Daily Archives: October 26, 2019

In 2011, the United States ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, became the first American ambassador forced to resign. A series of cables sent by Mr. Pascual to Washington, and published by WikiLeaks, revealed that when the American authorities detected the location of a high-value target, they were made to choose between several unpalatable alternatives: Notify the Mexican Army, which might tip off the target and was risk-averse; notify the federal police, which was essentially paralyzed; or notify the United States-trained Navy, which was effective but exceedingly violent.

This conundrum was often resolved by embedding American agents in the teams going after kingpins, and sharing intelligence only with Mexican forces highly vetted by the Americans beforehand.

One possible explanation for the humiliating defeat suffered by the Mexican military and President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador last week in Culiacn, Sinaloa, where government forces caught and then released a major drug lord, may lie in these precedents. There is no proof that the American authorities located Ovidio Guzmn Lpez, known as little Chapo or Chapito, but if so, it would follow a pattern.

His father, the drug lord known as El Chapo, Joaqun Guzmn Loera, was captured twice thanks to Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence. As were other high-value targets like Edgar Valdez-Villareal, known as La Barbie, arrested in 2010, and Arturo Beltrn Leyva, killed in 2009.

These factors may well have contributed to an improvised, sloppy, weak and ultimately catastrophic raid meant to nab El Chapos son, whose extradition to the United States had been requested by Washington.

After hundreds of Sinaloa cartel gunmen, or sicarios, closed off the city, attacked key sites and threatened to kill numerous hostages, Mr. Lpez Obrador had no choice but to free Mr. Guzmn Lpez. The press and social media in Mexico are rife with reports of the armys disgust with Mr. Lpez Obradors decision to let Mr. Guzmn Lpez go. But why go after him in the first place?

A possible theory could be that Mr. Guzmn Lpez was located by the D.E.A., and their Mexican counterparts were reluctant to detain him. Mr. Lpez Obrador stated months ago that he had abandoned the widely criticized United States-backed kingpin strategy of focusing on drug lords: 12 years of that strategy had only brought more violence and failed to curtail the size, power and ferocity of the cartels.

The battle of Culiacn illustrates that the Sinaloa cartel is no weaker today than before the war on drugs began. Perhaps the Mexican authorities who received the American tip-off understood that if they didnt nab Mr. Guzmn Lpez, the Americans would out them as complicit and so opted to proceed halfheartedly and disastrously. With the revised North American trade pact, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, stuck in Congress, Mr. Lpez Obradors may have felt coerced to act.

Normally, when the authorities go after high-value targets, they do so with overwhelming force. But just 35 troops were deployed to arrest Mr. Guzmn Lpez. Mexican forces were outmatched and quickly overtaken. The city was not sealed off by the government forces and there were no American Black Hawks to back them up. Only the Guzmn forces succeeded in bringing the city to a violent halt.

Its no wonder the Sinaloa cartel outnumbered federal forces last Friday in Culiacn. The Mexican military and the new National Guard may well have been too busy hunting Central American migrants along the border between the United States and Mexico. More than 20,000 troops have been deployed to the countrys borders to stem the flow of migrants since this summer. At any given time, the total number of active troops oscillates between 50,000 to 60,000. Nearly half the force available to the government has been channeled to migration-policing duties.

Mr. Lpez Obrador has not clearly outlined what to do with his predecessors drug wars, which have claimed more than 250,000 Mexican lives since 2007, and left more than 40,000 missing. During the campaign he called for an end to the drug war, and said he would send the military back to the barracks. As president-elect, he vowed to create a National Guard made up mostly of former army, navy and federal police troops, newly trained and better paid and pledged to legalize some drugs. Then he declared that the legalization of marijuana was not on the agenda, to his supporters dismay. He disowned the kingpin strategy, only to pursue it with El Chapos sons.

As a result of this erratic approach, violence has grown in Mexico since Mr. Lpez Obrador took office last December, reaching the highest recorded totals in Mexican history. Days before the battle of Culiacn, 14 policemen were massacred in the town of Aguililla, in the state of Michoacn, and 15 people were killed by the army in Tepochica, in the state of Guerrero. Mexico City has seen growing levels of crime, from holdups in Louis Vuitton shops to shootouts in poorer neighborhoods. The government has lost control of the situation.

Mr. Lpez Obrador had set a reasonable course until Culiacn. The war on drugs was no longer front and center on the Mexican agenda while American involvement had diminished. He is right to focus on reducing poverty and inequality, raising salaries and cash transfers, and encouraging firms to hire the young unemployed no longer in school, though Mexicans may not feel any relief in the short term.

He should continue on this course, ignore the Americans and look the other way when drug shipments flow to the United States. What is the logic of sending the army to burn marijuana fields in Sinaloa if cannabis is legal for recreational use in California? Mr. Lpez Obrador should clearly advise the D.E.A. and President Trump that the kingpin strategy has been discarded, that embedded American agents will no longer be allowed and that only he will decide if and when drug lords like El Chapos sons will be persecuted.

He should never find himself again in a situation where the only way out is the humiliating release of criminals and negotiating with terrorists.

