Category Archives: War On Drugs

On Thursday morning, President Trump signed three new executive orders, including the Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking. This executive order addresses multiple kinds of trafficking, including human and drug trafficking.

According to CNN, this EO is aimed at combating transnational drug cartels, prescrib[ing] steps for various federal agencies to increase intelligence sharing among law enforcement partners. Theorder established an inter-agency task force to compile a report detailing "the progress made in combating criminal organizations" along with "recommended actions for dismantling them."

In essence, this EO makes good on President Trumps campaign promises to combat rising drug addiction and overdose deaths in the United States through law enforcement and border patrol. He is echoing tough on crime language that originated with President Richard Nixon in the 1970s and continued through the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

The War on Drugs that Richard Nixon initiated has been deemed a policy failureon all levels by the United Nations. A 2013 study in the British Medical Journal found that despite efforts to limit the supply of these drugs, since 1990 prices have fallen while the purity of the drugs has increased, the Guardian reported.

The presidents EO claims that drug cartels are drivers of crime, corruption, violence, and misery. It goes on to say the trafficking by cartels of controlled substances has triggered a resurgence in deadly drug abuse and a corresponding rise in violent crime related to drugs. However, to say thatinternational drug trafficking is to blame forthe rise in drug abuse, addiction, and crimeis a stretch, at best.

Particularly when much of the current addiction epidemic in the U.S. can be tied to Big Pharma and the overprescription of certain drugs by doctors. Not only that, in communities where decriminalization has been prioritizedlike the police-run Angel Programin Gloucester, Massachusettshelping people struggling with addiction to get treatment instead of arresting them for drug use or drug possession has resulted in a reduction of ancillary crimes associated with drug use.

The one area that these drug war policies have been effective is in the mass incarceration and destruction of communities of color in the United Statesthe black community in particular. Nixons former domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman later admitted that the War on Drugs was designed to target black people, saying in an interview, We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

The result, which intensified after Bill Clinton signed the 1994 Crime Bill, has been the incarceration of black folks on an incredibly large scale. According to a 2016 report by the Drug Policy Alliance,while black people comprise 13% of the U.S. population and are consistently documented by the U.S. government to use drugs at similar rates to people of other races, they make up 31% of those arrested for drug law violations, and nearly 40% of people incarcerated in state or federal prison for drug law violations.

Ramping up the drug war mindset is bad news for those touched by addiction. It took nearly half a century to realize that "fighting" drugs with aggressive law enforcement is more harmful than effectiveat a huge cost, in terms of lives lost and billions of tax dollars wasted.

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President Trump Signs Executive Order Ramping Up The War On ... - TheFix.com

Deutsche Welle

Duterte's 'war on drugs' in the Philippines Deutsche Welle More than 7,000 people have been killed since summer 2017 when President Rodrigo Duterte launched his campaign to wipe out drug dealers and users. The rule of law has in effect been suspended. Police and vigilantes have carte blanche. Children and Duterte's drug war: Lessons from the pastAljazeera.com A man of God in the Philippines is helping document a bloody war on drugsColumbia Journalism Review Japan Turns a Blind Eye to Philippines' Abusive 'Drug War'Human Rights Watch The Wire -Asian Correspondent -Saudi Gazette all 225 news articles »

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Duterte's 'war on drugs' in the Philippines - Deutsche Welle

Detectives are now hunting for a known drug baron whose main interests are in Diani at the south Coast.

The suspect, identified as Stephen Bosire, reportedly supplies large amounts of narcotics from neighbouring countries.

Musa Kibiringe, one of his close allies, was handcuffed upon presenting himself at DCI headquarters in Nairobi.

An police, who sought anonymity, said Kabiringe was called in on a friendly matter.

"We tricked him. He was on our radar. We suspect he was at Bosire's residence when we raided the house in January," the source said.

"He will be held at JKIA police station and will appear in a Nairobi court on Monday," the source added.

When contacted by the Star, police offered no further comment on the arrest.

Bosire is said to be a close ally of recently arrested suspected drug baron Swaleh Yusuf Ahmed, also known as Kandrain.

