While growing up around Philadelphia in the 1970s, I had a number of interactions with policenone of which were particularly harrowing. On the night before Memorial Day, for instance, a friend and I were drinking beer (yes, we were underage) in a cemetery by the Delaware River when we saw lights flashing and were approached by officers.

Apparently, the police had gotten a tip that someone might be stealing the brass placards from the gravestones and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We didn't have any ID, so my friend handed a stuffed animal with his name on it to the officer. The policeman laughed, realized that we weren't up to any serious mischief, made sure we were OK to drive home, and sent us on our way.

Quite frankly, I couldn't imagine that scenario playing out in the same benign way today. I thought of that interaction as I've watched the angry, nationwide protests unfold over the disturbingdeathof George Floyd, where a Minneapolis officer placed his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Many of my conservative friends, especially those who grew up in the world similar to the one I described above, have been caught off-guard by the depth of anger.

Even if some left-wingactivistsused the crisis to promote riots and mayhem, such mass protests do not happen in a bubble. Tens of thousands of people don't take to the streets because of outside agitators, but because they are angry about things they've often experienced themselves. And many Americansespecially in minority communitieshave experienced the brunt of an overall policing approach that has become overly militaristic.

Police strategies have changed dramatically in the past few decadesand not because of soaring crime. Despite recent spikes, crime ratesnow are much lower than at any time since the 1960s, and police can absolutely take some credit for that. I'm not nave here. Police abuse has been a problem as long as there have been police. I've read about the segregated South and the way police routinely terrorized African-Americans. But something significant has happened in the years following my cemetery experience.

I point to the nation's War on Drugs as a prime culprit. Recent commentary has correctly focused on various reasons for our current policing mess. Just as teachers' unions make it impossible to fire bad teachers,police unionsmake it impossible to fire overly aggressive and even corrupt officers. Then "limited immunity" protects cops from being sued even when they violate people's constitutional rights.

The federal 1033programprovides decommissioned military-style hardware to police departments. So, instead of sending a beat cop to deal with a routine arrest or disturbance, police nowadays like to bring out the toysi.e., those tank-like vehicles, SWAT teams and flash-bang grenades that are more appropriate for invaders than peace officers.

But few people have talked about the war on drugs, which started in the 1980s, and conditioned police departments to behave in this more militarized way. Police first took this approach during alcohol Prohibition, as others havenoted, and then stepped up the efforts after America's leaders looked for ways to combat a spreading drug epidemic. This issue isn't only about race, of course, given how aggressive police behave even in suburban Southern California. But these ham-fisted policies fall disproportionately on minority communities.

One of the earliest drug-war policies is"civil asset forfeiture,"which lets law enforcement quickly snatch the proceeds of drug kingpins. Police don't need to prove that you did anything wrong before they confiscate your car or other property. The police agency merely needs to assert that the property was used in the commission of a drug crime.

"Today, the old speed traps have all too often been replaced by forfeiture traps, where local police stop cars and seize cash and property to pay for local law enforcement efforts," wrote two federal officials who helped create the program, in a 2014Washington Postcolumn. "This is a complete corruption of the process, and it unsurprisingly has led to widespread abuses." It's led to widespread anger, too, as police mainly seize poor people's cars rather than cartels' assets.

It wasn't hard to predict what would happen when police take on a siege mentality and are provided with military hardware and exempted from constitutional limitations. In a 1996 editorial, William F. Buckley's conservativeNational Reviewwrotethat "the war on drugs has failed" and is "encouraging civil, judicial and penal procedures associated with police states."

Twenty-four years later we're seeing the fruits of those policies, even if most observers don't see the connection. By all means, let's review police-disciplinary procedures,union protections, racial bias, and other causes of police abusebut let's not forget the way the drug war has often turned minor interactions like the one I had into violent confrontations.

This column was first published in the Orange County Register.

View post:

The War on Drugs Drug Spurred America's Current Policing Crisis - Reason

Deadly police actions, punctuated by the ongoing protests after the murder of George Floyd, represent just one arm of an octopus-like creature that feeds off systemic racism. Another element that has been brought up a lot in recent weeks is the failed War on Drugs policy.

Despite the supposed end to the U.S. drug policy, it continues to claim victims, including those who remain in prison for non-violent weed convictions and those whose records prevent them from equal treatment in terms employment and housing.

The War on Drugs is a policy failure that has come at great cost, to society generally and to minority communities especially, drug policy experts Katharine Neill Harris and Alfred Glassell, III write in a blog posted last week on Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy website.

But, as Harris and Glassell point out in their post, the failures legacy stretches beyond the immediate victims: The war on drugs is an impediment to reducing unnecessary citizen-police encounters and to cultivating humane treatment of people who use drugs.By normalizing aggressive policing within a system already mired in institutional racism, the pair suggests that chances are greater for more and more violent interactions between people and police.

Approaches such as no-knock searches, often led by heavily armed SWAT teams, unsurprisingly carry a high risk for deadly violence. And drugs are a routine component of pretext stops, described as allowing police officers to stop people for one violation with the intent of uncovering a separate violation. This would be the case if a driver was pulled over for a traffic violation and on the pretext of smelling weed, the vehicle is then searched.

Proactive drug enforcement has normalized overzealous policing. / Photo: KatarzynaBialasiewicz / iStock / Getty Images PlusKatarzynaBialasiewicz / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Writing that proactive drug enforcement has normalized overzealous policing, the authors argue for the federal and state governments to remove their legal basis by decriminalizing low-level drug possession.

If the current approach aims to get serious drugs off the street, they write, it must be noted a recent analysis of more than 700,000 drug arrests in the U.S. found that 60 per cent of cases were for less than one gram.

FILE: Angele, a regular cannabis user, holds a bag of cannabis in Montreal Friday Oct. 11, 2019. / Photo: John MahoneyJohn Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

The nonprofit group The Last Prisoner Project reports that at least 40,000 Americans remain locked up for cannabis offences despite recreational cannabis being legal in 11 states and medicinal marijuana, in some form, allowed in 33 states, according to Merry Jane.

As for the police, Harris and Glassell write that enhanced training on defensive tactics and ensuring that the primary purpose of the police force is to serve as guardians of the public could also assist in de-escalating incidents that far too often turn deadly.

It is especially critical that marginalized populations, such as people who use drugs, are included as members of this public that are deserving of police protection and respect, the blog adds.

Want to keep up to date on whats happening in the world of cannabis? Subscribeto the Cannabis Post newsletter for weekly insights into the industry, what insiders will be talking about and content from across the Postmedia Network.

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According to these experts, the War on Drugs has contributed to making police more violent - The GrowthOp

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many areas of international life and commerce, including drug markets and the drug trade. Relaxed borders are key to the smooth functioning of both licit and illicit markets, and the restrictions enacted to suppress the spread of COVID-19 have had an impact on the supply, distribution and price of drugs, as well as the health and wellbeing of people in prison.

A recent report by the EMCDDA and Europol found the COVID-19 pandemic has had a temporary disruptive impact on the drug market leading to shortages of and higher prices for some drugs. While illicit markets are resilient, the report notes that drugs such as cannabis and heroin are experiencing inconsistent availability and inflated prices in many localities and countries. Reports from Hungary and Malta confirm disruptions in the availability of drugs locally, including cannabis, MDMA and synthetic cannabinoids.

Outside of Europe, reports have noted similar disruptions of both the drug and precursor markets in Mexico and China. Prison drug markets are not exempt from these wider developments, and market disruptions are contributing to the already extreme impacts of COVID-19 on prison conditions worldwide.

In April, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe raised urgent concerns about the treatment of prisoners and detainees in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying persons in detention as some of the most vulnerable to viral contagion, the Commissioner stated that the pandemic strikes in a context of overcrowded prisons and poor detention conditions in cramped, collective cells, with unsatisfactory health services, as well as higher rates of infectious and chronic diseases among detainees, such as tuberculosis, diabetes and HIV. To address the risk of prison overcrowding fuelling the spread of COVID-19, over fifty countries have implemented small and large-scale programmes of prisoner release.

One aspect of prison regimes that has been among the most affected by the pandemic is prison visitations. Given the risks posed by the rapid spread of COVID-19 in closed custody settings, prison systems around the world have understandably been suspending or restricting visiting from family and friends. Visiting restrictions or suspensions are reported in countries including the UK, the USA, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia, Thailand, Belize, Mexico and Guyana, to name but a few. While such restrictions are a sensible response to the risk of rapid COVID-19 spread in prisons, it is one that demands both health and human rights scrutiny, especially as COVID-19 is a virus the world will be dealing with for some time to come.

Maintaining contact with family and friends is essential for prisoners' lives and well-being. Prison is a socially isolating environment, with many regimes allowing only limited out-of-cell time and interactions with family even before the pandemic. COVID-19 restrictions on visits will necessarily mean an increase in this isolation, and with it an increased vulnerability to depression and other related mental health issues.

Many governments have highlighted the negative mental health impacts of the social isolation experienced by the general public during the COVID-19 lockdown. These impacts are multiplied exponentially for prisoners, for whom the loss of family visiting exacerbates the already extreme isolation and stress of detention. In some prison systems, detainees rely on visits from family not only for emotional comfort and support, but also to provide them with basic necessities food, toiletries, clothing, etc. that the prison itself does not provide. A number of countries including Brazil, Italy, Egypt, Indonesia and Jordan have seen sometimes violent protests and uprisings by prisoners in the wake of the curtailment of visiting.

The restrictions on visiting are also having impacts on the illicit economy in prisons. It is estimated that one in five people detained globally is incarcerated due to a drug charge, making the impact of the war on drugs a driver of both mass incarceration and the spread of COVID-19 in places of detention. While certainly frowned upon by prison systems, visitors from the outside represent one of the sources of drugs into prisons, and the reduction of contacts from the outside is having an impact on prison drug markets.

While the easy availability of drugs in prisons pre-COVID is well documented, in places of detention the impact of the disruption of wider drug markets, exacerbated by the suspension of visits, has caused significant reductions in drug availability. EMCDDA/Europol reports that COVID-19 visiting restrictions have indirectly led to a decrease in the availability of drugs in some prisons.

