Netflix's The Business of Drugs documents the MDMA research of Alexander Shulgin. Here's what happened to the "spiritual father of psychedelics."

Now streaming on Netflix, The Business of Drugs explores themental healthbenefits of MDMA, and documentsthe work of MDMA pioneerAlexander "Sasha" Shulgin. In 1994, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided the American chemist's California lab, a moment that forever changed the public discourse about the mind-altering synthesized drugs commonly known as "Ecstasy" or "Molly." So, why was Shulgin targeted by authorities, and what happened to him in the 20 years between the '90s raid and his 2014 death?

The Business of Drugs is fundamentally about exposing drug culture, but doesn't include a damning portrait ofShulgin. In fact, the second episode of the six-part Netflix docuseries suggests that the U.S. government dismissed Shulgin's game-changing research in order to promote a self-serving agenda connected to the "war on drugs." In The Business of Drugs, host Amaryllis Fox acknowledges Shulgin as the "spiritual father of psychedelics," and attempts to explain why he and partner Ann Shulginbelieved that MDMA could be beneficial to people all over the world. Asthe Netflix docuseries reveals, though, American culture wasn't ready to accept that "Ecstasy" had any redeeming value. Incidentally, the 1985 ban of MDMA in the United States not only sparked interest of the substance within domestic underground subcultures, but also caught the attention of curious individualsworldwide.

Related:Why The US Drug War Can NEVER Be Won, According To Business of Drugs

In The Business of Drugs on Netflix, Fox establishes the appropriate context by initially discussing Alexander Shulgin's extensive MDMA research about "therapeutic potential," which is complemented by Ann Shulgin's statement thatMDMA"is so extraordinary valuable for PTSD. Specifically, she reveals that MDMA allows for self-introspection "without self-hate." Midway through the Netflix docuseries, Fox questions Ann Shulgin about her groundbreaking psychedelic-themed books PiHKAL and TiHKAL, co-written by Alexanderfor the sole purpose of ensuring that their research wouldn't be lost. "It took two years for Washington to catch on," Ann Shulgin says. Two years after the first book released, DEA agentsinvaded the Shulgins' home.Alexander was fined $25,000, and his lab was shut down.

In The Business of Drugs on Netflix, Fox states that "The Shulgins' books demonstrated a new path to sharing chemical knowledge and understanding." Even so, theirwork was once described by a DEA Agent as "cookbooks on how to make illegal drugs." While that may be true, the ban of MDMA in America (and elsewhere) inspired peopleto actively seek out the drug, and not necessarily for quiet introspection that could benefit their mental health. As the Netflix docuseries shows, "psychonauts"have long tested out tweaked MDMA formulas, and "Molly" is now mostly correlated with millennial club kids in pop culture. As for Alexander Shulgin, he was already 68 years old when the DEA shut down his lab. He continued research over the years with Ann, and ultimately published four books after the 1991 release of PiHKAL. Shulgin passed away at age 88 in 2014.

The Business of Drugs' synthetics-themed episode ends with a poignantsequence that links to Alexander Shulgin's MDMA legacy.Jonathan M. Lubecky, a U.S. Army Sergeant in the Iraq War, recalls a suicidal moment that led him toThe Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in Santa Cruz, California. Lubecky then receivedFDA-approved MDMA-assisted therapy, andreached a "perfect, therapeutic place" after seeing "weird, cool geometric shapes." His anecdote confirms Shulgin's original belief that the synthesized drug could help cure PTSD.The Business of Drugs on Netflix ends with Fox admitting that she feels nostalgic for "the belief that Ann and Alexander Shulgin had in the potential of these drugs"before MDMA became associated with indulgent party culture.

More:What To Expect From The Business of Drugs Season 2

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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: What Happened To Alexander Shulgin After The DEA Raid - Screen Rant

Using our brains, humanity has survived ice ages, the dark ages and the stone. We lived by our wits and our grit on our never-ending march towards enlightenment.

Its been a long damned rocky road, and as I look around, and flick the channels I see stupidity on a global scale.

Ants are better organized than our brightest politicians (oxymorons). Humans are making a bigger mess of our planet than a herd of elephants on ex-lax.

The virus hit the rich and poor alike well thats not reality-true the rich can afford to stay at home and door-dash. The poorest are the homeless, the mentally challenged and the drug addicted, and in most cases all three at the same time.

If we as a society dont acknowledge and care for these unfortunate human beings; the illness we now cower from, will remain like a hot ember in dry grass.

But out of the gloom came a bright idea from Dr. Bonnie Henry a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.

She said we should stop the spread of disease and death, by extinguishing the virus for all of our citizens. To do this, her idea not only had to be brilliant, it had to make economic sense as well.

The idea: free drugs.

Would you like to be a drug addict? Would you like to wake up with the sweats, shaking and your body aching until you push that needle into your vein sounds like fun, eh?

You can trust me when I say, shooting heroin feels like someone just poured a bucket of warm pleasure over you. Back in my rock and roll days; it was sex, drugs and rock and roll.

I was lucky enough to hit rock bottom and come up for air a lot of my drug buddies didnt get the choice death took them much too young.

But back to our hero Dr. Bonnie, and her ray of enlightenment.

I want you to think of the time some jerk ripped you off; did you get mad and feel violated? If the fuzz did anything more than fill out a report, youre lucky, and if they did recover your property you should buy a lottery ticket.

Stolen goods are a big racket, and like all successful businesses, repeat business is the key. When druggies need a fix, theyll do anything; theyd steal Jesus off the cross and go back for the nails.

Free drugs would solve that.

Clean shooting galleries with safe zones to zone-out, and eventually theyll change their minds even junkies dont want to be junkies.

The light at the end of the tunnel would be to eliminate diseases of all kinds, take the money away from crime and put it back into taxpayers pockets.

If the keystone cops cant stop the war on drugs maybe the money could be better spent fighting societies real villains: poverty, mental issues and drug addiction.

Lets recap: reduces disease, saves some mothers kid from death, prevents some jerk from stealing your stuff, empties courtrooms and jails, takes money from crime and makes common sense.

The war on drugs has cost hundreds of billions of dollars, countless lives and it should anger you that you have funded it for decades.

You know who doesnt like the doctors idea? Idiots, criminals, undertakers and little old ladies who think they live in the 1950s.

Bernie Bates resides in West Kelowna and is a regular contributor to Westside Weekly, a sister publication.

Email: beeinthebonnet@shaw.ca

Originally posted here:

Free drugs is the answer to problems | Opinion - pentictonherald.ca

There are 79 towns in Connecticut which dont have municipal police departments. Over half a million Connecticut residents live in towns which either have no dedicated police presence or are serviced by a small cohort of state troopers.

Then there are some cities and towns, like Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport, that are heavily policed. Cruisers dot the landscape like measles. Beat cops patrol neighborhoods at all hours of the day and surveillance, particularly of poor, Black and Latinx neighborhoods, is constant.

This is such a widely accepted pattern that we rarely stop to think: why? Why is it that New Haven demands such a heavier police presence than Darien? The standard, culturally embedded answer is that these cities have more crime, and that therefore they must be policed. But most people would agree that there is nothing inherently criminal about the residents of New Haven. When a person in New Haven is born, theyre not immediately more prone to larceny or assault.

If you do believe criminality is an inherent trait, by proxy, you believe that Black and Latinx communities are inherently criminal, as they are disproportionately represented in our prisons and jails. This is a fundamentally racist worldview.

If criminality isnt inherent, that must mean it is a product of social conditions. The root cause of most crime is desperation, which is in turn caused by systemic, generational poverty. Cities, like New Haven, that have more crime are also cities with high rates of poverty. Crime that is not necessarily rooted in desperation, like sexual assault, can still be traced to fixable social problems. In the case of sexual assault, the problem is deeply rooted patriarchy which teaches men predatory behavior. These are difficult problems to deal with, but they are also problems which the police do nothing to address.

But those in power, by imposing unequal patterns of policing, do imply that there are certain populations which are naturally criminal, and therefore must be policed, controlled and contained, rather than provided with the social services that would solve underlying social problems. While it is tempting to reduce this unequal governance to individual bias, it is more accurate to trace these racialized ideas of criminality through their history.

Criminality is a socially constructed idea, and what is considered a crime is almost always driven by a social goal, which is almost always racialized. After the Civil War ended slavery, states were quick to create black codes, which targeted formerly-enslaved Black communities for crimes such as vagrancy. The newly-freed Black population quickly became a newly-incarcerated population, forced to work for free once again. Legal segregation and Jim Crow laws criminalized being Black in America. The war on drugs was a means of incarcerating Black communities (Nixon, and other politicians, stated as much in private). On and on and on.

Its also important to distinguish between the idea of harm and our socially constructed idea of crime. We often associate crime with harm, but these two ideas are distinct. There are many actions which are both not harmful and criminalized, like sleeping on a park bench or sex work. There are also many actions which are harmful and not criminalized, like a landlord evicting a tenant in the middle of a pandemic or a CEO stealing the value his workers produce.

In Connecticut, essentially all of our legislators accept the culturally dominant and deeply racist narrative that certain populations are criminal and need to be policed, while other populations do not. This pattern of policing is a violent imposition on Black and Latinx communities. Jayson Negron, Mubarak Soulemane and Anthony Jose Chulo Vega Cruz are just a few victims of this imposition.

Organizers calls to defund the police are a recognition of this racist and ineffective pattern of policing. If we want to build strong, healthy communities, we need to invest in the root causes of harm like lack of housing, unaffordable healthcare, low wages, unemployment, poor public transportation, low-quality education, unaddressed mental illness, generational trauma and embedded cultural norms.

Defunding and abolishing the police is not rooted in a desire to sow chaos or leave our communities vulnerable to violence, as so many detractors claim. We want to invest in fostering community, building accountability and preventing harm before it occurs. As the abolitionist scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore says: Abolition is about presence, not absence. Its about building life-affirming institutions.

Harry Zehner is a writer, student, researcher and organizer in New Haven.

CTViewpoints welcomes rebuttal or opposing views to this and all its commentaries. Read our guidelines andsubmit your commentary here.

