Jamie Doward's admirable special report rightly stressed the importance of the UN general assembly special session on drugs (Ungass) to be held in New York later this month.("Is the prohibition era finally coming to an end?", News, last week). As Doward makes clear, the international drugs trade is an ongoing problem that affects all countries but reaches crisis level in producer and transit countries. It is to a very large degree the product of the well intentioned but misguided UN conventions that imposed drugs prohibition on all countries without regard for their cultures or traditions. [continues 185 words]
How a Shift in Health-Care Delivery and Big Pharma's Hunger for Profits Have Driven the Opioid Epidemic I was walking past, and happened to see him behind the partially drawn curtain. There he was, lying on the gurney, head back, mouth gaping. White, 25, covered in tattoos, not breathing, his lips a fine pale blue. We ran into the room. The nurse pushed Narcan, a drug that reverses opiates. And 30 seconds later he woke up as if a switch had been flipped. Narcan is like magic; it literally raises people from the dead. [continues 1658 words]
Africa Has Become Vital Transit Hub for Narcotics THE government is to urgently re-establish narcotics and firearm units to fight cocaine and heroin drug cartels using South Africa as a transit hub, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said yesterday. Speaking on the sidelines of the second Africa-Russia Anti-Drug Dialogue in Durban, Nhleko said although there was no concrete timeline yet in place for the units to be up and running, the SA Police Service and his ministry were working on having this done as soon as possible. [continues 279 words]
MD. House Backs Broader Certification; Hearing Held on Gun Bills Maryland would allow midwives, nurses, dentists and foot doctors to certify patients for medical-marijuana use under a bill the state House of Delegates passed Friday. Current state law restricts such authority to physicians, but the House voted 110 to 21 to extend it to other types of health-care providers. The legislation, sponsored by Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County), will now move to the Senate for consideration. The change wouldn't have any immediate practical implications, because the state doesn't expect to have any dispensaries until at least next year. [continues 587 words]
Last month, an official with the Drug Enforcement Agency made a presentation before the Senatorial Committee on the Judiciary in Washington, D.C. During the report, the country's newest public enemy was unveiled. The south-of-the-border rival has no link to terrorist organizations, viruses, or Donald Trump-so-hated Mexicans. Based on figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DEA's document underlines that drug overdose by heroin usage is now the leading cause of injury-related deaths in the United States, surpassing deaths from car accidents and firearms. [continues 737 words]
ZARANJ, Afghanistan - Shortly after sunrise, an Afghan special operations helicopter descended on two vehicles racing through the empty deserts of southern Afghanistan, traversing what has become a superhighway for smugglers and insurgents. Intelligence showed that the men were transporting a huge cache of drugs and weapons from Helmand Province to Nimruz Province, a hub for all things illegal and a way station on the global opium trail. Hovering above, the troops fired tracer rounds into the sandy earth beside the vehicles, which skidded to a stop. [continues 1375 words]
In Colombia, Peace Deal With the FARC in Sight But Herbicide-Resistant Coca Production on Rise In the lowlands surrounding the town of La Hormiga, coca was once king. Fields of the bright green bushes stretched to the horizon in every direction and farmers were flush with cash. The surrounding municipality was the one with the most coca crops in the country that produced the most cocaine in the world. This was "ground zero" for Plan Colombia, a massive multipronged effort funded by nearly $10bn in US aid that started in 2000. The plan aimed to recover a country that was in the grips of drug mafias, leftist guerrillas and rightwing militias, and whose institutions malfunctioned and economy faltered. [continues 1427 words]
When coastal-defence vessels HMCS Brandon and HMCS Whitehorse returned to CFB Esquimalt in December after participating in an anti-drug trafficking operation in the Caribbean and east Pacific regions, the Times Colonist published an editorial congratulating the sailors for a job well done. But the editorial also said the work of Canada's armed forces wouldn't make much difference in slowing or halting the flow of drugs from Central and South America. Last week, I had a chance to see a different perspective on the navy's work. At a briefing at CFB Esquimalt, I learned a lot more about what happens when Canadian ships head south. It's not just for a jaunt in warmer waters. There's a real war going on, one that threatens the stability of countries in that region, as well as the quality of life in Canada and elsewhere. [continues 613 words]
I'm passing a joint at The Joint and pondering while on pot. Through hazy eyes I watched FoxNews coverage of the armed takeover of a federal building in Oregon, feeling helpless. I've decided to do something about it here in Trenton. I think I'm going to take over the front steps of the Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building and United States Courthouse located on the next block from The Joint on State Street. Ummm next week or the week after, hum, or when I get off this couch. (In my "Jay and Silent Bob" voice:) Dude... not in solidary with those fools in Oregon, but just the opposite. [continues 1386 words]
CANTON, Ohio - Leonard Campanello, the police chief of Gloucester, Mass., took the microphone here in mid-December and opened with his usual warm-up line: I'm from Gloucester, he said in his heavy Boston accent. "That's spelled 'G-l-o-s-t-a-h.'" A casually profane man with a philosophical bent, Chief Campanello, 48, first drew national attention last spring when he wrote on Facebook that the old war on drugs was lost and over. Convinced that addiction is a disease, not a crime or moral failing, he became the unusual law enforcement officer offering heroin users an alternative to prison. [continues 2355 words]
Re: "Tennessee must get with the times on medical marijuana," by David Hairston, Dec. 13. Regarding Mr. Hairston's article about legalizing medical marijuana, I found the logic faulty for the following reasons: The statement that "God designed our bodies to use cannabinoids to maintain health " because cannabinoid receptors have been identified is like saying "God intends us to have cancer or diabetes because we have the genes for those." Our bodies adapt to the environment and use the food and chemicals we put in them trying to best achieve a balance of chemicals in the brain. However, when we are out of balance in one area, the brain will seek to remedy it in another, thus the reason for using mood-altering drugs. [continues 158 words]
