Daily Archives: September 2, 2021

The Assam police has tasted a major success in its crusade against drugs mafia in the state.

Heroin consignment, carrying a market value of around Rs 17.5 crores, has been recovered and seized by the Assam police.

The recovery was made at Jorabat near Guwahati in Assam from a truck.

Police recovered 2.5 kilograms of heroin concealed in 205 soap cases.

The consignment was hidden inside the oil tank of the truck.

Police intercepted the truck after receiving specific input about smuggling of the drugs.

Also read:Assam police nabs woman drug paddler from Shillong

Two persons have been arrested in connection with the seizure.

The arrested persons have been identified as Dipak Sarma from Dimapur in Nagaland and Jamminlal from Manipur.

Further investigation is underway to completely take down this drug network.

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Assam: 'War on drugs' continues, heroin worth over Rs 17.5 crore seized at Jorabat near Guwahati - Northeast Now

Bangkok, Thailand The police officers lead a new detainee into the brightly lit room.

The suspects head is covered by a black bag.

He is made to sit on a chair in a corner as the officer in charge wraps more bags around his head.

The suspect moans and sobs, then falls to the ground.

A brief struggle ensues and several policemen hold him down as the officer in charge keeps wrapping more plastic around his head.

Within minutes, the suspect stops breathing.

This killing was caught on a security camera in the Thai central province of Nakhon Sawan on August 5. The footage was leaked online last week, sending shockwaves through Thailand, stirring a fierce public outcry and a heated debate over long-standing allegations of police brutality in the Southeast Asian country.

The police officer in charge has since been identified as Thitisan Jo Ferrari Uttanapol and his victim as 24-year-old Jeerapong Thanapat.

According to local media reports, a total of six policemen were involved in Jeerapongs death. The Bangkok Post newspaper said the young man, arrested for selling methamphetamine pills, suffocated to death as the officers tried to extort a bribe of two million Thai baht ($60,000) for his release. Following Jeerapongs death, the Post said the policemen even tried to cover up their tracks by ordering doctors at Sawan Pracharak Hospital to state the cause of the detained mans death as a drug overdose.

Amid the public outrage, Thai police began a manhunt looking for Uttanapol. On Wednesday, a police spokesman promised criminal charges, as well as disciplinary action, as other officers raided Uttanapols home in the capital, Bangkok. There, they found at least 30 cars, including Bentleys, Porches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, illustrating how the disgraced policeman had earned his nickname.

A day after the raid, Uttanapol turned himself in to police.

In a bizarre twist, authorities allowed him to stage a news conference to explain his version of events.

At first, Uttanapol tried to justify his actions.

I didnt intend to kill him, he said.

I only put the bag on his head because I did not want him to see my face. He tried to tear off the bag, so I decided to handcuff him.

Uttanapol then blamed his actions on a desire to keep drugs off the street.

I made a mistake and I admit this, he said.

Researchers in Thailand who have devoted years to studying this kind of torture say Jeerapongs abuse and death is not an isolated incident. Rather, they say, this is just one case in hundreds reflecting a systemic problem.

We have never seen a video like this, said Pornpen Khongkachonkiet from the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF), a Thai rights group that documents torture and abuse in police custody. But according to the survivors weve interviewed, this is something that happens. We have heard from detainees many times talking about plastic bags.

CrCF has documented at least 20 custodial deaths across Thailand since 2007 and nearly 300 complaints of torture since 2014 in southern Thailand, where a conflict between separatists and Thai security forces has been raging for decades. The torture complaints involve violence against civilians by the military but Pornpen said the cases of abuse was probably much higher when factoring in the Thai polices anti-drug campaign.

Thai police launched their so-called war on drugs in 2003, when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra rolled out a widely criticised anti-drug campaign where thousands of suspects were killed in the first three months alone.

While the arbitrary killings are not as widespread as before, human rights groups say torture of drug suspects remain rife.

Testimony given to CrCF by former detained drug offenders paints a dark picture of what can happen in the early moments of custody. Some of the interviews show that police officers sometimes deny access to legal representation, issue verbal threats and use physical violence.

