When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last January that drug overdoses in 2018 declined by 4.1 percentfrom70,237in 2017 to 67,367in 2018many in the press took that as asign of possible progress in Americas longest war, the war on drugs. However, adeeper look at the data painted avery different picture.

The CDC report stated:

The ageadjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, which include drugs such as fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and tramadol, increased from 0.3 per 100,000 standard population in 1999 to 1.0in 2013, 1.8in 2014, 3.1in 2015, 6.2in 2016, 9.0in 2017, and 9.9in 2018. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving heroin increased from 0.7in 1999 to 1.0in 2010, then increased to 4.9in 2016 and 2017. The rate in 2018 (4.7) was lower than in 2017. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids, which include drugs such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, increased from 1.0in 1999 to 3.1in 2009, then increased to 4.4in 2016 and 2017. The rate in 2018 (3.8) was lower than in 2017 The ageadjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine increased from 1.4 per 100,000 standard population in 1999 to 2.5in 2006, then decreased to 1.3in 2010 and 1.5in 2011. From 2012 through 2018, the rate increased on average by 27% per year to arate of 4.5in 2018. The ageadjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants with abuse potential, which include drugs such as methamphetamine, amphetamine, and methylphenidate, increased from 0.2in 1999 to 0.8in 2012. From 2012 through 2018, the rate increased on average by 30% per year to arate of 3.9in 2018.

While deaths attributed to prescription opioids continued to decline, deaths attributed to heroin overdoses levelled off and those attributed to fentanyl and its analogs continued to increase. Also making abig comeback were deaths related to psychostimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine. These data should have been enough evidence to prevent policymakers from cracking open the champagne bottles.

The CDC recently issued its preliminary report on 2019 overdose deaths and the news isnt good. There were roughly 71,000 overdose deaths, anew record. These data predate the COVID-19 crisis, so we can expect matters to get even worse.

Speaking to reporters about the preliminary report, Robert Anderson, who oversees the mortality data for the CDC said, We got it to stall out abit. Now we need to grab on again and not let this get away from us.

This should come as no surprise. A2018 study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found overdose deaths have been growing exponentially since at least the late 1970s and show no sign of deviating from the trend line. The particular drug predominating as the cause of death has changed from time to time, but the death rate marches on relentlessly. Therefore, even if the aggregate overdose data stalled abit in 2018, the underlying forces fueled by dangerous black market drugs that result fromdrug prohibition continue unabated.

One bright spot in the preliminary data: overdoses declined in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Islandstates where harm reduction strategies have gained some traction.

Until drug prohibition ends expect overdoses to continue following the tragic trendline.

More here:

As the War on Drugs Relentlessly Grinds On, Overdose Deaths Relentlessly Mount - Cato Institute

While efforts are being made to change the current system of public safety in our country, there is more that needs to be addressed. One area that needs attention is the negative effect drug arrests have on the Black community.

Substance abuse has plagued our society for decades. Though many are negatively affected by addiction, certain groups have been adversely affected by the policies put in place to stop it.

The war on drugs was implemented in the 1970s by President Richard Nixon to stop the drug trade and curb substance abuse. The initiative was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s when severe penalties for drug-related crimes were created.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, these policies led to a very significant rise in incarcerations. There were 50,000 arrests for non-violent drug crimes in 1980; in 1997, there were 400,000 arrests. Unfortunately, this did not seem to do anything to curb the distribution and use of narcotics. Instead, the war on drugs perpetuated the problem it was trying to solve.

You see, the majority of the arrests were members of the Black community. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, nearly 80% of people in federal prison and around 60% of people in state prison for drug offenses are People of Color. Furthermore, punishment for drug violations tends to play out in other areas that further impact an individuals quality of life. Child custody, voting rights, business loans, employment, student aid, public housing, and other public assistance are regularly denied to people with criminal drug convictions.

Due to these factors, many incarcerated individuals are faced with challenges after they serve their sentences. This can motivate some to utilize the illegal drug trade to support themselves and their families. It also contributes to financial stress and other factors that can lead to substance-abuse issues. While we cannot blame systems entirely for the actions of people, it is hard to deny these factors are extremely influential.

It can be argued that reducing drug trafficking and abuse was not what the war on drugs accomplished. The initiative did more to further marginalize demographics already left at a disadvantage due to the socioeconomic climate that exists in our country. The consequences of this play out in the present and are clear evidence of the systemic racism that is so prevalent in American society.

We are currently on the verge of what looks to be a monumental change. The Black Lives Matter movement has gained unprecedented support, and individuals from all demographics are starting to form a unified front. As steps are taken to eradicate systemic racism, it is essential to look at current laws and policies that disproportionately affect the Black community. The way we deal with non-violent drug crimes and low-level possession charges is a perfect example.

If our country continues to fill its courts and prisons with drug charges, then systemic racism will never end. It is not that Black people use more drugs; they are just more harshly punished. It is time to make a change that focuses on empowering individuals as opposed to imprisoning them. This transformation can begin with sweeping changes with the way we handle low-level drug charges. Lets help people instead of punishing them for having substance-use disorder.

Cori Buck of Newport, Oregon, is a certified nursing assistant who worked more than four years at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. She is a regular contributor to the health website addicted.org. She wrote this exclusively for the News Tribune.

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National View: 'War on drugs' only perpetuated the problem it was trying to solve - Duluth News Tribune

Jos Garza is running for district attorney in Travis County, Texas. (Courtesy of Jos Garza campaign)

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On day one, we will end the prosecution of low-level drug offenses here in Travis County, announced district attorney candidate Jos Garza, at a February forum on criminal justice reform in Austin. We will end the prosecution of possession and sale offenses of a gram or less.Ad Policy

That may have sounded to some like a bold statement, but Garza argued it was the rational response to a broken system.

On Tuesday night, voters in the state capital of Texas and the surrounding county agreed. Garza, a former federal public defender, immigrant rights activist, and executive director of the Texas Workers Defense ProjectProyecto Defensa Laboral, swept to victory over Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore in a closely watched Democratic primary runoff election. And the successful challenger signaled that he is ready to act. We know that 60-percent of all people arrested and charged with drug possession through traffic stops are people of color, he told reporters. So, it is time to end the war on drugs in this community to begin to unwind the racial disparities in our criminal justice system.

Garza won 68 percent of the vote to 32 percent for Moore, who, as The Austin Chronicle noted earlier this year, had been under fire on many fronts for her perceived insufficient commitment to true justice, particularly for women survivors of sexual assault. The Chronicle endorsed Garza as a candidate who would bring to the office a demonstrable commitment to equity. MORE FROM John Nichols

With the party nomination secured in an overwhelmingly Democratic county, Garza is positioned to further demonstrate that commitment as one of the most high-profile members of the emerging class of county prosecutors who are prepared to upend old ways of thinking about law enforcement and the achievement of justice. Hell join Chicagos Kim Foxx, Philadelphias Larry Krasner, and San Franciscos Chesa Boudin as part of a movement to transform how cities and countries across the country address public safety issues. The movement is growing! observed Boudin, as he celebrated the victory by Garza, who ran with strong support from unions, Austin Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The Texan summed up the thinking of the movement during the course of a campaign in which he told voters, Our system doesnt have to be broken. We have the power to fix this. And we have a right and a responsibility to demand that it be fixed.

What distinguished Garza is his determination to move quickly and decisively to take on the gravest injustices.Current Issue

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Take his response to questions about capital punishment. The Death Penalty is morally and ethically wrong, does not serve as a deterrent, has proven to be applied arbitrarily at best, and comes at tremendous financial costs, the candidates platform states. As District Attorney, I will not seek a death sentence. I will also review all post-conviction death penalty cases to ensure that there are no forensic, evidentiary, or legal issues that should cause the conviction to be called into question.

Or his response to questions about police violence. Prosecutors must play a key role in holding police accountable and ensuring that officers who commit misconduct are not allowed to continuously harm communities, asserts Garza, who began his list of commitments on the issue by promising, We will never take donations from police organizations. We deserve a DA unbought by those they are responsible for holding accountable.

Or his response to questions about prosecuting the powerfulincluding corporate CEOS. No one should be above the law, no matter how rich they are or just because of their job title. We will use our resources to investigate and prosecute the powerful actors in Travis County who have harmed the publiclandlords who exploit immigrants, police officers accused of misconduct, and corporate heads who take money from the poor will no longer have a free pass in Travis County, reads his platform. Instead, the Travis County District Attorney Office will actively investigate and prosecute powerful actors who have abused their positions.

Garzas vision of the DAs office as a platform for pursuing economic, social, and racial justice was especially profound when it came to stopping the damage done by a war on drugs that for too long has been facilitated by Democratic and Republican prosecutors.

In a set of commitments for how he would run the DAs office in a county where the population is nearing 1.3 million, Garza explained:

The revolving door of justice for people with substance abuse issues is a waste of time, money, and prosecution resources. The latest medical research on addiction suggests that treating drug use as a public health issue, as opposed to a criminal justice issue, is a more effective approach to reducing harm and promoting public safety. Nevertheless, our jails and prisons are filled with people who have done nothing more than suffer from addiction.

As a result, this office will seek to pursue policies that reduce the number of people in jails and prisons for drug-related offenses. We also have a responsibility to prevent deathssafe injection sites and harm reduction programs are key to keeping our most vulnerable alive.

Unless there is evidence that a person poses a danger to the community, I will not prosecute sale or possession of a gram or less of narcotics. For possession or sale of larger amounts of narcotics, my office will consider all appropriate diversion programs so that person may avoid a conviction if they are not a danger to the community.

For decades, politicians of both parties and their amen corners in the media fostered the fantasy that filling prisons would make communities safe. Elected prosecutors mounted reelection campaigns that highlighted their conviction rates and their willingness to pursue the harshest sentences.