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Defunding the police is a logical way to reduce harm - The CT Mirror

By various methods, the police came to believe that CyberBunker was the biggest hoster of illegal Web sites in Germany, and perhaps anywhere in the world. In 2014, it hosted Cannabis Road, the dark-Web marketplace. Between March, 2016, and February, 2018, it hosted the forum Fraudsters, through which counterfeit money, fake I.D.s, and prescription and illicit drugs were traded. Between 2015 and 2018, CyberBunker hosted Flugsvamp, a dark-Web market that accounted for roughly ninety per cent of the online illicit drug trade in Sweden. Xennts most significant dark-Web client was a site called Wall Street Market. Between 2016 and 2019, it sold more than thirty-six million euros worth of drugs. The sites administrators took a commission of three per cent on each transaction.

While the Mainz cybercrime unit was building its case against Xennt, a separate international investigationled by federal police in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlandstargeted Wall Street Market. Jrg Angerer, the Koblenz prosecutor, told me it was vital that the prosecution of Wall Street Market proceed before the German police moved against CyberBunker. There is a chain, Angerer said. The hosters are facilitating the real criminals.... But first you have to process the real criminals.

In April, 2019, the police arrested three German men accused of being Wall Street Markets administrators. On the dark Web, the defendants were known by pseudonyms: Tibo Lousee was coder420; Jonathan Kalla was Kronos; Klaus-Martin Frost was TheOne. Led by officers from Germanys federal cybercrime unit, which is based in Frankfurt, the police in the three countries worked together to decipher the identities of the administrators, through undercover chats and through clues left by the men online. In a complaint filed in the Central District of California, the three principals were charged not only with running the site but also with planning an exit scam, in which they intended to abscond with some eleven million dollars being held in users accounts. All three men are awaiting trial.

A week after Wall Street Market was broken up and its leaders arrested, several officers from the B.K.A., Germanys federal police force, arrived at the Traben-Trarbach bunker to seize evidence relating to the case. A manager at the bunker expressed surprise and readily complied, escorting the officers to the server bank on the third floor. The officers took away the servers used by Wall Street Market, and left the rest.

After Wall Street Market was taken down, Angerer fixed CyberBunker itself in his sights.

On September 26, 2019, everybody at the bunker complexnine people, including Xennt, his sons, and his girlfriend, Jacquelinewent out for an early dinner at the Historic Mill, leaving the bunker unguarded. It was unusual for all the residents to be gone at the same time, but Xennts gardener, Harry, had unexpectedly come into an inheritance, and wanted to celebrate. The leader of the Mainz cybercrime team told me his unit had gathered intelligence that made them pretty, pretty sure nobody would be in the bunker during the meal.

At the Historic Mill, antiquated cooking utensils and old guitars hang on the walls. Through a glass panel on the floor, diners can look at the stream that once powered the old mill. Xennts group had booked a private area on the mezzanine. It was a Thursday evening at the end of the summer season, and the main dining room, on the ground floor, was nearly full. At around 6 P.M., as the members of Xennts party were starting to eat, several patrons on the ground floor revealed themselves to be armed undercover police officers. The officers went upstairs to arrest Xennt and the others. Several armed units of police massed outside the front door. A helicopter buzzed nearby. A Belgian tourist was almost caught up in the arrest when he tried to visit the bathroom on the mezzanine just before Xennt was placed in handcuffs.

A few minutes later, about a hundred police officersincluding a contingent from Germanys federal paramilitary police unitraided the bunker. They seized four hundred and twelve hard drives, four hundred and three servers, sixty-five USB sticks, sixty-one laptops and computers, fifty-seven phones, piles of paper documents, and about a hundred thousand euros in cash. Some six hundred and fifty officers were involved in the arrests and the raid.

At a press conference the next day, German authorities were jubilant. Jrgen Brauer, the chief prosecutor, declared that it was the first time in German history that arrests were not directed against the operators of marketplaces but against those who make the crime possible. CyberBunker was a haven for the worlds worst dark-Web sites, established to help its clients exclusively for illegal purposes. Moreover, its operators were connected to people involved in organized crime. (Brauer didnt name the Penguinwhose current location remains unknownbut he was clearly in his thoughts.) Xennt had been arrested, alongside his two sons, Jacqueline, two Germans, and a Bulgarian. Six other suspects remained at large.

The prosecutors reported that, in November, 2016, the bunker had also provided the command-and-control servers for an attack against Deutsche Telekom, one of Germanys largest communications companies. The attack had deployed a new weapon called a Mirai-botnet, which harnesses smart appliances and other wireless devices. An attempt to capture the companys routers failed but caused the network to crash. More than a million Deutsche Telekom customers lost their Internet connection in the attack, costing the company at least two million euros. The incident occurred only a few weeks after an even larger Mirai-botnet attack in Europe and the United States, which disabled Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter, among other sites. Brauer, the prosecutor, said that the people from CyberBunker who had been arrested were accused of hundreds of thousands of offenses, ranging from drugs, counterfeit money, and forged documents to being accessories to the distribution of child pornography.

Sven Kamphuis, the Prince of CyberBunker, was not arrested in the raids of September 26th; nor is he one of the six suspects still at large. After the raid, he claimed that the German police had engaged in an act of waryet he had survived with barely a scratch. The police arrested almost everybody with a connection to the bunker. Given the comprehensiveness of the investigation, the prosecutors lack of interest in Kamphuis seemed strange.

Xennt insisted to me that Kamphuis was not involved in the data center in Germany. But Kamphuis told me that he had engineered much of the Traben-Trarbach bunkers infrastructure, and, according to several people, he had also been important in developing the encrypted-phone business for Xennt. Even if Kamphuiss work was not technically illegal, he was deeply knowledgeable about an organization that the German state believed to be criminal. When details of an indictment were published, in April, the mystery of Kamphuiss treatment deepened. In the document, prosecutors noted that a search engine had been hosted on the Traben-Trarbach servers: cb3rob.net/darknet. It listed more than sixty-five hundred dark-Web sites, including marketplaces for narcotics, weapons, counterfeit money, murder orders, and child pornography. I recalled that CB3ROB is Kamphuiss online handle.

When I asked Patrick Fata, a senior police officer who oversaw the CyberBunker investigation, why Kamphuis was not accused in the case, he said that Kamphuiss role in the organization had diminished since 2014, and that the police did not have enough evidence to link him to the administration of Wall Street Market or other illegal sites. I asked Fata if the police had spoken to Kamphuis during the exhaustive six-year investigation. No, Fata said, adding, We dont know where he is.

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The Cold War Bunker That Became Home to a Dark-Web Empire - The New Yorker

For decades, the war on drugs has blistered American lives, leaving a legacy of denigration and disaster.

Often, we manage to adapt and absorb the pain it leaves behind while working to dismantle unjust laws and institutions, comforting ourselves and others who are disturbed by the very same issues. Other times the harm becomes so great it creates a wound that stops us in our tracks. One such moment occurred with the killing of Breonna Taylor earlier this year in Louisville, Kentucky.

At 26 years old, Breonna Taylor had already figured out how she could lift her community and those around her. As an emergency medical technician, she dedicated her time and life to others safety and well-being.

Her life was cut short just before 1:00 am on March 13, when three other public servants, Officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson, and Myles Cosgrove, executed a no-knock warrant and fired more than 20 rounds into her home. Eight of those bullets struck her body, and no medical assistance was provided by the police officers who so jarringly awoke her and her boyfriend that night.

And while her death occurred over 100 days ago, the wound remains fresh today because she continues to receive no justice. The men who killed her walk free, and two maintain their jobs as police officers even after they displayed such disregard for the loss of an innocent.

But this is how the war on drugs works, and how it will continue to work until the United States deems otherwise. As we fight and wait for that day, Breonna Taylors death forces us to stop and face the hard truth. It is not just about the war on drugs as a strategy, but also about its tactics, and the people who suffer due to its enforcers carelessness and brutality.

The Louisville Police investigation that lead to Taylors death centered around two men suspected of selling drugs roughly 10 miles away from her home. Breonnas address was included in the investigation under suspicion that her ex-boyfriend received drugs and stored cash there.

The warrant was a so-called no-knock warrant, which gave police permission to enter Taylors apartment without warning and without identifying themselves as police.

In the middle of the night, Taylor and her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were awoken by a loud banging at the door. The police officers claim they identified themselves as law enforcement though Walker said he heard no such identifying claim. He only knew, he later said, that someone was breaking down the front door in the dark of night.

Defending himself, Taylor, and their home, Walker fired his legally licensed firearm, invoking protection from Kentuckys castle doctrine and stand your ground law. These measures mean a person who uses a gun in self-defenseagainst, say, midnight intruders breaking into their homeis not liable for criminal or civil charges.

The shot fired by Walker struck one of the unannounced men in the leg, and the police fired back, striking Breonna Taylor in the hallway of the home. Taylor was killed, and Walker was unhurt but arrested. Even after the gunfire, he appeared unaware that the men firing at him and his girlfriend were police officers. He had the presence of mind to call 911 and tell a dispatcher that somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.

The police found no drugs in Breonna Taylors apartment. And though Walker was initially charged with the attempted murder of a police officer, prosecutors later dropped the charge. As it turns out, the suspect, Breonnas ex-boyfriend, was already in custody when the officers executed the warrant.

Without any previous drug convictions or related incidents on Taylor or Walkers records, this warrant and its mishandling were both aggressive and unprofessional. The Louisville Metro Chief of Police has since stated publicly that no-knock warrants are usually executed by SWAT, making the events of March 13 seem more askew. Since the fatal night that Taylor died, the Louisville city council has banned the use of no-knock warrants with a new ordinance called Breonnas Law. And while this regional progress is meaningful, there is much to do to realize it on a national scale.

With more than $1 trillion spent on classist and racist tactics like these since 1971, no-knock warrants are just one tactic in an overflowing toolkit used to carry out the war on drugs.

Additionally, Breonnas family has filed a lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police, claiming that the pressure to raid her home was compounded (or even originated) from gentrification efforts in west Louisville, alleging a Place-Based Investigations team was targeting Taylors neighborhood. While it has yet to be proven by the court of law, what is true is that gentrification continues to be a powerful weapon in the war on drugs.

