Category Archives: War On Drugs

EXCLUSIVE: Families of the Philippine drug war's dead claim they know the man who shot their children and they're willing to speak his name

By Patricia Evangelista Photos by Carlo Gabuco

Rappler tracks the killings in Police Station 2-Moriones in Tondo, Manila, where the first drug fatality after Rodrigo Duterte's inauguration was shot in the early hours of July 1, 2016. Of the 2,555 drug suspects killed across the country in the first 7 months of the drug war, PS-2 Moriones claims at least 45. They were allegedly killed after police were forced into shootouts. At least 15 remain unidentified in police records.

Rappler conducted more than 40 interviews in the course of a 3-month investigation. Among them are the 7 who put their names and testimonies on the record, calling 4 of the alleged encounters summary executions and accusing the police of torture and harassment. This multimedia report presents police records and witness testimonies to profile the man residents call the demon of Delpan.

The people of the villages know the killer by name.

Rexs mother knows. She remembers the night he came looking for her son, when the killer shoved her so hard the baby she held nearly fell out of her arms.

Joshuas mother knows. She knows because he had a gun to her mouth. She knows who the killer is, knows enough that on the day her son was buried, she took a jeep and howled his name when it trundled past the police precinct.

You son of a bitch, she screamed. You killer, you killed my son.

Marios brother knows. His friends saw the killer drag Mario into the precinct and watched as he was beaten bloody. Mario's brother counted the bullet wounds himself. There were 7 in all.

Danilos aunt knows for sure. She says it was the killer who gave her his name.

The man who killed Joshua and Rex and Mario and Danilo was not in uniform. Neither were the armed men who were with him. But the mothers are certain the killer was a cop. The neighbors are certain the killer was a cop. Every witness to the 4 deaths is certain the killer was a cop.

There is no doubt on that one point. The cops also say the killer was a cop.

Part 1: 'I will kill you'

INTRODUCTION: Where the war began

On June 30, 2016, a few hours after he took his oath of office, the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines appeared at the Delpan Sports Complex along Road 10 in Tondo, Manila to inform his new constituency that a war was at hand.

I am asking you, do not go [into drugs] because I will kill you, Rodrigo Duterte told the residents of Isla Puting Bato. It may not be tonight, it may not be tomorrow, but in 6 years, there will be one day that you will make a mistake and I will go after you.

Delpan sits at the bottom of Tondo, population 630,363, one of the capitals poorest areas where the shanties sit cheek to jowl with slaughterhouses and churches. Plastic tables covered with white tablecloths were scattered across the orange-painted gym. Duterte's people called the event a solidarity dinner.

President Rodrigo Duterte was late, held up by his first Cabinet meeting. When he arrived, the pineapple silk shirt was gone, traded for a striped polo shirt and a navy jacket with the sleeves rolled up. He said he ran for the presidency because he saw the Philippines drowning in drugs, criminality and poverty.

If someones child is an addict, he told the crowd, be the one to kill them, so it wont be so painful [to their parents].

Do it first, he said, because that person will die either way.

Those of you into drugs, Im done warning after the election, he said. Whatever happens to you, all of you listen, it could be your sibling, it could be your spouse, it could be your friend, your child, I am letting you know, there will be no blaming here. I told you to stop. Now, if anything happens to them, they wanted it. They wanted it.

The Presidents promise was kept. At 3 in the morning of July 1, hours after the Presidents speech, the earliest reported extrajudicial killing of the new regime occurred along IBP Road, near the corner of Road 10 and the Delpan Sports Complex.

The killing held the rough elements of what would be a pattern of deaths across the rest of the country in the next 7 months. Blotter number 1675 noted the body found of a male person alleged victim of summary execution. The unidentified victim, between 25-30 years old, about 53 tall, had been left with a sheet of cardboard over his body. It read, I am a Chinese Drug Lord.

The responding officers were members of the Delpan Police Community Precinct (Delpan PCP), one of 4 precincts under Manila Police Station-2 Moriones (PS-2).

At least 3 more drug-related killings committed by unidentified men would occur under PS-2s area of responsibility within the next two weeks. They were later reclassified as deaths under investigation.

And then the police killings began. By the time the war was suspended on its seventh month, a total of 2,555 were killed across the country in what the government now calls legitimate police operations.

Jimmy Walker

PART 2: 'I will kill you'

Jimmy Walker got his last name from his American grandfather and not much else. Just past 20, he is snaggletoothed and shy, all elbows and collarbones inside the loose white shirt, his strawberry blonde hair already showing dark roots.