He was in possession of 15 kilogrammes of heroin worth Sh170 million, as well as Sh18.4 million in cash.

Swaleh was apprehended alongside his wife Asmah Abdallah, and other accomplices: Rashid Athman, Athman Salim and Farida Omar.

More on this: [VIDEO] Five more suspected drug barons arrested, Sh18m cash, Sh170m heroin found

The crackdown was carried out by detectives who were behind the arrest and extradition of four suspected drug traffickers to the US.

Baktash (40) and Ibrahim Akasha (28) and foreigners Vijay Goswami (Indian) and Hussein Shabakash (Pakistani) were flown to New York on January 31.

They were arrested in Mombasa for conspiracy to smuggle heroin and methamphetamine into the United States.

Kenyan authorities have arrested more than eight drug barons in renewed efforts against drug dealing, especially at the Coast.

They have been working with agencies including the United States Drugs Enforcement Administration.

US authorities say Baktash is the leader of an organised crime family in Kenya, responsible for the production and distribution of narcotics in the country and across Africa.

More on this: [VIDEO] Akasha sons, two foreigners extradited to US - police source

Also read: The fall of the Akasha empire?

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War on drugs intensified as police arrest wanted drug baron's accomplice - The Star, Kenya

Philippine Star

Duterte attributes war on drugs success to AFP's support | SunStar Sun.Star THE war on drugs has turned out to become "successful" after the administration tapped the help of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the narcotics crackdown, President Rodrigo said Saturday. "Little did I know that the drug problem was more ... Duterte to military: I need you in leading the countryRappler Duterte tells AFP: Join me in banishing 'national threats'Inquirer.net all 20 news articles »

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Duterte attributes war on drugs success to AFP's support | SunStar - Sun.Star

MANILA, Philippines Japan should condemn President RodrigoDuterte'swar on drugs and not condone it, international group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday.

HRW Deputy Asia Director Phelim Kine said Tokyo turned a blind eye to the country's "abusive drug war" while theUnited States and the European Union have publicly criticizedthe rising cases of alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

Duterte's crackdown on illegal drugs has left more than 7,000 suspected drug offenders both from legitimate police operations and vigilante-style or unexplained killings, since he took office in June.

According toKine,showing a lack of commitment inaddressing human rights violationsis not only a "wasted opportunity."

"It doubtlessly gives encouragement to a government that deems as 'inhuman' those slaughtered in its anti-drug campaign,"Kinesaid in a dispatch released Friday.

The HRW director noted that Japan had plenty of opportunities to address the problem, such as during thePhilippines-Japan vice-ministerial meeting in Tokyo on February 10, but failed to do so.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also made a state visit to the Philippines last January 12 to 13 to renew its ties with the country. During the two-day official visit, Abe extended financial assistance in building a drug rehabilitation center in the country as support to the Philippines' anti-drug campaign.

"But during his visit and afterward, Abe made no public referenceto the 'war on drugs' and its brutal cost in lives and the impact on affected families," saidKine.

"It needs to make clear that unlessDutertedecisively ends the killings and prosecutes those responsible, he risks a suspension of Japanese financial aid, training programs, and equipment sales to the Philippine National Police," he added.

Original post:

Human Rights Watch: Japan should condemn Duterte's drug war - Philippine Star

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

In a sharp break with the Obama administration, which distanced itself from harsh anti-drug rhetoric and emphasized treatment for drug users over punishment, President Trump this week reverted to tough drug war oratory and backed it up with a series of executive orders he said are designed to restore safety in America.

Were going to stop the drugs from pouring in, Trump told law enforcement professionals of the Major Cities Chiefs Associationon Wednesday. Were going to stop those drugs from poisoning our youth, from poisoning our people. Were going to be ruthless in that fight. We have no choice. And were going to take that fight to the drug cartels and work to liberate our communities from their terrible grip of violence.