One of the themes of last fall's election campaign, of course, was that former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper had embarrassed Canada on the international stage. For instance, his willingness to commit Canadian troops to a combat role in the war against terrorists and his unwillingness to play along with meaningless UN symbolism on climate change had, allegedly, lowered Canada's standing in the eyes of the world. Just about the only people who care about Canada's international reputation are self-important elitists. The average tradesman working overtime to make ends meet couldn't care less. Nor could the average commercial fisherman or prairie farm couple. [continues 522 words]
One of the themes of last fall's election campaign, of course, was that former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper had embarrassed Canada on the international stage. For instance, his willingness to commit Canadian troops to a combat role in the war against terrorists and his unwillingness to play along with meaningless United Nations symbolism on climate change had, allegedly, lowered Canada's standing in the eyes of the world. Just about the only people who care about Canada's international reputation are self-important elitists. The average tradesman working overtime to make ends meet couldn't care less. Nor could the average commercial fisherman or prairie farm couple. [continues 526 words]
(WORLD) STAGE FRIGHT One of the themes of last fall's election campaign, of course, was that former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper had embarrassed Canada on the international stage. For instance, his willingness to commit Canadian troops to a combat role in the war against terrorists and his unwillingness to play along with meaningless United Nations symbolism on climate change had, allegedly, lowered Canada's standing in the eyes of the world. Just about the only people who care about Canada's international reputation are self-important elitists. The average tradesman working overtime to make ends meet couldn't care less. Nor could the average commercial fisherman or prairie farm couple. [continues 521 words]
WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice announced this week that it's suspending a controversial program that allows local police departments to keep a large portion of assets seized from citizens under federal law and funnel it into their own coffers. The "equitable-sharing" program gives police the option of prosecuting asset-forfeiture cases under federal instead of state law. Federal forfeiture policies are more permissive than many state policies, allowing police to keep up to 80 percent of assets they seize - even if the people they took them from are never charged with a crime. [continues 655 words]
Incrementalism - at its best, devilish at its worst: I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think people should understand what the state is doing: mass collection of DNA material. Of course it's being touted by the state as a totally good thing. The state and the DNA collecting corporations loudly point out that old criminal cases were solved using DNA, which is great. What they neglect to explain is how millions will have their genetic code for destruction collected also by the state. [continues 1232 words]
WASHINGTON - President Obama ended a tumultuous year in the nation's capital by commuting the sentences of 95 federal prisoners and granting two pardons on Friday, building on his push to reorient the nation's criminal justice system with a holiday season stroke of his pen. The set of commutations was the largest of Mr. Obama's presidency, and it more than doubled the number he has granted since taking office. Most of those who will be freed are nonviolent drug offenders given long sentences during an earlier crackdown on crime. Forty of them will be spared life terms. [continues 969 words]
Arizona is125,000 signatures closer to legalizing marijuana. It's going to happen. While the rest of us have concerned ourselves with presidential politics and terrorism (which sometimes seem indistinguishable) the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol in Arizona has quietly collected more than 125,000 initiative signatures, well on its way to getting the needed 150,000 valid signatures by July 7. "This is going even more quickly than we thought it would go," deputy campaign manager Carlos Alfaro told me. "We're looking forward to getting the signature process finished and get the campaign out there." [continues 413 words]
Our government doesn't care enough about protecting Americans from terrorism. If government officials cared, they would end the drug war and focus instead on ISIS. Imagine our country without a drug war. I see a country with $40 billion extra per year to fight terror. I see a country that focuses all its current drug war might, which is used to arrest hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, with literally no reduction in drugs, on breaking up ISIS. I don't mean that we keep bombing them only. When we bomb, we may kill terrorists, but we also kill civilians, and those civilians have family and friends who join the terrorists in vengeance against us. I do not want us to back down at all. I want us to dedicate a massive amount of resources toward creating more professionals like Ali Soufan. He was an FBI agent who spoke fluent Arabic and he was able to flip many Al Qaeda terrorists to work for our side to break up terror networks. [continues 126 words]
Last week Donald Trump once again lied. This time he said he saw thousands of Muslims in Jersey City celebrating 9/11 - which is a flatout lie that many others are now repeating. Can you say revisionist Christian history? I remember soon after 9/11, watching the events from my Riverfront State Prison cell's cable TV and seeing Palestinians in Gaza and Egyptians cheering Osama bin Laden's revenge attacks. Nothing like that happened in the USA or it would've been on TV, on someone's camera, and in the press. Local police would've responded to this, and it could've been on the front pages of national newspapers.I'm a newsjunkie; allI do is read, listen to, and watch news. A couple newspapers at the time actually printed that Israelis were arrested in New Jersey celebrating, but I'm sure Trump doesn't remember this. It doesn't fit the reality he wants to believe: http:// tinyurl.com/whathappenedisraelis [continues 179 words]
