Category Archives: War On Drugs

One parameter of success is how often your opponents are infuriated by it. It is disappointing to witness how some are resorting to the theatrics of diversion when cooperation is required, especially when the well-being of society and the lives of the youth are at stake.

The recent success I am referring to is that of the campaign against drugs by the governments of Assam and Manipur. For years, these two states have been a not-so-surreptitious route for narcotics distribution to the rest of India.

Today, both Manipur and Assam have made a concerted push against all drugs. There are drugs of all kinds uppers, downers, relaxers. The traffickers deal in heroin, opium, methamphetamines, party drugs like ecstasy and cocaine, pain pills and cough syrup all illegally. It is not surprising to find former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh uttering unfounded and serious allegations to discredit the success. What he forgets is that playing politics with peoples lives can have serious ramifications.

Social media has been abuzz with the success of Assam and Manipur in dealing with the drugs menace in recent days. This has obviously hurt the conscience of the Congress party. With a mandate to revive the decaying Congress organisation in Manipur, Jairam Ramesh has decided to play politics with the drugs trade.

Unable to digest the swift and effective actions of the state governments, Ramesh took a potshot at urea consumption by farmers in the hill regions of Manipur. He claimed that urea given to Manipur had been diverted to poppy farming. Firstly, the Congress leaders in New Delhi need to get rid of their imperialist mindset and consult their colleagues in Manipur. Secondly, this is an old and tired trope to divide Manipur society by making these accusations against one particular community. It creates suspicion and foments trouble.

Ramesh has claimed that because of poppy farming in the hill areas, Manipur is using double the amount of urea. Facts tell a different story. Ukhrul district, which is in the hill area of Manipur, has the third-highest cropping intensity in the state at 162.5 per cent. It has high yields in potato, sugarcane, oilseed, wheat and maize.

The Thadou Students Association in Manipur has issued a statement. They have pointed out that urea is supplied for paddy cultivation. Poppy is grown in a different season and cannot be stocked for so many months. Besides, urea is directly distributed by the deputy commissioners and agriculture officers of each district.

The Congress has forgotten that Manipur, like most states in the Northeast, is still a state in conflict one that the Congress could not solve for seven decades. And in the shadow of the conflict that the Congress perpetuated, many such crimes took place, including poppy growing. Whitewashing its role by shifting the blame to the current regime will not change public opinion or the resolve of those that are now leading these states. Nor will it help to deny the change that has come.

Ramesh should start working on elections by contesting and organising at the district or village level to understand grass roots organisational politics and then climb up.

For decades, drug addiction has been a silent epidemic in almost all the Northeastern states. Drug users who inject heroin have also been susceptible to HIV and hepatitis. Health and harm reduction programmes have tried to minimise the effects of drug use and addiction. The Congress governments diverted lots of money to listless programmes without results and created a bureaucracy of foreign NGOs. But, the policing under past regimes was highly ineffective.

As soon as he assumed office, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a war against drugs. His announcement complemented the fight of CM Biren Singhs government in neighbouring Manipur. The announcement was not a mere rollout of legislation or an election slogan, but a substantive one. They buffed up intelligence and detection. And the results started to pour in once they worked together to grab the drug traffickers in a choke-hold.

On September 2, the Guwahati Police busted drug traffickers with 205 soap cases stuffed with around 2.5 kg of heroin worth around Rs 17 crore. On August 28, Guwahati Police busted another cartel while it was shipping 1.4 kg of heroin worth about Rs 9 crore. August 26, Guwahati Police had caught a drug trafficker was caught with 8,500 Yaba (meth) tablets.

In Manipur, a police team kicked down the door of a drug lab and seized three bags of suspected brown sugar weighing 40 kg. After a large bust in Assam, the police of the two states collaborated and located the source of the drug traffickers to Bishnupur in Manipur. They were able to put away the kingpin.

It is only with heavy seizures that the big fish will be in the net. Some will run, but they will be chased, caught and prosecuted as per the law.

In the Congress-ruled states, like Punjab, crackdowns result in arresting a large number of drug users and addicts. A lot of the small-time drug peddlers are also those who sell to support their habit. This scratches only the surface of a big problem that society faces because of drug trafficking.

