Category Archives: War On Drugs

Colombias opposition decided to make politics interesting by introducing a bill that seeks to end the war on drugs by decriminalizing cocaine and regulating its production.

The bill is sponsored by Senators Feliciano Valencia, an indigenous leader, and centrist Senator Ivan Marulanda, and seeks legislation on cocaine similar to American marijuana laws.

The cocaine regulation bill is part of a package introduced by members of the the leftist opposition and the centrist voting block last year to end the so-called war on drugs, and implement effective counternarcotics strategies and policies to curb drug abuse.

The cocaine regulation bill seeks strict state control over the cultivation of coca and the production of cocaine, which is currently controlled by illegal armed groups and drug trafficking organizations.

While the bill does not rule out the legal export of cocaine for scientific purposes, it mainly intends to cut the finances of drug trafficking organizations and illegal armed groups like the ELN, Marulanda told newspaper El Tiempo.

This bill is part of the fight against drug trafficking because it is about getting rid of those mafias that profit from it, destroying the Colombian people along the way.

The senior Green Alliance senator stressed he considers himself a victim of the war on drugs and drug trafficking alike as he lost close political allies like former Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara and Liberal Party dissident Luis Carlos Galan, who were killed by the Medellin Cartel in the 1980s.

The control over coca cultivation and cocaine production by mafias and illegal armed groups exposes Colombian society to all kinds of risks, because they will seek their profit regardless of legal and moral limits.

The state assuming this control would destroy what has become an entire illegal economy and allow the scientific investigation of both coca and cocaine for their medicinal properties both in Colombia and abroad.

To curb cocaine dependency, the bill seeks to regulate the sale of cocaine by allowing adults to register as a consumer and, with the permission of a physician, allow them to buy a gram of cocaine per week from licensed cocaine sellers.

A similar bill introduced last year seeks to decriminalize marijuana and introduce improved access to healthcare for users suffering drug dependency.

Senator Jose Obdulio Gaviria (center top) and late drug lord Pablo Escobar (center bottom)

While there is relatively broad consensus in Colombia that repressive strategies to curb drug use and international drug trafficking have failed, the approval of the bill is likely to cause opposition, both in Colombia and from the United States, which has been able to increase regional influence through the war on drugs.

In Colombia, the fiercest opposition comes from Duques far-right Democratic Center (CD) party, which is led by former President Alvaro Uribe, who has been tied to drug trafficking since the early days of the Medellin Cartel.

According to CD Senator Jose Obdulio Gaviria, a cousin of late drug lord Pablo Escobar, the CD would fully oppose the legalization of cocaine, the drug that partly financed Duques 2018 election, according to evidence investigated by the Supreme Court and the prosecution.

Gaviria told El Tiempo his party would oppose the bill above all for geopolitical reasons. According to Escobars cousin,Colombia cannot become a pariah country.

Senator Rodrigo Lara, the son of the assassinated justice minister, told the newspaper that he did not oppose the decriminalization of cocaine, but considered the proposal nonviable without international support.

This regulation will come at some point, but the problem is that legalizing cocaine cannot be a unilateral decision by Colombia, there should be a factor of diplomatic integration; in the meantime, we have no alternative other than to combat criminal groups.

Influential counternarcotics expert Daniel Rico told El Tiempo that the decriminalization of cocaine would have an impact on organized crime groups finances, but would unlikely deal a major blow to these organizations because of their ability to switch to different criminal activities.

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Colombia to kick off congressional year with cocaine decriminalization bill - Colombia Reports

The Business of Drugs features the ideal host to deliver a crucial message about the war on drugs. Here's what you need to know about Amaryllis Fox.

Now streaming on Netflix, The Business of Drugs features the ideal host to communicate the show's important message about the relationship between moderneconomics and the war on drugs. Raised in various international locations,Amaryllis Fox studied international law at Oxford University, and later became a CIA analyst upon creating a historical data algorithm that was used to predict terrorist attacks. However, it'snot just Fox's experiences and knowledge that benefit the Netflix docuseries, but rather, the way she chooses to deliver her ideas to a world of curious streamers.

The Business of Drugs opens with a breakdown of Fox's credentials. The host discusses her10 years working with the CIA as a field operative and how she helped track down weapons of mass destruction. With the appropriate context established, Fox looks straight into the camera and explains why it's so crucial to think deeper about international drug production and distribution. In theNetflix docuseries, Fox is blunt when addressingthe economics of cocaine, synthetics, heroin, meth, cannabis, and opioids, but personablewhen interviewing people with insiderinformation.

Related: How To Fix A Drug Scandal: Biggest Reveals From Netflix's Documentary

In pop culture, Fox is perhaps best known for appearing in American Ripper, a 2017 investigative docuseries about serial killer H.H. Holmes. WithThe Business of Drugs, she's front and center as the featured commentator;she doesn't try to scareher audience like so many American politicians from the 1980s, a time when the war on drugs was reduced to convenient talking points and cultural cliches. Instead, Fox tries to show the human side of the illegal narcotics industry.