Even as evidence of policing abuses, prosecutorial misconduct, systemic racism, and the absolute failure of mass incarceration mounted, too many prosecutors in too many places responded with incremental reforms that changed little.

Too many prosecutors refused to change course and recognize that the system is not working.

Garza knows there is something wrong with a system in which the majority of our resources are spent locking-up people struggling with substance abuse and our DAs office has not reduced the number of people we send to prison. And he knows there are smart alternatives. The research is clear: prisons do not reduce recidivism, says the candidate Travis County voters has just nominated. In fact, rehabilitation programs run outside of prisons consistently outperform those run in prison when it comes to keeping people out of jail.

Read the rest here:

Austin, Texas, Just Voted to End the Drug War - The Nation

Upstate drug trafficking investigation leads to the indictment of 39 people

50 pounds of methamphetamine, five pounds of heroin, and others drugs were seized, officials say.

Updated: 6:23 PM EDT Jul 22, 2020

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LATEST ON THIS MULTICOUNTY ROUNDUP. >> The Reporter: THESE SEIZED DRUGS AND WEAPONS PILED ON TABLES ARE THE RESULT OF OPERATION GROUNDHOG DAY. SPARTANBURG COUNTY SHERIFF CHUCK WRIGHT SAYS SEVERAL AGENCIES IN THE UPSTATE PLAYED A ROLE IN THE ALMOST TWO-YEARLONG INVESTIGATION. >> WE GOT 57.3 POUNDS OF METHAMPHETAMINE, 5.3 POUNDS OF HEROIN, SOME MARIJUANA AND FENTANYL, AND 92 GRAMS OF COCAINE WAS SEIZED. >> The Reporter: WRIGHT EXPLAINED HOW THE DRUGS AND WEAPONS WERE SEIZED 6789. >> WE WERE DOING TIPS AND WORKING PEOPLE WHO, WHEN WE CATCH THEM, SAY, HEY, I CAN FIND YOU SOME MORE DRUGS. SO IT WAS JUST BASICALLY WORKING BACKWARDS AND DOING JUST BASIC SIMPLE POLICE WORK. THE REPORTER: SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL ALAN WILSON SAYS THIS WAS AN INVESTIGATION OF AN ALLEGED HEROIN AND METHAMPHETAMINE TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION IN THE UPSTATE. WILSON ADDED, QUOTE, ALL THE AGENCIES INVOLVED ARE COMMITTED TO FIGHTING HAND TRAFFICKING OF DRUGS SUCH AS METHAMPHETAMINE, HEROIN, AND FENTANYL TO THE CITIZENS OF OUR STATE. >> YOU KNOW, I KEEP TELLING YOU, PEOPLE ALWAYS SAYING, YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO WIN THE WAR ON DRUGS. MIGHT NOT, BUT THAT AIN'T GOT ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FIGHT WE'RE GOING TO BRING TO IT. THAT AIN'T GOT A DOGGONE THING WITH THE FIGHT WE'RE GOING TO

Upstate drug trafficking investigation leads to the indictment of 39 people

50 pounds of methamphetamine, five pounds of heroin, and others drugs were seized, officials say.

Updated: 6:23 PM EDT Jul 22, 2020

A drug trafficking investigation in the Upstate has led to the indictments of 39 people.South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says the investigation, called "Operation Ground Hog Day," targeted an alleged heroin and methamphetamine trafficking organization operating in the Upstate. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright says more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine, five pounds of heroin, and others drugs were seized.Wright says the team was able to round up a lot of the drugs through tips and basic police work. He says several agencies in the Upstate played a role in the nearly two-year investigation."I keep telling you, people always saying 'you're never going to win the war on drugs,''' said Wright. "Yeah, I might not, but that ain't got anything to do with the fight we're going to bring to it. That ain't got a daggum thing we're going to take to it."Wilson says these indictments show that all agencies involved are committed to fighting the trafficking of drugs.

A drug trafficking investigation in the Upstate has led to the indictments of 39 people.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says the investigation, called "Operation Ground Hog Day," targeted an alleged heroin and methamphetamine trafficking organization operating in the Upstate.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright says more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine, five pounds of heroin, and others drugs were seized.

Wright says the team was able to round up a lot of the drugs through tips and basic police work. He says several agencies in the Upstate played a role in the nearly two-year investigation.

"I keep telling you, people always saying 'you're never going to win the war on drugs,''' said Wright. "Yeah, I might not, but that ain't got anything to do with the fight we're going to bring to it. That ain't got a daggum thing we're going to take to it."

Wilson says these indictments show that all agencies involved are committed to fighting the trafficking of drugs.

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Upstate drug trafficking investigation leads to the indictment of 39 people - WYFF Greenville

Nuggets forward Jerami Grant answered every basketball and bubble question during a recent interview by discussing Breonna Taylor.

Several other NBA players have followed his lead.

Harris, asked about Russell Westbrooks social-justice shirts, via Paul Hudrick of NBC Sports Philadelphia:

Nothing against the T-shirts, but we want to make sure that [Kentucky attorney general] Daniel Cameron arrests the cops and officers involved with Breonna Taylors death, Harris said. Thats all Ive got to say.

Before another reporter could be called on, Harris repeated the message.

Thats going to be my answer for every question for Daniel Cameron to step up and do whats right. Thats the only message Ive got today.

Harris then politely thanked the media on the call and walked off.

McCollum, via Jamie Hudson of NBC Sports Northwest:

Weve been very proactive with our conversations and phone calls. We actually did a Zoom call with Breonna Taylors mother a few days ago to get more information on everything that is going on, everything that has happened. I want to go on the record saying that [Kentucky Attorney General] Daniel Cameron is in position to arrest the cops who are responsible for killing Breonna Taylor and still has not done that, so hes the one who is in the position to potentially do that. So we want to continue to uplift people like Breonna Taylor who are victims and havent received the proper justice that they are due.

I think basketball is secondary, McCollum said. Its our job, obviously and we have a responsibility to fulfill those obligations, but its also our job to fulfill and protect our neighborhoods, and protect the people who look like us, and come from places like us, and dont exactly have the same voices that we do. I think thats something that has been on all of our minds. Weve been very proactive about it.

Smart, via Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe:

Before we start, guys, my answer is going to be Justice for Breonna Taylor, Smart said. Thats going to be my answer for everything, so Im just letting you guys know that now. Justice for Breonna Taylor.

A reporter asked Smart if that would be his response to a question about the teams defense, and Smart said that it would, replying, Justice for Breonna Taylor.

Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston:

Melissa Rohlin of Sports Illustrated:

When Caruso was asked about being on the brink of playing in his first postseason, he responded by bringing up Taylor.

Im just going to respond with, We need justice for Breonna Taylor, Caruso said. Thats going to be my response to the rest of the questions if theyre basketball-related and not pertaining to me and my sisters wedding.

Just got information from the rest of the players who are trying to stay united with the message, Caruso said. This is one way we can control it from inside the bubble. It seems to be an important thing. Its been four months since it happened that she was murdered in her sleep and nobody has been held accountable.

Grants press conference prompted a major breakthrough. The Nuggets made a far stronger statement than practically every other large corporation:

A billion-dollar company posting Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor is no small matter. NBA players uniting to bring attention should only advance the cause even further.

I salute these players for speaking up. They have a platform, and this is important.

I also appreciate that the common refrain has been Justice for Breonna Taylor rather than Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.

As I wrote when Grant raised the issue:

Taylor was killed in her own home by Louisville police in March. Police were executing a no-knock warrant based on the stated suspicion she was aiding her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in selling drugs. Its disputed whether police announced themselves before using a battering ram to enter the apartment. Walker said he and Taylor were asleep when the incident began. Walker, a licensed gun owner, called 911 and fired at what he says he believed to be intruders. The police returned fire, and Taylor was fatally shot.

None of the three officers involved in the shooting Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove have been arrested. Only Hankison was fired.

What happened to Taylor was a travesty, and the injustices are vast.

Crackdowns on drugs have led to extreme state violence. No-knock warrants and even knock-and-announce warrants executed in the middle of the night put everyone involved at too much risk. Judges approve warrants with too little oversight.

The politicians who enact these anti-drug laws should be held accountable. The police who order these extreme tactics should be held accountable. The judges who wantonly allow it (and the police officers who take advantage with deceitful warrant requests) should be held accountable.

But the officers at Taylors apartment shouldnt necessarily face criminal charges just for carrying out their jobs as the system called for. Hankison allegedly shot recklessly, and if he did, he should face charges. If any of the three officers did something illegal, they should face charges. But the weight of a failed system shouldnt fall on the individual officers who follow the rules of that system. The officers were put in an impossible situation fired upon by someone who very reasonably mistook them for intruders. At that point, the police had some right to defend themselves. Just as Walker had some right to defend himself and Taylor in her own home.

Taylors death was a tragedy.

The people who created the system that led to her death should be held responsible. And the system should be changed.

The War on Drugs should be completely re-assessed. No-knock warrants should be eliminated. Warrants should be given more scrutiny before being granted.

Getting justice for Breonna Taylor goes much higher than arresting these three cops.

Link:

The time Charles Oakley dumped a bottle of liquor on a Raptors teammate - ProBasketballTalk

MTV's "Decoded" returns for a monumental new season focused on 'Decoding the Police' with host Franchesca Ramsey

The six-part miniseries is set to premiere today, Tuesday July 21 on the MTV Impact YouTube and MTV Decoded Facebook channels

Today, MTV News is launching a brand new season of the hit digital series, "Decoded," with six weekly episodes hosted by Franchesca Ramsey. Given the age of social justice reform and the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the entire season will be focused on "Decoding the Police."

Each episode will tackle a different dynamic of the American police system, from dispelling the notion of good cops Vs. bad cops, the truth (and lies) of the "War on Drugs," and what defunding the police might actually mean in a nation deeply reliant on its police system--one that negatively impacts persons of color at disproportionate rates.

