Daily Archives: March 17, 2017

History has given a greenlight to more than 100 hours of original, premium documentary limited series and specials to premiere in 2017, including programs examiningAmericas costly War on Drugs, immigration, cars, terrorism and the mythology of superheroes.

The initial slate of programming announced today by Jana Bennett, President and General Manager of History, focuses largely on significant moments and people who have impacted world and modern U.S. history.

Whether its a story from our distant past or a contemporary event that will shape our collective future, Historys robust new slate of documentary events will take viewers straight to the heart of epic events that shaped where we are and what we are today, said Bennett.The networks increased focus on documentary programming, collaborating with some of the best storytellers in the genre, along with our commitment to sustainable, premium non-fiction and scripted series, will continue to drive the ongoing success of the History brand.

The 100-plus hours of planned documentaries representsan increased investment in such programming to complement the networks non-fiction and scripted series strategy, History says.

Here is the initial line-up of Historys2017 doc slate announced today, along with the networks program descriptions:

Americas War on Drugs Americas War on Drugs has cost the nation $1 trillion, thousands of lives, and has not curbed the runaway profits of the international drug business. For the last 50 years, both the vilification and the celebration of recreational drugs has had incredible impact on our collective culture. This 8 hour mini-series will explore the strange revelations of the profit machine of the drug business, and the impact of the longest war in our nations history on our lives.

Americas War on Drugs is produced by Talos Films. Julian P. Hobbs, Elli Hakami and Anthony Lapp are Executive Producers for Talos. Michael Stiller is Executive Producer for History.

America: Journey of the Brave Every era begins with the human will to move. Between 1820, when proper record keeping began, and 2014, over 80 million people migrated to the US. During the Great Potato Famine, 1.5 million Irish departed for the shores of America. The Russian Empire saw 1.5 million Jews immigrate to the US from 1881-1914. In America: Journey of the Brave, Historyuncovers the great forces that set mankind in motion. Anchored by high-end graphics and based on research that pieces together the patterns of migration over 70,000 years, this two-part, four-hour special will emphasize the massive movements of people that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution.

America: Journey of the Brave is produced by Nutopia. Jane Root is Executive Producer for Nutopia. Michael Stiller is Executive Producer for History.

The Cars that Made America (working title) The epic stories of the iconic names behind the iconic cars that shaped America. The automobile steered America at every turn throughout modern history, but the world has not heard all the stories of those behind the wheel men like Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, the Dodge Brothers, William Durant, Lee Iacocca and John DeLorean. In three two-hour installments, Historylooks under the hood to reveal the winners who rose to fame and fortune and the losers who crashed and burned on the race to glory. From the birth of the American engine at the turn of the 20th Century through the Muscle Car era of the 1970s, the automotive industrys shadowy legends are replete with titans and devils, genius and failure with one constant: the automobile has influenced us at every turn.

The Cars that Made Americais produced by Magilla Entertainment. Matthew Ostrom, Laura Palumbo Johnson and Jason Fox are Executive Producers for Magilla. Sean Boyle, Stephen Mintz and Russ McCarroll are Executive Producers forHistory.

Superheroes Decoded (working title) Superheroes Decoded reveals how the origin stories of our most iconic superheroes are the building blocks of a uniquely American mythology. This special 2-night, four-hour event is equal parts fan film and informed documentary, mixing clips from present-day blockbuster films with vintage comic book artwork and historical archival to tell the surprising story of the modern era through the lens of our fictional heroes. The program features heroes and villains from both Marvel and DC side by side, as well as commentary from creators, artists, filmmakers, famous fans, and the stars who bring these characters to life on TV and film. Well see how the rise of the superhero parallels Americas rise as a superpower in the 20th century, and how both stories continue to evolve into the future.

Superheroes Decoded is produced by Warrior Poets. Morgan Spurlock and Jeremy Chilnick are Executive Producers and Josh Mensch is Co-Executive Producer for Warrior Poets. Kristen Burns and Russ McCarroll are Executive Producers for History.

How the 90s Changed the World (working title) The fall of the Berlin Wall and the attack on the Twin Towers. A four-hour series of deep investigations explores the critical events that shaped the worldview of those who came of age during that time. Event by event, we see a generation impacted and influenced by an unprecedented era that straddled the end of a century and the beginning of an unimaginable new world. Ultimately, the series reveals the depths to which our near history directly shapes our present. Throughout the series, a chorus of extraordinary individuals born between the late 1960s and early 1980s contextualizes the times and provides a diverse, varied, and complete first person perspective on a generations journey through its formative years.

How the 90s Changed the World is produced RadicalMedia and directed by Paul Bozymowski. Dave Sirulnick, Jon Kamen and Justin Wilkes are Executive Producers for RadicalMedia. Zach Behr is Executive Producer for History.