Fox never boasts about her professional accomplishments, but instead recalls her childhood experiences in Africa and Southeast Asia, and what she learned as the daughter ofan economist who helped developing countries. It's this personal background that makes Fox so well-suited to host this series: While investigating the rise of heroin distribution inAfrica most notably inKenya Fox offers cultural insightabout her formative years in the continent, and how she looks back on thoseexperiences differently as an adult. During an episode about meth arguably the most revelatory episode of the Netflix docuseries Fox states thatSoutheast Asia is in my blood...Southeast Asia made me who I am.There's a sense of world culture that grounds the host's opinions, as she clearly valuesthe importance of understanding how drug economics correlate with cultural shifts, and vice versa.

Because Foxhas a deepunderstanding and curiosity of differentcultures, she's more effective as an interviewer. In The Business of Drugs, the host casually converses with a masked cocaine dealer from Compton, California, and smiles when discussing sociopolitical conflict withMyanmar politician Yawd Serk, only to then explain to the audience that his anti-meth campaign is merely a "propaganda exercise." Fox opens each episode by describing what she wants to learn, and concludes by reinforcing the fact that the complex business of drugs continues to rapidly change.During the Netflix docuseries, Fox'snuanced approach stands out most when speaking with an American drug dealer about the consequences of his product. First, she's able to get an honest answer, and then acknowledges to the audience that the dealer is "spouting evil." But then Fox circles back to the premiseabout unregulated capitalism and middle-level criminals whodeflect attention from the biggerpicture.

In The Business of Drugs, Fox enters dangerous territory while traveling and speaks candidly with her overall assessments. Do Americans really know that the United States funds "a chain of human suffering"? And do people in general know that Myanmar produces more meth pills in a single year than McDonald's produces hamburgers? Fox is admittedly nostalgic for the past, but recognizes that being willfully naiveaboutdrug economics is part of the problem. As she puts it, "there's a terrible collisions of circumstances." The Netflix docuseries shows that Fox isn't a typical host who merely poses questions for the audience to consider. Instead, she reassesses her own perspectives and identifiescultural talking points thatneed to be part of the conversationmoving forward.

More:How To Fix A Drug Scandal True Story: What The Documentary Leaves Out

Game of Thrones Finale Admitted What Iron Throne Is Supposed To Look Like

Q.V. Hough is a Screen Rant staff writer. He's also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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The Business of Drugs: Why Amaryllis Fox Is The Perfect Host - Screen Rant

In March 1942, 33-year-old Anne Miller lay delirious in New Haven Hospital, deathly ill from septicemia that she developed following a miscarriage a month before. During her stay at the Connecticut hospital, doctors tried every cure imaginable from sulfa drugs to blood transfusions as her temperature at times spiked past 106 degrees.

She was just incurable, Eric Lax, author of The Mold in Dr. Floreys Coat, said in a phone interview. It was like somebody today with COVID-19 who is going down the tubes.

Desperate, her doctors acquired a tablespoon of an experimental drug and gave her an injection. Overnight, her temperature dropped. A day later, she was up and eating again.

The miracle drug that saved her life? A virtually unknown substance called penicillin.

As researchers around the world chase a vaccine and treatments for the novel coronavirus, the quest echoes the race to mass-produce penicillin in the United States and Britain during World War II.

In the days before antibiotics, something as simple as a scratch or even a blister could get infected and lead to death. Before the beginning of the 20th century, the average life expectancy was 47 years, even in the industrialized world, according to the National Institutes of Health. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, diphtheria and pneumonia cut life short. No treatment existed for them.

Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming had discovered the penicillin mold in London in 1928. Fleming attempted to extract the molds active substance that fought bacteria but was unsuccessful, and he gave up experimentation, according to Laxs book.

As war broke out in Europe in 1939, Australian doctor Howard Florey obtained funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York to study Flemings discovery further at the University of Oxford. Along with brash German emigre Ernst Chain, and meticulous assistant Norman Heatley, he worked to generate penicillins active ingredient.

But in the course of their research, Florey confronted an obstacle: Extracting the active ingredient from the mold was terribly difficult. Time after time, the delicate mold would dissolve in the process of extraction, leaving scientists frustrated.

The tablespoon of penicillin that cured Anne Miller represented half the entire amount of the antibiotic available in the United States in 1942. To give her a full treatment, doctors had to collect her urine, extract the remaining penicillin from it at about 70% potency, and re-inject it, according to Laxs book.

Through trial and error, the team had discovered that penicillin was much more effective and safer in fighting bacteria in animals than sulfa drugs, which were the treatment for infections at the time. Discovered by German scientists in the 1930s, sulfa drugs had severe side effects, and researchers were motivated to find an alternative.

As they tried to cultivate penicillin, they began a few human tests. In late summer 1940, Albert Alexander, a 43-year-old Oxford police officer, scratched his face while working in his rose garden. The scratch became infected by streptococci and staphylococci and spread to his eyes and scalp, according to The Mold in Dr. Floreys Coat. A few weeks later, he was admitted to an Oxford University hospital.

Lax writes that Alexander was in great pain and desperately and pathetically ill for months as he lay in the hospital with no cure available. The abscesses on his face and arms were oozing pus everywhere, Heatley wrote in his diary, Lax notes, and Alexanders left eye became so infected that in February 1941 it had to be removed.

The bacteria continued eating at him and soon spread to his lungs and shoulders. Desperate, doctors gave him 200 milligrams of penicillin, the largest individual dose ever given at the time, and then three doses of 100 mg every three hours, according to Lax. Within 24 hours, there was a dramatic improvement, Heatley wrote.