"Despite today's current climate, it's been really inspiring and encouraging to see so many people sharing past episodes of 'Decoded' to start conversations about Black Lives Matter and police violence. By focusing our newest season entirely on policing, I'm really hoping we're able to help people better understand the movement to Defund the Police and make our communities safer for everyone," said Ramsey.

The new season premieres Tuesday, July 21st on the MTV Impact YouTube and MTV Decoded Facebook as well as MTV News social channels.

About Decoded:

"Decoded" is tackling the most important social issue of our time: Defunding The Police. In this six part mini-series, we'll look at the myths and realities that keep our system of policing in power and show what alternatives beyond the police could make our communities safe for everyone.

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Breaking News - MTV's "Decoded" Returns for a Monumental New Season Focused on "Decoding the Police" with Host Franchesca Ramsey -...

Some societies center on social control, others on social investment.

Social-control societies put substantial resources into police, prisons, surveillance, immigration enforcement, and the military. Their purpose is to utilize fear, punishment, and violence to divide people and keep the status quo in place perpetuating the systemic oppression of Black and brown people, and benefiting no one but wealthy elites.

Social-investment societies put more resources into healthcare, education, affordable housing, jobless benefits, and children. Their purpose is to free people from the risks and anxieties of daily life and give everyone a fair shot at making it.

Donald Trump epitomizes the former. He calls himself the law and order president. He even wants to sic the military on Americans protesting horrific police killings.

He has created an unaccountable army of federal agents who go into cities like Portland, Oregon without showing their identities and assault innocent Americans.

Trump is the culmination of forty years of increasing social control in the United States and decreasing social investment a trend which, given the deep-seated history of racism in the United States, falls disproportionately on Black people, indigeneous people, and people of color.

Spending on policing in the United States has almost tripled, from $42.3 billion in 1977 to $114.5 billion in 2017.

America now locks away 2.2 million people in prisons and jails. Thats a 500 percent increase from 40 years ago. The nation now has the largest incarcerated population in the world.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has exploded. More people are now in ICE detention than ever in its history.

Total military spending in the U.S. has soared from $437 billion in 2003 to $935.8 billion this fiscal year.

The more societies spend on social controls, the less they have left for social investment. More police means fewer social services. American taxpayers spend $107.5 billion more on police than on public housing.

More prisons means fewer dollars for education. In fact, America is now spending more money on prisons than on public schools. Fifteen states now spend $27,000 more per person in prison than they do per student.

As spending on controls has increased, spending on public assistance has shrunk. Fewer people are receiving food stamps. Outlays for public health have decline

America cant even seem to find money to extend unemployment benefits during this pandemic.

Societies that skimp on social investment end up spending more on social controls that perpetuate violence and oppression. This trend is a deep-seated part of our history.

The United States began as a control society. SlaveryAmericas original sindepended on the harshest conceivable controls. Jim Crow and redlining continued that legacy.

But in the decades following World War II, the nation began inching toward social investment the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and substantial investments in health and education.

Then America swung backward to social control.

Since Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, four times as many people have been arrested for possessing drugs as for selling them.

Of those arrested for possession, half have been charged with possessing cannabis for their own use. Nixons strategy had a devastating effect on Black people that is still felt today: a Black person is nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than a white person, even though they use it at similar rates.

Bill Clinton put 88,000 additional police on the streets and got Congress to mandate life sentences for people convicted of a felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug offenses.

This so-called three strikes youre out law was replicated by many states, and, yet again, disproportionately impacted Black Americans. In California, for instance, Black people were 12 times more likely than white people to be incarcerated under three-strikes laws, until the state reformed the law in 2012. Clinton also reformed welfare into a restrictive program that does little for families in poverty today.

Why did America swing back to social control?

Part of the answer has to do with widening inequality. As the middle class collapsed and the ranks of the poor grew, those in power viewed social controls as cheaper than social investment, which would require additional taxes and a massive redistribution of both wealth and power.

Meanwhile, politicians whose power depends on maintaining the status quo, used racism from Nixons law and order and Reagans welfare queens to Trumps blatantly racist rhetoric to deflect the anxieties of an increasingly overwhelmed white working class. Its the same old strategy. So long as racial animosity exists, the poor and working class wont join together to topple the system that keeps so many Americans in poverty, and Black Americans oppressed.

The last weeks of protests and demonstrations have exposed whats always been true: social controls are both deadly and unsustainable. They require more and more oppressive means of terrorizing communities and they drain resources that would ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.

This moment calls on us to relinquish social control and ramp up our commitment to social investment.

FALL FUNDRAISER

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The real choice: Social control or social investment - NationofChange

International Deputy of Iran Drug Control Headquarters Nasser Aslani broke news on Wednesday that during last week the total amount of drug discoveries was 19,884.

Aslani also announced that out of thisamount, the anti-narcotics police have confiscated 1538 kg of hashish, 159 kg of heroin, 431 kg of glass, 433 kg of grass, 13 kg of morphine and 1676 kg of other substances.

Opium by 15,634 kg accounts for 79% of the discoveries Aslani added.

He noted during this period, 6,835 offenders arrested and handed to judicial authorities, 423 vehicles, as well as 18 weapons, were confiscated.

According to Aslani, seven provinces of the country including Sistan and Baluchestan, Kerman, South Khorasan, Yazd, Isfahan, and Bushehr account for 73% of drug discoveries.

Being a neighbor to the biggest producer of drugs in the world has caused the Islamic Republic of Iran to shoulder a heavy burden as one of the main routes for drug transport.

Iran is at the forefront of the fight against drug trafficking and thousands of Iranian forces have been so far martyred to protect the world from the danger of drugs. Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug trafficking over the past decades.

Iran has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab, and Central Asian countries. The war on drug trade originating from some regional countries has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.

RHM/IRNA83865307

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Iranian police busts over 19 ton of illicit drug in a week - Mehr News Agency - English Version

Political Report

Fresh off of his win in a New York congressional district, Jamaal Bowman talks about defunding the NYPD and shrinking the criminal legal system.

Both parties have championed the punitive politics of recent decades. Jamaal Bowman now wants to help the Democratic Party move away from them and toward dismantling mass incarceration.

Bowman defeated 32-year U.S. Representative Eliot Engel in the June 23 Democratic primary, in a major coup for the New York left. The Associated Press only called the race for him today, after seeing some absentee ballot returns; Bowman leads 56 percent to 40 percent as of Friday morning. This congressional district covers parts of the Bronx and Westchester, just north of the district where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scored a similar upset two years ago.

The primary campaigns final stretch played out amid the nationwide protests against racism in law enforcement and against the ballooning size of the criminal legal system. Bowman faulted Engel for supporting the 1994 crime bill, which contributed to fueling incarceration, and, unlike Engel, he embraced many Black Lives Matter activists goal of defunding the police.

In the wake of the election, I asked Bowman about his views on how he intends to further the movement against mass incarceration and police brutality.

As a Black man in America, I know what its like to feel occupied in my own community, Bowman said. Policing is the gateway to the corrupt system of mass incarceration, which has left many people in communities of color, especially working class communities of color, feeling terrorized.

In the Q&A below, Bowman also makes the case for defunding the police and reallocating resources, for giving all incarcerated people an opportunity for release after 10 years, abolishing felony disenfranchisement, and decriminalizing sex work, among other measures that could transform criminal justice in the country.

But he also emphasized that achieving such transformations will require continued activism. There has been a sea change on this issue because of long-term social movement building, community organizing, and the past six years of uprisings by the Black Lives Matter movement that are increasingly being translated into candidates like myself being swept into office, he said. Weve got to keep protesting, marching, running primary challengers, and ushering in a new generation of leaders in every institution.

The Q&A has been condensed and lightly edited.

In the past, you have linked your views on policing and your experiences being pulled over and arrested by police officers. How have such experiences shaped your sense of how policing fuels racial inequality?

I lived through Bloombergs stop-and-frisk era. Police attacked me when I was an 11-year-old boy. Ive been arrested and accused of stealing my own car, pulled over and handcuffed for not properly signaling, and knocked around by police officers for rough housing with my friends when I was just a kid. As a Black man in America, I know what its like to feel occupied in my own community. I have my own lived experiences and I see the brutality happening all around me. Policing is the gateway to the corrupt system of mass incarceration, which has left many people in communities of color, especially working class communities of color, feeling terrorized.

Many activists are calling to shrink the police, including by defunding if not disbanding departments. Do you support those calls? Should there be parallel efforts to shrink the footprint of the criminal legal system, if not defund prosecutors offices and prison systems?

Before I founded CASA, I was the dean of students at a high school, where I watched students walking through metal detectors every day, being criminalized for simply existing. As an educator, I saw firsthand how poverty, created by bad policy, results in trauma that builds on top of discriminatory policies like stop-and-frisk policing. If we defund police and shift funding to things like healthcare, wellness, trauma centers, drug and alcohol treatment, peer support networks, and restorative justice programs, we wont have a need for such a large, militarized police force. We can have fewer cops, and replace them with Crisis Care units of violence interrupters, social workers, and mental health intervention.

We need to truly cut the NYPD budgetnot just shift that money to the education department to put more police officers in schools instead of guidance counselors. This requires a reimagining of public safety and a thorough, objective investigation into how NYPD conducts themselves. That investigation also includes standing up to police unions that protect members with histories of misconduct and abuse.

Defunding the police means reallocating resources toward public health and investing in alternatives with people who are adequately trained to do the jobs were asking armed police to do: helping the homeless, responding to domestic incidents, monitoring students in schools, responding to people with mental illness, and responding to minor complaints like, for example, someone handing over a counterfeit $20 bill. We need unarmed people from the community who are trained to de-escalate: social workers, counselors, etc. We should ensure that public defenders offices are being robustly funded as well.