Jorge G. Castaeda, Mexicos foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, is a professor at New York University and a contributing opinion writer.

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The Bigger Story Behind the Humiliating Release of El Chapos Son - The New York Times

With November elections less than two weeks away, the three candidates in the Campbell County sheriffs race each are hoping to replace retiring Sheriff Steve Hutcherson. Hutcherson announced in January he would not seek reelection after two terms as sheriff.

Among the candidates is Campbell County sheriffs office Captain Dwayne Wade, who has 25 years of service in the sheriffs office. Currently overseeing the field division, Wade said one of his strengths is his experience throughout the entire department serving as deputy, investigator, with the narcotics division and as captain over various departments.

He said he has a understanding of the inner workings of the sheriffs seat, from day-to-day operations to finance and budgeting.

Wade cited the drug epidemic as one of the biggest issues in the county. In order to combat drug trade, he said the office has to be proactive rather than reactive. Having worked narcotics for about 10 years on federal and state levels, Wade said they need to combat the issue on every level and be aware of the severity of the consequences it has in the community.

Other priorities include retaining officers through adequate salaries. A high turnover rate of deputies in Campbell County often is attributed to salaries that are not competitive with positions at other law enforcement agencies in the area.

The average starting pay for a new deputy without any previous experience in the Lynchburg area is about $34,000. In comparison, new troopers with the Virginia State Police make an annual salary of about $44,000 and new Lynchburg police officers make nearly $38,000.

Wade also hopes to continue enforcing safety in Campbell County schools.

This is my home; this is where my family has been my whole life, Wade said. Ive dedicated my life and career here.

Sgt. Terry Cook, a Campbell County Sheriffs deputy, also is running for the open seat. With 30 years of experience at the office, Cook also said he worked his way through the ranks, and is deeply connected with the Campbell County community.

Like Wade, he listed his primary priority as targeting drugs in the county, both through working closely with other agencies in Central Virginia and getting the department more deeply involved throughout the community.

He also prioritized deputy pay, keeping school resource officers in Campbell schools and addressing mental health issues in the county through continued work in programs like Project Lifesaver a rapid response program aiding victims of Alzheimers Disease and similar disorders.

My motto is being fair to the employees and fair to the public, Cook said. I want a more progressive department that gets out there in the community.

The third candidate is Whit Clark III, a retired Lynchburg police officer and current investigator with the Campbell County Sheriffs Office. He retired from the Lynchburg Police Department as a captain after 32 years and has worked with the Campbell Sheriffs Office for four years. With more than 25 years of leadership experience, Clark said he has worked in almost every facet of law enforcement.

He also listed addressing drug problems in the county and all across Central Virginia as a priority, and said he would continue to enforce present efforts to combat the problem, maintain relationships and partnerships with other jurisdictions and bring a K-9 program back to the department. The dogs would serve a dual purpose, said Clark both to track narcotics and to locate lost persons.

Other priorities include maintaining partnerships with the schools and increasing community engagement. By enhancing community policing, Clark said they could improve relationships with churches and businesses, and offer programming on things such as fraud prevention and personal safety to maintain a constant presence.

Clark also hopes to create a community advisory board with representatives from across the county in order to meet and listen to citizens.

If were doing all the talking, we arent learning anything, Clark said.

He also named deputy pay raises as a focal point of his campaign, but said retention was about more than salaries.

Do the deputies feel valued? Do the deputies feel like they have a voice? Are they being listened to? Clark said. When you talk about retention, you have to look at the global picture.

Sarah Honosky covers Appomattox and Campbell counties at The News & Advance. Reach her at (434) 385-5556.

Sarah Honosky covers Appomattox and Campbell counties at The News & Advance. Reach her at (434) 385-5556.

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War on drugs, deputy pay among priorities for Campbell sheriff's race - Lynchburg News and Advance

It is not our search for pleasure that is so damaging to the environment, but corporal greed, social injustice, and inequality.

You cant call yourself a climate change activist if youre doing coke, says Dan Burkitt inhis opinion piecefor the Metro. MDMA is killing trees, says avideoon VICE. It seems the idea that drug users should be blamed and shamed for destroying the planet is a very virulent one. The environmental damage these people refer to is real and it is related to the production of substances many people use, such as cocaine or MDMA. However, if you have a closer look at the arguments, you will see that it is not people who use these substances who should be blamed but governments who keep the production of these drugs unregulated.

In the early 20th century the coca leaf was a legal agricultural commodity and cocaine was a legal substance widely used in medicine. The German pharmaceutical company, Merck, imported coca leaf and crude cocaine paste from South America to produce hundreds of kilos of cocaine in its laboratories in Frankfurt. An Italian entrepreneur, Angelo Mariani, invented a popular beverage called Vin Mariani, containing low levels of alcohol and cocaine. He also imported coca leaf from Peru and produced thousands of bottles in his factory in Neuilly, France.

What makes this period different from today is that the whole process of cocaine production was legal and regulated. Even though there were no laws protecting the environment at that time, and people were not even aware of the long term damage they did to nature, the production of cocaine was not nearly as damaging as it is today. That is because neither farmers of coca leaf, nor laboratories producing cocaine had to hide from the authorities. They could cultivate coca bushes in agricultural areas, they did not need to move to the heart of the rainforest to avoid eradication. What is more, cocaine itself was rarely produced in Latin America at all: the raw product itself could be directly shipped to Europe, where it was produced in a supervised environment, in a professional way.