Trump also lambasted the Obama administration for one its signature achievements in criminal justice reform, opening the prison doors for more than 1,700 drug war prisoners who had already served sentences longer than they would have under current, revised sentencing guidelines. Obama freed record numbers of drug traffickers, many of them kingpins, Trump complained.

And in a sign of a return to the dark days of drug war over-sentencing, he called for harsher mandatory minimum prison sentences for the most serious drug offenders, as well as aggressive prosecutions of drug traffickers and cracking down on shipping loopholes he claimed allowed drugs to be sent to the U.S. from other countries.

In a New Hampshirecampaign speechduring the campaign, Trump called for more treatment for drug users and more access to overdose reversal drugs, but there was no sign of that side of the drug policy equation in Wednesdays speech.

On Thursday, Trump backed up his tough talk with action as, at the Oval Office swearing in of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he rolled out three executive orders he said were designed to restore safety in America, but which appear to signal an increasingly authoritarian response to crime, drugs, and discontent with policing practices.

The first, which Trump said would reduce crime and restore public safety, orders Sessions to create a new Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Policy, which will come up with strategies to reduce crime, including, in particular, illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violent crime, propose legislation to implement them, and submit a report to the president within a year.

The second, regarding transnational criminal organizations and preventing drug trafficking, directs various federal law enforcement agencies to increase intelligence sharing and orders an already existing inter-agency working group to submit a report to Trump within four months describing progress made in combating the cartels, along with any recommended actions for dismantling them.

Im directing Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to undertake all necessary and lawful action to break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth and other people, Trump said Thursday.

The thirddirects the Justice Department to use federal law to prosecute people who commit crimes against police officers, even though they already face universally severe penalties under existing state laws.

Its a shame whats been happening to our great, truly great law enforcement officers, Trump said at the signing ceremony. Thats going to stop as of today.

The tough talk and the executive orders provoked immediate alarm and pushback from human and civil rights advocates, drug reformers, the Mexican government, and even the law enforcement community. The apparent turn back to a more law-and-order approach to drugs runs against the tide of public health and public policy opinion that the war on drugs has been a failure.

In areport released Friday, dozens of senior law enforcement officials warned Trump against a tough crackdown on crime and urged him instead to continue the Obama administrations efforts to reform the criminal justice system. The report was co-authored for Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration by former Dallas police chief David Brown, who won wide praise for his response after a gunman killed five of his officers last year.

Decades of experience have convinced us of a sobering reality: Todays crime policies, which too often rely only on jail and prison, are simply ineffective in preserving public safety, the report said.

The presidents crime plan would encourage police to focus on general lawbreaking rather than violent crime, the report said. The Justice Department already spends more than $5 billion a year to support local police, much of it spent on antiquated law enforcement tools, such as dragnet enforcement of lower-level offenses and Trumps plan would repeat this mistake, the officials wrote. We cannot fund all crime fighting tactics.

Drug reformers also sounded the alarm.

This rhetoric is dangerous, disturbing, and dishonest, said Bill Piper, senior director for national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. We have had a war on drugs. It has failed. Tough talk may look good before the cameras, but history has taught us that cracking down on drugs and building walls will not stop the supply or use of drugs. It mostly causes the death and destruction of innocent lives. Trump must tone down his outrageous rhetoric and threats, and instead reach out to leadership from both parties to enact a humane and sensible health-based approach to drug policies that both reduce overdose and our countrys mass incarceration crisis.

Most public health experts argue that the prohibitionist approach to drugs has been afailure.They point to research such as a2013 studyin theBritish Medical Journalthat found that despite billions spent on drug prohibition since 1990, drug prices have only decreased and purity increased, making getting high easier and more affordable than ever before.

These findings suggest that expanding efforts at controlling the global illegal drug market through law enforcement are failing, the authors conclude.

Public health analysts also point to research showing that between 1991 and 2001, even when the drug war was in full effect,rate of illicit drug useamong teens rose sharply, while their cigarette smoking rate fell off a bit and their alcohol use dropped sharply. The substances that are legal for adult use were less likely to see increases than ones that are prohibited, the analysts point out.