Age of Terror (working title) September 12th, 2001 was the dawn of a new age: The Age of Terror. The U.S. entered into war with an elusive new enemy: terrorism. It is a war that has lasted sixteen long years, taken tens of thousands of lives, and shifted the global landscape. Despite the enormous efforts to thwart our enemies, today terror is more prevalent than ever. It casts a dark shadow of fear over everything we do. It is the backdrop of our lives. How did this happen? And are we trapped in a war without end? Age of Terror, in two two-hour installments, seeks to answer these questions and more. Probing the historical roots of the conflict, it reveals how this war evolved, and how weve fought back. It provides context on todays brand of terror, on how it has re-shaped our world, and what the future may bring.

Age of Terror is produced by Pulse Films. Fred Grinstein and Gretchen Eisele are Executive Producers for Pulse Films. Kristen Burns and Russ McCarroll are Executive Producers for History.

The programming announced today joins Frontiersmen, the previously announced 8-hour series about iconic pioneers such as Daniel Boone, Lewis & Clark, Tecumseh, Davy Crocket and Andrew Jackson from the post-revolutionary war colonies through the California Gold Rush. Frontiersmen is produced by Appian Way Productions and Stephen David Entertainment. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Michael Hampton and Phillip Watson are executive producers for Appian Way Productions. Stephen David is the executive producer for Stephen David Entertainment. Kristen Burns and Russ McCarroll are Executive Producers for History.

A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights for all of the above programs.

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History's 2017 Documentary Slate To Examine War On Drugs, Cool Cars, Immigration & Superheroes - Deadline

Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed on Wednesday to ramp up enforcement of drug crimes to combat what he says is a nationwide increase in violent crime, a move some experts say channels the "drug war" era of the 1980s.

Sessions delivered a speech to law enforcement officers in Richmond, Virginia, where he touted the effectiveness of Project Exile, a two-decade old program that enforced mandatory minimum sentences on felons caught carrying firearms.

"All of us who work in law enforcement want to keep people safe," Sessions said, according to prepared remarks. "That is the heart of our jobs; it is what drives us every day. So we are all disturbed to learn that violent crime is on the rise in America, especially in our cities."

RELATED: Marijuana laws by state

51 PHOTOS

Marijuana legalization laws by state

See Gallery

Alabama: Medical use only, otherwise possession is a felony

(Photo: Dennis Macdonald via Getty Images)

Alaska: Marijuana legalized for medical and recreational use

(Photo: Zoonar/N.Okhitin via Getty Images)

Arizona: Marijuana legalized for medical use

(Photo:Mikel Ortega via Getty Images)

Arkansas:Medical use only

(Photo: Getty Images)

California: Legal for medical and recreational use

(Photo: Dorling Kindersleyvia Getty Images)

Colorado: Legalfor medical and recreational use

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Connecticut: Decriminalized andlegalized for medical use

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Delaware: Decriminalized

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Florida: Medical use only

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Georgia: Medical use only

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Hawaii: Medical use only

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Idaho: Not legal

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Illinois: Decriminalized

(Photo: VisionsofAmerica/Joe Sohm)

Indiana: Not legal

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Iowa: Medical use only

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Kansas: Not legal

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Kentucky: Not legal

(Photo: Dorling Kindersley via Getty Images)

Louisiana: Medical use only

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Maine: Legal for medical and recreational use

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Maryland: Decriminalized

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Massachusetts: Legal

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Michigan: Medical use only

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Minnesota: Decriminalized

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Mississippi: Decriminalized on first offense

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Missouri: Not legal

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Montana: Medical use only

(Photo:Dennis Macdonald via Getty Images)

Nebraska: Decriminalized on first offense only

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Nevada: Legal

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New Hampshire: Medical use only

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New Jersey: Medical use only

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New Mexico: Medical use only

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New York: Decriminalized unless in public view

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North Carolina: Decriminalized

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North Dakota: Medical use only

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Ohio: Decriminalized

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Oklahoma: Medical use only

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Oregon: Legal for medical and recreational use

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Pennsylvania: Medical use only

(Photo: Henryk Sadura via Getty Images)

Rhode Island: Decriminalized

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South Carolina: Not legal

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South Dakota: Not legal

(Photo:Dave and Les Jacobs via Getty Images)

Tennessee:Medical use only

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Texas: Medical use only, decriminalized in Houston and Dallas

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Utah: Not legal

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Vermont: Decriminalized

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Virginia: Not legal

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Washington: Legal for medical and recreational use

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Jeff Sessions 'appears intent on taking us back to the 1980s' and the 'War on Drugs' - AOL

A one-time hawk in the war on drugs of 20 years ago, I am now a conscientious objector and believe its time to drop the old trappings of war language and metaphor for federal policy and response that strategically embraces new information; the disease model of addiction; and the smart data that tells us incarceration doesnt save money; solve health problems; not stem loss of life, potential and community.

