Monthly Archives: July 2022

Srinagar: War on drugs has been intensified in Jammu and Kashmir with police seizing 1249 kilograms of narcotics including 16.23 kg of heroin in the last seven months. More than 359 people involved in the drug trade have been arrested.

Official data accessed by The Kashmir Monitor reveal that129 kilograms of cannabis, 1095 kilograms of poppy straw, 2271 bottles of codeine, 56139 psychotropic tablets, 2.5-kilogram brown sugar, and 122 bottles of illegal alcohol have been recovered by the police in the valley since January this year.

In January, police recovered 2.017 kilograms of heroin from the peddlers. In the same month, 10.7 kilograms of cannabis, 356 kilograms of poppy straw, 36 grams of brown sugar, 10638 tablets, 48 bottles of codeine, and 45 bottles of illegal alcohol. Forty-one peddlers were arrested during the month

In February, 5.8 kilograms4.9kilograms,74 grams, and 192.5 kilograms of heroin, cannabis, brown sugar, and powdered poppy respectively were recovered by the police. Eighty-one peddlers have been arrested.In the same month, 3185 tablets, 193 bottles of codeine, and 42 alcohol bottles were also seized by the police.

Police recovered 82.5 grams of heroin followed by poppy straw (64.5 kilograms), brown sugar (51.5 grams), codeine(1413 bottles), tablets (38432), and 5 bottles of alcohol in March. Seventy-one peddlers were arrested.

In April, 7.3 kilograms of heroin were recovered by the police from the peddlers. April also saw a recovery of 101.5 kilograms of poppy straw, 2.23 kilograms of brown sugar,360 bottles of codeine, and 1334 tablets. Sixty-two people involved in the trade and consumption of these drugs were also held.

At least 903.96 grams of heroin were recovered by the police in May. Eight grams of brown sugar, 25 kilograms of poppy straw, 470 tablets,45 bottles of codeine, and 29 bottles of alcohol were also seized. Around 27 people involved in peddling were also arrested.

In June, police recovered 35 grams of heroin, 5 kilograms of cannabis, 95 grams of brown sugar, 169.3kilograms poppy straw, 721 tablets, 162 bottles of codeine, and 7 alcohol bottles alcohol. Forty-six people were also arrested by the police.

In July so far, 39 grams of heroin have been recovered by the police. Besides, 5 kg of cannabis, 187 kilograms of poppy straw, 10 grams of brown sugar, and 50 bottles of codeine have also been recovered. Thirty-one peddlers and abusers have been arrested.

A senior police officer told The Kashmir Monitor that the police have tightened their noose against the drug peddlers across the valley.

We conduct surprise checks and raids. We have busted many drug modules, he said.

The officer also said that various awareness programs are being held to educate people about the hazards of drug addiction.

Visit link:

War on drugs: Over 1249 kilos of narcotics seized in 7 months; 359 peddlers held in J&K - The Kashmir - The Kashmir Monitor

A look into America's history of racial injustice and its legacy across generations learning about how racial inequality affects lives to this day.

Huge blocks of cement that look like coffins dangle from high above the ground at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, just as bodies once did when lives were cut short by racial terror lynchings.

Last November, I embarked on a journey to Georgia little did I know that the South represents slavery and bigotry in America. As such, Georgia has the highest correctional control rate in the United States 1 in 18 Georgians is either in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole at any given time, double the national average.

I visited Atlanta under the EU-funded GERIS (Global Exchange on Religion in Society) project one of 18 people, including religious actors and those from NGOs, academia and the media from 12 different countries. We went through a week of training, meetings and deep discussions on diversity, coexistence and social inclusion while exploring the region's social fabric and cultural identity.

We investigated America's history of racial injustice and its legacy across generations learning about how racial inequality still affects lives. The most crucial visit was to the Legacy Museum of Montgomery, Alabama, the nations first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people.

The Legacy Museum Memorial features the names of 500 documented victims of white supremacy killed for asserting their rights during the Reconstruction Era from 1861 to 1900, which followed the Civil War. As you enter the memorial, you are faced with statutes of slaves in chains; people like you and mea woman reaching out to her husband in fear as her lactating baby cries, a man kneeling down in pain on the floor, exhausted after weeks of travelling in slave ships. Other figures resist the chains or are forcefully taken to cross the Atlantic.

The narrow path leads you to pillars where you read the stories of victims of terror lynchings.

