Category Archives: War On Drugs

We are torn by images of unaccompanied minors and overcrowded facilities at our southern border, but few in the United States are asking why so many Central American families are so desperate to escape their own countries that they are willing to risk everythingincluding family separation.

These migrants are not fleeing some Act of Goddrought or hurricanes or the likethat could not be anticipated or prevented. Rather, they are fleeing cartel violence and governmental corruption.

As CNN recently noted, poverty, crime, and corruption in Latin America have long been drivers of migration. Indeed, many Central Americans have concluded that the risks of the journey, of the smugglers, and of the possibility of losing their children are outweighed by the near certainty of violence or death at home.

But what explains the cartels, the violence and the governmental corruption? Fundamentally, it all stems from the U.S. War on Drugs.

When something that people want is declared illegal, the inevitable and predictable consequence is violence. Our experiment with alcohol prohibition in the United States (1920-1933)led to violence and corruption in U.S. cities as the unabated demand for alcohol led traffickers to pay bribes to police and politicians. Criminal gangs (think Al Capone) slaughtered each other as well as bystanders while battling over control of the alcohol trade.

We have created the problems driving desperate people to our borders and we have the power to change the dynamic.

However, during Prohibition, we did not try to force the rest of the world to join in our crusade. All the costs in violence and corruption stayed home to roost, which is probably why it took us only 13 years to realize that the downsides of this experiment outweighed whatever benefits there might be. With repeal, violence and corruption in American cities declined dramatically.

President Nixon ignored these lessons of Prohibition when he doubled down on illegality for other drugs. U.S. demand did not decrease, and Latin American supply met the demand. We wrongly believed that supply-side interdiction would result in fewer drug imports, but it has only resulted in smarter and more violent traffickers.

Drug-related governmental violence and corruption within the U.S. is minimal. We have offloaded most of the costs of the drug war onto the producer and transit countries, especially Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. We have used foreign aid and military assistance as leverage to force them to man the front lines of our War on Drugs regardless of the resulting corruption of their own politicians, police, and military. (By contrast, Uruguay, which does not rely on U.S. foreign aid, could implement its own, more liberal drug policies.)

If decapitated bodies were found outside Washington, D.C. instead of Mexico City, we would have changed course a long time ago, but until migrants massed at our border, we didnt really notice the collateral damage elsewhere. We complain about corruption and failures of governance in these countries, yet our policies have systematically undercut democracy and made dysfunction inevitable. Latin American governments cant be accountable to their own citizens when they must respond to the financial threats and incentives from the United States.

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Get our best delivered to your inbox.

Not surprisingly, migrants flock to our borders seeking relief from the terror caused by ruthless narcotraffickers and governments corrupted by the drug trade. Our immigration crisis is a problem of our own making.

So how to change the situation?

The Biden administration has recognized that there must be reasons behind migration, and has named Vice President Kamala Harris at the point person for deterring migration and looking for root causes of the influx. However, a focus limited to diplomatic efforts (strengthening local border police) and economic aid is likely to be less than successful. As the Brookings Institution has noted, foreign aid tends to vanish into the hands of corrupt government officials. More money allocated to these same corrupt government officials and police departments is unlikely to change migration pressures.

This focus on fixing the Central American countries is also treating the migration problem as somehow caused by them: If only they would be less corrupt and would grow their economies, the migrants would stay home. We are blaming the victim. This completely ignores our essential role in destabilizing governments and fostering cartel violence.

We have created the problems driving desperate people to our borders and we have the power to change the dynamic. We can end the drug war in the U.S. and instead safely regulate and control all illicit substances, as we have done with alcohol and tobacco and, more recently, cannabis. We can cease foisting a drug war upon vulnerable South and Central American countries. With drugs no longer illegal, cartels lose both market share and a reason to bribe government officials.

Obviously, ending the War on Drugs and its disastrous collateral consequences is not a quick fix for the border. However, border problemswhich clearly require some short-term logistical fixesare only a symptom of our failed drug policies and should not distract attention from our practical and moral obligation to fix the real root causes of migration.

It will take time for these countries to re-stabilize. Economic development, job creation, and poverty reduction require the rule of lawhonest governmental regulation, enforceable property rights, honest and expeditious courts, and police who assist rather than prey upon the public.