There are frequent demands to end the war on drugs and not incarcerate people over drug offenses, but often the proposed solutions still rely on policies and programs run from within the criminal legal systemby prosecutors, by courtswith the threat of jail looming. So what role should law enforcement play when it comes to substance use and drug possession? What would it take to bolster other systems outside criminal justice to tackle substance use?

I lived through the crack era in New York City and saw firsthand how it accelerated mass incarceration. I watched friends and family members suffer, I saw people I loved locked up in cages. No one should be in jail because they suffer from addiction to drugs, and we should be wary of solutions to the war on drugs that expand the criminal legal system and further criminalize low-income people and communities of color. First, we must drop low-level drug offenses, legalize and regulate marijuana and ensure that communities most impacted by the racist war on drugs receive the most benefits from legalization, and clear all prior marijuana convictions. Then, we need to go one step further.

Drug law enforcement should be extremely limited. We should be focusing on reducing demand if were looking to reduce crime, which could include maintenance therapy or safe injection sites. While progressive action and rhetoric at the social level is helpful for reform, we also need to see a shift in how the law is applied at the state level among state prosecutors.

So much of the criminal legal system is driven by state laws and local prosecutors, and only a small share of incarcerated people are in the federal system. So whats the biggest step Congress can take to decrease incarceration?

The 1994 crime bill used federal dollars to incentivize states and localities to build more prisons, hire more police, and incarcerate people. We can use federal dollars to incentivize states and localities to decarcerate, close down prisons, and reallocate funds from law enforcement to public health. We must also prioritize ending mandatory minimum sentencing.

Theres been a bipartisan rush to toughen criminal legal rules in recent decades. This has changed in recent years, to be sure. But do you think the Democratic Party is changing enough on this set of issues, and how do you think you can contribute to pushing it further?

There has been a sea change on this issue because of long-term social movement building, community organizing, and the past six years of uprisings by the Black Lives Matter movement that are increasingly being translated into candidates like myself being swept into office. The party is changing dramatically from being tough on crime in the 1990s to increasingly becoming the party of dismantling mass incarceration through and through. But theres still a lot of work to do. Weve got to keep protesting, marching, running primary challengers, and ushering in a new generation of leaders in every institution. And if Joe Biden is elected, which I hope he is, we have to hold him accountable to a robust agenda that meets the needs of our communities.

One specific position you have taken during the campaign that goes further than what the House leadership has proposed is to abolish felony disenfranchisement, and to guarantee the right to vote to all voting-age citizens, including when theyre in prison. The federal legislation HB1 would restore peoples voting rights if they arent presently incarcerated. Why do you advocate for that extra step, and what would you say to your colleagues if you join the House to make that case?

I believe in true, universal suffrage. Evidence shows that disenfranchisement actually exacerbates outcomes for people who are incarcerated. Furthermore, there is absolutely no evidence that disenfranchisement is a deterrent to violent crime. If the ultimate goal is truly to reduce the likelihood of future offenses and reintegrate the formerly incarcerated back into society, then guaranteeing the right to vote for every citizenincarcerated or notis the obvious choice. Undermining voting rights is also a slippery slope that leads directly to discriminatory outcomes. We must combat voter suppression in all its forms.

The death penalty is declining but tens of thousands are certain to die in prison because of life without the possibility of parole sentences or their functional equivalents. And you yourself have called for a life sentence in the past. But U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley has introduced federal legislation that would end life without parole sentences and make any prisoner eligible for parole after some lengthy period. Do you support doing away with life without parole sentences, or do you support other mechanisms to pull back on excessive sentences?

I support Ayanna Pressleys Peoples Justice Guarantee to put justice back in the hands of people directly impacted by generations of oppression and mass incarceration. When I wrote that op-ed, I was an angry and distraught middle school principal who watched a child be murdered in my community on camera. Ive gone through a lifelong process to better understand how we can address violence in our communities. We should provide incarcerated people with a meaningful opportunity for release after a decade, and no one should be forced to die in jail, especially elderly people.

You have stated that you support decriminalizing sex work; theres been a bill filed to this effect in New York State but it has not move forward yet. What makes you support this reform, and what would you tell New York politicians who may be hesitating about it?

Combating human trafficking in the sex trade is a serious issue, but SESTA/FOSTA puts sex workers, people who are disproportionately LGBTQ and people of color, at risk and make it more difficult to access health and social services. People whose work involves consensual sex should not be put in harms way. The broad consequences of criminalizing sex work certainly outweigh public perception or politics, which is why I support Representative Ro Khanna and Representative Barbara Lees legislation to conduct a national study on the impacts on sex workers from SESTA/FOSTA, to shine a light on those consequences.

The story has been updated to reflect the Associated Presss decision to call the election for Jamaal Bowman.

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Jamaal Bowman Wants Democrats to Be the Party of Dismantling Mass Incarceration - The Appeal

Good vibrations

Guitar is my life, yknow? That was Adam Granduciel speaking to Guitar Magazine in 2017, following the release of The War On Drugs fourth album. Coming from one of modern rock musics great restless perfectionists, its no empty hyperbole. A Deeper Understanding is Granduciels magnum opus, a luminescent epic and stunning example of obsessive studio craft that betters its predecessor Lost In The Dream a record which itself drove him to the brink of insanity. Granduciel re-recorded the whole of that 2014 album, his attention to microscopic detail almost destroying the entire project as he disappeared so far down the rabbit hole at one point he was reportedly measuring minute speaker vibrations.

A Deeper Understanding, too, involved hundreds of hours of studio time, revealed in its intricate layers of vintage guitars, organs and synths, meandering multi-part solos and dreamy sonics.

While the Philadelphia band is essentially Granduciels project, hes surrounded by an evolving cast of stellar musicians and their major label debut started to emerge while they toured Lost In The Dream. Returning from the tour, the now 41-year-old moved to Los Angeles. The cross-country relocation brought a laser-guided focus to the sessions, the band flying in from the East Coast for a week at a time. Granduciel told Guitar Magazine in 2017: I knew I only had em for a week and I wanted to squeeze everything into that week rehearsal, writing, friendship, barbecues so we did it all at the studio we barbecued at the studio!

The songs themselves are exhilarating widescreen American road trip anthems, indebted to Springsteen, Dylan and Petty and the modulated sonics of the 80s, canyon-deep reverb soaking Granduciels soaring guitar solos. In the hands of a lesser musician, they could drift into the realms of cloying AOR, but Granduciels visionary attention to detail wins out. I spend six, seven, eight months on the same song, he explained to Guitar Magazine. I have all these different melodies going on in the song, and you want to highlight each of them, so its trying to sculpt this thing where, if you put everything in, it would just be a wash, so youre trying to paint this picture, but keep all your favourite elements in.

Of the many guitar highlights on A Deeper Understanding, perhaps the most thrilling arrives as early as the second track, Pain. The song is built around a simple C-E-D progression, which Granduciel plays with a capo at the third fret. It unfurls steadily from a lilting arpeggio, the singer recalling wistfully, I met a man with a broken back/ he had a fear in his eyes that I could understand before he winds up for an epic two-part pentatonic solo that epitomises the War On Drugs celestial appeal. Do yourself a favour and look up one of the online lessons, its a joy to play.

Strangest Thing, Granduciel gazing up at a sky painted in a wash of indigo, houses equally hair-raising guitar moments, including a huge solo and wailing Bigbsy bends that flirt continuously with toppling over the edge into untamed feedback. Granduciels playing never resorts to nebulous, self-fellating noodling, though. The solos on A Deeper Understanding are emotive thunderbolts executed tastefully. Nor is he just an old-fashioned guitar hero.

Granduciels Dylan-like lyricism is poetically evocative throughout A Deeper Understanding. On the more sedate Knocked Down, shrouded in great angular shards of guitar noise and waves of tremolo, he sings enigmatically: Sometimes I can make it rain, diamonds in the night sky/ Im like a child. The albums first single, Nothing To Find, is a freewheeling cousin of Lost In The Dreams supreme lead single Red Eyes, its wailing harmonica and chiming Johnny Marr-like arpeggios propelling a glorious, lovelorn anthem.

Image: Mark Horton / Getty Images

Thinking Of A Place, meanwhile, stretches from its lilting slide guitar opening to 11 minutes, none of them excessive, images of the Missouri river and moonlit beaches flickering in and out of focus. At its mid-point the song breaks down to Granduciel speak-singing hazily, Once I had a dream I was falling from the sky/ Comin down like running water/ Passing by myself alight. Its a sumptuous piece of writing.

The vast, layered sound that cloaks A Deeper Understandings dreamy evocations of endless desert skies and vanishing-point roads is powered by a suitably tasteful array of guitars. Alongside Prophet 6 and Arp Odyssey synths, a Baldwin organ and Wurlitzer electric piano, Granduciel uses a 72 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, a 1980s Japanese Squier Strat, a stunning Gretsch White Falcon, a 66 Gibson SG, a 66 non reverse Firebird and his current live favourite, the most expressive guitar Ive ever played, an American Vintage 65 sunburst Fender Jazzmaster. In the middle position that Jazzmaster, with a chorus pedal its like the brightest, most crystalline thing, Granduciel told us back in 2017.

Trusted effects include an Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man, a Mu-Tron phaser, DigiTech HardWire delay and reverb, a Strymon Flint tremolo and reverb and a Fulltone OCD.

David Hartley of The War On Drugs. Image: Anthony Pidgeon / Redferns

It all amounts to one of the best live guitar sounds youll hear anywhere, and A Deeper Understanding is a scintillating distillation, painstakingly constructed by one of the modern eras most proficient craftsmen. Its a record Granduciel says is about watching yourself move between different versions of yourself and trying to either hold onto or figure out which one youre more comfortable being.

Uncut editor Michael Bonner described A Deeper Understanding as some of the richest, most compelling and least lonely-sounding music of Granduciels career. Laura Snapes wrote in The Guardian of an arcing, shivery slow dance that seems to swirl around a disco ball the size of the moon, while NME described a vision of 80s pop-rock warped through the prism of second-wave shoegaze.

