber pictured in March 2014.

Dr. Herbert Kleber is the famed psychiatrist who is featured in the Google Doodle on October 1. He is hailed for his pioneering work in the field of addiction treatment, and he discovered new methods to treat individuals with heroin, cocaine, prescription, alcohol, or marijuana problems. October 1st would have been the 23rd anniversary of Klebers election to the National Academy of Medicine.

During his 50-year career, Dr. Kleber authored hundreds of articles, wrote important books, and mentored numerous other medical professionals in the field of addiction treatment, Google states. A self-described perpetual optimist, Dr. Kleber changed the landscape of addiction treatment, allowing patients to be diagnosed and treated rather than shamedand saving countless lives in the process.

Heres what you need to know about Dr. Herbert Kleber:

Kleber was born on June 19, 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mother raised bonds, while his father ran a family luggage business called Kleber Trunk and Bag. The business specialized in manufacturing soldiers footlockers during World War II. Klebers father had trained to be a pharmacist earlier his life, and he encouraged his son to take up medicine from an early age.

According to the Center on Addiction, Klebers father pushed for him to attend Dartmouth College so he could study pre-med. Much to his fathers chagrin, however, Kleber questioned his career path during his sophomore year, and considered switching over to study literature and philosophy instead.

Klebers father urged him to continue studying medicine for another year before officially changing paths. Ultimately, a psychology class inspired Kleber to remain pre-med, and he graduated from Dartmouth in 1956. Kleber then enrolled in Jefferson Medical College, which is based out of Philadelphia. Whilst there, he was frequently teased by peers and faculty members for his desire to study psychology over real medicine.

Kleber completed his residency at Yale University in 1964, during which time he volunteered for the Public Health Service. He expected to be sent to the National Institute of Health, given his experience as a researcher, but he was eventually sent to the Public Health Service Prison Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. The hospitalwas specifically designed to serve patients with substance abuse issues, and its mission was to understand the hows and whys of drug addiction, rehabilitate persons addicted to drugs completely, and find a permanent cure.

Its during this time that Kleber is introduced to addiction treatment. He not only familiarized himself with the field, but he determined that most of the contemporary approaches were not very effective and that new approaches to treatment were desperately needed. He also discovered that 90 percent of patients relapse within three months of their treatment.

Kleber was hesitant to enter the field of addiction treatment at first, but he felt that strides needed to be made. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to treat addiction, he said during a 2015 oral history. Once you had been at Lexington, you were a marked man. Addicts who wanted help, doctors who wanted someone to refer to, parents worried about their childrenFinally, after a year or so of that I said, Well, maybe its fate.

Kleber joined the Yale Psychiatry staff in 1966, and began to make notable strides in the field of addiction treatment. He described his method as evidence-based treatment, and saw addiction as a medical condition rather than a moral shortcoming. He stressed the importance of research, according to Google, and felt that recovering patients should have access to medication and therapeutic communities.

Kleber founded the Drug Dependence Unit at Yale University in 1968, where he would reside for the next two decades. He stepped down in 1989, when President George H. Bush named him the Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. During his tenure, Kleber focused on prevention programs, as well as increasing the education and treatment of addiction.

New York Times reports that Kleber left the position after two and a half years. He was frustrated that most of the money that was earmarked for the nations war on drugs was being given to law enforcement and not to treatment. It reminds me of that cartoon, he said upon resigning. This king is slamming his fist on the table, saying, If all my horses and all my men cant put Humpty Dumpty together again, then what I need is more horses and more men.

Kleber continued to push for addiction treatment that was accessible to the masses. He partnered up with Joseph A. Califano, Jr. to create the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse in 1992. Califano was the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and he felt that Kleber was a drug expert with impeccable credentials. Today, the organization is simply known as the Center on Addiction.

Kleber then partnered with his second wife, Dr. Marian W. Fischman, to establish the Division on Substance Abuse at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. It was here that he helped develop medications and techniques to treat addiction, as well as different psycho-social approaches. The Division on Substance Abuse has since become one of the largest research programs on substance abuse in the country.

Kleber had his greatest honor bestowed upon him in 1996. On October 1, he waselected to be a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science. Five years later, he was added to the board of directors of Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

Kleber died of a heart attack on October 5, 2018, when he was vacationing with his family in Greece. He was 84 years old. Kleber married three times during his lifetime, with the first being to his college sweetheart Joan Fox in 1956. They had three children together before divorcing in 1986. Kleber went on to marry Dr. Marian Fischman, and they worked alongside each other until her death in 2001. Kleber met his third and final wife, Anne Burlock Lawver, in 2004.

Even after his death, Kleber continues to be hailed as a pioneer in the field of addiction treatment. He was at the vanguard of bringing scientific rigor to the area of addiction, said Dr. Frances R. Levin, director of the division on substance use disorders at Columbia University Medical Center. Things were actually tested. There were placebo control trials. He wasnt the only one, but he was among the first to give credibility to the field.

Joseph A. Califano, Jr. issued a statement after Klebers death, and he credited him with saving thousands of lives. His legacy will be the trained generations of professionals who will carry on his work and the thousands of lives that have been saved, Califano wrote.

READ NEXT: Teenage Porn Star Controversy Rocks California High School

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Herbert Kleber: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know - Heavy.com

Brooke Skylar Richardson of Ohio was charged with aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangering, and gross abuse of a corpse after giving birth to a baby she says was stillborn and burying it in her yard in 2017, when she was an 18-year-old high-school student. She was acquitted of all charges after an eight-day trial this September.

In June, Marshae Jones faced charges for manslaughter in Alabama after being shot in the stomach and experiencing a miscarriage. Police said they pressed charges because Jones, a black woman, had allegedly started the fight that led to her injuries. (Those charges were later dropped after a public outcry.)

In 2018, Keysheonna Reed in Wisconsin faced charges for two counts of abuse of a corpse after she buried the fetuses of her stillborn twins.

And one year before Reed, Katherine Dellis, a 26-year-old Virginia woman, was convicted and briefly jailed for concealing a dead body after she, too, experienced a stillbirth.

Each of these women faced criminal charges after they say they had a miscarriage or stillbirth experiences that are often traumatic in their own right.

"You have a living, breathing pregnant person who's had a loss and is now being treated as a criminal," said Dr. Monica McLemore, an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department at the University of California, San Francisco, and a clinician-scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH).

Dr. McLemore believes the criminalization of miscarriage emerges from a culture that insists pregnant people are exclusively responsible for the outcomes of their pregnancies. "We act like they don't live in environments that contribute to those outcomes," she said. "And as a result, we see criminalization and punitive measures meant to control women and pregnant people, instead of an appropriate, compassionate public health response."

To Dr. McLemore's point, some advocates have called for us to rethink the word "miscarriage" itself, as the word could advance stigma by suggesting the pregnant person somehow "failed" to carry their pregnancy to term. The conversation has been championed by public figures including actor James Van Der Beek, who has previously spoken about facing three miscarriages with his wife. As he put it: "'Mis-carriage,' in an insidious way, suggests fault for the mother as if she dropped something, or failed to 'carry'."