With the War on Drugs a thing of the past, and rule of law reestablished, the dynamism and talent of the population can turn to creating, rather than survival or escape. This will be a tremendous gain for our entire hemisphere.

The asylum problem will take care of itself when countries south of our border, responsive to their own citizens, are again free to craft their own destinies, and staying home becomes a natural and attractive option for parents and their children.

Excerpt from:

Disastrous US Drug War Is Key Driver of Displacement in Central America - Common Dreams

After his state legalised recreational marijuana, expunged criminal convictions and opened a pathway to a billion-dollar cannabis industry in an effort to reverse the damage from the ongoing war on drugs, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is reviving his push to legalise it at the federal level with or without support from the White House.

Now leading a Congress with a razor-thin Democratic majority, the New York senator who first introduced legislation to do so in 2018 is preparing another round with senator Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, Politico reports.

The war on drugs has been a war on people, and particularly people of colour, Senator Schumer announced on Saturday. Im working in the Senate to end the federal prohibition on marijuana and to repair the damage done by the war on drugs.

President Joe Biden has not supported arguments to expand legalisation at the federal level.

I certainly will have an ongoing conversation with him, and tell him how my views evolved. And hope that his will to, Mr Schumer told Politico.

But at some point were going to move forward, period, he added.

Read more:

New York is now among 15 states and Washington DC that have legalised marijuana for recreational use.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation into law on Wednesday that provides justice for long-marginalised communities, embraces a new industry that will grow the economy, and establishes substantial safety guards for the public, he said in a statement.

New Yorkers aged 21 and older are now allowed to possess up to three ounces of cannabis for recreational use, or 24 grams of concentrated forms. The state will implement a regulatory framework for future use in the coming months.

The law also creates automatic expungement of previous marijuana convictions for possession that is no longer criminalised a reversal that will impact thousands of New Yorkers.

It also aims to help people with previous convictions as well as people involved with selling marijuana illegally to participate in the states burgeoning legal market.

After the White House announced that five staffers were fired for past marijuana use, a group of congressional Democrats has urged the president to clarify your employment suitability policies, remove past cannabis use as a potential disqualifier, and apply these policies with consistency and fairness.

Repercussions for cannabis use have always been unequal and those with the most power have always faced the fewest consequences, they added. We ask that you dont allow that pattern to continue within your administration.

Link:

Senate Democrats pledge to reform marijuana laws and repair the damage done by the war on drugs - The Independent

In last weeks episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen reflected on the year-end lists they made in 2011. They spent time discussing albums like Real Estates Days and M83s Hurry Up, Were Dreaming, albums that were very highly regarded at the time.

This week, they are using the benefit of hindsight to revise those lists and name the albums that might have flown under the critical radar in 2011, but we can acknowledge today to have been very influential. For Hyden, these are albums like The War On Drugs Slave Ambient and Wye Oaks Civilian, while Cold Caves Cherish The Light Years and Drakes Take Care still reign supreme in Cohens mind.

In this weeks Recommendation Corner, Hyden is plugging Course In Fable, the new album from Ryley Walker thats out today. Cohen, on the other hand, is digging through some obscure recent uploads on Bandcamp to showcase some new names like Get Well, Kid and Twinkle Park.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 33 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

The War On Drugs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Visit link:

Indiecast: Looking Back To 2011 With The War On Drugs, And More - UPROXX

Manipur police Friday arrested a drug peddler along with 84.45 kg of opium worth over Rs 4 crore in the international market.

The arrest was made by a team of Imphal West district police commandos on Friday at Shantipur area in Imphal West district. The police team also recovered Rs 19.85 lakhs in cash from the drug peddler.

The arrested individual identified himself as one Sandeep Limbu, 31, presently staying at Shantipur, Kanglatongbi.

K Meghachandra, Superintendent of police, Imphal West said, The drug peddler was detained while a team of police was conducting patrolling and checking at Shantipur areas. We received information about the presence of anti-social elements in the area.

On checking the premises of the mans house, the police team found a bag containing 22 black packets hidden inside his van. When the packets were examined it turned out to be opium altogether weighing 84.45 kg worth Rs 4,22,25,000 in international market, said the SP.