It is a moment of awakening, a reality slap, as spine-chilling stories of Black people that you may not have heard before jolt your conscience. You begin to shudder as you are told that Black people were killed for reasons such as writing a note to a white woman, annoying a white woman, carrying a photo of a white woman or drinking from a white mans well.

Reading all these details names, age, locations and reasons for the lynchings while passing by these huge blocks, all you feel is that they want to be seen or acknowledged for the price they paid to end slavery.

These stories are an open wound in Alabama, a strong testimony of racial terror lynchings and the humiliation suffered by African Americans due to segregation and the Jim Crow laws. But most importantly, they resonate with what Americans witness even today -- the police brutality and institutional bias Black men and women face daily.

From enslavement to mass incarceration.

The Equal Justice Initiative collected data and documentation of racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1959. Stories of Black men and women lynched or killed during racially-motivated attacks provide a comprehensive history of slavery in the US during the Civil War and Reconstruction after the Emancipation.

It was an eye-opening visit to the Legacy Museum Memorial to find out historical details on lynching, codified racial segregation, and the emergence of over-incarceration in the 20th century.

Honouring the Black people, who suffered and died during the most tragic and violent era in American history, the museum tells the story of racial terror during the twelve years of Reconstruction, as Black people struggled to exercise their new legal rights to freedom and citizenship established by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments following the Civil War.

According to the National Archives, nearly 4 million African Americans were freed at the close of the American Civil War. In the first years of emancipation from slavery, white people killed Black men and women throughout the South for leaving plantations, asserting legal rights and economic independence, or voting or running for office. Although scholars estimate that thousands of Black people were targeted and killed during those twelve years, there is no reliable data on the total number of casualties as quantitative documentation of race murders was insufficient.

During our visit to the Peace and Justice Memorial Center, which is located across from the Legacy Museum, we learned more about the United States history of racial inequality and racialisation of criminality, where Black people were transitioned from enslavement to mass incarceration.

According to theGeorgia Justice Project (GJP), 4.3 million people have a Georgia criminal history and while Whites are underrepresented in the incarcerated population, Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented.

For more than three decades, the Atlanta-based project, GJP, has provided legal services to poor people accused of crimes and services and advocacy for those rehabilitated Georgians to move beyond their criminal history.

GJPs Executive Director, Doug Ammar, welcomed GERIS members in Atlanta and provided an in-depth presentation on Georgias criminal justice system and how they fight for systemic changes to criminal and legal institutions.

While Georgia has the highest correctional control rate in the United States, 40 percent of adults in the state have a criminal record. But why is that so?

Unemployment, poverty and crime are inextricably linked. Over 90 percent of those involved in the criminal justice system fall below the federal poverty line. Though poverty might have been one of the underlying factors for a persons arrest the criminal justice system too often becomes a force keeping folks in poverty, argues Ammar, as a criminal record in Georgia is a major impediment to getting a job or keeping/obtaining public housing.

When people with criminal records are denied both employment and housing, they are forced to live in poverty and become vulnerable to re-offending.

GJP helps end this cycle of poverty and crime with their holistic approach by providing a second chance to rehabilitate individuals. While the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, 39 percent of the US prison population is African-American despite it being only 12.9 percent of the US population.

The racial disparities in who is incarcerated are profound. While the South has the highest incarceration rate in the US, 61.6 percent of Georgia's prison population is African-American. African-Americans constitute 31.5 percent of the states population.

With us or against us

The system of American slavery created a permanent racial hierarchy that grew from and reinforced racial prejudice that Black people needed to be disciplined and supervised. Although the Constitutions presumption of innocence is a bedrock principle of American criminal justice, African Americans were assigned a presumption of guilt.

While many questioned whether President Richard Nixon's war on drugs was a racially-motivated crusade, his domestic policy advisor John Ehrlichman revealed in a 1994 interview that the War on Drugs had actually begun as a crusade to criminalise Blacks and the anti-war left.

Indeed, the claim of prejudice is obvious in racial disparities in incarceration. Half of those in federal prison are incarcerated for a drug offence and two-thirds of those in prison for drug offences nationwide are people of colour.

When Nixon assumed office and declared a war on drugs in 1971, the number of people incarcerated in American jails and prisons escalated from 300,000 to 2.3 million. And his popular narrative, tough on crime and drugs, led to an explosion in racial profiling and more Black people were convicted of drug charges and faced long prison sentences compared to Whites for the same crimes.