Alexanders fever went back to normal and his appetite returned. As with Anne Miller, researchers collected his urine to extract penicillin to re-administer.

By the end of February, Alexanders treatment had used up the nations entire supply of penicillin, according to Lax. After 10 days of stability, his condition deteriorated without any more of the drug. A second course would have helped him to fully heal, but there was no more to give him. Florey and the others watched helplessly as a flood of septicemia swept through him. On March 15, he died, Lax writes.

Heartbroken, Florey, Chain and Heatley continued to hunt for methods to produce more penicillin. Meanwhile, the Battle of Britain raged around them. In fall 1940, 50 million pounds of bombs were dropped on London alone, Lax writes.

The Oxford team realized penicillins urgent value in treating wounded soldiers and civilians.

They knew that of the 10 million soldiers killed in World War I, about half died not from bombs or shrapnel or bullets or gas but rather from untreatable infections from often relatively minor wounds and injuries, Lax said.

As Europe sank deeper into war, labs around the world got word of the Oxford labs penicillin research and began requesting samples. Florey and his team were careful not to send any to German scientists, who could have easily developed them to support the Nazi war effort, according to Lax.

The Oxford team was so fearful of the drug falling into Nazi hands that as the Blitz bombings shattered England, the team rubbed their coats with the mold, knowing the spores would live for a long time on fabric, Lax said in a phone interview. That way, if any researchers were captured or had to travel in a hurry, they had it with them and could extract and regrow it.

British pharmaceutical companies were interested in mass-producing penicillin, but they were overburdened by wartime demand for other drugs. Florey and Heatley began looking overseas for help, turning once again to the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.

Florey struck a deal with his Rockefeller contacts: He and Heatley would show Americans how to produce penicillin molds. In return, Americans would give Florey a kilo of the drug. This would provide the Oxford researchers with enough penicillin to complete human trials for suffering patients like Alexander. The foundation agreed.

In a hazardous trip out of war-torn Europe, Florey and Heatley arrived in New York on July 2, 1941.

Through Rockefeller contacts, Florey had access to major players in the U.S. government to back his project including the War Production Board and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A week after arriving in New Haven, Heatley and Florey traveled to the USDAs Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria, Ill., a farming community about 160 miles southwest of Chicago.

Robert Coghill, the head of the fermentation division, agreed to help the Oxford cause if Heatley would stay on in Peoria to get the penicillin mold culture started. Leaving Heatley in Peoria, Florey visited U.S. drug companies in the hope of persuading one or more of them to brew the culture fluid and extract the mold to yield enough for his experiments, according to The Mold on Dr. Floreys Coat.

By the fall, Florey had persuaded Charles Pfizer & Co., Eli Lilly & Co., Merck and other drug firms to work on the project, and he returned to Oxford to wait for his kilo of penicillin. But then war struck the United States. With millions of American lives now at stake, penicillin was no longer just a scientific fascination to U.S. pharmaceutical companies it was a medical necessity.

Ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack, pharmaceutical companies began escalating penicillin production for the war effort, some experimenting with a process called deep-tank fermentation to extract the drug from the mold. It was a major breakthrough.

As war escalated throughout 1942, researcher Andrew Moyer led the USDA Peoria lab in finding the most potent penicillin mold that would hold up during fermentation extraction. Each day, he sent assistant Mary Hunt to local markets for decaying fruit or anything with fungal growth to find more-productive strains of the penicillin mold, Lax writes. Earning the nickname Moldy Mary, she once found a cantaloupe with a mold so powerful that in time it became the ancestor of most of the penicillin produced in the world, according to the American Chemical Society.

In July 1943, the War Production Board made plans for widespread distribution of penicillin stocks to Allied troops fighting in Europe. Then scientists worked round-the-clock to prepare for an ultimate goal: having enough to support the D-Day invasion.

On June 6, 1944, 73,000 U.S. troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, boosted by millions of doses of the miracle drug.

Excerpt from:

How a miracle drug changed the fight against infection during World War II - The Union Leader

MANILA (Reuters) - At the peak of the Philippines war on drugs, people in the rundown neighbourhoods of Navotas in the capital Manila grew used to police knocking on doors, or bursting into the homes of drug suspects - who often wound up dead.

Children look out from a window of their shanty home while a police officer on board an armored vehicle patrols the neighborhood to enforce the reimposed lockdown amid a spike in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, in Navotas, Metro Manila, Philippines, July 17, 2020. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Now, many residents of the Navotas area, which has been particularly badly hit by the coronavirus, fear another harsh police campaign after the government said officials will visit homes of patients with mild or no symptoms and escort them to isolation centres.

Some Filipinos have labelled the plan Tokhang 2, calling it the sequel to a police-led anti-drug campaign that became synonymous with thousands of killings.

We are afraid of the house-to-house. We dont know what the police and soldiers will do to us, said Crisanto dela Cruz, a 46-year-old pedicab driver in Navotas.

At the same time, we are afraid of getting infected because we are always outside.

Infections have tripled in the Philippines since June 1 and the interior ministry announced this week that health officials, with the help of local authorities and the police, will move people suffering from COVID-19 from their homes to isolation centres. It has urged neighbours to report potential cases of infected people who are evading authorities.