Mexican Foreign Affairs SecretaryLuis Videgaray also chimed into note that there wouldnt be any Mexican drug cartels without American demand for drugs and to remind Washington that its not just whats being exported from Mexico that is a problem, but whats being imported.

For years, from the Mexican perspective, people say, OK, the problem with drugs that its creating so many violence, so many deaths of young people in Mexico is because theres demand for drugs in the U.S., Videgaray said. We happen to be neighbors to the largest market for drugs. From the American perspective, its just the other way around, he said, adding that both countries need to get past the blame game.

If the U.S. is serious about helping Mexico disrupt the cartels business model, it needs to stop the southbound traffic in cash and guns.

We need to stop illegal weapons flowing from the U.S. into Mexico, Videgaray said. We always think about illegal stuff moving through the border south to north, but people forget that most guns and were not talking small guns, were talking heavy weapons they get to the cartels and create literally small armies out of the cartels.

Human Rights Watch reactedto a comment from Attorney General Sessions at his swearing-in ceremony that crime is a dangerous permanent trend that places the lives of American people at risk, by noting that crime is down dramatically by all measures over the past 20 years despite a slight increase in violent crimes between 2014 and 2015. There is no dangerous permanent trend in violent or non-violent crime, it noted.

AndAmnesty International swiftly reactedto the executive order calling for new federal penalties for crimes against police.

Law enforcement officers face unique hardships and challenges due to the nature of their work, said Amnestys Noor Mir. Authorities are already able to vigorously prosecute crimes against law enforcement officers, and there is no history to suggest that officers are not fully protected by current laws. This order will not protect anyone, and instead it creates additional penalties that could cause people to be significantly over-prosecuted for offenses including resisting arrest.

There is a better way, said Mir, but that would require going in a radically different direction than where the Trump administration is headed.

This order does nothing to address real and serious problems in the U.S. criminal justice system, he said. Relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve could instead be improved by investing in reform of the criminal justice system and better training for officers. Police already have laws protecting them, but there is no federal standard for the prosecution of officers who unlawfully kill civilians. Implementing a standard for lethal force in line with international standards will protect both police and civilians.

The Trump administration has outlined an approach to drugs and criminal justice policy with dark Nixonian and Reaganite underpinnings, promising more, more, more heavy-handed policing, more swelling prison populations, and morenot lessdistrust and suspicion between police and the communities they are supposed to serve and protect.

In typical Trump fashion, his brash, draconian approach to the complex social problems around crime and drugs is creating a rapid backlash. Whether the rising opposition to Trump can rein in his authoritarian impulses and regressive policy approaches to the issue remains to be seen, but a battle to stop the slide backward is brewing.

Excerpt from:

Trump goes full Nixon on law-and-order, vows ruthless war on drugs and crime - Salon

President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and Deputy President William Ruto. (Photo: Beveryne Musili/Standard)

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto have declared war on Kenyas drug lords. The two made the declaration in Mombasa, which in international circles is perceived to be the golden gate for drugs from Asia and South en route to Europe and US.

Listening to them you are left with no doubt they have a list of suspects and the dragnet is closing in. The declaration was made at the Coast, which has suffered two misfortunes. One is the radicalisation of the youth and relocation to Somalia to train with Al Shabaab.

Secondly, many families have suffered the agony of seeing their children sink into drug abuse and eventually die an excruciating death in the grip of heroine or cocaine.

One painful case was a former Mombasa Kanu supremo whose drug addicted son once interrupted his press conference only to ask for Sh200 presumably, for the next dose. There is no illusion that Kenya has a strong, well-connected network of drug traffickers. The US Government in 2010 gave a list of suspects to then Minister for Internal Security, George Saitoti.

He read it to Parliament and they were the familiar people Kenyans call pharmacists; The Boss John Haroun Mwau, Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho, Kiambu Governor and former aide of Mr Mwau, William Kabogo, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, businessman Ali Punjani and the usual culprits the Akasha brothers; Baktash and Vijaygiri. Last month, the two brothers were extradited to US in handcuffs and on a chartered plane.