The police report of the incident isnt merely sparse and lacking detailit contains outright fabrications. It lists Breonna Taylors injuries as none. The report claims police used no force to enter the apartment, when in fact, they used a battering ram to break open the door. The discrepancies arent mistakes, but intentional erasure of the facts.

Knowing what we do, we must take it as evidence that Breonnas death wasnt just coincidental, but an example of systemic racism.

(AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

The officers who killed Breonna Taylor have faced almost no consequences for their reckless actions. After a long public outcry, Louisville officer Brett Hankinson was fired from the department effective June 23, 2020. Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove remain on the job. None of the three have been arrested or charged for killing an innocent woman while she slept.

But this is how the war on drugs works: Accuse, arrest, kill, and cover up. Excuse it all by tarnishing the victims as drug dealerseven dedicated public servants like Breonna Taylor.

The war on drugs rests in part on the widespread assumption that police are telling the truth, but case after case after case, we can see thats simply not true. They are assuming guilt before innocence, delivering punishment before protection, and ruining lives. In the case of Breonna Taylor, thelies and the behavior are too blatant to ignore or explain away.

The United States has complex problems layered with systemic racism, mishandling of funds, sexism, and injustice. Breonna Taylors case is just one example of many. The war on drugs is one of many strategies used to enforce antiquated laws and make space for police brutality. But its important to not gloss over her murder just because shes not alone.

There are so many more names and storiesGeorge Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brownand each one has a story as compelling as Breonna Taylors. She paid the ultimate price for doing nothing more than sleeping in her home in the middle of a pandemic between shifts as a public servant, saving lives.

(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

What can you do to help? Plenty. Work to change unjust drug laws, of course. But there are several other actions you can take to bring more visibilityand perhaps justiceto Breonna Taylors case, including:

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How the war on drugs killed Breonna Taylor - Leafly

The claim making the rounds was false: That Barack Obama, elected in 2008 as Americas first Black president, had not in fact been born in the United States.

That didnt stop the smear from gaining traction, in an effort fueled by people including hard-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars and by future president Donald Trump himself, who fanned the birther flames in 2011 as he advanced in the political arena.

According to Trumps longtime associate Roger Stone, it was an effective strategy: Trump understands among Republicans theres a very substantial majority who have questions about Obamas origins and how he just pops up out of nowhere to become a national figure and whether he was, in fact, eligible to serve as president, Stone told FRONTLINE in 2016.

Jones, Stone and Trump have all vigorously denied allegations of racism, with Jones saying he has protested against the KKK; Trump saying, I dont have a racist bone in my body!; and Stone pointing among other things to his opposition of the racist war on drugs.

But the success of the false theory embraced by Jones and Trump has been found to be correlated to racial grievance. One academic study found that among white Americans, birther beliefs are uniquely associated with racial animus; another indicated that belief in birtherism is a function of both partisanship and racial resentment.

Experts FRONTLINE spoke with echoed that assessment.

In birtherism, what you see is a group of Americans who resent the fact that there is an African American president in the White House, reporter Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour says in the FRONTLINE documentary United States of Conspiracy. And Alex Jones and all sorts of other people hand them this excuse that its, well, he wasnt born in this country, this is really all a lie, and he is actually not who he says he is.

Anna Merlan, a journalist who has covered conspiracy theories and misinformation for years, is blunt. The conspiracy caught fire because people were uncomfortable with the idea of a Black president, and they were eager to believe any number of racist smears against him, says the author of Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power. I mean just plainly, it was racism.

Birtherism would not be the first or last time conspiracy theorists like Jones whether wittingly or not tapped into aspects of race or racism to further their message. Described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as almost certainly the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America, Jones has at times stoked fears about racial conflict and the spread of Islam while making his primary argument that global elites are part of a secret conspiracy that controls the world. Jones has also made false claims about the LGBTQ community.

Additionally, critics say Jones has fanned anti-Semitic flames as part of his conspiratorial worldview. He has tapped into stereotypes about Jewish people, though he denies that he is an anti-Semite. The term globalist, heard often on his programs, has complex roots and has been described in some use cases as an anti-Semitic dog whistle.

Hes been able to mobilize people based on their fears. And based on for some, for many their ignorance, says Christina Greer, author of Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream.

Sometimes, Jones has been forced to apologize. Thats what happened as part of a settlement after he published a video that falsely said the yogurt maker Chobani, which makes a point of employing refugees, had been caught importing migrant rapists. But Jones claims have found an audience.

I think that Alex Jones is able to tap in to some real deep, dark fears that white Americans explicitly have about the future of their country, whos in it, whos controlling it, and their placement in it, Greer says.

In the aftermath of George Floyds killing, Jones and InfoWars have pushed conspiratorial narratives warning that Black people are violently targeting white people. Another InfoWars host, Owen Shroyer, described the Floyd circus as a total hoax of police brutality, and then riots and protests, and then an empty casket. Jones has denied that he is racist. He also claims that the media, leftists and Black Lives Matter are stoking racial tensions as part of a George Soros-funded plot to control humanity.

On his July 13 show, he said, I dont sit here and say that I care about brown people, Black people, pink people, polka-dotted people, speckled people humans because Im some virtue signaler. I genuinely want to see humanity work together. I genuinely want to see us all use our skills together to go to the stars and beyond. I hate watching the really Satanic, pedophile Satanists at the top play us off against each other, and Im really tired of it.

In the same episode, Jones claimed that when he was younger, he got in over 100 fights with Black people, and almost every time, they initiated it, and said that, I guarantee you, theres no Black people out there that have ever had 100 white people start fights with them.

The conspiratorial worldview promoted by Jones has served as a gateway drug and an entry point for the radicalization of white supremacists, Reveal reported in 2018. Thats in part because seeing the whole world as a massive conspiracy is a foundational part of the white nationalist mindset, Reveals Aaron Sankin and Will Carless wrote. The story Jones tells his audience about the world and their place in it requires an oppositional other and, often, that other is defined by racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,they wrote.

In an interview conducted with FRONTLINE during the making of United States of Conspiracy, a former InfoWars staffer spoke out about his experience working with Jones. Josh Owens, a former InfoWars video editor, says he was sent by the host to report on a community of Muslims in the U.S. that Jones believed was training extremists and that when Owens found nothing sinister, he felt pressured to post a false story anyway.

We posted headlines that were made up, that Sharia law was in America, that this was a training camp, that these people were extremists, Owens said. And none of it was true; it was all fabricated, it was all made up it was built on a foundation of Islamophobia.

Calling it wrong and reprehensible, Owens said that experience was part of what spurred him to eventually leave InfoWars. I will probably carry that guilt with me the rest of my life. So there is no excuse for it. And Jones is not to blame for that entirely; Im also to blame because I was the one there doing it.

Conspiracy theories have long existed. They help disenfranchised ordinary people talk about systems of power that exclude them, Anna Merlan says. But as the FRONTLINE documentary United States of Conspiracy explores, conspiracy theorist thought made fresh inroads into the American political mainstream when Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative, began appearing on Jones show and when he brokered an appearance by then-candidate Donald Trump.

Earlier this month, Stone himself came under fire for appearing to dismissively refer to a Black radio show host who was pressing him on President Trumps commutation of his prison sentence as a Negro with whom he didnt feel like arguing. Though it was heard live, Stone denied making the remark, said there had been technical audio difficulties, and said in a statement that any person who knows him knows I despise racism! He has used the term in connection with insults of other Black figures in the past, for which he has apologized.

As conspiracy theories some reflecting bigotry have spread, the internet and social media have helped to fan the flames.

We all know of conspiracy theorists from the days before Twitter or Facebook. And those people were sort of isolated and shunned, and everybody felt like they had their number, Elizabeth Williamson ofThe New York Times tells FRONTLINE. But with social media and the internet, they find each other. And they push that message to millions of people.

Though Jones and InfoWars have been banned from platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, he has still successfully harnessed the internets power to unite people who have a shared anti-elite ideology that sometimes intersects with and thrives on bigotry.

The interesting thing about the Internet is that it builds community for good or for ill, Greer says. And so, you can find support groups if youve been through a tragic situation. You can also find people who feed in to your negativity or your fears or your bigotry. You can become radicalized because you can find a community who can groom you in a lot of ways to sit in your feelings where you believe that they are correct and that they are okay. And so, thats what Alex Jones has been able to do.

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How Conspiracy Theorists Have Tapped Into Race and Racism to Further Their Message - FRONTLINE

Berkshire Roots has opened for recreational marijuana sales in East Boston, becoming the citys second adult-use store and the first in the neighborhood.

Located at 253 Meridian St., Berkshire Roots is currently offering online orders and in-store pickup service. Customers are asked to look at the online menu and schedule a pickup time, the company wrote in a news release. The store is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Opening during the coronavirus pandemic, Berkshire Roots said a face covering or mask is required to enter the shop. Social distancing guidelines are in place inside the location and on the sidewalk, and the store is adhering to cleaning protocols required by the state, the news release said.

Berkshire Roots is headquartered in Pittsfield with a retail store and cultivation facility. There, Berkshire Roots produces branded products including flower, edibles, topicals, tinctures, capsules, concentrates and vape cartridges. The company also works with Massachusetts wholesale partners.

Our goal is to bring the Berkshires to Boston by replicating the warmth of our dispensary, providing best-in-class training to our retail team and delivering our unique Berkshires inspired products, Berkshire Roots CEO James Winokur said. The store is ready, we have great neighbors and its really a special place in Boston given the mix of cultures, language and history. We have a heavy emphasis on hiring from East Boston and surrounding neighborhoods and bringing in products that will fit our East Boston patrons needs and palette.

In March, Bostons first retail marijuana store opened. Pure Oasis, an applicant in the states economic empowerment program aimed to benefit people and communities disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs, on Blue Hill Avenue in the Grove Hall part of Dorchester.

Berkshire Roots opened in Pittsfield in April 2019, the second store to open in Pittsfield following Temescal Wellness.

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Berkshire Roots opens as Bostons second recreational marijuana shop - MassLive.com

Netflix's The Business of Drugs explores narcotics trafficking, but doesn't fully address America's war on drugs. Here's what is missing.