According to Dr. McLemore, women facing criminal charges for the outcome of their pregnancies isn't new and is part of a broader, dangerous trend that disproportionately impacts women of color and black women, in particular. Pregnant black women are significantly more likely to face criminalization for the outcomes of their pregnancies over alleged drug use. "From the War on Drugs, we saw black women, pregnant black women especially, targeted, and it's an attempt to minimize and attack people who needed public assistance and welfare, not protect them," she said.

The criminalization of miscarriage has become an especially salient topic today amid an uptick in proposed and passed abortion bans in states like Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and others. What authors of these abortion bans nearly all of whom lack backgrounds in health and medicine have failed to address, or perhaps consider, is that there is no way to differentiate between a pregnancy that ends through medical abortion versus miscarriage. In 2015, almost a third of all abortions were at-home, self-medicated abortions. This means that laws banning abortion could effectively criminalize miscarriage or, at the very least, open the door for state surveillance of the private lives of all women and pregnant people.

"In the last six or so years now, with self-managed abortion on the rise, we've faced the increased question of whether it would be criminalized," said Jill Adams, executive director of If/When/How. If/When/How is an organization that aims to advance reproductive justice and reclaim how the law interacts with reproductive oppression through advocacy, organizing, training, support, and litigation through its network of lawyers.

According to Adams, the rise of self-managed abortion has emerged for several reasons, from the decline of physical abortion clinics in states across the country to personal preference, as many women feel safer having their abortions at home. However, increased self-managed abortion rates have also come with increased suspicion attached to women who experience miscarriage, Adams said. In several documented cases, healthcare workers and social workers have reported women who have lost their pregnancies to law enforcement.

"We know of at least 21 arrests related to people potentially inducing their own abortions since 2005. But of course, we suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg, not accounting for cases of charges dropped, plea bargains, and more," Adams said.

However, as Adams also noted, the laws that have led to several disproportionately women of color facing criminal charges and even jail time in recent years are not explicitly related to abortion care, but feticide. Thirty-eight states have feticide laws that were written with the explicit intention of protecting pregnant women from domestic violence. Such measures are certainly necessary: according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide. Yet in several documented cases, feticide laws have actually been used to target pregnant women for the outcomes of their pregnancies. In Indiana alone, two women Purvi Patel (in 2015) and Bei Bei Shuai (in 2011) were charged with feticide and sentenced to years in jail. Patel was charged after allegedly inducing an abortion, while Shuai was charged after surviving a suicide attempt that ended her 33-week pregnancy.

This disparate, dangerous policing of the bodies and pregnancies of women of color, along with LGBTQ+ people, is one more example of how they are disproportionately surveilled and targeted, according to Adams: "Suspicion around their pregnancies [and] increased likelihood of them being prosecuted and facing sentences extend from this."

Miscarriage and abortion are both highly stigmatized in our culture and our politics. Both experiences are also deeply, inextricably entwined when it comes to how they are increasingly being monitored, criminalized, and prosecuted in our legal system. In the wake of an escalating wave of abortion bans and other restrictive laws policing reproductive decision-making, Adams said that even if legislation is not "immediately, directly" implemented, it has the potential to shape the court of public opinion.

"Laws restricting reproductive rights tend to confuse people and foment stigma and antipathy toward people who have abortions which translates to stigma and suspicion around all people who lose their pregnancies," Adams said. She said connecting the legal, political, and cultural dots is key when it comes to addressing these laws and the people they target. "The more stigma, the more people who lose their pregnancies will be treated with suspicion . . . especially people of color, low-income people, and LGBTQ+ people."

Originally posted here:

How Antiabortion Laws Put Women Who Miscarry in Their Crosshairs - POPSUGAR

by Soleil Gaylord and Pierce Wilson | 10/1/19 2:15am

Sanders was the last of the major Democratic presidential candidates to have visited Dartmouth this past year.

A crowd of over 1,000 students and community members flocked to the Bema on Sunday evening to watch Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speak about issues including climate change, gun control, healthcare, taxes and wages.

Sanders, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont, is the last of the major Democratic candidates to visit Dartmouth in the past year.

After being introduced by Arjun Shreekumar, a campaign field organizer, and Sunpreet Singh 20, Sanders, stationed amongst statuesque pines, began with a direct appeal to the audience.

We need an unprecedented campaign to win, and we need an unprecedented presidency to do what has to be done, and I intend to do all of that and more, Sanders said.

Sanders briefly touched on President Donald Trump, emphasizing that he didnt want to spend a lot of time on him. However, he also discussed the importance of impeachment, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and fellow Republicans to have the courage to stand up to Trump and to follow through with a Senate trial after House impeachment proceedings conclude. He also asked his Republican colleagues to put the future of America ahead of their short-term political interest.

Sanders expressed concern at the United States growing wealth gap and proposed strategies for resolving growing inequality a plan he described as the strongest that any presidential candidate has ever offered. Sanders additionally mentioned his support for public funding of elections, increasing the minimum wage, strengthening union membership and overturning the landmark Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Amid a particularly enthusiastic round of student applause, Sanders described his plans to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and to cancel all student debt in America.

An additional cornerstone of the Sanders campaign is single-payer, universal Medicare a system in which premiums, copayments, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses would be covered by the government.

Whether you are rich, whether you are poor, whether you are middle-class, you have a right to go to the doctor when you need to, regardless of your income, Sanders said.

Sanders said that he plans to fund this health care program from a general tax base, a payment method that he said would lead to cheaper health care and a reduction in the strength of the health care industry in the long term.

Sanders also addressed mounting climate change concerns, denouncing Trump for his disregard of the issue. With environmental policy reform another pivotal aspect of his campaign, Sanders described plans to retrofit buildings, electrify transport systems and invest in renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal.

On the issue of criminal justice reform, Sanders urged members of the crowd to ask [themselves] why we have more people in jail than a communist authority country four times our size like China and why the people incarcerated were predominantly Black, Latinx and Native American.

To address the issue, Sanders discussed proposals such as investing in education, ending the War on Drugs, abolishing private prisons and legalizing marijuana which elicited cheers from the crowd. Sanders added that, in addition to legalizing marijuana, he plans to expunge the criminal records of those incarcerated on marijuana charges.

Continuing on the note of social justice, Sanders once again mentioned Trump, calling him a racist president who is trying to demonize the undocumented.

He then called for comprehensive immigration reform, which he said included support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy and the development of a humane border policy.

Sanders then moved to the issue of abortion rights, arguing that many of his Republican colleagues in Congress want to get the government off of the back of the American people, except when it comes to a womans right to control her own body. He added that he would never nominate anyone to the Supreme Court who was not in favor of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Next, Sanders spoke about the issue of gun control. He assured the crowd there was widespread support across the country for more thorough background checks, bringing an end to loopholes and banning assault weapons. He added that this support was not being realized in Congress because Republican leadership is intimidated by the National Rifle Association.