He was close to his cousin Joshua Cumilang, the 18-year-old whose family nicknamed Wawa. Joshua sniffed solvent occasionally. Jimmy, who had bad lungs, never did. The boys were as good as brothers, even if Jimmy was often the butt of Joshuas jokes. Jimmy, bungi, Joshua called him. Jimmy the toothless. But it was Joshua who loaned Jimmy clothes, who fed Jimmy when Jimmy was so broke he couldnt afford a cup of rice.

The Cumilangs live in Isla Puting Bato, a sweaty maze of shanties tucked into the curve of the Manila North Harbor. Thick ropes of electrical wiring hang overhead, so low in some places that it is impossible to walk upright. The alleys are makeshift markets garlic by the bushel, cigarettes by the stick, powdered Oreo-flavored shakes sold beside roasted pig guts. The colors are bright a purple door here, a yellow awning there, graffiti scrawled big and broad over the few stretches of open wall.

One Friday afternoon, Jimmy, Joshua, and two other young men were sitting on a roadside ledge. The Cumilang shanty was behind them, down a set of stone steps. It was a month before Christmas. Joshua was counting the money he had saved for the holidays.

All of a sudden there were armed men. They were dressed in civilian clothing. Jimmy knew them from their rounds in the area. Its the ones who arent in uniform who kill here, he said.

One of them was the man Jimmy knew as Alvarez.

People would say, Stay away from that Alvarez, said Jimmy. Be careful, hes a killer.

That day, Jimmy said, Alvarez had a partner, a younger man whom Alvarez was training. Nobody was certain how they were related. They called him the other Alvarez.

The armed men started searching Joshua. They found the money in his sock, took it and pocketed it. They said the 4 young men had been using marijuana We werent, we really werent and made them stand with their hands on the tops of their heads. Two of the armed men herded Joshua down the steps to the short alley beside his house.

Joshuas mother Nenita came charging out of the Cumilang home, straight at the men who had seized her son. Sir, what are you doing sir, dont do anything sir, just jail him, please.

The younger Alvarez walked down the steps and aimed his gun at Joshua. Jimmy said his cousin looked terrified. He was begging, Ma, Ma, Ma.

It never occurred to me to stop them, Jimmy said. My mind blanked. I couldnt talk. My insides were trembling.

Alvarez aimed a gun at Nenita. She turned to run. The younger Alvarez let loose a shot. Nenita turned. She saw her son on the ground covered in blood. She tried to leap for Joshua. The younger Alvarez turned on her with a gun and chased her all the way to the street where she hid.

Alvarez took aim, said Jimmy, and shot Joshua again.

Neighbors rushed out of their homes after the gunshots. The street was crowded. The men who killed Joshua Cumilang walked over to a store just beside the Cumilang house. Witnesses said the men bought coffee and bottles of water with the money from the dead man.

Jimmy heard Alvarez on the phone. He said Alvarez was calling for backup.

The uniformed cops of the Delpan Police Community Precinct streamed in within minutes.

One of them stopped in front of Alvarez. Alvarez addressed the uniformed man as sir.

Sir, Wawa is gone, said Alvarez. Hes dead.

Good job, said the older man. Good job. Jimmy said the man raised both fists with the thumbs up.

The men made Jimmy carry Joshuas corpse into a pedicab. Nenita ran through another alley and jumped in. The two cops who were sitting with Joshua's corpse glared at her, but said nothing.

The pedicab stopped at an empty stretch of road. Nenita said a cop aimed a gun at her head. They pushed her out just before a boy darted past her to poke his head into the pedicab. One of the cops shifted his gun to the boy.

Nenita said the second cop held the other back.

Dont, he said. Thats a kid. You kill that one and theyll slap us with a case.

Part 3: 'They rape their mothers'

Delpan PCP Commander Rexson Layug

PART 3: 'Good job'

The trouble with drugs, Police Chief Inspector Rexson Layug told Rappler, is that they leave no man decent.

Layug is the commander of the Delpan Police Community Precinct (Delpan PCP), whose stark white building sits square under the Delpan Bridge. A 22-year veteran, he supervises the sprawling swath of shanties that includes Isla Puting Bato and a chunk of Parola, Tondo.

When theyre on drugs, sometimes, theyll even rape their grandmothers, he explained. Their grandmothers and their mothers. You can see it in the news. That's why they rape. Sometimes, they even kill their children, because they think theyre demons.

Layug was pleased with Project Double Barrel, the Presidents national operation against drugs. It was the Duterte administration that increased the number of policemen under Layug's command and allowed for more aggressive patrols.

