Category Archives: War On Drugs

The next best thing to attending a live concert by a band you like is to listen to a recording of a live concert by the band. So when The War On Drugs (Twod) released an album, pithily titled LIVE DRUGS, this month, fans (such as this writer) exulted. Twods gigs are enjoyable, their already large soundscape expansively fills arenas, and theres never a dull moment. Now that most gigs have been cancelled owing to the pandemic, Twods move to release a live album couldnt have been timelier.

LIVE DRUGS is not the usual live album. Those happen to be recordings of a single or a set of gigs that are released as an album and normally are in toto reproductions of what a band plays at a concert. For their album, however, Twods frontman, Adam Granduciel, who sings and plays one of the two lead guitars for the band, sifted through around 40 hard drives full of recordings of the bands concerts from 2014-19 and selected some of the best tracks that he and a producer then sequenced to appear like a full gig. The result is a brilliant album that showcases the Philadelphia-based bands unique brand of music, in which neo-psychedelia meets and mates with heartland roots rock.

Twods albums are always filled with surprises. Granduciels vocals can remind you of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty all rolled into one. A little more than three years ago, this column had covered A Deeper Understanding, Twods last studio album. It was a great album and a good way to explore Twods psychedelia-meets-classic rock style. With LIVE DRUGS, however, they take their game to another level. The carefully chosen 10 songs have Granduciel in the spotlight. Nine of them are written by him; the lead guitar solos are mostly his. And the soundscape of each song expands as it unfolds.

A Twod song can begin innocuously, like a basic, no-frills roots rock track. But then, before you know it, the guitar solos kick in, and within minutes, your ears are on a totally different trip. Thats probably why critics tend to classify Twods music in the neo-psychedelic genre. On LIVE DRUGS, Granduciel and the co-producer, guitar techie Dominic East, have chosen songs that appear to segue from one to another as if they have been played during the same gig. Half of the songs, however, were part of the bands 2014 studio album, Lost In The Dream, which was Twods breakthrough album, bringing with it mainstream recognition and tons of fans.

LIVE DRUGS clocks in at just 70 minutes and that is perhaps the albums only shortcoming. It could have been longer, with more songs. Listening to Twod live, however, is always a treat. There is a bonus too. One of the 10 songs is a brilliant cover of the late Warren Zevons Accidentally Like A Martyr. Zevon, who died at 56 in 2003, was an influential singer and songwriter and the cover of one of his hits is like a tribute to the much admired musician.

But the song that stands out in the new album is the nearly 12-minute Under The Pressure. It brings to the fore Granduciels true genius as a songwriter and performer. It opens with a spaceyguitar riff that is as much a delight on headphones as on good stereophonic speakers and can easily transport the listener to a blissful musical heaven. And then Granduciel launches into the song (Well the comedown here was easy/ Like the arrival of a new day/ But a dream like this gets wasted/ Without you/ Under the pressure/ Is where we are/ Under the pressure/ Yeah, its where we are babe).

Twod began as a local indie band with fans mainly in and around Philly, but soon grew into a mainstream draw. Mixing noise rock style guitar with classic roots rock is not something you would normally expect a band to do, let alone pull off with lan. Twod does it effortlessly. When it began, Twod was a venture of Granduciel and Kurt Vile but after the first full-length album, Vile left the band and now has a flourishing solo career. Since then Twod has released three more full-length albums, and, of course, this years LIVE DRUGS.

Twods success as a band not only has much to do with Granduciels talent but with the fact that the bands music is so accessible. Older generations of listeners weaned on classic rock like the rootsy feel of their music and take to their improvisations and fuzzy, synth-driven lines as easily as younger listeners do. In that sense, their studio albums cut across the generation gap, appealing to a broad audience.

But it is their live performances that make Twod really stand out. LIVE DRUGS songs are not new, and they arent from very recent gigs. But the 10 songs on the album are essential for fans and a great place to start if someone isnt familiar with the band.

Five tracks from LIVE DRUGS to bookend your week

1. Under The Pressure

2. An Ocean In Between The Waves

3. Thinking Of A Place

4. Red Eyes

5. Accidentally Like A Martyr

First Beat is a column on whats new and groovy in the world of music.

@sanjoynarayan

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A live treat from The War on Drugs - Livemint

The War on DrugsLIVE DRUGSSuper High Quality

Nov 25, 2020Web ExclusiveBy Candace McDuffie

There is something uniquely wondrous about experiencing The War on Drugs live. The Philly band released their debut album, Wagonwheel Blues, back in 2008 and it only proved that they were onto something big; the six-piece band bravely expanded the definition of what it means to fully embody the genre of rock. Wagonwheel Blues was a muddling of folk, of country, of bluegrass.

Frontman Adam Granduciel can captivate anyone with his wistful vocals and deft songwriting as demonstrated on the bands follow-up records: 2011s Slave Ambient, 2014s Lost in the Dream, and 2017s Grammy-award winning A Deeper Understanding. The release of their first live album, aptly entitled LIVE DRUGS, couldnt have come at a better time.