So, in the end, the War on Drugs has hurt Black people the most and has contributed to racial disparities in the justice system where African Americans receive severe sentences for drug offences 10, 20, 30 years, even life imprisonment.

A powerful quote from George King, an enslaved Black man in Oklahoma, says it all: The Master he says we are all free, but it dont mean we is white. And it dont mean we is equal (sic).

Because, up until today, the justice system is biased against African Americans and it is crucial to understand that people carry all sorts of subconscious biases against Blacks which then turn into systemic disparities in housing and employment in America.

Meanwhile, another minority group in America also suffers from systematic mistreatment due to another endless war that the United States has waged against terror.

While the war on terror and the war on drugs can both be seen as derivative of the US national security agenda after the Cold War, the Republican national security discourse around a foreign threat has been enabling the manufacturing of new enemies for centuries depending on their agenda.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, former US President George W Bush led an emergency response and launched his anti-terrorism campaign. In his famous address to the US Congress on 20 September 2001, Bush put nations around the globe on notice and said, "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

These wars against terrorism and drugs have been mainly defined by what they lack, according to Law professor Wadie Said; a readily identifiable opponent, a clear-end goal, a timeline, and geographical boundaries.

As such, Bush was looking for reasons to stoke fears of cultural change and inclusion so that he could activate his base and justify the war for oil.

Paul O'Neill, Bushs Treasury secretary who was fired for objecting to the president's policies, said in 2004, "Already by February (2001), the talk was mostly about logistics. Not the why (to invade Iraq), but the how and how quickly."

American military historian Donald Stoker argues that America endures endless wars because its leaders no longer know how to think about war, particularly wars fought for limited aims, taking the nation to war without understanding what they want or valuing victory and thus the ending of the war, criticising seventy years of misguided thinking in American war-making from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan and questioning why America loses wars.

Twenty years after the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the so-called war on terror cost America $6 trillion, according to Brown Universitys Cost of War Project. The most recent data estimates that at least 897,000 people around the world have died in violence that can be classified as part of the war on terror, while at least 38 million have been displaced due to these wars from Iraq to Somalia and Pakistan to the Philippines over the past 20 years.

Based on the Airpower Statistics, the US and allied air forces have been dropping an average of 46 bombs a day for 20 years while grandstanding for peace and security, as the American right uses the replacement theory to create anti-otherness and racist conspiracy theories.

To add to the enormous costs and the massive death toll, on the other side of the coin, Muslim Americans have been suffering from anti-Muslim sentiment, racism and increased US government surveillance that has been altering millions of peoples lives.

Issued in January 2017, Trumps Muslim Ban ripped apart hundreds of families worldwide, while many lost educational and employment opportunities that may never come again.

Just like the African Americans were assigned a presumption of guilt, the Muslim is presumed guilty on American campuses, argues Hatem Bazian, director of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the Berkeley Center for Race and Gender. And as such, (they) experience verbal harassment, bullying, even physical attacks. But the assumption is that the Muslim is the instigator, Bazian explains.

While the far-right fans are the flames of extreme nationalism, racism and xenophobia, they constantly look for new issues to stoke fears of cultural change. The critical race theory (CRT) is the newest front in their culture war is the critical race theory (CRT). As the rightwing ecosystem has been weaponising the critical race theory against the American people in their political rhetoric, people of colour view it as the latest tactic to halt racial justice.

Legal scholars first developed CRT in the 1970s and 80s following the civil rights movement, which came as an academic response to the illusionary notion that American society and institutions are colourblind. However, the CRT framework holds that racism goes far beyond individual prejudices and that it is indeed a systemic phenomenon woven into the laws and institutions of the American nation.

Since this is a war against the accurate teaching of Americas history in classrooms around the country, silencing the voices and denying the experiences of Black people and other historically marginalised groups in America, it is a war on truth. Yet another war America has waged against the countrys own history that they do not want its people to know.

In the very same context, American journalist Charles M. Blow refersto the critical race theory as the new Shariah law, a boogeyman the right can use to activate and harness the racist anti-otherness that is endemic to American conservatism. After all, America is in constant need of an enemy.