They should treat prisoners like human beings, one former drug offender told CrCf in a recent report. But once youre inside, you have no rights, no voice.

CrCF says it has also documented at least 101 cases of enforced disappearance since 1992, while the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances says it has received reports of at least 91 cases of enforced disappearances since 1980.

The victims include lawyers, human rights defenders, environmentalists and political figures.

Pornpen told Al Jazeera that a failure to criminalise torture and enforced disappearances has led to a culture of impunity in Thailand.

Its systemic, theres a system in place to protect the perpetrators within the judicial system. Not only are police protected, but lawyers and judges are also implicit, she said. They feel they are protecting an even bigger institution than themselves.

Al Jazeera made multiple calls to the police to request a comment. But all of the calls went unanswered.

Sunai Phasuk, a Thai researcher with Human Rights Watch, says state-sanctioned torture and killings are nothing new in Thailand.

The torture and killing of a drug suspect in Nakhon Sawan province is not an isolated incident by rogue police officers, he said. Harsh measures remain politically popular, and police brutality has been tolerated or even encouraged in Thailands anti-drug campaign.

Sunai said that virtually none of the officers responsible for the so-called war on drugs killings and related abuses have been prosecuted.

There is an old motto that says: There is nothing under the sun the Thai police cannot do. Sadly, in reality, many police officers in Thailand think this means they can operate outside the bounds of the law, without fears of accountability, Sunai said.

Many believe if Uttanapols actions were not caught on camera, he would have simply got away with murder.

Nareeluc Pairchaiyapoom, the director of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department at the Thai governments Ministry of Justice, told Al Jazeera that the government is attempting to acknowledge a torture problem in law enforcement and the military.

The situation is getting better. The cases are decreasing, she said, without citing numbers. Also the top-level command in the south and the minister of defence are much more aware of this problem. They are monitoring their staff closely and thats why the numbers are decreasing.

Since 2018, The Thai Ministry of Justice and the Association to Prevent Torture (APT), an organisation focused on the prevention of torture, have collaborated in a programme aimed at reducing mistreatment at the hands of Thai law enforcement.

Shazeera Ahmad Zawawi, a senior adviser at APT, told Al Jazeera that the aim of the programme was to build confidence in the government and help promote the importance of strengthening detention safeguards during the first hours of police custody.

We worked closely with them [law enforcement] to understand what is torture, what is torture prevention, and what safeguards can be used, she said. The NGOs can only expose and show them where theyve gone wrong and that they can do better. But the government needs to install the policies for change to happen.

The group has developed an anti-torture handbook, a reference for government officials, law enforcement officers on how to understand different aspects of torture prevention. APT hopes to continue working with the Thai government to adopt a more human rights-focused approach to criminal justice. The programme is also looking into developing a training module on how to conduct effective and rights-based investigations for police.

Many hope the anger ignited by the video of Jeerapongs death will help speed up the pace of reforms but for the victims of police violence, it only brings back painful memories, said Pornpen, the CrCF director.

We have victims who have seen this clip now and are feeling a surge of trauma, bodies shaking, she said. Not only the victims, but the families who may have doubted their family members accounts are now feeling a sense of regret.

Read more from the original source:

Drug suspects killing in Thailand sparks calls for police reform - Al Jazeera English

Last Updated: 01 September 2021

Written by Marjorie Howard

Noah Hurowitz aims to go beyond El Chapo story.

When Noah Hurowitz entered Joan Black's third-grade class at Dallin, she found him to be "filled with intellectual curiosity. What was really amazing was that no matter what topic came up, he had a lot of information and a lot to offer. He had a highly developed vocabulary and extensive language."

Years later, when Hurowitz's mother, Nancy Strong, told Black that her son had become a writer, the retired teacher wasn't surprised. "I knew it," she recalled recently. "I just plain knew it."

Hurowitz, now 31, is the author of a book published in July, El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord, (Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster). The work tells how the drug dealer, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, amassed a powerful drug-trafficking operation and also addresses Hurowitz's views about the war on drugs.