During the midst of a devastating global pandemic that caused concerts to be canceled indefinitely, it serves as a sonic panacea for those eager to hear the band in a different way on wax. Just like The War on Drugs catalogue, from start to finish LIVE DRUGS is obscenely gorgeous while remaining true to their unfettered artistry.

An Ocean Between the Waves, one of Lost in the Dreams most notable songs, is a felicitous introduction for the 10-track project. Pain feels more emotional live when compared to the recorded version; Red Eyes gloriously maintains all of its buoyant gusto. The serenity and palpable loneliness of Thinking of a Place hits heavy as it comes to life at nearly the halfway mark of LIVE DRUGS.

Buenos Aires Beach is a pleasant surprise and the only song from their debut record to be featured on the album and the slow-burn of Warren Zevon cover Accidentally Like a Martyr emphasizes its simplicity as well as its sagacity. The 12-minute drama of Under the Pressure displays The War on Drugs seamless devotion to climatic buildups and labyrinthine instrumentation. The last song on LIVE DRUGS, In Reverse, is also the last song on Lost in the Dream. Its an ostentatious reminder of the groups growthand how rewarding it will be to watch in the years to come.(www.thewarondrugs.net)

Author rating: 8.5/10

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The War on Drugs: LIVE DRUGS (Super High Quality) - review - Under the Radar Mag

Guest Opinion By Isiah Smith | Nov. 28, 2020

Americas war on drugs was a fraud. Paraphrasing Shakespeare, it was a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Nothing, that is, but a pretext to punish disfavored individuals and groups. Addicts needing medical care were treated like hardened criminals and thrown into prisons. Murderers often received less prison time than drug offenders.

Law enforcers victimized urban communities while drug use and trafficking flourished in white suburban communities. The current decriminalization movement for simple possession came about only after authorities had to concede that, Hey, you know what? White people are doing drugs, too! And theyre doing them a lot! Maybe its a medical problem, not a criminal one. Really?

Privately, the government admitted this war wasnt real. The parameters of Americas war on drugs have a distant echo that correlates closely with other official efforts to exercise raw power over disfavored groups. Government claims of moral outrage should always be met with general skepticism.

Consider this: Research shows that Blacks comprise 62.7 percent, and whites 36.7 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prison, even though federal surveys and other data show that this disparity bears little relation to racial differences in the frequencies of drug offenses. Selective prosecution is as old as the American legal system.

This disparity was always intentional. Privately, the Nixon Administration made an astounding admission. President Nixon launched his war on drugs in 1971, declaring drug abuse public enemy No. 1. In an interview with Harpers magazine in 2016, however, former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman painted an entirely different picture:

The Nixon White House had two enemies: the antiwar left and [B]lack people. We knew we couldnt make it illegal to be against the war or [B]lacks, but we could get the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. Then by criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities, weaken their leaders. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

The lying didnt just start with the Nixon Administration. Billy Holiday started shooting heroin in her mid-20s. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics assigned several agents to Lady Days case during the late 1940s. They busted her on multiple occasions, including a 1947 conviction that sent her to Alderson Federal Prison Camp, in West Virginia, for almost a year.

By the time Holiday finally collapsed, in 1959, she was 44 and beyond recovery. She was emaciated, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, and covered in old track marks. After getting checked into Metropolitan Hospital, narcotics agents found (or planted) a tinfoil pouch of heroin in her hospital room. As Leslie Jamison shares in her 2018 book, The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath, Holiday was handcuffed to her bed, two policemen stationed by the door. Her mug shot and fingerprints were taken in that room at Metropolitan.

The drug agents were reading from a racist script that viewed Black users as deviant criminals, but white users as victims needing medical attention. Harry Anslinger, one of the agents assigned to Holidays case, hounded her incessantly over the years. At the same time he was hunting Holiday, he reportedly told Judy Garland that she should kick her heroin habit by taking longer vacations between movie shoots!

On November 6, 1982, Mercury Morris, the former Miami Dolphins star running back, was convicted of trafficking in cocaine. The facts tell a different story. After his football career was over, Morris became addicted to cocaine. Hearing this, and desiring a big drug bust in a city awash in cocaine, DEA agents repeatedly urged Morris to obtain cocaine for them. When he finally delivered, he was arrested, convicted of trafficking, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. After serving three years, he was released on probation.

This writer has relatives in Miami who still believe Morris was a drug trafficker; such is the strength of government propaganda.

In 1994, a man named Michael Thomas received a life sentence in Michigan for selling a pound of marijuana; today he would be considered a successful entrepreneur. The list goes on.

Now, however, the drug abuse problem in America has gotten worse. The government estimates that 10 percent of U.S. adults have drug-use disorders at some point in their lives. This estimate is partly based on self-reporting and is probably low. Drug use and sex are the most frequently lied-about activities in America.

After the government finally realized that whites also abused drugs, they decided users needed compassion and treatment, not punishment. Red and blue states are increasingly voting to liberalize drug laws. Oregon in the most recent election even passed a referendum that would decriminalize possession of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

As Michelle Alexander wrote in her 2010 book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of [black] people in [America] than the war on drugs.