The album topped many critics end-of-year lists and landed the coveted Best Rock Album award at the 2017 Grammys. Adam Granduciels torturous perfectionism had been rewarded. A Deeper Understanding is a masterpiece.

Image: Rich Fury / Getty Images for Coachella

The War On Drugs, A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic, August 2017)

More information about The War On Drugs here. For more features, clickhere.

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The Genius Of The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding - Guitar.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Looking for a great show to watch that will challenge the way you look at things?

Netflix has just released "The Business of Drugs," a documentary series that goes deep within the drug trade around the world. Now, I know what you are thinking: You have seen "Narcos," Narcos Mexico," "Cocaine Cowboys" and other shows and documentaries on the illicit drug trade.

Created by U.S. Navy SEAL and Executive Producer Kaj Larsen, and hosted by former CIA Officer Amaryllis Fox, the series will examine the illicit drug trade from around the world to here at home.

The series looks deep into the drug trade from where they originate and the pathways that are used to get them to their final destination. The Business of Drugs will trace the path of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, marijuana, and various other drugs and will reveal the business, violence and fallout along the way.

The series will also look at both the economics of drug trafficking and the economic impact of the trade.

Who makes the money and who loses big in a multi-billion dollar global enterprise?

Larsen hopes that by understanding narcotrafficking through the lens of business, the series will show that modern drug cartels operate as highly organized multinational corporations.

Fox embeds with traffickers in Colombia, DEA agents in Chicago, mules in Kenya and consumers right here in the States - in Los Angeles - and tells us the human story of a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. The former spy uses her formidable intelligence-gathering skills to finally expose the economics of exploitation and power that fuel the global war on drugs and who it affects.

Did you know:

Despite studies showing that Black and white Americans use drugs at the same rate, convictions rates and sentencing lengths for Blacks is substantially higher. Republican Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, even referenced this when he spoke out against mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses.

This documentary is especially poignant now while Americans take a hard look at how the law is enforced among us. We learn that the War on Drugs is the single largest factor in the incarceration of

Black and brown people in the United States. Prosecuted as a strategic tool by governments and security services for over 30 years, the War on Drugs has put more people of color in prison than any other single policy.

"The Business of Drugs" brings these policies to our attention and makes us question if the "War" we are fighting is actually working or if we are wasting taxpayers' money, costing lives and making things worse. Watch the series and decide for yourself.

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The 'Business of Drugs' is a business you need to see - We Are The Mighty

FOUR-PART DOCUSERIES THE LAST NARC PREMIERES JULY 31EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

Featuring interviews with government and cartel insiders, the series unpacks the shocking political conspiracy surrounding the kidnapping and murder of DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena

CULVER CITY, Calif. - July 21, 2020 - The Last Narc, a provocative four-part docuseries that centers on the most notorious murder in the history of the DEA - the 1985 kidnapping and murder of DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena - will premiere July 31, 2020 exclusively on Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

The series tells the story of a fallen hero, the men who killed him, and the one man who risked everything to find out what really happened and why. Highly decorated special agent Hector Berrellez, who was assigned to lead the DEA's investigation of Camarena's murder, peels back the layers of myth and propaganda to reveal the bone-chilling truth about a conspiracy that stretches from the killing fields of Mexico to the halls of power in Washington, D.C.

Berrellez's powerful testimony appears alongside that of Camarena's brave widow, as well as three Guadalajara Cartel insiders. These men were corrupt Jalisco State policemen who, at the time of Camarena's murder, served as bodyguards to legendary drug lords Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. Eventually, they became informants for Berrellez and helped him crack the most infamous murder of the War on Drugs.

The Last Narc is directed by Tiller Russell and a production of Amazon Studios and Industrial Media's The Intellectual Property Corporation (IPC). IPC's Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman are executive producers.

Over the course of his career, Russell has explored a variety of true crime cases across his documentary and fiction work including: Operation Odessa, which premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival and was released by Showtime; The Seven Five, which premiered at DOC NYC and was released by Sundance Selects; and the upcoming Silk Road, which stars Jason Clarke and Nick Robinson.

Prime members will be able to stream The Last Narc exclusively via the Prime Video app for TVs, connected devices including Fire TV, mobile devices and online. Members can also download the series to mobile devices for offline viewing at no additional cost to their membership. The series will be a global release and available on PrimeVideo.com for Prime Video members in more than 200 countries and territories.

Customers who are not already Prime members can sign up for a free trial at http://www.amazon.com/prime. For a list of all Prime Video compatible devices, visit http://www.amazon.com/howtostream.

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Breaking News - Four-Part Docuseries "The Last Narc" Premieres July 31 Exclusively on Amazon Prime Video - The Futon Critic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

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

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

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

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

Our recent conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

40 Acres and a Mule Productions

50 movies that address the history of racism in America

Movies give us perspective and allow us to watch certain events play out in front of our eyes. They can be educational and entertaining, making proper representation a significant factor in filmmaking. Black representation in Hollywood was almost nonexistent in the early 20th century, and when images of African Americans were shown, they were given negative stereotypes and criticized with racist imagery and oppression.

Years of systematic racism riddle the Black community today, but it was even more blatant back then. Young Black children around the country would turn on the television to a lack of positive images outside of racial stereotypes. As the years went on, Black representation slowly but surely began to make its way through the airwaves, and it started to educate people on the realities of Black lives as many Black filmmakers, actors, and writers created a new cycle of Black cinema with a variety of genres.

Black films have become a staple in the Black community, leaving long-lasting impacts on the culture for years to come. Black artistry continues to rise in theaters and on television as the industry learns to cater to different skin types, film angles, genre diversities, and plot lines within Black culture.

Stackerextensively researched the history of Black filmmaking and Black lives captured on screen in both fiction features and documentaries, and compiled a list of 50 diverse films that address the history of racism in America in one way or the other using IMDbdata as of June 3, 2020. To amplify Black voices and firsthand experience, the overwhelming majority of the films on this list are made by Black filmmakers.The films are organized chronologically.

Check out these stories that shine a light on Black voices throughout cinema.

Micheaux Book & Film Company

- Director: Oscar Micheaux- IMDb user rating: 6.3- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 79 min

"Within Our Gates" follows a mixed-race woman who ventures North during the Jim Crow era in hopes of raising money for a Black school in the South. Oscar Micheaux, the first major African American feature-filmmaker, portrays racial violence and strict contrasts between the Black people who lived in rural areas to those who migrated to urban cities. The silent film is highly critiqued to be a response to D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation," and a turning point for African American cinema.

- Director: John Cassavetes- IMDb user rating: 7.3- Metascore: 86- Runtime: 87 min

Leila, a white-passing, Black woman in New York City, falls in love with a white man, but the relationship ends when he meets her dark-skinned brother and realizes she is Black. Leila and her two brothers navigate their racial identity with their skin complexion at the forefront of their narratives. This movie brings awareness to the multifaceted issues that surround Black livelihood.

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

- Director: Daniel Petrie- IMDb user rating: 8.0- Metascore: 87- Runtime: 128 min

Attempting to fulfill the American dream in a racially segregated Chicago, a Black family looking to buy a home in a white neighborhood becomes a victim of housing discrimination and racial threats. The film addresses the racial injustices Black people face when attempting to follow their dreams, bearing the question, "what happens to a dream deferred?"

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

- Director: Stanley Kramer- IMDb user rating: 7.8- Metascore: 63- Runtime: 108 min

This classic film depicts a couple's interracial love as they confront each other's family members' initial disapproval. Katharine Houghton and Sidney Poitier's characters dive deep into the anti-miscegenation laws of the time and explore certain hypocrisies that potentially stem from white-liberalism.

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

- Director: Norman Jewison- IMDb user rating: 7.9- Metascore: 75- Runtime: 110 min

In this five-time Academy Award-winning movie, a Black detective (Sidney Poitier) gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation and eventually proves his innocence. After his release, he's now in charge of the case but faces difficulties when he's partnered with the racist sheriff (Rod Steiger), who accused him of murder. The film was shot during the civil rights movement and examined racial policing and bigotry.

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)

- Director: William Greaves- IMDb user rating: 7.3- Metascore: 71- Runtime: 75 min

William Greaves experiments "a film within a film within a film." While at times baiting his predominantly white crew over political topics, Greaves allows the actors to follow their narratives on issues of race and sexuality. In fact, the lack of direction is how he wanted to bring out the reality of his crew's thoughts on screen.

The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968)

- Director: Melvin Van Peebles- IMDb user rating: 7.0- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 87 min

An African American soldier named Turner is stationed in France and struggles with his own identity as a Black man in the army. After meeting and spending the weekend with a French woman, Turner finds that he is not exempt from racial prejudices, and he's forced to face his lack of freedom and discrimination within the military.

Warner Bros. - Seven Arts.

- Director: Gordon Parks- IMDb user rating: 7.1- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 107 min

Gordon Parks tackles adolescent sexuality, morality, and racism, centering a young Black teenager in 1920s rural Kansas. The tragic trial of events portrayed in the film speaks volumes to the harsh realities Black Americans face beginning at a young age.

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

- Director: Ossie Davis- IMDb user rating: 6.5- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 97 min

This slapstick comedy is widely known as one of the earliest examples of blaxploitation. Popular throughout the 1970s, the genre has been criticized but also praised by the Black community for characters who, at their core, promote messages of Black empowerment. The story follows a man attempting to raise money to return to Africa (mirroring the teachings of Marcus Garvey), all of which was actually an elaborate scam.

- Director: Martin Ritt- IMDb user rating: 7.5- Metascore: 80- Runtime: 105 min

A Black sharecropping family and their dog experience extreme poverty during the Great Depression. They fight to survive after the father is jailed for stealing food. Starring Cicely Tyson, the story themes prison labor, Black poverty, and access to education within the Black community.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)

- Director: Ivan Dixon- IMDb user rating: 7.1- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 102 min

"The Spook Who Sat by the Door" follows the first Black man in a fictional CIA, who is aware of his token status in the agency. After learning a few techniques from the agency, he organizes the "Freedom Fighters" to help protect Black Americans and ensure their freedom. The film addresses the need for Black people's self-defense, a notion practiced during the civil rights movement.

