Monthly Archives: August 2017

Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on July 13.

Aaron Bernstein/Reuters

In a memo circulated in May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed federal prosecutors to seek the maximum penalty possible in every case. He didnt single out any particular crimes for harsh sentencing, indicating that all offensesincluding simple drug possessionshould be punished in the harshest allowable manner. Sessions later defended the decision in a Washington Post opinion piece, arguing that a decline in drug prosecutions under the Obama administration had led to an uptick in violent crime.

Backlash to Sessions announcement was swift. Leaders on both sides of the aisle slammed his decision to revoke discretion in drug sentencing. Thirty current and former prosecutors responded with a scathing open letter expressing deep concern about the new directive. Instead of providing people who commit low-level drug offenses or who are struggling with mental illness with treatment, support and rehabilitation programs, the policy will subject them to decades of incarceration, they wrote. In essence, the Attorney General has reinvigorated the failed war on drugs.

The truth is that the war on drugs never died. Someone is arrested for drug possession every 25 seconds in the U.S. A black person is two-and-a-half times more likely than a white person to be arrested for carrying drugs. This disparity persists in major cities that have committed to marijuana decriminalization or outright legalization, including New York City and Washington, D.C. Sessions argues that such arrests are necessary to curb drug trafficking, but most possession arrests involve people who are using drugs, not selling them.

These arrests wouldnt occur if prosecutors at every level werent prioritizing drug cases. Some district attorneys have promised to pivot away from the tough-on-crime posturing that characterized drug enforcement in the 1990s and swelled prison populations. But those who pledge reform are the exception, not the rule. District attorneys consistently support mandatory minimum sentencing for drug crimes. The National District Attorneys Association, which acts on behalf of roughly 2,500 local and state prosecutors, vowed to follow Sessions order. The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys also backed the attorney generals decision and has actively lobbied for harsher sentencing.

The attorney generals directive matters less than the actions of thousands of state and local prosecutors.

The ongoing war on drugs is driven by prosecutors like Leon Cannizzaro, the district attorney in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. The region has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country and treats drug possession cases as felonies. (Mandatory minimum sentences in Louisiana will soon be reduced for people carrying up to 2 grams of certain drugs.) Even though Cannizzaro purports to be a criminal justice reformer, he aggressively enforces the states tough habitual-offender law, which puts people with four felony convictions behind bars for 20 years or more regardless of the offenses. Many prisoners meet this fate because of drug possession. Cannizzaro fought tooth and nail to imprison Bernard Noble for 13 years after he was found carrying the equivalent of two joints of pot, going so far as to appeal a five-year sentence that two judges had approved. He also secured a life sentence for a man who stole $15 after previously being convicted of drug possession and distributiona decision deemed unconscionable on appeal.

Some state and district attorneys remain hellbent on treating marijuana users as criminals. In Maricopa County, Arizona, home of a notoriously overcrowded jail, District Attorney Bill Montgomery is battling medical cannabis use. He once threatened to prosecute a family that had been using medically prescribed marijuana to treat a 5-year-old with chronic seizures. Another time, he told a veteran treating back pain with marijuana: I have no respect for someone who would try to claim that you served this country and took an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic, because youre an enemy. When Montgomery isnt prosecuting recreational marijuana users for possession, he's making money off them. In lieu of charging first-time pot offenders with felonies, he funnels them into a drug treatment program from which his office has made a profit of $15 million.

Drug prohibition has been reinvigorated by prosecutors and lawmakers who are criminalizing addicts swept up in the countrys growing opioid crisis. Opioid-related deaths rose 246 percent between 2000 and 2015, and drug overdoses now cause more accidental deaths than car crashes. As the number of people overdosing on opioids like fentanyl, oxycodone, and heroin skyrockets, the health community largely views drug treatment as the best way to tackle the problem.