Layug is a burly man, with a paunch and a lantern jaw. Since the beginning of the war on drugs, Layug has assigned an hourly beat to Isla Puting Bato, an area he described as one of his more chaotic territories.

It was one of those patrols that killed Joshua Cumilang, at least according to a report filed by the Manila Police District (MPD) Homicide Section on November 18. The spot report the account of the incident filed by police investigators described how an anti-criminality patrol walked into Purok 3 of Isla Puting Bato. The patrol noticed and chanced upon a group of men while examining a transparent plastic sachet in the act of extending over to another male companion. According to the report, the group scampered away when the policemen arrived.

In the story the police tell, one officer, a certain SPO1 Sherwin Mipa, followed the suspect who had the sachet. Joshua ran inside the basement of a small shanty. Mipa shouted for Joshua to stop. Joshua turned, already armed with a .38 caliber revolver." He fired twice, and missed.

The report said that Mipa, sensing that his life was [in] imminent danger [had] no other choice but to fire back, returned fire twice, thus hitting the suspect in the abdomen and shoulder.

The spot report also listed the collected evidence. They included a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber snub-nose revolver without a serial number, a P20 bill, and 5 plastic sachets of what appeared to be methamphetamine hydrochloride street name shabu, or crystal meth.

SPO3 Jonathan Bautista, the MPD Homicide investigator assigned to the case, said in an interview with Rappler that he had spoken to Nenita Cumilang. She told him her son did not fight back. She was, however, unwilling to file an affidavit at the MPD. Nenita later told Rappler the family couldnt file charges: Will they pay attention to me? Were little people nobody pays attention to. They salvage the big ones, dont they? So I did nothing.

Inasmuch as I could, I tried to convince her, Bautista said. I said, when I was asking her, For as long as you have any witnesses, the case will not close. There is still justice.

Bautista had written the spot report, but admitted there was some irregularity in the investigation process. Although he said he had spoken to SPO1 Mipa, the shooter on record, Bautista said all police officers involved in fatal incidents must each file either individual or joint affidavits to explain their version of events. He said none of the policemen on the scene, even Mipa, chose to submit reports to the Homicide Section. Bautista said he was forced to rely on spot reports written by the investigators of PCP Delpan and PS-2 Moriones.

To be honest, weve hit a blank wall, its like we're in limbo, he said. Considering that although theres this version of the story, the version of the police, I'm waiting for maybe someone with the courage to come out and say something like the allegations [Rappler] told us. Even if were cops, we wont stand back if the guilty need to be punished, definitely. We will file charges against them.

- Homicide Spot Report, 18 November 2016

In his interview with Rappler, Precinct Commander Layug claimed no cop under his watch had ever been injured during the drug war except for one who slipped and fell in the dark. In fact, he said, Delpan cops had never been shot at or been involved in any armed encounter with any resisting suspect during a patrol or drug operation since the beginning of the drug war.

His claim was a stark contradiction to the MPD's own police reports and media coverage. At least 11 fatal encounters with police occurred in Delpan alone, including the operation that killed Joshua Cumilang. An entry in the MPD Homicides police journal recorded the death of one Marvin Samonte, alleged drug pusher, killed on July 17, 2016. A news report detailed how Samonte was killed by members of the Delpan PCP in an apartment in Pier Dos, Tondo after allegedly resisting arrest.

The police team was led by Precinct Commander Layug.

Asked by Rappler if anyone in his unit had ever been involved in any shootouts with drug suspects during patrols, Layug said no.

No, no one has ever fought back.

Part 4: 'He looked for Mama'

Nelson Aparri

PART 4: 'They rape their mothers'

On the day after his son died, Nelson Aparri knelt just inside his front door with a rag and a bucket. He talked while he scrubbed. He said he was sorry. He said he couldnt even the score. He said maybe God would deal with the killers, because he couldn't himself. He bent over the floor, a lanky man in his late 50s, slopping water and tears over his sons blood.

It took a long time to clean.

It was Nelson who was closest to Rex. Rex was Papas boy. Even his mother Rowena agreed. It was only that night, just before the first shot was fired, that Rex Aparri screamed for his mother.

When he was about to die, Rowena said, he looked for me.

The house in Isla Puting Bato where 30-year-old Rex Aparri was killed sits along a short, skinny alley, so skinny that its possible to step out of one front door and into the door across. On September 13, 2016, at a little past 7 in the evening, word spread across the village that cops were coming. Nelson was afraid the family would be targeted, as Rex occasionally ran drugs. He had heard that every man inside a house during a raid ended up dead. He tried to drag Rex out with him.