Hosted by Amaryllis Fox, Netflix documentaryThe Business of Drugsoffers valuable insight about worldwide narcotics trafficking, but doesn't fully succeed indeconstructing America's war on drugs. To be fair, thedocuseries aims high by investigating the bigger picture, and how certain regions of the world are affected by modern drug production and distribution, but the downside is that many Netflix streamers, certainly in the United States, may looking for a proper breakdown of how the business of drugs specifically affects their community or region.

As a whole, The Business of Drugscovers the essentials and plenty more. Fox begins with a report about cocaine, a drug that can be easily correlated to pop culture figures, however The Business of Drugssubsequently strays from familiar talking points in favor of commentaries aboutlow-level workers who are far removed from big money exchanges. Many of Fox's intervieweesare merely pawns in a dirty game that's controlled by the big-time dealers. At its heart, The Business of Drugs on Netflix is mostly about regular, everyday people whoeither contribute to the modern drug trade or realize that it's best to stay under-the-radar. When Fox does meet up with influential figures, she doesn't hold back. And therein lies the value of watching The Business of Drugs, as the host - a former CIA agent -knows her stuff.

Related:The Business of Drugs: Why Amaryllis Fox Is The Perfect Host

The Business of Drugs on Netflix features six episodes about cocaine, synthetics, heroin, meth, cannabis, and opioids. Each standalone episode includes fascinating insight from Fox, along with insider information from people who truly understand how drug production and distribution has changed in recent years, and how the dark web affects business in America and beyond.If there's a critique to be made, it's that a world of streamers may want aclear A-B-Cnarrative rather than six episodes that continuously shift to different locations. Overall, theNetflixdocumentary effectively shows how everything connects across the globe. Buthere's whatmany streamers may be curious about.

The Business of Drugs may not necessarily be about the United States'decades-long war against narcotics, but many Netflix streamers will indeed correlate the term "war on drugs" with American culture, whether it's Ronald Reagan's presidency during the '80s or the rise of cocaine distribution in Los Angeles. The first episode features an interview with a Compton, California cocaine dealer, who offers a Drug Distribution 101 commentary about pyramid structures. The second episode about synthetics references the bizarre K2 "Zombie Outbreak" in Brooklyn, and the MDMA episode acknowledges an American counterculture that's mostly associated with California. What's missing, it seems, is a proper investigation about what transpiresbetween coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles.

To its credit, The Business of Drugs doesn't point out that Amaryllis Fox is the inspiration for a new Apple TV+ series starring Brie Larson. The Netflix docuseries also doesn't acknowledge that Fox is married to Robert Kennedy III, the grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy, the 64th Attorney General of the United States.Such information could easily distract viewers from the central message, and could affect one's perception of the host, in one way or another. The fact remains that Fox is an accomplishedCIA veteran, a woman who was inspired to investigate terrorism after the 9/11 attacks on America. Fox's commentariesare sharp and blunt,but the Netflix documentarywould've benefitted more with extra emphasis on the host's credentials.

The Business of Drugson Netflix features a revelatory sequence about coca production in Colombia, and how the port town of Buenaventura is so crucial to international distribution. There's also a segment about low-level coco producers who understand their place in the overall infrastructure, and know that they need to accept their bosses' price levels (which seeminglyhaven't changed for decades). The Business of Drugs' first episode even includes a sharp comparison between the modern cocaine "monopsy" (Mexican cartels) and Walmart. What the docuseries lacks, however, is a commentary about COVID-19and how the Coronavirus has affected the business of drugsin 2020. But isn't that that a fascinating premise for The Business of Drugs season 2 on Netflix?

More:Athlete A True Story: What Netflix's Documentary Leaves Out

Batwoman Season 2 Won't Recast Ruby Rose, Replacing With New Character

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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Business Of Drugs: What The Netflix Documentary Leaves Out - Screen Rant

Mr. President, you could make a difference here. What if you stood on the steps of Johns Hopkins Hospital and declared that anyone who needs drug treatment or mental health care in the United States should have it? What if you went back to Fort McHenry, not for a Memorial Day photo op, but to announce a war on systemic racism? What if you simply sat down with Baltimores mayor and its police commissioner and explored ways federal resources could be used to reduce homicide, not with storm troopers but by attacking the underlying social problems, including the failed war on drugs, that feed the body count? What if you walked the streets of West Baltimore and acknowledged that yes, Black lives matter and always have? Americans would surely take notice.

Excerpt from:

The year after the rat: How Trump could still help Baltimore and himself | COMMENTARY - Baltimore Sun

MOVIE REVIEW

MOST WANTED

Rated R. Streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Google Play.

Grade: A

A true crime saga of yesteryear that remains eternally relevant, Most Wanted recounts a complex caper that spans nations and involves law enforcement, grifters, crusading journalists and a sap, a Canadian drug addict railroaded into a Thai prison for 100 years.

With echoes of Midnight Express, the drug smuggling classic of the 70s that put gullible Westerners in Third World nightmares, Most Wanted is far more sophisticated.

It doesnt romanticize its sweet but dim (very dim) junkie Daniel (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) and sees him, rightfully, as a pawn of just about everyone he meets.

Out of prison and homeless, Daniel is happy to find work on a yacht. Picker (Jim Gaffigan, just terrifically sleazy) is also a druggie, inveterate liar and supreme hustler who cons Canadian undercover cops into believing hes connected to Thailands international drug trade.

Sure, hes transparently, comically devious but not to the Canadian Security Intelligence Services undercover cops, led by Stephen McHatties Frank Cooper, who have no qualms giving him thousands of dollars for information and, crucially, a drug kingpin whom they can nail for importing kilos of Thai heroin.

Thats where dim Daniel is so useful.

Writer-director Daniel Roby has such a terrific eye for faces and an incisive way of photographing his large cast, that the story with its many facets could unfold silently, for these pictures really do tell the story.

Roby uses Gaffigans hairy bulk like a bulldozer that seethes and steams over every obstacle, whether its Cooper the cop whose pinched features suggest his bloods been sucked dry by Dracula or the very pale, frequently half-naked Daniel, who is continually seen as a figure ready to be lain on an altar and sacrificed.

This is a notorious if terribly familiar look at corrupt, lawless police, entrapment, intimidation. And a couple of good guys.

They are led by Toronto investigative journalist Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett), who really did pursue a story no one cared about, even though it was an innocent Canadian citizen jailed for life and a patsy for a coverup by law enforcement.

Hartnett, strikingly tall, lean and fearless as Malarek, conveys the bitter realities of a diminished press with diminished resources.

This being 1989, the war on drugs meant headlines and lots and lots of money for drug buys and information. And virtually no progress with the war.

Pilon, a ringer for Caleb Landry Jones of The Outpost, almost makes us forgive Daniels frequent and continued stupidity. In reality, Daniel was Alain Olivier. As the films postscript makes clear, for the crooks and slimebags involved, justice was hardly served, mostly evaded.

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Most Wanted an arresting true crime tale of drug smugglers - Boston Herald

Calling it punitive and backwards, advocates want the B.C. government to rescind proposed legislation that would allow youth to be held in hospital against their will after a drug overdose.

The B.C. Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions has announced it is putting Bill 22 to amend the Mental Health Act on hold.

But critics want it nixed entirely.

If passed, Bill 22 would change the Mental Health Act to allow medical staff to involuntarily detain youth in hospital for up to a week to stabilize them, to allow time to contact family, and to create a plan for treatment.

Its reprehensible, said Hawkfeather Peterson, president BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors.

The amendment robs youth using illicit drugs the right to make decisions about their own treatment or care, Peterson said at a press conference Monday.

When policies completely dehumanize marginalized populations it makes a statement, Peterson said.

All you're doing is creating greater barriers to access and care, they said. Making it so that overdose prevention is further away and less accessible to people that are already deemed at great risk of death and dying.

Youth using drugs are already suffering from trauma, and enforced care will cause more harm and only frighten them from seeking health supports, Peterson said.

And as far as I am concerned our government has proclaimed youth do not deserve the same rights and protections as others.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy has drawn fire since announcing the prosed changes June 23, with critics citing lack of consultation, increased and adverse harms to the health of youth using drugs, along with the violation of their rights.

On Monday, Jennifer Charlesworth, B.C. Representative for Children and Youth, also expressed concern around resorting to coercive health care on youth to address the opioid overdose emergency in B.C.

The ministry proposed the amendment as one way to deal with the dramatic spike in illicit drug overdose deaths that have occurred during the pandemic.

June was B.C.s deadliest month on record for overdose fatalities. A total of 175 people died, the latest toll in the declared public health emergency now entering its fifth year.

The province should provide more comprehensive and wrap-around services to youth using drugs and their families, particularly in their communities, Charlesworth said.

I can appreciate that the Ministry of Mental Health is endeavoring to find ways to meet the needs of young people with significant substance use disorder, Charlesworth said. But youth need to have some sense of control over their lives, including making decisions around substance use and their own treatment, she said.

My perspective is that the focus needs to be on developing a robust array of voluntary services and supports, said Charlesworth, citing significant gaps in service and long wait lists for existing programs.

But we dont have an adequate voluntary system of (treatment for) substance use.

Stabilizing youth with substance use disorders in hospital involuntarily without having enough harm reduction, treatment or recovery programs in place for them and their loved ones when they were released is futile, Charlesworth said.

Stabilization for what? Charlesworth said. If we really want to make a difference, we need to make sure we have the supports in place.

As well, the ministry was criticized Monday for not consulting the groups most likely to be affected by the bill.

Kukpi7 Judy Wilson of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said the proposed legislation was an example of the systemic and historical oppression of First Nations people.

What Bill 22 will do is put them in a punitive type system, where many of our Indigenous people have already experienced institutionalization, stemming from the forced genocide from residential schools, Wilson said.

It isnt a reform, its a step backwards. So, the message to the province is there are no amendments that would make this bill salvageable.

There's a need for huge investment in detox and treatment, she said, adding they should be developed in consultation with Indigenous people, culturally safe and take place in communities where people live.

Kali Sedgemore, a youth outreach worker and harm reduction advocate, said nobody had consulted young drug users, the very people impacted by the proposed policy.