The solution is a crackdown on the big fish to stop the supply of illicit drugs and that is what both Assam and Manipur, which are on the smuggling route, are now doing. Every other day, you can see photos of drug dealers being caught. And these are not a few grams of brown sugar or a few boxes of pills. Active on social media, the respective police forces in Assam and Manipur are showcasing their busts with huge quantities of narcotics seized.

Both Himanta Biswa Sarma and Biren Singh have passed down the message that no corruption and no incompetence will be tolerated as far as drugs are concerned. Only when there is a political leadership that relentlessly cracks down, the police find the confidence to perform at their optimal efficiency. Confidential informants also come forward knowing that the system is straight and serious about cracking down.

Clearly, Ramesh has ground reports of the changes that have happened and has little to bank his campaign on. Lashing out at imaginary issues bears the hallmark of immaturity and does not provide any display of organisational competence.

The writer national spokesperson, BJP and MLA from Nagaland

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War on drugs in the Northeast - The Indian Express

The War On Drugs kicked off the new season of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday night with a performance of their newest song, "Living Proof."

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The War On Drugs didn't take the stage at New York City's Ed Sullivan Theater. Instead, the show aired a taped performance from Boulevard Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Recording the video for Colbertmarked the first time frontman Adam Granduciel and company had seen one another in person in nearly two years.

The intimate performance matches the tone of "Living Proof," Granduciel's quiet meditation on moving, returning, escaping and the pain we attach to important places in our lives. The Philadelphia-based band released the song in July as the lead single from their upcoming album, "I Don't Live Here Anymore," the follow up to their 2017 Grammy-winning project, "A Deeper Understanding."

According to Atlantic Records, The War On Drugs recorded "I Don't Live Here Anymore" at seven different studios over the past three years, including Electric Lady in New York and Sound City in Los Angeles. The band describes the 10-track project as"an uncommon rock album about one of our most common but daunting processes resilience in the face of despair and an expression of rock n rolls power to translate our own experience into songs we can share and words that direct our gaze toward the possibility of what is to come."

"I Don't Live Here Anymore" will be released Oct. 29 via Atlantic Records. The War On Drugs will then hit the road in 2022, with two concerts at The Met Philadelphia on Jan. 27 and 28. Tour tickets are available now.

Watch the band perform "Living Proof" on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" below.

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The War On Drugs' performance on Tuesday night's 'Late Show' was a reunion for the band - PhillyVoice.com

Felix, a Pawtucket Democrat, estimated that there is now a 70 percent chance the legislature will not return in the fall. But, she said, I am hoping we actually can come in and we can get this done before the end of the year.

Senator Tiara Mack, a Providence Democrat, noted that Massachusetts, Connecticut and other states have legalized recreational marijuana.

We are lagging behind other states in our area, she said. By bringing in the revenue that we are losing right now to our neighboring states, Rhode Island will be able to afford a lot of the critical programs to make sure we are able to take care of every single Rhode Islander.

Along with a coalition of other groups, Reclaim Rhode Island is calling for the Assembly to pass marijuana legislation that would include:

Representative David Morales, a Providence Democrat, said more than a dozen states have legalized cannabis. But they do it in a way that ignores the needs of the individuals, of the communities, that have been impacted by the War on Drugs, he said. We have seen cannabis legalized in ways that cater to the needs of big businesses and corporate lobbyists.

So its important that Rhode Island take the lead in passing a law that contains social equity provisions, he said.

Its no longer a question of if it is now a question of when we legalize cannabis, Morales said. When we legalize cannabis, we are going to do it in a just way. We are going to ensure that we expunge records of cannabis offenses. We are going to ensure that there are worker cooperative opportunities.

Rhode Island needs to legalize marijuana in a manner that allows us to generate the necessary revenue for our state to move forward and be competitive, he said, talking about the need to invest in public schools and health care.

Representative Karen Alzate, a Pawtucket Democrat who is chairwoman of the Rhode Island Legislative Black and Latino Caucus, said big corporations are taking over the marijuana industry in other parts of the country.