"The goal from the beginning," said Hurowitz in a recent interview, "was to tell El Chapo's story but to go beyond that and use his life and career to show how the drug trade developed and how it is almost a pillar of support for the Mexican government." Others, he said, also benefit, including the U.S. military and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which saw its budgets balloon, thanks to the war on drugs.

Grew up in Arlington

Hurowitz grew up in Arlington with his twin brother, Mike, his brother Dan and sister Kate. His father, Donald Hurowitz, lives in Melrose, while his mother remains in Arlington. Hurowitz wrote much of his book at his mother's home.

The book is based not only on courtroom testimony but on Hurowitz's interviews in Mexico with cartel gunmen, Chapo's family members and the DEA agents who brought him down. "I wanted to provide a sense of place," he said. "I wanted to show the remote dirt roads, the opium fields on the mountain sides, the guys on ATVs whizzing around with guns in their waist bands."

Hurowitz came to journalism in his usual off-the-beaten-path way. Unhappy at the private elementary school he was attending, he asked to leave and ended up in Black's classroom. Later, restless while at Arlington High School, he dropped out during his junior year to travel cross country with a friend. He later enrolled at Greenfield Community College, where he was able to finish his high school diploma while getting a head start at college. He credits Arlington High School Principal Charles Skidmore for finding a way to make this happen. On a whim, while at the University of Southern Maine, he signed up for a work-study job at the school newspaper. "It immediately stuck, and I've been doing it ever since."

From college, he paid his dues on a weekly paper in Maine and then moved to New York where several internships led to a job at the Brooklyn Paper, covering local news and then the news site DNAInfo. Let go for his efforts to unionize, he "ran off," as he put it , to Peru to learn more about the country where he had already spent some time and to improve the Spanish he had begun learning at Ottoson Middle School.

He did some freelancing and applied to Rolling Stone magazine. He was not hired on staff but his language skills plus his experience covering trials in New York City paid off when the magazine asked him to cover the trial of El Chapo. After that, out of the blue, he says, Atria sent him an email asking him if he'd like to write a book. He packed up his Brooklyn apartment and moved to Mexico City, where he began his research and his travels to remote parts of the country.

Going there, he acknowledged, "wasn't the safest thing to do, and my parents did not love it," But he took precautions, working with a "fixer," someone who knew the area, the customs and the people. Each day, he checked in with the Mexico representative from the Committee to Protect Journalists. And yes, there were several encounters with armed men, including one with a man called Beto, who he later learned was murdered, and another at a roadblock where the fixer's ties to the area paid off.

His view: Legalize drugs

For Hurowitz, working on the book persuaded him that drugs should be legalized. "Ending the drug trade and the trafficking of illegal drugs is never going to happen. Criminalizing drugs leads to violence and death and overdoses.

"The war on drugs has always focused as a useful smoke screen to pursue other interests. The Nixon administration used it as a way of criminalizing people in black neighborhoods and criminalizing the Left. In terms of foreign policy, it continues to be used as a way of controlling governments in Latin America and elsewhere that they want to keep in line."

He said it's important to understand who doesn't benefit, noting the communities in Latin America where there has been corruption and loss of life, as in Mexico, Colombia and Honduras.

The New York Times cited his book in its "New and Notable" section, and it has been described as "fast paced" and "hard to put down." He recently learned that El Chapo's son bought the painting that is used on the cover. "People being mythologized," he said, "are interested in their own myth."

YourArlington.com has provided news and opinion about Arlington, Mass., since 2006. Publisher Bob Sprague is a former editor at The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Arlington Advocate. Read more at https://www.yourarlington.com/about.

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Investigative Ink In His Veins: From Arlington To El Chapo - Patch.com

Researchers find that one dose of psilocybin results in roughly a 10 percent increase in neuron size and density in mouse brains.

Veronica Lee 10:39 pm, Sep 01, 2021

Staff Reporter

Unsplash

Yale researchers found that a single dose of the naturally occurring psychedelic compound psilocybin can cause structural changes in the brain that counteract symptoms of depression.