Nevertheless, jails and prisons are teeming with people punished for using opioids. As a result, people are dying from withdrawal behind bars after being refused the medication-assisted therapies and opioids theyve been prescribed to treat their chronic diseases. Moreover, the possibility that users will overdose increases when they are released. These deaths and overdoses could be prevented if prosecutors, who have wide discretion to select cases, didnt charge addicts en masse. Shifting focus to drug treatment also has the potential to save billions of dollars currently spent on opioid users imprisonment. Instead, some state and local prosecutors have ramped up their war against opioids by charging drug dealers with first-degree murder and manslaughter for overdose deaths. Republican and Democratic U.S. senators are also considering legislation to impose draconian penalties for selling synthetic opioids.

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The War On Drugs has been going on since the early 70s and has been nothing more than a dismal failure. More...

Under the Obama administration, federal prosecutors began to de-prioritize mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, but marijuana is the only drug for which reform has progressed at the state and local levels. Eight states have legalized marijuana in recent years. Some district attorneys, such as Kim Ogg and Mark Gonzalez in Texas, have also established diversion programs for people caught with small amounts of marijuana in states where its use is still illegal. These programs allow offenders to take drug treatment classes in lieu of getting locked up.

Nevertheless, many district and state attorneys still believe that drugs cause crime, a correlation that ignores research on the relationship between drugs and violence. Ultimately, the attorney generals directive matters less than the actions of thousands of state and local prosecutors. These men and women make the charging decisions that keep the war on drugs alive. It will be up to them to end it once and for all.

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The War on Drugs Never Ended - Slate Magazine

The knock on the door came at 3am: a police officer telling Rose Humphries that a young man had been found dead of aheroin overdose at a house in town.

It was her youngest son Roland, dead at the age of 23.

He had been trying to get off the drug. That morning, a few hours after the police officer left, a letter arrived at the family home stating that Roland had been accepted on a methadone programme to wean him off heroin.

Too late.

Instead, that afternoon Rose and her husband Jeremy went to the mortuary to identify Rolands body.Even now, she finds the experience too painful to discuss.

Rolands older brother Jake was so overcome by grief thatit drove him back into his ownheroin abuse into more years of wasted, chaotic existence.

But in 2006, Jake went to rehab. He got himself clean, transformed his life, found love and had a baby boy with his partner.

By April 2014, he was close to completing an MA in art psychotherapy, so he could help others overcome their troubles in the way he had.But he had a brief relapse.

While his partnerand 20-month-old son were away from his house in south London, Jake, now 37, took heroin. The lodger found him dead of an accidental overdose the next morning.

This time, Ms Humphries received the news in a phone call from her sons sobbing partner. Again, the details of the conversation remain too painful to discuss.

Ms Humphries, 72, is left to ponder the what ifs.What if the trade in drugs had been legal, controlled and regulated by government instead of exploited by criminal gangs?

What if her son had been able to get prescribed heroin, rather than having to trust the quality and safety of drugs sold by criminals?What if he had been able to go to supervised injection facility instead of taking heroin alone?

Of one thing, though, she is absolutely certain.

Thewar on drugs killed my sons, says Ms Humphries.Definitely. No question about it.

Thats why she is talking now, to call for the legalisation and proper regulation of the drugs trade, on the day that official figures show as Ms Humphries fully expected that substance abuse deaths in England and Wales havehit record levels.

She is determined to tell her story out of hope, and anger.

Roland Humphries, whodied of a heroin overdose aged 23 in 2003

The hope, she says, is that the more often these stories are repeated, and repeated, and repeated, the more it might sink in to people responsible for policy what the reality of the war on drugs is.

There is anger, too, when you write to your MP and you just get the stock answer back from Government, simply saying they are quite sure their drugs policies are working, full stop.

How they think these drug policies are working, I havent the faintest idea. They must be seeing something very different from what we are seeing.

What Ms Humphries sees is two lost sons, grieving friends and family, and a young boy growing up without a father.