The lack of purposeful activities and the boredom of lock-up has been identified as an important factor in the use of drugs in prison. The current situation of long periods of lock-down, coupled with no visitors or activities (to ensure social distancing), generates a vicious cycle of more social isolation, more boredom, more tension one in which even the temporary relief offered by drug use is increasingly unavailable. As described in one Australian newspaper, COVID-19 has created a situation in prisons of No drugs, no families, lots of stress.

One example is Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland, where the ban on visitors has decimated the prison drug trade, leaving prisoners with heavy withdrawal symptoms from drugs such as the synthetic cannabinoid Spice. In Australia, the reduction in drug availability due to restrictions on visiting has led to increased drug prices, and to increased violence in the prisons related to control of the dwindling market. Similarly, it is predicted that UK prisons will experience an increase in withdrawal and of tensions as drug availability shrinks.

Some will see the disruption of prison drug markets as a positive development in the war on drugs. Yet it is also one that will contribute further to the negative impacts on the health and well-being of prisoners, and the overall prison regime, exacerbated by COVID-19.

* Ellie Harding is a final year student in Criminology at Swansea University. Dr Rick Lines is Associate Professor of Criminology and Human Rights, School of Law, Swansea University.

Link:

'No Drugs, No Families, Lots Of Stress': Prisons, Drugs And COVID-19 - TalkingDrugs

Eric Andre is a 37-year-old popular American comedian, actor, and producer. He is best known for his comedy series called The Eric Andre Show. He voiced Azizi, one of the hyenas in the live-action remake of The Lion King in 2019. Read this article to find out, What time does Eric Andres latest Netflix special Eric Andre: Legalize Everythingrelease on Netflix?

Read |US: Dave Chappelle speaks on George Floyd in new Netflix special

Eric Andres first-ever comedy special Eric Andre:Legalize Everything will drop on Netflix on June 23, 2020. Like most other Netflix shows the hour-long comedy special will be released at12:00 am Pacific time, which is 3:00 am Eastern time.Eric Andre: Legalize Everything, was filmed in November 2019 at a warehouse turned into a concert venue and club in New Orleans called Republic. The Netflix special will include a wide range of subjects such as the war on drugs, war on sex, and a whole lot of other edgy material.

Read |Dave Chappelle honours Kobe Bryant in latest Netflix special, says he 'cried like a baby'

American actor and comedian Eric Andre will take the stage in New Orleans. He will tackle the flawed fast-food icons, and even autofill and the strange choice for the ex-Paramount network show Cops theme song. The official description of the special reads, "Andre breaks the boundaries of comedy as he critiques the war on drugs, the war on sex, and the war on fart jokes!" Eric Andre: Legalize Everything begins with a sketch of Andre posing as a police officer, and offering drugs to every person on the street.

Read |Is The Andy Griffith show leaving Netflix? Find out when this 60's show is leaving

Andres special was filmed long before the Black Lives Matter movement and the countrywide protests in America began. In an interview given to a media portal, Andre revealed that some middle-aged white officials at Netflix wanted to remove the Copstheme song joke from his special.The CopsTV show was a Paramount network show, which got cancelled in the wake of George Floyds death. Andre also informed that the officials wanted him to remove all the other jokes on policemen in general.

Read |Kenya Barris, Pharrell developing Juneteenth musical movie at Netflix

However, Andrerefused to do so. He argued that this is one of the best times to be using humour to present the current situation. He added that humour makes it easier to point out the absurdity and hypocrisy of the police department. Eric Andre added that instead of shoving things under the rug, people need to talk openly about police brutality. He also confessed that he was blessed that his stand up is coming out in this time.

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.

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What time does the Eric Andres Legalize Everything release on Netflix? Find out - Republic World - Republic World

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So what happened in the pharma space today, that fired up Glenmark into a dizzying rally? Shares of Glenmark touched the skies, rallying to its best day ever.

The market has lapped up the approval by Drug Controller General of India or DCGI - to make and sell Favipiravir, on a restricted basis. The drug - being marketed as FabiFlu - is being used in the treatment of Covid infections. The medicine is priced at about Rs 103 per tablet and is the first oral Favipiravir-approved drug in India. That's not all. The war on Covid got even more armour today. News reports suggest Hetero Pharma and Cipla have got approvals to supply the generic version of Gilead's Remdesivir to hospitals, as early as this week. This, many say could mean the expenditure for Covid drug could get split up, since the drugs will be supplied to hospitals, first. Hetero is looking to price the drug between Rs 5,000-6,000 per vial, and it will be marketed under the brand name 'Covifor' in India.

The entire pharma pack is running ahead, in anticipation of greater business potential as these drugs get released into wider markets, over the months. But it remains to be seen what kind of competitions to these medicines are in the pipeline. Glenmark's drug FabiFlu is being marketed as a flu drug, for mild to moderate cases of Covid. Experts debate than even other medicines could be in a position to cure such cases.

Street may be ignoring the fact that Glenmark may not have exclusivity to the medicine. Speaking to ET NOW, Prabhudas Lilladher's Surajit Pal too said, the run-up seems unjustified. He said as earnings may not be able to justify these stock valuations.

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The war on Covid gets fresh ammo - And pharma stocks are rejoicing - Times Now

Chaos Theory is the idea that very small events can have major consequences. It is often illustrated by what is called the Butterfly Effect, where the fluttering of tiny wings could set off a series of events leading to a major storm halfway around the world. Of course, even though there are millions of butterflies, they dont have cameras, so there is no way to monitor these events, but there are plenty of real world examples.

For instance, try to imagine that the cruel and incredibly stupid action of a policeman in a very liberal city would kill a suspect by keeping his knee on the suspects throat until well after he was dead. And all of it was caught on a camera and immediately broadcast around the world. What could possibly go right?

But what if there had not been a camera? The victims family would still grieve. There might even have been some disciplinary action taken against the police. But if there is an injustice and it isnt photographed, does it have any real world consequences?

In fact, even this death caught on camera would not have provoked a global reaction if there had not been literally countless examples of injustices burning in the collective consciousness of the African American community. This was not an isolated event, but rather all too familiar to all too many people with all too much real world experience.

It began when the community that witnessed the death, and then witnessed what looked like another official cover-up of the crime. And, as we should have learned from Watergate, Its not the crime. Its the coverup.

African Americans have seen so many unarmed black Americans killed by the police, who were then acquitted, if they were even prosecuted. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, where all men are created equal with liberty and justice for all? Say it aint so.

So the protests and demonstrations began. Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech. So far, so good.

But then the looting and arson began, helped by apparently well-organized criminals. Then the usual suspects, political provocateurs from both the Left and the Right, saw their opportunity and joined in. But isnt that why we have the police?

Well, in the real world, elements in the police saw their opportunity and began to attack peaceful demonstrators, and even the media. As NeimanLab.org reported, U.S. police have attacked journalists more than 130 times since May 28.

Although the asphyxiation of an unarmed suspect is inexcusable, these isolated actions by a few bad apples pale by comparison with the systemic violence of the sustained low-intensity state terrorism that is the substance of the decades of the Drug War, of which marijuana prohibition is the key element, and the Black underclass is the main target.

But these arrests, while devastating to those involved, are only a small part of the violence injected into everyday life by marijuana prohibition.

From Race and The Drug War:

Nearly 80% of people in federal prison and almost 60% of people in state prison for drug offenses are black or Latino.

Research shows that prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence for black people as for white people charged with the same offense. Among people who received a mandatory minimum sentence in 2011, 38% were Latino and 31% were black.

One in 13 black people of voting age are denied the right to vote because of laws that disenfranchise people with felony convictions.

One in nine black children has an incarcerated parent, compared to one in 28 Latino children and one in 57 white children.

The Queens Eagle reported that last year:

Nearly every single person arrested for weed in NYC was black or Latinx.

Black and Latinx New Yorkers accounted for 94 percent of all low-level marijuana arrests in New York City during the first six months of the year, according to NYPD arrest data compiled by the state.

The NYPD arrested 1,436 people for fifth-degree marijuana possession or fourth-degree sale from January to June and 1,349 of the people arrested were identified as black or Hispanic, according to the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state agency publishes quarterly reports on race and ethnicity data for certain felony and misdemeanor charges.

Obviously, we have created a new class for whom looting is a form of political expression. That is not an excuse for the inexcusable, but it is a fact of life and death. We have created entire generations of Americans for whom law enforcement is a source of community cynicism and personal fear.

The good news? Well, in polite society we are once again talking about Criminal Justice Reform, but that is just another excuse for ignoring the Drug War, which is the core of our criminal justice system. Now the mayor of Los Angeles is threatening to cut the citys police budget by $150 million, but that is simply another way to avoid the really difficult decisions about the Drug War.

We can only decriminalize being black by greatly decreasing occasions for African Americans interacting with the police by ending the Drug War. Otherwise, the police will be in the impossible position of ignoring the law while trying to protect their communities.

Almost 20 years ago, Portugal decriminalized the possession of personal use amounts of all drugs.

The conclusion:

Overall, this suggests that removing criminal penalties for personal drug possession did not cause an increase in levels of drug use. This tallies with a significant body of evidence from around the world that shows the enforcement of criminal drug laws has, at best, a marginal impact in deterring people from using drugs. There is essentially no relationship between the punitiveness of a countrys drug laws and its rates of drug use. Instead, drug use tends to rise and fall in line with broader cultural, social or economic trends

Additionally, decriminalisation does not appear to have caused an increase in crimes typically associated with drugs. Decriminalisation significantly reduced the Portuguese prison population and eased the burden on the criminal justice system.

The alternative for America is business as usual with continued violence from both law enforcement and contraband businesses disrupting communities. For violence to hit millions, it must threaten tens of millions, and not just marijuana users. Because there is no typical marijuana user. Everyone must live under suspicion, and anyone can become a target. Everyone is subject to random stops, urine testing and surveillance. But blacks are the targets of choice.

Children have been and still are lied to in a sustained prohibitionist propaganda campaign of an intensity unequaled in a democracy in peacetime. Politicians are allowed to prattle meaningless cliches about sending the wrong message to children but the children know that they are being lied to even when they do not know what is true. There is no worse message than that.

Authorities lie to the media, who then lie to the public, while pretending to be watch-dogs for their victims. At least when they lie to us, they are acknowledging that it somehow matters what we think. Perhaps even worse, the media generally still ignore almost all of the elements of marijuana prohibition. The numbers of arrests are almost never reported, even though marijuana arrests outnumber the total number of arrests for violent crimes.