No deforestation by illegal laboratories, no dangerous chemicals poisoning the soil of the rainforest. And beyond environmental damage, no landmines protecting the laboratories and killings civilians. No dirty money going to organised criminals and terrorists, no violence fuelled by the illegal cocaine trade, no billions of dollars spent on interdiction and eradication.

The same applies to other drugs, such as MDMA, which is often produced in illegal laboratories in Western Europe, with dangerous drug waste being disposed of in forests. Here, again, what is really damaging is that the whole process is unregulated and is controlled by criminals who dont give a shit about the collateral damage they do to nature.

The production of these substances is not inherently and necessarily so damaging to the environment as it is today. These drugs could be produced in a sustainable way, following environmental regulations and security rules.

It is time to stop blaming and shaming drug users for the damage caused by the war on drugs. What is more, it is time to stop believing that consumer shaming itself is an effective method to protect the environment. Yes, we need to change the way we live. But expecting that simply changing our behaviour as consumers will save the planet is a myth. Without making substantial changes in our economic and political systems, without putting peoples health and wellbeing before (legal and illegal) profits, there is no chance we can save humankind.

We all need to sacrifice personal pleasure in order to do our bit for the planet, says Dan Burkitt. I disagree. Humans are pleasure-seeking creatures and it is not our search for joy that is so damaging to the environment but corporate greed, social injustice, and inequality.

This article was originally published by Drug Reporter, the drug policy website of theRights Reporter Foundation. Read the original article here.

* Pter Srosi is Editor in Chief of Drug Reporter.

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Drug Users are not Damaging the Environment, the War on Drugs is - TalkingDrugs

The talk of drug decriminalization has finally started to circulate around American political discourse. Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has introduced a mild stance in his platform, and Oregon Gov. Kate Browns seminal legislation has laid the tracks for a complete drug decriminalization by November 2020.

A major concern from opponents is that a more liberal approach to drugs would create more addicts that would pervade society, eventually leading to the moral rot of the country. The simple truth is that most people arent addicts, and the answer to those who are is for them to get help. Humans have been using drugs for thousands of years, and the U.S. is the worlds largest consumer.

Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 to help reduce the rising HIV rate, and its worked. Socialist president Jorge Sampaio took a pragmatic approach and decided to help addicts get sober instead of locking them in cages. Why should it be a crime to do what you want with your body as long as you arent hurting anybody else?

This argument is no different than Roe v. Wade, which was supported by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments. To put it tersely, the Ninth Amendment gives one the right to do things that arent specifically mentioned in the written laws. For instance, I have a right to eat chicken because nowhere does it say that I cant eat chicken. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, after defining citizenship, says:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

This country was founded on the repudiation of government interference in personal affairs. Not only is it a human right for one to do what they want to their bodies, decriminalizing all drugs and completely legalizing others would unclog our overcrowded prison population and eradicate the ruthless Mexican drug cartels.

The U.S. only makes up 5% of the worlds population, yet it incarcerates almost a quarter of the worlds prison population, with most of the inmates being nonviolent drug offenders. The government annually spends millions of taxpayer dollars to enforce prohibition on this failed war on drugs and propping up private prisons, a morally repugnant and racist business model in which funding is contingent on the number of people that remain incarcerated. If drugs such as marijuana and cocaine were legally regulated businesses, there would be significant tax revenue coming in instead of spending it on violating human rights.

The drug cartels would also suffer immensely from this. Any time something is made illegal that people want, an invariable black market is created in order to supply the demand. The Mexican government estimates that each month the Sinaloa cartel alone pushes 10,000 tons of marijuana and two tons of cocaine across the U.S. border.

Federally legalizing marijuana and, at the very least, decriminalizing cocaine would be enough to kneecap the cartels. A complete decriminalization would eradicate them almost completely. Domestic disputes involving drug deals would also more likely be settled in a courtroom instead of on the streets.

Decriminalization would also facilitate research regarding psilocybin mushrooms, which has shown immensely positive results in combating depression and PTSD. Psilocybin has also been shown to galvanize creativity and heighten ones senses to the point where microdosing has become an open secret in Silicon Valley.

There has been a proliferation of drug usage over the past five decades despite an ongoing war. The U.S. has been down this road before with the prohibition of alcohol, yet we cant seem to accept the same failed results this time around. Not only would decriminalizing all drugs free up courtrooms and jail cells, it would expand peoples right to autonomy. Its time to end the drug war.

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Miller: End the drug war | Opinion - Oregon Daily Emerald

Last Monday, a drug cartel killed 13 policemen in the state of Michoacn. The following day, on the 15th, a shootout in Guerrero left 15 people dead, including a police officer. On the 17th, a violent gun battle erupted this time in Sinaloa between cartel gunmen and Mexican security forces, who briefly captured one of El Chapo Guzmans son, only to release him immediately to avoid more violence.