It is all very different from what she knows is the clich.

A lot of people, she says matter-of-factly, hear about drug addicts dying and just think of some useless person in a shop doorway, homeless perhaps, a scumbag a lot of people call addicts scumbags.They dont look beyond that.

Perhaps, then, the organisation on whose behalf she advocates, Anyones Child, a network of families affected by substance abuse, has chosen its name well. They are now calling fora legalised, Government-regulated drugs trade.

Because, to those who knew them, Roland and Jake were anything but scumbags.

Jake, the older brother, died during a brief relapse into heroin abuse when he was 37

They were both very intelligent, Ms Humphries recalls.Jake was very mischievous, very loveable.He always had a pencil or a crayon in his hand.His pictures were fantastic, far in advance of his age group.

Roland was the daydreamer, always writing little stories about giants and monsters, very loving.

Nor was home the deprived inner city of clich.

Rose worked as a secretary, her husband as a printer. They lived in a council house in Finstall, just outside Bromsgrove, Worcestershire:Lovely neighbours, a green in front of the house, a great big garden. We were extremely lucky.

But as teenagers do, despite all their parents warnings, the boys rebelled.

Ms Humphries is left to tell her story of missed opportunities of chances to help her boys or divert them from drugs that were all lost, she says, because the war on drugs makes substance abuse a criminal, not a health matter.

It began, she says, with her sons first youthful experimentation with cannabis.

People talk about whether cannabis is a gateway drug, says Ms Humphries.I dont think cannabis itself is a gateway drug at all.I dont think the fact that somebody smokes cannabis will of itself make them want to try heroin.

But at the moment cannabis is a gateway drug because the trade is controlled by criminals, not regulated by the Government.

So taking cannabis delivers people into the hands of criminals who want them to try something harder so they can make more money out of them.

And so it was with her boys.

I dont feel they would ever have got so bad if it hadnt have been for the criminal aspects of the whole thing:if there had been proper, legal regulation, rather than control by criminal cartels.

At first she put Jake and Rolands poor performance at the local comprehensive down to teenage rebellion.

Bu when Jake was in his late teens, a friend knocked on the door of the family home demanding money, suggesting windows would be broken if he wasnt paid. Aged 18, Roland confessed to his mum that he was smoking heroin, while insisting that as long as he didnt inject he could handle it.

She felt physically sick. She pleaded with her sons to stop their drug use.But she didnt call anyone in authority to ask for help.She kept it quiet, and paid off Jakes friend.

I wanted to call the police, but they would have come round asking questions. They might have found about Jake and Rolands involvement in drugs, and then they would have got into trouble.

Would I have gone to get help for both boys if drugs had been legalised? Yes, of course I would.

When Jake was 18, she adds, he was convicted of cannabis possession. He was fined. What is less clear is whether he was helped.

Much later, says Ms Humphries, Jake told me he thought the newspaper report of his case labelled him as a hopeless druggie. He felt it set him more firmly on the downward path.

Both boys drug abuse worsened. They never lost the good sides to their characters, their mother insists, but heroin created darker traits.

They would steal from us. I had to keep my handbag on me at all times, or lock it in the bedroom.Yes, we got a lock for our bedroom door.

Its dreadful, adds Ms Humphries.You feel that nobody else in the whole world has to do this. You wonder whats wrong with you.

Again, instead of getting help to stop their sons illegal drug use, she and her husband felt compelled to suffer in silence.

There is such shame and stigma around it, she says.We lived with this awful problem for years and years.I couldnt bring myself to tell anybody about it.

Sometimes I would go to work wanting to burst into tears, unable to tell anybody what was the matter.If I did say anything about what my sons had been doing, I would say Im afraid they have been drinking. It seemed more socially acceptable.

Eventually Roland did seek help. But six weeks into his wait to be accepted on a methadone programme, in October 2003, Roland was invited round to a friends house for the evening.