Rex was stubborn. Not me, he said. Theyre not after me.

Rowena stayed. So did Rexs girlfriend Lori Ann and their 10-month-old son.

There were 5 armed men in all, none of them in uniform. Rowena was sitting on the front doors ledge. One of the men shoved her backward. She fell, Rex's son in her arms.

The man, she said, was the one Isla Puting Bato knew as Alvarez.

Alvarez told her they were looking for Rex. Two of the men stayed outside, shouting at neighbors to keep out of the way, threatening a teenager who had poked his head out of a window. Alvarez and another man climbed up the ladder to the second floor where Rex was tinkering with a radio. The fifth man stayed in the living room. He had Rowena and Lori Ann sit at a corner by the open door. He told them to put their mobile phones and wallets on top of the television. The women sat for half an hour, until the man guarding them walked to the bottom of the ladder with a folded packet in his hand what Rowena assumed was drugs. He called to the men upstairs.

Sir, you can have him brought down, sir, were killing him. Its positive.

Rowena began shouting Sir, he has nothing sir, how can it be positive?

Alverez and a second man brought Rex downstairs. He clung to the banister, weeping. Arrest me, please don't kill me, I have a son.

Rowena pushed the baby at Rex So he would have a shield then threw her arms around her son. It was a tangle of bodies, everyone pushing and shoving in a space the size of a bathroom. A mirror broke. One of the men hit Rowena with a gun, and kicked her out into the alley. She blacked out.

Lori Ann screamed. One of the armed men shoved her out, snatched the baby by the hair from Rex, then threw the wailing boy out to where Lori Ann knelt in the alley. She caught her son and knelt begging through the open door.

At the second shot she ran, and told Rowena that Alvarez had just shot Rex straight through the back of the head.

Nelson Aparri, standing in a nearby alley, heard the gunshots. He began to run home. Neighbors grabbed him by the arms.

No, they said, dont go. Theyll kill you too.

Nelson began to cry.

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Where the war began - Rappler

The Adam Granduciel-led band have released their first new song since their acclaimed 2014 album 'Lost In A Dream'

The War On Drugs have shared their new single, Thinking Of A Place listen to the track below.

The Adam Granduciel-led band earned widespread acclaim for their breakout third album, Lost In The Dream, in 2014 which was also their last release.

The band have now returned with their first new song in three years. Marking Record Store Day 2017 which takes place today (April 22) The War On Drugs have shared Thinking Of A Place. The 11-minute track has been released on a limited 12 for the annual vinyl celebration, and the psychedelic-tinged song is now available to listen to online.

Listen to The War On Drugs new song, Thinking Of A Place, below.

The band are thought to be working on their long-awaited follow-up to Lost In The Dream with the record set to be the first full-length release on their new recording contract with Atlantic.

Last year, The War On Drugs contributed a cover of Touch of Grey to a Grateful Dead covers album.

The extensive tribute collection entitled Day Of The Dead took over four years to record and compile, and featured over 60 artists including Mumford and Sons, The Flaming Lips, Courtney Barnett, Wilco, Fucked Up and The Walkmen.

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Listen to The War On Drugs' new song 'Thinking Of A Place' - NME.com

We are in the midst of a national addiction to lethal legal drugs, and the White House is attacking marijuana.

A year later, it still hurts to think of Prince, alone in an elevator, dying.

He did so much for so many and meant so much to so many, but at the end, he needed helpyet he was alone. Those closest to him knew he was so out of control that he needed professional help. The day before his death an aide called a famous drug counselor and told him to come nowa day later would be too long. They were right. Prince died before the drug counselor arrived.

Weve seen rockstar drug abuse. It seems like a natural extension of rockstar excess. But Princes situation had nothing to do with that. He died after overdosing on fentanyl, a powerful prescription opioid. Its a drug meant to block pain.

Prince was using a powerful, legal, prescription drug to address chronic hip pain, something your grandmother might be doing right now. Prince filled his life with activities unique to the superrich and megafamous, but his death was tragically commonhe was just one of the thousands who die each year because of prescription pain killers.

We have a massive national problemaccording to the American Society of Addictive Medicine, between 1999 and 2008, prescription opioid overdoses were responsible for more American deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. In 2015 the leading cause of accidental death in America was a drug overdose and almost half of those deathsabout 20,000 deathswere caused by pain relievers you can get with a prescription.

We are in the midst of a national addiction to lethal legal drugs. And what is the White House doing? Theyre attacking marijuana. Which cannot kill anyone.