Americans war on drugs is a stark reminder that the governments actions are seldom animated by purity of purpose. Just ask its real victims, Black and brown communities.

Isiah Smith, Jr. is a retired government attorney.

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The Drugging of the American Mind | Opinion | Northern Express - northernexpress.com

Today [October 30]marks five years since theNew York Timespublished its front-page article proclaiming In heroin crisis, white families seek a gentler war on drugs.Many things have changed since then, but the drug war rages on.Overdose deaths hit record highsin 2019, and estimates suggest that 2020 may be the worst year yet due to physical isolation, lack of access to treatment and harm reduction, and the disrupted drug supply caused by the pandemic.

Did the white families highlighted in the latest opioid overdose crisis get the gentler war they asked for five years ago? Depends on who you ask.But for Black and Latinx families, the answer, marked by arrests and police violence, is a resounding no.

Before media narratives such as this framed the drug overdose crisis as a white crisis, overdose deaths for Black and Latinx people were already rising.National opioid overdose rates among Black and Latinx communities began to steeply increase in 2012 and 2013, and it worsened from 20142017, with theBlack death rate increasing by 230%andLatinx death rate increasing by 170%.During the same time period, fentanyl-involved overdose deaths increased by174% among Black peopleand40% of all Latinx overdose deaths involved fentanylin 2017. Cocaine- and methamphetamine-involved overdose deaths have alsodramatically increasedamong Black and Latinx communities, many of which also involved opioids. But despite the devastation that the overdose crisis has caused in communities of color, these stories have rarely made national headlines.

Instead, drug war arrests have remained a key priority among law enforcement, explicitly targeting Black, Latinx and Indigenous people along with non-citizens.Drug offenses arethe leading cause of arrestin the United States,remaining largely unchangedbetween 2010 and 2019. Black people who are 13% of the U.S. population make up26% of all people arrested for drug offenses, despite the fact that people of all races use and sell drugs at similar rates.

And these arrests have resulted in far too many people in the U.S. being incarcerated or under state surveillance.In fact,one in every five people in prison or jail, over 450,000 people, is there because of a drug offense, while another 750,000 people are on probation or parole.

In many ways,the consequences of the drug war have been even more severe for non-citizens,with ICE making a drug arrest every eight minutes in 2019, and after illegal entry,drug offenses were responsible for more deportations than anything else last year. The result of this has tragically been family separation and community devastation.

The foster system has become ground zero of the US drug war according to a new report by the Movement for Family Power, which found that between 2001 and 2011,one in nine Black children and one in seven Indigenous children were removed from their parents care.

Like the crack-cocaine disparities of the 1980s,policymakers have even found new ways to pass harsher penalties and reinforce mandatory minimums this time with fentanyl, of whichthe vast majority of those arrested have been Black or Latinx.Drug Policy Alliancesrecent report on fentanyl sentencingfound that 39 states passed or enacted laws codifying harsher penalties for fentanyl since 2011, many of which were also the same exact places where policymakers enacted a number of positive drug policy reforms.An analysis of the U.S. Sentencing Commissions fentanyl arrestsfound that fentanyl offense enforcement increased by 3,940% between 2015 and 2019, with 77% of those sentenced for fentanyl trafficking being Black or Latinx. Yet, despite this, none of the states that enacted harsher penalties for fentanyl have seen a reduction in fentanyl-involved deaths.

Even as more states passed 911 Good Samaritan Laws and laws to increase naloxone access, punitive and harmful drug-induced homicide prosecutions skyrocketed across the country.In recent years,all 50 states passed laws allowing easier access to naloxoneand45 states had 911 Good Samaritan Lawsto encourage bystanders, without fear of arrest, to call 911 if they witnessed an overdose. Yet at the same time,drug-induced homicides proliferated.These laws have been enacted or revived in half of all U.S. states in recent years and are intended to charge drug sellers or others who provide an overdose victim with drugs with murder. And as thesecases have increased,so has the sentencing disparities by race, with the average Black defendants getting twice as long as for white defendants.

Police and law enforcement have played a greater role in the public health responses to overdose in some communities,while largely using harassment and violence to respond to Black and Latinx people involved with drugs.Even Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs, where people with substance use disorders can get diverted to treatment rather than being arrested, seem to have disproportionatelybenefited white participants.

Meanwhile, police-involved killings ofBlackandLatinxpeople continue to rise with drugs being used all too often as pretext for the officers merciless actions.

So where have media narratives of white families calling for a kinder approach to drug use gotten us?Over the past five years, the gentler drug war framing is largely a rhetorical one that reflects the bifurcated approach to drug policy in the U.S.Weve heard the media talk of a waning drug war, but this obfuscates the reality that overdose rates among communities of color continue to climb and the war on drugs rages on for some people. Some people, predominantly Black and Latinx people, and increasingly poor whites, face punishment. Others more affluent whites are afforded compassion and offered treatments like buprenorphine at higher rates.