He told me he would be back at 10 or 11pm, says Ms Humphries. He never came back.

The heroin in Rolands system combined with the alcohol he had drunk to suppress his breathing.

And, says Ms Humphries, even as the heroin was taking lethal effect, the war on drugs was stopping medical help from getting to Roland in time to save his life.

We now know, she explains, That after one of them noticed that Roland was slumped in the bathroom and his lips were blue, there was a delay before the ambulance was called.

I gather a lot of them were running around like headless chickens for quite a while before someone phoned 999.

The ambulance got there too late.That delay was caused because the people in the house were afraid of the consequences of being involved with somebody who had died from drugs.

I am quite sure there wouldnt have been that hesitation if as it should be it had been regarded as a health issue, not a criminal issue.

Jake, she says, took his brothers death extremely badly, his renewed heroin abuse causing him to drop out of Aberystwyth University.

You would have thought it would be sufficient warning to Jake to never touch drugs again.But he was in pain, and if you have taken heroin, you know how it can take away that pain.

The transformation, though, after he went to rehab and got clean in 2006 was astonishing.

My favourite memory of Jake is of seeing him play with his son. He was fantastic with children, a great father.

Jakes son is now five.

We try to keep Jakes memory alive for him, says Ms Humphries.He doesnt yet really understand why Jake died.

She tries to lead as ordinary a life as possible, she adds. Its only when something catches you unawares music coming from a shop doorway, triggering a memory that your eyes fill with tears.

She sees some encouraging signs.

I was speaking at a conference in Durham the other week, in a room full of police, people from the criminal justice system, and healthcare professionals, and they were unanimous that legal regulation of drugsmust come.

If that happened, and her campaigning played a part in it, she says, her sons deaths would not have been completely in vain:They would be proud of me.

One day, she insists, the politicians will see what she sees.

I think the politicians will listen eventually, she says. I just dont know how long it take or how many deaths.

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The war on drugs 'killed my sons' - The Independent

Based on what weve heard so far, The War On Drugs upcoming album A Deeper Understanding is packed with nostalgic, epic, and classic-leaning rock, so the bands upcoming world tour ought to be something to look forward to. Now theres yet another reason to check out whats sure to be a great show: Canadian indie rock group Land Of Talk just announced that theyll be on the road in support of The War On Drugs for a handful of dates in September. As if that wasnt good enough, Land Of Talk also shared a new video for their song This Time, which comes from their new album Life After Youth.

Director Adam Makarenko says the clip is about a scientists attempt to find answers. He continues:

The first part of the video is live action, but eventually the scientist gets transported out of her bedroom into space. Once she is in space its mostly an environment of miniature sets, handmade planets, and real star backdrops, using a combination of miniature photos and stop motion animation.

As for the song itself, Land Of Talks Elizabeth Powell previously said it came about while helping her father deal with a major stroke (and while dealing with the traumatic event herself, as well as the loss of a lot of recordings thanks to a crashed laptop):

I found that one of the most powerful tools, along with all of his other therapy, was music. And I realized it was also helping me deal with an event as traumatic as that. [] After I got home from the hospital after his stroke, I just wrote this chord progression which ended up becoming This Time. And I played it for him and he just got a glint in his eye, he got a really cool faraway look in his eye, and he smiled. And then hes like, This is beautiful; make this, make other people feel this way. You know, he was using his own words, but he was just saying, Please, keep making music again. And I thought that was sweet.

Watch the video for Land Of Talk above. Check out Land Of Talks tour dates below, with starred shows indicating headlining concerts not in support of The War On Drugs.