In my one claim to celebrity fame, I was listed among the hawks in a 1997 Rolling Stone article of Whos Who in the War on Drugs. At the time, I was the founding president of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and a principal architect of then new legislation known as the Drug-Free Communities Act (DFCA), introduced by Rep. Rob PortmanRob PortmanThe war on drugs is a horrible metaphor for a nations response to addiction Trump trade nominee says he supports 'America first' policy Overnight Finance: Budget ref caught in ObamaCare crossfire | Treasury chief urges Congress to raise debt limit | McConnell says tax reform unlikely by August MORE and Rep. Sander Levin.

We had a public-health problem, and many prevention- and law-enforcement advocates were seeking criminal justice solutions. That made no sense to me, and there was a clear need to fully fund research on marijuana to get the facts.

I was a strong advocate for prevention and treatment and lobbied hard to protect the Safe and Drug-Free Schools education initiatives to keep kids off drugs, a Nancy Reagan funding legacy. In the 1990s, public and private funds were spent to build community anti-drug coalitions and public-service advertising, conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and Drug Free Schools.

This three-legged stool was the main strategy promoted by the Clinton administration under the leadership of Drug Czars Lee Brown and Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

Brown led the campaign to increase funding for treatment of the hard-core drug-user. This focus on treatment, often through Drug Courts, resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime. The Clinton Administrations crime bill created the Office of Community-Oriented Policing and put 100,000 officers on the streets.

By 1999, gun crime was down by 40 percent; overall crime dropped eight years in a row; and the murder rate had dropped 38 percent. Since 1993the rateof violent crime has declined from 79.8 to 23.2victimizationsper 1,000 people.

We look back on that time with some nostalgia. Things appeared to be working, but lost in those favorable crime-rate headlines was the incarceration trend that would cost this country billions of dollars and millions of ruined lives.

In 1992, we incarcerated nearly 900,000 people in state and federal prisons. In 2016, that number had risen to 2.2 million imprisoned, with a total of 6.7 million under court supervision. The United States incarcerates 716 out of every 100,000 people. This year, we will spend $80 billion on incarceration, but those numbers still fail to account for the lost potential and far-reaching social, economic and personal consequences on individuals, families and communities.

While our intentions may have been noble, the outcome was anything but noble. During the George W. Bush and Barack ObamaBarack ObamaUK spy agency denies 'ridiculous' wiretap claim Dem senator: Trump has lost credibility over wiretap claims Obama reportedly spending a month in French Polynesia MORE administrations, the country focused more on treatment and treatment-alternatives to incarceration.

Our thinking about best approaches to substance use and addiction has evolved from an increased awareness about the disease component of addiction and from communities looking for more redemptive approaches to drug use.

It would appear we are about to declare another war on drugs. Attorney General Jeff SessionsJeff SessionsTHE MEMO: GOP breaks from Trump in 'wiretap' furor Overnight Finance: Inside Trump's first budget | Reaction from Congress | Budget panel advances ObamaCare repeal | Debt ceiling returns Overnight Cybersecurity: Trump standing by wiretapping claim | Cyber gets boost in Trump budget | Bad bots on the rise | McDonald's Twitter hack MORE wants to enforce federal marijuana laws and increase enforcement efforts on drug-trafficking. I get the trafficking strategy, but incarceration for marijuana possession and use ignores decades of informed data.

The war on drugs is a horrible metaphor for a nations response to addiction. It has been a war on our own people and our neighborhoods. We have warehoused those afflicted with the disease of addiction in a false detente pivoting on out-of-sight-out-of-mind.

In 1997, we were all trapped by the war on drugs metaphor. Drug use and dependence is a health issue and requires a health response. Health providers are non-combatants, and the impulse to lock people up is a reversal that will continue to cost this country in lives, dollars and compassion.

James E. Copple facilitated President Obamas Task Force on 21st Century Policing and is the Founding President of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. He is currently the Principal of Strategic Applications International an international consulting firm working in substance abuse, HIV/AIDS prevention and police reform.

The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

Excerpt from:

The war on drugs is a horrible metaphor for a nation's response to ... - The Hill (blog)

An opposition lawmaker in the Philippines has filed an impeachment complaint against controversial President Rodrigo Duterte, accusing him of crimes ranging from abuse of power to running his own death squad when he was mayor of Davao. The president has dismissed the claims, as he looks to ramp up his deadly war on drugs and seeks to silence any dissident voices.