The Obama administration had begun cranking down the War on Drugs by allowing states to decriminalize marijuana, commuting federal drug sentences, and visiting a prison to humanize drug inmates. But of course, President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are cranking the War on Drugs back up.

This White House wants the police to be more aggressive and use stop-and-frisk, they want prosecutors to stringently enforce marijuana laws, they want judges to expand the use of mandatory minimum sentences, and they want to build more private prisons.

The Obama administrations drug czar, Michael Botticelli, once said, We cant incarcerate addiction out of people. But one of Sessionss top lieutenants, Steven Cook, has said, The federal criminal justice system simply is not broken. In fact, its working exactly as designed.

Sessions himself says Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs is bad. It will derail your life.

Sessionss antiquated notion of drugs as purely bad and the sure path to life derailment is post-truth fearmongering straight out of Reefer Madness. It doesnt take into account the core of the modern problemopioids.

How is it morally wrong for us to take legal, prescription opioids for pain? Sessions also doesnt take into account that millions of productive Americans use illegal drugs recreationally and carefully, enjoying a joint at the end of day instead of a glass of wine.

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The majority of illegal drug users are not drug abusers and the substances are not derailing their livestheyre enriching them. Sessions also doesnt take into account that the War on Drugs has failedAmerica incarcerates more people than any nation on the planet by far while illegal drugs remain widely available, inexpensive and potent.

The War on Drugs has succeeded only in making the Mexican cartels richer than they would have been.

But maybe the War on Drugs has worked as its supposed to. Perhaps the War on Drugs is an opiate itself, meant make white people feel like theyre getting negroes under control. It declares a frightening enemythe drug-addled darkie whos liable to do anythingand a savior/hero whos here to helpthe tough white president whos sending in the troops.

The War on Drugs has given presidents, judges, and police the chance to look tough and rack up high numbers while doing nothing to actually address the drug problem.

Late in Obamas term, he earmarked more than $1 billion to combat prescription opioid abuse, but it seems like Trump and Sessions are unaware that the problem exists at all.

While theyre attacking marijuana, theyre doing nothing to address the opiate problem. This is part of the inherent madness of Trumpian thinking: instead of grappling with real problems, deal with misinformed perception.

The opioid epidemic is a huge problem in many of the counties that went for Trump. This is a life-threatening issue for many of his voters and their families. But instead of addressing the prescription drug problem, hes focused conveying the perception that hes a tough Boss Hogg type whos getting unruly weed-smoking negroes in line.

The perception may make his voters feel strong, it may make Trump look tough, it may contribute to making white people feel alpha, but it doesnt actually help anyone.

But thats the way Trump does things. The dearth of jobs is about the rise of robotization. Talking about the fiction that he can bring back coal or attacking NAFTA may make some people feel better but it doesnt address the real reasons why millions are slowly being put out of work by self-driving cars, box-carting robots, and delivery drones.

Talking about a wall and a deportation force makes Trump seem like hes tough, but immigration is at a net negative and real solutions will require business owners like Trump to on shore operations no matter what it does to the bottom line.

Trump is all about dealing with false perceptions while ignoring real problems. Hes good at making his supporters feel better without actually delivering anything. If Trump himself were a drug hed be a pill that does nothing to deal with the actual problem but is effective in blocking pain. (That pill would only work in white people who watch Fox News, but thats another story.)

If you took that Trump pill, youd feel better for a little while. Youd see America returning to the 1950s right in front of your eyes, but in reality, nothing is happening. Sounds like he wouldnt be an opioid at allhed be an hallucinogen.

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How the War on Drugs Failed Prince - Daily Beast

Its not clear that legalize it will help much of anyone other than rich white entrepreneurs and affluent tokers.

The news last May was unambiguous: in Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, pot-related arrests were down 8 percent for white adolescents aged 10 to 17 between that year and 2014, and up 58 percent for black and Latino youth the same age, according to the Colorado Department of Public Safety. The growing theme of legalization is and was clear: leniency and riches for Steve, continued prison for LaQuan.

The report set of a mini wave of stories and posts, but little else.

Legalization remains a popular idea61 percent of Americans support it according to a recent CBS News poll, and 88 percent support legalizing medical marijuana use. Seven states plus the District of Columbia allow the possession of marijuana for recreational use. A total of 29 allow medical dispensation. And the industry is on track to rake in $20 billion in sales by 2021.