They should have consulted with people especially with youth like us, said Sedgemore, a member of 'Namgis First Nation with lived experience around substance use.

Youth can be experts on what is going to affect them, Sedgemore said, adding health authorities werent necessarily going to represent youth perspectives.

A premise of the proposed legislation is that there are loving family members and adequate supports waiting for a youth that has been detained in hospital, Sedgemore said. But thats not the case for many youths, both Indigenous or not, who are in care and dont a have support systems to rely on, Sedgemore said.

Its sad, Sedgemore said. But we need to recognize youth in care would be greatly impacted (by the legislation) so you dont go to a loving home or afterwards or anything like that.

Due to a backlog of bills, the ministry wasnt able to get Bill 22 through before the end of the legislative session, Darcy stated in an email to National Observer Monday.

The delay allows the ministry to do more consultation, Darcy wrote.

This is a challenging topic and this does give us a chance to pause, Darcy said.

Well take this time to talk to more people about the work that we were already thinking about doing with our partners on safeguards in regulation to protect young peoples rights.

The Bill 22 proposal was based on a pilot program running at BC Childrens Hospital and with advice of doctors who specialize in treating young people struggling with severe problematic substance use, the ministry said.

Additionally, the ministry worked with the First Nations Health Council, First Nations Health Authority, Mtis Nation BC, First Nations Health Directors Association and the Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society to develop the amendments.

This is just one piece of the work were doing. Our primary focus has always been building the voluntary system of care, Darcy said.

The minister noted the province has established 19 Foundry youth centres, as well as building two new and upgrading six existing First Nations-run treatment centres, along with other measures.

These have been challenging discussions, but we all have the same goal of protecting young people and ensuring they get trauma-informed, culturally safe care.

Rochelle Baker/Local Journalism Initiative/Canada's National Observer

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Youth who overdose on drugs need to be helped, not detained, advocates say - National Observer

Tengku Chanela Jamidah, a descendant of the Pahang royal family, moved to the U.S. from Malaysia about two years ago.

Shortly after her arrival, while in a deep meditative state, she had a vision of herself making music with crystal bowls, Tengku Chanela told the South China Morning Post earlier this week. That vision changed her life.

I knew the universe was sending me a sign, she said. That being the case, the former fashion and beauty brand entrepreneur and mother of two ditched the fashion world for health and wellness instead. Tengku Chanela now operates two studios in Las Vegas and Los Angeles that focus on sound healing and meditation.

It was her own experience with CBD, she said, that made the decision easy to make. In 2018, I started taking CBD oil for anxiety, insomnia and chronic pain. It was mind-blowing. The diverse use of this plant, coupled with how transformational it was in improving my quality of life, encouraged me to share about it with others, she said.

Tengku Chanela is spreading the message through her social media and her work with the Malaysia Society of Awareness, a non-profit working to destigmatize cannabis. A petition from the group, calling on the government of Malaysia to allow cannabis research, education and medical consumption, is approaching 90,000 signatures.

Currently, Malaysia has some of the harshest cannabis laws in the world. Possession of more than 200 grams can lead to the death penalty, while possession of up to 50 grams could lead to maximum of a decade in prison. That could soon change, though.

Last summer, then Malaysia health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad began speaking about reforming the nations approach to medical cannabis.

Drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrongheaded governmental policies have destroyed many more. I think its obvious that after 40 years of war on drugs, it has not worked. There should be decriminalization of drugs, Dzulkefly said, according to CNBC.

Tengku Chanela, of course, agrees with this stance, at least when it comes to cannabis. Earlier this month, she posted a photo to Instagram, teasing a new CBD tincture, and routinely posts positive messages about the power of plant medicine.

Decriminalization and reclassification should be something we need to prioritize, she wrote in a post last month. Please educate yourself.

As Tengku Chanelas work continues in the U.S., she told the SCMP that she has no pressing plans to return to Malaysia. Not any time soon. It may be a while before I return, if ever.

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This Malaysian princess has ditched her royal roots to become a cannabis and wellness queen - The GrowthOp

Rangel was Black. Buckley was white. Rangel had demonstrated a lifelong commitment to the full equality of Black people. Buckley had repeatedly stood athwart civil-rights advances, yelling Stop! Yet on debate night in 1991, the Democratic representative was the one arguing that the arrest and mass incarceration of Americans caught possessing or selling drugs should continue. And the Reaganite conservative was the one insisting that the human costs of a law and order approach were too steep to bear, citing roughly 800,000 Americans arrested that year.

Lets do what we can for those who are afflicted short of sending them to jail, Buckley said. I want to hear from you whether you want a society based on, say, the Malaysian or the Singapore model in whichand Im not exaggeratingpeople get publicly flogged and they get hanged and they get their fingers chopped off. Is this what you want to do in order to accomplish your aims? he asked Rangel. If not, what is it that you want to do that were not doing already?

Rangel acknowledged that the criminal-justice system has not worked and has not been a deterrent to drug abuse in this country. He added, I still believe that it should be there, because in order to fight this war, you need all of these factors working together. We should not allow people to be able to distribute this poison without fear that maybe they might be arrested and put in jail. In fact, Rangel clarified, if somebody wants to sell drugs to a child, they should fear that they will be arrested and go to jail for the rest of their natural life. Thats what Im talking about when I say fear. Then he suggested that America should tap the generals who won the Gulf War to intensify the War on Drugs. What were missing: to find a take-charge general like Norman Schwarzkopf, like Colin Powell, to coordinate some type of strategy so that America, who has never run away from a battle, will not be running away from this battle, he said. Lets win this war against drugs the same way we won it in the Middle East.

What insights can todays War on Drugs abolitionists take from this story?

First, that in politics and policymaking, neither all good nor all bad things go together. A person might care deeply about racial equality, as Rangel did, yet support a policy that fuels racial disparities. A rival might reject anti-racist politics, even siding with white supremacists on some issues, as Buckley did, while fighting to abandon a ruinous policy that has disproportionately harmed generations of Black people. It is outrageous to live in a society whose laws tolerate sending young people to life in prison because they grew, or distributed, a dozen ounces of marijuana, Buckley wrote to the New York Bar Association in 1995 as part of his ongoing advocacy. I would hope that the good offices of your vital profession would mobilize at least to protest such excesses of wartime zeal, the legal equivalent of a My Lai massacre. And perhaps proceed to recommend the legalization of the sale of most drugs, except to minors. In 1996, National Review joined him, editorializing that the war on drugs has failed, that it is diverting intelligent energy away from how to deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our resources, and that it is encouraging civil, judicial, and penal procedures associated with police states.

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In Praise of Impure Alliances - The Atlantic

The Business of Drugs investigates narcotics trafficking, but doesn't address the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's an update on Myanmar's meth operation.

Now streaming on Netflix, The Business of Drugs investigates worldwide narcotics trafficking, but doesn't address how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global illicit drug industry. According to a new report, Chinese crime syndicates are now thriving because of various sociopolitical factors in 2020. Incidentally,America's war on drugs will soon become even more difficult to manage.

The Business of Drugs doesn't ignore COVID-19, as the Netflix docuseries was produced in various countries before the Coronavirus become a major international problem. Hosted by Amaryllis Fox, the six-part investigation deconstructs the modern production/distribution of cocaine, synthetics, heroin, cannabis, and opioids, and features an episode that's primarily about the mass production of meth pills in Myanmar a country in Southeast Asia that bordersIndia, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand. Fox, a former CIA operative and the daughter of an economist, reveals that she spent part of her childhood in the region, statingSoutheast Asia made me who I am. She explores the mass distributionof "yaba" pills, and tries to make sense of the conflictthrough various interviews. After speaking withthe former Commander in Chief of the Shan State Army South, Yawd Serk, Fox calls him out in the Netflix docuseriesand senses blatant deception.

Related:The Business of Drugs: Why Amaryllis Fox Is The Perfect Host

A May 2020 report by The New York Times reveals thatthe COVID-19 pandemic has made business easier for the Shan State, an insurgent group in Myanmar.Police are now reportedly "busy with other things," according to Tin Maung Thein, the district president of the Myanmar Anti-Narcotics Association. Prices have also dropped, and so even more drugs are being produced and sold a troubling fact that links toThe Business of Drugs reveal that compares Myanmar "yaba"production to McDonald's yearly output of hamburgers. Counternarcotics officials are also concerned aboutthe mass distribution ofmethyl fentanyl, which suggests that Myanmar is becoming a major player in the worldwide business of drugs.

In The Business of Drugs, Foxsuspects the anti-drug campaign she witnesses in Myanmar is a"dog and pony show" that the influential figures are using to deflect public attention from the truth.Drug hauls looks good on camera for government agencies, but the fact remains that a single Myanmar meth lab can produce 10,000 pills per hour, according to Fox's Netflix docuseries. In Southeast Asia, drug production and distribution continue to thrive because of existing social conditions and the wider accessibility of meth and fentanyl, certainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current problem was recently summed up by Jeremy Douglas,the regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Southeast Asia:

Organized crime and drug syndicates look for business environments where theres government dysfunction or limited government control, as well as easy access to the chemicals...Shan State hits every mark.

As for the bigger picture, Douglas believes that the mass production of meth and fentanyl in Myanmar will ultimately translate to the business of drugs in Mexico and America. In fact, it could make the inherent violence of the underworld drug trade even more chaotic and complex if Asian dealers "move in" on their Western counterparts. Douglas states that this new conflict could become "a direct threat to our public health," which will undoubtedly be addressed in the the nextinstallment of The Business of Drugs.

More:What To Expect From The Business of Drugs Season 2

For All Mankind Season 2 Trailer Teases A Gunfight On The Moon

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: How COVID-19 Has Helped The Drug Trade Thrive - Screen Rant

Kodak, once a powerful force in photography, is branching out into pharmaceuticals and the US government plans to give the company a $765 million loan to support its efforts. Kodak will create a new business arm, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, to produce ingredients needed for drug manufacturing.

