Category Archives: War On Drugs

The conventional wisdom that we need to reduce spending on prescription drugs is all wrong. In an ideal health care system, wed spend more on drugs, not less.

Rather than spending trillions of dollars on hospital infrastructure, moderately effective palliative treatments, and burdensome administrative processes, the U.S. could spend a smaller sum on powerful medicines that prevent, control, and even cure disease.

Access to a larger pool of innovative medicines would improve life for everyone, but especially for historically marginalized groups who bear the heavy economic and health burdens of disease. If more medical conditions could be managed with medications rather than with frequent doctor or hospital visits, we would likely see reduced overall health care costs and less variation in health status across social groups and geography.

advertisement

How can this dream vision of a healthier, more equitable world and a more effective health care system become a reality?

For starters, policymakers must end their perpetual war on biopharmaceuticals. For years, Congress has been singling out drug costs even though medicines account for only 12% of total U.S. health care spending and are often the most effective tool for fighting disease.

advertisement

Prescription drugs can significantly reduce the need for expensive emergency room visits, surgeries, hospitalizations, and long-term care. In fact, a Congressional Budget Office estimate found that an increase in the use of prescription drugs decreased spending on medical services.

We can look at the progress that has been made treating hepatitis C, an often-fatal liver disease. Barely a decade ago, 20% of people with hepatitis C would develop cirrhosis, a complex and expensive condition that can necessitate a liver transplant. Today, there are once-daily medications that can cure up to 95% of cases with few to no side effects. A course of one of those medicines costs $24,000. That is certainly not cheap, but it is one-twenty-fifth the cost of a liver transplant, which costs $600,000 on average.

Or consider the advancements made in treating HIV. Once a death sentence, there are now medications that can prevent nearly all new infections. Thanks to continued research, long-acting injectables may soon allow for bimonthly treatment. Widespread use of these drugs could eradicate HIV in the United States a disease that currently costs the health care system $28 billion a year.

And theres no clearer example of the life- and cost-saving power of medicines than the Covid-19 vaccines. Each Pfizer shot costs the U.S. government about $24 its available at no out-of-pocket cost to patients, in order to maximize uptake but can prevent hospitalizations that cost tens of thousands of dollars. By preventing hospitalizations and missed working days, the Covid-19 vaccines boosted Americas gross domestic product by $438 billion in 2021 alone, according to a new study from Heartland Forward, a think tank.

Theres no question that the cost of medicines in our current system can impose a real and sometimes overwhelming financial burden on some patients. But the solution isnt to reduce overall spending on these effective tools. It is to improve the quality of insurance coverage and ensure that all patients have access to the medicines prescribed by their doctors.

This likely means capping out-of-pocket costs, moving away from co-insurance, and developing alternatives to high-deductible health plans. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine, for instance, found that out-of-pocket caps substantially reduced spending for patients without increasing health plan spending. Policymakers should also investigate recent reports highlighting the role industry middlemen play in the high costs of medication.

Americas innovative life sciences researchers could soon send diseases like Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and ALS the way of measles and polio. With sustained investment in biopharma research and development, more and more diseases that lead to complex and costly care in our current system will be prevented or managed with novel medicines. Those advances will come at a cost, but theyll still be much less expensive, in the long run, than the status quo where a majority of health care costs stem from hospitals, doctors visits, and long-term care spending.

Just as importantly, the cost of these novel treatments should go down over time as patent protection ends and generics and biosimilars enter the marketplace. This represents a critical investment opportunity for society not the burden some say drug spending is.

There will never be a world in which prescription drugs represent 100% of health care costs. Accidents and other calamities will continue to require complex and comprehensive care. But when most diseases can be effectively managed or cured by drugs, they should represent a larger percentage of a more effective and less costly heath care system.

Jean-Franois Formela is a partner at Atlas Venture in Cambridge, Mass., where he focuses on novel drug discovery approaches and therapeutics. John Stanford is the executive director of Incubate, a Washington-based coalition of life-science venture capitalists.

See the rest here:

To spend less on health care, invest more in medicines - STAT

Introduction

Serious human rights violations continue in the Philippines. On September 15, 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC) agreed to open a formal investigation into extrajudicial killings and other abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity committed during President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs from 2016 to 2019, and extrajudicial executions committed in Davao City in the southern Philippines from 2011 to 2016, when Duterte was mayor. Various human rights groups allege that between 12,000 and 30,000 people have been killed in the drug war.

The governments counterinsurgency campaign has resulted in the unlawful killings of civilians and red-taggingaccusing activists and others of being combatants or supporters of the communist New Peoples Army. Many of those red-tagged are subsequently killed. Journalists covering the insurgency or investigating abuses and corruption also face harassment and violence.

In July 2020, the Philippine government and the United Nations launched a joint human rights program to address human rights violations and accountability failings in the country, reflecting domestic and international concerns about drug war killings. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, consider the program inadequate, and continue to call for an independent international investigation.

In October 2021, Maria Ressa, the co-founder and executive editor of the news website Rappler, won the Nobel Peace Prize for defending media freedom, in particular for resisting the Duterte governments attempts to muzzle the press. Ressa and her colleagues face seven criminal charges for Rapplers independent and courageous reporting.

Extrajudicial Killings

In the last UPR review in 2016, the Philippine government merely noted recommendations by various UN member states to end impunity for extrajudicial killings and to hold perpetrators accountable (recommendations 133.137 through 133.155).[1] The government also denied that the deaths that occurred in the war on drugs were extrajudicial killings. These deaths, it said, were the result of legitimate law enforcement operations or deaths that require further investigation following the established rules of engagement by the countrys law enforcers.[2]

Since that review, the killings of suspected drug users and dealers and many others have continued on a massive scale. As of January 31, 2022, the government said 6,229 individuals have been killed by the authorities in police anti-drug operations.[3] This number does not include the deaths of thousands of others attributed to unidentified assailants, many of whom are believed to be state agents. Very few of these killings have been seriously investigated.