Here in Rhode Island, we have an opportunity to pass legalization that would ensure that working-class people get their fair share, she said. We cant reverse the harm of the War on Drugs, but we can start to repair it by passing automatic expungement and waiving all related fines, fees, and court debt. This bold legalization plan offers us the chance to turn a new leaf for the Ocean State, and its time we take it.

Tyler Brown, a Reclaim Rhode Island organizer, called for the legislation to provide social equity applicants with capital through no-interest and forgivable loans, plus business training and support.

The Senate proposal for legalizing marijuana would would create a new Cannabis Control Commission to approve licenses and oversee the market, but Governor Daniel J. McKee favors a proposal that would keep those regulatory powers with the state Department of Business Regulation. Reclaim Rhode Island has no formal position on that point of contention.

In addition to Reclaim Rhode Island, the coalition backing the social justice principles includes Black Lives Matter RI PAC, the Yes We Cannabis RI Coalition, the Formerly Incarcerated Union of RI, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 328.

After Wednesdays news conference, Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat, issued a statement, noting that in June the Senate passed a marijuana legalization bill, which the House did not approve.

Now Senator Joshua Miller and Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey are working together with the House towards consensus legislation, Ruggerio said. The Senate-passed bill creates a competitive cannabis economy with low barriers to entry and includes very strong social justice provisions, such as financing for individuals impacted by prohibition and a process for expungement of past criminal offenses that is as close to automatic as practical.

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, issued a statement, saying, The House and Senate are continuing to have productive discussions about the significant policy implications associated with legalizing marijuana for personal use, including, but not limited to, some of the issues raised today at the press conference.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @FitzProv.

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R.I. lawmakers call for marijuana legalization to help those impacted by War on Drugs - The Boston Globe

A flower seen in silhouette stands on the south reflecting pool at the 9/11 Memorial site in the lower section of Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 2, 2021.(Photo source: Reuters)

By Dr Aparaajita Pandey,

The 9/11 attacks can be considered one of the most defining moments for global security strategies and infrastructure. It not only led to the US forming stronger alliances, NATO entering a number of countries, middle-east (west Asia) becoming the focus of the world, it also led to a shifting of focus and reorganization of priorities. The Global War on Drugs now became the Global War on Terror. This wasnt a mere shift in the nomenclature, it also was emblematic of the shift in preeminence of issues for the United States.

It is widely believed that the American (US) focus shifted from their Latin American neighbours to Afghanistan and later to Iraq. While this could be brushed off as an obvious translocation of focus for a country that had suffered a major terrorist attack, it is important to remember that the US foreign policy stood on the pillars of the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary. Terms like Americas Backyard are emblematic of how integrally intertwined the US has been in the Latin American region. Throughout the Cold War, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced interventions by the US which was justified as the policy for containment of Communism.

Since the beginning of the decade of the 1970s the US became even more involved in certain Latin American nations, interfering in the domestic politics, stationing American soldiers and officers, to fight the burgeoning drug trade in the region. The list of American interventions in Latin America is long and the long term consequences of this constant interference are vast. In the context of such an inseparable association that went on for decades, hurling itself over hurdles like anti-Americanism which is still alive in countries like Venezuela; it is difficult to imagine such a stark and complete shift in priorities that the Latin American region seemed forgotten.

The decade after 9/11 is often termed as the decade of benign neglect by the US for Latin America and the Caribbean. Some believe that this benign neglect led to a flourishing of regionalism and regional organisations in Latin America, which is also true to an extent. The region saw a mushrooming of regional organisations, each one claiming to be the one grouping that could be the answer to all of Latin American woes, however, none could achieve such a lofty goal and Latin America began to be described as the spaghetti bowl of regional organisations. On the other hand, there are also those who believe that the ignorance from the US led to a rapid rise in the rate of crime in the region. It is also claimed that Narco- trafficking and drug cartels grew manifold during the decade as the US was busy elsewhere. It has been previously stated that for Latin America, the focus on terror came at the cost of fighting organized crime in the region. While both the perspectives have elements of truth, they are built on the same foundational concept of American negligence, and fail to truly capture the entire picture.