President Rodrigo Dutertes spokesman, Harry Roque, stressed the home visits will be led by local health workers.

In a statement, he said police presence is merely to provide support or assistance in the transport of patients.

But Roque also said anyone likely to spread the virus could be forcibly removed if need be.

We can still compel them but I dont think it will be in the nature as if they are being treated as criminals, he told CNN Philippines.

The United Nations has said at least 8,663 people, and possibly many more, were killed in the Philippines after Duterte launched a war on drugs in 2016. It said the killings took place amid near impunity for police and incitement to violence by top officials.

Most of the deaths were in poor, run-down areas like those in Navotas.

Police say their actions in the anti-drug campaign have been lawful and that deaths occurred in shootouts with dealers resisting arrest.

The coronavirus strategy was announced in a week when the Philippines recorded Southeast Asias biggest daily jump in deaths from the disease.

While much of East Asia appears to have COVID-19 under control, the Philippines has recorded nearly 36% of its infections and 23% of its 1,660 deaths in the past two weeks. In the region, only Indonesias death toll is climbing faster.

The government has defended the house-to-house approach, saying that infected people with insufficient space to quarantine themselves at home should be moved to isolation centres.

But opposition senators and human rights groups say the campaign is from the playbook of the drug war.

Senator Franklin Drilon said police had been enforcing a lockdown aggressively, and there was no need for fascist actions to demand submission.

The National Union of Peoples Lawyers called it another tool to sow fear in our communities.

With a government that has emboldened its own uniformed personnel to violate human rights with impunity, how can we be sure that the police will not abuse this new power, it said.

A better approach, say critics, is to improve contact-tracing and testing, with just 0.9% of the population tested so far. Roughly two-thirds of the tests followed the relaxation of restrictions on June 1 to try to rescue the economy.

Navotas has since seen cases grow from 286 at end May to 906 as of July 16, prompting authorities to reimpose restrictions, with armed police in camouflage deployed to keep people indoors and threaten violators with fines.

Its not martial law, theres no need for police to go house-to-house, said Arvin Provito, a Navotas tricycle driver.

What they should do is do house-to-house testing.

Former health minister Esperanza Cabral said the government should rethink its approach.

As they say, give a carpenter a hammer and all he will see are nails, she said. As for the people, theyve been so used to being treated as nails theyre naturally scared of anyone who has a hammer.

Additional reporting by Adrian Portugal, Eloisa Lopez and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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As Philippines fights coronavirus, some fear involvement of the police - Reuters

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The Business Of Drugs premiered on Netflix on 14 July 2020 is a documentaryweb television mini-series. With 6 episodes titles Cocaine, Synthetics, Heroin, Meth, Cannabis, Opioids respectively.

Amaryllis Fox, a former kid CIA agent recruited at the age 21 who hopped the globe fight on the war against terror until 2010 is the host for the series.

Drugs have existed in our societies longer than terrorism! It is deeply rooted in our system and society. The drug trade is widespread and uncontrollable and to some people their only means of survival. From human carriers to stuffing of drugs inside toys, the export of drugs is untamed.

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The series doesnt elaborate on what it starts with- how drugs are a part of wall street, freudian theory and a lot more. It tells the viewers more about how drugs are made and exported! The series features live testimonies from smugglers and dealers, who sell coke in small amounts and stay off radars.

The series initially compares the war on drugs to the war on terrorism, the two very different and distinctively important issues are put under common light making matter lighter for each! The Business Of Drugs includes interviews with experts in each episode who take us deeper in the whole production, sale and use. Alongside this, bits about the history of drugs is displayed.

Government spends a huge amount on the removal of Coca plant from Columbia- The largest importer of cocaine. But the question it left me with was- If the government can spend soo much money on removal on Coca plant, Why not spend it on developing Columbia, dealing with the root problem! Rather than just working on the surface with little to NO result.

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While the stats and information Fox brings forward is well drawn, it never really reaches to a point where the viewers feel triggered for a want to bring about change. The view point is more or less focused on the U.S.A and not on the global impact of drugs. The Business Of Drugs simply touches over various drugs and things related to them, that have been covered in various other shows and documentaries

STREAM IT! The Business Of Drugs is informative even though it misses out on some significantly important parts. This docuseries isnt the best of the genre but its worth a watch!

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The Business Of Drugs is now streaming on Netflix

Read our other reviewshere.

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Netflix's The Business Of Drugs Review: Cocaine, Meth, and More | TechQuila - TechQuila

The Philippines on Monday confirmed 1,521 new coronavirus cases and four new deaths, its fifth straight day of reporting over a thousand infections. (AP Photo)

The Philippines on Monday confirmed 1,521 new coronavirus cases and four new deaths, its fifth straight day of reporting over a thousand infections. The Health Ministry said total deaths have increased to 1,835, while confirmed cases have reached 69,898.

Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the World Health Organizations (WHO) representative to the Philippines, called the trend worrying and urged the government to improve its contact tracing methods.

President Rodrigo Dutertes administration imposed one of the worlds longest and strictest lockdowns in March, but fresh outbreaks of the virus have forced some local officials to put their cities under lockdown once more while the government announced it would impose a series of stringent measures.