- Director: Bill Gunn- IMDb user rating: 6.3- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 110 min

One of the first few horror films to have Black representation, Bill Gunn plays his own lead in "Ganja & Hess" and portrays diversity and range for Black actors in cinema. The film presents two Black lovers who've been killed and have emerged as immortal vampires. Initially pitched as a blaxploitation film, the movie is more experimental and artistic.

- Director: Charles Burnett- IMDb user rating: 7.3- Metascore: 96- Runtime: 80 min

This black-and-white film follows a Black man who works in a slaughterhouse to feed his family. While the adults face challenges of their own, the children are almost accustomed to their dangerous surroundings. The film mirrors the harsh realities of the ghetto, trauma, and financial struggle due to racial inequity from childhood to adulthood.

- Director: Kathleen Collins- IMDb user rating: 6.4- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 86 min

Sara, a young Black woman, is having trouble with her marriage after her husband sparks interest in a Puerto Rican woman, causing Sara to question her own identity and self-worth being both Black and a woman. "Losing Ground" was one of the first feature-length films created by a Black woman.

40 Acres and a Mule Productions

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

- Director: Spike Lee- IMDb user rating: 6.7- Metascore: 79- Runtime: 84 min

The themes of "She's Gotta Have It" include gender, Black feminism, and sexual liberation. Nola Darling lives a sexually liberated lifestyle with three men before she is forced to choose one lover. Spike Lee examines the representation of Black women's wellness and freedom of stereotypes.

- Director: Marlon Riggs- IMDb user rating: 6.7- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 55 min

This documentary focuses on the expression of gay Black men and their culture. Marlon Riggs explores the intersectionality of being both Black and gay in a racist and homophobic society. Riggs shines a light on many issues the community faces, including examples of hypersexualized Black men in relation to their white counterparts.

40 Acres and a Mule Productions

Do the Right Thing (1989)

- Director: Spike Lee- IMDb user rating: 7.9- Metascore: 92- Runtime: 120 min

A series of racially motivated events is outlined after an Italian-owned restaurant has a wall-of-fame with only Italian actors in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Believing there should be Black actors on the wall, heightened emotions on race relations lead to a race riot. This staple in the Black community is a representation of racial inequity and injustices themed across the country today.

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

- Director: Julie Dash- IMDb user rating: 6.5- Metascore: 81- Runtime: 112 min

This film portrays the effects of Black enslavement past the borders of America and into West Africa and creolized cultures. A family of women in the Gullah community struggles to carry on their vibrant Yoruba culture away from their homeland. Julie Dash's film heavily inspired Beyonce's "Lemonade" video as it explores Black womanhood and the search for freedom after slavery.

- Director: John Singleton- IMDb user rating: 7.7- Metascore: 76- Runtime: 112 min

Based on his own life, John Singleton portrays three young Black men in a neighborhood riddled with poverty, gang violence, and other harsh issues that hit the community. Each man navigates their path through Central Los Angeles when tragedy strikes, symbolizing a trauma cycle of "what's going on in the hood."

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992)

- Director: Leslie Harris- IMDb user rating: 6.4- Metascore: data not available- Runtime: 92 min

Chantel Mitchell is a Black, 17-year-old high schooler from Brooklyn, New York, who dreams of going to college and hopes to become a doctor. Her plans fall short when she becomes pregnant. Mitchell copes with her fears of becoming a statistic, riddled with stereotypes that follow young Black girls.

40 Acres and a Mule Productions

- Director: Spike Lee- IMDb user rating: 7.7- Metascore: 72- Runtime: 202 min

Malcolm X was a Black activist who taught against racism and white violence while promoting Black empowerment and separation. Denzel Washington gives a powerful performance of the real-life events in the activist's life and his impact on the Black community; many sentiments still followed and repeated to this day.

- Director: Steve James- IMDb user rating: 8.3- Metascore: 98- Runtime: 170 min

This documentary follows two Black teenage boys from a predominantly Black neighborhood in Chicago. They attend a predominately white school in hopes of pursuing their dreams of becoming professional basketball players. The film constantly touches on race, social class, and the education system with topics in code-switching, economic hardships, and racism.

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

- Director: Carl Franklin- IMDb user rating: 6.7- Metascore: 78- Runtime: 102 min

Denzel Washington makes another appearance on the list as a World War II veteran. He finds himself entangled in a case involving a missing white woman. Racism is at the center of the story's plot as Washington's character is consistently demeaned and belittled, and the film portrays an overall lack of care for Black lives by society.

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

- Director: Cheryl Dunye- IMDb user rating: 6.7- Metascore: 74- Runtime: 90 min

In the first feature film directed by a Black lesbian woman, Cheryl, who plays herself in the film, is a struggling filmmaker who hopes to make a film about a Black lesbian character who is often belittled to "mammy" roles in early 20th century movies. The movie explores lesbianism, Blackness, and womanhood as each can intersect and coexist to their fullest identity.

- Director: Maya Angelou- IMDb user rating: 6.7- Metascore: 73- Runtime: 112 min

Alfre Woodard stars in "Down in the Delta" as a character named Loretta, who is sent to Mississippi from Chicago to get clean from drugs and reconnect with her family's traditions. As a result of slavery, Black Americans have difficulties following family trees and often hit dead ends. Maya Angelou gives us a story of family, heritage, and traditions reborn.

- Director: Spike Lee- IMDb user rating: 6.5- Metascore: 50- Runtime: 135 min

This satirical piece mirrors early 20th-century film as a television executive (Damon Wayans) decides to bring minstrel shows back to television. The film hits many racist stereotypes throughout including blackface, "jive" dances, and other racist tropes. The abstract film leans into old portrayals of Black characters as an examination of the past, present, and future of Black film.

How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (2005)

- Director: Joe Angio- IMDb user rating: 7.2- Metascore: 70- Runtime: 85 min

This documentary discusses Melvin Van Peebles' story and his breakthrough into Hollywood. Peebles' filmmaking style of the 1970s is highlighted throughout the film as a call for revolution within the Black community and more Black representation in film.

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005)

- Director: Keith Beauchamp- IMDb user rating: 7.6- Metascore: 80- Runtime: 70 min

Emmett Till was a Black, 14-year-old child from Chicago who, on a visit to his great-uncle's home in Mississippi, was brutally murdered by two white men. This documentary tells the story of Till, his murderer's acquittal in court by an all-white, all-male jury, and the racial uprising that followed in the 1950s. The film emphasizes the injustices of the racist South and white violence against the Black community.

The Great Debaters (2007)

- Director: Denzel Washington- IMDb user rating: 7.5- Metascore: 65- Runtime: 126 min

Denzel Washington directs and stars in this true story of a Black professor's quest to begin a debate team at Wiley College, during the Great Depression. The now-legacy was unheard of at the time as Jim Crow laws were as prominent as ever, and the fear of violence against the Black community rang high. The film is a testament to the team and its coach for overcoming a racially unjust society.

- Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin- IMDb user rating: 7.3- Metascore: 83- Runtime: 93 min

"Trouble the Water" journeys a young Black couples' tragedy during Hurricane Katrina. The film shows predominantly Black neighborhoods flooded, families destroyed, and people killed during the natural disaster. The film is a visual displaying the lack of government support due to racism and classism during the historical event.

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)

- Director: Gran Olsson- IMDb user rating: 7.5- Metascore: 73- Runtime: 100 min

"The Black Power Mixtape" documents the Black Power movement and its turning points within Black history. The found footage touches on many topics presented during the movement, including Dr. King's assassination, the War on Drugs, Black nationalism, and more.

- Director: Steve McQueen- IMDb user rating: 8.1- Metascore: 96- Runtime: 134 min

This slave memoir adaptation tells the story of a free Black man named Soloman, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. For 12 years, Solomon faced the brutalities of slavery, as he jumps from one plantation to the next in hopes to find his way back home. The film, which can be hard to watch, portrays some harsh realities Black people faced during centuries of enslavement.

- Director: Ryan Coogler- IMDb user rating: 7.5- Metascore: 85- Runtime: 85 min

Oscar Grant was a Black, 22-year-old man who was shot and killed by a white police officer in Oakland's Fruitvale district station. Michael B. Jordan portrays the young man, who faced with deprivations as a Black man in America, journeyed through life as a Bay Area resident before his tragic murder. With footage caught on film, Grant's story brought a call for change towards police brutality and racial profiling that happens every day towards Black people.

- Director: Justin Simien- IMDb user rating: 6.1- Metascore: 79- Runtime: 108 min

This Netflix special follows a group of Black students at a predominantly white university. The students navigate cultural biases at the Ivy League college, and the story mirrors real-life social injustices that mark Black students in similar positions.

- Director: Ava DuVernay- IMDb user rating: 7.5- Metascore: 81- Runtime: 128 min

Ava DuVernay takes us into the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Selma in the fight for Black suffrage. The historical context speaks to Black people's relationship with the government as they are forced to navigate the judicial system as second-class citizens. The film follows the events of Dr. King's eventual push towards the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

- Director: Theo Anthony- IMDb user rating: 6.6- Metascore: 83- Runtime: 82 min

Read more from the original source:

50 Movies that address the history of racism in America - WRCB-TV

A federal officer pepper sprays a protester in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, on July 20.Nathan Howard/Getty Images

As the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted political and economic systems around the world, it has also changed the nature of disordergroup dynamics including political violence and protests. Since the start of the outbreak, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project has monitored the impact of COVID-19 on global disorder, looking at the ways in which demonstrations, state repression, and mob violence have shifted amid the pandemic. As countries begin to reopen, some shifts may hold. In places where democratic backsliding occurred, for example, leaders will likely capitalize on newly won emergency powers to further stifle opposition. Others may mutate and evolvealthough demonstrations precipitously declined after the introduction of movement restrictions, theyre now bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels and, in many areas, are returning with even more force.