In a paper published in the journal Neuron on Aug. 18, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine presented evidence that administering this drug to mice resulted in an approximately 10 percent increase in neuron size and density in the frontal cortex of the brain. Led by postdoctoral associate Lingxiao Shao and associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience Alex Kwan, the team found that this structural remodeling occurred within 24 hours of the drug administration and persisted for one month, indicating that psilocybin made long-lasting changes in the brain.

Psilocybin is fascinating because it has an incredibly short half-life, which means that it gets out of the body quickly and yet has long-lasting behavioral effects, Kwan said. Weve seen that psilocybin can be effective in treating depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study, we wanted to investigate this mystery by observing individual connections in the mouse brain.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring substance that is produced by a species of fungi thus the nickname magic mushrooms. Part of a larger category of psychedelics called classic psychedelics, which includes LSD and mescaline, psilocybin works by stimulating serotonin 2A receptors in the brain, according to the paper.

Effects of the drug include visual hallucinations, distortions of reality, euphoria and what some call spiritual experiences. However, Kwan and his team are more interested in how the human brain functions after the effects of the drug have already worn off. Psilocybin and other classic psychedelic drugs have long been recognized for their potential as therapeutic drugs to treat disorders like depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

I was inspired by Dr. Ronald Duman, who studied ketamines effect on [neuron] spine density, Kwan said. However, we chose to use psilocybin because it is so well-studied clinically. There is currently a large phase two clinical trial investigating the effects of psilocybin on major depressive disorder.

However, psychedelic research was not always so popular. Although research into psilocybin and other related drugs began in the 1950s and 60s, the federal governments war on drugs during the 1970s stigmatized psychedelic drugs and made them illegal. The federal government declared them Schedule I drugs, meaning that they have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.

However, Kwan and other researchers interested in psychedelics have worked to revive the psychedelic research field, even in the face of tight regulations.

There are certain risks with a high dosage psychedelic experience, for example increases in heart rate and the possibility of precipitating psychotic episodes, particularly in those predisposed to them, Albert Garcia-Romeu, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said. However, we take the proper screenings and precautions so that the dosage sessions are safe for participants.

In this study, Kwan and his team sought to use a mouse model to better understand the changes the human brain undergoes during psychedelic experiences.

Manoj Doss, postdoctoral research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, commended the large sample size of 82 mice and the roughly equal distribution between male and female mice in the study something that Doss said is often overlooked in psychedelic research.

In this study, the male mouse brains experienced a smaller effect from the dose of psilocybin, Doss said. This may point to some heterogeneity or variability in terms of how psilocybin and other psychedelics affect the brain and create long-lasting changes.

In the future, Kwan and his team hope to investigate the exact mechanisms by which psilocybin increases neuron size and density. Kwan also hopes that this research will help identify new compounds that may have even better properties than psilocybin in treating neuropsychiatric disorders.

Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Natalie Ginsberg 11 expressed her excitement about where the field of psychedelic research is headed.

This is totally changing the approach to therapy for PTSD and other mental illnesses, Ginsberg said. Psychedelics can also greatly impact peoples connections to nature and to each other. We also hope to see psychedelics decriminalized, making them more safe and accessible to those who can be healed by them.

Psilocybin was classified as a Schedule I drug by the United States in 1970.

Veronica Lee covers breakthrough research for SciTech. She is a sophomore in Branford College majoring in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.

Continue reading here:

Yale researchers discover healing effects of psychedelic drug - Yale Daily News

The motion to decriminalize simple possession of drugs like fentanyl is on the agenda at Regina's Board of Police Commissioners meeting Tuesday.

"We just have to look at the harm of the war on drugs. We just have to look at the staggering number and growth of overdose and addictionsin the city," said councillor Andrew Stevens, who put the motion forward.

From January to July this year, there have been 933 occurrences of overdoses in Regina, with police attending to 174 cases.