The people whom Prof Saitoti named in Parliament in 2010 have denied the charges, including Mr Mwau who is fighting to get back his assets and cash, to the tune of millions of dollars frozen by US authorities.

ALSO READ: War on narcotics: Ring exposed as dirty money, drugs seized

Mr Joho meanwhile has asked Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to go for the main culprits, insisting he was not a pharmacist. But it is important to note the third reason why the President and his deputy made their declaration on drug cartels in Mombasa.

It was not just to get the message closer to Mr Johos ear but also a political strategy to pluck some feathers from the wings of his rising popularity in the region and in Raila Odingas Orange party.

It probably can be argued that Mr Kenyatta is keen on slowing Mr Johos star but for Mr Ruto, you can safely bet he wouldnt mind breaking the Governors leg as part of the effort to clear the stumbling blocks to his 2022 race. It happens that the Mombasa governor who is also battling questions about his university degree, has been on the lip in Coast as either a serious contender after 2022 or a bankable running-mate with deep pockets.

The war against drugs isnt an easy one because even for those named by the late Saitoti, the claims against them have been very speculative. The drug cartels have survived regimes.

They mutate and adopt well to changing circumstances. They have strong connections in the police, Judiciary and the Executive.

We may never know whether the chopper carrying Saitoti and his Assistant Joshua Orwa Ojode was brought down over the Ngong Forest, but we must take cognisance of the fact that drug cartels and Al Shabaab were mentioned as likely suspects. But there was also talk of mechanical failure or human error.

But even as we wish the President and his deputy luck in this war we also have a duty as good citizens to point out that politicising this fight on drugs is the first indicator it is not going far. After all, drug traffickers must surely be on both sides of our politics, with loyalty to no one in particular but the protection of their wealth and the camouflage of their operations.

ALSO READ: Why war on drugs fires up our soft political underbelly

They also suffer no indignity, so long as the money is coming. Remember that the senior Akasha and the lord of them all, Ibrahim was brought back a dead man in a sealed coffin. The pathologists removed the naked body, put it on a slab at City Mortuary, then turned it round to take pictures of every mark in the body. They also took fingerprints.

The Government had to be 100 per cent sure this was not a decoy but that he had indeed died in the hands of a cycling assassin in an Amsterdams street coincidentally named Bloedstraat (Blood Street).

Reports suggest that he was taken out by a rival group over a deal gone sour in the Sodom and Gomorrah of The Netherlands. Next, you hear that his sons have taken over, with rumours that they too, even got to killing each other in battle to control his businesses.

That is how enriching and bewitching this business Mr President and DP is. These cartels will fight back and when you forewarn them they just lie low, like antelopes, but just for a while.

They also have connections right through the arms of government and as usual, they buy their loyalty, through well-connected people. We can be sure that some of them are even secretly financing both your party and the Opposition for that is their survival strategy.

Yes, go for them but go the whole hog, not along party lines. You lose the confidence of the Kenyans when it appears you have 100 arrows in your quiver, one of them poisoned, na umetengea just one suspect.

ALSO READ: Joho opens up on drugs claims

Continued here:

Go whole hog in war on drug lords - The Standard (press release)

Lets not make it harder for law enforcement to use civil asset forfeiture to fight the war on drugs.

Most people are oblivious to that war, though it rages around us continually. Worth an estimated $120 billion a year, illegal drugs smuggled from Mexico might well be the greatest foreign threat to our national security. Beyond a doubt, its the one killing the most Americans.

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To get a first-hand look, I recently visited a drug task force that operates out of a county courthouse in southeast Oklahoma. In one room was a just-arrested drug mule and more than a million dollars worth of marijuana. In another was a photo of an 18-year-old Oklahoma girl, dead of a drug overdose. It was haunting, how her still-open eyes stared straight into the police camera.

Her case was not especially outrageous. No, the outrage is that cases like hers are so commonplace. Thats every day, shrugged the officer who showed me the photo from a new case that morning.