Youre looking at someone who, as president, will not be scared by the NRA, he said.

Anna Byrd 23, who attended the event, described the rally as fun and informative. She added that Sanders views on gun violence and gun ownership had been inconsistent in the past, but said that hearing his support for gun control was a positive.

Other students expressed similar positive sentiments. Spencer Keating 23 said that after the rally he was feeling pretty good about Bernie.

Bill Bender 04, a Vermont resident, said that he and his wife were grateful to be in the presence of a politician whom they admire, and that although they hope to vote for Sanders in the general election, they plan to support whomever the Democratic nominee is in next years presidential election.

According to a recent poll conducted by Monmouth University, Sanders trails Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former vice president Joe Biden (D) in support among voters likely to participate in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.

Before the event, Sanders met with the Dartmouth Community against Gender Harassment and Sexual Violence. In his talk with DCGHSV, Sanders affirmed his support for survivors and policies that would bring an end to sexual harassment and sexual violence, according to DCGHSV founder Diana Whitney 95.

Dartmouth College Democrats executive director Michael Parsons 20 said that the Sanders campaign reached out to the College Democrats, who chose the Bema as the events location because of the large number of people expected to attend.

According to Carli Stevenson, New Hampshire deputy communications director for Sanders campaign, the official recorded attendance for the event was 1,052, which was nearly double the expected turnout of 600. Stevenson said that although previous Sanders events on campus have been held indoors, she thought that the Bema gave the event a sort of Bernie in the pines feel.

Link:

'Bernie in the pines': Sanders rally draws large crowd to Bema - The Dartmouth

Americas War on Drugs is an immersive trip through the last five decades, uncovering how the CIA, obsessed with keeping America safe in the fight against communism, allied itself with the mafia and foreign drug traffickers. In exchange for support against foreign enemies, the groups were allowed to grow their drug trade in the United States. The series explores the unintended consequences of when gangsters, war lords, spies, outlaw entrepreneurs, street gangs and politicians vie for power and control of the global black market for narcotics all told through the firsthand accounts of former CIA and DEA officers, major drug traffickers, gang members, noted experts and insiders.Night one of Americas War on Drugs divulges covert Cold War operations that empowered a generation of drug traffickers and reveals the peculiar details of secret CIA LSD experiments which helped fuel the counter-culture movement, leading to President Nixons crackdown and declaration of a war on drugs. The documentary series then delves into the rise of the cocaine cowboys, a secret island cocaine base, the CIAs connection to the crack epidemic, the history of the cartels and their murderous tactics, the era of Just Say No, the negative effect of NAFTA, and the unlikely career of an almost famous Midwest meth queen.The final chapter of the series examines how the attacks on September 11th intertwined the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, transforming Afghanistan into a narco-state teeming with corruption. It also explores how American intervention in Mexico helped give rise to El Chapo and the Super Cartels, bringing unprecedented levels of violence and sending even more drugs across Americas borders. Five decades into the War on Drugs, a move to legalize marijuana gains momentum, mega-corporations have become richer and more powerful than any nations drug cartel, and continuing to rise is the demand for heroin and other illegal drugs.

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America's War on Drugs Full Episodes, Video & More | HISTORY

War on Drugs, the effort in the United States since the 1970s to combat illegal drug use by greatly increasing penalties, enforcement, and incarceration for drug offenders.

The War on Drugs began in June 1971 when U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be public enemy number one and increased federal funding for drug-control agencies and drug-treatment efforts. In 1973 the Drug Enforcement Agency was created out of the merger of the Office for Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and the Office of Narcotics Intelligence to consolidate federal efforts to control drug abuse.

The War on Drugs was a relatively small component of federal law-enforcement efforts until the presidency of Ronald Reagan, which began in 1981. Reagan greatly expanded the reach of the drug war and his focus on criminal punishment over treatment led to a massive increase in incarcerations for nonviolent drug offenses, from 50,000 in 1980 to 400,000 in 1997. In 1984 his wife, Nancy, spearheaded another facet of the War on Drugs with her Just Say No campaign, which was a privately funded effort to educate schoolchildren on the dangers of drug use. The expansion of the War on Drugs was in many ways driven by increased media coverage ofand resulting public nervousness overthe crack epidemic that arose in the early 1980s. This heightened concern over illicit drug use helped drive political support for Reagans hard-line stance on drugs. The U.S. Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which allocated $1.7 billion to the War on Drugs and established a series of mandatory minimum prison sentences for various drug offenses. A notable feature of mandatory minimums was the massive gap between the amounts of crack and of powder cocaine that resulted in the same minimum sentence: possession of five grams of crack led to an automatic five-year sentence while it took the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine to trigger that sentence. Since approximately 80% of crack users were African American, mandatory minimums led to an unequal increase of incarceration rates for nonviolent black drug offenders, as well as claims that the War on Drugs was a racist institution.

Concerns over the effectiveness of the War on Drugs and increased awareness of the racial disparity of the punishments meted out by it led to decreased public support of the most draconian aspects of the drug war during the early 21st century. Consequently, reforms were enacted during that time, such as the legalization of recreational marijuana in a number of states and the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 that reduced the discrepancy of crack-to-powder possession thresholds for minimum sentences from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. While the War on Drugs is still technically being waged, it is done at much less intense level than it was during its peak in the 1980s.

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War on Drugs | United States history | Britannica.com

Libertarians believe that the War on Drugsisineffective, unfair, and immoral. We advocateending it.

The War on Drugs is ineffective at limiting access to dangerous drugs and, instead, empowers dangerous gangs that make incredible fortunes on the black market for these illegal drugs.

The War on Drugs has imprisoned millions of non-violent people. This is unfair to these people and also uses up resources that would be better spent prosecuting and imprisoning people who are violent.

The War on Drugs is largely responsible for the militarization of police forces in America. It has pitted police against citizens and this is unfair to both. Police need to be able to focus onprotecting the American public from violent offenders and fraud.

Lastly, Libertarians believe that it is immoral for the government to dictate which substances a person is permitted to consume, whether it is alcohol, tobacco, herbal remedies, saturated fat, marijuana, etc. These decisions belong to individual people, not the government.

Because of all of these things, Libertarians advocate ending the War on Drugs.

For more information on the pro-liberty approach on this topic, we invite you to watch the following videos from Learn Liberty:

Continue reading here:

War on Drugs | Libertarian Party

Once in a long while comes a book that changes the way we look at a particular issue.

World War-D aspires to be such a book; it changes the way we think about the war on drugs, pulling it out of the ideological and moralist morass where it has been enmeshed from the onset, turning things on their heads or I should say, back on their feet.

World War-D re-centers and refocuses the issue around a simple but fundamental question: Can organized societies do a better job than organized crime at managing and controlling psychoactive substances? I obviously think they can, and I explain why and how.

World War-D is the first book to bring one of the most contentious issues of our time to the mainstream in a comprehensive but accessible way, without being simplistic. It examines all the facets of the issue from a global perspective, repositioning it into the wider and more relevant context of psychoactive substances.