In September 2021, a pre-trial chamber of the ICC granted the prosecutors request to open a formal investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippines from the time the country ratified the ICCs Rome Statute on November 1, 2011, until its withdrawal from the treaty on March 16, 2019. In its decision to approve the investigation, the pre-trial chamber stated the governments anti-drug campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation. The chamber also said there has been a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population as part of a state policy.

The review followed the admission by the Department of Justice before the UN Human Rights Council in February 2021 that officers failed to follow official protocols during these operations.[4] In many cases, police made no effort to examine allegedly recovered weapons, verify ownership, or conduct ballistic examinations. In most of the cases the Justice Department reviewed, police also failed to follow standard protocols in the coordination of drug raids and in the processing of crime scene evidence.

The Justice Department investigation has faced criticism for repeated delays, lack of transparency, and refusal to involve the national Commission on Human Rights in its review. In a transparent effort to head off ICC involvement, the department released in October 2021 a preliminary report affirming that police were culpable in at least 52 cases and promised to investigate further. In January 2022, the Justice Department announced that police officers implicated in four of these cases have been indicted. The names of the individuals and numbers of indictments have not been released.

On November 18, 2021, the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, notified the court that the Philippine government requested a deferral of the ICCs investigation, claiming that it had begun its own investigations into cases of extrajudicial killings attributed to the police during drug war operations. As part of the deferral request, the Philippines government cited the Department of Justices review of 52 cases in which they found administrative liability on the part of its law enforcement agents, and the Justice Departments recommendation for further investigation for possible criminal charges.

Under the complementarity proviso of the Rome Statute, the tribunal can only investigate allegations if a country does not conduct genuine proceedings relevant to crimes that could otherwise be prosecuted before the court. On November 23, the Office of the Prosecutor asked the Duterte administration for information substantiating its investigations. The government has yet to publicly respond to the request and has reiterated its argument that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Philippines.

Human Rights Watch submitted a letter to the Department of Justice seeking details about the governments claim that it was investigating police involvement in the killings. Philippine rights groups have found the number of pending investigations grossly inadequate to address the scale of the killings, for which official figures are far below estimates from nongovernmental organizations.

Apart from killings related to the war on drugs, the targeting of political activists, civil society actors, and journalists has likewise continued since the 2016 review.

The murder of journalists has continued unabated since the 2016 UPR review. According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, 22 journalists have been killed since 2016, typically by unidentified gunmen.[5] In December 2021, journalist Jesus Malabanan was shot dead in his home in Calbayog City. In October 2021, Orlando Dinoy of Newsline Philippines and Energy Radio RM was killed in his home in Digos City. In July 2021, Reynante Cortes, a radio broadcaster known for his on-air commentary on local politics and corruption, was fatally shot as he was leaving his radio station in Cebu City. In November 2020, newspaper columnist and radio commentator Virgilio Maganes was killed by gunmen in Villasis town, Pangasinan province.

In the second UPR cycle, the government said it supported measures to end extrajudicial killings (recommendation 131.32) and made note of similar recommendations (133.137 through 133.155) in the 2016 cycle. The extrajudicial and summary killings of suspected criminals, many of them children, continued, however, with practically zero accountability for those responsible. A report by Human Rights Watch in 2014 detailed the involvement of the police and local government officials in the systematic targeting of individuals in the city of Tagum in Mindanao by using hired assassins who took orders and payment from municipal officials.[6] These killings were patterned after similar killings perpetrated by the so-called Davao Death Squad in Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for decades.[7] Not a single person has been brought to justice for these killings.

In the 2016 UPR cycle, the Philippine government supported recommendations by various states (recommendations 133.34 through 133.42) for it to develop, enforce, and publicize its National Human Rights Action Plan. The plan was touted as a key framework to address human rights issues in the country. However, details of the 2018-2022 action plan are practically unknown outside of the Duterte government. Philippine human rights groups told Human Rights Watch in March 2022 that they have never been consulted by the government about the action plan or know the status of the document. The Commission on Human Rights apparently does not have a copy of the plan.

Despite recommendations (133.13 through 133.17, 133.119) for the Philippines to allow a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the government has refused the request. The Duterte administration in 2017 and 2018 attacked the then-Special Rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, publicly demonizing her through official statements that often came from the president himself.

Recommendations to the Philippine government

Attacks Against Rights Defenders, Civil Society

In the 2016 UPR cycle, several states urged the Philippine government (recommendations 133.170, 133.173 through 133.182) to ensure a safe environment for civil society and human rights defenders. In response, the government merely noted these recommendations.

The countrys 52-year-long communist insurgency has continued since the last cycle. During counter-insurgency operations against the New Peoples Army, government security forces frequently targeted leftist activists, including peasant leaders, environmentalists, human rights lawyers, and Indigenous group heads, among others. Government and military officials often red-tag such individuals through announcements and social media, putting them at grave risk of attack. The National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict is the main government agency engaged in red-tagging. It is composed of officials from several government agencies, including the military and the police.

The police and the military continue to target individuals for arbitrary arrests on suspicion that they are members of the communist movement. A recent and widely denounced arbitrary arrest was that of Dr. Natividad Castro, a human rights defender who in 2016 spoke at the UN Human Rights Council about the abuses committed against Indigenous peoples in the Philippines.

Senator Leila de Lima, a chief critic of President Dutertes war drugs, has been in police custody since her arrest in February 2017. The authorities arrested her after she sought to investigate extrajudicial executions committed in the context of the anti-drug campaign.

In January 2022, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act, which is intended to protect rights defenders by defining the rights and fundamental freedoms of human rights defenders, declaring state responsibilities, and instituting effective mechanisms for the protection and promotion of these rights and freedoms.[8] The Senate has yet to pass its own version of the bill.