08/12 Marysville, ON @ Wolfe Island Music Festival* 09/18 Portland, ME @ State Theatre 09/21 Philadelphia, PA @ The Dell 09/22 New York, NY @ SummerStage in Central Park 09/23 Boston, MA @ Blue Hills Pavilion 09/25 Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore 09/26 Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle 09/28 Dallas, TX @ Bomb Factory 09/29 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall 09/30 Austin, TX @ Stubbs 11/23 Montreal, QC @ Phi Center* 11/24 Ottawa, ON @ Bronson Theatre* 11/25 Toronto, ON @ Great Hall*

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Land Of Talk Share Their Astronomical 'This Time' Video And Announce The War On Drugs Support Dates - UPROXX

When he was elected president of the Philippines in July 2016, President Rodridgo Duterte promised to negotiate peace agreements with the major insurgent groups that have destabilised much of the country for decades.

His government announced it would commence peace talks with the representatives of the National Democratic Front, the umbrella organisation that represents both the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New Peoples Army. Duterte also committed himself to a peace agreement with the Philippines largest insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

At the time, these seemed like breakthroughs in the making. But the early optimism has dissolved, and the peace talks have stalled. While the government does seem genuinely willing to negotiate, the president seems to be been prioritising another one of his election campaign promises: eradicating crime and drugs.

This notorious war on drugs has been extraordinarily bloody, and criticised by human rights organisations and foreign governments alike. Nonetheless, it is supported by a majority of the population.

The popular narrative of the effects of drugs in particular, shabu, or methamphetamine seems to be exaggerated. Shabu use, urban legend says, results in not just theft and robbery, but paedophilia and arson; horror stories abound of addicts slaughtering entire families. The president himself has been quoted likening shabu addicts to the living walking dead of no use to society anymore.

This rhetoric normalises a culture of impunity for the police and vigilantes, many of whom resort to extreme violence. Many innocent people have been targeted, both intentionally and unintentionally; journalists, police, politicians and other critics have been threatened, intimidated, fired or arrested for alleged links with drugs. Yet during my own research, many Filipinos told me they feel safer and that crime seems to have gone down.

The war on drugs may seem distinct from longer-running security issues, but it isnt. The crackdown is contributing to a culture of unchecked violence, which is increasingly accepted as a necessary measure. If this normalisation continues, lasting peace will never be achieved.

For all its conciliatory talk, the government is still using tough tactics to deal with violent insurgents. So far, they have not paid off.

In May 2017, the military launched an operation to apprehend Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group, a faction of bandits designated as a terrorist organisation. But when the army swooped in, Hapilon was protected by scores of armed men who quickly took strategic positions throughout Marawi City. Instead of capturing Hapilon, the military raid seemed to kick-start the groups unanticipated plan to seize the city.

Duterte was on a state visit to Russia at the time. The operation unravelled, and martial law was declared not just in Marawi, but on the entire island of Mindanao. The government has claimed it had intelligence about the groups plans, but has issued contradictory statements on the rationale behind the siege, citing both jihadism and the drug trade.

Reports state that a few hundred jihadists managed to hold onto several neighbourhoods in defiance of government troops; they held off the military with improvised explosive devices, a sophisticated network of underground tunnels, and snipers placed in strategic locations across the city. This is a remarkable change in tactics for the Philippines insurgents, and clearly echoes recent urban battles in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

The ongoing Marawi City crisis has scotched the governments ceasefire with the New Peoples Army. The deal was ultimately breached by both sides; in response, the Communist Partys central command ordered increased operations in other parts of the country.

This decision is partly grounded in history. Communists still harbour bitter memories of the last period of martial law, imposed by dictator Ferdinand Marcos. True, the post-Marcos 1987 Constitution has more checks and balances in place than its predecessor, but martial law in Mindanao has already been extended to December 31, and may yet be extended to the entire country.

But outside the insurgent movements, many Filipinos see martial law as a necessary means with which to solve various problems in Mindanao. Aside from the insurgency, the region is home to many powerful families and clans with private armies and large weapon caches something exemplified in the Marawi Crisis, where small groups of terrorists enjoy access to remarkably advanced weapons.