U.S. drug policy has long been driven by racism and political ideology. Unfortunately, that remains true. While there is more openness towards treatment and harm reduction, our punitive responses, particularly against Black, Latinx and Indigenous people, have only intensified.Its time, not for a gentler drug war for some, but to end the failed drug war for all.

This article was originally published byDrug Policy Alliance, aleading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health & human rights.Follow DPAonFacebook,Twitteror Instagram.

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Five Years Ago, White Families Called For A 'Gentler War On Drugs.' Did We Get One? - TalkingDrugs

Aarik Danielsen|Columbia Daily Tribune

Soft Kill, "Dead Kids, R.I.P. City" (Cercle Social)

Dig the melodic melancholy ofThe Smiths? The propulsive rhythms of New Order? The soft strangeness of the citizens of "Twin Peaks"? Then Soft Kill might be your next favorite band.

The Portland, Oregon outfit has not-so-quietly amassed an impressive discography over the past decade. On the band's latest, it deftly finds the dark, romantic heart of youth. Gliding guitars, unflinching vocals and the against-all-odds sense that life is goingsomewheremeet, making the band a fitting companion for diving into then digging yourself out of heartbreak.

Key tracks: "Roses All Around," "Wanting War," "Floodgate"

Tank and the Bangas, "Friend Goals EP" (UMG)

TermingTarriona "Tank" Ball a force of nature is cliche but no less true. Ball brings a dynamic presence to everything her New Orleans collective does. The band follows her lead, creating something sparkling yet raw at the intersection of rock, pop and soul.

The band's new EP explores both ends of its range. Deep hip-hop grooves make room for Ball and a great panoply of guests, including PJ Morton, CHIKA andChristian Scott aTunde Adjuah to do what she does best. Big gestures arrive less frequently, but pack a serious punch when they do.

Key tracks:"Fluff," "TSA," "Mr. Insta"

The War on Drugs, Live Drugs (Super High Quality)

The War on Drugs' catalog has long felt like a great push-and-pull. Between Adam Granduciel's influences Dylan, Springsteen, Petty and his more atmospheric tendencies. And between Granduciel's admitted perfectionism and his desire to let his shaggy hair down.

Brilliant recent Drugs albums (especially 2014's "Lost in the Dream" and 2017's "A Deeper Understanding") have brought a fruitful reconciliation to that first set of concerns. The band's new live record satisfies the latter. The songs here brim with craftsmanship, but Granduciel and Co. allow heart and soul to ring through guitar solos, pealing saxophone passages and the little vocal inflections that seal the connection between singer and listener.

Key tracks: An Ocean Between the Waves, Thinking of a Place, Eyes to the Wind

adanielsen@columbiatribune.com 573-815-1731

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New music roundup: Soft Kill, Tank and the Bangas, The War on Drugs - Columbia Daily Tribune

Adam Grundicel, the War on Drugs frontman, has released the first episode of his and the projects new podcast, expertly titled Super High Quality Podcast. One of the more lucrative pieces of multimedia to appear out of the lockdown, podcasting is now a key battleground for any promotion-hunting new artists but it appears it can also be home to a wily vet too.

Grundicel and the rest of the band have chosen to use the first episode of their brand new podcast to dissect the new live album LIVE DRUGS. They examine a 2017 version of Eyes to the Wind a song originally taken from 2014s Lost in the Dream. Its a podcast for music lovers and, perhaps more importantly, music players.

The conversations are led by the bands guitar teach Dominic East who is chairing the four-part series. Also in the mix is, of course, Grundicel plus Dave Hartley and several other members of the War on Drugs touring band.

Its a genius way of exploring not only the music that is played during live shows but the technical nous, organisational priorities and artistic drive that makes each one come off seamlessly. It means we not only get a good look at the behind the scenes frivolity of the War on Drugs but a pretty good idea of how rock n roll works in the modern day environment.

LIVE DRUGSis a collection of recordings from various War on Drugs shows over the years, curated from Granduciels own archives and provides a reminder of just why the band are so widely loved. Using the podcast to explore those moments is a perfect way forward and trumps any promotion weve seen in a long while.

Listen below to the first episode of the Super High Quality Podcast.

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Hear the first episode of the War on Drugs Super High Quality Podcast - Far Out Magazine

Indie music has grown to include so much. Its not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got the first live album from The War On Drugs, a collaboration between Fiona Apple and her longtime inspiration, and a very New Jersey focused, Bruce Springsteen-featuring track from Bleachers. Check out the rest of the best new indie music below.

On their first career-spanning live album, The War On Drugs songs are longer, the guitar solos are more virtuosic, and the roar of the crowd is enough to make anyone well up. According to Steven Hyden for Uproxx, the lushness and flat-out bigness of Live Drugs culminates the atmospheric and insistently anthemic heartland rock of the last two studio records Whatever the band does after this will feel like the start of a new era, The War On Drugs 2.0.