But with the ongoing criminalization of people of color, including children and teenagers, for whom possession remains illegal in states like Colorado, plus the general black-brown lockout from dispensary business, its not clear that legalize it will help much of anyone other than rich white entrepreneurs and affluent tokers. Colorados racial disparity in arrests is echoed in Washington State and elsewhere, where the pre- and post-legalization rates of arrests of white and black defendants havent changed much at all.

Most states bar anyone with the felony drug conviction from getting the licenses needed to sell cannabis legally, meaning the brothers on the corner who perfected pot entrepreneurship get to stay on the corner and watch slick players flush with Silicon Valley cash sweep into their state and take over the dispensary business, while trying not to get arrested. And as the industry grows, it develops its own imperatives to crack down on the illegal dealers, to keep them from undercutting their prices. And thus, the high-end dispensaries become allied with the police in cracking down on the very people legalization was supposed to save.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has an attorney general, Jefferson Sessions, whose obsession with punishing people for marijuana sale and use is second only to his fixation on rinsing the country clean of dusky immigrants. Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey recently said of Sessions: I think if you go back and you look at any number of the statements that hes made, the positions that hes taken, he spends a tremendous amount of time focused on marijuana, where as a matter of law enforcement, where I see the issues right now, where I see the problems, are with fentanyl and heroin. And thats not likely to change. Sessions, after all, thinks theres little difference between weed and heroin.

In Colorado, like most states, drug arrests are driven by people calling 911, which is still more common when the person suspected is black or Hispanic, and neighborhood patrols remain more frequent in heavily minority neighborhoods. Convenient at a time with the attorney general is also aggressively rolling back police reform.

Our present Fox News age, where the depiction of black and brown people as a mass of gangsters and would-be felons is par for the course, and grotesque racism and physical threats against the first black president gets you a visit to the Oval Office, it is, I suppose, an awkward time to bring up rolling back the war on drugs. The collective sympathy the country has learned toward the rural cast of Hillbilly Elegy has yet to be learned regarding the kid from Compton or Detroit who sells weed to be able to afford a decent pair of sneakers to go to school in.

Democrats, meanwhile, have been the picture of caution when it comes to marijuana legalization, which isnt helpful, given that study after study shows that their bases children are far more likely to be targeted by the criminal justice system for marijuana possession than white Americans children, despite the two having equal rates of drug use.

Drug related arrests account for a quarter of those imprisoned in the U.S. each year, and marijuana possession charges make up roughly half of drug arrests. And that has far reaching implications for everything from the ability to get employment after release to, in some states, the right to vote.

I grew up in Denver, Colorado, and have watched from a distance as it has transformed from a cool, quiet Western city to a boomtown on the back of legal weed. And the faces of those who are profiting, and driving up rents and real estate prices in the process, dont look like those in the mostly black suburb I grew up in, or like those in Five Points, the onetime downtown ghetto thats now a chichi destination for fancy hipster living.

We have a drug problem in the United States, and it isnt people who smoke weed. Its the fact that weed is about to become just another source of obscene corporate profits and racial disparity in a country that already has too much of both.

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The War on Drugs Is Far From Over for Minorities - Daily Beast

People attend Drug Addiction 101 Thursday at Global Arts Manitowoc.(Photo: Alisa M. Schafer/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

MANITOWOC -While many believe the "War on Drugs"is ongoing, Lt. Dave Remiker said the war has already been lost and it is time to start thinking of different solutions for drug addiction.

Remiker heads the Manitowoc County Metro Drug Unit and spent Thursday night talking about drug addiction in Manitowoc to an enthusiastic crowd as part of the Drug Addiction 101 event at Global Arts Manitowoc. He said in his 24 years in law enforcement almost half of it spent in narcotics the drug problem has never been worse than it is now.

Me and my investigators,who I have the utmost gratitude for, we cant do it alone, Remiker said. We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem. We need your help, we need the employers help, we need the community, we need the mayor, we need the police chief, we need the public defenders office, we need the district attorney, we need the jail and the jail administrator. We need all of you to fix this problem, trust me. That is how big this problem is.

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While he acknowledged he and the Metro Drug Unit playan important role in enforcing drug laws, the drug problem itself likely wont get any better until people start to accept drug addicts into the community.

There is a stigma attached to drug addiction and until that changes and we start accepting these individuals as members of our community, who can provide a service, who can provide friendships, who can provide a sense of belonging and a sense of being recognized and that sense of being cared about, Remiker said.

He said he used to struggle with his own way of thinking about drug addicts. He used to believe drug addicts made the choice to use and abuse drugs and they could make the choice to stop if they wanted. However, after working with narcotics in local law enforcement, he said hebelieves addiction is a disease and needs to be treated as such.