Its easy to make civil asset forfeiture sound like an un-American, police-state scenario. Although assets may be seized without first obtaining a drug-related conviction, the reason for no conviction is no trial. The reason for no trial is the drug mule posts bail and is never seen again.

Oklahoma law enforcement may not seize someones homestead in the case of a drug bust involving local citizens. And despite what youve heard, if an officer sees a bag of cash in a car, absent other evidence he will not seize it.

If cash is seized, it has to wind its way through a tedious government process before eventual distribution among the state, county and municipal agencies having overlapping territorial jurisdiction. And boy, do they need that money.

Not for salaries, though. Those come from local funds supplemented by federal Justice Assistance Grants made to the states. Every year for the past three years JAG funding has declined, most recently by 18.5 percent.

Rather, income from asset forfeiture covers only operational costs: bulletproof vests, clothing, radios, tires, gasoline and, rarely, a new vehicle. A radio can cost $4,000. Thanks to changing technology standards, upgrading radios is a requirement. Believe it or not, a bulletproof vest decomposes and is warrantied only for three years.

Seizing a drug mules vehicle is problematic. If he drives a rental car, the agency is considered innocent and gets its vehicle back. Alternatively, drug runners often drive someone elses car. The required procedures to gain title can require years of effort. The task force I visited still had vehicles seized more than two years ago. Sometimes their value is so low, its just not worth the trouble.

My visit convinced me that, far from having a free hand, law enforcement almost has its hands tied. If you look at this as a war, this is not a war we are going to win, an officer told me.

But wait, theres more: 80 percent of nondrug crimes burglary, theft, domestic violence trace to the criminals addiction to drugs or alcohol. And, therefore, so are the resulting burdens on society like divorce, foster care, prison crowding and treatment expense.

A vote to make civil asset forfeiture more difficult, one could argue, is a vote to make Oklahomas social problems worse.

Maybe our Legislature should mandate a $5,000 fine for transporting drugs in a vehicle that you dont own, and make the fine due when posting bail. Thats a simple step based on the facts on the ground. It would take traffickers money and use it against them.

Civil asset forfeiture alone will not win the drug war. But it helps keep our officers on the front lines.

Scott Pendleton is a former international journalist and president of an IT solutions provider in Tulsa.

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Scott Pendleton: Civil forfeiture is an important tool in fighting the war on drugs - Tulsa World

Every week I write out the arrests for the records page in the Jackson County Chronicle, and every week there is at least one arrest due to drugs. It is quite sad really, that drugs would have such a huge hold on not only this community, but across the entire nation.

We have been fighting a war on drugs now for over 40 years and it doesnt look like we are doing any better, and in fact by some accounts, we are doing worse.

Now, please note that I am by no means an expert on drugs. I never smoked marijuana or a cigarette, so the closest I have ever gotten to an addiction is food. So take my opinion as someone who knows very little about what it means to be addicted to drugs.

After it is all said and done, I dont know what the right course is and honestly I dont think anyone has a good answer. We are fighting a very strong beast, one that rears its ugly head when we least expect it. One that pries on peoples weaknesses and uses every ounce of their strength to fight it.

There is one thing I do know about addiction thoughit is there for people when there is no one else.

When we were fostering children in Ohio, it was very disheartening when parents would choose their addiction over their own children.

As you get to know these parents, you find out that they themselves have troubled pasts.

Eventually I began to feel sorry for some of these parents. Most of them didnt have family or someone they could lean on, something that is important for any person. Many would rely on the people around them, which in most cases were addicts themselves.

Instead, these addicts needed someone that could pull them out of the darkness and let them stand on their own two feet. In todays world, that someone is hard to find and often only reserved for the lucky ones.

For so long we have been waging this war on drugs. I think it is time to wage a different war.

I dont really have any answers. To many, I am just a nave person judging something I dont really know much about.

I do know one thing though, we need to change something. Maybe it is more mental health services. Maybe it is reducing jail sentences for addicts. Or maybe it is adding sharps boxes throughout the community. Maybe it is all of these things.