The USs security policy didnt shift focus to the Middle East and began its era of complete negligence of Latin America, in fact it identified the Latin American region as a part of the war on terror. If one was to look at the military-to-military cooperation between US and Latin America during the decade and the SOUTHCOM perception of security threats, one would find that the US believed that the greatest security threats in the region were the internal conflict in Colombia and Peru as well as the triple border between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

While Colombia had the FARC rebels, Peru had the Sendero Luminoso or the rising sun insurgents, these insurgent movements were internal rebellions but greatly benefited from thriving drug trade. The nexus between the drug cartels and the internal insurgent groups was recognized as symbiotic and the areas identified as sensitive and important were the triple border between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay and in the Andes the border between Colombia and Ecuador. SOUTHCOM had evidence of the triple border being used as a safe haven for Hezbollah and Hamas insurgents as well as a connection between organized crime and international terrorism. The US then launched a multilateral mechanism to combat terrorism at the triple border called 3+1 which included the US, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

In addition to the above there was a continued military presence to combat drug trafficking in the region. The US also encouraged a crackdown on money laundering and corruption. SOUTHCOM saw these international threats as complex and multitiered and encouraged inter-agency operations including US officials as well as domestic personnel from the respective countries.

The lack of an overt display of military or political intervention of the US in the region often leads us to believe that the US lost interest or shifted priorities post 9/11. While the geographical focus of the war on terror has been the middle-east; it doesnt automatically translate to negligence of Latin America. The US has always focused on the region due to a plethora of reasons that range from geographical proximity to abundance of natural resources and that policy has not shifted focus, despite being reinterpreted and presented in a myriad of ways.

(The author is an Asst. Professor at Department of Public Policy, Amity University, NOIDA and a PhD in Latin American studies from Centre for Canadian, US, and Latin American Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of Financial Express Online.)

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US and Latin America the aftermath of 9/11 - The Financial Express

The Assam polices war on drugs has intensified with huge seizures being made on a daily basis.

On Sunday, police in Assams Karbi Anglong district recovered drugs worth crores of rupees.

Heroin worth over Rs 8 crores has been seized by the police in Assams Karbi Anglong district.

The seized consignment weighs around 1 kilogram.

The seizure was made near Balijan Forest area in Bokajan sub-division of Karbi Anglong district in Assam.

On September 1 too, the police in Karbi Anglong made a massive seizure of drugs.

Heroin, carrying a market value of around Rs 4 crore, was recovered and seized by the Assam police in Karbi Anglong district on September 1.

That seizure was also made at Bokajan sub-division of Karbi Anglong.

(This is a breaking story)

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'War on Drugs': Heroin worth over Rs 8 crore seized by Assam police in Karbi Anglong - Northeast Now

This article contains spoilers for The Wire.

Emmy-nominated actor Michael K Williams has died aged 54, reportedly of a suspected drug overdose. Early last year the actor mused on instagram How will I be remembered and what will be my legacy?

Undoubtedly the actor will be remembered for his breakthrough role as The Wires Omar Little. The homosexual, morally ambiguous outlaw who hunts Baltimore drug dealers for fun was somehow larger than life yet authentically believable.

Armed with his signature sawed-off-shotgun, facial scar, duster jacket, and grin, Williamss sheer presence played a key part in HBOs 2002 series about Americas war on drugs. This was the federal governments zero-tolerance approach to illegal drug use that increased prison sentences for all drug-related incidents. Twenty years on, we can see how the programme redefined television and its impact in multiple ways.

Unlike the then-popular CSI-style investigative American cop show, The Wire embraces the cold-hearted nature of ancient Greek tragedy.

Indifferent to individuals heroism and morality, the show demonstrates how the American dream remains unachievable for many. Internal politics within local government, an overworked police force and an underfunded education sector thwart individual talent and ambition. Characters are at the mercy of these institutions that stand in for traditional Greek gods.

Omar may be the closest the show has to a heroic figure, but his attempts for redemption are rewarded by the barrel of a childs gun as he is unceremoniously killed for a couple of dollars. He is the Achilles falling victim to Apollos eventual will, as envisioned by ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus.