According to the FBIs Uniform Crime Report, police made 663,367 arrests for marijuana-related violations in 2018. That is more than 21 percent higher than the total number of persons arrested for the commission of violent crimes (521,103). Of those arrested for cannabis-related activities, some 90 percent (608,776) were arrested for marijuana possession offenses only.

Silence can be the worst lie.

Beyond that, words have their meanings subverted until communication is impossible. As Orwell observed in 1984, when words become meaningless, censorship becomes unnecessary, because people are no longer able to express their ideas. Drug means marijuana, except when it does not. The very word prohibition is never used to describe the current policies. Marijuana prohibition is the hate that dares not speak its name.

The best lack all conviction: Even when good people do honest research and announce that marijuana is far less dangerous than the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, as well as most common over-the-counter drugs, and that users should not be arrested, these fine souls still cannot bring themselves to say that it should be legalized so that marijuana-users wont have to deal with the black-market and confront corrupt police.

While the worst are full of passionate intensity: When the laws are changed, as with medical marijuana in some states, law enforcement simply refuses to obey the law.

Can all of these things be happening without consequence? Can the flutter of a butterflys wings be thought to have an effect, while this massive evil has none? Given all of these elements of violence to body, mind, soul, community, and polity, dont Minneapolis and Louisville fit right in?

In a society that uses the welfare of children to justify the worst of crimes, can it be surprising that children become the victims, and then the victimizers?

Seen in this context, is the inexplicable violence of our society really so inexplicable?

For all that, there are a number of reasons why we will win. However, the most important reason is transcendent.

The Truth Shall Make Us Free, but only if we have the courage to speak

Richard Cowan is a former NORML National Director and co-founder at Real Tested CBD.

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Don't Mention The Drug War. We Must Decriminalize Being Black. Black Freedom Matters. - L.A. Weekly

The Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) in Richmond, Calif., is a non-law enforcement governmental agency whose sole purpose is to reduce gun violence using street outreach as a primary vehicle to deliver optimal and sustained gun violence reduction outcomes.

As with most things in this country due to COVID-19, our work looks a little different. We are wearing masks, gloves and doing our part to social distance during outreach. These arent ideal conditions in an occupation that is based on building trustworthy relationships with skeptical clients. Yet, as always in this line of work, one must lead by example.

Many articles of late have described the essential role of professionals who facilitate gun violence prevention street outreach during these unprecedented times. We continue to remain on the front lines of violence interruption activities. Were experiencing new situations like being called to mediate conflicts within homes where families are battling due to cabin fever because the apartment is overcrowded and tensions flare. We are delivering food, water and other necessary supplies where few dare to venture.

Outreach workers have always been public health professionals who work in our toughest, most dangerous environments, but now we are using our status as trusted messengers to promote the seriousness of this virus and why it is important to follow the mandates of sheltering in place and social distancing. Also, dispelling misinformation about Black people and young people being immune to COVID-19. This work is critical to the health and well-being in urban America, which is even more evident due to our current situation. We are truly honored to be able to serve our communities in this way.

Our attention at the beginning of this pandemic was drawn to the many stories calling COVID-19 the great equalizer, considering this virus leaves no race, gender, religion or social class untouched. Yet as the weeks went on data showed that people of color and especially African Americans living in lower-income communities were suffering a much higher rate of infection and death.

Top to bottom: Jason Green, James Houston, Vaughn Miles, Charles Muhammad; bottom, left to right: Sal Garcia, Joe McCoy, Sam Vaughn

This created very interesting conversations about why. We now know there were a number of reasons. National public health experts told us this was due to the social, racial, educational, economic, housing and health care inequalities, and that African Americans suffered from underlying health conditions at a much higher rate than other citizens. COVID-19 has gone from being the great equalizer to the great revealer.

We who work in neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence found these so-called revelations to be very interesting. We question what COVID-19 has actually revealed. That urban America has been the least of this countrys concerns, since forever? No, that cant be it. As a nation, weve known this to be reality since slavery through the civil rights movement. From fighting for our freedom in the Civil War or after fighting in Vietnam for democratic principles and being called a nigger upon your return and being discriminated against by the job market back at home.

At the very least, weve been in the know since the life-destroying Tuskegee experiments or the war on drugs that decimated Black communities. For sure, anyone who knows the history of this country without a doubt knows that it has not treated its people of color equally. So, what is this great revelation everyone is talking about?

In our work, weve been trying to wrap our heads around this question for a while. Weve determined that both statements are true COVID-19 equalizes and reveals. What this pandemic has done to this country is horrific, and it is sad to watch the news and see the death toll rise daily. To see a line of cars more than a mile long at the food bank, filled with people worrying about whether or not there will still be something left when they get to the front. Watching the elderly lie in convalescent homes alone because they cant have visitors or, even worse, being left alone because staff werent getting the proper PPE, and no one showed up for work.

To hear the stories of people whove lost loved ones and didnt get to say their final goodbyes because of lockdown protocols. One cant imagine the sheer fear of someone in their last moments on this Earth possibly having to settle for being comforted by a complete stranger, instead of holding the hand of their spouse or children. This is truly a scary time to be alive, a time of fear, uncertainty, despair and maybe even hopelessness.

And then, all of a sudden we got it

It has also been a scary time to live for the young people across this country who are most impacted by gun violence for their entire lives. They dont plan for a future because they dont see a tomorrow. Not everyone in this nation is equal today in this regard. Many young people we work with dont know what they are going to do for food next week or how their rent will get paid. They dont know if they will even be alive tomorrow.

No one should live with these types of uncertainties on a daily basis. Yes, COVID-19 has many in its sights whove never thought or lived this way. But many in our nation have lived this way their entire lives and so have their ancestors. Although there have been policies to try to mitigate these disparities, they have never been enough and are often attacked because of who would receive the remedy.

So now with COVID-19, a spotlight has exposed governments great responsibility to care for us when we cannot care for ourselves and to create the conditions that enhance the opportunity for all to become self-sufficient. But not just because of this pandemic, no. But because that is what a just society does. COVID-19 is new and devastating, but it too shall pass.

And yes, many Americans will agree that the total loss of life could have been avoided. The epidemic of gun violence, however, is an age-old problem in this country, and until we deal with it with the same ferocity that we have for COVID-19, it will continue to be what it has always been an ongoing nightmare of death, harm, trauma and hopelessness.

As this nation slowly gets back to normalcy and people go back to work, school, church and Sunday barbecues, will the majority of us still be OK with some of us continuing to live in a hell like the one we all just escaped? Were reminded of a question anti-racism educator Jane Elliott asked a large group of white people in an auditorium:

If you are OK with being treated the way Black people are treated in this country, please raise your hand. No hands were raised.

We ask you now, are you OK with this country going back to a normal that leaves a part of it behind again? Please raise your hand. If not, please do something about it. Support community organizations on the front lines fighting this epidemic of gun violence and demand that more such efforts are created to do so. Lets take care of each other.

Sam Vaughn, program manager of the Richmond, Calif., Office of Neighborhood Safety and his team of neighborhood change agents James Houston, Sal Garcia, Joe McCoy, Charles Muhammad, Jason Green and Von Miles are co-authors of this column.

Excerpt from:

We Need to Take Care of Each Other After COVID-19 Too - Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Black lives matter. The movement to make that statement a mandate and not just a slogan is not new. It is more than 400 years in the making, writes Thomas Warren, a former WTOP reporter who now works for NFL Network.

America is experiencing a critical moment.

The killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by law enforcement have, once again, forced the country to reckon with its long history of systemic racism and, more specifically, police brutality.

In the weeks following their deaths, protesters of every hue have flooded the streets across the country to preach what should be a universal truth: Black lives matter.

The movement to make that statement a mandate and not just a slogan is not new. It is more than 400 years in the making. But to ensure this moment is not squandered, the work cant be shouldered by Black people alone.

We need allies, especially white ones. Its time for their privilege, and all the comfort it affords, to be used for a greater good. We need allies willing to speak truth to power.

We need allies to act as though their lives depend on ending the disease of systemic racism as much as Black lives do.

I work for the media group of the National Football League. In the wake of the deaths of Floyd and Taylor, the company held numerous open-forum-style Zoom conversations to discuss race in America.

During one of those meetings, a non-Black colleague asked me, What is it that an ally can do?

Its a question Ive thought a lot about.

The answer is, there are several things an ally can do. However, Ill focus on three.

I believe showing the willingness to at least try and understand the everyday struggle of being Black in America could improve the collective psyche of our society. The video of Floyds killing, specifically, seems to have awakened the conscience of white America to accept that challenge.

That makes me hopeful. I understand that you wont ever fully grasp what it means to be a Black man like me in this country. Even in that truth, you can empathize with how it felt the first time I got pulled over by the police, a feeling Id never wish upon anyone.

I was 16 years old and living in Inglewood, California. As I was driving to school in my moms white 1996 Mitsubishi Galant, I was stopped because I fit the description of someone stealing cars in the area, according to one of the officers.

They ordered me to get out of the car, then handcuffed me and forced me to sit on the curb. I felt the disdainful looks of drivers crawling past, peering at me like I was a criminal even though I hadnt done anything wrong.

Its hard, even now, to describe the embarrassment. My license and registration were legit. I hadnt stolen anything. That I feel compelled even now to clarify those points is infuriating.

At one point, I noticed the two officers standing on the sidewalk between their car and mine, not doing any police work but, instead, conversing while simultaneously looking at me and the traffic. It dawned on me years later that they were sending a message to all the onlookers: You dont know this kid, but you should be afraid of him.

After a while, one of the officers came over to me. He stood me up and after facing traffic for a few silent seconds he said, I think youve had enough. What do you think? He uncuffed me and let me go.

It was my initiation to driving while Black. The hurt I felt from that encounter, which was my first with police in that scenario, Ive carried with me for the last 24 years.

Im a father now. When my son gets his license, Ill celebrate that achievement like any other parent. But I also know it will come with a level of danger that Ill need to prepare him for.

My encounter that day also injected me with an anxiety toward police officers and their ability to disregard my well-being, degrade my humanity and steal my confidence all because they can. If you think Im the only Black man who feels this way, then you havent cared enough to pay attention.