There are a lot of things we need to do, but I know I am working on being more compassionate. In the end, these people are already being judged by everyone they meet. And so if everyone is judging them, who is going to save them? Who is going to be there for them when they decide they want to remove an addiction from their life.

Not only am I being more compassionate towards addicts, but I am also going to be more compassionate and loving towards my son. Loving him so he doesnt have to turn to an addiction. Loving him so he doesnt have to feel loneliness in the world. Loving him so he realizes that drugs are not his friends and it will lead to negativity in his life.

In all honesty, school is where it starts. School is where children find their friends. School is where they are going to be tested. School is where they are going to have to say yes or no to their first cigarette or joint.

It all happens when our children are young. So tonight, love on your children a little more. Make sure they know they dont have to give in to peer pressure.

Today they are our children, but tomorrow they could be the next addict on the street.

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Simonson: The war on drugs - La Crosse Tribune

MANILA Before Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs had even begun, allies of the Philippines president were quietly preparing for a wider offensive. On June 30, as Duterte was sworn in, they introduced a bill into the Philippine Congress that could allow children as young as nine to be targeted in a crackdown that has since claimed more than 7,600 lives.

The bill proposes to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 years old to prevent what it calls "the pampering of youthful offenders who commit crimes knowing they can get away with it."

"You can ask any policeman or anyone connected with the law enforcement: We produce a generation of criminals," Duterte said in a speech in Manila on December 12. Young children, he said, were becoming drug runners, thieves and rapists, and must be "taught to understand responsibility."

The move to target children signals Duterte's determination to intensify his drug war, which faces outrage abroad and growing unease at home. The president's allies say his support in Congress will ensure the bill passes the House of Representatives by June.

The House would approve the bill "within six months," said Fredenil Castro, who co-authored the legislation with the speaker of the House, Pantaleon Alvarez. It might face opposition in the Senate, but would prevail because of Duterte's allies there, added Castro.

National police chief Ronald Dela Rosa recently announced that he was suspending anti-narcotics operations, which have killed more than 2,500 people, while the force rids itself of corrupt cops. The announcement came after it emerged last month that drug squad officers had killed a South Korean businessman at national police headquarters.

The killing of drug suspects has continued, albeit at a slower pace, with most following the pattern of killings that police have blamed on vigilantes. Human rights monitors believe vigilantes have killed several thousand people and operate in league with the police a charge the police deny.

Duterte has signaled he intends to continue his drug war. In late January, he said the campaign would run until his presidency ends in 2022.

'IN CAHOOTS WITH DRUG USERS'

Lowering the age of criminality was justified, Castro told Reuters, because many children were "in cahoots with drug users, with drug pushers, and others who are related to the drug trade." He said he based his support for the bill on what he saw from his car and at churches children begging and pickpocketing. "For me, there isn't any evidence more convincing than what I see in every day of my life," he said.

A controversial bill to restore the death penalty, another presidential priority, is also expected to pass the House of Representatives by mid-year, according to Duterte allies in Congress.

Supporters of the bill to lower the age of criminality say holding young children liable will discourage drug traffickers from exploiting them. Opponents, including opposition lawmakers and human rights groups, are appalled at a move they say will harm children without evidence it will reduce crime.

There is also resistance inside Duterte's administration. A member of Duterte's cabinet who heads the Department of Social Welfare and Development opposes the move. And a branch of the police responsible for protecting women and children disputes the claim that children are heavily involved in the drug trade a claim not supported by official data.

Opponents warn that lowering the age of criminality would further strain a juvenile justice system that is struggling to cope. At worst, they say, with a drug war raging nationwide, the bill could legitimize the killing of minors.

"What will stop them from targeting children?" said Karina Teh, a local politician and child rights advocate in Manila. "They are using the war on drugs to criminalize children."

IN THE FIRING LINE

The drug-war death toll includes at least 29 minors who were either shot by unidentified gunmen or accidentally killed during police operations from July to November 2016, according to the Children's Legal Rights and Development Center (CLRDC) and the Network Against Killings in the Philippines, both Manila-based advocacy groups.