Back in July, Nick Cave got in on the livestreaming craze with a solo piano set, streamed in full from Londons Alexandra Palace. Now, the official recording of that performance is out in the world, an evolution from Caves recent speaking and music Conversations With tour that finds him performing stripped-back and alternate versions of tracks from throughout his discography. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, Cave said in a statement.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard cant be stopped. KG marks their second full-length studio LP in the span of a little more than a year, a year that was filled with new EPs and live albums, one of which was released on the same day as KG. While not as thrashing as the bands 2019 album Infest The Rats Nest, the new effort is another impressive entry in the bands constantly growing and evolving discography.

On their sophomore LP, New Jerseys ManDancing dial up the intricate instrumentation to build each track toward a feeling of controlled chaos. Theres a reason this band is often compared to Manchester Orchestra, with swelling choruses and introspective lyrics delivered by Stephen G Kellys quivering vocal.

Mamalarkys self-titled debut is a cacophony of noisy production and garage rock aesthetics. The album was cobbled together with the help of a string of producers, combining home recording and studio sensibilities into something raw, intriguing, and truly original. All told, Mamalarky indicates a lot more to come from the Los Angeles quartet.

As if one Phoebe Bridgers studio album wasnt enough for 2020, now the songwriter has enlisted Grammy Award-winning composer Rob Moose to help reimagine songs from her sophomore album Punisher for the Copycat Killer EP. Moose contributes an array of strings, samples, and atmospheric soundscapes to create a sonic world for Bridgers ethereal voice to occupy and suck you in.

On Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apples epic comeback album released earlier this year, she remembers being bullied in school and being encouraged by a classmate named Shameika. Turns out that Shameika is still out there and making music herself. Now, Shameika has delivered her recollection of the events, using Apples vocal sample. A much groovier and beat-driven take on the song, it skates toward hip-hop as Shameika raps her bars, and trade most of Apples piano for horns and bass, writes Caitlin White for Uproxx.

After performing at a charity livestream, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder shared two new solo singles, one studio recording and one live recording. Matter Of Time was written for everyone worldwide afflicted with Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), according to a statement, and features Vedders iconic vocal accompanied by just a haunting grand piano.

Jack Antonoff went full New Jersey on the first offering from Bleachers since 2017s Gone Now, a shimmering and soaring ode to his home state that raises the stakes with a guest spot from none other than Bruce Springsteen. Of the collaboration, Antonoff said in a statement that its the honor of a lifetime to be joined by him. he is the artist who showed me that the sound of the place i am from has value and that there is a spirit here that needs to be taken all over the world.

Andy Shauf penned nearly 50 songs for his latest album The Neon Skyline, which was released earlier this year, and has been steadily rolling out some of the tracks that didnt make the original tracklist. You Slipped Away is one of those outtakes, crafting what Carolyn Droke calls for Uproxx a sense of lovelorn nostalgia with rolling guitar chords and eloquent piano scales.

The Sonder Bombs sophomore album Clothbound is right around the corner, and The One About You shows the full range of what we can expect from the effort. The bands songwriting is more focused and concise than ever, and the latest single is an impressive entry to the catalogue, what I recently called a short and sweet number that evokes a classic old-fashioned doo-wop act.

Although Wild Pinks forthcoming album A Billion Little Lights is still a few months away, John Ross has already been teasing the album with a handful of singles. In a statement, Ross said that You Can Have It Back was inspired by Fleetwood Mac and Townes Van Zandt and features vocals from Ratboys Julia Steiner. The breezy and warm track boasts one of the most infectious refrains in the Wild Pink discography and sets the stage nicely for what to expect from A Billion Lights.

French four-piece Prish paired up with producer Will Yip for their new album Fixed It All, and Violet is an excellent preview of whats to come from the band. Opening with steady distorted guitars, the clouds part for a soaring chorus that sounds reminiscent of early Weezer.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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New Indie Music: The War On Drugs, Fiona Apple, And More - UPROXX

TRENTON, N.J., Nov 24, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) The war on drugs has just taken a wicked left turn. On Friday, November 20, 2020, one of marijuanas staunchest supporters, Ed NJWeedman Forchion held an online press conference at his NJWeedmans Joint location, contesting New Jerseys recent legalization of cannabis. Forchion announced his federal lawsuit against New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, accusing the state of baiting New Jersey citizens into voting for the legalization of a corporate, Caucasian run cannabis industry, under the guise of legalizing marijuana.

Forchion notes that under the current developing legislation, marijuana will still be illegal and in fact, criminalized, in underserved communities.

View Case 3:20-cv-16582-PGS-TJB FORCHION v. MURPHY at: http://njweedman.com/Federal_Cannabis_lawsuit.pdf.

In a 40 plus page document, filed at the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Forchion seeks to have the Court declare unconstitutional and invalid the application and implementation of the Constitutional Amendment to Legalize Marijuana.' Forchion asserts that the Regulated Cannabis Act, as the amendment is referred to in the lawsuit, deprives him of equal protection and due process under the United States Constitution and subjects him to selective prosecution.

Forchion notes that the state unfairly allows Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act (CUMMA) dispensaries to possess large amounts of marijuana in violation of federal law while prosecuting individuals such as himself. Forchion, a long-time marijuana activist, has had numerous marijuana related prosecutions brought against him by the State of New Jersey, including a pending matter.