Eduardo Ano, an ex-general and one of the officials heading the countrys COVID-19 response task force, said authorities will deploy police to escort healthcare workers during their door-to-door visits and transfer any COVID-19 positive patients to isolation facilities. We dont want those whose houses are not equipped for isolation to quarantine at home, said Ano at a press briefing.

Ano also encouraged people to report neighbors who are COVID-19 positive but in hiding, citing a Philippine law that mandates the reporting of coronavirus cases to health authorities and penalizes non-compliance with imprisonment.

The goal is to reduce the risk of community transmission. We do this by making sure that confirmed cases are isolated and are not in contact with anyone else in the community, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told local media, adding that the move was consistent with existing public health protocols. But the announcement wasnt without its criticism.

I really think it would be better if the home visits were led by community health workers. Involving the police increases the stigma associated with COVID-19 and will just cause panic in the community at a time when the increasing number of cases is already making everyone anxious, Andrei dela Cruz, a NGO health worker based in Navotas, about 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) north of the capital Manila, told DW.

Echoing similar methods used during Dutertes war on drugs, the new measure triggered a wave of fear across the country.

For some, the door-to-door visits are a flashback of tactics used by police during Project Tokhang, the state crackdown on illegal drugs. Tokhang is a combination of two words that mean knock and plead. Police would knock on the doors of suspected drug users, asking them to quit and turn to rehabilitation instead.

Its [door-to-door police accompaniment] like Tokhang but for COVID. This may actually discourage more people from reporting their status, opposition senator Risa Hontiveros said in a statement.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque rejected criticism and called it a move by opponents to use the important strategy of contact tracing to vilify the current government.

In Navotas, residents are only authorized to leave home for essential activities. The city went into a two-week lockdown on July 16.

Local media reports showed some police officers carrying long firearms and riding tanks as they patrolled neighborhoods to implement a city-wide lockdown.

Some residents, including Josie, welcomed the presence of police in enforcing safety measures such as home isolation and the wearing of face masks.

If its just the village captain who is going to issue warnings, he is less likely to be taken seriously because everyone knows him already. Some may use this familiarity to talk their way out of complying, said the 32-year-old homemaker.

Josies neighborhood was one of many affected by Dutertes war on drugs. A number of Navotas residents were killed at the hands of police during anti-drug operations as authorities tried to bust operations or track down vigilantes.

Josie, acknowledging the past, is not swayed. I would rather have the increased police presence to keep people in check than get infected by the virus, she said.

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Covid-19 in Philippines: Police deployed to implement fresh lockdowns - The Indian Express

After organizing the Voters Not Politicians 2018 ballot initiative that put citizens in charge of drawing Michigan's legislative maps, Fahey became founding executive director of The People, which is forming statewide networks to promote government accountability. She interviews colleagues in the world of democracy reform each month for our Opinion section.

David Valente got involved in politics helping with a state Senate race in New Mexico when he was a teenager. He has since become discouraged by both major parties' spending and is currently chairman of the West Virginia Libertarian Party. He supports criminal justice reform, protecting civil liberties and ending the "war on drugs."

Sonia Riley served as field director for Cathy Albro, the unsuccessful 2018 Democratic candidate in Michigan's heavily gerrymandered 3rd congressional district, where she observed the effect of a lack of public resources on both urban and rural communities. Now she's running for city council in Wyoming, a suburb of Grand Rapids, advocating for increased voting access and improved health care.

Our recent conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Fahey: It seems you both reached a certain point where you decided to get actively involved in making change. Talk about the moment or motivation that led you to take action?

Valente: I got involved in my first campaign at 16 and built a community with the people on the campaign. It was fun and felt like we were doing something good. In my experience, you can't get anything done if you don't work together, because then you're just a debate club. If you're willing to work together, you're able to influence policy and move the ball forward.

Riley: When I was on the congressional campaign two years ago, it was so significant how black and brown people were often not invited to be part of the conversation. My "Aha!" moment came during the choosing of a location for a watch party. I told the room I was not comfortable going there, and that was an educational moment for a lot of others. If there's no inclusivity at the table, neither party represents my people. If we're not involved and we're not vocal, it hinders the growth of all people. So I fight those injustices, and joining The People has made it even more profound.

Fahey: How have your lives been altered by the coronavirus crisis?

Valente: There are ballot access issues across the country. There are states like Oklahoma where we would have to get 100,000 signatures to get someone on the ballot, and you can't get signatures in this environment. We're finding innovative ways to get the message out, like Facebook and Zoom. We have a gubernatorial candidate who is hosting Zoom meetings every Sunday and interviewing a local policymaker, or highlighting people who are not Libertarian but are still supporting her.

Riley: To run for city council I needed 25 signatures and I collected 50 but 27 were thrown out. I was supposed to be able to pay a $100 filing fee instead, but the city refused. It was an injustice for them to make an immunocompromised person like me go and get signatures, and for people to have to risk their lives to sign so their voices could be heard. I got a call from my party saying they were going to help me fight this. Because of my situation, they've changed the process.

Fahey: At The People, you've created Community Hour, video chats where people can touch base and maybe talk a little about democracy reform. What made you want to start this?

Riley: It's human nature to want to feel connected, and right now every system of connection we have has changed how we're connected with our families, our work, our communities. It's important to have a platform where we can maintain a human connection, and Community Hour creates a way to come together and check in.