Recommendations for the Philippine government

Freedom of the Press

In the 2012 UPR cycle, the Philippine government noted a recommendation by states to effectively investigate and prosecute attacks against journalists. It also noted similar recommendations (133.170 through 133.182) in the 2016 cycle.

Media freedom and freedom of expression received a big boost in October 2021 when Maria Ressa, the co-founder and executive editor of the news website Rappler, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Russian editor Dmitry Muratov. Ressa and Rappler have been the target of reprisals, mainly through libel and tax evasion cases, from the Duterte government and its supporters for the websites reporting on drug war killings and for helping to expose what Ressa called Dutertes weaponization of the Internet to target critics of the government and dissidents.

In April 2021, journalists from the Northern Dispatch, a weekly newspaper, were harassed by municipal police in Kalinga province for covering an event organized by leftist groups. Journalists of the same newspaper were later red-tagged by authorities. In September 2021, leftist media organizations Bulatlat and AlterMidya alleged that the Philippine military was launching denial of service attacks on their websites. Frenchie Mae Cumpio, a journalist in the central Philippines, has been in police detention since February 3, 2020, on allegations that she supported communist rebels.

Recommendations to the Philippine government

Counterterrorism

In the 2016 UPR cycle, the Philippine government supported recommendation 133.75, which urged the government to continue efforts to combat terrorism, the drug trade and drug use, within the framework of the Constitution, the law and international human rights standards. However, since its passage in July 2020, the Anti-Terrorism Act has been denounced because, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted, it dilutes human rights safeguards and creates a chilling effect on human rights and humanitarian work.[9] Since its passage, the law has been challenged in the courts but has nevertheless been used by the government against activists, Indigenous peoples, unionists, and alleged communist insurgents.

Recommendations to the Philippine government

Childrens Rights

Children have been severely impacted in the governments war on drugs, with many of them being killed and others suffering the psychological, economic, and social costs of the brutal campaign.[10]

Childrens rights in the Philippines enjoyed a boost in March 2022 when President Duterte signed a law raising the age of sexual consent from 12 to 16, with an important exemption to avoid criminalizing consensual sexual activity among children close in age. Earlier, in December 2021, a bill that had been pending in Congress that seeks to ban child marriage automatically became law after Duterte did not sign it. The law sets tough penalties for arranging a child marriage and mandates that the government establish programs to prevent child marriage.[11]

In a major step backwards, the government is supporting a bill that seeks to lower the age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 to 12. In the 2016 UPR cycle, several states urged the Philippine government not to make this change (recommendations 133.162 through 133.169), which President Duterte had made part of his campaign against crime. The government noted this recommendation, as it also did in the 2012 UPR cycle.

Recommendations to the Philippine government

Womens Rights

Abortion, including in cases of rape, incest or when the health and life of the pregnant woman is at risk, remains illegal in the Philippines. States urged the government to reverse this policy in the UPR 2012 and 2016 cycles (recommendations 133.232).[12]

Recommendation to the Philippine government

LGBT Rights

In the UPR 2016 cycle, the Philippine government was urged to enact legislation to counter discrimination against LGBT people (recommendation 133.126) and responded by expressing support for it. However, the anti-discrimination bill introduced in 2000, now called the SOGIE Equality Bill, remains pending in Congress as it faces opposition from conservative legislators.

Recommendation to the Philippine government

[3] #RealNumbersPH Year 5, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, https://pdea.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&layout=edit&id=279 (accessed March 22, 2022).

[4] "Philippines Admits Police Role in Drug War Killings," Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/25/philippines-admits-police-role-drug-war-killings (accessed March 30, 2022)

[5] "Filipino journalist who helped probe Dutertes drug war shot dead," Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/9/filipino-journalist-who-investigated-duterte-drug-war-killed (accessed March 28, 2022).

[6] "One Shot to the Head: Death Squad Killings in Tagum City, Philippines," Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/05/20/one-shot-head/death-squad-killings-tagum-city-philippines (accessed March 28, 2022).

[7] "You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao," Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/philippines0409webwcover_0.pdf (accessed Marwch 28, 2022).

[8] "House Bill 10576: Defining the rights and fundamental freedoms of human rights defenders, declaring state responsibles, and instituting effective mechanisms for the protection and promotion of these rights and freedoms. House of Representatives, https://hrep-website.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/legisdocs/third_18/HBT10576.pdf (accessed March 30, 2022).

[9] "Situation of Human Rights in the Philippines," Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/PH/Philippines-HRC44-AEV.pdf (accessed March 28, 2022).

[10] 'Our Happy Family Is Gone': Impact of the 'War on Drugs' on Children in the Philippines, Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/05/27/our-happy-family-gone/impact-war-drugs-children-philippines (accessed March 28, 2022).

[11] "PCW lauds passage of bill criminalizing child marriage at Senate," Philippine Commission on Women, https://pcw.gov.ph/pcw-lauds-passage-of-bill-criminalizing-child-marriage-at-senate/#:~:text=In%20the%20Philippines%2C%20the%20legal,reaching%20the%20age%20of%20fifteen (accessed March 29, 2022).

[12] "Facts on Abortion in the Philippines: Criminalization and a General Ban on Abortion," Center for Reproductive Rights, https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/pub_fac_philippines_1%2010.pdf (accessed March 29, 2022).

Visit link:

Human Rights Watch Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines - Human Rights Watch

Weekly Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0CG5JwwpS7LriFvDXP4dIj?si=02cxS8V6QkGJW8sTo1l6NQ

Madelaines picks

Never Heard a Sound, from The Paper Kites 2013 album States, is full of acoustic guitar and dreamy harmonies. The Paper Kites are an indie-folk band known for their whimsical acoustic guitar riffs and their discography will have you feeling nostalgic. If you need some music to listen to while working or studying, this band is one to keep in mind.