On preliminary questioning, the man reportedly confessed that the opium consignment was to be delivered to a man named Karan, who is based in Guwahati. It is learnt that Sandeep had earlier transported consignments of opium to Guwahati using his van.

The arrested person along with the drugs have been handed over to Sekmai police station for further action.

The Imphal West SP appealed to people of the state to extend their support to the war on drugs initiative taken up by the government in order to root out the drug menace confronting the state.

Read more from the original source:

Manipur: Drug peddler arrested with 84 kg of opium worth over Rs 4 crore - The Indian Express

Too many people who use drugs end up in jail instead of getting the help they need. Heres one way to fix that.

If there is one thing we have learned over the past 145-plus years, its that interaction with the criminal justice system for drug-related charges does not increase health or safety. Criminal justice system involvement does, however, come with a host of other negative consequences for people who use drugs, including the increased likelihood of contracting HIV and/or hepatitis C. Not to mention the consequences of any interaction with the criminal justice system on a persons ability to find stable employment and housing.

Our current approach is ineffective and expensive for the state, and it does more harm than good for individuals and communities. Drug use is ultimately a public health issue, and it requires public health solutions. The more we embrace this idea, the sooner we can make Maryland communities safer and healthier for every resident.

Thats why its such an important step that the Maryland House of Delegates passed House Bill 372 (91-39), the Maryland Senate passed Senate Bill 420 with amendments (31-16). Heres hoping the bill will become law.

The goal of proposed HB 372 and SB 420 is to decriminalize the possession of drug-related paraphernalia. Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition, for which I oversee policy advocacy efforts, and our community is proud of the work toward decriminalization thus far, especially the efforts of bill champions Sen. Jill Carter and Del. David Moon.

If passed as written, HB372 would: 1) redefine controlled paraphernalia to support public health and reduce drug war tactics that target drug users; 2) repeal existing portions of law that criminalize possession of paraphernalia for personal use; and 3) reduce or eliminate penalty for possession of paraphernalia for delivery or sale. If passed as amended, SB420 would not include No. 3 above, and so it would continue to criminalize possession of paraphernalia.

Without this important provision of the law, we wont achieve the clarity and fairness that is needed. The current amendments to SB420 would allow for police involvement and prosecution of people carrying paraphernalia if said officers determine the supplies are for delivery, distribution or sale. These amendments would continue to put the health and safety of loved ones, our community health workers and our communities at risk.

Just last week, a participant of an authorized syringe service program (which is already legal) in Baltimore City was arrested and jailed for attempting to bring items considered paraphernalia to a loved one in another county who needed these life-saving supplies. They had easier access to sterile supplies and were just trying to help their loved one.

At the mercy of current laws and under the version of SB420 as amended, this person was, and would continue to be, punished for trying to help someone achieve greater safety and serve public health goals. Regardless of whether or not the charges will be dropped, this person has had their life turned upside down, spent time in jail risking exposure to COVID and has not been able to attend to their loved ones.

This story is all too common in Maryland, and this is why we need to decriminalize possession of paraphernalia under any circumstance right now. If distribution, delivery and sales of paraphernalia are not protected, our states public health remains under threat.

Moreover, if we dont fully decriminalize the possession of paraphernalia, we leave too much to the discretion of individual police officers and prosecutors. The law will be inconsistently and often unfairly applied, and harms will continue to accrue.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee should support HB 372 as written to ensure that the logic of the law is sound and that there are no major loopholes to criminalize people for carrying life-saving supplies. There is no need for these bills to move to conference the solution we need already exists in HB 372.

The war on drugs has ruined far too many lives, and we need a new approach one that puts people, communities and public health first. The state must decriminalize paraphernalia now and ensure that, as Del. Moon says, the syringe does not come with jail and instead treats drug use as the public health issue that it is.

RAJANI GUDLAVALLETI

The writer is director of mobilization with Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition. She can be reached at [emailprotected].

More:

Opinion: Treat Drug Use Like the Public Health Risk That It Is Maryland Matters - Josh Kurtz

Baltimore City States Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Friday that the city will no longer prosecute residents for prostitution, drug possession or other low-level offenses in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in correctional facilities.