The federal government has agreed to discuss drug decriminalization with municipalities. Vancouver already sent in itssubmission seeking a federal exemption to decriminalizing simple possession of drugs.

Stevens's motion in Reginawas inspired by Vancouver. He said he wants towork toward a more inclusive and representative policy.

It would involvethe Board of Police Commissioners and Regina policeworking with the city, harm reduction experts, community organizationsand the Saskatchewan Health Authority to research and examine the feasibility of decriminalizing simple illicit drug possession.

While Regina has its first overdose prevention site, the Nwo Ytina Friendship Centre, Stevens said there's still stigma,. He said decriminalization plays a role in the larger harm reduction model that needs to be advanced.

"There could be a fear of people using that site who are worried about actually being prosecuted for possession," he said.

The Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners already passed a motion earlier this month to research decriminalizing simple drug possession.

Jason Mercredi,the executive director of Prairie Harm Reductionin Saskatoon, said too many people have been lost in the war on drugs.

"The verdict is in that we lost the war, and drugs won, so we need to find proactive ways to deal with the opioid crisis and crystal meth crisis," he said.

"Decriminalization is definitely one of the tools in the tool belt."

He said often, when people see police coming ,they'll throw out the drug, but then will go out and commit crimes to get the money needed to get the drugs again.

The issue of overdose hits close to home for many people.

Marie Agioritis, a harm reduction advocate in Saskatoon, lost her son to a fentanyl overdose in 2015.

Since then, she has worked to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to other children.

Agioritis said is happy that there are going to be conversations around decriminalizing drugs in Regina.

"Decriminalization is such a scary word for people to hear.... It seems to imply some kind of a rampant loosey-goosey idea on taking the criminalization out of drug use and drug sales," she said.

"That's not it all, if we are looking at personal amounts of drug."

Agioriti said decriminalization can make people less fearful of the police when they come across them in the case of an overdose.

Of the 993 overdoses in the city, the majority 66 per cent happened in the central area. There were also 72 apparent deaths, and of those deaths a majority of them were men (61 per cent).

In the month of July, there was 182 overdose events. Police attended to 25 of them, leaving 156 overdose events unattended.

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Motion to decriminalize the possession of drugs on the agenda at Regina police board meeting - CBC.ca

BORIS Johnson wanted to "embarrass"top Tories over their alleged drug use, Dominic Cummings has claimed.

The Prime Minister's former top aide claimed meetings he attended relating to drugs policy in Number 10 were like Brass Eye, Channel 4'ssatirical current affairs show which aired in1997.

Cummings went on to say that the Home Office was more concerned with "crackdowns"and "marketing campaigns"in relation to drugs policy.

The former Vote Leave chief made the comments above an article he shared regarding economics, the war on drugs and Afghanistan.

READ MORE:Nicola Sturgeon: SNP-Greens deal gives 'undeniable mandate' for indyref2

The article claims that the war on opium production failed and instead increased the strength of the Taliban.

It was based on an opinion piece by Jeffrey Clemens, an economist at the University of California in San Diego.

Cummings wrote: "Econ 101, opium, Taliban.

"(Few mtngs I ever had in No10 were more Brass Eye than listening to Home Office plans for 'crackdowns' and 'marketing campaigns' + BJ's desire to embarrass his Cabinet over their own drug use)"

It comes almost a month after Boris Johnson rejected pleasto allow safe drug consumption rooms in Scotland.

The Scottish Government, health experts and campaigners said that it would be a lifesaving facility, but Johnson instead vowed to take a hardline approach to criminal gangs.

Meanwhile, the article referenced by Cummings said that opium production did not decline in Afghanistan but underwent an "important shift"moving from areas underneath the Afghan government's control to provinces where they struggled to exert control.

Therefore, instead of poppy production being widespread across Afghanistan it became concentrated in areas where the government struggled to assert its authority.

READ MORE:Cambo oil field: UK Government 'misleading' public over powers

The article reads: "By the late 2000s, however, it had consolidated in areas dominated by the Taliban in the countrys southwest provinces, in particular in Helmand province, which regularly accounts for half of the land cultivated with opium poppies."