Valente: We've talked a lot about how to stay connected when forced to stay apart. I was taking part in "Skype-togethers" with people in my community, and afterwards I felt so much better. I connected in a personal way with people I hadn't seen in ages. So when we were talking about ideas on how to stay connected, that model popped into my head. No agenda, just finding out how others are doing.

Fahey: Have any moments during the calls stood out to you?

Valente: For me, it has been just having great conversations with people I hadn't met before as well as seeing a niece for the first time. No matter what's going on, I think there's a lot of value in these calls.

Riley: I had a profound conversation about grief and loss. People aren't talking about these emotions and acknowledging these feelings. These conversations give space to be authentic and unafraid of judgment.

Fahey: Who is invited to the calls and how can they join?

Riley: All are welcome to join every Wednesday evening 8 Eastern, 7 Central, 5 Pacific. We use Zoom so you can join through video or call in by phone. Details can be found on our Facebook event page.

Fahey: If you were speaking to a high school student or a new immigrant to this country, how would you describe what being an American means to you?

Riley: We as people in brown communities still have to fight to be fully viewed as citizens. For a new person, know the fight will be hard but worth winning in the end. Channel your frustration toward something positive to make a difference. We have a privilege to be in a country saturated in resources. It's a blessing, but it doesn't come without a fight, and it's definitely not for the faint of heart. We have shown resilience as a country, even if our leaders aren't leading to the extent we would like.

Valente: I don't approach this from a nationalistic standpoint. We're all human beings. There's a whole lot of work that needs to be done in this country, and we have to be vigilant in maintaining our freedoms and working to extend them. We're not perfect and we need to make sure we continuously improve and work as best we can toward an ideal society.

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The People: bridging distance and differences in a pandemic - The Fulcrum

Written by Esha Roy | New Delhi | Updated: July 17, 2020 4:57:22 am Chief Minister Biren Singh, Additional SP (Narcotics) Thounaojam Brinda.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and a top state BJP leader have been accused by a senior officer of the state Narcotics and Affairs of Border Bureau (NAB) of allegedly putting pressuring on the department to drop the case against a person accused in a drug seizure raid which took place in June 2018.

The accusation come in the form of a sworn affidavit Additional Superintendent of Police, NAB, Thounaojam Brinda filed in Imphal High Court on July 13.

The police have put the value of confiscated illegal narcotics and cash at more than Rs 28 crore.

The prime accused in the case, Lhukhosei Zou, was considered kingpin of the drugs cartel and was also a local BJP leader in Chandel district, according to Brindas affidavit.

When contacted by The Indian Express, Chief Minister Biren Singh said, The matter is sub judice. It would not be legally proper to comment. But it is known to everyone that no person can interfere in any judicial proceedings or court cases; the law takes its own course to meet the ends of justice.

He said, For our government, the war on drugs will continue, and no party involved whether a friend or a relative would be spared in the campaign

According to Brindas affidavit, the controversy revolves around a raid carried out across Imphal by NAB teams under her, and subsequent arrests of eight people allegedly found in possession of illicit drugs and cash, on the intervening night of June 19-20, 2018. They were booked under different IPC Sections and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

According to police, 4,595 kg heroin, over 2.8 lakh World is Yours (WY) amphetamine tablets weighing 28 kg and other items were seized during the raids. Altogether the total seized amount of drugs along with the seized currency was Rs 28,36,68,000 at international market, the police have said.

According to Brinda, Zous arrest became sensational given his political position and strong community base in the border town area of Moreh. At the time of arrest, he was chairman of the 5th Autonomous District Council of Chandel district, the affidavit states. He was elected to the Autonomous District Council (ADC) in June 2015 on a Congress ticket.

In September 2015, he became chairman of ADC Chandel district and later joined the BJP in April 2017, it says.

Brinda said that since the arrest, both she and her department have been under pressure to drop the case against Zou.

On the raids, Brinda told The Indian Express: One of the accused we had arrested earlier that evening told us that there were drugs with Zous driver. When we went looking for him, he (Zou) said his driver was in Guwahati. He refused to let us search his house. We nabbed the driver nevertheless after extensive searches that evening he informed us that there were drugs at Zous residence. When we went back, Zou refused to let us search. There was a scuffle between NAB boys and his men. We finally searched his home (and) found the drugs.

In March 2019, Zou received bail, which he jumped and fled across the border to Myanmar. He surrendered in February this year and his bail hearing came up before Imphal HC, where the judge held that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Brinda filed a complaint against the judge with the Registrar of Imphal High Court last month. Subsequently, after lashing out at the judge in a social media post, Brinda was served a contempt notice this month. She filed this affidavit in response on July 13.

This was a big drug haul for the NAB and was a result of a recent raid in Jowai in Meghalaya where a large amount of WY tablets were seized, Brinda, who joined NAB in March 2018, just three months before the raid, stated. The Meghalaya accused pointed to the accused in Manipur who were a part of the same cartel. The war on drugs that the government talks about was actually revived in 2018. Over the past few years, the drug route from Afghanistan-Pakistan had dwindled and instead had shifted to the Manipur-Myanmar border. Indian drug lords now prefer this route and huge consignments of drugs are flooding the market and makes its way across the country all the way down to Kerala even.