Kurt Vile is an alternative-indie singer-songwriter and former guitarist for mid-2000s rock band War on Drugs. Feel My Pain comes off of Viles 2013 album Walkin On A Pretty Daze [Deluxe Daze (Post Haze)]. The song is on the longer side at a little over six minutes long and features a finger-picked guitar melody, soft drums and Viles low voice. The lyrics of Feel My Pain seem to be inviting someone in to get to know your faults and bad traits but only if they want to and think they can handle it.

Alternative-pop band Grand Lotus has around 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and Move! is the bands fifth most popular song with just over 90,000 streams. Move! opens with a bright guitar riff and the song stays upbeat throughout its entirety. The songs lyrics are about getting to know each other before the very beginning of a new relationship, with the singer asking the other individual to make a move.

Dereks picks

While certainly not a deep cut by any means, Ive been hypnotized by the Talking Heads 1983 funk-rock record This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) since my sophomore year of high school. Its self-proclaimed naive melody wraps around my body like a weighted blanket, its lyrics cheerful and comforting. Its such a fun song I cant help but smile when I listen to it. Singer David Byrne is famous for his creative but sometimes nonsensical lyrics, though this songs thesis is clear: theres no place like home.

Animal Collectives 2009 Guys Eyes is equal parts Talking Heads as it is Beach Boys, homogenizing the psychedelic rhythms of the 70s with the lush vocal harmonies akin to Brian Wilson. Vocalist Noah Benjamin Lennox sings over himself, layering his voice on top of itself once, then twice, then thrice over. This vocal arrangement symbolizes the songs theme of someone being pulled in every which way, torn between staying faithful to their partner and indulging in lust and desire. This idea is exemplified in the adjacent bridges which loop the phrases need her and then what I want.

I first heard White Meadow over this past spring break the day after it was released at their NYC concert and it is absolutely incredible. I caught COVID-19 presumably from the moshpit immediately afterward, in which I laid in bed all day listening to Bladees and Ecco2Ks 2022 hyperpop collab album, Crest, for a week straight. White Meadow is by far my favorite track, and dare I say it, their best song, period. Neither artist writes verses, rather, each sentence is sung as a line in a stanza from a poem: Blue light siren call, behind the city wall. Asphalt, acid wash, wash up against the rocks.

Parkers picks

While its not a popular opinion, I love live albums just as much as studio recordings. Hearing a great group perform onstage creates a lively atmosphere that just doesnt exist in the studio. Some of the best albums of all time were recorded from live concerts and these songs, while great as studio recordings, take on a new life when performed for an audience.

Rhiannon was what proved Stevie Nicks to be a mainstay in Fleetwood Mac and the mystical lyrics penned by Nicks make this one of the bands best songs. While the track sounds great on the 1975 album Fleetwood Mac, it takes on a whole new life on this recording, taken from the 1977 Rumours Tour. Not only is it three minutes longer than the studio recording but Stevie Nicks delivers powerful vocals further cementing her as a rock legend.

One of the best parts of the Disney+ series The Beatles: Get Back was the complete showing of the famous Jan. 30, 1969 Rooftop Concert. Seeing The Beatles final live performance in its entirety was marvelous and even more fantastic when the band released the audio of the concert as an album. In roughly 40 minutes, The Beatles played five songs with some being played multiple times. Get Back was played three times with the second take being the best. The camaraderie and charm of the Fab Four can be felt strongly in this track and its an important part of music history.

From the live album The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts, Badlands is one of many songs on the album that shows what a powerhouse Bruce Springsteen is live. The Boss is one of the finest live performers of all time and all of that energy shines through in this live recording of the first song from the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Daijas picks

As It Was is Styles latest single from his upcoming album Harrys House. This single has only been out for one week but has already broken Spotifys record for most-streamed track in 24 hours for a male artist. This song is different from his previous works as we hear him experimenting with a 70s groove beat and Christmas church bells that sound weird at first but it makes the song fun.

Justin Vernon, lead singer of Bon Iver, talks about latching onto the person you love, but in the end, driving them away. The vocals in Beth/Rest are distorted. Thats normal for Vernon, but it doesnt hide the pain and emotion in the song. The last two minutes of the song is just the instrumental, but it lets you think about the lyrics again and what Vernon is trying to say to his lost partner.

The Gold was originally performed by Manchester Orchestra, who wrote it from the perspective of a miners wife. With Phoebe Bridgers version, you are able to truly feel what the miners wife is trying to describe to her husband. Bridgers vocals further give the song a melancholy feeling.

Angelinas picks

Kodaline is an Irish pop-rock band whose song All I Want was featured in season 9 of Greys Anatomy. It described the heartbreak that singer Stephen Garrian felt when his girlfriend went on a trip without him then returned home with another man. One of the more agonizing lines of the song is, When you said your last goodbye I died a little bit inside. I lay in tears in bed all night, alone without you by my side. But if you loved me, whyd you leave me?

The Lumineers have been producing music since 2002, and have written a long list of meaningful music. My Eyes is one that has always stuck with me. It can be assumed that the subject of this song is heroin: the lure of the drug, all the things an addict feels it can offer them, but then the innocence that is lost. The chorus depicts it beautifully, What did you do to my eyes? What did you sing to that lonely child? Promised it all, but you lied. You better slow down, baby, soon. Its all or nothing to you. It is as if he is singing directly to the substance itself.

This upbeat song that is Getaway just makes you want to dance to the beat or drive with your windows down on a hot summer day. It is about taking your valuables and the one you love and just running away, escaping just the two of you. No regrets, just freedom.