The complaint was filed by lower house representative Gary Alejano, who admitted it would be an uphill battle to impeach the president given support for him in both houses of parliament but said it would give the people of the Philippines a chance to voice their opinion on Duterte.

Alejano said Dutertes actions were a culpable violation of the constitution, engaging in bribery, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes. Responding to the complaint, a spokesman for Duterte said the representative was scraping the bottom of the barrel with this complaint. This isnt the first time Duterte has faced such damning allegations. International rights groups have said his policies and practices amount to human rights abuses.

Duterte has been accused by political opponents and human rights groups of running death squads during his time as mayor of Davao from 1988 to 1998. Last August a former hitman testified before a senate committee that he had been hired to kill alleged criminals and political opponents under Duterte mayorship of Davao.

The impeachment complaint was filed just over a week after Duterte restarted his deadly war on drugs. Dubbed Operation Double Barrel Dutertes aggressive and violent program targeting drug dealers and users was temporarily suspended in February after rogue police officers killed a South Korean businessman.The program hadclaimed the lives of at least 7,000 people since its launch in June 2016., according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

On March 7, Duterte restarted the operation, with Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa promising the new campaign now called Operation Double Barrel: Reloaded will be less bloody if not bloodless, this time around.

As well as ignoring calls from the international community to stop his bloody campaign, Duterte has also sought to stamp out any opposition voices in his own country.

Last month one of the only politicians to vocally oppose the war on drugs was arrested on bribery charges. Leila de Lima, a senator who led the senates Justice and Human Rights Committee, faces allegations of taking bribes amounting to the equivalent of $100,000 from drug lords during her tenure as justice secretary. Duterte publicly said De Lima should hang herself.

The chances of Duterte suffering the same fate as South Korean President Park Geun-hye did last week are slim. He commands strong support in both houses of Parliament, and for the complaint to move forward, it would require the support of at least a third of the members of the lower chamber which is unlikely to happen. Last week a vote on the revival of the death penalty saw Dutertes block win a commanding victory by 217 to 54.

Senator Panfilo Lacson said: All I can say is, without necessarily associating myself with them in the matter of impeaching [Duterte], my simple message is good luck to them.

Despite Alejanos claim that his complaint would give the public a voice to oppose and fight against the abuses and crimes of the president, Duterte continues to enjoystrong support fromFilipino voters. An opinion poll carried out in December found that 8 out of 10 Filipinos were satisfied with Dutertes war on drugs.

Cover: (Reuters/Erik de Castro)

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Culpable violation of the constitution - VICE News

17 Mar 2017

FOR more than 100 years the United States has looked to prohibition to curtail the use of drugs.

Proponents argue that by making substances like marijuana, cocaine and heroin illegal, government can significantly reduce drug-related crime, prevent addiction and stop the spread of drug-related disease.

The results have been less than impressive. In fact, Michael Botticelli, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the War on Drugs has consisted of failed policies and failed practices.

Among alternative policies proposed to better achieve the stated goals are decriminalization of drugs relaxed enforcement and penalties for drug offenses and outright legalization of all drugs.

Yes, all of them.

These options may sound counterproductive, but the data tell a different story. In 2001 Portugal shocked the world and voted to decriminalize all drugs in response to a growing heroin problem.

Things like drug trafficking remain illegal, but drug users are viewed as ill rather than criminal. Instead of immediate arrest and incarceration, people caught with less than a 10-day supply of hard drugs are taken before a special court of legal experts, psychologists and social workers. The goal is a health-focused solution to drug use, with an occasional small fine or community service.

Fifteen years later plentiful data tell a drastically different story from what many predicted. Drug use among 15- to 24-year-olds has decreased dramatically and drug-induced deaths dropped from 80 in 2001 to 16 in 2012. Before 2001 Portugal confined around 100,000 drug users. Within the first 10 years of the policys adoption, this number halved. Today Portugal boasts one of the lowest drug-usage rates in all of Europe.

People are leaving the drug market and seeking treatment. The number of individuals registered in rehab has risen from 6,000 in 1999 to more than 24,000 in 2008. The number of heroin users who inject the drug has decreased from 45 percent to 17 percent. Injection rates are particularly important when discussing drug-related disease. Drug addicts now account for only 20 percent of HIV cases in the country, a significant improvement from the previous 56 percent.

These results can be explained with basic economics. As people get help for their drug use, the number of users that is, the demand for drugs falls. When the demand falls, drug suppliers find that their once-lucrative enterprise no longer bears fruit. So they exit the market.