Source: TRT World

Read this article:

Wars on drugs and terror - America needs an enemy - TRT World

At over 50 years running, the Drug Wars stamina in the face of prolonged failure makes Rocky Balboa look like a quitter. As a country weve done everything we could think of to resolve it, ranging from largely ineffective jail sentences and harsh policing strategies to yeah thats pretty much been the name of the game.

Donald Trump, innovative genius that he is, has a solution to our generational problem the death penalty.

You heard it here folks. Tim Allen? Should be dead. Kid Rock? Dead. Idris Elba? Dead. All three of them, among many others, are a few examples of folks that dealt drugs that could have been killed if more people shared Trumps view. And its not just them. That soccer mom you know that knows a guy that no one expects? Hell, a couple of the kids you went to law school with. You get my point. I could also go in on the staggered applause at about 1:10 that almost turned into a please clap, but Ill address him on the merits of his claims.

First, this is a bold advocacy for violating international law. Second, hes just wrong. Take Indonesia. Last year they imposed 89 death sentences for drug dealing. Youd think that would prevent it from being one of the largest drug markets in Asia, but youd be wrong. And really, thats the standard for determining if there is a drug problem in a foreign country? Just ask their leader and take whatever their response is as the gospel truth? China has a history of either refusing to give accurate data or information altogether when asked for it. Why wouldnt they lie about drug usage? And even if China were honest, data suggests that they would be the lone anomaly:

There is no evidence that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to the drug trade in fact, according to available estimates, drug markets continue to thrive around the world, despite drug laws in almost every country being grounded in a punitive approach.

Id like to think that somebody ran this information by Trump before he keeps parroting the same talking points, but it looks like it was to no avail.

Heres him in 2020:

He was as wrong then as he was now. Heres an article stating that the drug problem in Indonesia worsened despite hanging drug dealers. I wish the Fake News guy relied less on fabrications when he speaks at the pulpit. The truth is that the Drug War outranks Vietnam when it comes to this country having its ass handed to it. Rather than killing people or conspiring that Biden smuggled in fentanyl to kill Trump voters, we should cut our losses and focus on what actually works education, harm reduction and the amelioration of circumstances that incentivize people to sell drugs like poverty and a dearth of legal job prospects. Sentencing a 34 year old dude with kids to life in prison is a damned shame. Killing him would not have faired any better.

Drug prohibition and the criminalization of people who sell or distribute drugs does not reduce the harms of drug use or improve public safety. Our current approach is built on a foundation of stigma, ignorance and fear rather than evidence, and creates new problems while doing nothing to solve those that already exist. Drugpolicy.org

Wed be better off treating the War on Drugs like the public health crisis it is. Unfortunately, everything looks like a target when the NRA is damned near handing out guns.

Trump Calls For Quick Death Penalty For Drug Dealers As He Describes US Going To Hell Very Fast [Independent]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord in the Facebook groupLaw School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim,a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email atcwilliams@abovethelaw.comand by tweet at@WritesForRent.

See more here:

Donald Trump's Hot Take On Law And Order Probably Most Definitely Violates The 8th Amendment - Above the Law

Thailand is the first nation in Southeast Asia to decriminalise marijuana, but it took a while to get here, writes local Eric E. Surbano.

Last month, Thailand decriminalised cannabis, allowing the population to freely sell and use marijuana. In the West, it may not be that big of a deal. However, for a nation that almost twenty years ago had declared a war on drugs, the development is surprising, especially when we take into account the fact that its the first country in Southeast Asia to decriminalise the drug.

What does this mean for Southeast Asia?

Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to decriminalise marijuana, a move that sets it apart from its neighbours who have strict laws against drugs. Just south of its border in Malaysia, recreational marijuana use is met with severe punishment, either a hefty fine or a lashing. In fact, it wasnt until recently in 2018 that the death penalty was lifted against non-violent drug crimes. Nearby Singapore is similar though caning is their preferred punishment.

In the Philippines, former president Rodrigo Duterte, who finished his term just this month, became infamous for his war on drugs, which is reminiscent of what Thaksin Shinawatra did back when he was Prime Minister. Like Shinawatra, Dutertes crusade exacted a heavy death toll: an estimated 6,200 drug suspects have been killed according to Government statistics but Human Rights Watch estimates the number to be about 12,000, which includes innocent civilians. A Reuters report has quoted Duterte that he will never, never apologise for the deaths, despite the fact that he admitted the war was unwinnable just a year after he took office in 2016.