This latest wave of terror in Mexico reminded me of something President Donald Trump said last month at a rally in New Mexico that we Hispanics understand the drug crisis better than other people. At the whole center of this crisis is the drugs that are pouring in, and you understand that when other people dont understand it.

Hes right about Hispanics understanding the drug crisis better than others, but not for the reasons he claims.

What we Hispanics understand is that the war on drugs has failed on both sides of the border. What we understand is that Hispanic communities in the U.S. and in Latin America have borne the brunt of U.S. drug-related policies and practices.

What we understand is that the guns the cartels use to kill innocents and intimidate communities come from the U.S. What we understand is that drug addiction in the U.S. is putting billions of dollars into the pockets of cartels, giving them the means to kill and disappear anyone who gets in the way of their profits.

There are plenty of stories about the opioid crisis in the U.S., but few connect the large-scale drug addiction to the never-ending war on drugs fought in Latin America. The U.S. demand for drugs is the reason my hometown in Guerrero is surrounded by poppy fields. It is the reason a port in Michoacn is a key entry point for chemicals used by the cartel to produce synthetic drugs.

The war on drugs in Mexico has been supported by the United States including the Trump administration through the billions of dollars in funding, training of soldiers, and provisions of military aircraft, weapons and vehicles to the Mexican government, according to the Congressional Research Service.

It has turned Mexico into one of the most violent countries in the world. In 2018, there were 35,964 homicides in Mexico, a 12% increase from the year before.

Our lax American gun laws and inadequate gun control have placed weapons of war, such as AR-15s and AK-47s, in the hands of drug traffickers. Seventy percent of guns recovered from criminal activity in Mexico come from the U.S., according to a PBS News report, a country that has produced more than 150 million firearms in the last 33 years.

The drug war has also led to an increase in migration. This year alone, an estimated 508,000 people from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador have fled their homes and headed north, according to the Congressional Research Service, many seeking refuge from drug-related violence. In August, migration from Mexico surpassed that of Central America. After the descent into further chaos from last weeks violence, there will be even more Mexican families fleeing their homes.

The drug crisis is something that we Hispanics understand because our communities on both sides of the border have suffered from it. In the U.S., most Hispanic families arent dealing with drug cartels and turf wars, but with different sorts of problems. The drug war has increased racial profiling, with Hispanics targeted disproportionately. We, along with blacks, are more likely to be convicted of drug use and possession than white people. Disparities in incarceration rates for drug offenses have led to 80% of people in federal prison and almost 60% of people in state prison being black or Latino, according to data gathered by the Drug Policy Alliance. The immigrant community is the most vulnerable, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, with drug violations, however minor, leading to 40,000 deportations a year.

Hispanic Americans, they understand, Trump said at the rally in New Mexico last month. They dont want the criminals coming over the border. They dont want people taking their jobs, they want to have that security, and they want the wall. They want the wall!

But he is wrong. In 2018, a survey from the Pew Hispanic Research Center showed that 75% of Latinos opposed the border wall. We dont want a wall, because we understand, even if he doesnt, that a border wall wont keep drugs from entering the country, since most of the drugs are brought in through U.S. ports of entry. In fiscal year 2019, 210 pounds of fentanyl, 244,377 pounds of marijuana, 11,362 pounds of cocaine, 661 pounds of heroin, and 13,441 pounds of meth were seized at the ports, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In 2016, Americans spent $150 billion on those last four drugs alone, according to RAND Corp.

No border wall will solve this problem. What will stop the influx of drugs is for our political leaders to help put an end, once and for all, to the demand that fuels the supply of drugs in the country. We dont need a wall. We need health care, social and educational policies that work.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, every day, more than 130 people in the United States die as a result of overdosing on opioids. The drug epidemic is a public health crisis that is costing the U.S. billions of dollars a year from loss of productivity, crime and health care costs, but Hispanic communities are paying a higher price on both sides of the border.

Trump said we Hispanics understand the drug crisis better than others, and we do, but for the War on Drugs to finally end, it is crucial that everyone on this side of the border understands it as well, starting with our president.

Reyna Grande is a Mexican author living in the U.S. Her most recent book is A Dream Called Home. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

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Hispanics continue to bear the brunt of US drug policies - The Dallas Morning News

CARTEL CHRONICLES is an ongoing series of dispatches from the front lines of the drug war in Latin America.

Ive been in places where theyve hung me up by my legs , covered me in shit and made me eat caldo de oso [a soup made of rotten vegetables]. They think that beating people up and screaming at them that they will die is going to make them stop using drugs, said Enrique Martinez, aged 55, who was addicted to heroin for 35 years in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico.

Before he got off heroin, in the bonafide rehab center called A New Vision that he now helps run, he was interned in one of the thousands of clandestine, unregulated drug treatment centers around the country, known as anexos.

Mexico, currently in the grip of the worst cartel violence since the start of its drug war more than a decade ago, is now also struggling with a growing drug addiction problem. Yet its drug treatment system is in disarray.