In addition, Forchion proposes that voters were duped into believing that they were voting to legalize marijuana, while unwittingly sanctioning a cannabis industry which only grants legalization to a majority of Caucasian owned corporate entities while criminalizing individuals of color, who in effect will not be granted similar market access.

This new Caucasian corporate cannabis industry is a sham, apprizes Forchion. Politicians are in cahoots with corporations to take over and control what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry while excluding the existing marijuana market. We are witnessing systematic discrimination. Only regulated cannabis which is defined as the pot sold by dealers licensed by a new bureaucracy called the Cannabis Regulatory Commission will be allowed in the marketplace. But individuals possessing and selling marijuana such as myself, will still be in violation of the law. The community that paved the road for legalization and paid the price with incarceration and felonies, are being locked out of the new industry and will continue to be locked up.

Its the cocaine vs. crack dilemma all over again, explains Forchion, similar to the war on drugs when prison sentences were handed down to people of color for using crack cocaine, while individuals, who were most notably white, were hardly prosecuted for using powder cocaine. Our State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is on record stating that the new amendment does not authorize unregulated marijuana. New Jersey is subtly creating a distinction between marijuana for the masses versus state regulated cannabis for the establishment, cites Forchion.

New Jersey has come under mounting criticism since the recent passing of legalization. Politicians, community activists and the media have taken the state to task for attempting to push through a corporatized cannabis culture that doesnt seem to best serve its constituents. Headlines have drawn attention to the states blatant interest in profits over compassion. In fact, lawmakers first attempt at enabling legislation has been halted amid growing criticism. The number of licenses set aside for Black and Latino communities in the bill has been widely criticized and advocates have demanded more opportunities be extended for people with criminal records for low-level drug convictions.

Forchion, whose lawsuit positions him squarely amid the ongoing conflict, is no newcomer to battle. At cited in his lawsuit, he has been vehemently retaliated against in the past by the State of New Jersey. In 2002, he was jailed for advocating the legalization of marijuana. Forchion was held at the Burlington County Jail from August 19, 2002 until late January 2003 when United States District Court Federal Judge Joseph E. Irenas, U.S.D.J., hearing his civil rights suit, agreed that the state had violated Forchions First Amendment right to advocate marijuanas legalization and ordered him released.

In 2016, Forchion and his partner, Debi Madaio, had their restaurant raided by Mercer County law enforcement authorities on marijuana dealing charges. Forchion was held without bail for over 400 days due to the retaliatory charge of witness tampering. He was acquitted by a jury and all charges were dismissed with no convictions.

Sign the NJWeedmans Joint Change.org petition at https://www.change.org/p/phil-murphy-demand-gov-phil-murphy-grant-njweedman-s-joint-a-recreational-cannabis-license.

Follow Ed NJWeedman Forchion across all social media at @NJWeedman and at https://www.njweedman.com/.

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MEDIA CONTACT:Makeda SmithJazzmyne Public Relationsmakeda@jazzmynepr.comPhone Number: 323-380-8819

News Source: Ed Forchion

Related link: https://www.facebook.com/NJWEEDMAN

This press release was issued on behalf of the news source, who is solely responsible for its accuracy, by Send2Press Newswire. To view the original story, visit: https://www.send2press.com/wire/ed-njweedman-forchion-wages-his-own-war-on-drugs-sues-the-state-of-new-jersey-over-bait-and-switch-cannabis-regulation-laws/

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Ed Forchion Wages His Own War on Drugs: Sues the State of New Jersey Over Bait and Switch Cannabis Regulation Laws - Massachusetts Newswire

Some people look at the homeless and think, Drugs did that. Or they think, Laziness did that. But I can tell you honestly: The actual experience of being homeless destroys those suppositions pretty quickly.

Homelessness can happen to anybody. No matter what you do, no matter what you have now, disability, illness or economic disaster can strike without warning. One thing I learned while homeless is that very few homeless people ever thought that it could happen to them.

The issues that I mention here are just a few that must be faced to change what is happening. There are many more, but I think that these four are some of the most important.

1. We have to get serious about affordable housing.

The average rent in Salt Lake City is $1,235 for an apartment of just over 800 square feet. Thats more than a person earning minimum wage earns all month. While in the shelter, I met a lot of people who were only homeless because they were disabled or on Social Security.

My wife, a registered nurse who was disabled through no fault of her own, receives $1,173 a month and $15 in food stamps. Some disabled people receive less than that. These are people who worked all their lives, only to find that Social Security or disability doesnt provide anywhere near enough on which to live. Being approved for housing assistance of any kind only means a spot on a waiting list that can be over five years long. What do you do for five years?

2. The minimum wage must be raised.

The minimum wage right now is $7.25 an hour, the same amount its been for almost 14 years. A full-time job on minimum wage provides for rent on a one-bedroom apartment in exactly zero cities in the United States. The problem here should be immediately obvious.