Its still undetermined whether Thailands move towards decriminalisation will ripple across neighbouring countries. If theres another country to make the move, it might be Malaysia, whose cabinet is discussing the benefits. The caucus believes that Malaysia has the space and a huge opportunity in this industry for medicinal and research purposes which could deliver a lot of benefits for the country, it said on April 12. However, it seems that whether people like it or not, its only a matter of time before countries follow in Thailands footsteps and cannabis teas and facial creams become the norm.

From a War on Drugs...

In 2003, then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared a war on drugs in the hopes of eradicating the methamphetamine epidemic that was raging through the country at the time. The drug, locally known as ya ba, was used by about five per cent of the population according to an Asian Human Rights Commission report. It was no surprise then that most of the country supported the Prime Ministers move, which was officially referred to as the Concerted Effort of the Nation to Overcome Drugs. People were desperate to see their streets clean of the substance and wanted to see traffickers and dealers face the consequences of their actions.

The result? The prices of drugs went up for a while but that was about it. On the other hand, 2,873 people were killed as a result of the so-called war on drugs according to the Bangkok Post. Blacklists, which contained alleged dealers and suspects, were handed to the Interior Ministry. Bodies, bloodied and filled with bullet holes, were left out in the streets. When the UN raised up its concern about the casualties, Shinawatra responded, The UN is not my father.

The Prime Minister would declare victory in the war on drugs in December, though that clearly wasnt the case.

A few years later in 2008, the new Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, followed in Shinawatras footsteps and announced another war on drugs. Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung would tell parliament, If that will lead to 3,000-4,000 deaths of those who break the law, then so be it. That has to be done.

To Giving Away Marijuana Plants

Not even 20 years later, health minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced last June that the Government would be giving away a million marijuana plants so people can cultivate them at home. In fact, the Government now views the plant as a cash crop, a far cry from the days when dealers and buyers were being hunted down and killed.

The Cannabis Rush is going along steadily since its decriminalisation with many jumping on the bandwagon. Everywhere you go, youre bound to find something laced with marijuana, whether its a drink at 7-11 or a restaurant serving up cannabis pizzas. Even hotels are joining the fray like the Mandarin Oriental, which has a spa treatment that uses the plant.

This has been a long time coming. Advocates for the decriminalisation of marijuana have spoken up and gatheredusually with a smoky haze surrounding themmany times to push for the plants decriminalisation. Unsurprisingly, the biggest gathering happens on April 20, otherwise known as 420. However, this year, they decided to delay celebrations and the rolling of joints until June when the order was finally made official.

Now, it seems that marijuana is everywhere and on everything. Even high-end malls in Bangkok have hosted cannabis fairs, showcasing numerous products that contain marijuana. But its not just the capital; even provinces like Buriram are riding the cannabis high.

While the Government does hope that this would help the economy, they also wanted to make one thing clear: its recreational use is still illegal. Decriminalisation is not the same as being legal; it just means a person wont be prosecuted anymore for possession. Health minister and deputy prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul has said that its not an excuse to sit and smile all day without making a living and lacking consciousness, according to an article on Insider. The main purpose for the decriminalisation is that "It is an opportunity for people and the state to earn income from marijuana and hemp. Charnvirakuls political party promised they would push for legalisation, which a lot of struggling farmers welcomed as they were struggling to earn from sugar and rice, as the BBC reports.

Four thousand people who were imprisoned due to cannabis-related charges have been freed, but the Government is still adamant that personal use of marijuana is a no-no. In fact, smoking in public is considered a public nuisance. Another limitation is that only extracts containing less than 0.2% THC, the chemical thatmakes you high, are allowed to be sold. However, its unclear how the Government is going to restrict its recreational use or screen the amount of THC there are in the many marijuana or marijuana-laced products that have since popped up since its decriminalisation. What is certain is the fact that whether the Government says so or not, the floodgates have been opened and recreational use is, without a doubt, happening.

- Asia Media Centre

Read more here:

From Drug War to Weed Teas: Thailand's Journey to Decriminalising Marijuana - Asia Media Centre

As twin mental health and drug misuse crises kill thousands of people per week, the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies must be explored, urges a federal letter on behalf of the U.S. health secretary and shared with The Intercept.