We carry that dread with us each time we leave our homes, or, in Breonna Taylors case, while were asleep in our own beds.

Again, I get it. Its impossible to fully understand that mentality if you dont live it every day. However, if you can engage in empathy, then you can at least understand my perspective. And if youre honest with yourself, doing so will force you to realize that the law enforcement youve always viewed as protection is wielded with savagery on Black people far too often.

Thats a healthy discourse to have. It can lead to compassion, which is sorely needed if were really going to tackle systemic racism.

More than 80% of the U.S. population owns a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center.

Were in an age when information is accessible from the palm our hands. So, its no longer acceptable to utter phrases like I wasnt aware, I didnt know or I didnt understand, when you can Google terms like racial profiling, mass incarceration or war on drugs to learn why Black people are fighting for our lives to matter.

You no longer need to leave your home to find educational tools like books, documentaries or films to learn about the atrocities committed against Black people.

So, frankly, willful ignorance to the generational plunder of Black people in America will no longer be tolerated.

When you see a racist act, when you hear racist language or when you know where racial injustice is taking place, call it out for what it is.

Heres an example. Youre at a family gathering. The family member who always tells racist jokes starts telling racist jokes. You dont laugh. Youve never laughed because youve never thought the jokes were funny. But you dont speak up for fear of making the mood uncomfortable.

I implore you to make the mood uncomfortable! Thats what an ally does! An ally is willing to accept the consequences of being a voice of reason. Your Black friends cant always be there to take up the mantle.

Personally, its paramount that the country moves in the direction of equality for Black people. My son is 2 years old. Im already preparing for the talks he and I will need to have, so he is properly equipped to handle a world that will perceive him and his Black skin as a menace to society.

Right now, its cute that because of his size and the clarity in his speech that hes often mistaken as a 4 or 5-year-old. But Im already thinking about when hes 8 or 9 but looks 13.

How will I explain to him that while I still see him as my sweet little boy, others will see him as a threat?

It was the same question my mother mustve asked herself when she had those conversations with me as a 13-year-old. I may have been her sweet little boy, but I was also 6 feet, 5 inches tall. I didnt fully understand when she would say things like, I know youre only 13, but most people dont see that. They see a grown man. You need to know that and conduct yourself accordingly when youre away from this house.

I get it now. And if you think thats hyperbole, go talk to Tamir Rices mother about her 12-year-old son, who was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer who thought he was 20 years old.

Black parents, especially those of us raising Black boys, dont want this burden of having to lecture by means of protection. But we wont have a choice if America stays comfortable in its racial intolerance.

Empathy, education, accountability. Three action items that could lead to effective change if theyre practiced with a sense of urgency. It shouldnt take another George Floyd gasping for his life under the knee of a police officer to create it. We must do something different. The lives of our Black children depend on it.

Thomas Warren is a Sr. Editor for the NFL Network in Los Angeles, a graduate of Howard University and a former editor and reporter at WTOP Radio. Contact Thomas at Thomas.Warren@nfl.com.

Editors note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rayshard Brooks name.

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Column: In critical moment, calling all allies - WTOP

EDITORS NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting a national webinar, in collaboration with Advance 360, on July 13 at 1 p.m. The webinar, Cannabis Reform 2020: Americas Growing Pains & Possibilities will feature heavyweights in the national arena. Heres how to sign up.

By Ari Hoffnung and Susanna Short

The more than 40 million tri-state area residents of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are likely to grapple with the economic and social aftermath of the pandemic for many years. With the keen understanding that state boundaries mean very little to this virus, we are all learning how essential it is for our regions governments to coordinate their policies. One area ripe for collaboration is adult-use cannabis policy.

In 2019, a Regional Cannabis Summit gave hope for a collaborative approach. Now that our states are moving forward with phased re-openings, we ought to re-engage in regional discussions. After all, we have the opportunity to create a regional cannabis market that will eclipse the largest regulated adult-use markets on the planet namely Canada, California, and Colorado and generate more than $1 billion of new tax revenues for the region.

Projections based on the authors analysis of 2019 pre-capita cannabis excise tax collections in adult-use states

Each of the three states is uniquely positioned to benefit. The Garden State is poised to be the first to legalize through the ballot question that voters will address on Nov. 3. The Empire State, home to close to half of the population in the three states, will ultimately have the largest cannabis market in the northeast, while the Keystone State has the most developed medical cannabis infrastructure and is best positioned to transition to adult-use.

There are many reasons to coordinate cannabis policy, and the magnitude of the budget deficit estimates coming out of Albany, Trenton, and Harrisburg amplify the need for collaboration around tax policy.

The task at hand requires balancing the need to maximize revenues for the public good like investments in education, infrastructure, and the communities adversely impacted by the War on Drugs with the need to keep taxes at reasonable levels so the newly regulated industry can compete on price and ultimately eliminate the robust illicit market.

To date, each of our states has proposed different problematic tax structures, and there is an opportunity to learn from other states and move forward in a more coordinated manner. To this end, we recommend that our region adopt three innovative cannabis tax strategies.

Our first and most critical recommendation is to urge our three states to synchronize tax rates. Not too long ago, cars with New York license plates would line up at New Jersey gas stations to enjoy the significantly cheaper gas prices of up to 40 cents a gallon. Similarly, citizens of southeastern

Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey frequently travel to Delaware to benefit from that states zero percent sales tax.

If we do not implement similar cannabis tax rates, consumers in higher-tax states will shop in lower-taxed bordering states, adversely impacting tax collections and employment rates in their home state. Over time, the losing home state would likely decide to lower its tax rate below its neighboring state, which would kick off a classic race to the bottom, which benefits nobody.

Our second recommendation is that the states levy a potency tax instead of the traditional ad-valorem percentage-based tax. Similar to how alcohol is taxed, with higher rates on liquor than on beer, a potency tax would impose higher taxes on products that contain more THC (the primary intoxicating compound in cannabis).

A potency tax achieves several policy goals. Unlike a percentage-based tax, which results in lower tax revenues as prices decline, a potency tax ensures that the downward pressure on prices does not result in dwindling tax collections. Further, a potency tax promotes temperance, a sensible public health policy goal for non-medical consumers.

Our final recommendation is to phase in cannabis taxes over a multi-year period. If taxes are initially too high, consumers will stay in the illicit market, and tax collections will fall painfully short of their potential.

Just as our governors have skillfully coordinated their pandemic responses, they ought to collaborate on cannabis policy, which intersects with public health, economics, and social justice. To be clear, we do not view legalization as a panacea for a full economic recovery or racial reconciliation, but we do believe that smart cannabis policy could help our region heal more quickly.

Working together we can create a regional cannabis market that will not only maximize tax revenues but also maximize justice for our communities.

The time to legalize is now.

Ari Hoffnung is Chief Strategy Officer of Vireo Health, a medical cannabis company operating in New York and Pennsylvania.

Susanna Short is a cannabis industry consultant who has advised clients with operations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

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We could create the biggest adult-use marijuana market on the planet | Opinion - lehighvalleylive.com

"Canada fully dismisses its historical systemic racism, even though it's so apparent," says DiversityTalk's Ika Washington

In the wake of global Black Lives Matter protests and the movements demands to defund police services, it seems that every organization in all industries is looking inward and experiencing a reckoning with racial injustice.

But the cannabis industry has been relatively quiet on the subject. Some find that strange: from an overwhelmingly white workforce to the unfair policing of Black, Indigenous and people of colour in the illicit market on both sides of the border, one might expect more meaningful anti-racist action-planning in the industry.

The GrowthOp asked three Black industry insiders what meaningful action would mean to them; how todays social upheaval is connected to the war on drugs and legalization, and what its like to work in the burgeoning, overwhelmingly white industry.

Heres what they had to say.

I havent seen a lot coming from the industry publicly that would suggest that theyve made a really strong and deep connection in their conscience about the fact that policing and the death of Black lives Black men and women at the hands of police are intimately linked to the legacy of law enforcement of drugs and the war on drugs.

I think its their responsibility to make that connection and to do something about it because there would not be an industry if it wasnt for the sacrifices that were made by largely Black and brown legacy actors.

The cannabis industry has had significant upheaval in the last couple of months with COVID, and so it could just be a function of them not having it together to make a coordinated response. There were a lot of people who were let go and a lot of shuffling. So I think that theres a lot of movement and uncertainty in the industry from the large players and perhaps thats why. But again, its no excuse because they continue to do business that they believe matters to them. So, ultimately, I think its a lack of priority.

Internally, these companies can develop a policy whereby they intentionally seek out, in their leadership and their staff, people of colour and people who come from backgrounds that were disproportionately and harmfully affected by the war on drugs. They can really ramp up their corporate social responsibility programming to invest in programs that help communities that were disproportionately impacted, either through job training or through scholarships, or donation to advocacy organizations like ours.

And a lot of these corporations have really strategic lobbying wings. They can use that power to bring to the attention of the government how necessary it is to implement some kind of reparations regime for communities that have been negatively impacted by this war on drugs.

We have a page on our website where we look at the top 10 organizations that are assisting marginalized people, particularly homeless people, in the COVID pandemic. Were encouraging people to either volunteer or donate to those organizations because our mission is part of a broader struggle to assist people who are marginalized in society, and that justice isnt just about a sort of single-issue problem.

When you say Black market, you know what youre saying or maybe you arent that conscious. But in Oregon, where I lived before, we call it the traditional market, or the illicit. But I think that subconsciously, we are aware of the bad guys wearing the Black hat and legal weed is the white-headed cowboy. And if you look at the top of who actually runs everything, those are some people who see themselves as white-headed cowboys.

Its difficult to talk about these things in terms of just race, because were dealing with this industry where theres so much new money. Were always talking about class, too. These new people, generally theyre white people who have a bunch of money, which is a recipe for not having a lot of experience with Black people or people of colour. When that happens, you can conflate misreadings and mistreatments that are as much about class as they do about race, and thats a hard conversation for us to have.

I feel like I get affected by that as much as anything. We had a guest on the podcast really early on, a journalist, who talked about their ability to be on the inside because they had grown up around that they had gone to fine schools and that was their advantage. I didnt call this person on it on the podcast were trying to be entertaining and be gracious hosts but theres this idea that you have this leg up on someone because youve been in the room. Thats not fair.