With limited and inadequate state resources, the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which took office in December, is leaving many drug users in the hands of an ill-equipped and hellish drug treatment system which has seen many vulnerable users kidnapped, abused, and beaten. Just one in ten private rehab clinics operating in Mexico has official permission to do so from the countrys anti-addiction agency, say experts who work with drug users. Other sources estimate a quarter of rehab clinics are registered .

Drug use generally across Mexico has nearly doubled in recent years, according to the government census on drug consumption. But worryingly this includes a doubling in the use of the addictive stimulant crystal meth, known as cristal in Mexico. Over the last decade, the huge amounts of meth produced in country by Mexicos powerful drug syndicates has begun to diffuse into the wider community, increasingly pushed onto the streets by vendors.

A man shows the heroin and meth he's about to inject. Image: Deborah Bonello

[ Cristal is] a threat because its very accessible and its super addictive, said Gady Zabicky, the head of Mexicos federal anti-addiction agency, CONADIC. But Zabicky admits that there simply arent enough state-funded clinics to tend to Mexicos growing army of addicted drug users. In the state of Guanajuato, where meth use has spiked alongside homicides, demand for treatment for cristal use has increased seven-fold in recent years, according to government figures.

Jose Gomez, a psychiatrist who treats drug users at one of the government centers in Guanajuato, said that they treat around 2,000 people a year, largely for cristal, but that demand far oustrips what they can offer. We need to open more spaces [for drug user treatment]," he told VICE.

So the government outsources its addiction problem to a vast network of private centers for treatment. Some of which are good, but most are either unreliable, shambolic, or dangerous. Government oversight and monitoring of these clinics is minimal. As an example, half of the hundred or so drug users in the New Identity clinic VICE visited in Mexico City had been placed there by Mexicos social services agency, the DIF. One of them was an 11-year-old boy.

The good, registered clinics can charge as much as US$1,500 for the minimum three-month program inmates are put on. But these are for the few. With a lack of free government rehab options, families desperate for help with their addicted loved ones turn to these private clinics, only one in five of which are registered with the authorities, the experts I spoke to estimate. There are some 2,200 clandestine clinics operating around the country, according to Zabicky. But there are likely more: Ruben Diazconti, who works with drug users in Mexico City, told VICE that he thinks in Mexico City alone, there are as many as 1,800.

In recent years, some centers have made efforts to get on the government register and conform to official norms, othersthe anexoshave been driven underground by those pressures. Nearly all of these private centers are run by and employ former drug users.

Patients who are interned in rehab centersboth registered and unregisteredare often kidnapped by employees and held against their will. Their families, meaning well and at their wits end, sign away their freedom. Its very common that people get tricked into thinking theyre going somewhere but instead theyre taken to these centers against their will, said Carlos Zamudio, an independent investigator on drug markets and consumption who wrote a report about drug treatment centers for the Open Society Foundations in in 2016.

Used bottles of nalaxone, the drug that reverses opioid overdoses, in a drug clinic in Prevencasa, Tijuana. Image: Deborah Bonello

Interviews with drug users in Guanajuato, Tijuana, and Mexico City confirmed this is a common practice by both registered and clandestine clinics. Even municipal police are sometimes contracted by families or clinics to take patients to these centers against their will, said users and observers.

I was asleep in the night and they woke me up, said Ceci, 20, who spoke to VICE in the New Identity center in Mexico City. I was super drugged up and it was awful. I didnt want to come and [the people from the center] tied my hands and feet and I was screaming my head off. They carried me out because me parents signed a formI was under 16 at the time.

Ceci started using drugs when she was 13 and has been in and out of clinics for much of her young life. She was most recently interned here for her meth use. This is her fourth stay at this center. This final time she came of her own accord but the other three she says they came for her.

The practice of emotional and physical violence by anexos to cure addiction is commonplace, according to Zamudio. They say that those methods are the only way addicts learn and value their lives, he said. His report estimated that at the time, some 35,000 drug users in Mexico were in centers operating outside of the law.

Another unnamed victim, who Zamudio interviewed for his study, told him: My dad brought me in with lies. He asked me to come along to my uncles house to get some stuff. We went there and some men came over. When they tried to put me in a van, I got pissed and so they tied me up with my feet and hands behind my back.

They tied me up as if I were a slab of pork, said another. They caught me from behind, tied up my hands and feet and [when] I arrived to the group, they put me in a place that they call the morgue...There they checked me and someone tells me to lie down. They tell me this will be your bed, today you will stay here until you sober up. Well, ever since I entered that observation room or morgue as they call it, I could hear people screaming. I would hear them at three in the morning, all the cursing.

Legal or not, rehab centers arent doing the job they set out to doeven the ones with good intentions. People just leave feeling bitter and damaged and start using again, said Martinez in Tijuana.

These clinics have become a decent business for some owners who can manage hundreds of patients at a time, but theyre not solving the problem of addiction. Alfredo Segura, at the New Identity registered rehab center in Mexico City, said he has just a 7% success rate with patients. This is very low compared to the success rates claimed (but rarely proved) by the majority of rehabs, but Segura was being honest about the difficulties of kicking addiction.

Zabicky said the other problem with Mexican rehabs is that the treatment they give is one size fits all, regardless of whether people are coming in for help with alcohol, heroin or cristal use.