The shows creator, David Simon, coined the phrase visual novel to describe the programmes distinctive and demanding viewing experience. Instead of each episode neatly concluding with a captured criminal, The Wire made it impossible to simply tune in at any point in the season.

One investigation stretches over 13 hours of television, so you have room for all the regular idiosyncrasies and nuance of how people relate and how institutions work, much like a Dickens novel. Put simply, Fuck the casual viewer as Simon once elucidated.

The Wire heralded the binge-watching revolution when DVD box sets made consuming 13 hours of television in one sitting possible and irresistible. Compared to HBOs other quality television dramas from the period including The Sopranos and Deadwood The Wires exploration of Americas war on drugs proved that television audiences had the patience and intelligence to consume a narrative that could be consumed as if it were one very long film.

Its difficult to imagine a universe where Game of Thrones could have been commissioned had The Wire not blurred the previously clear division between hero and villain.

Baltimores police department and Barksdales drug-dealing crew are presented as two social structures in a pragmatic conflict with one another. A parallel ensues between Baltimores criminal justice system and the laws of the street and the equal pressure they apply to individuals.

For instance, drug kingpin Stringer Bells (Idris Elba) brutal murder of Omars lover Brandon for robbing his stash house is depicted as a logically justifiable action similar to that of the US justice systems treatment of criminals. Without such iconic episodes, would we have been able to empathise with the callous actions of the bloodthirsty Lannisters in Game of Thrones?

Perhaps Williams and the Wires greatest legacy will be the key role it has played in making the world increasingly sceptical of Americas war on drugs. Season four received the strongest critical reception for portraying how a host of school children could be forced into a life of drug abuse against their will.

The series highlights underfunded social services, a lack of employment opportunities, benevolent drug dealers, and drug-addicted parents to compellingly reveal that not all addicts are addled layabouts through choice. Instead, these people have been worn down by a system and societal structure that was against them from the moment they were unlucky enough to be born black in the projects (the USs social housing).

A testament to just how much the show changed opinion, during his first presidential campaign Barack Obama said, Omars a great guy. While Obama was keen to point out he was not endorsing the characters lawbreaking, The Wire nevertheless helped instigate a global debate as to whether Americas war on drugs is worth its escalating cost in terms of human lives and taxpayer money.

David Simon has since vowed he will write a sixth season if drugs are legalised nationally in the US. From new Portuguese laws to Cleveland polices heroin assisted treatment programme, drug addiction is now starting to be treated as a health problem, as the obituaries for Michael K Williams untimely death attest. The Wire and Williams performance went a long way in showing that drug addiction is an illness that demands understanding and that those suffering from it need societys help and support, not its condemnation.

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Michael K Williams and The Wire: how the show redefined television watching - The Conversation UK

Amid constant criticism by the opposition parties where Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is repeatedly targeted for his pre-2017 poll oath on gutka sahib to end drug problem in four weeks on party forming the government, the Congress government in Punjab has now planned a 100-day Big Bang Programme to project how the states war against the menace has reached its pinnacle.

As per the proceedings of a meeting of Punjab anti-drug campaign held on August 27, Suresh Kumar, the Chief Principal Secretary to the CM, suggested that under the Big Bang Programme, the state police chief can kick start an exercise named Operation Red Flag. Under the operation, the police department will mark villages, wards and areas worst affected by drug menace under a red flag category and make efforts to make them drug free in 100 days.

It was decided that at least one such programme should be started, which would project states war against drugs reaching pinnacle and being impactful, as per the proceedings of the meeting accessed by The Indian Express.

The broad contours of the Big Bang Programme, as per the decisions in the meeting, will focus on public outreach. A panel of Additional Chief Secretary (Home), DGP and ADGP-cum-chief of anti-drug Special Task Force has been asked to submit a proposal on the Big Bang Programme to the Chief Minister.

The move to launch the ambitious programme comes at a time when the elections in the state are less than six months away. Apart from the opposition, which leaves no stone unturned to target Amarinder Singh over his promise, the CM has also been facing criticism from within the party too. State Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has repeatedly questioned the inaction of the party government and the previous Akali dispensation against those involved in drug trade. Sidhu also has demanded that the government make public the STF report on drugs.