Graces picks

Fresh Hops is a funky band with a sound thats hard to put in a specific genre. They have hints of bluegrass, rock, and funk. This song is about the grandma of one of the band members calling and telling him he needs to write a reggae song. The lyrics are fun, the violin is a cool addition to the sound. Its a total dance song.

Silverchair has many songs that make the heart hurt. Miss You Love is a beautiful song about conflicted feelings and heartbreak. It has soft melodies along with grunge-sounding instruments. The line that gets me every time is I love the way you love, but I hate the way Im supposed to love you back.

Something Corporate never fails to create jamming songs. Only Ashes has great guitar riffs and even better lyrics. If you are into pop-punk or alternative bands, Something Corporate is a band you have to check out. You can hear the inspiration Something Corporate has given current pop-punk or alternative bands.

The rest is here:

Lifestyle's weekly Spotify playlist #46 - Northern Star Online

Sanitation workers clear an encampment of unhoused people in Los Angeles on March 17, 2022.

Photo: Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

From New York City to Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon,andWashington, D.C., a growing list of major cities across the country are escalating a brutal war on their poorest denizens. No policy makes this clearer than the recent and aggressive sweeps of homeless encampments nationwide without any serious options for safe long-term shelter, let alone permanent housing.

In New York City alone, Mayor Eric Adams in March ordered the clearance of hundreds of homeless encampments; he recently announced that 239 of 244sites had been removed, primarily in Manhattan. With hardly any notice, dozens and dozens of unhoused people saw their tents, mattresses, and makeshift shelters swept into garbage trucks. The mayors claim that these sweeps are about moving individuals into safe shelter was immediately belied by the fact that only five people whose encampments were destroyed have accepted a shelter bed.

In Seattle, after a weekslong standoff between police and activists attempting to protect a homeless encampment, cops cleared the space on March 2. Los Angeles has seen multiple sites where unhoused people erected temporary shelters swept away this year in militarized raids. Dozens of encampments have been cleared in Portland. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, at least 65 U.S. cities are criminalizing or sweeping encampments.

Many of the major cities carrying out sweeps are under Democratic leadership a grim reminder that necropolitical population management is a bipartisan approach. And they have a lot of targets and victims in their war: Over half a million people across the U.S. experience homelessness on any given night. While a number of politicians from the Democratic Partys left flank, including New York state Sen. Julia Salazar and New York City Council Member Jennifer Gutirrez, havecriticized the violent displacement of unhoused communities, the liberal establishment continues to pledge allegiance to market forces.

Meanwhile, policies that criminalize poverty from the war on drugs to the penalization of panhandling create a steady flow of bodies into the glutted prison-industrial complex, creating a near-inescapable cycle of immiseration and incarceration.

Mayor Eric Adams holds a press conference regarding homelessness in New York on March 29, 2022.

John Nacion/STAR MAX/via AP

None of the excuses given for carrying out these cruel policies hold any water. Each and every mayor who has enforced encampment clearance has made claims to public safety, citing upticks in crime and alleged concern for unhoused people themselves.

In New York, Adamss disdain for the unhoused has been laid bare. This is the right thing to do because there is no freedom or dignity in living in a cardboard box under an overpass, he saidlast week, claiming that it would take time to build trust such that unhoused people would accept shelter beds. Given his already young record, Adamss remarks about dignity are laughable. He cut $615 million from the citys homeless services agency a fifth of its operating budget while dramatically increasing the policing of homelessness on the subways. He has referred to homelessness as a cancerous sore.

Instead of offering dignity, freedom, and resources, heres what Adams offers unhoused New Yorkers: to be criminalized, forced to choose between street sleeping without the relative security of an encampmentand accepting a bed in a shelter system renowned for violence and poor management.

Plans to turn empty hotels into semipermanent housing have stalled and look ever more imperiled as New Yorks embattled tourist industry rebounds. Adams announced the creation of hundreds more safe-haven shelter beds, which offer more resources than normal city shelters a welcome move, but a Band-aid over a bullet wound, which will grow ever more fatal through a budgetthatprioritizes policing and treats health care and housing with austerity logic.

Activists, supporters, and members of the unhoused community attend a protest calling for greater access to housing and better conditions at homeless shelters in New York on March 18, 2022.

Photo: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

Where are the unhoused supposed go when their temporary shelters are destroyed? In Los Angeles, city officials are embracing the clearance of encampments deemed eyesores, but homelessness advocates and service providers continuously assert that there is not enough temporary or permanent housing for those displaced by raids. The same is true in every major city.

The policy of criminalizing homelessness has never worked, Georgia Berkovich, director of public affairs at the Midnight Mission, which offers emergency and social services to unhoused people in LA, told NBC. We need more beds. We need more housing.

There is more than ample evidence that broken windows policing, of which encampment sweeps are a part, entrench rather than counter poverty.

The sentiment has been echoed by longtime organizers and homelessness organizations nationwide. Private rooms and permanent housing. Thats what people want, Jacquelyn Simone, the policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless, told the New York Times. You dont have to do heavy-handed policing to convince someone to come in off the streets if youre actually offering them an option that is safer and better than the streets.

Those on the front lines of this work have been unwavering on this line: Carceral approaches and sweeps aiming to remove homelessness from sight and consistently into jails and prisons have never worked as solutions to the humanitarian crisis unhoused people face. It would take extraordinary credulity, after decades of war on the poor, to think that city officials choosing these policies again and again have the well-being of the poorest in mind.

There is more than ample evidence that broken windows policing, of which encampment sweeps are a part, entrench rather than counter poverty. Where the liberal establishment fails to serve the poor with encampment sweeps, it succeeds in offering cleared space to tourists and real estate interests.

More:

Liberal Cities Are Waging War on Homeless Residents - The Intercept

EASTHAMPTON Seen from the road, the commercial warehouse at 17 East St. is unassuming. A garage door opens up to a sally port in the front with a drab office building connected to the side.