Remiker said the difference in support, such as health insurance and social connections, for drug addicts is not nearly as strong as it is for people with cancer. He said he believes addicts need to be supported in a similar way by the community if they are going to have a chance at turning their lives around.

Are we fighting the drugs, or are we fighting the way people think? he asked the crowd. Are we fighting the drugs, or are we fighting the mental health issues that people have that get them into drug addiction?

According to Remiker, Manitowoc is unique because the people who live in the communities care and they want to do things differently. He said increasingthe mental health network would have the biggest impact in treating Manitowocs drug problem.

We have such a shortage of mental health counseling and such a shortage of mental health funding in our community and in every single community that we live in, Remiker said. When we start fixing that problem, the drugs are no longer going to be the problem.

Two other events are scheduled in the Drug Addiction 101 series, one on April 27 and the other on May 4. Manitowoc County Coroner Curt Green will speak about his experience April 27 and the third event will feature the Manitowoc County EMT First Responder Units.

For both events, the doors open at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m.

Global Arts Manitowoc is at 702 York St., Manitowoc.

Alisa M. Schafer: 920-686-2105 or aschafer@gannett.com

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Remiker: Manitowoc's 'War on Drugs' already lost - Herald Times Reporter

The origins of the drug war and its effects on American culture will be explored in the upcoming docuseries Americas War on Drugs, slated to air on A+E Networks-owned channel History.

The (860) docuseries from producers Talos Films is a trip through the last five decades looking at how the CIAs obsession with keeping America safe in the fight against communism, partnered itself with the mafia and foreign drug traffickers. In exchange for support against foreign enemies, the groups were allowed to grow their drug trade in the U.S.

With firsthand accounts of former CIA and DEA officers, major drug traffickers, gang members, noted experts and insiders, the series explores the consequences of gangsters, war lords, spies, outlaw entrepreneurs, street gangsters and politicians who tried to control the worldwide black market for narcotics.

The four-night series premieres June 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Americas War on Drugsis produced for History by Talos Films.Julian P. Hobbs, Elli Hakamiand Anthony Lapp are executive producers for Talos.Michael Stilleris executive producer forHistory.

A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights for Americas War on Drugs.

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Realscreen Archive America's War on Drugs slated for History - Realscreen

New York Times

The Playlist: The War on Drugs and Lana Del Rey Deliver Two Kinds of Reveries New York Times The War on Drugs' first release since 2014 is an 11-minute reverie, split into two parts for a Record Store Day vinyl single. Adam Granduciel sings about dreams, journeys and love over a steady, leisurely strum through two and later three chords. What ... and more »

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The Playlist: The War on Drugs and Lana Del Rey Deliver Two Kinds of Reveries - New York Times

HOW satisfied do you feel when you see a big drug bust on the nightly news? Wow, we've finally defeated those drug barons. It's the end of illicit drug use as we know it, hooray!

Of course that's rubbish. At best it probably generates a few of seconds "good job boys" before you go back to your dinner. A blaise response like that makes sense because going on history, it's just another boatload of junk in a sea of illegal substances out there.

For all its good intentions, the legislation in place to tackle illegal drugs, only seem to be making things worse.

That's because there is no end to it and believing "the law" will eventually catch up with all the bad guys one day belongs in some Charles Bronson movie.

It's time to face the fact that people are always going to want drugs, including the illegal ones, which means there will always be a market for it, and no amount of taxpayer-funded policing will even put a dent in it, let alone stop it completely.

What may help alleviate the illegal drug problem is changing its culture completely. But first we have to admit the current laws and the way we respond to drug use in society isn't working or helpful as a long term solution.

Imagine if these illegal drugs, starting with the garden varieties like cannabis and working through to the more sinister like ice, were decriminalised for users and issued in a controlled environment rather than by dealers.

These drugs would be made to pharmaceutical standards rather than by shonky backyard operators creating a white market to water down the big black one already in existence. Taxes are paid, the revenue perhaps invested back into drug counselling to get to the root of why people use drugs in the first place.

A recent Thinktank report proposes this line of thinking rather than our current plan of attack which punishes users (who are not one size fits all), confiscate drugs using limited police resources (which just increases demand and price) and try to catch and prosecute those sneaky dealers (whose place is swiftly taken by another enterprising one if busted).

The prospect of decriminalising hard drugs scares people because the first thought is that now EVERYONE will start taking them. Who your grandma? Your eight-year-old nephew? It's not like they are going to be sold in vending machines on every street corner, that kinda happens now but you just don't see it.