As per the quarterly report on anti-drug campaign by June end, out of 16,117 villages and wards, only 3,967 are drug free, translating into 24.6 per cent. In 15 districts and police districts, out of total 28, less than 20 per cent villages and wards are drug free, as per the report. This includes Patiala, the home district of CM, where 203 villages and wards have been categorized as drug free out of total 1,208, translating into 16.8 per cent.

This also includes Muktsar district, the stronghold of Akali patriarch and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who represents Lambi in the Vidhan Sabha. Out of total 310 villages and wards in Muktsar, only 49 are drug free as per the report, making it 15.8 per cent of the total.

As per the report, out of 110 locations under Amritsar Police Commissionerate, none is drug free and only 46 out of 1,916 locations in Hoshiarpur (2.4 per cent); 25 out of 816 in Ferozepur (3.06 per cent); and 59 out of 764 in Ropar (7.7 per cent) are drug free.

Maximum drug free villages are in Moga district (432 out of total 443 making it 97.5 per cent) followed by Fazilka (500 out of 549 translating into 91.07 per cent).

On declaring villages, wards drug free

An official letter to all deputy commissioners, commissioners of police and senior superintendents of police by the STF ADGP in April 2019, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, referred to a meeting on March 19, 2019 chaired by CMs Chief Principal Secretary in which it was observed that some districts are declaring some villages and wards as drug free despite the fact that NDPS Act cases are being registered in these areas and drug addicts of these areas are undergoing treatment in the nearby de-addiction centres.

The letter mentioned guidelines to declare villages and wards drug free from drug abuse victim point of view and drug trafficking point of view. It underlined the role and reports of Sub Divisional Mission Teams (SDMTs), Drug Abuse Prevention Officer (DAPOs) and Guardians of Governance (GoGs) before declaring any village or ward free from drug abuse victim point of view. To declare an area free from drug trafficking point of view, it pointed out among other parameters that no case under the NDPS Act or the Drugs and Cosmetics Act should have been registered in the village or ward for the past five years.

Other decisions taken in the meeting

ACS Home to hold meetings with concerned officials to chalk out strategy for:How to do tapering of buprenorphine, the drug administered to addictsWhether urine sampling of drug addicts could be initiated or notDeciding protocols for dispensation of buprenorphineDeciding protocols for dugs dispensation to females

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Operation Red Flag: To play out soon in Punjab, a 100-day war on drug menace - The Indian Express

The police crackdown on illegal drugs flowing into Walpole Island is ramping up once again.

A state of emergency was first declared in July to help stem the flow of illicit drugs and prevent more overdoses in the First Nations community.

Now, the local police services is calling on residents to do more to help.

Working together is the only way for us to clean up our communitys drug problems and without the help of the public and our community members we will be faced with a losing battle, Police Chief Chad Jacobs says. We cannot allow this to happen.

Jacobs says there will be a greater police presence, both day and night, to try to combat the trafficking and use of illegal substances.

Anyone with information on crime activity in the area is asked to contact the Walpole Island Police Service or OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or *OPP (677) on mobile phones, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or submit online at http://www.sarnialambtoncrimestoppers.org.

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Walpole Islands War On Drugs Heating Up - CKXS 99.1

Announcing the completion of Americas withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden declared an end to the post-9/11 forever war. Ahead of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks that prompted the original invasion, Biden highlighted how, if youre 20 years old today, youve never known an America at peace.

Despite the presidents spin, you still wont. American forces have left Afghanistan, but soldiers, spies, and law-enforcement officials remain engaged around the world, and with good reason: Terrorists are fighting a forever war, which means the United States has to as well.

Bidens case is based around the conclusion of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq war technically ended in 2011, when the United States military withdrew. But America re-intervened in 2014 as the Islamic State captured Mosul and advanced on Baghdad. That deployment was much smaller than the six-figure occupation force of the 2000s, peaking at about 5,200 troops in 2017 and now down to 2,500. But the U.S. also sent troops into Syria, organizing local forces to fight ISIS, peaking at 2,000 soldiers and remaining at roughly 900. If Biden withdraws from Iraq and Syria, then the forever wars will finally be over, right?