As the virus spread and governments imposed movement restrictions, many of the large-scale social movements of 2019 came to a halt, including the October Revolution in Iraq; the Hirak Movement in Algeria; opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act in India; and the student movement in Chile, as can be seen in the graph below. In a number of cases, local populations turned to new forms of protest to make their voices heard while respecting social distancing guidelines. These included pot-banging protests in Brazil, balcony protests in Spain, and car protests in South Korea.

Although COVID-19 tamped down many existing social movements, government pandemic responses sparked new ones. In Mexico, there has been a rise in protests involving health care workers demanding better access to personal protective equipment. In Iran, anti-government demonstrations continued in response to widespread corruption, poor service delivery, and economic hardshipall exacerbated by the pandemic.

Many of the protest movements that emerged prior to the pandemic were motivated by mistrust of governments seen as corrupt, poor economic managers, and providing subpar governance. In places where state responses to the health crisis have failed or fallen short, governments have only exacerbated these existing grievances, increasing the likelihood that these movements will resurface as soon as restrictions are lifted.

The successful and large-scale rise of the global Black Lives Matter protests is a case in point. The protests have gained traction globally in part because of how the coronavirus crisis has highlighted systemic racial disparities (A common rally sign reads: Racism is a pandemic), leaving clear winners and losers in its path. Other movements are restarting amid similar tensions over government shortcomings during the health crisis. In Tunisia, there are more demonstrations now than prior to the pandemic, with people taking to the streets over the worst economic crisis in decades. In Lebanon, too, previous discontent with the governments response to economic collapse has resurged. Unlike the predominantly peaceful protests seen prior to the pandemic, many of these demonstrations have been violent.

While exceptional state of emergency legislation may be considered appropriate to protect citizens during crisis situationsand may even be met with initial public supportthere is a risk that such laws will be used to suppress opposition and popular mobilization, especially when there is no end to the measures in sight. States of emergency can provide cover to governmentsand especially authoritarian regimesto engage in higher levels of human rights violations, leading to a rise in violence targeting civilians.

Such power grabs have been far from rare during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was bestowed the power to rule by decree with no stated end date; this new power was followed with arbitrary arrests of opponents and restrictions on the press. In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi moved to shore up his position by cracking down on the media and ratifying new amendments granting him sweeping authoritiesthe majority of which have no clear ties to public health issues. In Venezuela, the quarantine offered an opportunity for the Nicols Maduro regime to target the opposition and arrest allies of opposition leader Juan Guaid (who is viewed by scores of countries as Venezuelas rightful ruler). In Guinea, the coronavirus outbreak allowed the regime to silence protests and arrest opposition leaders, enact constitutional changes, and elect and install a new parliament. Across West Africa more broadly, governments are subtly exploiting the crisis to repress opposition and manipulate elections.

In many cases, rising state repression took the form of direct violence against civilians as governments became more likely to suppress their citizens and crack down on opposition and minority groups, often under the guise of lockdown measures. A spike in civilian targeting was reported in multiple countries across Africa, including Uganda (as can be seen in the graph below), Nigeria, and South Africa. In the Philippines, the threat of lethal enforcement of lockdown measures kept many at home, initially resulting in a drop in crimes against civilians related to the states notorious war on drugs. However, in recent weeks, reports of violence against civilians have neared pre-pandemic levels in the country, and they show few signs of slowing as the government moves forward with a new Anti-Terrorism Act that expands the states capacity for warrantless arrests and detention. In Hong Kong, new legislation around a national security lawpassed after demonstrations against plans to allow extradition to mainland China began to resumeraises the risk that Hong Kong residents will face arbitrary detention and unfair trial.

Despite widespread hope that the pandemic would bring the worlds warring parties to the negotiating table, it was unlikely that COVID-19, as a health crisis, would directly impact conflict patterns. Nearly four months after the U.N. secretary-generals call for a cease-fire to all conflicts, the data shows as much: Most warring parties have either refused to declare a cease-fire (as in Myanmar, where the military rejected calls for a cease-fire) or failed at cease-fire attempts (as in the Philippines, where both the Philippine government and the New Peoples Army each announced a unilateral cease-fire, yet violence continued, as can be seen in the graph below).

Although government resources are undoubtedly spread thin by the pandemic, conflicts involving state forces continue to rage. Despite mounting cases of COVID-19 in India, for example, state forces remain engaged on multiple fronts, from Kashmir to the Red Corridor, and more recently along the Line of Actual Control with China. Turkish forces, meanwhile, have intensified their operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), launching new operations against the group in June. In Myanmar, the military ramped up its campaign of airstrikes and shelling against rebel groups in Rakhine and Shan states. In Libya, fighting between the Khalifa Haftar-led Libyan National Army and the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord escalated. In Yemen, fighting between Houthi and anti-Houthi forces continued, despite the declaration of a cease-fire.

Some nonstate actors, meanwhile, took the opportunity to scale up their activity against state forcesexpanding their active territories and consolidating their positions. The Islamic State encouraged its fighters early on to carry out attacks against the groups opponents, in order to capitalize on the fact that they would be struggling to manage the ongoing crisis. In Mozambique, Islamist militants (many with ties to the Islamic State) stepped up attacks against civilians and armed forces in the northeastern Cabo Delgado province, with insurgency activity there tripling. In Somalia, al-Shabab continued to launch daily attacks, hindering humanitarian aid. In Mali, the jihadi group JNIM continued its attacks on state forces after announcing that COVID-19 was a God-sent soldier that was weakening the Malian Armed Forces. In Afghanistan, the Taliban continued their battles with Afghan forces to further exhaust Kabuls limited resourcesknowing this could result in increased concessions during negotiations. In Mexico, with state forces preoccupied with the public health emergency, cartels seized the moment to intensify their turf wars and expand to new territories, resulting in a spike in attacks on state forces (as can be seen in the map below).

Cartel Violence in Mexico Since WHO Pandemic Announcement

Alongside wearing down state forces on the battlefield, nonstate actors have also tried to vie for greater legitimacy with local populations, especially in contexts where the government has failed to provide necessities. For example, the Taliban in Afghanistan vowed to cease fighting in areas they control if those areas were hit with the virus so that health workers [could] deliver assistance to that area. The Taliban also held workshops on preventing the spread of the virus and distributed personal protective equipment. Mexican cartels likewise imposed curfews and distributed food to local populationsa tactic they have long employed to establish their support among marginalized communities. The gangs in the Northern Trianglealso known as marashave enforced curfews and suspended extortion collections as a so-called relief effort.

Simultaneously, competition among nonstate actors has risen in certain areas. In Africa, intergroup clashes rose by an average rate of 25 percent. In Mexico, the fragmentation of cartels has led to an increase in criminal violence in recent years, stemming from heightened competition among splinter groups over existing drug trade infrastructure. The pandemic has intensified these trends by disrupting markets and trafficking routes, which has, in turned, fueled clashes over the control of territory. Similar trends can be seen in Honduras, where both gang violence and the associated death toll have spiked due to intergang fighting between the larger mara groups like MS-13 and Barrio 18 and smaller local gangs.

Local security providers have long protected their communities wherever the state is not trusted to guarantee security. These groups can be formally organized, as is the case with local communal militias, or can come together spontaneously, as in the case of vigilante mobs taking justice into their own hands. Local security providers have reacted to perceived threats to their communities during previous health crises, such as in response to cholera in Brazilian favelas, to HIV/AIDS in Haiti, or to SARS in New Yorks Chinatown neighborhood.

Mob violence targeting those thought to be spreading the virus increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (as can be seen in the map below). In China, in the early days of the pandemic, there were reports of vigilantes acting as epidemic prevention personnel, assaulting those not wearing masks. In India, mobs targeted Muslims, whom they blamed for the spread of the coronavirusa rumor stoked by a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, who called for a boycott of Muslim vendors. In Central America, including in Costa Rica and Panama, residents blocked roads or entries to their communities to keep the virus out. Around the world, and in India especially, health care workers have been targeted due to the fear that they spread the virus given their work in close proximity to those infected. Across the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, attacks on 5G telecommunications towers have taken place following disinformation campaigns that the towers are linked to the spread of the virus. Unrest in prisons, too, has risen around the world alongside fears of close quarters and poor detention conditions fueling the spread of COVID-19.

Global Mob Violence Since WHO Pandemic Announcement

As infection rates begin to decline in many parts of the world and restrictions are lifted, violence involving nonstate actors will likely continue. Mob violence, too, will remain possible, targeting those who are marginalized or blamed for the crisis.

State leaders, especially those facing upcoming reelection, will be assessed based on their response to the pandemic. Those perceived to be tackling the crisis effectively, such as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, are likely to see a surge in public support. Those perceived to have been ineffectivesuch as U.S. President Donald Trumpmay suffer the consequences. In countries where leaders expanded and entrenched their powers, state repression is likely to continue, with the opposition increasingly stifled. And in other nations, particularly where the health of the current regime was impacted, there may be instability among the senior ranks, such as in Iran, where a number of senior leaders were infected, or in Burundi, where President Pierre Nkurunziza, who died in June just weeks after elections that were marred by violence, is thought to be the first head of state to die from COVID-19 complications.