Kodak Pharmaceuticals will make ingredients that have lapsed into chronic national shortage, and once the unit is fully up and running, it will be able to make up to 25 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals, Kodak estimates. Kodak CEO Jim Continenza expects pharmaceuticals to eventually comprise 30 to 40 percent of Kodaks business, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The $765 million loan is being made available under the Korean War-era Defense Production Act, which the Trump administration has previously used to speed up production of ventilators, masks, and other medical equipment to help fight COVID-19. As part of its pharmaceutical work, Kodak plans to produce ingredients for drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, according to The Wall Street Journal. President Trump has frequently promoted hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, but the drug has been repeatedly proven ineffective as a treatment for the virus.

The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview on ABCs Good Morning America, according to CNBC.

This isnt the first time Kodak has dipped its toes into pharmaceuticals, though it only stayed in the business for a few years the last time around. Kodak bought drug-maker Sterling Drug for approximately $5.1 billion in 1988 before selling it in pieces in 1994.

Correction: We originally wrote that Kodak planned to produce hydroxychloroquine, but it only plans to produce ingredients for drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, according to The Wall Street Journal. We have changed the article text, sub-headline, and social description to reflect this. We regret the error.

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Kodak is branching out into pharmaceuticals with US investment - The Verge

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte made good use of his ability to brand the demons he will exorcise, from drugs to communism to the ABS-CBN Corp. and Maria Ressa. He carved his presidency by constructing and imaging them as bogeys in his political swamp, and crafted his narrative with the mission of draining the swamp of his monsters.

This has been the trademark of his presidency. He made a cottage industry out of Sandra Bullocks movie Our Brand is Crisis and turned it into a political machinery to gain legitimacy and to cement his grip on his loyal political base. He appeared to be in total control. He and his propagandists effectively painted the image of a country in the throes of becoming a narcostate. He unleashed the full force of the state to wage a war on drugs that focused more on the demand side instead of the supply side.

This is actually odd considering that if indeed a narcostate is what we are turning into, then the better strategy would have been to focus on its enablers who are deeply in bed with state agents and not on the petty peddlers and users.

But Duterte was obviously not interested in confronting elite structures of the drug trade. He was after the optics and the drama of a protracted bloody drug war to feed on the fear of his base. After all, images of petty drug criminals being felled in the act of escaping and fighting back, even with handcuffs, would be a better, not to mention easier, fodder for the sustained image of a hero out to clean the streets of grime and filth. It is also a more effective way of striking fear, without risking the wrath of those who can actually retaliate politically.

If one wants to be convinced about the way the President conjures and constructs his enemies, one just needs to look at how he has treated the leftists. It is no secret that he romanced the New Peoples Army (NPA) when he was mayor of Davao. He even raised his fist and was seen onstage with the top echelons of its regional command. He appointed leftists in his Cabinet and in high positions in the government bureaucracy. This was before his romance with them turned sour.

Now, he labels them as terrorists. If one closely analyzes his worldview on terrorism, it is very much slanted toward the leftist rebels and their allies in the political front and in social movements, and not toward agents of terror espousing radicalized political Islam. Contrary to the assurances given by supporters of the Anti-Terrorism Law that political dissent is protected, the Presidents demeanor, in his eagerness to declare the NPA as a terrorist organization, reveals the agenda of branding anti-terrorism as the new face of counter-insurgency. The ease by which cases of sedition were filed against legitimate political dissent drives the fear that even legitimate criticism could lead one to be branded as an enemy of the state.

It is easier for the President to construct a crisis and brand his political enemies because there is a constituency for it. His construction of the image of a creeping narcostate fed on the fears of people about drug-related criminality. His branding of the left and the consequent red-tagging of his critics exploited the fears of people about terrorism. He is now appropriating peoples pent-up anger towards the political and economic elites by imaging his moves against the Lopezes of ABS-CBN as his war against the oligarchs. He capitalized on peoples fears and irrational hatred to prop up his narrative as the slayer of drug criminals, leftist terrorists and corrupt oligarchs.

However, his fight with ABS-CBN, which he does by proxy through his super-majority in the House of Representatives, may reveal the limits of his ability to control the branding of a crisis to his advantage. One can easily stoke peoples fear of drug criminals raping ones daughter, or of NPAs turning our country into a totalitarian regime, or one can feed into their hatred towards the corrupt oligarchs. This is because these are manifestations of the feared or hated other.

However, what happened to ABS-CBN can no longer be easily branded and imaged as Duterte dismantling a hated oligarchic family. People have lost jobs. Many have been denied their comfort and leisure, which ABS-CBN programs have provided them for all these years. Duterte may have made us feel more secure when he went after drug criminals and leftists. But when he went after ABS-CBN, some of us lost our livelihoods, while many have been denied their only free access to sanity and leisure.

But if there is one crisis the President has lost total ability to brand, it is the coronavirus. This invisible enemy has thrown Duterte and his government in total disarray. He resorted to a militarized game plan by appointing retired generals to oversee his war against the virus, thinking that the logic would be the same as fighting petty drug criminals and leftist rebels. Sadly, this led to people being targeted, and even killed, instead of the virus.

Lockdowns were ordered without any consideration of science and common sense. Contact tracing is belatedly intensified and has even entertained the thought of turning ordinary citizens into spies snitching on their neighbors. And who can ignore the idiocy of these unsafe contraptions being required for motorcycle riders that have no consideration for the principles of aerodynamics and of safety?

And cases continue to climb while the economy is on a nosedive. This, as government officials appear confused like when the Health secretary boldly claimed that we have flattened the curve.

If there is one evidence that this virus has eroded the Presidents ability to brand his crisis, it is when his cursing is no longer amusing and people no longer buy his jokes, whether intended or as an excuse.

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A crisis he cannot brand The Manila Times - The Manila Times

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A show with singer Elza Soares and rapper Flvio Renegado marked the birthday celebrations for Marielle Franco, who would have turned 41 on Monday, July 27. The livestreamed concert Elza for Marielle, held on Sunday, July 26, was broadcast on the channel of the Marielle Franco Institute, an organization established by the lawmakers family to fight for justice, grow her legacy, and preserve her memory.

We are leading several campaigns with many black women, because the Institutes focus, beyond wielding Maris name, which is no easy task, is incorporating and inspiring other black women, explained Anielle Franco, the councilwomans sister and executive director of the Marielle Franco Institute. In addition to Anielle, Marielles parents Marinete Silva and Antnio Francisco, her daughter Luyara Franco, and two of her nieces participated in the event.

Who ordered Marielles murder? Today is a day for celebrating the life of this great woman, but this question needs an answer: who ordered the murders of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes? asked Elza Soares, who turned 90 last month. Both on- and offstage, the singer is a powerful voice against racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression. Soares and Renegado sung against gender-based violence and the genocide of black people, themes deeply present in Marielle Francos fight.

It is very sad to see our peoples stories ending so early, so young. Like her, many, so many young people have their lives exterminated before they even begin. Its a very unfair course of events. Because of this, it is necessary for Brazilians to understand that it isnt enough to not be racist. It is extremely important and urgent that we be antiracist, Renegado emphasized.

The show, which had nearly 7,000 people watching at once, was also among the ten most-discussed topics on Brazilian Twitter. In addition to celebrating the councilwomans life, the show raised funds for the Marielle Franco Institutes projects.

If she were alive, Councilwoman Marielle Franco would finish her first term this year. Of the four years that democracy guarantees to elected officials, Marielle and the team that composed her collective mandate worked together for 15 months, a little over a year. With Marielle, black women, people from Rios peripheries, and the LGBTQI+ community made it to the Rio de Janeiro City Council, with the power to propose public policies that directly affected the existence of their bodies and their territories.

A little more than two years after the councilwomans assassination, the Marielle Franco Institute works to plant new seeds. With the launch of the Antiracist Electoral Platform (PANE) this month, the institution began a series of actions to support the candidacies of black women in the next municipal elections, which will be the first following Marielles death. In the 2016 elections, black or brown women made up only 5% of elected councilmembersnationwide. Marielles victory, with the fifth-most votes in the city, brought the only black woman to the current session of City Council.

The seeds planted by Marielle blossomed in the 2018 elections, when three of her former aides were elected to the state legislature, where they are now the only three black women. Throughout Brazil, the number of black candidates, especially women, grew, but it remains a long road to changing the typical profile of a legislator. According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), in the last elections, black men and women made up only 4% of elected candidates across Brazil.

PANE arose with a mission to change the structure of Brazils political system, mobilizing society to pressure political parties and the TSE to adopt policies that guarantee greater equity in elections. The platform aims to promote more black women into positions of power, where they can change the structures that historically have kept away and violated black, peripheral, and LGBTQI+ communities. In doing so, they keep Marielle Francos struggle and memory alive.

Raised in Complexo da Mar in Rios North Zone, the councilwoman fought for the right to life, especially that of black and peripheral youth, as her primary political issue. Marielle began her activism in human rights after enrolling in a community-based college entrance exam preparatory course and losing a friend, victim to a stray bullet during a shootout in Mar. Publicly, she positioned herself against police operations in favelas.

On the day before she was assassinated, in response to the death of yet another young black person at the hands of the police, she asked on Twitter: How many more will need to die for this war to end?

In Brazil, the chances of being a homicide victim are directly related to the color of your skin. Data from the Institute of Public Security show that police killings in the state of Rio reached a new record in 2019. The Inequality Map produced by Casa Fluminense revealed that 81% of the people killed by the state were black. This number goes up to 100% in the cities of Petrpolis, Seropdica, Guapimirim, Cachoeiras de Macacu, and Rio Bonito.

The results of the war on drugs and of increasingly militarized security policies were part of Marielles daily life. During the time she worked as an aide to the State governments Human Rights Commission, alongside Marcelo Freixo, Marielle supported family members of victims of violence, including the relatives of police officers. She criticized the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) program, which was the topic of her masters thesis.

Among the bills she proposed to Rios City Council were proposals to promote and guarantee rights for women, black people, favela residents, and the LGBTQI+ community. In a little over a year, 20 of her bills were presented, some after her assassination.

One of her bills that was approved by the City Council addresses the legalization of the profession of motorcycle taxi drivers, a very common means of transportation in Rios favelas. The text, signed by Marielle and others, became a law in June 2019. The creation of the Womens Dossier of Rio de Janeiro, which facilitates data collection about support given to women who are victims of violence, was also approved. The bill was presented to the Council and approved after Marielles death.