The Baltimore City States Attorneys Office began working with public health experts one year ago to adopt an approach to slow the spread of COVID-19 in city prisons. Mosbys office decided to stop prosecuting offenses including CDS (drug) possession, trespassing, minor traffic offenses, urinating/defecating in public, open container, anda number ofother offenses.

According to Mosby, the results of the experiment have been successful and will remain intact. The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services says data shows Baltimore Citys incarceration population is down by 18 percent, and the number of people entering the justice system compared to this time last year is down by 39 percent.

Today, Americas war on drug users is over in the city of Baltimore, Mosby said in a statement. We leave behind the era of tough-on-crime prosecution and zero tolerance policing and no longer default to the status quo to criminalize mostly people of color for addiction.

Reimagining public safety in Baltimore requires innovation and collaborative effort, said Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott. I applaud States Attorney Mosbys office for workingwith partners to stem violence in Baltimore and ensure residents have the adequate support services they deserve.

Here is the original post:

Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby: 'The War on Drugs Is Over' - Essence

While Bill Maher is one of many of us who are looking forward to the big party once the pandemic is over, hes not confident that America has handled COVID-19 in a fiscally responsible way. He likened the impending celebration and economic boost to the Roaring Twenties, which came after the 1918 flu epidemic. Only this time, he says, we can do without the economic crash that came afterwards and the baffling Prohibition that was enacted during the era.

How can we do this you might ask? Maher feels strongly that ending our seemingly bipartisan War on Drugs here in the States and cutting our excessive spending is a good place to start.

The Roaring Twenties became the Broke-Ass Thirties, Maher said.

Last night on Real Time With Bill Maher, the host said that Americas economy is divorced from reality, with unemployment, bankruptcies and shuttered businesses occurring alongside an exceptionally high stock market. Government spending, he said, has lost all boundaries, with the word billion now replaced with trillion as long as the Feds have ink.

The U.S. has thus far spent $6 trillion fighting the novel coronavirus, he said, which is $2 million more than we spent battling a murderers row of bad guys all over the world in World War II. Different times, yes, but still a staggering comparison.

Were spending money like it had an expiration date on it, said the HBO host.

In an attempt to drive home his point, Maher displayed significant images from WWII that included Nazi troops and atomic bombs and contrasted them to an image of a young adult bro relaxing on his couch at home. The late night host failed to mention the families who have been unable to afford food and rent for over a year now.

Maher then compared the 1920s Prohibition to the modern-day Drug Wars, insisting that many of todays societal struggles stem from poor drug policy. But seriously, he asked. This time can we have the party without worrying about getting arrested for doing the drugs that keep the party going?

Refugees flee their countries to come here because of dangerous drug cartels while we have an imbalanced mass incarceration rate due to disastrous drug laws. Other people get it, he added. Mexico legalized weed this month Canada did it two years ago.

Why are we always the last at everything now?

Lets get rid of our own Prohibition aka the drug war and go straight to the part where we admit it doesnt work.

You can check out the full New Rule segment above.

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter @Tweetskoor

Stream Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO Max

Visit link:

Bill Maher Blasts America's Excessive Spending And 'Drug War' On HBO's 'Real Time' - Decider

The Poundmaker Cree Nation has declared a state of emergency: calling it a war on drugs. By creating their own police force, the Nation will be enforcing custom laws of banishment for anyone involved in drug abuse and trafficking.

Chief Duane Antoine states, We are taking a unified approach and zero tolerance policy to fight drug abuse and trafficking by kicking out band members and nonband members through a Band Council Resolution (BCR) in order to protect our community, especially our children and Elders who are suffering from this exposure to the drug scene within the Nation.

The Nation, located west of the Battlefords in Saskatchewan, said they have attempted to work with the local RCMP to enforce their BCRs, however, the RCMP have no authority to do so. Therefore, Poundmaker Nation is taking their own measures to enforce banishment.

The RCMP have a duty to protect our people and they are not doing their job, so we need to take matters into our own hands to fight the drug problem, We have to hold the Federal Government accountable since these BCRs have no weight for enforcement, and if anyone is liable here, then it would be the Federal Government. The government needs to listen and work with us, and we will do whatever it takes to have our own police force, says Chief Antoine.

The Poundmaker Nation is going to be hosting Chiefs from other Nations to discuss illegal drug activity on March 30, 2021. The goal of this meeting will be to convince other nations to also declare a state of emergency in the war on drugs.