This is what we are trying to curtail. All the hill districts are covered with poppy plantations, and yet the government of Manipur, for the past 30 years, doesnt even have data on how much area is covered by poppy growing.

A Manipur state police service officer of 2012 batch, Brinda was conferred the states Police Medal for Gallantry by the state government for her work against smuggling and sale of drugs. The Chief Minister awarded Rs 10 lakh to the NAB team for the seizure of Rs 100 crore worth of drugs, one of the biggest hauls in Manipur.

Earlier, Brindas appointment had been put on hold by the previous Congress government on grounds that she is daughter-in-law of Rajkumar Meghan, former chairman of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), one of the Northeasts biggest insurgent outfits. The state government allowed her to join the police force after Brinda approached the Guahati High Court but resigned in 2016.

After the BJP formed its first government in the Northeast in 2017, Brinda was reinstated in the police force at the behest of the Centre.

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Pressure from Manipur CM Biren Singh to drop drugs case: cop to court - The Indian Express

news, local-news, newcastle, newcastle herald, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, smoking, drug law, cannabis

WHETHER we want to admit it or not, drug use in this country - as across many nations - is effectively normalised, despite decades of effort to prosecute what amounts to an endless "war on drugs". The various damaging impacts of long-term drug use are real, but the persistence with which people continue to use illicit substances, despite the warnings, can be taken to mean that society by and large no longer listens to the moralistic messages that once accompanied political and law-enforcement demands to "just say no". That said, one of the most interesting results from the latest study of "alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in Australia" - by the federally funded Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - concerns alcohol and tobacco, which remain the biggest problem in substance abuse despite being originally viewed as nothing to do with "the drug problem". READ DAMON CRONSHAW'S NEWS REPORT: Hunter drug use revealed in national survey This can be seen in national mortality figures that showed almost 21,000 people dying from tobacco-related causes in 2015, followed by some 6500 alcohol deaths and fewer than 2500 dying from other drugs. Locally, the figures show statistically significant differences in drug and alcohol habits from place to place. Nationally, however, the broader pattern is one of steadily escalating drug use. Extrapolating from extensive testing of waste-water samples, the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission estimates the nation consumed more than 11.6 tonnes of ice amphetamine in 2018-19 (up from 8.4 tonnes in 2016-17) 4.6 tonnes of cocaine (3 tonnes in 2016-17), 2.2 tonnes of the ecstasy-type stimulant MDMA (up from 1.2 tonnes in three years) and almost a tonne of heroin (up from 830kg). This is a serious amount of drug use, and a conceptual shift in the public's attitude towards drug-taking can be seen in the health institute's survey findings of a preference for education and rehabilitation, over law-enforcement, as a primary response. The normalisation of drugs is perhaps not surprising, given the liberation of society created by the seismic shift of the 1960s. Prohibition since then has done little to quell either supply or demand of illicit drugs, whereas public health programs on smoking, especially, and alcohol have been shown to influence people's habits. Perhaps it's time for more politicians to "follow the science", rather than exercise their instincts to rely on punishment as a deterrent. ISSUE: 39,361. IN OTHER NEWS: While you're with us, did you know the Newcastle Herald offers breaking news alerts, daily email newsletters and more? Keep up to date with all the local news - sign up here

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/3ArTPYWJ7uTzcYp6Sg47gg6/50232595-83bf-44ef-9de8-5a8ff860f039.jpg/r8_182_3496_2153_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

WHETHER we want to admit it or not, drug use in this country - as across many nations - is effectively normalised, despite decades of effort to prosecute what amounts to an endless "war on drugs".

The various damaging impacts of long-term drug use are real, but the persistence with which people continue to use illicit substances, despite the warnings, can be taken to mean that society by and large no longer listens to the moralistic messages that once accompanied political and law-enforcement demands to "just say no".

That said, one of the most interesting results from the latest study of "alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in Australia" - by the federally funded Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - concerns alcohol and tobacco, which remain the biggest problem in substance abuse despite being originally viewed as nothing to do with "the drug problem".

This can be seen in national mortality figures that showed almost 21,000 people dying from tobacco-related causes in 2015, followed by some 6500 alcohol deaths and fewer than 2500 dying from other drugs.

Locally, the figures show statistically significant differences in drug and alcohol habits from place to place.

Nationally, however, the broader pattern is one of steadily escalating drug use.

Extrapolating from extensive testing of waste-water samples, the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission estimates the nation consumed more than 11.6 tonnes of ice amphetamine in 2018-19 (up from 8.4 tonnes in 2016-17) 4.6 tonnes of cocaine (3 tonnes in 2016-17), 2.2 tonnes of the ecstasy-type stimulant MDMA (up from 1.2 tonnes in three years) and almost a tonne of heroin (up from 830kg).

This is a serious amount of drug use, and a conceptual shift in the public's attitude towards drug-taking can be seen in the health institute's survey findings of a preference for education and rehabilitation, over law-enforcement, as a primary response.

The normalisation of drugs is perhaps not surprising, given the liberation of society created by the seismic shift of the 1960s.

Prohibition since then has done little to quell either supply or demand of illicit drugs, whereas public health programs on smoking, especially, and alcohol have been shown to influence people's habits.