Not quite. Theres also the drone program and Special Operations forces, which have launched hundreds of attacks against al-Qaedas offshoot in Yemen, al-Shabaab in Somalia, and other suspected terrorists, killing thousands of people. The most recent of these strikes outside of Afghanistan was barely a month ago, in Somalia. Few Americans pay attention to any of this.

There are also small U.S. military deployments throughout Africa, in at least 22 countries, partnering with local governments against groups connected, in some cases loosely, to the global networks of al-Qaeda and ISIS. Americans never pay attention to this either, unless U.S. soldiers are killed, as four were in October 2017 in Niger.

Read: The women burning their degree certificates

Lets say America withdraws all these forces too. That decision would undermine military-to-military ties that help build international partnerships, but perhaps thats an acceptable trade-off to end the forever wars. Intelligence and law-enforcement agenciesa big part of how the U.S. fights terrorismwill still operate overseas, though, and they have at times conducted abuses, and require active oversight.

The American people, not unreasonably, think terrorism is something the government should protect them from, like foreign invasion and serial killers. In a February 2021 Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans said terrorism was a critical threat, a figure that has never dipped below 70 percent since Gallup began tracking the question in 2004. Similarly, polls show that a majority of Americans support drone strikes against foreign extremists. Biden authorized some against ISISs branch in Afghanistan following the deadly August 26 suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport, and promises to continue using these over-the-horizon capabilities.

This is the difficulty with claiming, or trying, to end the forever wars: Terrorism wont go away. Its an action, not an ideology. The international terrorist threat is a factor of globalization, American power, widespread access to guns and explosives, and the internet. There are and will be extremist ideologies, and theyll always have the tools to organize. A subset of adherents will advocate anti-American violence, and some will attempt it. Terrorism will be a threat for the foreseeable future, and an ongoing warlike posture is necessary to counter it.

A lesson of September 11, embraced by politicians, the public, and the national-security bureaucracy, is that arresting terrorists after the fact isnt enough. Nor is raising societal defenses, such as creating the Transportation Security Administration and heightening airport security checks. We have to anticipate and prevent attacks.

That requires intelligence to locate and track suspected terrorists, and capacitywhether that be law enforcement or militaryto stop them. Doing it well means deepening relationships with foreign governments, sharing intelligence, and coordinating responses, which leads to outcomes like small deployments throughout Africa. When a state is either unwilling to oppose anti-American groups on its territory, as Afghanistan was with the Taliban government hosting al-Qaeda, or unable to, as in failed states such as Somalia and Yemen, that leaves American leaders with two choices: let suspected terrorists operate unimpeded, or send Americans to capture or kill them. American voters have made clear that the former is unacceptable. Drones and Special Operations forces seek to accomplish the latter.

But the Bush administration went further, expanding the War on Terror to states themselves. Defining Americas enemy not just as terrorists, but also those who harbor them, George W. Bush argued that by removing authoritarians, establishing elections, and training local militaries, the U.S. and its allies would deny terrorists sanctuary and reduce some of terrorisms root causes.

This idea was straightforward with Afghanistan in 2001, where the Taliban rejected demands to hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda, but got stretched with Iraq in 2003, as Saddam Husseins government wasnt involved with September 11, and did not have the feared weapons of mass destruction. But once U.S.-led invasions removed those governments, circumstances changed, and subsequent presidents committed to stabilization missions (albeit with an eye on the exit).

David Frum: The two blows America is dealing to the Taliban

Bushs vision of democratization by force was at best highly ambitious, and in some ways fundamentally misguided. The War on Terror, however, is neither misguided, nor has it been unsuccessful.

Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump continued and expanded operations against al-Qaeda, and later ISIS. Both ordered ground raids that killed the leaders of jihadist organizations. Drone-strike data show remarkable continuity between those otherwise different administrations.