So when we talk about there being a lot of work to do, its not just, Were now in favour of Black people not getting the living shit kicked out of them. Its looking at yourself and your own attitudes. These people who are regarded as cowboys in this moment have little inclination to look at themselves that way.

A lot of the people that were at the company were white men or white women, and it was just really weird as the only Black woman at the table. And Im saying, Hey, maybe we should be more diverse, or maybe your social responsibility should be targeted toward amnesty for people with criminal records within Canada. And Id get shut down. It was kind of like, okay, well, theres obviously a problem in the room.

I was not interested in being part of the cannabis industry in Canada anymore. Thats how I ended up going to the UK for my masters. I was just fully disinterested the minute I was shut down, especially when youre talking about marketing. Thats the front, what people see immediately. And if theres no diversity I just kind of shut down. I was not interested.

Theyre still in the infantile stages in Europe, which is very interesting, because coming from Canada, were super-advanced as an industry. Its moving, its kicking and in Europe, theyre still fighting about policies. Its really cute. But at the same time, theyre a little more receptive with trying to do things right, which is something that I didnt get in Canada until recently, where you start calling out people.

Thats why I ended up going back into the cannabis industry when I went to the UK. I was like, Okay, theyre willing to listen, theyre a little bit more receptive. My ideas werent getting shot down.

In London, my leadership was all men of colour. And they put me in a position to make sure that we were diverse. They were in full support of this entirely.

I feel like Europe is just a little bit more aware of racism and discrimination, especially because the UK is obviously no stranger to racism in terms of slavery and knowing their history. But Canada fully dismisses its historical systemic racism, even though its so apparent, especially when you look at the Indigenous population here in Canada. That attitude goes into the corporate spaces as well.

Ive been applying for jobs, and every time I see the line about equity or theyre trying to see if youre a minority, I feel like theres more to it. Even within the HR departments, they need to be more diverse, because Ive looked at companies and all Ive seen is white men or white women, and theyre the ones that are looking through your applications.

For jobs I really want or when I was looking for universities, I looked at the alumnae, the current students and the professors. And even with the jobs I looked at, LinkedIn is the most useful tool ever. And honestly, I hate to be that one that person, but sometimes when I see theres no diversity, Im like, Okay, if I get a call back, Ill be astounded. And Ive not been astounded yet. I knew it.

Those are the techniques that I use, and I urge people to look, too. Make sure youre going to put yourself in a situation that you actually want to be in.

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Reckoning with race: Three Black cannabis insiders on how the industry could be more equitable - The GrowthOp

True to precedent, the enemy was unknown to most Americans mere weeks before the conflict began. Only on February 11 did the World Health Organization name the COVID-19 virus now on everybodys figurative lips. Five weeks later, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president. Soon after came the U.S. Surgeon Generals warning declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a modern Pearl Harbor moment, or a new 9/11.

Democrats, too, have rallied around the metaphor of war. As Susan E. Rice, Barack Obamas national security adviser from 2013 to 2017, wrote on April 8, Mr. Trump is correct: This is war, the most consequential since World War II. Rice expressed no confidence in Trumps fitness to prosecute what she called the viral version of World War III.

Metaphors do not just describe reality; they help create it. For years we have seen the casual employment of war language in addressing domestic social challenges: the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, the War on Crime. In every case, the war metaphor diverted attention and resources from the activation of Americans diverse talents and energies to the concentration of power and the search for enemies.

We need a different way to name the type of partnership among self-governing citizens, and between them and their governments, that this crisisand democracy itselfdemands: a we-the-people partnership for strong, inclusive communities that must take the form of work.

The dangers of the war metaphor and war mentality in this latest crisis are by now clear. President Trumps call for shared sacrifice and devotion in the battle against COVID-19 was soon followed by the firing of administration watchdogs; suspension of environmental regulations; and attacks on reporters who ask tough questions. After asserting his total personal authority over the states in a national emergency, Trump now challenges Americans to act like warriors, sacrificing lives to reopen the economy.

Meanwhile, the xenophobes have mounted their chargers across the country. Asian Americans are targeted as carriers of the novel coronavirus. It is time to stop waging war and get back to work.

Yes, work. Work was once the master metaphor of American democracy. According to Gordon Wood, in his field-shaping work on The Creation of the American Republic, when the Founders classical ideals of virtue failed to knit the newly independent states into a unified society, Americans found new democratic adhesives in the actual behavior of plain ordinary peoplemost of whom spent most of their time and put much of their pride in working.

In the emerging nation, public goods such as schools, libraries, wells, roads, and bridges were created by groups of citizens, joining self-interests with public purpose. As David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, has observed: Nineteenth-century self-rule was a sweaty, hands-on, problem-solving politics rooted in collective decision making and actingespecially acting.

Some of that collective work was devastatingly destructive, especially of Indigenous lives and cultures. But the story of constructive world-building that Mathews tells must also be recalled. Settlers on the frontier had to be producers, not just consumers. Their efforts were examples of public work, meaning work done by not just for the public.

The public-work ethos survived into the next century. A call to public work was central to pragmatist philosopher William James famous proposal for a moral equivalent of war. James envisioned a national service corps to foster the civic passion of young people, not merely to give them jobs, make them employable, or cultivate their sense of noblesse obligemuch less forge them into bellicose nationalists.

Jamess corps would open young peoples eyes to the hard and sour foundations of arrangements they took for granted, and train them not in the arts of war but the virtues of democracy: empathy, tolerance, inventiveness, cooperation, and fidelity to the nation that valued such ideals by building a commonwealtha more perfect unionto foster them.

Through the first half of the 20th century, similar public-work visions inspired consequential efforts to create that more perfect union, from the New Deals Civilian Conservation Corps to the citizenship schools of the civil rights movement. Over recent decades, however, the connection of daily work to democratic citizenship has disappeared.

When John F. Kennedy announced VISTA as a means for Americans to serve their country rather than asking it to serve them, he contrasted the idealism of service, as he saw it, with the instrumental character of work. This view, rooted in a strand of classical Greek thought that maligned labor and commerce as publicly corrupting, has never been wholly absent from American culture. Our current era, however, is notable for its ignorance of the generations of Americans who understood that a commonwealth requires creating.

Today, citizenship is most often reduced to volunteerism and voting. But there is widespread hunger in America for work that is personally rewarding and publicly meaningful. A 2018 study in the Harvard Business Review found that 9 of 10 Americans surveyed were willing to earn less money to do work that makes a contribution to society.

This is welcome news. When the virus passes, the problems of poverty, inequality, and fragile public health will remain, as will mounting challenges such as climate change. It will fall to the whole people to see that they are addressed, both through their own efforts and by insisting that governments become partners in their mission.

Anticipating this need, a group in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is developing a Blueprint for Community Recovery, based on a decade of experiments to boost well-being in diverse communities through citizen-empowering, citizen-driven work. They plan for wide citizen input to fashion a national vision and practical ideas for creating strong, inclusive communities, made resilient through what one key leader Bobby Milstein calls the civic muscle-building potential of residents daily activities.

Even now there is evidence that the crisis is generating a new respect for the public value of everyday work. Americans are realizing that they are surrounded by essential workers who continue cleaning corridors, stocking shelves, driving trucks, and keeping us alive and sane. But to celebrate such work as war efforts is a profound mistake.

War defines citizenship in terms of altruistic service to the collective, hiding the constant negotiation of personal and public interests that democracy requires. Wars target enemies and accrue authority to the state. They marginalize vulnerable communities and disenfranchise the people writ large. Above all, wars are waged in hopes of their ending.

Citizenship is not a task to be completed. It is continuous, difficult, often frustrating, yet inherently dignified, personally rewarding, and publicly meaningful work. In this vein, we need to decommission the war metaphor and reach instead for what Langston Hughes called Freedoms Plow:

Out of laborwhite hands and black handsCame the dream, the strength, the will,And the way to build America. America!Land created in common,Dream nourished in common,Keep your hand on the plow! Hold on!

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The Metaphor of War: When this pandemic is over the problems of inequality will remain - Milwaukee Independent

There is a growing concern over the rise in numbers of drug abusers all over the world, which is in turn leading to loss of life and crime. It is a growing nuisance in many societies, as school and college going kids, who have become addicted, now have no regard for life and would even kill to get their fix. As countries fight to raise awareness about substance abuse and unlawful drug trade, we take a look at what the International Day Against Drug Abuse And Illicit Trafficking is all about. Also Read - US Woman Gifts Her Daughter A Doll For Christmas, Stunned to Discover That It Was Stuffed With Cocaine

Drug abuse does not necessarily mean using drugs such as cocaine, hallucinogens, cannabis, sedative hypnotics and opiates, but also encompasses prescription medications such as painkillers, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers. As per the World Drug Report 2017, released by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), about a quarter of a billion people used drugs at least once in 2015. Also Read - Bizarre Excuse! Florida Man Caught With Cocaine Claims That Wind Blew the Drug Into His Car

The United Nations General Assembly decided to designate June 26 as International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on December 1987. The chosen date is to commemorate Lin Zexus dismantling of the opium trade in Humen, Guangdong just before the First Opium War in China. Also Read - Beaches In France Closed After 1,000 Kg Of Cocaine Washes Up Along Coast

The day is used to highlight the dangers of drug abuse and bring awareness to people on how to deal with it. The UNODC has over the years been participating actively by launching campaigns to gain support for drug control. It also often teams up with other organisations to encourage people to take part in the campaigns. There have been many public rallies to promote awareness about the dangers of illicit drug use, with governments and organisations taking the lead in organising such events.

The goal of the day is to strengthen global action and cooperation towards creating a society that is free from drug abuse and unlawful drug trade.

Originally posted here:

International Day Against Drug Abuse And Illicit Trafficking 2020: History, Significance of The Day - India.com

In late 1963 I was hired as Office Manager for Raymond Intl. in So. Vietnam. The French left and the U.S.

took over and the U.S. awarded a cost plus contract to RMK-BRJ ($2 billion -- approx. $15 billion today).

There were85,000 American troops and RMK-BRJemployed 8,000 American civilians and 51,000 Vietnamese workers.The war in So. Vietnam was never declared because President Nixon vetoed thePowers Resolution which was passedby both the House of Representatives and Senate. The U.S. failed and withdrewfrom So. Vietnam10 years later.