Former Tory party leader William Hague recently called on the UK to follow Portugal's lead and decriminalise drugs, tackling it as a health issue instead of a criminal one.

In 2020, drugs deaths in Scotland rose by 5% to a record 1339, the seventh year in a row the number of deaths has increased.

We previously told how Dominic Cummings spent three hours debating Brexit and Scottish independence with staff at an Ullapool hotel during a visit to the area in August.

Number 10 has been contacted for comment.

Continued here:

Johnson wanted to 'embarrass' Tory Cabinet members over drug use, Cummings claims - The National

More than 23,000 people have died in this country from drug overdose and drug poisoning in just the last five years.

Weve lost more people to this drug crisis than to COVID-19. Our life expectancy has stalled due to the scores of lives, particularly young ones, lost to the epidemic. Its likely 2021 will be the deadliest year on recordbeating last years record, which in turn beat 2018s record high, which surpassed 2017s horrifying death toll.

And its time we stop pretending Justin Trudeau is taking this crisis seriously. At every turn, his Liberal government has offered half-measures. Worse yet, they find themselves largely unchallenged on it. The indifference can only be explained by political expediency.

Canadas opposition leaders, to their credit, are at least rowing in the right direction.

On Tuesday, International Overdose Awareness Day, Trudeau was asked by reporter David Akin whether he would follow expert advice and take the first step of decriminalizing opioids for personal use and regulate the supply of the deadly drug.

In a roundabout answer the Liberal leader said: No.

Even if those policies would seem unthinkable just years ago, they are measures that experts say need to happen for every other harm reduction tactic to be fully efficient, to bring drug users out of the shadows and into society, and to end the costly and ineffective war on drugs.

But Trudeau has refused to go down that road. His former health minister and attorney general, Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould, advocated for decriminalization around the cabinet table and got a blunt response.

Decriminalization is not popular when you poll it, Philpott told me, after she and her colleague were pushed out of the Liberal Party caucus.

***

In order to understand an epidemic, you must be able to measure ita lesson weve learned all too well recently, glued to our computers and televisions awaiting updated COVID-19 data. But Canadas indifference to the opioid epidemic means we have a criminally incomplete picture of it.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada 21,174 people have died from opiods. That data, however, only stretches from January 2016 to December 2020: The agency wont release data from the first quarter of 2021 until the end of September. Manitoba still hasnt supplied its data from the last quarter of 2020. Quebec and British Columbia report non-opioid overdose deaths, but other provinces do not.

The Trudeau government promised repeatedly to improve national overdose reporting. It failed to do that. Health Minister Patty Hajdus talking points, posted online, even note that in order to have an effective response to the ever-changing crisis, a strong understanding and evidence-base is required to make informed and timely decisions. The talking points laud their own outdated, underreported, and inconsistent work.

The hardest-hit provinces are reporting this data, even if Ottawa wont deign to collect it. And the numbers show things are getting worse. Much worse.

British Columbia has reported that 1,011 people died between January and June of this year (a 33 per cent increase over last year.) Saskatchewan reported 221 deaths between January and August (already two-thirds of last years total deaths.) Ontario counted 638 deaths between January and March. (57 per cent higher than the same period last year.)

These numbers would be even more gruesome if not for the drug Naloxone, which is remarkably effective in reversing the effects of drug poisonings. Yet the United States is experiencing an acute shortage of the drug, and there are signs its coming to Canada: Harm reduction advocates in Winnipeg say they have received incomplete shipments in recent weeks. A lack of Naloxone could send deaths skyrocketing.

Even with Naloxone, there are tens of thousands more injuries and permanent disabilities that have come as a result of this endemic problem.

Its important to understand why these people are dying. For a long time, we exclusively referred to overdoses. But that word papers over a much more insidious reality of this crisis: Deaths rarely come from simply taking too much.

Its not an addiction problem, Donald MacPherson, director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, once told me. This is a supply-side problem.