Although some people probably do join terrorist groups because someone they care about was killed or injured by an American drone strike, these attacks likely do not create more terrorists than they killor at least not terrorists of equal ability. As research by Patrick Johnston and Anoop Sarbahi, Asfandyar Mir, and other academics shows, the drone campaign has reduced the effectiveness of targeted groups by removing skilled leaders and frightening operatives into curtailing communication and recruitment. When strikes kill civilians, its tragic (and strategically counterproductive), but drones tend to cause fewer civilian casualties than other military options, and improved abilities led to fewer civilian deaths per strike in the 2010s than in the 2000s.

Congress has authorized drone strikes and other War on Terror operations in all sorts of ways, to the point where theyre a permanent part of the federal bureaucracy. Theres the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against terrorists, which grants the president broad power to designate threats and determine appropriate responses. Congress passed it near-unanimously, with just one House Representative, the Democrat Barbara Lee of California, voting no. Every president since has interpreted the authorization expansively, using it to go after not only al-Qaeda, but also suspected terrorists who had no role in September 11.

Even if Congress repealed the AUMF, it still authorized extensive surveillance measures in the name of fighting terrorism via the Patriot Act of 2001, and reauthorized much of it in 2015 and again in 2020. Acts of Congress created the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, and restructured the intelligence community in 2004. And Congress effectively reauthorizes their activities every year by approving budgets.

Read: Americas lie

The War on Terror is like the War on Drugs: an ongoing issue to manage, not a conflict that can be won. The U.S. has made mistakes, done some awful thingssuch as a torture program in the 2000sand can improve its strategy in various ways. Washington should, for example, learn the lessons of the past 20 years, namely that the U.S. should avoid upending relatively stable situations, such as Husseins Iraq, while also recognizing that the costs of ignoring problems, such as 1990s Afghanistan, can end up higher than the costs of managing them.

Ending Americas deployment in Afghanistan is a significant change. But terrorism, whether from jihadists, white nationalists, or other sources, is part of life for the indefinite future, and some sort of government response is as well. The forever war goes on forever. The question isnt whether we should carry it outits how.

Read more from the original source:

America's Forever War Must Go On - The Atlantic

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There is no better place in Florida to hold a Sacred Mushroom Summit than Gainesville.

The city gave rise to the famed Gainesville Green marijuana strain. People gladly squished through pastures mined with cow patties in search of mind-altering fungi. Joints were regularly smoked at college football games. And ecstasy-fueled raves at Simon's downtown drew elite techno DJs from Europe.

The summit, set for Friday through Sunday at the Thomas Center, will feature lectures and presentations on the use of hallucinogens of the Americas including ayahuasca, cannabis and peyote.

Topics will include medical use, psychological, anthropological and historic aspects of the drugs,religious freedom and legal issues.

There is a whole lot going on right now in this area, said organizer Tom Lane, who has written books on historic use of psychoactives. This type of medicine pre-dates the colonial days. Indigenous sages were using this in Mexico way before the colonials got here.

Hallucinogens are going through a revival. They were widely studied through the mid-1900s for medical and therapeutic value but got ground up in the war on drugs later in the century after LSD, marijuana and mushrooms were used recreationally.

Now medical marijuana is legal in many states and recreational marijuana increasingly so. Oregon voters approved a measure to legalize the use of psilocybin mushrooms in a therapeutic setting and cities such as Denver, Oakland and Santa Cruz, California,have decriminalized possession of psychoactive plants and fungi.

Moreover, universities are once again taking a look at the effectiveness of psychedelics on mental health.

Take the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research for instance. It has $17 million in funding to study psilocybin the compound that makes some mushrooms "magic" for new treatment of psychiatric and behavioral disorders, its website states.

Research indicates its effectiveness in treating depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction.

Lane said speakers will include alternative health advocates, therapists, a mushroom spore grower and attorney Greg Lake, who is versed in the issues of use of psychoactives in spiritual settings and the regulation of it for formal therapeutic use.

Session topics will include shamanism and the historic use of substances in Mexico and Central America.

We are not doing anything where there would be a reason to arrest anybody, Lane said of the summit. There is going to be nothing illegal.

Originally posted here:

Psychoactive substance summit set for the weekend in Gainesville - Gainesville Sun