Dela Rosa said the Philippine National Police "fully supports" the new bill. It is "true and supported by data" that minors are used by drug traffickers because they can't be held criminally liable, the police chief said in a submission to the House of Representatives.

Some police officers working on the streets agree with Dela Rosa. In Manila's slums, children as young as six act as lookouts for dealers, shouting "The enemy is coming!" when police approach, said Cecilio Tomas, an anti-narcotics officer in the city. By their early teens, some become delivery boys and then dealers and users, said Tomas.

Salvador Panelo, Duterte's chief legal counsel, said the bill would protect children by stopping criminals from recruiting them. "They will not become targets simply because they will no longer be involved," he said.

Child rights experts say the legislation could put children in the firing line. They point to the deadly precedent set in the southern city of Davao, where Duterte pioneered his hard-line tactics as mayor. The Coalition Against Summary Execution, a Davao-based rights watchdog, documented 1,424 vigilante-style killings in the city between 1998 and 2015. Of those victims, 132 were 17 or younger.

For all but three years during that period, Duterte was either Davao's mayor or vice-mayor. He denied any involvement in the killings.

CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE

Althea Barbon was one of the children killed in the current nationwide drug war. The four year old was fatally wounded in August when police in an anti-narcotics operation shot at her father, the two Manila-based advocacy groups said.Unidentified gunmen shot dead Ericka Fernandez, 17, in a Manila alley on October 26, police said. Her bloody Barbie doll was collected as evidence.Andon December 28, three boys, aged 15 or 16, were killed in Manila by what police said were motorbike-riding gunmen.

If the bill passes, the Philippines won't be the only country where the age of criminality is low. In countries including England, Northern Ireland and Switzerland it is 10, according to the website of the Child Rights International Network, a research and advocacy group. In Scotland, children as young as eight can be held criminally responsible, but the government is in the process of raising the age limit to 12.

Critics of the Philippines' bill say lower age limits are largely found in countries where the legal systems, detention facilities and rehabilitation programs are more developed.

Statistics from the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the government's top anti-narcotics body, appear to contradict the Duterte camp's claim that there is a large number of young children deeply involved in the drug trade.

There were 24,000 minors among the 800,000 drug users and dealers who had registered with the authorities byNovember 30, according to police statistics. But less than two percent of those minors, or about 400 children, were delivering or selling drugs. Only 12 percent, or 2,815, were aged 15 or younger. Most of the 24,000 minors were listed as drug users.

The number of minors involved in the drug trade is "just a small portion," said Noel Sandoval, deputy head of the Women and Children's Protection Center (WCPC), the police department that compiled the data.

The WCPC is not pushing to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility, said Sandoval, but if the age is to be lowered, his department recommends a minimum age of 12, not 9.

Between January 2011 and July 2016, 956 children aged six to 17 were "rescued nationwide from illegal drug activity," according to PDEA. They were mostly involved with marijuana and crystalmethamphetamine, a highly addictive drug also known as shabu, and were handed over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Of these, only 80 were under the age of 15.

MORE DETENTIONS

Asked for evidence that younger children are involved in the drug trade, Duterte's legal counsel Panelo said the president had data from "all intelligence agencies." Panelo declined todisclose those numbers.

Among the opponents of the bill is a member of Duterte's cabinet, Judy Taguiwalo, secretary of theDSWD.The legislation runs counter to scientific knowledge about child development and would result not in lower crime rates but in more children being detained, Taguiwalo wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives in October.

Hidden by a high wall topped with metal spikes, the Valenzuela youth detention center in northern Manila is already operating at twice its capacity. Its 89 boys eat meals in shifts the canteen can't hold them all at once and sleep on mats that spill out of the spartan dorms and into the hallways.

The government-run center, which currently houses boys aged 13 to 17 for up to a year, is considered a model facility in the Philippines. Even so, said Lourdes Gardoce, a social worker at the Valenzuela home, "It's a big adjustment on our part if we have to cater to kids as young as nine."

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall. Edited by David Lague and Peter Hirschberg.)

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Link:

Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war - Reuters