Word War-D offers a reasoned critic of the prohibitionist model and its underlying ideology with its historical and cultural background. It clearly demonstrates that prohibition is the worst possible form of control, as the so-called controlled substances are effectively out of control; or rather, they are controlled by the underworld, at a staggering and ever-growing human, social, economic and geopolitical cost to the world.

Word War-D is the first book to tackle the issue of legalization head-front, offering a pragmatic, practical, and realistic roadmap to global controlled re-legalization of production, distribution and use of psychoactive substances under a multi-tiers legalize, tax, control, prevent, treat and educate regime with practical and efficient mechanisms to manage and minimize societal costs. Far from giving up, and far from an endorsement, controlled legalization would be finally growing up; being realistic instead of being in denial; being in control instead of leaving control to the underworld. It would abolish the current regime of socialization of costs and privatization of profits to criminal enterprises, depriving them of their main source of income and making our world a safer place.

102 years after the launch of global drug prohibition, 40 years after the official declaration of the war on drugs, one year before the Mexican and US presidential elections where the legalization debate will be one of the major issues, World War D is timely and long overdue, as its topic is rapidly moving from fringe lunacy to the mainstream. A growing wave of support for drug policy reform is rising throughout the world; the war on drugs failure is being denounced across the board, from church groups to retired law enforcement, to the NAACP, to Kofi Annan, George Shultz, Paul Volcker and a string of former Latin American and European heads of state.

The book is intended for an international audience and aims to be a major contribution to the war on drugs debate.

Gustavo de Grieff was Attorney General of Colombia and oversaw the capture of Pablo Escobar and the surrender of the Cali Cartel;Gustavo de Grieffis one of the very few high level officials whocalled for legalization while he was in office:

I find that you have written one of the best books on the drug problem that I have read (and I have read more than thirty books on that subject). For example, your history of prohibition in part 1 is without any doubt the best I have ever read.your chapters on possible legalization and regulation and on your counter arguments against it are excellent and I subscribe to them entirely.

LEAPfounder and Chairman,Jack Cole:

It is a very good read and already I can say a very important work. You did a fantastic job. It is up there with the very best drug policy books.

Arthur Torsone, author ofHerb Trader:

I believe your book will be extremely helpful to those who have the power to reverse the existing draconian drug laws. Hopefully your book will be a road map to a sane conclusion.

When the rulers of our land eventuality exchange prisons for medical clinics the bible hand book that will be used to EDUCATE the citizen in need of help should be your book. It shows how and why we humans react as we do to outside substances.

Im still blown away by the incredible amount of detailed information you have, what an extraordinary work of literature you have here, congratulations.

Santiago Roel, Crime Prevention consultant pioneering government reform in Mexico since 1991. Author, lecturer http://www.prominix.com:

It is a thorough and well-documented compilation, a global overview of all the issues revolving around the war on drugs, prohibitionism and psychoactive substances. It offers a methodical, well-argued and compelling case against prohibitionism and a realistic and pragmatic roadmap to global legalization. Anyone genuinely interested in understanding this failed war and its negative impact on the World should begin by reading this book.

John P., typesetter, while working on book layout:

I am fairly amazed by the content, as I read pieces; this is impressive. There is nothing out there like that.

While working on my project back in November 2010, I established contact with formerUNODCchief Antonio Maria Costa. Underneath are some of Mr Costas replies to my correspondence:

I just do not get all this insistence on war on drugs. I never used this term. The United Nations never used this term. I fear it is being used to mask other objectives. Drugs were banned by member states because they are dangerous, they are not dangerous because they are banned.

If you believe that some sort of (whatever form of) legalization of drugs would be the correct answer well, I am afraid this would be dangerously naive. In other words, if this is the answer you would like to receive, I must conclude that the set of issues you raised are a bit more complicated than you seem to realize.

When I asked him for his reaction to the Global Drug Policy Commission, counting among its members Kofi Annan, who was UN Secretary General while Mr Costa was UNODC Director:

The only common denominator among them is former. What is wrong with people who, when in office say one thing, when out of office say its opposite?

I try in World War-D to understand where such attitudes come from, how we got where we are, how we are still there after so many years of hopeless failure, how we can accelerate the move beyond such attitudes.

See the original post here:

World War-D: War on drugs failure - Roadmap to legalization

On this day in 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared illicit drugs to be a threat to U.S. national security.

On this day in 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared illicit drugs to be a threat to U.S. national security.

Richard M. Nixon, the president who popularized the term war on drugs, first used the words in 1971. However, the policies that his administration implemented as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 dated to Woodrow Wilsons presidency and the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. This was followed by the creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930.

Story Continued Below

Speaking at the Justice Department, Reagan likened his administrations determination to discourage the flow and use of banned substances to the obstinacy of the French army at the Battle of Verdun in World War I with a literal spin on the war on drugs. The president quoted a French soldier who said, There are no impossible situations. There are only people who think theyre impossible.

Spreading the anti-drug message, first lady Nancy Reagan toured elementary schools, warning students about the danger of illicit drugs. When a fourth grader at Longfellow Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., asked her what to do if approached by someone offering drugs, the first lady responded: Just say no.

In 1988, Reagan created the Office of National Drug Control Policy to coordinate drug-related legislative, security, diplomatic, research and health policy throughout the government. Successive agency directors were dubbed drug czars by the media. In 1993, President Bill Clinton raised the post to Cabinet-level status.

On May 13, 2009, R. Gil Kerlikowske, the current director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, signaled that though the Obama administration did not plan to significantly alter drug enforcement policies, it would not use the term war on drugs, saying it was counterproductive.

SOURCE: 30 YEARS OF AMERICAS DRUG WAR, A CHRONOLOGY BY PBSs FRONTLINE

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Reagan declares 'War on Drugs,' October 14, 1982 - POLITICO

A Google Tech TalkAugust 17, 2010

ABSTRACT

Presented by Stanford "Neill" Franklin, Police (Ret.) Executive Director, LEAP

"It pains me to know that there is a solution for preventing tragedy and nothing is being done because of ignorance, stubbornness, unsubstantiated fear and greed."

Hear Neill Franklin, Executive Director of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), speak on the problems and costs of the war on drugs, and the reasons society would be better off if it were ended.

Founded on March 16, 2002, LEAP is made up of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who are speaking out about the failures of our existing drug policies. Those policies have failed, and continue to fail, to effectively address the problems of drug abuse, especially the problems of juvenile drug use, the problems of addiction, and the problems of crime caused by the existence of a criminal black market in drugs.

Although those who speak publicly for LEAP are people from the law enforcement and criminal justice communities, a large number of our supporting members do not have such experience. You don't have to have law enforcement experience to join us.

By continuing to fight the so-called "War on Drugs", the US government has worsened these problems of society instead of alleviating them. A system of regulation and control of these substances (by the government, replacing the current system of control by the black market) would be a less harmful, less costly, more ethical and more effective public policy.