The problem is that martial law has hardly been a storming success. The governments airstrikes have caused both civilian casualties and immense material destruction. The armed forces have attempted to secure the area around Marawi City, but it seems likely that Hapilon and the Maute leadership have escaped. Nor has the army managed to prevent new fighters from entering Marawi City; on the contrary, the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf seem to have no problem recruiting ever more members.

Other groups are having problems, too. The Moro Islamic Liberation Fronts leadership has expressed concerns over its lack of control over the younger generation; the disconnect between what the Communist Party leadership says and what the New Peoples Army is actually doing could mean that the Communists have lost control of their armed affiliate.

The success of any peace process is measured not only by what agreement ultimately gets signed. What will matter is whether it can be implemented, and the extent to which it addresses both the roots and consequences of the conflict. Only then will any further violence be avoided, and permanently. The prospect of any such peace in the Philippines remains slim. To quote Duterte himself, There will be no peace for a generation.

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Philippines' ongoing war on drugs shatters hopes of peace for a generation - The Conversation UK

Newsweek

Far-Reaching Bill Would Legalize Weed, Offer Reparations for War on Drugs Common Dreams "From disparate marijuana-related arrests and incarceration rates to deportations and justifications for police brutalitythe War on Drugs has had disparate harm on low-income communities and communities of color. It's time to rectify that," Adesuyi ... Sen. Cory Booker puts marijuana legalization at the center of his new racial justice billWashington Post When Will Marijuana Be Legal Federally? Senator Cory Booker Introduces Bill That Would Deschedule PotNewsweek Cory Booker introduces bill to legalize marijuana at federal levelWashington Examiner Inverse -Big Think -Facebook -Politico all 200 news articles »

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Far-Reaching Bill Would Legalize Weed, Offer Reparations for War on Drugs - Common Dreams

The United States has been waging a war on drugs for nearly 50 years.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this long campaign to thwart the production, distribution, sale and use of illegal drugs. This sustained investment has resulted in millions of drug offenders being processed through the American criminal justice system. It has also influenced crime control strategies used by American police.

Under President Barack Obama, there was a period of reform and moderating of tactics. But President Donald Trumps attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is announcing plans to return to law and order approaches, such as aggressive intervention by law enforcement and use of mandatory minimum sentences by prosecutors.

I recently co-authored a book with University of Louisville criminal justice professor Richard Tewksbury on the role of confidential informants. In my view, a return to a law and order approach would undo recent gains in reducing crime rates as well as prison populations and would further strain tense police-community relations.

Unlike violent or property crimes which usually yield cooperative victims and witnesses police and prosecutors are at a disadvantage when fighting drugs. Drug users dont see themselves as crime victims or their dealers as criminals.

Police thus have limited options for identifying offenders. Alternatives include the use of undercover operations or conducting aggressive crackdown operations to disrupt the market in real time. But sneaking up on or infiltrating secretive and multilayered drug organizations is not easy to do, and usually produces only low-level offenders.

Poor police-community relations dont help. Heightened enforcement and punishments have made matters worse by increasing the secrecy and sophistication of the illegal drug market and forcing police to develop criminal intelligence on offenders.

So how do police gather criminal intelligence on drug crimes?

The most honorable way is to rely on law-abiding sources who see the criminal activity and feel compelled to report it to the police in order to stop the problem.

The second option is for police to turn to a paid informant who is familiar with the drug operations to set up a buy or inform on the criminal activities of others in exchange for money.

A third option is to apprehend known drug offenders and coerce them into divulging information on higher-ups in exchange for a lighter sentence. We call these folks indentured informants because they owe the police information. If they dont follow through on their end of the deal, they face the weight of criminal prosecution, often through heavy mandatory minimum sentences.

As police-community relations have eroded over time, police have slowly but surely increased their reliance on criminal informants especially to develop cases on higher-level criminals.

Mandatory minimum sentences serve as a strong motivator to snitch. It has become the go-to move for authorities.