As president of the Commission for the Defense of Womens Rights, the councilwoman presented plans for the expansion of access to legal abortions, nighttime nurseries for working mothers, humanized birth and prevention of maternal mortality, and combatting harassment on public transit, with all of the aforementioned being signed into law. She also presented a bill that would include Lesbian Visibility Day in the citys calendar, a proposal that was rejected.

Marielle believed it was necessary to bring visibility to this topic so that actions could be carried out at the institutional level. In Brazil, between 2015 and 2017, at least 126 women were killed just for being lesbian. This statistic is part of an unprecedented study carried out by the Nucleus of Social Inclusion at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The actual numbers would of course be even higher, however, as there are no specific official records about hate crimes against lesbian or bisexual women in Brazil.

After over two years and four months, Marielle Francos family continues to tirelessly demand that the authorities respond to the crime. The attack against the councilwomans car on March 14, 2018, in the North Zone neighborhood of Estcio, also resulted in the death of driver Anderson Gomes. Since then, family members of the victims, Marielles party, the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), and a wide range of human rights organizations are fighting for the identification of the people who ordered the crime.

As investigations move forward, indications of a possible relation between state agents and organized crime have appeared. As of now, a retired sergeant and a former military police officer have been arrested under suspicion of having fired the shots at the car. In June 2020, a fire-fighter was also arrested, suspected of having participated. However, questions about the motivations of the crime and the identity of who ordered the assassination remain unsolved.

Read more here:

Marielle Franco Would Be Turning 41: Her Struggle Continues and Her Memory Celebrated - RioOnWatch

Charles Dunaway, an American political commentator in Oregon, tells the Tehran Times that Americans have been lied by politicians and media for a long time, so most of them do not trust the media and do not trust their government.

On Iranian tolerance in response to US illegal move in Syria on Thursday night, he notes The world is indeed fortunate that the Iranian government is dominated by clear-headed thinkers who have the patience to wait for the right moment and the right method to punish the US for its belligerence.

Dunaway argues that ongoing protests in the US have this potential to drive serious systemic change in the country and he adds one of the underlying problems that may be giving more impetus to these demonstrations is the complete failure of our political system to respond to the needs of citizens. Elected officials of both political parties listen almost exclusively to their campaign contributors and corporate lobbyists. The issues and concerns of ordinary citizens usually dont get their attention.

The text of the interview with Dunaway is as follows:

Q: Firstly, please let me ask your opinion about the recent US illegal move in Syria. On Thursday night, US warplanes operating illegally in Syria conducted some dangerous maneuvering close to the Mahan Air flight. The Civil Aviation Organization of Iran called it a clear violation of the international law and the aviation standards and regulations. What is your thought?

A: The Trump Administration, its foreign policy led by dangerous neoconservative Christian Zionists like Secretary of State Pompeo and Vice President Pence, continues to take actions in West Asia that are designed to incite Iran to strike out in retaliation. The aerial harassment of the Mahan Air passenger jet is the latest example. One need only considers what action would be taken if an Iran Air Force fighter threatened a US airliner in the same way. We would not have US media describing it as a 'close call', we would have calls for the US to retaliate against this terrorist act, and probably within days, there would be a strike against Iran.

This act of terrorism is designed as a provocation and intended to draw a violent response from the Iranian government that can then be used as a pretext for the all-out war that the US and their Israeli partners in crime have been seeking for years. The world is indeed fortunate that the Iranian government is dominated by clear-headed thinkers who have the patience to wait for the right moment and the right method to punish the US for its belligerence. We can hope that this November will bring a change of leadership to the United States that will reduce tensions in the region rather than continually exacerbate them.

Q: Forgoing any permission from Damascus, the US has been operating in the Arab country since 2014 under the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist group. The US, however, continues its occupation even as Syria defeated the Takfiri terrorists in late 2017. Is US presence in Syria legitimate?

A: As with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, US justification for its illegal invasions shift as each rationale is proven false. The US and NATO did not invade Syria in order to defeat Daesh. It was the US and its allies in the region that funded, supplied, trained, and inserted the Takfiri terrorists into Syria, and on numerous occasions, the US has directly supported Daesh attacks with air power. The illegal intervention by the US in Syria has been and still is designed to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad and replace it with the Takfiri-dominated chaos that it brought to Libya. Weak governments, puppet governments, and failed states all benefit the Zionist project in Palestine.

The continued US military presence in the region is not advancing US national interests and some voices in the US establishment are recognizing this fact. Whether they will be able to gain the political power to bring their ideas to fruition remains to be seen.

Q: Please lets back to our main topic. It seems that the United States is a contradiction. Its founding principles embrace the ideals of freedom and equality, but it is a nation built on the systematic exclusion and suppression of communities of color. From the start, so many of this countrys laws and public policies, which should serve as the scaffolding that guides progress, were instead designed explicitly to prevent people of color from fully participating. What are the reasons behind this?

A: The high sounding words of Thomas Jeffersons Declaration of Independence in 1776 were a valuable tool for enlisting popular support for the revolution. The American Revolution was initiated and carried out by the bourgeois merchant and planter class and they needed the support of ordinary colonists to win against the British. The Constitution of 1789 represented the first effort to establish a strong national government and it was riddled with compromises designed to satisfy the concerns of the slave states. Initially only white men with property could vote and even then there were provisions like the Electoral College and the Senate that made sure that any incipient abolitionist feelings among Northerners would not be able to threaten the chattel slavery of Africans brought to this continent in chains.

Throughout our history, women and people of color have struggled to obtain the same rights and privileges as their white male fellow citizens and with only partial success. A brutal civil war promised to make Black Americans free but within a very few years, the same compromises with the Southern planter aristocracy led to the withdrawal of Union troops from the South and a violent return to quasi-slave conditions in the Jim Crow South. Again in the 1960s, the civil rights movement brought about many improvements in the situation of African Americans, but as the retrograde political forces regained power, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and failure to enforce civil rights laws have left us where we are today.

It is also important to recognize that the United States is a settler-colonial enterprise. All the nations land was stolen from Native Americans and the most brutal genocidal methods were used by white settlers to take what they wanted. When the indigenous people were driven from all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific, the US began imperial wars using the same techniques to invade and occupy the Philippines and Cuba and to steal much of Mexico. It is encouraging that because of the current unrest, more Americans are beginning to understand that part of our history and to see the brutality of other settler-colonial projects such as that of the Zionists in Palestine.

Q: What is important to learn from history of the slavery in the US is the social construction of race, with the main objective of controlling the dominated groups and enforcing distance from them through multiple institutionalized laws and social norms. What is your take on it?

A: Race is a social construction since there are no significant biological differences between people based on their skin color or facial features. Before the rise of the plantation economy in the mid-1600s, Blacks enjoyed many of the same rights as whites and they worked and socialized together. Cheap labor and lots of it was required by the cotton farming that began to be prevalent in the South and when large numbers of African slaves were imported and set to work, it was necessary to justify their subservient position and the theory of racial superiority was developed. The race was also useful in creating an otherwise non-existent differentiation between poor whites and poor Blacks who otherwise might have made common cause against the white elite that oppressed them both.

Racism is still very prevalent, particularly among less affluent whites. It is still used to divide working people from one another. If working people of all races could unite, they might demand better wages, better social provisions from the government, a voice in the management of businesses and government, and an end to wasteful overseas military adventures. That makes racism extremely useful in maintaining corporate capitalism that rules the United States.

Q: The U.S. Constitution proclaims free and equal people, but everyone is aware this designation was not intended for enslaved Africans, but rather for the European settlers and their descendants. Many Blacks support the idea that individuals are not equal if there is a discrepancy in employment, food securitization, good schooling, housing, and healthcare. What do you think?

A: The elements of the Constitution that extend freedom and rights to African Americans are only contained in amendments adopted during and immediately after the Civil War when the Southern states were either not represented or were under federal occupation. The courts largely refused to enforce these amendments for a hundred years and what gains Blacks have made in employment, education, and housing largely came during the 1960s and 1970s. Once Ronald Reagan came to the presidency, those gains began to ebb away from lack of enforcement and lack of funding.

In the United States, there are dramatic inequalities in wealth and income that leave millions of Americans of all races facing food shortages, lack of housing, inadequate health care, poor educational opportunities, and employment, when available, at wages insufficient to support themselves and their families. The right-wing political forces have portrayed programs that would address these inequalities as entitlements primarily for Blacks. Once again, race is used to divide people who should work together. The dog-eat-dog neoliberal capitalism that drives this inequality is supported by both political parties so no matter who Americans vote for, the problem only gets worse.

Q: Protests over the death of George Floyd continue to rage across the US. What do you think about the protests? Do you see any hope for a change of behavior towards African Americans?

A: I am guardedly optimistic about these protests. They are beginning to help white Americans understand that racism is not an individual behavior that we have a personal responsibility to change. It is a systemic problem and unless the system is changed, racism will remain.

I am also encouraged by the fact that the protests have centered on police brutality toward people of color. Police have been heavily militarized in the US, largely as a consequence of our being perpetually at war somewhere in the world. Many police officers are veterans of those wars and bring the techniques they employed on the streets of Kabul or Mosul into their work in Minneapolis or Portland. Excess military equipment has been given to police forces and now routine incidents are handled by squads of heavily armed officers riding in Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles invented to fight IED attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is it any wonder they see citizens (particularly those of color) as the enemy?

It is possible that these protests will last long enough and gain enough momentum to actually drive serious systemic change in the country. Obviously the entire establishment is determined to prevent that and its likely the movement will be co-opted before it can reach that point.

Q: What is Black Lives Matter protesting for? Can the roots of this movement be traced in American history? Are there any similar movements in American history?

A: It is a mistake to see these protests as a unified movement. The primary thrust at this point seems to be ending racist policing and moving toward some kind of law enforcement model that does not require such a high level of violence. The official Black Lives Matter organization is primarily focused on encouraging people to vote for Democratic Party candidates for office. They have been effectively co-opted. The Democratic Party has not been a friend of Black Americans for a long time and few of the candidates they are running this year have a strong track record of support for the Black community.