Please consider joining us and helping us to achieve our goals: 1) to educate the public, the media and policy makers about the failure of current policies, and 2) to restore the public's respect for police, which respect has been greatly diminished by law enforcement's involvement in enforcing drug prohibition.

Neill FranklinMajor Neill Franklin is a 33-year law enforcement veteran of both the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police forces. His career has not only spanned three decades, but he's been promoted and recruited so many times that he jokes, "Every time I turned around, I was in a new position." He worked the streets. He investigated. He supervised and trained others. Neill oversaw 17 drug task forces, and he instituted and directed the very first Domestic Violence Investigative Units for the Maryland State Police.

Early in his career, Neill served as a narcotics agent with the Maryland State police, focusing on everything from high-level drug dealers in the Washington suburbs to that guy growing one pot plant on his apartment balcony. Neill was proud of his work and proud of the hundreds of arrests he executed. "I had been taught that the people who use and sell drugs are trash, and that we needed to put those people behind bars forever."

Two people permanently changed his steadfast belief in fighting the drug war: the Mayor of Baltimore, and Ed Toatley, one of the best undercover agents the State of Maryland had ever seen.

Sometime in the mid nineties, Kurt Schmoke, the sitting mayor of Baltimore, declared on television that the drug war was not working. "We need to have a discussion about where we go from here," Neill recalls him saying, "because the drug war is not working." Schmoke put forth the reasoning that fighting a war on drugs was not only violent, but also counterproductive to fighting the high rates of AIDS and Hepatitis C in the city.

"I knew instantly," Neill says, "that he had said something profound, and that this deserved some looking into." This was the beginning of Neill's new direction, and it started with researching and evaluating his own experiences in law enforcement. He compared the areas in his jurisdiction with the people and cases that came across his desk.

"We worked in predominantly white areas, but most of our cases and lock ups were minorities. There were only a couple of cases in the outlying areas that involved whites."

Not too long after Schmoke's announcement, Neill's good friend, Corporal Ed Toatley, was killed in Washington, DC, while making a drug deal as an undercover agent.

"When Ed was assassinated in October 2000, that is when I really made the turn. That's when I decided to go public with my views. I even contacted my police commissioner at the time and warned him that I was going to start speaking out on this. I didn't want him to be blindsided."

The institutionalized racism and cost of life to both civilians and police officers are just two of the many unintended consequences of our drug policy that keep Neill Franklin speaking for LEAP.

In July of 2010, Neill became executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Additionally, he volunteers his time by serving on many boards .

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The War on Drugs Has Failed - YouTube

MANILA, Philippines The murdered man lay in a pool of his own blood. At around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 22, two men on motorcycles shot Manny Buddy Wagan outside his small shop selling junk metal just outside Manila. He was killed instantly with two bullets to the head. A witness recalls seeing the killers get off their bikes, approach Wagan, and shoot him at point-blank range a common method of execution in the Philippines. Police called the case a death under investigation.

It has become a familiar sight in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in June 2016 and launched his war on drugs. As Wagans corpse was photographed, examined, and eventually removed by police, young children stood speechless with their parents. A relative of the deceased began weeping loudly. Onlookers shot video and photos with their smartphones. Once Wagans body was taken to the morgue, a man lit a solitary candle on the ground beside a puddle of congealed blood. It was just another bloody evening in Manila, a city that has seen a massive spike in drug war-related violence.

It is impossible to say with complete certainty that Wagan was killed because of his drug use or connection to the narcotics trade. But over the past 18 months, many victims of Dutertes war on drugs have been innocent, only tangentially involved in the drug world, or simply users of crystal meth. And as with thousands of other deaths, the police investigation into Wagans killing is unlikely to be properly conducted.

Instead, Wagan will end up a mere statistic in a brutal war that has received support from U.S. President Donald Trump, fierce opposition from the global human rights community, and large though diminishing backing from the Filipino people, especially those in communities most affected by the governments extrajudicial killings. Duterte has created an effective social media army, with the help of Facebook, to bully enemies and rally his followers. And the countrys war against the Islamic State has brought international backing for the Duterte government.

The exact number of people who have died in Dutertes war is unclear. The police suggested in October 2017 that only one person had been killed extrajudicially since July 1, 2016, a claim ridiculed by both local and foreign rights groups. The real figure could be as high as 20,000. In January, Human Rights Watch said more than 12,000 drug suspects had been killed, mostly the poor in urban areas from either police operations or vigilante-style killings sometimes by plainclothes police.

The Philippine government has repeatedly violated international law because it does not hold fair trials, or any trials, before executing its citizens. After a brief lull in deaths in late 2017, the last months have seen a sharp upturn in drug war killings.

Duterte has created a culture of impunity, learned from his years as mayor of Davao City on Mindanao Island, where the so-called Davao Death Squad committed multiple rights abuses (with echoes of vigilante violence from the U.S.-backed, anti-communist purges many decades ago). In February, the president told soldiers to shoot female rebels in their genitals.

The government claims that its drug war has drastically reduced crime across the country, alleging that fewer than 4,000 suspects have been killed. The crime reduction narrative was confirmed anecdotally when traveling around Manila; many citizens told me that they felt safer walking the streets at night and less afraid of gang violence. But this apparent reduction in unrest in some areas has come at a tremendous cost, especially for the countrys poorest citizens. When I visited Binondo in Manila, one of the bloodiest areas during the drug war, the first thing I noticed was not violence but extreme poverty. Residents lived in tin sheds and defecated in the nearby Pasig River. Meth, known as shabu in the Philippines, was still sold in the area. A printed sign asked residents to call a police hotline to report drug activity.

Unlike other global drug war hot spots such as Honduras, where vast sections of the country are unsafe, and Guinea-Bissau, where narcotraffickers control parts of the state apparatus the Philippine drug war has targeted societys most disadvantaged groups. Other parts of Manila, sprinkled with Starbucks and high-rise office buildings, do not witness state-sanctioned murders on the street.

Not many local groups have challenged Dutertes murderous policy, but there are a few human rights lawyers attempting to bring justice to the aggrieved victims. The Center for International Law (CenterLaw) in Manila has bravely taken on five cases related to the drug war. Gil Anthony Aquino, one of the centers attorneys, told me that 99 percent of such cases would never go to court. He acknowledged that he and his colleagues have taken precautions to protect their personal safety, as the government has become increasingly brazen in its attacks on opponents, including trying to shut down critical media by force if necessary. During the Duterte era, at least five journalists have been murdered while working, mostly in Mindanao. According to the International Federation of Journalists, the Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters.

The lawyers have therefore been strategic in their work against the president. We dont personally attack Duterte, Aquino said. We dont call for his ouster. We skirt around the issues. We try to get accountability from the police. Aquinos colleague, Gilbert Andres, explained how Dutertes drug war was inspiring other nations, including Indonesia, to implement similarly harsh policies against drug suspects. Andres said Duterte had created a dangerous atmosphere in his country. If youre a drug suspect, you dont deserve rights, he said of Dutertes mindset. If youre an advocate for human rights, youre an enemy of the state.