Perhaps it's time for more politicians to "follow the science", rather than exercise their instincts to rely on punishment as a deterrent.

STATE OF THE NATION: The new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare study on drug use, legal and illicit.

While you're with us, did you know the Newcastle Herald offers breaking news alerts, daily email newsletters and more? Keep up to date with all the local news - sign up here

Read more from the original source:

The Newcastle Herald's Opinion, Thursday, July 16, 2020: What value the 'war on drugs' when substance use is 'normalised' in society? - Newcastle...

President Donald Trumps executive order and the stalled bills in Congress to curb police misconduct are, at best, attempts to retune an instrument that was orchestrated for abuse.

As a former archivist in charge of the National Archives records for the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Prisons, it is clear to me that the history of police violence in the U.S. informs and influences why the U.S. is again facing protests over violence, racism and unjust death.

Wickersham Commission

Violence and corruption have long been the mainstay of American police. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover, stirred by stories of bootleggers who forged criminal alliances with police departments during the Prohibition Era (1920-1933), announced that his administration would make the widest inquiry into the shortcomings of the administration of justice and into the causes and remedies for them.

Hoover appointed the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, chaired by former Attorney General George Wickersham, to investigate the failure of prohibition laws. In its 1931 report, the commission said that police made frequent use of torture as a method of law enforcement and that confessions of guilt frequently are unlawfully extorted by the police from prisoners by means of cruel treatment, colloquially known as the third degree. The Wickersham Commission defined the third degree as the employment of methods which inflict suffering, physical or mental, upon a person, in order to obtain from that person information about a crime.

Rather than reform the police, however, Attorney General Homer Cummings (1933-1939), who was appointed by Hoovers successor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, announced in September 1933 that there was a real war that confronts us all a war that must be successfully fought if life and property are to be secure in our countryThe warfare which an armed underworld is waging upon organized society has reached disturbing proportions. The prevalence of predatory crime, including kidnapping and racketeering, demands the utmost diligence upon the part of our law enforcing agencies, supported by an informed and aroused public opinion. Cummings declared a war on crime that aimed to professionalize and militarize the police.

Professionalization was supposed to train police in scientific methods to curtail torture in police work, but militarization armed the FBI and coordinated it with local police departments across the country. The war on crime was a signature program of Roosevelts New Deal, designed to win headlines for the president when Americans were hungry for strong leadership amid the Great Depression.

Kerner Commission

Thirty years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson mounted his own war on crime. He appointed the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission, to investigate the source of riots across the country in 1967.

Chaired by Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, the commission reported that to some Negroes, police have come to symbolize white power, white racism, and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a double standard of justice and protection one for Negroes and one for whites.

The Kerner Commission documented a reality that remains unchanged: police are trained to keep order in Black neighborhoods with the use of unchecked violence. Among other things, it highlighted the need for change in police operations in the ghetto, to insure proper conduct by individual officers and to eliminate abrasive practices.

The problem of police brutality was not untrained or rogue cops, but the design of Americas system of policing. The commission noted that many of the serious disturbances took place in cities whose police are among the best led, best organized, best trained and most professional in the country. President Johnson ignored its recommendations.

War on drugs

The next administration made the problem of police brutality worse. In June 1971, President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs. Borrowing language from the war on crime, Nixon announced that Americas public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive, he said.

Nixons domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, later recounted that the drug war was designed to link the Black community with narcotics and thereby arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

The war on drugs not only targeted the Black community but justified the mass incarceration of Black men. Every president since Ronald Reagan has expanded the war on drugs, from programs that equipped police with military gear to patterns of enforcement that disproportionately policed people of color. Such outfitting dressed officers as soldiers and cast Black people as combatants.

Undone reform, post-Ferguson

Protests against police violence erupted once again in August 2014 when police in Ferguson, Missouri, killed an unarmed Black teenager and left his body displayed on the street for hours. Angry crowds gathered, protested and rioted. Police responded by showcasing their military equipment including tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades, M-16 rifles, M-14 rifles, M-1911 handguns, tactical vests, undercover apparel, riot shields, armored personnel carriers, mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles and high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles.

President Barack Obama issued guidelines for the Justice Department in 2015 that prohibited the transfer of some military equipment to local police departments. He explained that Americans have seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like theres an occupying force, as opposed to a force thats part of the community thats protecting them and serving them.

Obama also created the Task Force on 21st Century Policing in 2014. It recommended new policies to build trust between racial minorities and the police, but they were sparsely adopted. After police killed Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in 2016, Obama lamented that change has been too slow and we have to have a greater sense of urgency about this.

President Trump rescinded Obamas guidelines to demilitarize the police in 2017. Trumps order reinstated the military gear and sent a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Today, the efforts of the White House and Congress to reform the police is an attempt to reinvent an old institution. Ideas advanced by Republicans and Democrats rely on the police to tear down the blue wall of silence, an unofficial loyalty oath among police that is customarily respected by judges and prosecutors, and which leads to a lack of accountability for police violence and abuse. Police culture protects itself.

Like before, America is again scrutinizing the role and function of the police in the wake of public corruption and brutality. But there is no promise that reform efforts now will lead to any more changes than they have in the past.

The rest is here:

Decades of promised police reforms have failed to alter a culture of abuse and racism - Milwaukee Independent