Some of the American employees were housedat the Majestic Hotel in downtown Saigon. We had our meals

on the top floor which overlooked the river. While having dinner we witnessed U.S. planes flying over the river

area and dropping fire bombs over Vietcong troops.

Vietcong agents often visited the open area in front of the Majestic Hotel where you could eat, drink and smoke.

The Parliamentand other government offices were also there. On various occasions the Vietcong would bomb variorious buildings, killing many people inthe area.

When RMK-BRJ arrived in So. Vietnam there were no mortuaries. The bodies of soldiers killed in action were

rubbed withVics vaporub,placed in black plasticbags and stacked near the runways of Tan Son Nhut Airbase

near Saigon until they could be transported to theU.S..

Saigonwas the center for prostitution, opium, marijuana andother narcotics.Whenever soldiers had R&R, they

came to Saigon. The prostitutes welcomed them with open arms, choosing married men first. When the soldiers passed out because of drugs and liquor, they would rob them and remove theirwedding ring. If the ring would not come off, they would cut the finger off and leave.

It should be noted thatthis war should be named the Narcotics War. When they returned to the U.S., they were

not welcomed. It took years for Congress to approve various financial, medical and other benefitsthat were normally given to veterans.Being unwanted, unemployed, having no medical benefitsand suffering from mental and psychological ailments,the veterans turned to various narcotics for relief.This was the time when our soldiers began

the use of drugs to ease the stress of the battles they endured. In the meantime drugs abounded throughout the U.S. andelsewhere.

President Trump and the present administration are having many problems.

What have they learned from our pastmistakes?

Are you voting?If not, you cannot complain about the results.

SaadAssad

Ashtabula

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Looking back at the drug war | Letters To The Editor | starbeacon.com - The Star Beacon

Memorial Day had us reflecting on all of those brave men and women who have laid down their lives for this country. Neither of our fathers lost their lives in war, but each of our fathers did heed the call to fight in World War II one in the European Theater, participating in the liberating invasion of Normandy, and the other in the Pacific Theatre, fighting in the sweltering jungles of New Guinea. While both survived the horrors of war, they each, in their own way, carried the war home with them.

In our fathers era, mobilization extended well beyond the troops being deployed overseas. Their loved ones, and all Americans on the home front, were called upon to make hard sacrifices that they, in turn, viewed as their personal contributions to the war effort. There was a true sense that their sacrifices were for the common good. In his 21st Fireside Chat on April 28, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of the status of the many battlefields. Then he added:

But there is one front and one battle where everyone in the United States every man, woman, and child is in action, and will be privileged to remain in action throughout this war. That front is right here at home, in our daily lives, in our daily tasks. Here at home everyone will have the privilege of making whatever self-denial is necessary, not only to supply our fighting men, but to keep the economic structure of our country fortified and secure during the war and after the war.

This will require, of course, the abandonment not only of luxuries but of many other creature comforts.

Every loyal American is aware of his individual responsibility. Whenever I hear anyone saying, The American people are complacent they need to be aroused, I feel like asking him to come to Washington to read the mail that floods into the White House and into all departments of this Government. The one question that recurs through all these thousands of letters and messages is, What more can I do to help my country in winning this war?

Americans truly were in that fight together. And there is much for which we can be proud.

This country has been involved in many wars since WWII, not all fought on a battleground. We also have risen to the ongoing challenges of fighting wars on drugs, on poverty, and on racism. Several weeks after claiming that todays coronavirus would just disappear, our president declared COVID-19 to be our big war and, in his own words, viewed himself as a wartime president. Yet, rather than immediately rallying the nation as a whole, our president was tweeting that The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power to inflame the Coronavirus situation.

One of our fathers lost a father to the Spanish Influenza when he was an infant; one of our fathers lost a man who would have become his brother-in-law, if he had survived that same pandemic. So the behavior of our nation during todays presidentially-declared war on disease hits very close to home.

As Chris Lu, senior fellow at the Miller Center, has said, one of any presidents most important functions is as comforter in chief, and great presidents in the past have been distinguished by their ability to set aside partisanship in times of tragedy to speak words that comfort a nation and remind us that, despite our differences, we are all, in the end, Americans.

We need our president to bring us together to understand the sacrifices we must make so that we dont endure a brutal second wave of this disease, as happened in 1918.

We need to be appalled that we have a president who is encouraging protests of his administrations own guidelines so that people are not inconvenienced by this war. We need to put a halt to the sense of entitlement and, indeed, of ageism so that we may all live through this and face the fight together, as one American people.

We should harken back to what President Roosevelt, the seminal leader of our fathers generation, so famously said: This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

On behalf of our fathers, we certainly hope that is true.

Gregory F. Treverton chaired the U.S. National Intelligence Council from 2014 to January 2017. He is now professor of the Practice of International Relations and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California and chairman of the Global TechnoPolitics Forum. He is the author of numerous books including Dividing Divided States (2014), National Intelligence and Science: Beyond the Great Divide in Analysis and Policy (2015) and Intelligence for an Age of Terror (2011).

Karen Treverton is former Special Assistant to the President of RAND, and manager of the RAND Terrorism Database.

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Presidents and fathers: Fighting our battles, together | TheHill - The Hill

One call that has been growing ever louder during the Black Lives Matterdemonstrations in the United States after the police killingof George Floyd is "Defund the police." This slogan can be read on banners from Washington to Los Angeles, and activists say that action finally has to be taken to curb police violence against African Americans and other minorities. Some large cities have already responded, announcing that they will completely restructure their police forces and/or reduce their budgets.

But another aspect of life in the US that impacts just as much on Black people as police violence is receiving far less media attention:The country's justice system also discriminates against people with darker skins. In the early 2010, statistics made the rounds that one out of three Black men would spend some time in prison, compared with one out of 17 white men.

This figure is disputed. But in May, the renowned Pew Research Center published statistics that speak for themselves.In 2018, Black people made up 12% of the US adult population but accounted for 33% of people serving a prison sentence, while white peoplemade up 63% of the US adult population, yet just 30% of prison inmates. These figures are drawn from reports by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistics agency of the US Department of Justice. Certain age groups are particularly prominent: in 2018, one out of about 21 Black men aged between 35 and 39 was in prison, according to the Pew Research Center.

Protests against police racism have been taking place across the US since the killing of George Floyd

This inequality seems to be gradually changing for the better. According to a report by the think tank Council on Criminal Justice, the difference between the number of imprisoned Black people and white peoplefell considerably between 2000 and 2016.In 2000, the ratio of Black people to white people in state prisons was still more than 8-to-1, whereas in 2016 it was around 5-to-1.

History of injustices

That is, of course, still a large disparity. And it has to do with the fact that the US, whose jails hold more than 2.2 million people, or 22% of the world's prison population, has a long history of racism in its prison system.

The 2016 documentary film 13thby director Ava DuVernay shows how the 13th Amendment was abused after slaves were liberated following the American Civil War. The amendment states that slavery and forced labor are forbidden in the US "except as a punishment for crime." Wealthy white people had lost their labor force in one fell swoop, but had their ways of remedying the situation: In the years after the Civil War, African Americans were arrested for trivial offenses and had to do hard labor as part of their prison sentence.

Then, in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon announced the "war on drugs." This campaign against drug-related crime hit the Black community hard and that was the whole point. In 13th,the former Nixon adviser John Ehrlichmancould be heard referring toAfrican Americans as being among the "enemies" of the Nixon government. He said that while it was not possible to make it illegal to be Black, it was possible to get the public to associate Black peoplewith heroin. This meant that "we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news."

"Mandatory minimums" were also introduced. These meant that long prison sentences could be imposed for minor possession of drugs. For drugs like crack, which was generally less expensive than cocaineandmore often found in the possession of Black people, these mandatory punishments were much longer and handed down for smaller amounts than in the case of drugs like cocaine, which was generally more expensive and more often found in the possession of white people. The "mandatory minimums" leave judges with more or less no discretionary power; even if they would like to give the person involved a second chance, they have to hand down decadeslong jail sentences.

Poverty is also punished via the bail bond system. A person charged with a crime whocannot afford bail is requiredto stay in jail until their trial takes place often for months or even years. Here, African Americans are also disproportionately affected.

Democratic candidate Cori Bush, seen here standing where Michael Brown was killed, wants more help for communities

Preventing criminalization

Problems with the US justice system go back a long way, but the "Defund the police" activists are not letting themselves be deterred. Cori Bush, a Democrat running for Congress in the state of Missouri, told DW that"instead of us spending so much money on tear gas in our police departments, instead of spending all of this money on military-grade weapons and military-grade gear and vehicles," cities should invest in schools, health care and job training programs.

Bush wants to win a seat in the electoral district of Missouri where Ferguson is situated the city where the Black Lives Matter movement first rose to national prominence in 2014 after the Black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white policeman.

Diverting money from police budgets to community aid would have direct effects in bringing down the incarceration rate among African Americans, according to Bush. "I've been in a place where I didn't know where my next meal was coming from. I made sure my children ate but I didn't know what I was going to eat," Bush said, pointing out that such situations had a negative mental impact on people. She is certain that if there were less poverty, fewer young people without future prospects and fewer hungry children, not as many people would end up in prison.

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A previous version of this article misspelled the name ofNixon adviser John Ehrlichman.The department apologizes for the error.

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Blacks in the US targeted by an unfair justice system - DW (English)

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 maintain what they consider order.

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 against police brutality.

Trump is really the culmination of 40 years of increasing social control in the US and decreasing social investment.

The United States began as a control society. Slavery depended on the harshest conceivable controls

Spending on policing in the US has almost tripled, from $42.3bn in 1977 to $114.5bn in 2017.

America now locks away 2.2 million people. Thats a 500% increase from 40 years ago. The US 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 has soared from $437bn in 2003 to $935.8bn this fiscal year.

The more societies spend on social controls, the less they have left for social investment. More police mean fewer social services. This year, American taxpayers will spend $107.5bn more on police than on public housing.

More prisons mean 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 prisoner 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 declined.

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

Such cause-and-effect works the other way, too. As societies skimp on social investment, they turn to social controls to contain the anger and desperation of people who are marginalized and excluded.

The United States began as a control society. Slavery Americas original sin depended on the harshest conceivable controls. Jim Crow wasnt much better.