Dutertes presidential spokesman, Harry Roque, dismissed Human Rights Watchs concerns in the Philippines because, he said, financier George Soros supported HRW and was a lobby against the countrys drug war. Duterte made the same argument in 2016.Roque was simply following the playbook against Soros perfected by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, using anti-Semitic imagery to conjure a global Jewish conspiracy run by the billionaire.

Andres is not oblivious to the dangers of narcotics; he has seen the tragic cost of drugs. I lost my father, who was killed by a drug addict in Manila in 1989, so this is personal for me, he said. But the lesson he took from that incident was that human rights and crime busting can operate together.

Both he and Aquino are critical of some local and international human rights groups that only document drug war killings and dont invest in local lawyers to defend victims families, prosecute trigger-happy police, and litigate the thousands of crimes that have occurred in the last 18 months. At the end of the day, Andres argued, INGOs [international nongovernmental organizations] should put their hands where their mouths are by helping local lawyers in whatever way. In the end, it is us local lawyers who will risk life and limb for human rights.

One of the five drug-related cases taken on by CenterLaw involves the police murder of Emiliano Blanco (and others) on Nov. 30, 2016, in highly suspicious circumstances. Residents of the area where he was killed filed a writ of amparo in 2017 a legal concept originating in Mexico to safeguard individual rights to protect their community from any further police-led violence and intimidation. The action was partially led by Blancos brother, Francisco Blanco Jr., who is now the primary guardian for his brothers 7-year-old son.

Francisco Blanco was defiant but scared. At times, he was on the verge of tears when describing his brothers death and tough life. He acknowledged that his brother was a drug user but said he had surrendered to police months before his death. Since the drug war began, police and district heads have collated watch lists of suspected drug users, a dangerous and secretive practice that has led to thousands of killings.

He now faces constant police harassment and threats to his life, a common problem for family members of victims. If I was there on the night of the murder, I would have been killed for sure, he said. Police visited him a few months later, gesturing to suggest theyd slit his throat and asking him, Do you want the same fate as your brother?

Until there is a legal remedy for the Duterte governments gross human rights abuses, including police being held accountable for their violent crimes, citizens will remain in a precarious position. With few viable options available to victims, and the threat of retribution if they launch legal challenges, its not surprising that so few cases are being pursued. Those that have been filed are a crucial check on government abuses.

Blancos case is now winding through the courts, and CenterLaw hopes to get resolution this year. The governments solicitor general, Jose Calida, has condemned the attempt to use a writ of amparo, claiming it would set a dangerous precedent and could be used as a tool by drug personalities in order to fish for evidence in the guise of protecting their human rights. Calida is a defender of Duterte and argues that law enforcement would be impeded in their drug war investigations and the legal move would allow groundless accusations against police.

For all the countrys flaws, the Philippine courts are one of the few relatively independent institutions left in the Duterte era, so Blancos case still has a chance. Others do, too. Local human rights lawyers desperately need more international backing for such litigation. Without it, they wont be able to continue their dangerous but necessary work.

See the article here:

Only the Law Can Stop Dutertes Murderous War on Drugs ...

The War on Drugs was formed by musicians Kurt Vile and Adam Granduciel after they had both moved from Oakland and back to Philadelphia. Both had similar interests and had especially connected through their appreciation of Bob Dylan. This led to the two, recording, writing and even performing together. Through this instant connection and chemistry, The War on Drugs was born.

Early in the career of the band they had many accompanying musicians but none were official members, Vile and Granduciel then decided to settle official members of the band. These members included: Charlie Hall as the Drummer/Organist, Kyle Lloyd as drummer and Dave Hartley would be the bass player of the band.

In 2008 The War On Drugs gave away their EP 'Barrel of Batteries' for free.

After the release of their debut album 'Wagonwheel Blues' and the European tour which followed,founding member of the band Kurt Vile, had decided to leave so that he could focus on his solo projects. Following Vile leaving other members followed suit, those being: Charlie Hall and Kyle Lloyd by 2008.

Following the departure of key members, the band in 2008 now consisted of members: Adam Granducial, David Hall and Mike Zhangi (who would leave in 2010). By 2012 the bands lineup consisted of: Adam Granducial, Patrick Berkery, Robbie Bennett and David Hall.

2011 saw the release of The War On Drugs second album 'Slave Ambient' this generated widespread critical acclaim as it managed to receive 7 out of 10 from 'Spin', 'BBC Music' gave it a favourable rating and it received an A- grade from 'The A.V. Club'.

As of 2014 the current members of the band are: Adam Granducial on vocals, Dave Hartley on bass guitar, Robbie Bennett on keyboards and Charlie Hall on drum.

The rest is here:

The War on Drugs Tickets, Tour Dates 2018 & Concerts ...

People of color experience discrimination at every stage of the criminal justice system.

The drug war has produced profoundly unequal outcomes across racial groups, manifested through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color.

Many different communities of color bear the impact of the discriminatory enforcement of drug laws. This impact may vary across cities and regions. Nationwide, some of the most egregious racial disparities can be seen in the case of African Americans and Latinos.

Higher arrest and incarceration rates for these communities are not reflective of increased prevalence of drug use, but rather of law enforcements focus on urban areas, lower income communities and communities of color.

Disparities in arrests and incarceration are seen for both drug possession law violations as well as low-level sales. Those selling small amounts of drugs to support their own drug use may go to jail for decades. This unequal enforcement ignores the universality of drug dependency, as well as the universal appeal of drugs themselves.

We believe that the mass criminalization of people of color, particularly young African Americans, is as profound a system of racial control as the Jim Crow laws were in this country until the mid-1960s.

This video from hip hop legend Shawn Jay Z Carter and acclaimed artist Molly Crabapple depicts the drug wars devastating impact on the Black community from decades of biased law enforcement.

The video traces the drug war from President Nixon to the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws to the emerging aboveground marijuana market that is poised to make legal millions for wealthy investors doing the same thing that generations of people of color have been arrested and locked up for.

Misguided drug laws and draconian sentencing have produced profoundly unequal outcomes for communities of color.

Other racial groups are also impacted by the drug war, but the disparities with these highlighted groups are particularly stark and well documented.

For noncitizens, including legal permanent residents, any drug law violation can trigger automatic detention and deportation often without the possibility of return.

People deported for drug law violations are sent back to their countries of origin, where they may no longer have any ties to family or community. They may lack basic survival needs like food, housing and health services, and may face serious threats to their security. They are usually barred from reentering the United States, often for life. The result is thousands of families broken and communities torn apart every year.

Punishment for a drug law violation is not only meted out by the criminal justice system, but is also perpetuated by policies denying child custody, voting rights, employment, business loans, licensing, student aid, public housing and other public assistance to people with criminal convictions.

These exclusions create a permanent second-class status for millions of Americans. Like drug war enforcement itself, they fall disproportionately on people of color.