But its not just meth that is causing problems among Mexicos increasingly distressed population. In the north of the country, on the U.S.-Mexico border, opioid overdosesrarely recorded in autopsies in Mexicoare on the up.

Mexico has been spared the opioid epidemic sweeping the States. Yet now observers who work with drug users in the cities of Tijuana and Mexicali are detecting fentanyl through tests on white powder, sold as heroin and called China White.

Mexicos cartels started producing fentanyl in clandestine kitchens in states such as Michoacn, Guerrero, Sinaloa and Baja California a couple of years ago, in response to growing demand for the synthetic opioid from users and dealers in the United States. Like with meth, fentanyl is also seeping into Mexicos drug diet, a bi-product of rising heroin use and domestic production of the highly lethal synthetic opioid.

Its with the arrival of 'China White' that we have started to see so many overdoses, said Luis Segovia. He and his colleagues at Prevencasa, a drug harm reduction NGO which runs a needle exchange in the north of Tijuana, have started handing out naloxone spray to users, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses if someone can administer it to a dying person in time.

His colleague Alfonso Chvez does the daily rounds on the blocks close to the center. Down a nearby alley, users cluster together on a curb, some of them nodding in and out of consciousness. Chvez hands them each naloxone, so it is on hand if someone ODs. Chvez chastises Yolanda, a middle aged user, for picking up a dirty needle from the ground and preparing to use it. He says naloxoneknown under the brand Narcan in the U.S.is prohibitively expensive in Mexico. Prevencasa has to rely on international donors, not the Mexican government, to fund its supply.

A two hour drive away, in the border city of Mexicali, heroin user Julio Moreno, 31, told VICE that he tried fentanyl for the first time in September. It made me really stupid, he said, but he liked it because it was so strong and so knowingly uses it. Verter, a community center there that works with drug users, tested the syringe he used to take the drug and it came up positive for fentanyl.

What the government needs to focus on, according to Tania Ramirez, from the influential nonprofit Mexico United Against Crime. is more and better measures of drug use to improve prevention effortsto deal with the risk factors that affect the most vulnerable populations such as children and teenagers.

But the future does not look good for anyone with a drug problem in Mexico. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador cut the funding to nonprofits such as Verter and Prevencasa, who are working on the frontline with vulnerable users, when he took office at the end of last year. The cuts were part of his fight against corruption, arguing that many nonprofits abuse government funds. Experts acknowledge that this can happen, but that the solution is to add a filter to the way money is handed out to prevent it falling into corrupt hands.

Meanwhile, the federal budget cuts have left organizations on the frontline of drug addiction scrambling for the resources to attend to a growing problem.

Follow Deborah Bonello on Twitter.

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Mexicos Other Drug War Is Addiction, and Its Rehabs Are Terrifying - Vice News

More than halfway through his term, President Rodrigo Duterte remains extremely (if unnaturally) popular.

Latest numbers from the Social Weather Stations show Duterte enjoyed a 65 percentage point net satisfaction rating as of late September. This means 78% of Filipino adults were satisfied with his performance and only 13% were not.

But Dutertes enduring popularity is baffling, considering his increasingly defeatist stance on some of the most pressing policy issues of the day.

From the countrys drug problem, last years spell of high inflation, Metro Manilas monstrous traffic, and Chinas encroachments, Duterte comes off not so much as a strongman forceful and resolute but as someone who has simply lost steam and given up.

Youll be surprised how frequently Duterte has used the phrase wala akong magawa (I cant do anything) or wala tayong magawa (we cant do anything) in his speeches and other public appearances.

Drug problem: 'I cannot control'

Dutertes defeatism starts with his very own pet policy: the war on drugs.

Back in 2016 he rose to power on the singular promise he will stop the countrys drug menace in as little as 3 to 6 months.

Fast forward to 2019, Duterte has repeatedly admitted hes nowhere near eradicating drugs.

As early as 2017 he already said, Hindi makaya nga ng iba, tayo pa kaya? (Others couldn't do it. How much more for us?) Iyong drugs na iyan, we cant control it.

Last year he said, Drugs will not end at the end of my term. It might just be worsened.

And this year, right before the midterm elections, he said, Drugs, I cannot control, son of a bitch, even if I ordered the deaths of these idiots.

It was also Duterte himself who absent any empirical basis whatsoever claimed the ranks of drug users in the country swelled from 3 to 4 million in 2016 to 7 to 8 million this year.

The drug wars glaring failure should surprise no one.

Countless studies worldwide have shown that any war on drugs is ineffective and bound to fail. In fact, it only tends to empower rather than weaken drug suppliers and cartels. (READ: War on drugs? Other countries focus on demand, not supply)

High inflation: 'Hindi talaga kaya eh'

Duterte also looked like a deer in the headlights in the face of last years bout with runaway inflation (or how fast prices are rising).

When inflation peaked at 6.7% in October last year, Duterte said, I have assembled all of the talents available...low-key but brilliant mindsKung sa mga utak na yan hindi kaya, hindi talaga kaya eh. Wala, wala tayong magawa(If those brilliant minds cant handle it, we cant do it. Nothing, we can do nothing about it.)