Not surprisingly, drug dealers fight back against this coercive method of getting evidence with a stop snitchin campaign. Retaliatory violence often erupts, and it becomes harder for police to get evidence from both criminal and civic-minded informants who fear reprisals from drug dealers. Anger grows against police who are perceived as not following through on promises to protect witnesses or clean up neighborhoods.

There exists yet another wrinkle in the equation. Reliance on harsh drug sentences and confidential informants has become part and parcel to how other types of criminal cases are solved.

Witnesses or persons privy to information in homicide or robbery cases are routinely prodded into cooperating only after they find themselves facing a stiff penalty due to their involvement in an unrelated drug case.

Here again, this produces short-term gains but long-term complications for criminal justice authorities as states move to decriminalize or legalize drugs. What happens when prosecutors working violent or property crime cases can no longer rely on the threat of mandatory minimum sentences to compel individuals to provide information?

By exploiting intelligence sources and putting them at risk, the war on drugs has pitted the police against residents in drug-ridden communities. This runs contrary to the ideals of community policing, in which trust and legitimacy are essential to members of the community and law enforcement collaborating to prevent and combat crime.

The past decade has witnessed significant reforms within the criminal justice system, particularly as it relates to drug enforcement. Authorities have sought to integrate a public health approach into the long-standing criminal justice model and adopt a more patient and long-term view on the drug problem.

In the end, the reliance on informants and mandatory minimum sentences creates numerous unanticipated negative consequences which will continue to grow if we revert back to them.

Dean A. Dabney is an associate professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia State University. This piece was originally published by The Conversation.

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GUEST COMMENTARY: Reviving the war on drugs will further harm police-community relations - Columbia Missourian

Kesha releases her first album in five years, Rainbow (which features Eagles of Death Metal on two songs, Dolly Parton on a cover of her own song, and recent Kesha single Praying), next week (8/11). She announced a tour, including a NYC show on October 9 at Hammerstein Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Saturday (8/5) at 10 AM with various presales starting Thursday (8/3) at 10 AM.

TIckets for the Pinegrove, Saintseneca and Adult Mom show at Irving Plaza go on BrooklynVegan presale at 10 AM. Password HERE.

Tickets for the intimate Grizzly Bear release show at Public Arts go on sale at 10 AM. Tickets for one of their Brooklyn Steel shows are still available (the other is sold out).

Tickets for the War On Drugs and Craig Finn show at Terminal 5 go on AmEx presale at 10 AM. Tickets for TWODs Central Park show with Land of Talk are still available.

Tickets for the Primus show at Brooklyn Steel on Halloween go on AmEx presale at noon. Presales for the Capitol Theatre show start tomorrow.

Tickets for the Kamasi Washington show at Terminal 5 go on AmEx/Spotify presales at 10 AM.

Tickets for the Flogging Molly show at Starland Ballroom with Anti-Flag and Jon Snodgrass go on presale at 10 AM.

Tickets for The Underachievers show at Irving Plaza go on Live Nation/Music Geeks presales at 10 AM (passwords = chorus/musicgeeks).

Tickets for The Dream Syndicates show at Bowery Ballroom go on AmEx presale at 10 AM.

Tickets for Future Islands newly-added show at Brooklyn Steel go on AmEx presale at 10 AM. Tickets for night one are still available.

Tickets for the Mura Masa and Joey Purp show at Terminal 5 go on AmEx presale at noon.

Tickets for the Bully show at Music Hall of Williamsburg go on Spotify and AmEx presales at 10 AM and noon, respectively.

Tickets for the Japandroids and Cloud Nothings show at Brooklyn Steel are on sale now.

Tickets for the Rostam show at MHOW go on presale at 10 AM (password = ROSTAM).

Third Eye Blind are playing the Capitol Theater on October 7 and Asbury Parks Convention Hall on October 19. Tickets for the Cap and Asbury Park go on sale Friday (8/4) at 10 AM, with various presales starting tomorrow.