President Joe Bidens administration anticipates that regulators will approve MDMA and psilocybin within the next two years for designated breakthrough therapies for PTSD and depression, respectively. The administration is exploring the prospect of establishing a federal task force to monitor the emerging psychedelic treatment ecosystem, according to the letter sent by Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Miriam Delphin-Rittmon to Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.

The May correspondence, not shared publicly until now, is the clearest indication yet that top officials are preparing for the approval of psychedelic drugs demonized for decades after former President Richard Nixon sought means to attack the anti-Vietnam War counterculture in the late 1960s which was arguably unthinkable even five years ago.

But as evidence grows of the healing potential of certain controlled substances, including many hallucinogens, the war on drugs in the U.S. is steadily being wound down. Late Friday, the Drug Enforcement Agencydropped plans to schedule several DMT analogues after facing serious opposition, including a legal threat from companies Mindstate, Tactogen, and Panacea Plant Sciences.

The move followed Thursdays introduction of a bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., to force the DEA to stop barring terminally ill patients from trying controlled drugs which have passed early trials. The right to try experimental therapies has been enshrined in federal law since 2018, but the DEA currently blocks its use among people with late-stage cancer who wish to be treated with psilocybin, a Schedule I controlled substance.

Studies have shown that psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety among patients with life-threatening cancer, Booker wrote in a statement tweeted Thursday. While typically terminally ill patients are allowed to access drugs that are in FDA clinical trials, they are barred from accessing Schedule I drugs, despite their therapeutic potential.

In the letter obtained by The Intercept, Delphin-Rittmon said that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, responding to Dean on behalf of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, agrees that too many Americans are suffering from mental health and substance use issues, which have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and that we must explore the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies to address this crisis.

Dean had proposed an interagency task force, the letter notes, to lead a public-private partnership and address the myriad of complex issues associated with the anticipated approval by the [FDA] of [MDMA] for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin for the treatment of depression within approximately 24 months.

According to Delphin-Rittmon, SAMHSA and the assistant secretary for health are considering the establishment of such a task force including the private sector. Collaboration across federal agencies with outside stakeholders will be the most effective way to ensure we are thoughtfully coordinating work on emerging substances such as MDMA and psilocybin, she wrote.

Such a body would issue guidelines that assist states in addressing the complex clinical, regulatory, and public policy issues necessary for the deployment of MDMA- and psilocybin-assisted therapies. This will increase our preparedness to implement this new form of treatment as safely, affordably, and equitably as possible into the health care system upon approval, said Brett Waters, a New York-based attorney and founder of the psychedelic advocacy initiative Reason for Hope, which has concentrated its efforts on expediting the rollout of psychedelic therapies.

Our case was simple: These treatments are coming through the FDA, and likely to be approved soon, so we should be taking proactive measures,Waterssaid. We hope to work with the Biden administration on a reasonable solution to this immoral policy failure.

Even while millions of dollars in federal funding is directed toward psychedelic research and efforts within certain states led by Oregon seek to unravel anti-drug laws and provide treatments, many people have no time to waste.

About 300 people a day from drug overdoses in this country, Dean told The Intercept. I call it a jetliner of souls every single day. We know the toll the loss of our loved ones takes on their immediate family and upon entire communities. My son Harry is now nine years, seven months into recovery for opioid addiction. This is a heart-wrenching crisis, and its time for bold, innovative solutions to save the lives of our children.

More than 17 former U.S. servicemembers are estimated tokill themselves per day as traumas from futile and damaging wars abroad over the past 20 years find scant respite through traditional avenues. But hundreds of veterans have traveled to Mexico, Costa Rica, and elsewhere in recent years for successful treatments with psychedelics to address war traumas.

When you hear compelling testimonies from a retired army brigadier general and a retired three-star Marine Corps lieutenant general about the lives that have been saved by providing access to psychedelic-assisted therapy, it is impossible that we take no action, Dean added.

Further legislation to widen access to psychedelics is soon to be deliberated, including one bill focused on research and pilot programs within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill would seek to help veteransreceivepsychedelic therapies within the United States, as many cannot afford to go abroad.

We find it morally unacceptable that our nations Veterans should be forced to take such extreme, and often detrimentally expensive routes to potentially lifesaving interventions, wrote retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Martin Steele, chief executive officer of Reason for Hope, in a letter supporting the Right to Try Clarification Act last week.

He said that for most veterans who have been able to access it, psychedelic-assisted therapy has proved not only life-saving, but life-restoring, and called Booker and Pauls legislation a small step in the right direction toward saving lives.