I looked over MacPhersons shoulder, in his office at Simon Fraser University, as he showed me graphs charting heroin use and drug poisoning deaths in Vancouver. The drug use would stay relatively steady, but deaths would rocket up and downup in the 1990s, then back down; way up in 2015, and it hasnt come back down since.

Because there is no quality control, consistency in potency, or purity testing, its nearly impossible to guarantee that the drug a user uses one week is the same drug theyre using the next.

This governments strategy is actively making that problem worse, as it focuses on busts, arrests and prosecutions to disrupt a remarkably resilient supply chain.Police interdiction and supply chain busts means even ones long-time dealer may change their supply with little notice. Or when a dealer is taken off the street, a user in crisis may turn to someone new and less trustworthy.

The advent of fentanyl, and its hyper-potent cousin carfentanil, have driven scores of deaths. But increasingly potent methamphetamine and other synthetic opiates are increasingly driving poisonings.

Governments have talked endlessly about addressing addiction and ending users reliance on drugsbut no country, not even those which imprison drug users and publicly execute drug dealers, have found a solution to that problem.

Plenty of governments, including Trudeaus, have obsessed with clamping down on the supply of drugs, especially the more potent types. They have been complete and total failures. This government cant even restrict the ample supply of fentanyl and heroin in federal prisons, where they control everything that goes in-and-out of the institutions.

The consensus is mounting that the solution will not be ending demand, but ensuring a safe supply.

And behind that consensus is an unlikely coalition of medical experts, police officers, harm reduction experts and grassroots activists.

Together and separately, they have called for treating this crisis like a health issue, not a criminal one. Virtually every expert in this space has called for a serious expansion in the supply of safe, regulated drugs. Many have called for outright regulation, production and cultivation of some of these drugsperhaps emulating the legalization of cannabis, or in a more controlled, regulated manner.

They include:

Not on that list: Justin Trudeau.

***

Were treating it as a medical problem, Trudeau said on Tuesday.

But that isnt true.

In 2020, police in Canada laid more than 30,000 charges for drug possession (not including cannabis), a number that remained largely unchanged from 2019.

More than 4,000 people are in federal prison on drug offences alone.

To his credit, Trudeau has proposed removing all mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. But, to his detriment: That bill is not law, because it was killed when he triggered an early election nobody wanted.

We have moved forward significantly on measures around safe supply to fight the opioid epidemic, Trudeau said Tuesday. That, too, stretches the truth.

In his party platform, released Wednesday, Trudeau boasts spending $600 million to date on the drug poisoning crisis. (By contrast, the federal government budgeted about $160 billion on the COVID-19 pandemic over a year-and-a-half.) Little of that money, however, is targeted to the measures that are most effective.

Canada has only committed $50 million to safe supply projects in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. (With half the money going to Ontario.)

A set of talking points for the health minister even notes that some of the $600 million spent includes money for law enforcementnot exactly in keeping with a health focus.

Its indisputable that some of the measures Ottawa has fundedwhether they be to provide a regulated, controlled and tested supply of heroin or fentanyl; or to offer pharmaceutical analogueswork. Study after study have confirmed that they save lives, vastly reduce overdoses, and deny profit for criminal enterprise. As one study put it bluntly: The availability of a safer, unadulterated supply of opioids decreased [users] need to access the illicit drug market, significantly reducing their overdose risk.

But its becoming abundantly clear that these programs Ottawa is funding are running up against barriers that Ottawa itself refuses to bring down. Study after study has found that barriers, particularly criminalization, have limited the efficacy of these programs that Trudeau keeps touting.

A November 2020 review, commissioned by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (a government agency) found that restrictive laws and fear of discipline by professional bodies appear to limit access to safe supply. The health experts cited the immediate need to scale up these programs and rectify the barriers. The Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange reported recently that, when it comes to these safe supply programs, uptake has been limited across Canada.

British Columbia, which offers far-and-away the most support and services for drug users of any province or territory, estimates that some 50,000 drug users are not being reached by any of the current programming. Only about 3,300 people are on the kind of safe supply programs Trudeau keeps bragging about. Its a tragically small number, and yet it is far and away better than every other province.