This would explain why a 2010 study in the British Journal of Criminology found that after decriminalization Portugal saw a significant reduction in the imprisonment of alleged drug dealers, from 14,000 in 2000 to 5,000 in 2010. In fact, the proportion of people in jail for crimes committed while under the influence of drugs or to feed a drug habit fell from 41 percent in 1999 to 21 percent in 2008.

By redirecting resources previously allocated to arresting and jailing drug users, Portugal has not only curbed its drug problem but has created a healthier society. When asked what the global community should take away from Portugals policy, Alex Steven, president of the International Society of the Study of Drug Policy, said, The main lesson to learn (is that) decriminalizing drugs doesnt necessarily lead to disaster, and it does free up resources for more effective responses to drug-related problems.

There is something to learn from treating drug use as a physical and mental illness. Consider the results of the Portuguese policy versus the U.S. approach. While Portugals rates of use, incarceration and illness have all fallen, drug use in the United States has remained relatively unchanged for the past decade. Each year 1.5 million people are arrested on drug-related charges, 80 percent for mere possession. Half of all federal incarcerations are drug-related.

Few would argue that drug use isnt a problem. Without a doubt, drug use presents problems for public health and destroys many lives. But when examining the efficacy of drug policies, the U.S. model is nothing short of a complete failure. Its time to look at alternatives. As the Portuguese case illustrates, so-called radical policies may be perfectly reasonable.

Abigail R. Hall is a research fellow at the Independent Institute and an assistant professor of economics at the University of Tampa. She received her Ph.D. from George Mason University.

Kaila Preston is a student majoring in entrepreneurship at the University of Tampa.

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Marianas Variety - OPINION: Portugal won the war on drugs by ... - Marianas Variety

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The attorney general appears poised to revive the country's costliest policy failure.

In a brief address delivered to law enforcement personnel in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, Attorney General and maybe-perjurer Jeff Sessions spent most of his allotted time discussing the same talking points he's been recycling since his appointment: Police brutality is a social media-driven myth; America is a hellish, crime-ridden, post-apocalyptic wasteland; and scary, scary drugs will come into your home and kill you in your sleep unless you pray to your bedside portrait of Ronald Reagan.

This version of his stump speech, though, contained some new, alarming hints about his agency's drug enforcement priorities. Sessions made clear that he would direct the Department of Justice to take on the burgeoning, deadly epidemic of heroin and opioid use. After that, though, things quickly went off the rails:

I realize this may be an unfashionable belief in a time of growing tolerance of drug use, but too many lives are at stake to worry about being fashionable. I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store. And I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuanaso people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another thats only slightly less awful. Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life.

This is a breathtaking false equivalence. Treating marijuana usage and heroin addiction as the same isn't "unfashionable"it willfully ignores basic medical and scientific research. (Hmmm, where have we heard that before.) Marijuana cannot cause a fatal overdose. To the extent that it leads to addiction, the risk is low, and the symptoms are nothing like those that accompany the crippling, "life-wrecking" condition of heroin dependence. Most maddeningly, the consensus among experts is that the public health risks of marijuana use pale in comparison to those posed by alcohol and tobacco, both of which are substances that you can already go buy from the corner store, probably in the time it takes you to read this post.

In short, there isn't really a good policy argument for initiating this type of hysterical, "Reefer Madness"-esque crackdown on marijuana, unlessand I'm just spitballing hereyou're less interested in "fighting drugs" and more interested in the political and social implications that taking up this fight might entail. President Nixon declared the first War on Drugs in large part to disrupt the organizing activities of his political enemiesAfrican-Americans and, at the time, the anti-war left. His efforts, of course, led to such a massive spike in the minority incarceration rate that the ACLU compared it to mid-century Jim Crow laws in the South. (You know, the same laws Jeff Sessions grew up with in Hybart, Alabama.) The draconian, decades-long War on Drugs is a trillion-dollar failureassuming that your goal is actually stopping drug use, and not any of that other stuff.

This is what happens when law enforcement policy gets entrusted to a bigoted septuagenarian who learned everything he knows about drugs from D.A.R.E. and that very special episode of Saved By The Bell, and does not care to educate himself any further. Jeff Sessions is itching to revive a policy initiative that has succeeded at nothing except disenfranchising and incarcerating low-income Americans and people of color, and if he has to rely on a outrageous falsehood to justify that decision, so be it.

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Jeff Sessions Just Kicked Off the Next War on Drugs - GQ Magazine

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March 15, 2017, 5:18 PM EDT

Rodrigo Dutertes deadly war on drugs has resumed. TheU.S., the European Union and the United Nations have all condemned the Philippine presidents crackdown on suspected dealers and users, serving only to rile the expletive-prone lawyer-turned-politician. The reaction at home so far appears less critical, even supportive, while a senator who led a backlash has ended up in jail. Duterte suspended anti-drug operations in January, but the hiatus is over and the death toll is rising again.