The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to exposing discrimination and disproportionate drug law enforcement, as well as the systems that perpetuate them. We work to eliminate policies that result in the unfair criminalization of communities of color by rolling back harsh mandatory minimum sentences and by addressing on the rampant over-policing of these communities.

We advocate for:

Link:

Race and the Drug War | Drug Policy Alliance

[Photo: Screenshot of "The War on Drugs Is An Epic Fail" c/o Jay-Z/New York Times]

Charlene Hamilton and her two young daughters found themselves homeless and struggling to buy food when her husband, Carl Harris, was sentenced to 20 years for a drug-related offense.

Basically, I was locked up with him, she told the New York Times. My mind was locked up. My life was locked up. Our daughters grew up without their father.

Hamiltons children became part of an alarming statistic: they were among the one in four black children who had at least one parent behind bars during the era of mass incarceration. From the 1980s to 2015, the number of people in American prisons for drug offenses rose from 40,900 to 469,545. Today, people of color make up more than 60 percent of the prison population. The sentencing policies of this War on Drugs, such as mandatory minimum drug laws, have helped grow our federal prison system population to the highest in the world. Around half of the population in federal prisons have been incarcerated for drug crimes (though this is three times the rate of state prisons).

Now, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is calling for prosecutors to use the Federal Drug Kingpin Act to seek the death penalty for dealers of extremely large quantities of drugs. John Blume, law professor and director of Cornell Universitys Death Penalty Project, told CNN that this act rarely resulted in the prosecution of major dealers, but actually mostly ensnared poor, African-American, mid- to low-level persons involved in the drug trade." The impact of an invigorated War on Drugs needs to be measured against the cost its first iteration had on the lives of people of color.

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the anti-war left and black people. You understand what Im saying?" said John Ehrlichman, who was President Nixon's domestic policy adviser, to Harper's Magazine in 2016. "We knew we couldnt make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Ofcoursewe did." As Jay-Z said in this Op-Doc by the New York Times: The War on Drugs is an epic fail.

The opioid epidemic appears to be the focus of this version of the War on Drugs though Sessions is also very anti-marijuana and the opioid crisis was, for a time, mostly affecting white people, according to NPR. It appears now, though, that the opioid epidemic is not limited to rural white America. Drug overdose deaths are skyrocketing among black Americans, reports Voxon CDC findings.The Atlantic expects Trump's War on Drugs 3.0 to "reinforce a law-enforcement paradigm that puts people of color in prison."

Evans Ray Jr. was sentenced to life for arranging a drug sale. The judge in Rays case had his hands tied: I believe that the circumstances justify a sentence shorter than life. I further believe that there is some disproportionality between what youve done and the sentence of life, he said according to court transcripts. Due to two prior drug convictions, this was Rays third strike, and prosecutors advocated for the mandatory minimum sentence. Not only do these harsh sentencing laws send people to prison at higher rates, but they keep people convicted of drug offenses in prison for longer. In 1986, shortly before the peak of President Ronald Reagans amped up drug war hysteria, people serving time for a federal drug offense spent an average of 22 months in prison. By 2004, that length had almost tripled to 62 months.

After 12 years, Ray Jr. was granted clemency by President Obama and released from prison into a world where he had to adjust. The wife and four children he left behind, however, had been trying to adjust since the day he was locked up.

I didnt have any memories, his 14-year-old daughter Thea Ray told the Washington Post. Just pictures. She was 2 years old when her father was sentenced. Though she didnt have any memories of her father, studies suggest that Ray and other children of incarcerated parents (of which black children make up the majority) suffer damaging and traumatic effects. According to a 2014 study, children of incarcerated parents are more likely to experience a range of physical and mental health conditions as well as chronic school absence. They experience depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, cholesterol, asthma, migraines, and overall poorer health. These results only further complicate the adverse health outcomes of black children due to racism.

Incarceration has an extremely negative effect on children, to put it shortly. Studies show that elementary-age children of incarcerated parents were at higher risk of being held back and having to repeat a grade, regardless of test scores and behavior. The research suggests that this effect may be driven by teachers perceptions of the academic performance of children of jailed parents. According to this study, elementary school teachers play an important role in the lives of children experiencing paternal incarceration; unfortunately for black children, white teachers are about 40 percent less likely than black teachers to expect their black students to graduate high school. These low expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies, serving to lower the academic performance of already disadvantaged children. This cycle continues to have ongoing effects on the education, and subsequently the economic status, of black children of incarcerated parents. Only 13 to 25 percent of students with incarcerated fathers go on to graduate from college.

The War on Drugs, which Nixon framed as a response to the increase in heroin, marijuana, and hallucinogen use, was a failure on all accounts. Incarceration rates are booming, and despite the hefty 51-billion-dollar bill that taxpayers foot for it annually people in prisons lack access to drug treatment. California and several other states have legalized marijuana with several more preparing to change legislation. With more than half of all drug arrests being for marijuana and black people almost four times more likely to be subject to those arrests despite equal usage, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, decriminalizing marijuana could lower the mass incarceration rateespecially for blacks.

The Trump administrations case for executions is bolstered by similar penalties in other countries such as Iran and the Philippines and as the New York Times reports, the death penalty hasnt exactly deterred drug usage. Drug users in the Philippines rose in millions while the government has killed anywhere between 12,000 to 20,000 people in extrajudicial punishments.

The Wars most pernicious result is a vicious cycle that disproportionately targeted black men with increased policing in black communities and harsh sentences. Black children are left behind, on a trajectory toward a bleaker future with an uphill battle.

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How Black Children Bore The Brunt Of The War on Drugs ...

In a speech officially unveiling his administration's plan to combat the nation's ongoing opioid epidemic, President Donald Trump on Monday saod he would fight the crisis with "toughness", the creation of "very...very...bad commercials" aimed at children; andas expectedproposed that the death penalty be applied to drug dealers.

However, as drug policy reform advocates feared, he showed little understanding of the origins of the crisis and neglected to mention numerous measures public health experts have advocated for to stop the deadly epidemic.

A key tenet of Trump's plan to combat the crisis, which killed nearly 64,000 Americans in 2016, is to launch an advertising campaign showing the effects of opioid use.

"The best way to beat the drug crisis is to keep people from getting hooked on drugs to begin with," he told a crowd in Manchester, N.H. "As part of that effortso important, this is something I've been strongly in favor ofspending a lot of money on great commercials showing how bad it is."

The ads, Trump added, would be "very...very...bad commercials...And when they see those commercials, hopefully they're not going to be going to drugs of any kind."

Trump expresses support for anti-drug commercials aimed at kids to stop them from getting addicted to opioids: "That's the least expensive thing we can we do, where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials" pic.twitter.com/rIgUmRBMHL

BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) March 19, 2018

The proposal struck critics as similar to First Lady Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign of the 1980s, which has been denounced as "simplistic and vague" and which studies have shown did not make young Americans any less likely to use drugs.