Visit link:

Biden Administration Plans for Legal Psychedelic Therapies Within Two Years - The Intercept

THE SCOTTISH Government is taking inspiration from an American city once synonymous with drugs crime with a shift away from prosecuting simple possession offences.

SNP ministers are aiming to halt the country's drug deaths crisis by treating it as a public health emergency, moving away from a war on drugs approach, with a consensus that the strategy has not been effective.

The Scottish Governments top law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, has said police will be advised to issue recorded warnings for possession of any illegal substance instead of referring offenders to prosecutors.

READ MORE:'Unacceptable': Scotland's drug death crisis flatlines with 1,330 annual fatalities in 2021

The Lord Advocate insisted that the move does not represent decriminalisation of an offence, but is instead a proportionate criminal justice response.

Ms Bain revealed to MSPs that this advice had already been offered for class B and class C drugs but has now been extended to possession offences of all illegal substances, including heroine, crack cocaine and crystal meth.

Ms Bain said issuing a recorded police warning provides officers with a speedy, effective and proportionate means of dealing with low level offending.

In setting out the diversion policy, SNP Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance, pointed to a similar strategy in US city Baltimore securing overwhelmingly positive results.

READ MORE:Dundee remains Scotland's drug deaths capital amid action call

Ms Constance pointed to the Baltimore strategy in which they stopped prosecuting for low-level drug offences, and only six out of 1,400 diverted drug cases were involved in re-offending".

She added that Scotland has to think big, bold and radical in order to halt the soaring number of drug deaths.

Speaking to The Herald, she said: What we know from Baltimore and other international evidence is that needlessly criminalising people with complex needs or multiple disadvantage doesnt help make the situation any better it actually makes matters worse.

The announcement that the Lord Advocate made in and around recorded police warnings, the work we need to do to develop diversion and better treatment options and opportunities at every stage of the criminal justice system is actually crucial.

We need to ensure that drugs policy is connected to things like mental health support and the reforms that need to take place in our justice system as well.

READ MORE:Scotland's drug deaths in 2021 broken down in charts and maps

Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that Baltimore would stop prosecuting low-level drug possession and prostitution in March 2020, mostly as a measure at the start of the pandemic.

Last year, Ms Mosby announced the policy would remain in place permanently as it emerged that violent crime had dropped by 20 per cent and property crime by 36%.

Ms Mosby has suggested that in addition to steering the police away from prosecuting future cases, authorities in Scotland should consider how to handle retrospective and pending cases.

READ MORE:How Barcelona tackled its 'epidemic' of drug overdose deaths

A report from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Heath found that Baltimores no-prosecution policy led to fewer new low-level drug arrests and almost no rearrests for serious crimes for those who had charges dropped.

The findings suggest the new policy did not result in increased public complaints about drug use and that those who had charges dropped did not go on to commit serious crimes.

More here:

How Scotland is being inspired by Baltimore in move away from drugs prosecution - HeraldScotland

HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) The Hawkins County Sheriffs Office (HCSO) on Friday made several arrests as part of the agencys war on drugs.

The arrests, part of an effort dubbed Operation Reminder, led to five drug-related arrests, according to a news release from the HCSO. One man remains at large.

The HCSO named off the arrestees and their charges as follows:

John William Roberts has yet to be arrested. He is wanted for possession/manufacture/delivery/sale of meth, according to the HCSO.

The HCSO uploaded several pictures on Facebook of what appears to be drug paraphernalia, several guns and around $5,500 in drug-related cash.

In 2010, Sheriff Ronnie Lawson declared the war on drugs in his first elected term, the Facebook post read. Today [July 22], the Hawkins County Sheriffs Office Narcotics Unit, Detectives Division, Patrol Division, Corrections Division, Transport Division, Tactical Unit, K9 Unit and the TBI deployed on Operation Reminder to remind the drug dealers in the county that promise still stands.

The sheriffs office stated in the comments of one of the pictures that the money is seized under forfeiture laws and must be proven to have been obtained from illegal drug deals in civil asset hearings. Defendants have a right to file an appeal.

The seizing agency must present the evidence for the case, a spokesperson with the agency posted. If awarded to the seizing agency it goes into the drug fund.