The ambitions of its owners, however, are anything but modest; they want their new company, Budzee, to become the first Amazon-esque delivery service for marijuana in the state and possibly the country.

This model doesnt exist anywhere, co-founder Kevin Perrier said during a tour of the facility Friday. Youre selling directly to the customer.

Set to open on Monday, Budzee will provide a warehouse-style delivery system for weed. While there currently exist courier services that pick up marijuana products from retailers and deliver them, Budzees co-owners say theyre the first operation to cut out the middleman and deliver directly from their own warehouse.

The company was cofounded by two local business heavyweights Perrier, the president and CEO of Easthampton construction firm Five Star Building Corp., and Volkan Polatol, the owner of Bishops Lounge and Mulinos Restaurant in Northampton and well-known cannabis consultant Ezra Parzybok.

Polatol and Perrier are also the owners of the retail stores Dreamer Cannabis in Southampton and the soon-to-open Honey Northampton, as well as a cannabis manufacturing facility on Welmeco Way in Easthampton.

Initially, after their soft opening on Monday, the company will be serving customers in Easthampton, Northampton and Southampton, with a company app expected to launch next week. The goal, however, is to quickly ramp up operations to hopefully serve the entire state. For those in close proximity, express delivery will allow them to receive products in less than two hours. The company hopes to open a same-day service for this within 20 miles, and a schedule-ahead option for those farther afield.

The states Cannabis Control Commission is currently awarding weed delivery licenses exclusively to those who qualify for the states social equity program those, for example, who were previously harmed by the so-called war on drugs.

Thats where Parzybok comes in. A vocal advocate for medical marijuana, Parzybok was arrested in 2015 after federal agents raided his Northampton home, where they seized 67 marijuana plants part of his home-based medical marijuana operation. He received probation for the offenses.

Now able to receive a license from the state, Parzybok said his story has come full circle.

Budzee wouldnt be here if I wasnt raided, he said, adding that he has since continued his work as a consultant and advocate who still has a passion for cannabis. People should have access to what they need.

Budzee has built out its own software that will serve as the companys backbone and has hired 12 drivers, part time and full time. The cofounders did not say how much they pay their drivers, who under state law are required to ride two to a car. Perrier had owned the building on East Street for some two decades, deciding it was the perfect location for Budzee, given its proximity to the interstate and multiple municipalities.

The company will offer a wide range of cannabis products larger than most retailers, who only sell their own marijuana, they said. Budzee also hopes to attract customers with both high-end buds and less expensive ones.

This is trying to reach a wider budget, Parzybok said.

On Friday, drivers and managers were buzzing about the building, an air of excitement present amid the loud conversation and laughs as the employees went through training and prepared for Mondays opening.

To comply with state regulations and best practices, drivers will have to pull into the buildings sally port, which will be closed behind them. They then head up to the building, pick up their next order, secure it in their company vehicles and head back out on the road.

When asked how they intend to succeed in a crowded local cannabis marketplace, Polatol said the same would have been asked of Amazon years ago.

Its the convenience factor of it, he said, the co-founders noting that once a customer creates a profile with the company, they no longer have to enter their license information or address again. You just get online and we come to you.

Link:

With warehouse delivery service, Easthampton's Budzee aims to become the Amazon of weed - GazetteNET

WASHINGTON, DC Ahead of todays vote on H.R. 3617, The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE Act), Congressman David N. Cicilline (RI-01), senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, urged all of his colleagues to join him in voting to reverse some of harms caused by the failed War on Drugs.

This current system, frankly, doesnt work, it doesnt make any sense not for community safety, not for the functioning of an effective prison system, and not for successful rehabilitation, said Congressman Cicilline. By removing marijuana from the federal controlled substances list, allowing for the expungement of marijuana offenses, and providing support to communities most impacted by the failed War on Drugs, the MORE Act is a long overdue step in restoring justice and reversing the harms caused by the War on Drugs."The MORE Act decriminalizes marijuana at the federal level, while enabling states to set their own regulatory policies without threat of federal intervention. It takes long overdue steps to address the devastating injustices of the criminalization of marijuana and the vastly disproportionate impact it has had on communities of color. It imposes taxes on the cannabis industry and uses the revenues to fund key services targeted to those adversely impacted by federal criminalization of marijuana with people of color almost 4 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than their White counterparts, despite equal rates of use across populations.The bill also addresses the fact that, while communities of color have been disproportionately adversely affected by federal marijuana law, now that many states have legalized marijuana use, many people of color have been prevented from participating in the legal cannabis industry due to prior marijuana convictions.The bill includes important provisions to provide the support needed to ensure that people of color have more opportunities to more fully participate in this growing industry.The Congressmans remarks, as delivered, are below.Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the MORE Act, legislation that takes an important step in rectifying some of the harm caused by the failed War on Drugs.The enforcement of marijuana laws has been a major driver of mass incarceration in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people are arrested each year for marijuana-related charges, very often just possession. This has, in turn, led to our federal prison system operating at 103% of capacity and too many of these offenders are serving time for non-violent, drug-related crimes. A drug-related conviction even for possession can be devastating for the rest of a persons life. Making it difficult or even impossible to vote, get a job, be approved for a loan, or even qualify for a government program. And as we know, these consequences have had a massively disproportionate impact on communities of color, as Chairman Jeffries just mentioned.And this current system, frankly, doesnt work, it doesnt make any sense not for community safety, not for the functioning of an effective prison system, and not for successful rehabilitation. By removing marijuana from the federal controlled substances list, allowing for the expungement of marijuana offenses, and providing support to communities most impacted by the failed War on Drugs, the MORE Act is a long overdue step in restoring justice and reversing the harms caused by the War on Drugs. I want to thank Chairman Nadler for his extraordinary leadership on this issue. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation and to support it here today. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting yes and reversing the gross injustice that the War on Drugs has produced and bring sensible policy back into place.And I again want to end by thanking everyone who has worked on this for so many years, but particularly our Chairman for his passionate and strong leadership.