More than 7,000, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The government says thats an exaggeration, with police reporting about 2,500 fatalities in the seven months through Jan. 30. That was the date when Duterte removed policefrom the operations afterrogue officers were implicated in the murder of a South Korean businessman. Of some 4,700 other murders that human rights groups labeled extra-judicial killings (meaning they were committed by vigilante groups), police say less than a third were drugs-linked. Either way, Duterte has brought about more loss of life than former president Ferdinand Marcos during his eight years of martial rule and Thailand during its war on drugs that began in 2003.

Dealer, users, drug lords -- anyone connected to the illegal trade. Duterte estimates there are as many as 4 million drug addicts in the Southeast Asian nation of about 100 million people. The Dangerous Drugs Board puts the tally at 1.8 million, with crystal meth -- known as shabu -- the No. 1 scourge for Duterte.As part of the campaign, police say they have made 7 million home visits to persuade suspects to mend their ways.

They support the campaign more than the methods. Eight out of 10 Filipinos polled in December were satisfied with Dutertes anti-narcotics drive, although that was before a Senate investigation brought to light police abuses. On the other hand, 78 percent of Filipinos worry that they or someone they know may die in extra-judicial operations. Nine out of 10 Filipinos think drug suspects should be caught alive.

The 71-year-oldhas termed narcotic use a pandemic and promises to pardon police officers who are convicted of killing drug suspects in self-defense. He accuses critics of valuing the lives of criminals over the good of society.Debunking allegations that he is engineering a human rights calamity, Duterte has said: When you kill criminals, that is not a crime against humanity. The criminals have no humanity, God damn it.

A national police chief said the renewed campaign -- called "Project Double Barrel, Reloaded -- will be less bloody, if not bloodless.At the same time, the military has said it will act as a force provider to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Barely a week after the campaign resumed March 7, police said law enforcers had killed 27 drug suspects in 679 operations.

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Amnesty International says the poor have been targeted disproportionately, while Human Rights Watch has appealed to the UN to investigate. Then theres Leila de Lima, the senator whos now in jail. She was indicted for drug trafficking in February and accused of allowing illegal drugs to flourish inside the national jail while serving as justice secretary. De Lima says the charges are lies and her arrest was politically motivated. The lawmaker had led a Senate probe into alleged vigilante killings by death squads in Davao City from the 1980s. Duterte, who was Davao mayor for more than two decades from 1988, says testimonylinking him to the death squads was a fabrication.

Duterte campaigned to make fighting crime a cornerstone of his government, vowing to stamp out illegal drugs within six months. He now says he may spend the rest of his presidential term on the job because the situation is worse than he had thought.A former Colombia president has warned Duterte that throwing soldiers and police at the drug problem will only make it worse. Thailands experience of using force also does not bode well, but Duterte is unbowed. I have six years to do it and I will kill you, he said.

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Bodies Pile Up in Duterte's Deadly War on Drugs: QuickTake Q&A - Bloomberg

The number of people sentenced for federal marijuana-related crimes dropped for the fifth year in a row, according to data released this week by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

A total of 3,534 offenders received sentences for federal marijuana crimes in 2016. The overwhelming majority of these cases 3,398 of them involved trafficking marijuana. Another 122 individuals received federal sentences for simple possession of marijuana, although some of these offenders may have pleaded down from a more serious offense.

The commission's statistics show thatmore than 97 percent of people charged with a federal crime plead guilty, rather than go to trial.

Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. The data show a sharp drop in the number of federal marijuana sentences the following year, down from 6,992 to 4,942.

The sale and use of marijuana for any purpose, recreational, medical or otherwise, remains a crime at the federal level even in states where it's legal. But in 2013 the Justice Department issued guidance givingfederal prosecutors leeway to ignore certain marijuana offenses, provided such behavior was otherwise in compliance with an applicable state law.

These federal numbers don't include sentencing under state and local law, where the overwhelming majority of drug enforcement takes place. In 2015, for instance,more than a half-million people were arrested by state or local authorities for simple marijuana possession, according to FBI statistics. By contrast, only about 3,500 people received federal sentences for marijuana crimes of any sort that year.

Federal sentences for heroin have more than doubled over the past 10 years, according to the USSC, in part reflecting the current opioid epidemic. While 1,382 people received federal heroin sentences in 2007, over 2,800 were sentenced for heroin crimes last year.

But the overall number of federal heroin sentences is still low relative to most other drugs. That's because heroin is a lot easier to smuggle: On a per-gram basis, heroin is about 26 times more valuable than marijuana, according to federal statistics from 2012. That means that small, easy to conceal heroin shipments can still be highly lucrative. (According to some estimates, the entirety of heroin consumed in a year in the United States could fit within one or two standard shipping containers.)