Trump today called for "great commercials" that show kids "how bad" drugs are. As we explained recently, that strategy has been tried and hasn't worked. https://t.co/JSu2WDOjEo

The Upshot (@UpshotNYT) March 19, 2018

Scare tactics & Just Say No programs are not effective. Its better to equip our young people and parents with real information. https://t.co/GvZKxYyooI

Drug Policy Alliance (@DrugPolicyOrg) March 19, 2018

While Trump spent a large portion of his speech talking about keeping kids away from drugs, statistics show that Americans in their 50s and 60s are most at risk for overdosing on prescription opioidsa major driver of the overall crisis.

The prevalence of heroin abuse is of greater concern among younger Americans, but recent studies have shown that three-quarters of people who began using heroin in the 2000s abused prescription opioid painkillers first. Doctors have suggested that lax prescribing practices within their own profession continue to contribute to the opioid crisiscalling into question the notion that commercials would successfully steer Americans away from the drugs.

The president also linked the epidemic to immigration, urging Democrats to back his plan to "build the wall to keep the damn drugs out" and leading audience members in the chant, "Build the wall!"

But drug policy experts say that tougher border security would have little to no effect on the prevalence of drugs in the U.S.

"A wall alone cannot stop the flow of drugs into the United States," Christopher Wilson of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, told Vox last year. "...history shows us that border enforcement has been much more effective at changing the when and where of drugs being brought into the United States rather than the overall amount of drugs being brought into the United States."

Critics also expressed shock at the president's proposal to seek the death penalty for drug dealersa plan that was hinted at last week. Trump has expressed admiration for Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte's drug warwhich has resulted in the deaths of thousands, many in poor communitiesand the stringent drug policies applied by Singapore's government.

"We can have all the blue ribbon committees we want but if we don't get tough on the drug dealers we're wasting our time...and that toughness includes the death penalty," said the president.

The remark was condemned on social media by many, including drug policy experts, who have long said drug addition should be treated as a public health issue instead of a criminal matter.

Anyone casually invoking taking the life of someone needs to be put in time out, including the POTUS. If you are not willing to clearly articulate a precise definition for what counts as taking someones life for an action, you have zero credibility and should be treated as such.

Bryan William Jones (@BWJones) March 19, 2018

Text from govt health official:

Potus remarks are a full-on War on Drugs scare fest. Health policy staff are extremely disappointed by this divisive rhetoric, and his focus on actions that we know dont work.

Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 19, 2018

Had heard from health officials who were crossing their fingers that Trump would lay off death penalty language and focus on the many public health proposals in the plan.

(He didnt.)

Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 19, 2018

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In 'Full-on War on Drugs Scare-Fest,' Trump Proposes Death ...

Americas War on Drugs is an immersive trip through the last five decades, uncovering how the CIA, obsessed with keeping America safe in the fight against communism, allied itself with the mafia and foreign drug traffickers. In exchange for support against foreign enemies, the groups were allowed to grow their drug trade in the United States. The series explores the unintended consequences of when gangsters, war lords, spies, outlaw entrepreneurs, street gangs and politicians vie for power and control of the global black market for narcotics all told through the firsthand accounts of former CIA and DEA officers, major drug traffickers, gang members, noted experts and insiders.Night one of Americas War on Drugs divulges covert Cold War operations that empowered a generation of drug traffickers and reveals the peculiar details of secret CIA LSD experiments which helped fuel the counter-culture movement, leading to President Nixons crackdown and declaration of a war on drugs. The documentary series then delves into the rise of the cocaine cowboys, a secret island cocaine base, the CIAs connection to the crack epidemic, the history of the cartels and their murderous tactics, the era of Just Say No, the negative effect of NAFTA, and the unlikely career of an almost famous Midwest meth queen.The final chapter of the series examines how the attacks on September 11th intertwined the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, transforming Afghanistan into a narco-state teeming with corruption. It also explores how American intervention in Mexico helped give rise to El Chapo and the Super Cartels, bringing unprecedented levels of violence and sending even more drugs across Americas borders. Five decades into the War on Drugs, a move to legalize marijuana gains momentum, mega-corporations have become richer and more powerful than any nations drug cartel, and continuing to rise is the demand for heroin and other illegal drugs.

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America's War on Drugs - HISTORY

Albums none The War On Drugs The War On Drugs (CD, MiniAlbum, Ltd) Sea Formation Music none Canada 2007 Sell This Version The War On Drugs Wagonwheel Blues (Album) 5 versions Secretly Canadian US 2008 Sell This Version 5 versions The War On Drugs Slave Ambient (Album) 8 versions Secretly Canadian 2011 Sell This Version 8 versions The War On Drugs Lost In The Dream (Album) 12 versions Secretly Canadian US 2014 Sell This Version 12 versions The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding (Album) 12 versions Atlantic US 2017 Sell This Version 12 versions Singles & EPs The War On Drugs Barrel Of Batteries (EP) 2 versions Secretly Canadian US 2008 2 versions The War On Drugs Future Weather (EP) 3 versions Secretly Canadian US 2010 Sell This Version 3 versions The War On Drugs Come To The City (Single) 3 versions Secretly Canadian UK 2011 Sell This Version 3 versions none The War On Drugs Baby Missiles (CDr, Promo, Single) Secretly Canadian none UK 2011 Sell This Version none The War On Drugs Best Night (CDr, Promo, Single) Secretly Canadian none UK 2012 Sell This Version The War On Drugs Red Eyes (Single) 3 versions Secretly Canadian US 2013 Sell This Version 3 versions SC310 The War On Drugs Rough Drafts (CD, Single) Secretly Canadian SC310 UK & Europe 2014 Sell This Version none The War On Drugs Under The Pressure (CDr, Promo, Single) Secretly Canadian none UK 2014 Sell This Version none The War On Drugs Eyes To The Wind (CDr, Single, Promo) Secretly Canadian none UK 2014 Sell This Version none The War On Drugs Burning (CDr, Promo, Single) Secretly Canadian none UK 2014 Sell This Version none The War On Drugs An Ocean In Between The Waves (CDr, Single, Promo) Secretly Canadian none UK 2015 Sell This Version The War On Drugs Strangest Thing (Single) 2 versions Atlantic 2017 2 versions The War On Drugs Holding On (Single) 3 versions Atlantic 2017 3 versions The War On Drugs Thinking Of A Place (Single) 3 versions Atlantic 2017 Sell This Version 3 versions The War On Drugs Up All Night (Single) 2 versions Atlantic 2017 2 versions The War On Drugs Pain (Single) 2 versions Atlantic 2017 2 versions Miscellaneous none The War On Drugs Jul 18, 2010 - Daytrotter Studio, Rock Island, IL (3xFile, MP3, 320) Daytrotter none US 2010 SC264CD The War On Drugs The Bowlegs Sessions (CD) Secretly Canadian SC264CD UK 2011 Sell This Version none The War On Drugs Oct 28, 2011 - Daytrotter Studio, Rock Island, IL (5xFile, MP3, 320) Daytrotter none US 2011

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The War On Drugs Discography at Discogs