And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. The MORE Act is supported by more than 130 organizations, including such organizations as the NAACP, National Urban League, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, SEIU, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Drug Policy Alliance, ACLU, Move On, The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Clergy for a New Drug Policy, Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, Minorities for Medical Marijuana, Human Rights Watch, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, JustLeadershipUSA, National Association of Social Workers, National Employment Law Project, National Organization for Women, Moms Rising, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, and Veterans Cannabis Coalition.

###

View post:

Cicilline Urges House to Pass Marijuana Reform - Clerk of the House

Parents, talk to your children. Aunts, uncles and close family friends, help parents impress upon youth the dangers of experimenting with drugs not prescribed to them by a physician for a medical purpose.

In a war it is good to have allies. That is no less true in todays war on drugs.

Too many people, especially young people, are dying from overdosing. Too many human vultures are profiting from the drug-induced misery and breakdown of individuals, both young and not-so-young.

The dangers of drugs can be ingrained in children at an early age. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan suggested reminding children early and often to just say no to drugs. Critics pooh-poohed her recommendation for lack of sophistication, but when dealing with impressionable minds, simplicity cannot be overstated.

But no strategy works better than a face-to-face conversation between a loving, caring parent and child. It is quite powerful. Many find it to be an effective weapon against negative peer pressure.

This urgent advice comes in the wake of a recent report by the Georgia Department of Public Health Drug Surveillance Unit. It warns that reports of overdoses over the past month have been on the rise in Georgia.

That is particularly true with overdoses where fentanyl was mixed in with other drugs. It is no surprise that the misuse of fentanyl can lead to overdose and death. This synthetic opioid is said to be as much as 100 times stronger than heroin.

Odds are better than even that it is in the drugs being hawked on the streets to older preteens, teens and adults who are gullible or foolish enough to buy and use them.

According to the drug surveillance unit, health officials reported at least 66 visits to emergency rooms between early February and mid-March by patients who had taken drugs that were laced with fentanyl. The drugs spiked with fentanyl included cocaine, crack, heroin, methamphetamine, pain killers and cannabis products.

Overdose deaths related to the ingestion of fentanyl have shot up substantially across the state since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials report. By how much? The answer: 106% over the 12 months following May 1, 2020.

Parents, talk to your children.

See the original post:

Parents, talk to your kids about experimenting with drugs - Brunswick News

At 21 years old, Dallas 415 gang member Antong Lucky was sentenced to seven years in prison by the United States criminal legal system that locked up minority citizens for the War on Drugs.

The infamous drug crack cocaine filled the streets of urban communities in the 80s and 90s, where economic instability, survival crimes, and drug addiction consumed and overwhelmed pockets of the population that were already dealing with systemic issues from the past.

Even though he prided himself on being a straight-A student and showing his family numerous achievements in the classroom, Luckys story echoed the same sentiments which led him away from the dreams and aspirations he had at an earlier age.

He eventually entered into gang life at 13 years old, while at the same time dealing with a rocky home life after his father was sentenced to prison and his mother worked overtime to pay the bills.

For the troubled teenager, all the fights, drug dealing, alternative schools, and imperfect decisions came to a head in the Dallas County Courtroom in 1997 when a judge called him a menace to society, just one week after his daughter was born.

Lucky said now he is on a path of accountability and activism after his seven years in prison helped him to grow intellectually and spiritually.

Fun fact: Luckys favorite hobby in prison was reading. Sometimes up to 18 hours a day.

For years he worked in public schools around South Dallas to work with students experiencing the same transgressions. Now, he oversees Urban Specialists, a nonprofit organization working to eliminate violence in Urban Culture, according to the website.

The Signal spoke to Lucky about his childhood in South Dallas, starting the 415 Blood gang, his spiritual transformation in prison, and his work in activism.

The questions and answers in this interview are edited for clarity.

As a child watching the cycle of drugs and poverty influence your family and community, why do you think it was hard to break out and create a new path for yourself?

From an early age, we have an impressionable mind. I was an A-roll talented and gifted student who loved bringing those grades home to my grandparents. And I loved their praise because I was the smartest out of all my cousins. But that love and desire for those good grades werent a match for the community I encountered once I left that door. The messaging that goes inside urban communities. This idea of toxic masculinity you have to be tough, and boys dont cry all that stuff over the years becomes who you are. Its layer after layer. When you go through all that stuff as a kid, and you dont understand systemic stuff happening. By the time we realize its effect on our lives, its almost scary to unlayer.

While you were in school, you were also one of the founders of the 415 Blood Gang in Dallas. Can you talk about the experience of trying to fix the very system that you started the foundation for?

Its something Im definitely not proud of and something I very seldom talk about because I walk the fine line of not wanting to glorify like most guys whove said they denounce the gang but still glamorize it. I was a real gang member, and I did some real stuff that, when I look back, I was so ignorant, and it caused me a lot of harm. For me, when I retrace back to when we first started the Blood gang, we started because our neighborhood was surrounded by four other neighbors not even a mile or two away from us who were young people going through the same thing we were. We would fight these dudes regularly, and their neighborhood already identified with the Crips. We didnt have an identity. In 1988-89 when the movie Colors came out, and we said the enemy of the Crips are the Bloods, so we said were going to be the Bloods. At the time, nobody in the city of Dallas was wearing red. We went neighborhood to neighborhood. And I vowed that we would be the deadliest gang in the city, and I think we lived up to that. I lost a lot of friends through gang banging. So when I get to prison and as Im going through my transformation, brothers in prison are worshipping me, and it felt weird. Im running into youngsters 17 years old just coming into prison who are saying to me, OG, I represented for you. I put in work for the hood. And I would ask them how much time you got. Sometimes a life sentence or 99 years them not even understanding they are going to be there for the rest of their lives. Those interactions made me very firm in denouncing gang stuff, but I do acknowledge the cultures, music played a part.