Heroin is a lot harder to detect, seize and charge people with than a cheaper, bulkier product like marijuana, but it's also more dangerous.About13,000 people overdose on heroineach year, while zero overdose on marijuana.

Much of what we see in the chart above is a function of the decisions made by individual U.S. attorneys. President Trump recently fired all the remaining holdovers from the Obama administration, meaning that a new batch of prosecutors who may have different ideas about what marijuana sentences have to do with the pursuit of justice will soon be taking their place.

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Here's the latest data on the federal war on drugs - Washington Post - Washington Post

* Statement of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation

Would the current approach of the Duterte adminstration on the drug problem bring the desired aim of controlling the spread of addiction? With more than six thousand deaths, a million and a half person that voluntarily surrendered, more five million house visits, thousands of arrest and huge volume of shabu confiscation is it safe to say that its headed for something?

The failure of Colombian and American war on drugs should be taken seriously. Since the ascendancy of Richard Nixon as President of USA the war on drugs took a dramatic turn similar to the Colombian efforts. Both government spent billions of dollars on making record arrests and detention, raids, assassinations and even punishing big names. Last year US the Special Forces were involved in capturing El Chapo in Mexico; while the Colombian government has Pablo Escobar to its credit. And yet the problem not just persisted but got worse. In both countries there is a continuing trend of substance abuse and incarcerations.

Far from convincing, our current statistics should be viewed more as distress signals to a worsening catastrophe rather than treated as positive indicators.

The same with the old ways of facing the menace, Oplan Tokhang and Double Barrel doesnt live up to its expectation of getting the big shot, those behind the shadow of power and dont offer a credible challenge to the whole narco-politiical body. There is a list of influential and powerful individual from the public and business sphere, including foreign nationals that are identified as being involved in drugs, but up to now we have yet to see the full extent to which the government would go to bring them to justice.

It is established fact that illegal drug trade would not prosper without the nods of the bosses in authority and their cooperation. From just over a million addicts in the early 2000s the number soared to 5 million in just fifteen years. Hundreds of thousands are into peddling, security and other logistical support for drug trade. And a multi-billion business comparable to the biggest investments in the country. It is a grand private-public partnership scheme with plain criminal intent almost in the same level as its legal counterpart.

Only when a Korean that was murdered on Camp Crame grounds did the administration made an insincere suspension and started investigating those implicated in the case and identified internal loopholes. Another four hundred police were presented as rouge cops after the incident. Although most of them faced minor administrative charges and redeployed to Basilan. Criminals in uniform could thrive more in terror affected areas.

Internal cleansing of the whole bureaucracy and the armed forces should have been the first order before launching a very delicate and massive campaign. But so little is being done to address the rampant corruption within the government and the collusion of not a few officials with syndicates.

And this deepseated reluctance is one of key factor why all the fast efforts failed to really address the drug problem.

Does this mean that the administration is just prioritizing first the lower class before he goes up guns loaded the social ladder? And why did they planned it and executed that way?

Its this defective strategy and poor implementation that should concern us all. The modus operandi is to take down as many cheap druggies the victims that needed to be saved they were once called in the hope that there insignificance would not cause a fuss. Until it comes to a time, determined by public perception and government evaluation, that It would be announced the Philippines is drug free and we all get the happy ending that we are promised of.

The shroud of secrecy that envelopes the process of determining a target should break everyones silence. If one is really involved in drugs doesnt the person deserve due process and presented to a proper court like the case of Sen.Leila De Lima, the self-proclaimed political prisoner who gets all the media attention absent to her real counterparts. Thats just total denial of many fundamental human rights and subversion of the judicial process.

The rampant killings is appalling and a cause of grave concern especially for the welfare of the marginalized, of Indigenous Peoples because it brings into mind the policies of the past-regimes of eliminating opposition beyond legal parameters. As Indigenous Peoples are very vulnerable to state forces attacks and vilification it is no surprise that the drug war could be used by the ruling elite as a pretext for more abuse and violence like the case of the four Bulacan farmers being implicated with drug trading last December 2016.

Most of the victims in the US are disenfranchised, poor black Americans and Spanish migrants and descendants mostly living in the ghettos while in Colombia they were mostly urban poor and peasant migrants coming from the remote villages. A chilling demonstration of marginalization and discrimination.

And the Philippine experience is no different. A simple review of the news and victims profiles will easily show the lethal correlation. To be poor, uneducated and jobless are red flags for the authority and that add to the growing insecurity most of the people feel.