A rise in demonstrations around the world has already begun, and a resurgence in pre-pandemic social movements is expected, especially as the health crisis has only served to further exacerbate many of the original grievances that spurred these movements. Extreme events like the coronavirus pandemic have significant and direct impacts on disorder. Governments can adopt immediate legislation to limit the activity of citizens, and state and nonstate actors alike can exploit the unrest surrounding a pandemic, natural disaster, or the like to advance their political priorities. To address the impact of these shocks on foreign policy, access to data during such contentious periods is paramount. Policymakers and other stakeholders not only need real-time data on the rate and spread of medical cases during a pandemic in order to craft an appropriate public health response, but they also need real-time data collection infrastructure to track how a pandemic affects political violence and protest trends in parallel. Only then can they develop appropriate security policies that complement their public health policies by anticipating how the latter may disrupt the security environmentensuring that security and public health responses work in tandem, rather than in opposition.

Excerpt from:

Protests, Violence, and MafiasHow the Coronavirus Has Impacted Conflicts Across the Globe - Foreign Policy

As a CIA analyst in Shanghai and Pakistan during Americas war on terror, Amaryllis Fox was familiar with drawn-out, intractable conflict. Shed studied the compounding effects of redoubling on failed policies, of redundant good versus evil arguments peddled into a quagmire, costing billions and an incalculable loss of life. But the situation in Americas longest military war, now nearing two decades, paled in comparison to the subject of Foxs post-CIA project for Netflix: Americas costly, decades-longer engagement known as the war on drugs.

The Business of Drugs, a six-part series Fox hosts on Netflix, takes a clear-eyed approach to the futility of drug enforcement: what are the incentives, economic and personal, that keeps the market flow of narcotics churning despite a generational trail of violence and waste? Declared in 1971 by Richard Nixon, the war on drugs refers broadly to the federal governments campaign to control psychoactive substances through draconian legislation, expansion of enforcement agencies, and military aid and intervention to other countries. Drug enforcement policies have long served as cudgels against minority groups the first anti-opium laws, in the 1870s, targeted Chinese immigrants; anti-cannabis measures in the 1910s and 20s aimed for Mexican workers and the current iteration grows from these roots; from mandatory minimum sentences to no-knock warrants, the war on drugs has fueled, in part, the mass incarceration of Americans, especially people of color. Nearly 50 years and $1tn in, the business of drug prohibition has not only not worked, but the problem is worse than it was when the policy began, Fox told the Guardian.

The Business of Drugs plays like a condensed, updated version of the popular National Geographic series Drugs, Inc (also on Netflix), moving from Americas voracious consumption of illicit substances to the global network of supply evading, or dwarfing, interlocking attempts at enforcement. The series six segments are delineated by substance cocaine, synthetics (such as MDMA, also known as ecstasy), heroin, meth, cannabis and opioids and explore substances of wildly varying levels of addictiveness, use and geography. Together, the chapters form a loose condemnation of prohibition as both policy and moralistic stance.

The series is not a matter of admitting defeat in the war on drugs, Fox said. Instead it demands looking at the policies themselves rather than the fight to enforce them, and asking ourselves if in fact prohibition has any logical hope of working, or whether its a residue of a moralistic stance that I think is no longer relevant in our society.

Like its title, The Business of Drugs aims to be straightforward, or as clear as possible on the economics dollars by gram, price increases by mile of transport in shadowy systems for which transparency is a risk. Each episode visits a different hotspot epitomizing the challenges, market and opportunity for positive change for each substance. For cocaine, Fox traces the bloody trail of the wests habit from the plants cultivation in Colombia (a no-brainer for farmers, given the yield and influence of cartels), through Mexican smuggling routes, over the border to Americas draconian incarceration system for possession. Synthetics presents the therapy potential of MDMA, particularly for PTSD, if declassification from schedule 1, the highest classification for drugs of allegedly no medical benefit, would permit serious research. For heroin, Fox visits the ports of Kenya, where the route for smuggling the drug produced largely from opium poppies in Afghanistan has proliferated into an economic boon for some and devastating addiction epidemic for others.

In the installments on heroin (in Kenya) and meth (in Myanmar), Fox meets with government or military officials propagating the line of drugs as good versus evil, themselves firmly aligned with good, despite evidence to the contrary. The cost of prohibition inverts to the cost of unwieldy and haphazard legalization in the case of marijuana in some US states, especially California, where above-board business is cutthroat, onerously regulated, and ripe for consolidation by big business interests. And in an episode on opioids, Fox explores a familiar and devastating story of an American epidemic fueled by big pharmaceutical companies and the inertia of inadequate regulation.

According to Fox, everyone from individual coca plant growers in Colombia to worldly United Nations economists agreed that there were two ways to stop the exhaustive and unending war on drugs: end demand, or legalize and regulate with fair competition. Demand, largely from the US and western Europe, wont be going away, which leaves policy. We think that we can go in and stop it at the point of supply, said Fox, but as long as that demand continues, the reward is high enough that the economic reality is that this is going to continue.

The reality of those economics that for many, the choice to participate in the black market drug economy outweighs the cost of abstaining (if there is a choice to abstain at all) is critical in understanding how to bring an end to this war.

Fox and her team, including partner Zero Point Zero Productions, the company behind Anthony Bourdains Parts Unknown, worked for over a year in pre-production to establish sources willing to speak about participation in illicit, violent networks. The interviews, often anonymous a man who swallowed heroin packets in Kenya to cross into Tanzania, the small-batch cocaine dealer following his fathers footsteps in California, the masked dealer who sees a spate of zombie overdoses on a bad batch of synthetic marijuana as a business opportunity were built on both the desire to effect change through lived experience and, said Fox, the human impulse to share your life, to be meaningful and have the data that youve learned and the expertise that you have spent your professional life gathering be relevant. Maybe its in a criminal industry, but each of the people we spoke to from the smallest grower down the line each of them is a substantive expert in their field.

There is the tendency in the media and in everyday life to think of the drug trade as being driven by the low-level growers and dealers and others who are caught up in it, Fox said. But these testimonies revealed rational calculations of risk versus economic and social security. Many of us, if we found ourselves in the same position, would make the same choices for our family and for our own economic wellbeing, she said.

That realization was, to her, hopeful the continuance of a fight against controlled substances remains frustratingly futile, but an assessment of choices on the ground in favor of drug dealing, growing and trafficking also known, for many, as economic survival demonstrated that its not a good versus evil battle that is going to go on forever, its actually a matter of economics and policy. If we make changes to those things, we can see a different outcome.

The only way for us to tackle this is to have a very logical, adult conversation as a nation about whether theres any possibility of demand going away, Fox said. And if not, what do we need to do in terms of legalization and regulation to bring an end to the violence and mass incarceration that this policy has created?

Read the original here:

The Business of Drugs: inside the economics of America's longest war - The Guardian

In the middle of dual crises caused by COVID-19 and opioid overdoses, the systemic racism of our criminal justice system raised its ugly head with the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the latest in a long line of violent and unjust law enforcement incidents. To remain silent was simply no longer an option, so people have taken to the streets to condemn racism and demand justice.

Mothers across the cultural spectrum mourn the loss of their children to an overarching and punitive criminal justice system and incarceration, but dramatically more so in Black communities, where it has become infuriatingly normalized to have a father in prison. African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites.

My two sons struggled for decades with addiction to heroin, although they were born to White privilege. My older son was arrested for possession of marijuana when he was 20 years old, and spent 11 years cycling in and out of prison for nonviolent drug offenses and relapse. He is a survivor of both incarceration and accidental overdose. My younger son was also damaged by criminal justice involvement, which created significant roadblocks to recovery. Both were stigmatized and criminalized, and our family struggled with societal shame, mounting financial pressures and emotional pain.

The drug war is a war on people and it was designed to control and harm people of color. It has cost over $1 trillion over the past four decades, and created a system of mass arrest and incarceration, disproportionately affecting Black and Brown communities.

Moms who have gone through immense hardships to migrate to another country so that their children have a chance to live and prosper are having their sons and daughters torn from them when they arrive in the United States. We have a humanitarian crisis at our border.

Mothers who were found to be using drugs, despite no evidence of child neglect or abuse, have had their children taken away by Child Protective Services and placed in foster care, a flawed system that during the coronavirus pandemic can affect a parents ability to even visit a child. Besides the trauma of separation, removing a child can be a missed opportunity to provide a treatment incentive for the parent. These policies have had a deeply harmful effect on communities of color and poverty.

Moms are deeply grieving the loss of loved ones to overdoses. A person dies every 11 minutes of an opioid overdose in the U.S. This is particularly frustrating and enraging as many of these overdose deaths could have been prevented with harm reduction strategies and naloxone, a safe drug that can quickly reverse an opioid overdose.

And although our country has endured decades of blatant prejudice and injustice to communities of color by the criminal justice complex, most recently and vividly we heard George Floyd call out for his mama as he was being slowly killed by a police officer who held him down with a knee on his neck for almost 9 minutes.

My sons are now in their 40s, and both are in long-term recovery, working as drug and alcohol counselors. Together we advocate for harm reduction strategies and an end to the failed war on drugs. They came through my body and will forever be connected to my spirit and soul. We all are human beings and we share the fact that we all have a mother who brought us into this world.

So its time to listen to moms. We see, feel, smell and taste when our children are harmed. We hope, we fear, we experience sadness and joy as our children go through their life experiences.

We understand the intersection of racism, the war on poverty, immigrant and LGBTQ prejudicial policies and the drug war. Silence creates a form of acceptance, so we must speak out for tolerance and equality, particularly when times are tough and we fear we no longer have a voice. If we hesitate and fail to protect the rights of others and look away in a self-protective stance, we will have lost our humanity, and in the process evil will have won over good. Now more than ever, we need to work in coalition and with respect for one another.

We must all raise our voices for change together because we are losing far too many precious lives. Moms must be vigilant in promoting and protecting humane and life-affirming policies, and in resisting all forms of hatred and bigotry. Too many moms are mourning.

Burns Bergman is co-founder and executive director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) and lead organizer of Moms United to End the War on Drugs. She lives in Rancho Santa Fe.

Read more from the original source:

Gretchen Burns Bergman: My two kids survived the war on drugs. Others haven't. - The San Diego Union-Tribune