For context, Lucky shared a story of two friends he lost to the streets, and other acts of violence he still vividly remembers 20+ years later.

The school-to-prison pipeline, a pathway Lucky rode himself, is still a critical piece in increasing Texas mass incarceration. Now in his organization, Urban Specialists, hes hoping to break the cycle for the next generation.

In your memoir, A Redemptive Park Forward, you also wrote that when you came back home from prison and tried to bring opposing gang groups together, it was hard for both sides to see a way out. What do you think is the disconnect? And why does it have to take being behind bars to kind of understand the gravity of the situation?

I dont think it has to get there, but prison is designed to destroy you. Break your spirit and your dignity. Its slavery in the modern-day. I know for me coming up if I had a mentor, I probably wouldve made different choices. And I take full responsibility for the choices I made, and I accept them, but it shouldnt come to that. I think the problem is we get to a point where we judge our communities so harshly rather than understand and learn. That judgment turns them off without really understanding all the trauma these kids face.

His leading-with-love work in the community eventually led Lucky to Washington D.C., where he worked temporarily alongside former House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2015. Luckily, Lucky said he still hopes for reform on the federal level but said the change also starts locally.

What do you think in terms of policy and working with these senators who, like you said, may not understand the system as you do? What do you want to see there?

First of all, I want to see more of us getting involved because education starts at home. So for us, we represent the majority of the prison system, the majority of people on probation or parole, and the majority of people who buy up all the land for cemetery land, something is wrong there. Education starts at the home, and we have to begin to shift the narrative and get more people of color into positions. Were begging people to help us that see us as a threat. We have to begin to make part of our mission in educating our community. We educate on voting rights because our community has this apathetic idea that voting doesnt matter. And that hurts people who are passionate about criminal legal system change. A person can be lynched by this system if they dont have any representation. Then we have to find those individuals who are championing our cause.

Read more from the original source:

From Blood member to activist: a conversation with Antong Lucky - The Texas Signal

'Alien' creature with claws washes up on Australian beach

A mysterious animal was found on an Australian beach. Social media users ran wild with guesses on what the creature could've been.

Damien Henderson, Storyful

What the White House is doing about gas prices, a debate about the war on drugs and the pandemic's impacton teen mental health.

It's Nicole, bringing you all the news you need to know Thursday.

But first,let me get you a tissue. Allergy season is here, and the severity of your sniffles may have to do with where you live.

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup.Subscribe to the newsletter hereortext messages here.

U.S. citizens will be able to select X as the gender marker on their passport application beginning April 11,The White House and State Department said Thursday."Every American deserves the freedom to be themselves," the White House said in itsannouncementon Transgender Day of Visibility. Themarkermeans that travelers will no longer have to provide medical certification if their gender identity does not align with the marker on their birth certificate or other documents.

In an effort to drive down gas prices, President Joe Biden announced Thursday he will release 1 million barrels of oil per day for the next six months from the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The move is the largest release in the reserves nearly 50-year history and is a direct response to skyrocketing gas prices triggered by Russias invasion of Ukraine. The reserve is a stockpile of about 605 million barrels of petroleum designed to preserve oil access in the case of an emergency and is maintained by the Energy Department.

More news:Thursday's latest updates.

The Short List is free, but several stories we link toare subscriber-only. Consider supportingour journalism andbecome a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.

Firefighters battled to contain a wildfire Thursday near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Officials hoped overnight rainfall would abate the blaze, but gusty winds sustained the fire, which spread to nearly 4,000 acres by Thursday morning. Only 5% of the fire was contained by Thursday, officials said, as hundreds of people and 70 agencies worked to break down the wildfire. Throughout the day, 11,000 homes were evacuated. One resident described watching the surreal scene: Thats coming from where I live.

More than a third of high school students reported in 2021 their mental health suffered during the pandemic,according to a study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using data from the health agencys first national survey of public and private high school students, the CDC found more than half of students reported experiencing emotional abuse at home, and nearly 30% reported a parent or another adult in their home lost a job. Poor mental health, emotional abuse and attempted suicide was reported among LGBTQ youth more than other groups. The study found some solutions, concluding that students who felt connected to adults and peers at school were far less likely to report feelings of sadness or hopelessness.

A soaring number of deaths related to illicit fentanyl use have stirred a debate about the future of the war on drugs.Some argue the priority should be focusing on criminal activity while others want more harm-reduction programs that emphasize clean needles and education to users. After 2021 marked the most overdose deathsrecorded in the USA 100,000 the search for an answer is increasingly urgent. Critics of enforcement tactics say this approach punishes people with substance use disorders and does not make them quit. Opponents say government dollars shouldnt be spent on allowing people to use drugs.

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night?Sign up for The Short List newsletter here.

See more here:

'The freedom to be' - USA TODAY

In addition, the official says when it comes to the issue of energy security for the U.S as part of its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine "Trinidad and Tobago has a lot to offer".

The official, a U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, spoke on those matters with our Political Editor Juhel Browne on Tuesday." />

A senior U.S. State Department official tells TV6 News that in addition to the re-establishment of the presence of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms the ATF in this country, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA is "very actively engaged" in Trinidad and Tobago's war on illegal drugs.

In addition, the official says when it comes to the issue of energy security for the U.S as part of its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine "Trinidad and Tobago has a lot to offer".

The official, a U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, spoke on those matters with our Political Editor Juhel Browne on Tuesday.

Original post:

DEA ACTIVELY HELPING IN T&T'S WAR ON DRUGS - tv6tnt.com