B.Cs relative success has only been enabled because of a consensus from every authority involvedexcept Ottawato fully commit to the public health approach. The premier, mayor, and chief of police are all on the same page in rejecting the criminalization of drug possession.

Last year, Premier John Horgan and Mayor Kennedy Stewart called on Ottawa to issue a total exemption from the criminal prohibition on drugs for the city of Vancouver. To date, Ottawa has dragged its heels on the request.

Other cities are stepping up, too. Interim Toronto Police Chief James Ramer told me earlier this summer that our officers do not lay simple possession charges. I provided that direction last fall, and were not doing that.

***

Capping off his self-congratulatory answer on Tuesday, Trudeau tried to score political points on his competitors.

I was pleased to see many other parties, including the Conservatives, talk about the opioid epidemic, but they wont go as far as safe supply and that is certainly something that we have invested in and will continue to stand for, Trudeau said.

Pointing fingers is a bold strategy from a Prime Minister on whose watch more than 30,000 have died.

Whats more, the Liberal platform offers no new course of action or strategy. It commits $500 million to the provinces and territories on treatment, and not much else.

And Trudeau is rightthe other party leaders have talked seriously about the epidemic. Erin OToole told reporters recently: People with addiction should not be the focus of the criminal justice system. People that are dealing and that are preying on people with addiction should be the focus. (Thats a far cry from 2019, when then-leader Andrew Scheer told me the focus of government should be getting people off dangerous and harmful narcotics, not on maintaining a life of addiction.)

While its true OToole hasnt committed to decriminalization, per se, nor a safe supply programwhich he should be rightfully vilified forhis platform does cement his position that the last thing that those suffering from addiction should have to worry about is being arrested.

Its worth noting the kilometers he has travelled, away from the Conservatives past policies of mass incarceration to fight drug use. He has dragged his party from doggedly regressive to modestly progressive, and deserves some credit for it.

Whats more, OToole would revise Canadas addictions and substance abuse strategies to reorient them to treatment and recovery and devote $325 million to expanding treatment capacity.

And its conspicuous who Trudeau doesnt mention, of course: Jagmeet Singh has endorsed drug decriminalization since first throwing his hat in the ring to lead the NDP.

I asked Singh recently what exactly differentiates his position from Trudeaus record. Hes been in power for six years, and this crisis has only gotten worse, Singh said. He called it a waste of resources to continue throwing criminal justice measures after drug users. The party confirmed to me that he would decriminalize drugs if elected, making him the only one of the three with a serious plan to avoid thousands of more deaths.

Green Party leader Annamie Paul, similarly, supports drug decriminalization. I do not understand the governments rationale for not immediately decriminalizing possession and working with the provinces to ensure a safe supply of drugs, and increased social and health supports for users, Paul said in a statement.

I do not understand either.

***

For the past year, Trudeau has bent over backwards to laud and celebrate public health experts. On the campaign trail, he has admonished his competitors for their supposed distrust of science and expert advice.

Yet, when it comes to Canadas other public health crisis, he constantly ignores and dismisses that advice: Stop arresting people for drug possession. Stop trying to use police and courts to end an epidemic. Find ways to vastly expand the access to a safe supply, in order to supplant more deadly or contaminated sources of these drugs. And find legal, regulatory, avenues to allow users to source and share safer drugs to reduce overdoses, poisonings and deaths.

Whenever he is asked about the crisiseach and every timehe offers an insulting platitude: There is no one silver bullet to counter the opioid epidemic. Yet to look at his record on the crisis: Justin Trudeau is talking about silver and offering us brass.

So lets stop pretending. Lets stop pretending that the status quo will result in anything but another 10,000 dead. Lets stop pretending that this government is proposing any new or serious solutions. Lets stop pretending that Trudeau and his Liberal Party would prioritize these people over their own electoral fortune. Lets stop pretending anything short of drastic action is necessary.

Lets stop pretending.

Original post:

Canadas drug crisis has killed at least 23,000. What has Justin Trudeau done about it? - Maclean's