For more 90s rock nostalgia, Our Lady Peace are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Clumsy at Gramercy Theatre on October 23. Tickets go on various presales at 10 AM.

Holly Miranda is playing Union Pool on August 10 with Richard Aufrichtig (tickets).

Less Art (members of Thrice, Kowloon Walled City, and Curl Up & Die) are releasing their debut album and going on a Northeast tour with Vattnet, which BrooklynVegan is presenting. Theyll be at Mercury Lounge 9/14 (tickets), Middle East in Boston 9/15 (tickets), Songbyrd in DC 9/16 (tickets), and Underground Arts in Philly 9/17 (tickets).

Dinosaur Jr are back in NYC this fall for two shows at Brooklyn Bowl, 10/2 (tickets) and 10/3 (tickets). BrooklynVegan is psyched to be presenting these shows, which are opened by Easy Action (John Brannon from Negative Approachs other band)

Sparks is playing a few shows with a full band this fall. BrooklynVegan is excited to present the NYC show, at Le Poisson Rouge 10/11 (tickets)

Alex Lahey is releasing her debut album on Dead Oceans, and returns to NYC for a BrooklynVegan presented show at Music Hall of Williamsburg 11/16 (tickets)

Stay tuned for the next BrooklynVegan-presented edition of Music Driven at Nitehawk Cinema.

CONTESTS Win tickets to Fleet Foxes show at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park TONIGHT. Win tickets to The Nationals show at Forest Hills Stadium. Win a pair of three-day passes to The Meadows Win tickets to Less Arts show at Mercury Lounge Win tickets and a meet-and-greet to one of Mews NYC shows

SOME UPCOMING SHOWS AT TERMINAL 5 8/21: Midnight Oil (tickets) 10/13 & 10/14: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (tickets)

Little Dragon have shows at Terminal 5 on 8/29 and The Apollo on 8/31 (tickets).

Seu Jorges tribute to David Bowie, The Life Aquatic Tour, returns to NYC with a show at Beacon Theatre on 9/27 (tickets).

WARSAW 9/10: (Thee) Oh Sees (tickets) 9/13: Dead Cross (tickets) 10/22: The Psychedelic Furs (tickets) 11/18: Hot Water Music (tickets)

Newport Jazz Festival happens from August 4-6 this year at International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino and Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. See the full lineup, which includes Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, The Roots, Snarky Puppy, Maceo Parker, Branford Marsalis, Andra Day, Cecile McLorin, Rhiannon Giddens, Maria Schneider Orchestra and more, and get festival passes and single day tickets here.

St. Vincent plays Kings Theatre on 12/2 (sold out) and 12/3 (tickets)

SUMMERSTAGE & CELEBRATE BROOKLYN 8/02 @ Prospect Park: Fleet Foxes (tickets) 9/14 @ Central Park: Patti Smith (tickets) 9/21 @ Central Park: The Head and The Heart (tickets)

Tegan & Sara celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Con at Kings Theatre on 11/8 (tickets)

STONE PONY SUMMERSTAGE 8/25: The Bouncing Souls with Lucero, The Menzingers, Mickey Rickshaw and Timeshares (tickets) 8/26: Gary Clark Jr with Michael Kiwanuka (tickets) 9/10: Shadow of the City with Brian Fallon, Titus Andronicus, Bleachers, and more (tickets) 9/23: Pixies with Sunflower Bean (tickets) 10/6: Rise Against with White Lung and Piece the Veil (tickets)

Gillian Welch plays Beacon Theatre with Dave Rawlings on 8/2 (tickets)

Mac DeMarco plays Radio City on September 22 (tickets)

Benjamin Clementine plays Carnegie Hall on 10/5.

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tix on sale: Grizzly Bear, Kesha, War on Drugs, Primus, Kamasi, more - Brooklyn Vegan (blog)