But in the decades following the second world war, the nation began inching toward social investment.

In 1954, the supreme court barred segregated schools and began investing in better education for all children. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Fair Housing Act of 1968 advanced equal opportunity. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 moved America toward more equal political rights.

Throughout these years, spending on healthcare and public assistance expanded and poverty diminished. The middle class burgeoned and inequality declined.

Then a backlash set in. America swung backward from social investment to social control.

Social controls are not sustainable. They require more and more oppressive means of containing people

Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs that criminalized possession of illicit drugs for personal use. Since then, four times as many people have been arrested for possessing drugs as for selling them, and half of those arrested for possession have been charged with possessing marijuana for their own use.

Bill Clintons Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 put 88,000 additional police on the streets and mandated life sentences for criminals convicted of a felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug crimes. This so-called three strikes, youre out law was replicated by many states. Clinton also abolished welfare.

Why did America swing so sharply backward toward 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 massive redistribution.

Meanwhile, politicians used racism from Nixons law and order and Ronald Reagans welfare queens to Donald Trumps more overt racist memes to deflect the anxieties of an increasingly overwhelmed white working class.

But as weve witnessed over the last weeks of protests and demonstrations, social controls are not sustainable. They require more and more oppressive means of containing people who stand up against oppression.

In any event, the core of Americas identity is not the whiteness of our skin or the uniformity of our ethnicity. It is the ideals we share, however imperfectly achieved.

Moving toward those ideals requires that we relinquish social control and renew our commitment to social investment. For starters, defund the police and invest in our communities.

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What Defund the Police really means: replacing social control with investment - The Guardian

The recent call to defund police departments that has grown out of the current Black Lives Matter movement is something communities of color and criminologists have been talking about for a while. Calls to defund the police and/or prison abolition can sound scary to those just hearing about them. Understanding what these mean and how theyre justified may help people grapple with what might appear frightening and too radical at first.

Defunding police departments and prison abolition is part of a broader movement among criminologists and marginalized communities called Justice Reinvestment. This is the argument that cities, states and the federal government should reallocate some of the billions of taxpayers dollars currently invested in these institutions into services that better serve the needs of our fellow Americans.

This movement arose because there appears to be little relationship between the size of police force, the number of people incarcerated or the severity of punishment on actual crime. Police forces grew exponentially over the past few decades as part of the War on Drugs, the Get-Tough movement and the Broken Windows policing practices that followed. Many, many more people were arrested and sentenced to time in jail or prison, often for low-level crimes and those related to drugs, as police departments across the country were vested with the authority to clean up the streets. After decades of research, criminologists now agree that current practices do much more damage than good, and they impact communities of color far too harshly and in ways that are vastly incommensurate of their crime rates.

Communities of color have known this for a long, long time. Those arrested and incarcerated are highly traumatized while in prison (by both other prisoners and prison guards), have their bonds with family and friends ruined, are further marginalized from jobs, housing, licensing and many of the other necessities that would help them improve their lives upon release. And its not only them that suffer, their parents and children suffer as well, losing the connections with parents or supportive loved ones that are so essential for healthy human development. In fact, as renowned criminologist Todd Clear notes, incarceration is so concentrated and severe in urban communities of color that they destabilize entire neighborhoods, dissolving the informal controls that naturally allow people to maintain order themselves.

This would be a problem even if police (or incarceration, for that matter) actually prevented crime, if it reduced the crime rate. But they dont. In fact, criminologist Travis Pratt noted, while it may seem intuitive that mass incarceration is an effective way of controlling crime, the results of over 600 empirical studies reveal it is not. Few are willing to hear this, but its true and not very difficult to accept if we are willing to go beyond overly simplistic and wrongheaded thinking of people committing crimes as just evil-doers.

This movement arose because there appears to be little relationship between the size of police force, the number of people incarcerated or the severity of punishment on actual crime.

With the Get-Tough movement supported widely by both Republicans and Democrats across the nation, cities grew their police forces, equipped them with military gear and created special task forces focused on drugs and gangs (usually very loosely defined). This has had virtually no effect on crime rates and victimization rates, as the quality and quantity of drugs has skyrocketed, as have the number of guns and gangs on the streets, but it has resulted in more violent police departments.

The basic conclusions that we must draw are that policing not only does not work to reduce or prevent crime, but it makes things worse. This is especially the case for the nations black and brown populations. Not only does policing do little to address the underlying conditions that create crime in the first place, but makes them worse.

Can police departments be reformed? Many criminologists are increasingly skeptical. Few supported the popular call for body cameras in 2014 when the Black Lives Movement emerged, arguing that it is not the systemic change needed. Why the skepticism? It is mainly because we ask the police to do things they are neither equipped to do nor designed to do.

Police are tasked with responding to all kinds of problems, from mental health, drug addiction, domestic abuses, homelessness, and disputes among youth. Yet, its not an institution designed to deal with these social problems in any way other than arrests. However, we will never arrest our way out of these. They require other strategies, strategies that deal with deep, ingrained, structural inequalities. Many police know this and, as Dallas Police Chief David Brown recently expressed, grow frustrated at being the key agency asked to deal with these problems. Its damaging to them as well. Itd be helpful if they admitted it more publicly.

As institutions, police and mass incarceration are not designed to deal with these problems, nor are they designed to prevent or reduce crime, even if thats what we like to tell ourselves. They were designed, however, to control populations that may threaten the nations racial and class structure. Policing, as we know it today, emerged out of private security firms, the protection of private property for those who own it, attempts to control new waves of immigration and slave patrols. From the beginning, they were created and tasked with the responsibility to enforce and uphold a vast system of racial and class inequality. They may not address crime well but, as sociologist Noel Cazenave points out, they do protect wealthy elites and a system of white supremacy, even if many of us dont want to acknowledge it.

Of course, few police officers would agree with this or see themselves engaged in these actions. But it doesnt matter. We seldom see our individual lives as part of larger social and historical forces. That doesnt mean its not true. Further, some might argue that black and brown police do not engage in these acts, using it as a justification to diversify departments. Neither does this matter. If police do their jobs properly, they will inevitably be enforcing a system or long-standing, shapeshifting racial and class control, regardless of the racial, ethnic, or gender make-up of a department.

This is why critical scholars, activists and others involved in the present movement for black lives are calling to defund the police. The conclusion is that they dont work to control crime, theyre not designed to do so, they often make things worse, and they control populations of color hindering their ability to create the kinds of change necessary for real racial equity.

Many justice reinvestment advocates say they can accept a very small police force and prisons allocated for the most violent of offenders. But there are more effective ways of helping almost everyone else.

So, what can we do? Where should we put our resources? Justice reinvestment advocates have different ideas, but they generally agree that most of the money currently spent on policing should be spent in areas that better support productive, healthy and pro-social lives, families and communities, something many white people and the more privileged enjoy without even knowing it. In a review of research on violence across the globe, criminologist Elliott Currie notes the societies with high levels of violence and self-harm are characterized by severe inequality, too much marginal work and low-wage jobs, weak social supports, strained families, harsh justice systems and easy availability to firearms. Indeed, shifting much of the money we spend on police and prisons towards these areas would be welcomed and effective.

What might this look like? Shifting money towards social workers, affordable and safe housing, mental health services, conflict resolution for youth and adults, adequate, long-term, residential drug treatment services, family planning, free daycare, low or no interest loans for home buyers and businesses owned and controlled by people who live in communities of color and want to invest in them. These are the things that help people develop healthy lives, stable families and safe communities. This is the crime prevention strategy we should all want, and we need to think outside of police, prosecutors and prisons to get here.

Would police and jails disappear in such a scenario? Not entirely. Many justice reinvestment advocates say they can accept a very small police force and prisons allocated for the most violent of offenders. But there are more effective ways of helping almost everyone else. Virtually every advanced, industrial country in the world has figured this out, but not the U.S.

There are other calls that must be recognized if we are to properly deal with institutionalized racism in the criminal justice system. None of them require different or more training, a monitor, or similar ineffective strategies.

First, end the War on Drugs and release all prisoners sentenced on drug possession or distribution charges from prison. The War on Drugs has cost the US over $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives. Its a massively expensive investment to harm populations of color that already suffer from severe inequalities due to ongoing systemic racism. It needs to stop and those most affected by it should be given priority in any business endeavors that arise due to its decriminalization.

Second, we must have meaningful criminal punishment for police officers who violate the laws theyre sworn to uphold and prosecutors who lie, cheat and over-prosecute. Prosecutors ability to levy charges with prescribed sentences and their focus on winning cases distort civic ideals of how our courts should operate in the U.S. and they exacerbate the racism already at work with the War on Drugs and policing practices.

Finally, envision a society that reserves prisons for only the most violent people, like serial killers. Knowing that prisons do little to reduce crime and often make things worse and at great social and economic expense should motivate us to think about something different. One step towards this would be to prevent anyone from making money running and operating prisons. Nobody should have economic incentives that call for more prisons, prisoners and longer sentences. Instead, incentives should be structured to support successful reentry. Other steps were identified earlier: residential drug treatment, stable and safe housing, residential mental health services, youth and adult conflict resolution, etc. Our strategy should be to reduce inequalities, support families and communities, and decriminalize behaviors where involvement is voluntary. We must find ways to respond to crime that do not exacerbate these underlying conditions as we have done since the Civil Rights Movement and the beginning of Mass Incarceration.

Its not a matter of whether or not we can afford it. We have no choice. We have an obligation to right the wrongs of entrenched white supremacy and its operation through the criminal justice system. And we can afford it; we have the money. Whats missing is the imagination and political will to implement significant changes. Our priorities are wrong. Our money should be spent on helping to create safe and healthy societies, not on damaging them.

Thats why people are mad and protesting. Thats why people are calling to defund the police. Thats why people want to see real progress in decriminalization and decarcertion. These are institutions with long histories of upholding white supremacy and controlling populations of color, and they are counterproductive in preventing crime. Justice reinvestment provides some suggestions on how our political leaders and fellow citizens should respond in anti-racist ways and in ways that will make for a healthier, safer, equitable society.

Stephen F. Ostertag, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology Tulane University

The Opinion section is a community forum. Views expressed are not necessarily those of The Lens or its staff. To propose an idea for a column, contact Opinion Editor Tom Wright at twright@thelensnola.org.