Excerpt from:

Saskatchewan First Nation creates its own police force to enforce a war on drugs - Toronto Star

The government spends an acknowledged ton of money arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating drugs users. That's easy to say. What's hard to say is how to find an alternative.

The reality is that drugs, of any kind, are a hard taskmaster. Long experience has led to this conclusion. Continued use is more attractive for most instead of treatment.

It also is clear that drug use is harmful. Cocaine and heroin can be lethal. Marijuana, while not as immediately critical, has been shown in a long-term study in Australia, to be detrimental to one's IQ if use starts in the teen years, as it often does.

What should we do with drug users? Force them to pay for their own treatment? Some are impoverished. We are steadily increasingly regulating other behaviors that concern your health. It will shortly be legal to bill smokers more for their insurance. There has been a raft of anti-smoking legislation. Likewise, we now move into a world where large soft drinks are regulated in some places. They day may come when a joint is legal, but a cupcake is not.

Laws against drinking and driving have been steadily toughened over the years. Does one legalize some drugs, but penalize those who lose their judgment while using?

To be sure, there are many holes in drug policy. It makes no sense to have "drug-free" zones around schools. Should a child be more protected from pushers in school than he is at home? They are every bit as much a failure as "gun-free" zones are.

Likewise, the world of abuse changes. Penalties have to appropriately fit the crime. Some may be too high. Some not high enough. This is a case for an intelligent scalpel, not a simple meat cleaver. Subtle changes may work best. Tobacco is being regulated through a combination of hefty taxes and severe restrictions on its use. Is that the future for marijuana? Maybe.

A government that helps pay for your treatment will have a vested interest in trying to keep you healthy and paying taxes. Part of that may always involve arresting those who sell, and those who use. There is a cost for incarcerating those who use. There will also be a medical cost for not incarcerating them. Perhaps not as much, but we would be wary of those who expect large savings.

Drug treatment will not be free. A lifetime of drug use is no bargain either.

A Guest Editorial

See the rest here:

War on drugs! - The Point - The Point

"Dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign or placed in a remote work program," The Daily Beast reports, "due to past marijuana use."

Or, rather, due to having truthfully disclosed that marijuana use when applying for their jobs. It's a felony to lie on forms like the Office of Personnel Management's "Questionnaire for National Security Positions," which asks "In the last seven (7) years, have you illegally used any drugs or controlled substances?" Presumably some applicants decided to risk the felony rap rather than out themselves. They're apparently the smart ones.

I'm not prone to pity for government employees who find themselves kicked out of Uncle Sugar's paycheck mill and into the productive sector, but the sheer idiocy of this move doesn't augur well for drug policy in general.

If you believed that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were really going to take a different approach to the "war on drugs," and voted for them on that basis, you got conned. And you should have known better.

When it comes to marijuana in particular, every winning presidential candidate since Bill Clinton has pulled the old "Lucy tells Charlie Brown to kick the football then pulls it away" routine.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump might have fooled you, but they were elected president as, more or less, political novices, without records of actual governance to compare their campaign rhetoric to.

Biden and Harris, on the other hand, have both spent their decades in political office gleefully doing their damnedest to put users of substances they disapprove of behind bars Biden in the Senate and Harris as both a prosecutor and US Senator. Their supposed slight changes of heart on the presidential campaign trail were simple opportunism, and transparently so to anyone knew their records.

If America in general ran on the White House policy we're seeing here, U.S. unemployment would stand at (at least) 52%. That's the percentage of adults who admitted to having used marijuana at some point (and 44% of those claimed to still use it) in a 2017 Marist/Yahoo News poll.

Fortunately, America in general is way ahead of the federal government, and the Biden/Harris administration in particular, on marijuana.

Medical marijuana is legal in 39 states and DC (five more have legal CBD), while 15 states and DC have legalized recreational use (although South Dakota's governor is pushing malicious litigation to overturn the will of the voters on the subject).

The war on marijuana may not be over, but marijuana is clearly going to win it. The only question is how many more victims Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will have abducted and put in cages (or killed) before America recovers from its chronic case of reefer madness.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism.

Read more:

Biden, Harris showing their true colors with their long-standing war on 'drugs' - Southgate News Herald