When individuals or families are paying more than 50% of their income on rent, they are at risk for homelessness. Even at a wage of $10 an hour, single earners must spend more than 50% of their income on rent. Contrary to conservative opinion, raising the minimum wage positively affects the economy. All states that have raised their minimum wages have seen their economies greatly improve.

3. The war on drugs must end.

Why? Because it never worked. What we need is a war on addiction. Imagine if we had built new treatment centers instead of new jails and prisons! All the war on drugs has ever accomplished was to give the land of the free the black eye of having more people in jails and prisons than any other nation on earth. That, and an ever-growing class of people who can no longer get a job or an apartment because they have drug-related convictions on their records.

We live in a nation so backward that weve legalized marijuana but not people who used marijuana. Far too many people are consigned to homelessness because of convictions earned during the failed war on drugs.

4. We must help the mentally ill.

Its incomprehensible to me the cruelty of todays society with regard to the mentally ill. Since President Ronald Reagan emptied the mental hospitals in the 1980s, it has somehow become OK to allow people with mental disabilities languish on the streets. I really dont understand this. Most of the mentally ill whom I encountered while homeless were likely schizophrenic, more or less detached from reality. There are good medications to treat schizophrenia, but the streets and homeless shelters arent good places to manage those kinds of medications. We must be more humane in this regard.

Utah reduced shelter capacity by nearly 400 last year. Not smart. Nobody knew a pandemic was coming, of course, but now the pandemics aftermath could be as bad as the Great Depression. Dealing with this will take money; theres no way around that. We just might have to tax a few billionaires.

Kip Yost is a formerly homeless person now living with his wife in an apartment in Salt Lake City.

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Kip Yost: Some hard things that must be done to reduce homelessness - Salt Lake Tribune

When Ian McCall retired in 2018, at age 34, from an 11-year career in mixed martial arts, he dedicated himself to a new kind of fight.

He wanted relief from the depression and anxiety that had plagued him since he was growing up in Costa Mesa, where he was known as a bully, a gang member and a self-proclaimed savage. His initial mental health issues had been compounded over the years by personal traumas and brain injuries that McCall sustained from a snowboarding accident and years in the octagon.

Hed sought refuge in oxycontin, fentanyl and cocktails of other substances. At times McCall contemplated suicide, once going so far as putting a loaded gun in his mouth.

But today, two years into his retirement, the Mission Viejo resident says hes found solace. Hes off painkillers. He says his mental health issues are in check, and he no longer struggles to accomplish simple tasks. Most importantly, he said, I dont want to kill myself anymore.

The improvement, he says, has come from his controlled embrace of psychedelics.

In this, McCall is not alone.

Psychedelics everything from ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew with Amazonian origins, to psilocybin, the mind-altering compound produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms are at the center of the kind of burgeoning image and legal makeover most recently seen in Americas relationship with cannabis.

Though psychedelic drugs remain illegal under federal law, and in most states, a handful of cities across the country have decriminalized psilocybin. Oregon on Nov. 3 became the first state to decriminalize all drugs, while voters also approved a measure that will legalize and regulate psilocybin for therapeutic use in special clinics.

Theres a push to do the same in California. Both a revived ballot measure and promised legislation from State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, could open access to hallucinogenic mushrooms and perhaps other psychedelics in the Golden State within the next two years.

I think we should fast track it, said Del Potter, a medical anthropologist whos studied use of psychoactive plants in Latin and South American cultures.

These really seem to be game-changing in terms of being able to make real difference in peoples lives.

Many medical experts who study psychedelics also believe they hold promise in treating a wide variety of conditions, with minimal risks of side affects or addiction.

That includesAlan Davis, a clinical psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who specializes in psychoactive drug research. Still, while he supports decriminalization, Davis warns against creating a commercial market and he urges caution on rushing into even a supervised therapeutic model like the one Oregon is creating.

I think that there is a potential for people who are not trained well to deliver a treatment that has the potential to harm someone, Davis said.

The idea that psychedelics might free the mind and heal the soul is far from a new concept. Many cultures around the world have used psychoactive plants in rituals and ceremonies for millennia.

The practice gained favor in the West in the early 1950s, as psychiatrists experimented with using hallucinogenic mushrooms, newly discovered LSD, and other psychedelics to treat patients for a range of mental health issues. Hundreds of scientific papers from the era suggested psychedelics could be useful in helping people overcome everything from alcoholism to trauma.

But in the 1960s the federal government began clamping down on LSD and other psychedelics. And most scientific work was officially squelched in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act. That law classified psilocybin alongside heroine as a schedule I drug, the most restrictive category of drugs said to have a high risk of addiction while containing no medicinal value.

That act did not fit even the current evidence at the time, Davis said. But the legislature just decided not to listen to that.

Scientists in Europe and the United States started to study psychedelics again in the 1990s, kicking off a second wave of research thats now grinding into high gear. While American scientists have to jump through major hoops to do trials with schedule I drugs, studies have continued to show psilocybin can help treat conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorderand tobacco addiction.

Some of the most promising research suggests psilocybin might be of use to address various forms of depression.