Sure, presidents dont have to be economists. But total ignorance of economics coupled with lack of interest about it could lead to policy paralysis.

Even as millions of Filipinos especially the poorest of the poor felt the sharp acceleration of prices last year, the Department of Finance contented itself with downplaying inflations impact, one press conference at a time.

It took then-House speaker Gloria Arroyo an economist by training to convene the economic managers and list down concrete steps to combat inflation. In all this, Duterte was nowhere to be found.

Luckily, inflation has since dropped to less than one percent, and the economic managers now take credit for their measures such as the Rice Tariffication Act, which has its own set of problems.

In short, government was evidently not helpless far from what Duterte would have us believe.

Monstrous traffic: 'Let EDSA rot'

Where Metro Manilas worsening traffic situation is concerned, Duterte seems to have thrown in the towel, too.

Early on, Duterte sought emergency powers from Congress to combat traffic. But critics were skeptical how exactly these emergency powers might help (if at all), and Congress has dilly-dallied on it.

In exasperation, Duterte has given up on it entirely: Ilang buwan na lang. Two years and so many months, hindi ko na yan matataposBakit ako maghingi ng emergency power? (There are but a few months leftI cant finish that. Why should I still ask for emergency powers?)

Earlier he said, Let EDSA remain as it is for the next 20 years'Wag na lang. Wala na tayong magawa. (Dont bother. We cant do anything about it.)

Proposed solutions to the traffic nightmare actually abound. On and off social media people have suggested alternative number coding schemes, more and better public transportation options like bus rapid transits and trains, and congestion pricing at major thoroughfares.

Yet rather than take these suggestions seriously, the Palace busied itself with publicity stunts and lexical debates about the definition of a traffic crisis. (READ: What Duterte doesnt get about Metro Manila traffic)

Filipinos are craving for both immediate and long-term relief from their daily traffic woes. The last thing they need to hear is that the President seems neither willing nor able to do anything about it.

Chinas encroachments: 'Wala akong magawa'

Finally, Dutertes defeatism is perhaps nowhere as evident as in his China stance.

Before coming into office, Duterte promised he would invoke the arbitral tribunals historic ruling on the West Philippine Sea. Heck, Duterte even jested he would ride a jet ski to the Spratlys and plant a Philippine flag there.

But Duterte has not just glaringly failed to ride a jet ski, more importantly, his foreign policy stance toward China has also turned out to be disturbingly obsequious.

This year, for example, Duterte said, When China claimed the entire ocean as theirs, eh wala akong magawa, wala tayong magawa eh yan ang gusto niya. (I couldnt do anything, we couldnt do anything, its what China wants.)

When the Chinese militia rammed and sank a Filipino fishing boat in June, Duterte told the fishermen blithely, Well, Im sorry. Thats how it is. Duterte also simply echoed Beijings characterization of the attack as an ordinary maritime traffic accident.

Duterte supposedly mentioned the West Philippine Sea to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last August. But Xi reportedly didnt budge and merely reiterated his governments position of not recognizing the arbitral ruling.

Many a legal and foreign policy expert have warned against an overly defeatist stance concerning China. They even laid down concrete steps by which Duterte can assert our sovereign rights. (READ: Carpio rebuts Duterte, offers at least 6 ways to enforce Hague ruling)

But there are none so deaf as those who will not listen.

We deserve no quitter

Its one thing for presidents or any leader for that matter to make mistakes. But its a different thing altogether for them to give up as a matter of habit.

Elbert Hubbard once said, There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.

By this standard, Duterte is unmistakably failing the Filipino people. Yet we let him get away with it.

We Filipinos deserve more from our President. By 2022 lets elect a new one who has enough brains and grit to tackle the biggest problems facing our society.

Theres no room for jaded quitters in the Palace. Rappler.com

The author is a PhD candidate at the UP School of Economics. His views are independent of the views of his affiliations. Follow JC on Twitter (@jcpunongbayan) and Usapang Econ (usapangecon.com).

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[ANALYSIS] Duterte the Defeatist - Rappler

VETS. World War II Veterans listen to speeches made on the 75th anniversary of the landing in Leyte Gulf. Photo by Ryan Macasero/Rappler

But it was still an opportunity for him to talk about his administrations war on drugs through his National Security Adiviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon.

Today, the Filipino people are still at war. Not against colonial or imperial forces of the past, but against the menace of criminality, illegal drugs, corruption, poverty, terrorism and extensive environmental degradation, Esperon said, reading the President's prepared speech.

In the audience were dozens of surviving Filipino and American World War II veterans who are in their late 80s and 90s.

As it was Americas moral obligation to defend the Philippines 75 years ago, it is now our moral obligation to eliminate these problems for our society if we are to be a truly free and progressive nation, Esperon, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, read.

Let me therefore take this occasion to remind everyone to remain vigilant against these threats especially against terrorism and violent extremism, Duterte's statement added.

United States Charg d'Affaires John C. Law said in an interview that the United States is cooperating with the Philippines, at least in its fight against terrorism.

There is a violent extremist insurgency that wants to kill people, that wants to undermine Philippine democracy, that wants to do any number of terrible things against the people of Mindanao and all its allies, Law said.