It also won't lead to more people dropping out of society. Chronic drug users are not the same people as recreational drug users. It's a nuanced world out there so the one-size-fits-all user's approach isn't going to help those people at the bottom of the drug pile.

The heavy hand of the law isn't what they need, it's a helping one.

Chronic drug users are usually products of abusive environments, victims of heinous situations looking for dependency on something that makes them feel good. Legalising drugs won't increase this demographic, they are always going to be there, but changing the way we deal with this will help save their lives through monitoring and support, not through dodgy deals with people who don't give an iota about them.

Recreational drug users are a different breed. Working people who might like to party to a different beat than that bottle of bourbon you are allowed to have.

So where's a good starting point for a trial decriminalisation? How about the music festival?

Can you believe in Germany there are 17 drug consumption centres around the country supported by police? Yep, that means they are consumed with trained staff around and if all goes well they can be on their merry way. Pills are also tested for quality beforehand so the 'customer' can be sure the stuff they are taking is "legit" and not laced with some cheap or lethal chemical filler.

Apparently this program is so effective some customers who discover their gear is not top notch or at least what they paid for, are returning it to their dealer to criticise its quality after testing. Almost laughable really.

This is what is happening according to former Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer who talked about the Thinktank report in a recent radio interview and how these kinds of trials were having an enormous effect on the drug scene by "changing the environment and minimising the harm".

He said doing something like this would not encourage more people to take drugs or drop out of of society. "Most (chronic drug users) were already unemployed, suffer from mental illness and come from dysfunctional backgrounds. Drugs are symptoms of people looking for relief from that dysfunction."

Mr Palmer said he started his policing with traditional views but later realised what they were doing was futile.

"They can't arrest their way out of this problem."

So head-sand dwelling politicans and members of society, what's it going to take to consider the advice from people like former police commissioners and the Thinktank report and start seriously looking at what we want our drug scene to look like in 10, 20, 50 years.

You can see it's not just the looney lefties who want to see change. Even blind drunk Freddy can see it's not working. So too can former premiers from both camps, Jeff Kennett and Bob Carr.

"What we've been doing for 30 years hasn't worked... the conversations are getting tired, something needs to change. We need a champion to articulate a case for legalisation and turn the report into constructive positive outcomes," Mr Kennett said.

Throw in the support of a former supreme court judge and you have to wonder why politicians and society continue to keep going down the same dysfunctional path.

Is it because our idea of solving it is to just carry on arresting the odd drug dealer and festival-goer and let nature take its course on the 'useless junkie'? And the politicians just tow that line.

What a rethinking of the laws will do is ensure young people, your children, their friends, and people who like to party at the weekends don't pay the ultimate price because we want to pretend it's only chronic users who overdose on illegal drugs and stopping drugs is down the police and only the police.

Good luck with that.

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The war on drugs is a losing battle - Clarence Valley Daily Examiner

Rachael Leigh Cook, who starred in the 1997 version of the "This Is Your Brain on Drugs" PSA, appears in a new video for 4/20 that spoofs the ad's frying pan and egg motif to highlight the devastating effects of the war on drugs, especially on minority communities.

In her original spot, Cook used a frying pan to bash an egg and destroy a kitchen to show what happens to a person's brain and life if they use heroin. The new clip from Green Point Creative opens with Cook holding a white egg and explaining that it represents one of the millions of Americans who uses drugs but never gets arrested. She then picks up a brown egg and says, "This American is several times more likely to be charged with a drug crime."

Cook goes on to narrate an animated sequence in which the brown egg is arrested and filtered through the criminal justice system, only to be continually whacked by a skillet on the outside. The narrative touches on the way felony drug convictions often hinder peoples' job prospects and preclude them from receiving financial aid to return to school.

"The war on drugs is ruining peoples' lives," Cook says, holding up a pan smeared with yolk. "It fuels mass incarceration, it targets people of color in greater numbers than their white counter parts. It cripples communities, it costs billions, and it doesn't work. Any questions?"

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Watch Rachael Leigh Cook Remake 'Brain on Drugs' Ad for 4/20 ... - RollingStone.com

Stars and Stripes

Were peasant farmers poisoned by the US war on drugs? Stars and Stripes During a two-week trial in Washington that ended Tuesday, a lawsuit against McLean, Virginia-based DynCorp probed one of the bitter legacies of America's long war against Latin American cartels and its own insatiable drug appetite. The mostly peasant ...

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Were peasant farmers poisoned by the US war on drugs? - Stars and Stripes