Davis and his team recently published results of a randomized clinical trial using psilocybin to treat 24 patients suffering from major depressive disorder. After hours of psychotherapy, they gave patients synthetic psilocybin. Patients sat on a couch in a room with pleasant music playing while two experts monitored them throughout the eight-hour trip. Davis team then followed up with those patients to assess the results.

More than two-thirds of those patients reported reductions in their symptoms and 54% remained in remission a month later. Those outcomes, Davis said, are about four times better than most legal antidepressants.

It represents an opportunity for real healing unlike things weve seen before, Davis said.

Compass Pathways, a London-based biopharma company, is close to starting phase three of clinical trials into using synthetic psilocybin to ease treatment-resistant depression. The study could be wrapped up by the end of 2021, with the company hoping to secure Federal Drug Administration approval for the first psilocybin-based drug.

Other studies are looking at how psilocybin might be used in issues ranging from anorexia to Alzheimers to opiate abuse.

Psilocybin has both biological and psychological effects on the brain.

As with many pharmaceutical antidepressants, it elevates levels of serotonin, a chemical messenger that regulates mood, sleep, appetite, sex drive and more. But psilocybin also strengthens and makes new connections between different parts of the brain. Potter said those connections make the brain more elastic, so we can see beyond our regular routines and immediate struggles.

Thats tied to the harder-to-explain psychological, and often spiritual, impacts of psilocybin.

Potter relayed a story of a friend whod been highly allergic to cats. While that friend was under the influence of psilocybin, a cat jumped into his lap. Potter said the friend told himself he wasnt allergic to cats anymore, and said the friend never had symptoms again.

While the science cant yet explain such changes, Davis said there are anti-inflammatory benefits to psilocybin, with inflammation tied to allergies. The placebo affect also can be very real, where the brain can convince the body something is true.

Psilocybin and other psychedelics generally arent recommended for people who are schizophrenic or suffer other borderline personality disorders, Davis said, since they can trigger those conditions. But he said psilocybin shows virtually no signs of creating physical addiction. The biggest risk seems to be having a bad trip, or what insiders prefer to call a challenging experience which can become dangerous if people havent been properly prepared and arent monitored by a trained professional while theyre under influence.

But challenging doesnt always mean bad, Davis said, with intense experiences often tied to breakthroughs during any form of therapy.

One of the patients in Davis study, for example, experienced a vision of getting buried alive over and over again. Eventually, the patient came to realize the hands burying him were his own. That helped him finally accept that he has control over his life. Davis said the patient went from being suicidal for a decade to being in remission from depression.

While the patients in Davis study took large doses, theres a growing trend toward microdosing psilocybin. In that model, people take the drug regularly but in doses small enough that they can go about their normal day.

Jackie McGowan, a longtime cannabis activist from the Bay Area, said soon after she started microdosing psilocybin earlier this year, police raided the Oakland church where she was getting her mushrooms. She was devastated, since she was experiencing relief from severe depression and a longtime tobacco addiction. The church soon reopened, but McGowan said the incident drove home for her the importance of making sure psilocybin is readily accessible.

With high interest in finding new ways to address mental health conditions, plus a sweeping push foran end to the war on drugs, many cities and states are eyeing decriminalization and regulation of psychedelics.

Denver was the first city to tell its cops to deprioritize psilocybin crimes with a ballot measure in May 2019. Oakland, Santa Cruz and Ann Arbor, Mich. followed suit through city council votes, with Washington, D.C. voting to join the ranks Nov. 3.

Oregon on that day also set in motion a plan in which by 2023 people could use psilocybin in open clinics. In this model, certified specialists will provide psilocybin doses that would be taken under observation.

So far, Griffen Thorne, a Los Angeles-based attorney who works with businesses interested in getting into this space, said the federal government hasnt interfered into any of these city or state programs. He expects this area of law will be treated much like cannabis, which remains illegal at the federal level though states are now largely allowed to set their own rules regulating use and sales.

State Sen. Wiener said he plans to introduce a bill when the legislature reconvenes in January that would make it no longer a crime to possess psychedelics.

Decriminalization California, a campaign that aims to also create a commercial market for psilocybin, failed to get the signatures needed to qualify for the Nov. 3 ballot. The team is ready to try again for 2022, said campaign spokesman Paul Antico. But Antico said theyre meeting with Wieners team this week in hopes of encouraging him to introduce three bills: one to decriminalize all drugs, one to support psychedelic research and one to create a commercial market for psilocybin.

McCall believes theres big money to be made in psychedelics. Hes started a new career as a psychedelic integration coach, where hes trying to help top MMA fighters and special forces soldiers find relief. He said a Canadian company is interested in his formulations of certain mushroom strains. And he plans to open a psychedelic sports institute on a 40-acre farm he owns near Desert Hot Springs.

Though hes interested in the industry, McCall speaks about psychedelics like a preacher, with a reverence thats as close to religion as the self-proclaimed proud pagan gets.

This whole thing is going to save humankind and the human condition and make us all better people and love each other like were supposed to be doing.

The rest is here:

Will magic mushrooms go the way of cannabis? Legalization efforts are growing - Vallejo Times-Herald