While the United States government has been critical on alleged human rights abuses in Philippines war on drugs, its military relationship has remained mostly unchanged. In April 2019, the US and Philippines held its annual Balikatan excercises.

On Monday, October 15, the Philippines, US and Japan held joint military drills near the West Philippine Sea off the island of Palawan. (READ: Philippines, U.S., Japan hold military drills near West PH Sea)

But Dutertes statement said that more than military conflict, social ills are what hinder the development of the country today. Keep in mind that its only through our bravery and love of country that we can attain genuine liberation from the ills that have plagued our society for so long, the statement read.

Connecting the landing at Leyte Gulf with his administrations campaign against drugs and crime, the President concluded: May this historic commemoration serve as a reminder to face every challenge with courage and fortitude. As citizens of a nation proud of its glorious past, let us all work together in dreaming of a more promising future. Rappler.com

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Duterte on 75th anniversary of Leyte landing: Filipinos still at war vs illegal drugs - Rappler

OPLAN TOKHANG. 3 suspected drugs personalities were apprenhended by cops while 3 others died after a shootout in Maypajo, Caloocan City on September 30, 2016. Photo by LeAnne Jazul/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines Police reports on deaths in Oplan TokHang or the drug war are a little hard to believe, going by recurring quotes from drug suspects and a suspicious "cut and paste" template, the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) told the Supreme Court (SC).

FLAG, and co-petitioner Center for International Law (CenterLaw), have petitioned the SC to declare President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs unconstitutional.

In 7 police reports studied by FLAG, drug suspects who died in police operations allegedly all said "putang ina, pulis ka pala, papatayin kita!" (Fuck, you're a cop, I'll kill you.)

These details were reported by cops themselves in reports filed after the drug operations. The suspects are among the more than 5,000 "nanlaban" deaths, or those who allegedly resisted arrest with a gun, so the cops shot them instead.

If these police reports are to be believed, Reynaldo Javier Jr, Paul Martinez, Leo Geluz, Emelio Blanco, Ryan Eder, Jomar Manaois, Mark Anthony Bunuan, Jefferson Bunuan, and Willie Ternora, said the same exact words when they were apprehended.

FLAG is examining drug war documents that the Philippine National Police (PNP) was compelled to submit. FLAG has pointed out that many digital files were corrupted, while CenterLaw said a bulk of them were not drug-related.

Movie-like

In the deaths of Manaois, Mark Anthony Bunuan, and Jefferson Bunuan, a PO3 Lucena filed the police report. Lucena was the one who shot all 3.

The 3 were killed inside a small bedroom in Manaois' home in Sta Ana, Manila, with witnesses saying they were sleeping when cops shot them.

Lucena's police report described the 3 pulling out their guns and aiming at him:

"Upon receiving the pre-arranged signal, the rest of the team immediately rushed to the scene. However, Totong (Jomar Manaois) sensed the approaching team and then he uttered "Tang ina pulis ka," he drew a handgun from his waist, and knowing that my life is in imminent danger thereof, I subsequently drew my service firearm and fired on Totong. Likewise, S-2 and S-3 also acted aiming a gun at me, I also fired on them."

FLAG said it is "hard to believe" that one policeman can kill 3 armed men.

"While this happens very often in the movies, it is contrary to human experience in the real world that he would survive a situation like that unscathed and without a scratch," said FLAG's supplemental memorandum submitted to the SC on Monday, October 21.

In the death of Conrado Beroa, the police report revealed that 7 policemen were involved in the operation.

"Sensing our presence, suspect suddenly pulled out a firearm and ran away, he then entered an alley leading to a house, at which point the latter fired his gun successively and directly to our spot but missed," said FLAG's memorandum, quoting the police report.

"It is inherently incredible to believe that a suspect who is outnumbered by 7 armed police operatives will fire his gun at them," said FLAG.

'Cut and paste'

FLAG also pointed out how the police reports have seemingly used a "cut and paste" template.

The police report used the phrases "sensing the approaching team," "suddenly drew his gun and fired a shot but missed."

In an earlier press conference by FLAG, reporters asked if it's just a case of a limited vocabulary by the police, and a practice that existed even before the Duterte administration and the war on drugs.

Lets just say they raised a lot of questions every single case where you supposedly have to kill the suspect because he fought back, is unique in its facts, it cannot all be the same, FLAG chairman Chel Diokno said then.

FLAG mentioned how these police reports show that suspects always missed their targets, which, for the lawyer group, is unbelievable.

Data by Rappler shows that thousands of drug war deaths have gone unsolved owing to a systematic gap in the investigation process by the Duterte administration.

FLAG also said police reports showed a lack of genuine investigation done by the PNP into the killings.

"This bolsters petitioners' argument that the war on drugs has spawned police impunity and done away with accountability," said FLAG.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is examining the killings and trying to establish jurisdiction to conduct its own investigation. Jurisdiction will be established if the ICC proves that the Philippines is unable or unwilling to probe on its own. Rappler.com

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'Putang ina, pulis ka' is recurring phrase of suspects in TokHang reports - Rappler