But being poor is not a threat itself. Majority of the lower class strive hard to earn a decent living. What is seriously lacking is the opportunity to encompass all the jobless and underprivileged. And with the failure of the current economic system and the urgency to survive a small number of our countrymen turn to criminal jobs.

In the end, the process of drug proliferation will not stop since the root causes are never sufficiently addressed: the continuous internal power struggle within the government institution, the rehabilitation of patient-victims, the educational and cultural requirements, the trial and punishment of drug elites and the basic socio-economic aspects of the whole process.

Should we wait more? is a very limited Machiavellian question: What are the factors for success is a more critical alternative.

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STATEMENT| Who is winning in the war on drugs? - Davao Today

Sandy M. Isanti County resident

Theres an epidemic of ignorance in this country that needs to be addressed.

While lawmakers and the CDC are taking a blanket approach (with suspicious motives) to what they are calling an epidemic of opioid abuse, no one seems to be talking about the forgotten victims of this war on prescription pain medication.

Im referring to the countless people that the government has suddenly decided do not deserve relief from their pain: chronic pain sufferers. Suddenly, in many cases, because chronic pain patients are going to see their doctors or specialists expecting a refill of the medication they have come to rely on and being told as they sit in front of their provider that the government has banned them from prescribing anymore opioids to treat their chronic pain.

These are the patients who have been taking their medication responsibly, subjecting themselves to all of the obstacles and humiliation that have been set up for people using opioid drug therapy for their pain. In many instances, these patients are not being given effective alternatives to treat their pain or even being monitored to see if they have any adverse effects from the opioid withdrawal. The ignorance and incompetence surrounding this situation is mind-boggling.

Im speaking from over 20 years of experience suffering chronic, debilitating pain, and the vast network of people in pain I have come in contact with over that time. Our circumstances may vary, but our stories are eerily similar- and these are the stories the lawmakers and media for the most part fail to talk about.

Victims of chronic pain who responsibly use opioids to control their pain are not addicts; on the contrary, many have been given back their livelihood due to the effectiveness of these drugs to control pain. Many have found that the relief of pain the opiates provide enables them to work again, do their own shopping, drive more comfortably and reactively, and participate in social activities. Impairment from the pain they were experiencing was much more distracting than the effects of the pain-relieving drug. A significant number of people experience more than just pain relief on the opioid therapy, because effective pain relief in turn leads to better sleep and healthier food consumption, less depression and better organization and creativity.

For some, the symptoms of brain-fog dramatically improve because we are no longer focused on fighting excruciating pain. With the opioid treatment I regained my memory, concentration, and was able to write and work again as well as take part in activities outside my home. I was also able to effectively participate in physical therapy and guided imagery to help keep my dose of the medication at a minimum. Without it, I fear the loss of all of that, and a life doomed to be lived from my sofa once more. Taking opioids to relieve pain in order to be productive and to maintain relationships is vastly different from being addicted, which limits a persons ability to contribute to society.

I recognize that opioid treatment for pain is far from being a perfect solution, as it never completely takes the pain away, but for many of us it does mean the difference between spending the day in bed and being able to get up and make a meal and tend to our families. And now the government is taking that away from us without giving us effective alternatives. In the majority of cases of chronic pain sufferers there is no good reason to stop opioid pain medication other than because of government interference. Most of these patients have been responsible users and are not contributing to the so-called epidemic of over use of drugs in our society.

This is in no way meant to minimize the horrible consequences of opioid abuse and overdose and the loss of lives that have taken place, but there is another side of the story that must be considered. Careful research into the motives behind this war on drugs will reveal that agencies blocked the input of chronic pain patients and their doctors from contributing their experiences before setting up the new guidelines for opioid prescribing. A look at who may be profiting from these new guidelines will reveal some startling information. Reliable predictions are being made that these new restrictions on opioid drugs will serve to increase illegal drug use as well as leading to an epidemic of suicide by chronic pain patients no longer able to find relief. Self-medicating instead of being monitored by a physician is another danger these patients may face.

There are many relevant articles that can be accessed online, including these from the Pain News Network- Its Time for Pain Patients to Speak Up, and DEA Cutting Opioid Supply in 2017. Also check out Fighting Back: The War against Chronic Pain Sufferers, Dr. Lynn Websters book, The Painful Truth, and For some chronic pain patients, without opioids, life would be torture by Stat News.

I urge people to look more deeply into this issue and speak up for the millions that are being overlooked and disregarded who deserve better. The unfortunate stigma of being a chronic pain patient searching for relief extends to doctors, pharmacists, lawmakers, the media and even family members. This is an impossible battle for victims of pain to fight unaided.

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Forgotten victims of the 'War on Drugs' | - Isanti County News - Isanti County News