See the article here:

HCSOs anti-drugs operation leads to arrests of several alleged dealers - WJHL-TV News Channel 11

Photograph: Jeff Chiu/APtenderloin

By David M. GreenwaldExecutive Editor

San Francisco, CA Last week it was reported that appointed DA Brooke Jenkins recently filed over a dozen cases where the only charge was possession of drug paraphernalia.

Jenkins told the SFGATE that she had no hand in the filing of those charges.

I have made no policy changes in regards to charging for simple drug possession and paraphernalia, she said in a statement to SFGATE. My office will immediately withdraw these charges as they were done out of accordance with our offices policy. I am focused on holding serious drug dealers, particularly those dealing fentanyl, accountable and not targeting and incarcerating those suffering from addiction. We will take the appropriate steps internally to ensure that our staff is following our policy.

Public Defender Peter Calloway told the Vanguard he was skeptical of the DAs claims.

I think either its suggesting disarray, chaos, incompetence, or some combination, none of thats good or shes lying, Calloway said. In either case shes stepping back only from the most egregious of the sort of drug war policies that she and the mayor are advancing.

Calloway explained that 17 complaints were identified as standalone 11364 (Health & Safety Code section 11364 on drug paraphernalia) charges. Ten of those were to be arraigned the day that the story broke that those charges had been withdrawn, while the other seven were added to the calendar for bench warrants to be recalled and the cases to be withdrawn.

Mano Raju, the elected public defender of San Francisco, immediately pushed back with a strongly worded statement: I denounce these charging decisions by District Attorney Jenkins. San Francisco must not regress to the inhumane, cruel, and costly war on drugs.

Calloway expressed concern over the overall thrust and shift of the mayor and the new DAs office.

He added, The other policies, mainly prosecuting dealers, and making less available to them, charges that would take into consideration their immigration status, those policies are, are as lacking in evidence as prosecuting drug users.

Calloway believes, Theres plenty of literature out there showing that these policies are going to kill people.

Research suggests taking a drug user out of their environment for a few days or weeks brings their tolerance way down, and so when they go back out and start using again the same amount as before, some of them will overdose and end up dying.

They claim that this is about the overdose crisis, he said. The fact that these policies are, are directly contrary to their stated goals reveals to me that their stated goals are not their actual ones.

Raju in his statement noted, We cannot arrest, prosecute, and cage our way out of a public health crisis. Every dollar spent on this misguided strategy is a dollar lost. We must instead invest in public health solutions that have proven to be effective, including housing, jobs, healthcare, and educationall of which have been drastically underfunded for decades.

Matt Gonzalez, the chief attorney at the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, said that the war on drugs did not have the intended impact.

The use of drugs should be treated as a health matter, he told the Vanguard. What we should be focusing on is whether or not anyone thats actually using drugs commits crime as a result of intoxication or things like that.

Has the pendulum swung back toward the days of the war on drugs? Gonzalez thinks thats what the appointed DA seems to believe.

Were going to go through a period where theyre going to be tough on these cases, he explained. The problem theyre going to run up against is, is very fundamental.

Gonzalez explained that things like diversion programs and plea bargaining were not created to help or aid the defense.

They actually were created to deal with just fundamental reality that the system actually cannot prosecute all of these cases, he said.

He said, The reality is if they want to go to trial in every single case, lets do it. I mean our clients do better when they go to trial.

Part of that is that they often win their cases, but even if they dont, Gonzalez said, the judge who is going to be imposing a sentence actually has to consider their individual circumstances when meting out some kind of punishment.

He believes there is now a societal desire to decriminalize drug use. So you have all kinds of diversionary opportunities, even post-trial.

Jenkins was appointed in part because of the publics frustration at homeless encampments.

Youre not going to solve these problems with the criminal justice system, because the only tools at your disposal as a prosecutor are going to be lets put people in jail for a while.

He sees that a disruption to getting services that they need.

Instead of using law enforcement and the courts, Gonzalez said, And Boudin spoke about this, I think quite eloquently, is that many of these issues need to be addressed by lawmakers at city hall with the services that we provide, we should be focused on why is there a wait list for someone to get the services and housing that they need, and things of that nature.

Reacting with frustration and using law enforcement, he believes, is just going to frankly deepen the problem.

More:

Regardless of What DA Jenkins Did with Standalone Drug Charges, Enforcement Is Not the Answer to SFs Drug Problems, Public Defenders Say - The Peoples...