There is another organization attempting to influence the demonstrations, the Movement for Black Lives. They are calling not only for an end to what they call the war on Black communities but an end to the war on drugs, the death penalty, money bail, and many other radical reforms.

Most of the people currently in the streets probably have no allegiance to either group but are simply showing solidarity with their Black neighbors and friends and supporting their calls for an end to systemic racism and racist policing in particular. One of the underlying problems that may be giving more impetus to these demonstrations is the complete failure of our political system to respond to the needs of citizens. Elected officials of both political parties listen almost exclusively to their campaign contributors and corporate lobbyists. The issues and concerns of ordinary citizens usually dont get their attention. If there is enough unrest and it lasts long enough, the politicians will have to respond in some way other than military repression.

Q: Some experts argue that Black Lives Matter is the largest movement in U.S. history. What do you think?

A: I dont think it is a movement. There are no leaders, no agenda, no goals, no structure. If these materialize then it might well become a movement.

Q: How do you assess the role of mainstream media in the protests? What about Facebook, Twitter, and other social media?

A: US mainstream media are interested in two things - making money and maintaining their access to power. They will continue to highlight violence and property damage in the protests because that gets them more readers and viewers. Only the largest newspapers will do any serious investigative journalism to determine what is going on inside the protests, who is involved and why.

Social media is important in reaching those sympathetic to the protests and helping them gather more people in the streets. Its also useful in conjunction with right-wing media such as Fox News, in marshaling opposition to the protests and using thinly disguised racist tropes to convince their white audience that the protesters are anarchists and criminals.

It must be noted that most Americans do not trust the media and do not trust their government. We have been lied to so often for so long about so many things that any credibility they may have once had is destroyed. That is a large part of the reaction to COVID-19 precautions such as mask-wearing and social distancing.

Original post:

The world is fortunate that Iran is dominated by clear-headed thinkers, says American analyst - Tehran Times

I was a true believer, he says. I was always just appalled that people were going to jail for cannabis, and I knew we were being lied to about the War on Drugs.

Basore worked with local authorities, including police and county prosecutors, to make sure he was doing everything above board. He was relieved when the Obama administration said it wouldnt prosecute marijuana crimes in states where it was legalized.

But marijuana was and remains illegal at the federal level. In late 2010, Basores grow operations were raided by the DEA, state police, and the National Guard. It was actual helicopters and troops, and guys with smoke bombs, he says. All for our 72-plant marijuana grow.

Basore was devastated. His partners, including his future father-in-law and brother-in-law, were also indicted. I spent everything I had fighting it, he says. In 2014, Basore pleaded guilty and was sent to a federal correctional facility in West Virginia.

But he wasnt going to let prison ruin his life. I just looked at it from the day I walked in, that this is either going to affect my life in one of two ways. Its either going to destroy me, or Im going to use it to make myself better and use this intense situation and come out stronger.

He devoted himself to working out and lost 70 pounds, and read classic literature. He also taught himself how to build websites, so hed have a new skill when he got out. He wound up getting released after two-and-a-half years for good behavior.

Prison taught me how to play long games, he says. Real long games.

And when he got out, he knew he wanted to get right back into the cannabis industry.

I just watched so many good people just have their rights absolutely trampled, he says. Watching that happen and just watching what it did to people, including myself and my family it just kind of changed me.

When he got released, Basore was sent to a halfway house in Kalamazoo. One of the things I learned there is what it takes when you get out. It was so hard to get back on my feet. I was lucky to have great friends and family.

Since getting released, Basore has devoted himself entirely to cannabis rights and the cannabis industry, starting his own marketing and consulting company for cannabis clients. In 2018, he worked with both MILegalizes campaign to legalize recreational cannabis use, as well as the campaign for Attorney General Dana Nessel. When voters passed Proposal 1, Basore was elated.

That was like walking into a new world, he says.

Basores world changed even more in 2020, when one of his consulting clients, Gage Cannabis Co., awarded him a $50,000 grant as part of a social equity program to help those harmed by the War on Drugs. The grant allowed Basore to launch Redemption Cannabis, which sends 10 percent of all proceeds to helping others harmed by the War on Drugs, including job skills training programs, prisoner re-entry initiatives, expungement clinics, and more. The companys first product is its Diamonds concentrate, sold in Gage stores.

Inspired by Basores story, a number of stores including Pharmhouse Wellness in Grand Rapids, The Botanical Co. in Tawas, and Om of Medicine in Ann Arbor are offering a 10 percent discount to customers convicted of marijuana-related felonies and a 5 percent discount to those convicted of marijuana-related misdemeanors.

And a lot of these guys and women Ive known for 10 years or more, Basore says. A lot of them are people that helped us legalize, people that have been doing this and been in the trenches with me.

And thats just the beginning. Basore is also working to establish a cannabis consumption lounge in Kalkaska think of it as a coffeehouse for pot, like those in Amsterdam and a new podcast, The Smoking Rope Podcast, where Basore interviews people in Michigans cannabis industry.

I thought 2020 was going to be my year off, he says. But Michigan theres no place I would rather be. Its like my little utopia that weve helped build. I had a little part in helping create what I wanted to see.

Theres still a long way to go. Basore says he will continue to pressure officials like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to expunge all cannabis-related crimes. Hes also glad to see the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality raise more awareness about the War on Drugs.

Selling cannabis legally and criminal justice reform are my two passions, he says. And I get to do both.

You can learn more about Redemption Cannabis at redemptioncanna.com.

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The War on Drugs didnt stop Redemptions Ryan Basore from working in the cannabis industry it only made him more determined - Detroit Metro Times

Sometimes war involves battling other countries. Other times, it is the metaphorical kind, like our current war against the coronavirus.

We see this war reflected in the language that gets used by politicians, policymakers, journalists and healthcare workers. As the invisible enemy rolled in, entire economies halted as populations sheltered in place. We were told to hunker down for the long battle ahead and to support our troops, the health care workers, fighting on the front lines.

These military-inspired metaphors serve a purpose. Unlike the dense linguistic landscape of science and medicine, their messages are clear: Danger. Buckle Down. Cooperate. In fact, studies have shown that sometimes military metaphors can help unite people against a common enemy. They can convey a sense of urgency so that people drop what theyre doing and start paying attention.

However, as someone who has studied the way language influences behavior, I know that this kind of rhetoric can have long-term effects that are less positive, particularly within health and medicine. In fact, research has shown that these metaphors can cause people to make decisions that go against sound medical advice.

A linguistic war footing

Militarized rhetoric was popularized with the War on Drugs, a term coined by President Richard Nixon in an effort to reduce illicit drug use in the U.S. Since then, the language of war has seeped into our collective lexicon. We are currently engaged in a war against climate change. Some argue there is a war on Christmas, while others say theres a war against truth.

So it is only natural that when a new, deadly virus emerges, the warspeak persists.

Military metaphors arent new to medicine; theyve long played a role in shaping patients relationships with illness. Cancer is a key example of this. The cancer is an enemy, invading the patients body. Patients are told they must fight, that they are at war, and they must be strong while they receive treatments that target those enemy cells for destruction.

The fact they are used so often indicates that these metaphors serve a purpose. Theyre simple and straightforward, helping us comprehend and categorize something thats complex and unpredictable.

Why war and medicine dont mesh

But this framing contains a potentially dangerous undercurrent. Language affects cognition, and cognition affects our behaviors. Wartime language has been shown to alter our behavior and not always for the better.

In war, opposing sides are engaged in a struggle. Whoever survives longest and fights hardest wins. Strength and confidence are commended, while fearful behaviors are viewed with contempt. The World War II poster Keep calm and carry on exemplifies this mindset. The underlying message of the so-called War on Terror was to not allow fear to disrupt our lives. There was a major focus on returning to life as normal, and the return to national pastimes, like baseball, was thought to play a huge role in helping the country heal.

These approaches can appear helpful, but in the case of the coronavirus medical advice suggests physical distancing and mask wearing. Unfortunately, this guidance requires disruption. To stay home is to change your routine, to wear a mask is to appear weak and afraid and to avoid everything that makes up our daily routine is to let the enemy win.

Research shows that military metaphors lead to negative behaviors in other health situations. People may become more likely to take risks, over-treat themselves and be less likely to engage in preventive activities. For example, some people may not want to appear afraid of sun exposure, and this can make them less likely to use sunscreen. Others may continue seeking treatments for terminal diseases despite the debilitating side effects because they dont want to be seen as having given up.

The way war metaphors emphasize strength can also stigmatize those who do become sick: Theyre now seen as weak.

The dichotomy of strength versus weakness implies choice, as though those who were infected chose to surrender. In reality, that which makes us appear strong and confident in a war only works in the context of a battle with other humans. It goes without saying that something like a virus or an illicit drug has no grasp of human psychology, so displays of confidence are meaningless.

War loosens our morals and ethics

There is also a more insidious element of war-like metaphors that frame public policy initiatives. During war, the public is generally more open to actions that arent tolerated in peacetime. The construction of Japanese internment camps during World War II and the depiction of immigrants as invaders to lay the groundwork for their indefinite detainment are stark illustrations of this phenomenon.

In the world of research and medicine, war and war metaphors have been shown to contribute to unethical research. The battles against certain diseases have led researchers to violate their ethical responsibility in an effort to win the war for the greater good. For example, in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis experiments researchers justified not treating almost 400 African-American men for syphilis or even telling them they had the disease in order to learn about natural disease progression.

During the pandemic weve seen discussions of health care rationing and the prioritization of some lives over others in a way that would not normally be acceptable. Texas Gov. Dan Patrick openly advocated that older people should volunteer to die to save the economy.

When we describe a virus as an enemy to be defeated, it shifts our perceptions about how to respond to the virus and can cause the public to behave in illogical ways. As states across the U.S. start to reopen, only to find out the virus continues to spread unabated, these military metaphors could be causing more harm than good. It may be time to change the way we talk about the virus.

The rest is here:

Warspeak: Militarized rhetoric about COVID-19 makes everything a battle and turns neighbors into enemies - Milwaukee Independent