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Defunding police and prisons: a primer - The Lens

OPINION ART -- TOP 10 . GRADUATION PIE CHART

OPINION ART -- TOP 10 . GRADUATION PIE CHART

Photo: Barrie Maguire / Newsart.com

OPINION ART -- TOP 10 . GRADUATION PIE CHART

OPINION ART -- TOP 10 . GRADUATION PIE CHART

Ken Dixon: Class of 2020 left holding the bag

Greetings graduates! You made it, sort of, kind of, technically. I mean, youve gotten the diploma ...

You cant say you wont remember this spring, when you look back with 2020 hindsight, after youve solved global climate change, poverty, misguided wars of imperialism, weaned us off Big Oil and brought a new era of racial understanding.

Did I mention the asteroid? Maybe later.

In fact, you 18-to-24 types had better get cracking before there is nothing else left to save, amid the tornadoes, flooding, rising sea levels Farewell Florida! Russian trolls, attacks on DACA, the Affordable Care Act, your freedom of speech and the right to assembly to redress your grievances.

Lets not forget the active assaults on clean water, bee-killing pesticides, the pimping-out of the national parks and generations of racial inequity and segregation.

Yep, the so-called adults in the country are on the verge of leaving you a dirty, hateful mess.

It seems that the battle might be engaged. I feel like the iconic comedian Oliver Hardy, who after another tragic, hilarious mishap, often his fault, would look at his partner Stan Laurel and, in full denial of the circumstances remark Well, heres another nice mess youve gotten me into.

In fact, my generation, which came of age protesting the Vietnam War and studying Laurel and Hardy, has left you 2020 grads holding the bag. We preached peace, love and freedom, then spent the next 40 years making money, paying very little attention to public policy and finally allowed a money-grubbing huckster and his corporate-backed enablers to invade and loot the White House, the Treasury and much of what America represented on the global stage.

The Boomers became the sleepers, and like Rip Van Winkle, were waking up to find that nothing has changed since 1970, except pop music has fewer guitars, and maybe its a lot easier to divide and conquer us. Oh, and the police have deadlier tactics, complete with surplus military equipment.

The dog whistles of a type of law-and-order politician who thrived over the last few decades as people stopped reading newspapers, gave police the license to abuse people of color. The cops got away with it for way too long even as the war on drugs failed massively and completely. Fortunately, the advent of personal video cameras has helped the cause of truth and justice.

Video of a knee to the neck of George Floyd in Minneapolis helped expose the homicide heard around the world. And despite the low esteem in which the White House is held, hundreds of thousands of people joined in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in places such as London and Paris, where only people in their 90s still remember the United States as the friendly do-anything liberators of 75 years ago in the war against murderous fascism.

This is an optimistic turn of events, and may be the last chance for the United States to live up to its name. It just took a worldwide pandemic, 120,000 deaths in the United States and one more Black man killed by a cop to set it off.

Marching and yelling, even shouting at cops and City Hall is just a start. Its probably the easy part because demonstrators make their own paths of least resistance. You want to stand in Interstate-95 and stop traffic? Fine and dandy. I mean, its a nice day and all ...

But if you want something that lasts, youve got to build within the existing public-policy infrastructure. That means running for office, so progressive people can have their voices and logic heard on local school boards, library boards, city and town councils and, the true laundries of local racial exclusion, which are planning and zoning commissions.

It means knocking on doors for support, talking with neighbors who often cant articulate what needs to be done, and convincing them that change starts with hope and educated advocates. And you with the fresh diplomas, are educated. The power elite are standing in your way.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, when my generation was your age, the graduation mantra was to go on to learn more, or get a job and start on the work of change from within.

So, you college graduates, welcome to real life. High schoolers, keep studying or if you cannot afford higher education, keep informed. Reading is the key to arguing truth to power.

Its everybody for themselves, or everybody for everybody. Good luck, try not to get hurt, and know weve been waiting for you to come help. Surprise! Nobodys in charge.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT

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Ken Dixon: Class of 2020 left holding the bag - Middletown Press

The Department of Justice has given the Drug Enforcement Agency the power to surveil the people participating in the nationwide uprising against police brutality. At first glance, this might be perplexing to some. Why would an agency that focuses on drug trafficking take action against those fighting for racial justice?

Fuck ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) protest, NYC.

In actuality, this move makes a good deal of sense. One need only consider the racist nature of the war on drugs. The DEA, as a tool of white supremacy, is working in concert with other state apparatuses of oppression and repression.

On the evening of June 1, law enforcement personnel brutally cleared Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., of peaceful protesters decrying the police murder of George Floyd, so that President Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo-op.

The next day, Attorney General William P. Barr stated in a Department of Justice press release: I am grateful to the many federal law enforcement agencies and personnel who helped protect the District [of Columbia], including the FBI, Secret Service, Park Police, ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], DEA, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Service, Capitol Police, Department of Homeland Securitys CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and Border Patrol units, and others.

The fact that the U.S. Border Patrol another federal agency that has long brutalized Black and Brown people is involved thousands of miles from any U.S. border gives credence to the argument that the institution of the state in this country is inherently white supremacist. Federal law enforcement agencies are first and foremost tools of repression, meant to maintain prevailing social relations and inequality.

Bhagat Singh, an Indian revolutionary, said on Feb. 2, 1931: The state, the government machinery is just a weapon in the hands of the ruling class to further and safeguard its interests. (tinyurl.com/y8yrwfrz)

In the case of U.S. capitalism, these interests are tightly bound to and indeed dependent on the racialized order that is maintained through violence against nonwhite and hyper-exploited populations.

The open collaboration of these law enforcement agencies also suggests that top state officials feel threatened enough to think it is necessary to lift the thin veil on the state in order to protect the fragile order of the countrys white ruling class. They have every right to be fearful for they know that what is at stake is their own position of dominance.

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True nature of the capitalist state revealed - Workers World

In the famous Norman Rockwell painting Runaway, seen on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1958, akindly police officer and apubescent boy sit at alunch counter, the boy clearly having packed some belongings in akerchief and run away. Its awholesome encounter and one wholly at odds with our modern image of police. Thats because its an image that came before the modern drug war.

During our national conversation on police and criminal justice, there will be many reforms proposed that will help increase police accountability and encourage better behavior. We should absolutely reform unions, abolish qualified immunity, and address how police are investigated after excessive force is used. But it is also important that we look to one of the root causes of why the police no longer have that wholesome, Norman Rockwell image. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, every day, thousands of police suit up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

Drug crimes are qualitatively different from other types of crimes, i.e. real crimes. Real crimes have victims, and victims call the police to investigate and hopefully catch the perpetrator. The victim of arobbery calls the police, invites the police into his house, asks them to take evidence, and gives them all the information he has.

When crimes have no real victims, however, policing fundamentally changes. With drug use, the purported victim and the criminal are the same person, guilty of the grave crime of preferring adifferent intoxicant than the one available at the local bar. Victims no longer participate in catching the criminals, since they are the same person. Police must therefore adopt strategies to catch unwilling victims and to interdict the drugs at their source.

Catching unwilling victims is difficult. Anyone could be acriminal/victim, after all, hiding illicit drugs on their body, car, or property. What were once casual interactions with citizens become riddled with suspicion. Is this driver hiding something? Perhaps if Isearch that random person on the street, Ill find drugs, after all, he looks like adruggie.

Not to mention that finding drugs on someone can become apretense for abusive behavior. Perhaps acop wants to bust up some unruly teenagers to teach them alesson about loitering and disobeying his authority? Is that marijuana he smells? Who could possibly question him on that?

If drug users are out in the street, its relatively easy. But what if theyre in their homes, carrying out their crimes in private? Surveillance is the first priority. Helicopters can be flown over the house or, now, more likely drones. Heatsensitive cameras can test for grow rooms, and there are always informants who are more than willing to fess up for leniency or asmall cash payment. Theres adrug dealer in there, they tell the cops, and now police can go after the source.

But the criminals/victims still wont invite the police into the house, so it is time to suit up and go in with force. Thankfully for the police, the American military has been transferring surplus gear to local police departments for afew decades, primarily to fight the drug war. With all this gear laying around, why not use it?

A modern police officer can don the accoutrements of asoldier fighting in Fallujah and arrive at the scene of the crime in an armored personnel carrier designed for military use. They can also request permission from amagistrate judge (nearly always given) to carry out a noknock raidsuch as the raid that killed ayoung black woman named Breonna Taylorand go in with full force. The door is violently busted open, flash bang grenades are thrown in, and armed men come rushing in throwing the occupants to the ground threatening to shoot them, if not actually pulling the trigger.

What else could they do? After all, drugs were in there.

But there werent, unfortunately for the cops. The informant lied or was misinformed, or maybe the cop lied on the warrant, as has also been known to occur. While the occupants are picking up the pieces of their broken house and consoling each other over the trauma they endured, the police are miffed. They were hoping to find abig stash they could put on TV or some money they could take for themselves. Through the process of forfeiture, in which drugdealing assets and proceeds can be legally taken and kept by police, drug raids often look more attractive than hitting the streets with some oldfashioned shoe leather policing.

And for some police officers, drug raids are just more fun. With policing having changed so fundamentally from the batontwirling Officer Friendly, is it asurprise that some officers joined the force because they want to be the batonbashing Officer Shut the F*** Up?

This is the policing the drug war has given us. While the drug war is not the only reason police have become more violent and less accountable, its effect on policing, while difficult to fully quantify, is immense

When you imagine aworld without the drug war, the mind spins with possibilities, especially for policing. Imagine all those resources are poured into treatment and recovery. Imagine all those police officers who are reassigned to the homicide, burglary, and sex crimes divisions. The American murder clearance ratethe rate at which someone is arrested for amurdersits around 60 percent, which is among the lowest in the developed world. Other crimes with real victimsassault, rape, burglaryhave even lower clearance rates. Even if the drug war were ended, theres clearly alot of policing to be done.

Imagine aworld where SWAT raids are used when theyre needed rather than the 62 percent of the time theyre currently used to serve drug warrants. Imagine waking up in aworld where the police have dedicated almost all their resources to preventing actual crimes and catching actual criminals.

That world is possible. We can get Officer Friendly back, and Id gladly sit next to that guy at the lunch counter.

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How the Drug War Broke Policing | Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute