Category Archives: War On Drugs

The punitive, prohibitionist war on drugs helped prolong Colombias disastrous civil war, the countrys truth commission has found, in a landmark report published on Tuesday as part of an effort to heal the raw wounds left by conflict.

The report, titled There is a future if there is truth was the first instalment of a study put together by the commission that was formed as part of a historic 2016 peace deal with the leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

That deal formally ended five decades of civil war that killed more than 260,000 people and forced seven million from their homes. Other leftist rebel groups, state-aligned paramilitaries and Colombias security forces contributed to the bloodshed, with atrocities committed on all sides.

The violence has affected all sectors of Colombian society from political and business elites to rural peasant farmers with drug money funding insurgents, paramilitaries and corrupt politicians. The poorest farmers have often been forced either economically or at the barrel of a gun to grow coca, the base ingredient used to make cocaine.

But the report found that the union of the interests of United States and Colombia led to the construction of Plan Colombia, a massive multibillion-dollar military aid programme that began in 2000, which merged together the counter-insurgency, anti-terrorist and anti-narcotics programmes with the war against narco-terrorism.

The report found that a substantial change in drug policy should be implemented and that a transition to the regulation of drug markets should follow, while also placing some of the blame at the US, who funded Colombias armed forces during the war.

We cannot postpone, as we did after millions of victims, the day when peace is a duty and a mandatory right, as expressed in our constitution, said Francisco de Roux, the truth commissions president at a ceremony in Bogot.

The report called for major changes to Colombias military and police forces, which have received more than $8bn from the US over the past two decades.

It said the militarys objectives should be re-evaluated and all human rights violations committed by security forces should be tried by civilian courts instead of falling under the military justice system.

Like many victims of the conflict, ngela Mara Escobar celebrated the launch of the report as a chance for Colombia to heal after decades of bitter war. Escobar survived sexual violence at the hands of members of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (or AUC), a now-defunct rightwing paramilitary organisation.

Its vital that all Colombians, and the whole world, truly understand what happened during the conflict, which affected so many families and so much of society, said Escobar, who now runs an organisation for female victims of the conflict.

The report also made policy recommendations which could be picked up by the incoming administration of president-elect Gustavo Petro, including reforming the armed forces, the creation of a ministry for reconciliation, and the protection of human rights defenders from political violence.

Petro the first leftist ever elected head of state in Colombia will take office on 7 August. He was a guerrilla fighter with the M-19 militia in his youth and is a firm supporter of the peace process with the Farc.

The leftwing firebrand attended the launch ceremony in Bogot on Tuesday morning, along with his vice president-elect, Francia Mrquez, who was forced to flee her home during the conflict. She will be the first black woman to fill the post.

Outgoing president Ivn Duque, a sceptic of the deal who has been accused of slow-walking its implementation to undermine it, was in Portugal for the United Nations ocean conference.

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War on drugs prolonged Colombias decades-long civil war, landmark report finds - The Guardian

In 2014, a Phoenix cop killed 34-year-oldRumain Brisbon. Police got a tip that Brisbon was selling drugs, so they went to find him. When Brisbon tried to pull what officers said they thought was a gun from his pocket, they opened fire. Only he didn't have a gun at all just a bottle of oxycodone.

This is not an unusual story for anyone paying attention to the news in America over the last 50 years. Brisbon was one of countless casualties of our ill-conceived War on Drugs. We occasionally catch the names of collateral damage Breonna Tayloris a notable example but for the most part, we've accepted the constant buzz of unnecessary assault, state-sanctioned home invasions, robbery and death as background noise. The War on Drugs is awar,after all, and we can't be expected to monitor every injustice in war,can we?

By now, it is widely accepted that the American drug war has been a colossal failure. Mainstream conservatives like theKoch brothersadmit that our continued obsession with drug crime has had "huge negative manifestations, not only for the individuals who get trapped in that system, but also for society." Even the most fringeGOP fascist looniesnow support legalization of cannabis. Maybe, just maybe, we'll see drug incarceration ratescontinue to fall.

Ah, but the prisons are still standing, and the prisons demand bodies.

But do we think these bodies, without more, will meet the needs of the insatiable criminal-industrial complex? Surely not.

Enter the War on Abortion. Elective abortion is now functionally illegal in more than 20 states. In those states, the mechanisms used to keep providers in check will be those we utilize to deal with all other crimes: police, courts and prisons. At a bare minimum, we can expect that those caught aiding and abetting anyone who seeks abortion care will have their houses raided by SWAT teams, their personal effects scattered about, their bodiestwisted and mangled, theirpets killedand their freedom summarily revoked. The patients themselves are not safe either, no matter how much mainstream anti-choice groups claim they have "never advocated for penalties for women." Women have already been charged with murder, feticide and manslaughter for miscarriages. We'll see more of that.

RELATED:What the anti-abortion movement wants next and how we can respond

But do we think these bodies, without more, will meet the needs of the insatiable criminal-industrial complex? Surely not. A War on Abortion, like a War on Drugs, is an ever-expanding concept, something that adapts to claim as many victims as possible. Even now, the idea that IUDs and Plan B should fall into the category of "abortion" has worked itself intomainstream conservative thought. And if those are valid targets of the War on Abortion, why not synthetic estrogen and progesterone pills? Why not spermicidal lubricant? Why not barrier methods like diaphragms and condoms? Why notonanism?

God forbid the feds get in on this, but if the GOP ever takes control of both houses of Congress again, that's exactly what will happen. Now that the courts are out of the way, nothing would stop a Republican Congress from passing a 50-state ban on abortion that will supersede whatever "safe harbor" laws blue states put in place. Then the anti-choice movement will have fully coopted the machinery used to create so much misery during the Drug War era. You can be sure they will use it. Perhaps the FBI will form an Abortion Crimes Task Force. Perhaps the Customs and Border Patrol will establish an elite Abortion Travel Enforcement unit. Perhaps an entirely new agency, like the DEA, will be necessary to police all the "abortion" happening everywhere a Reproduction Enforcement Agency.

RELATED:How will laws against abortion be enforced? Other countries offer chilling examples

Like their drug warrior predecessors, these abortion warriors will make sure the prisons stay full for yet another generation.

A new war on American soil will help ensure the continued employment of the boys in blue, too. If millions of law enforcement officers could be conscripted into kicking in doors to private homes and killing people over a bag of marijuana or a bottle of Xanax, it should be even easier to find soldiers for the War on Abortion. What more noble cause could there be than saving innocent babies? Like their drug-warrior predecessors, these abortion warriors will make sure the prisons stay full for yet another generation.

Back in 1989, Justice Thurgood Marshalldenouncedwhat he called the "drug exception to the Constitution," referring to the idea that the courts tend to turn the other way when individuals fall victim to the nebulous crusade of the War on Drugs. The Bill of Rights, international human rights standards, our communities' norms and mores, any basic notions of decency; these are all pushed aside to make way for the mass grave we've dug in the name of stamping out narcotics. There is every reason to think that the same atrocities and worse will happen when the government fully commits to the War on Abortion. There is no fantasy too dystopian, no prediction too bleak, no outlook too pessimistic for what lies ahead.

RELATED:The end of Roe v. Wade: American democracy is collapsing

The cop who shot Rumain Brisbon never faced criminal charges for his death. I never heard Brisbon's name until I sat down to write this, or if I did, I don't remember it. I likely will have forgotten it again by next week. When the War on Abortion claims its casualties from the periphery of what reasonable people might call "abortion," will we care any more than we did during the War on Drugs? When the 100th person is shot grasping a bottle of birth control pills, will we remember her name? It seems unlikely.

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The right's war on abortion will become the new War on Drugs - Salon

MANILA, Philippines Developments continue to unfold at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to the killings under the violent war on drugs, a key policy under outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.

Government data shows that at least 6,252 people have died at the hands of the police during anti-illegal drug operations as of May 31, 2022. This tally does not include victims of vigilante-style killings, which human rights groups estimate to pull the number up to around 30,000.

Documents obtained by Rappler, however, show that the Philippine National Police (PNP) already recorded 7,884 deaths between July 1, 2016 to August 31, 2020.

Families, human rights groups, and other stakeholders bank on the ICC to bring justice to the thousands of victims, as domestic mechanisms prove to be ineffective in what appears to be a futile quest for accountability.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), mandated by the 1987 Philippine Constitution to investigate state abuses, was stonewalled by the Duterte government in its own probes a recurring treatment even among other groups that try to assist families of victims.

What has happened with the ICC proceedings so far? Rappler lists key events involving the ICC and Dutertes war on drugs. We will update this timeline as new information comes in.

Then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says her office is keeping an eye on the incidents in the Philippines as the number of deaths in drug war operations continues to rise almost four months into the Duterte administration.

In a statement, she says her office will be closely following the developments and record any instance of incitement or resort to violence with a view to assessing whether a preliminary examination into the situation of the Philippines needs to be opened.

Without naming any official, Bensouda also warns that any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the Court.

Duterte threatens to withdraw the Philippines from being a member-state of the ICC.

He calls the international court useless, saying it really is unable to help small countries. This would be the first of many instances when the President would publicly threaten and insult the ICC, including its officials.

Filipino lawyer Jude Sabio files a communication before the ICC over the repeatedly, unchangingly, and continuously mass murder in the Philippines.

He requests the court to commit [Duterte] and his senior government officials to the Trial Chamber for trial and that the Trial Chamber in turn, after trial, convict them and sentence them to corresponding prison sentence or life imprisonment.

Sabio was the lawyer of self-confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Edgar Matobato, who was the first to publicly come out to accuse Duterte of being behind the killings in Davao City as mayor.

In the documents filed, Sabio says he has direct proof beyond reasonable doubt that Duterte continued these killings at the national level.

Sabio would later withdraw his communication in January 2020, but experts point out this will not affect the ongoing proceedings. He dies on April 12, 2021 due to cardiac arrest.

Then-senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo representative Gary Alejano file supplemental communication before the ICC urging Bensouda to initiate a preliminary examination to provide a glimmer of hope for the thousands of victims that Dutertes impunity would soon end.

The 45-page document the two submitted highlight Dutertes violent rhetoric, including various pronouncements in which he ordered the killings of suspected drug personalities.

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor announces that it has initiated a preliminary examination to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to establish that the case falls under the courts jurisdiction.

In a statement, Bensouda says her office has decided to pursue this move following a careful, independent, and impartial review of communications and reports documenting alleged crimes.

Then-presidential spokesperson Harry Roque says Duterte welcomes this move because he is sick and tired of being accused of thecommission of crimes against humanity.

Duterte announces that the Philippines will withdraw as a member-state of the ICC. In a written statement, the President says he is withdrawing [the countrys] ratification of the Rome Statute effective immediately.

But the Rome Statute, the ICCs founding document, explicitly states that withdrawal shall only take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification. Ceasing to be a member-state will also not affect criminal investigations and proceedings that have been started before the withdrawal came into effect.

The Philippine government formally submits to the United Nations its written notice of withdrawal from the ICC. In the letter, the government says its decision to withdraw reflects the countrys principled stand against those who politicize and weaponize human rights.

The transmission of the letter officially triggers the one-year waiting period before the withdrawal takes effect.

Families of drug war victims, through another submitted communication, urge then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to indict and eventually convict Duterte.

The families, convened under the Rise Up for Life and for Rights network, call for an end to madness and for [Duterte], who has likened himself to one of the most evil men in history, to be brought before the ICC and be held to account for crimes against humanity.

The human rights abuses under his administration threaten the core principles of humanity itself, subsuming individual victim experiences, and even state borders, the families add.

The Philippines officially ceases to be a member-state of the ICC, a year after the Duterte government first gave notice of its withdrawal as signatory to the Rome Statute.

While withdrawing does not hinder the ICC from moving forward with possible proceedings, it will most likely make things difficult for investigators, especially in terms of getting cooperation from the Philippine government.

Then-ICC prosecutor Bensouda says she aims to finalize her preliminary examination by 2020 so her office can reach a decision on whether to seek [authorization] to open an investigation into the situation in the Philippines.

In a report, Bensouda says her office significantly advanced its assessment since 2018, adding that they continue to monitor the situation, including reports of threats and harassment against human rights defenders.

Arturo Lascaas, former Davao City top cop and self-confessed DDS hitman, signs a Third Agreement on Limited Use of Information with the ICC. The document shows that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) will not use as evidence against Lascaas his confessions about carrying out killings ordered by Duterte himself.

This is unprecedented and considered a first in Philippine history. International human rights lawyer Ruben Carranza says this move is a form of use immunity, while former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo says the document means that the OTP is treating the witness as an insider, although he could also be a suspect.

This development, however, only becomes public in November 2021, as part of Rapplers investigation into Duterte and the Davao Death Squad.

Bensouda says there is reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in the Philippines in connection with Dutertes war on drugs. These incidents, she points out in a report, occurred at least between July 1, 2016 to March 16, 2019 a day before the Philippines withdrawal from the ICC took effect.

Her office, however, is yet to reach a decision on whether to seek permission to open a formal investigation, given the challenges brought about by restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Families of drug war victims call on the ICC to hold Duterte accountable for allegedly impeding justice, including instances when he repeatedly threatened Bensouda and the court.

In a supplemental pleading submitted to Bensouda, mothers represented by the National Union of Peoples Lawyers say Duterte should be held accountable for his blatant attempt to pervert the course of justice by intimidating and retaliating against the officials of the [ICC].

The Supreme Court junks a petition questioning the validity of Dutertes withdrawal from the ICC, including whether he is legally required to get the concurrence of the Senate in doing such act.

The High Court, voting unanimously, dismisses the petition because it has become moot and academic.

It, however, says the government is obliged to cooperate with the ICC even if it has already withdrawn, according to the full document released months after on July 21, 2021. Despite this, Malacaang remains firm in its decision not to cooperate.

Then-ICC prosecutor Bensouda applies for authorization with the pre-trial chamber to open an investigation into the killings committed during the war on drugs and in Davao City from 2011 to 2016.

Bensouda, in a report, says extrajudicial killings, perpetrated across the Philippines, appear to have been committed pursuant to an official State policy of the Philippine government.

This move comes a day before Bensouda, who has been publicly threatened by Duterte, retires from the ICC on June 15. She is replaced by Karim Khan, who has extensive experience working in international criminal tribunals.

Families of drug war victims earlier call on Bensouda to issue a warrant of arrest against President Rodrigo Duterte and hold him while trial is ongoing.

The ICCs pre-trial chamber greenlights the investigation into Dutertes war on drugs and killings in Davao City between 2011 and 2016.

In the decision, ICC judges conclude that there is a reasonable basis for the Prosecutor to proceed with an investigation, in the sense that the crime against humanity of murder appears to have been committed.

The chamber also observes that it is also apparent that killings took place pursuant or in furtherance of a state policy.

New ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who succeeded Bensouda, urges the Duterte government to cooperate with his office in the conduct of an investigation into the killings under the war on drugs, as well as those committed in Davao City between 2011 and 2016.

In a statement, Khan says he remains willing to constructively engage with national authorities in accordance with the principle of complementarity and our obligations under the Statute.

The investigation, he adds, seeks to uncover the truth and aims to ensure accountability, as well as focus their efforts to ensure a successful, independent, and impartial investigation.

The Duterte government formally requests the ICC to stop the ongoing investigation into the Philippine situation.

Through a letter signed by Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands J. Eduardo Malaya, the government avails of an option available under the Rome Statute which allows it to ask the Prosecutor to defer the probe and recognize working domestic mechanisms.

ICC Prosecutor Khan announces that his office will temporarily suspend its investigation into the drug war killings in the Philippines but assures the public they will continue its analysis of information already in its possession as well as new information it may receive.This move to pause the probe is a matter of procedure.

ICC Prosecutor Khan says they will ask the Duterte administration for proof that it is genuinely investigating the killings under the violent war on drugs.

In a statement, he says that such information must consist of tangible evidence, of probative value and a sufficient degree of specificity, demonstrating that concrete and progressive investigative steps have been or are currently being undertaken to ascertain the responsibility of persons for alleged conduct falling within the scope of the authorized ICC investigation.

Khan files a request before the ICC pre-trial chamber seeking to resume his offices investigation into the killings under Dutertes war on drugs and those committed in Davao City between 2011 and 2016. In a 53-page document, Khan says information collated by his office does not demonstrate that concrete and progressive steps have been taken or are being taken by the competent national authorities.

He adds that the government failed to show that any individual has been probed for ordering, planning, or instigating the killings. He also says there is no indication that domestic authorities are investigating the alleged systematic nature of these and other killings.

Khan also says the inter-agency drug war review panel does not appear to possess powers or authority independent of the [Department of Justice] or have any specific investigative function. What the DOJ-led panel did appears to be a mere desk review that by itself does not constitute investigative activity.

In response, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra says he respects Khans view but that he should have waited for our efforts to bear some fruit.

He added: An investigation of this magnitude and complexity cannot be finished in a few months. Rappler.com

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TIMELINE: The International Criminal Court and Duterte's bloody war on drugs - Rappler

For millennia, drugs such as marijuana, magic mushrooms, MDMA, and more, have been used recreationally throughout the world, with many different benefits. But since former President Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs, the world of narcotics and other recreational substances has not only been illegal but has also had negative connotations. Unfortunately, this meant that such substances were not being used even in the beneficial ways they could have been. There are many potential outcomes and uses that such substances could have for the better, like treating anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but because of their legality, scientific research in that field was nearly nonexistent until recently. There has been a rise in the understanding that such drugs don't only cause harm and addiction, as has been portrayed to us by our governments for many years, but rather that they have the potential to alleviate pains and cure people from various diseases and illnesses when used correctly. Many Israeli startups are acting fast on these studies, looking to become the first of their kind to invent breakthrough treatments for patients with various conditions, using safe combinations of illegal substances. Here are just a few:

The female reproductive system is quite complex, and many women suffer from various gynecological diseases and hardships, such as endometriosis, PMS, dysmenorrhoea, menopause, and more. Gynica is an Israeli startup that develops medical treatments using cannabis to target these female gynecological problems. For example, endometriosis is a chronic condition causing severe pain and discomfort as the endometrial tissue grows outside of the uterus in the abdominal cavity or internal organs during the menstrual cycle. This causes inflammation and many more issues other than just pain and discomfort such as bowel and urinary disorders, dyspareunia (painful sex), and neuropathy. Endometriosis is the leading cause of infertility and early hysterectomies and affects around 200 million women worldwide. There is currently no known cause of endometriosis as well as no known cure. The current treatments are anti-inflammatory drugs, surgeries, and hormones which often cause a decrease in quality of life. Deriving active and distinct ingredients from the cannabis plant, Gynica looks to treat endometriosis without the adverse side effects the anti-inflammatory drugs have using one of two products: a vaginal suppository or a lubricant gel. These products are a promising solution for women hoping to ease their symptoms; it is the cannabis plant, that has been frowned upon for so many years, that will bring these women comfort.

Gynica was founded in 2017 by Yotam Hod (CEO) and Dor Hershovitz. With a total of ten employees, the rest of their team consists of Dr. Sari Prutchi Sagiv (VP R&D), Haim Barsimantov (CTO), Lenore Shoham (Managing Director), and Meredith Rose Burak (Director of Global Relations). Gynica is based in Jerusalem and has raised over $5.5 million to date through Tikun Olam Pharmaceuticals. Partnering with Asana Bio Group, who also own Lumir Lab, Gynica has currently completed the worlds first preclinical trial to identify the most effective cannabidiol to treat endometriosis patients. Their vaginal products are planned to be brought to market in the next year with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Watching your loved one quickly slip away from the person they once were all because of a debilitating disease such as Alzheimers or dementia; the onset of such illnesses makes both patients and their loved ones feel helpless, especially because there are no known cures. Dementia and Alzheimer's are damaging, chronic, and life-altering brain diseases that impair the ability to remember, think or make day-to-day life decisions. Additionally, patients can have difficulty speaking, and a hard time expressing thoughts, reading, or writing, and they often find themselves wandering and getting lost even in a familiar neighbourhood. Ixtlan Bioscience is a biotech company focusing on developing psilocybin-based (a substance found in magic mushrooms) treatments which are administered in micro-doses aimed at remedial treatment of Alzheimers Disease. Their patent-pending Ixtlan AD Kit is meant for at-home use. Psilocybin agonists such as 5-HT2A enhance the power of gamma-frequency (an indicator in humans of a healthy brain and communication channel involving attention and memory), which emphasizes the role it can have in reducing focal Alzheimers and dementia. Psilocybin has also been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Ixtlan Bioscience intends for everyone to benefit from safe and accessible psilocybin medicine, hence their push for an at-home kit. The Ixtlan AD kit consists of micro-dosing of encapsulated 5HT2A receptors in 1/10th of a dose, explicit use protocol, games/exercises which are tailored for different levels of cognitive impairment, an application that monitors the patient, and a home test for detecting psilocybin metabolites concentrations. This also provides data on the individual and the effects the drug is having on their therapeutic power. The benefit of an at-home kit reduces the cost for the patient as they do not need a one-on-one setting with a therapist or doctor and don't have to waste time in a designed clinic. Because of the tiny dose (1/10th), the patient is not cognitively or physically impaired, so they can still carry out day-to-day tasks and resume normal daily activities. Ixtlan Bioscience hopes to provide a glimpse of hope for patients and their loved ones dealing with memory-altering diseases.

Ixtlan Bioscience was founded in 2020 by Yehonatan Cavens (CEO), Ana Parabucki, Ph.D. (Chief Scientist), and Itamar Borochov (COO). Other members of the team include Ori Liraz, Ph.D. (Scientific Advisory), and Christopher Freeman, MD (Scientific Advisory). Ixtlan Bioscience has conducted various clinical trials from pre-clinical, to phase 2 and has had many collaborations with major academic research institutions in Israel, the UK, Portugal, Spain, the U.S., Germany, and Australia.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still here, and some patients of it have been plagued with long-term symptoms relating to it. Though the virus affects the body in numerous ways, the lungs are the most affected organ; this can cause further lung complications such as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and more. As the viruss effect on the lungs is severe, it can often lead to lung infections that can cause problems to the central nervous system (the spinal cord and the brain). For example, abnormalities in ventilation and gas exchange can lead to lung infections such as hypercapnia/hypocapnia, hypoxia, and respiratory acidosis/alkalosis. These infections can lead to neurologic dysfunction that can sometimes be permanent and life changing. Innocan Pharma is an Israeli cannabis pharmaceutical company developing products of cannabinoids combined with smart delivery formulations. They provide data that meets global standards for safe cannabis-infused medication for patients suffering from illnesses negatively impacting their lungs. Innocan has partnered with Ramot, the team at Tel Aviv University led by Prof. Daniel Often, to create a revolutionary approach to treat COVID-19 by using Cannabidiol. The collaboration is set to produce CBD-Loaded Exosomes that will be administered by inhalation. These allow the potential to provide a highly synergistic effect to help the recovery of infected lung cells and reduce inflammation, since not only do exosomes contain anti-inflammatory agents, but they are also reported to repair tissue damage.

Innocan Pharma was founded in 2017 in Herzliya by Yoram Drucker (VP of Business Development) and Ron Mayron (Executive Chairman). To carry out the collaboration, Innocan Pharma has been granted $450,000 in funds. Innocan Pharma has also signed a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to develop a CBD drug administered by injection based on liposomes. The company has also investigated products infused with cannabis to treat psoriasis symptoms, muscle pain, and rheumatic pain. Currently, their muscle relief gel is available to the public, while all other products are in trial phases.

Mental health manifests in different variations be it anxiety, depression, PTSD, or others. Psilocybin mushrooms have been shown to have positive effects in treating mental health disorders if they are used in the right wayin small doses. PsyRx safely administers a combination of two drugspsilocybin and ibogaine to help manage the symptoms of different mental disorders. They believe psychedelics are a major part of the solution for mental health and seek to improve current antidepressant treatments through micro-dosing. By using the micro-dosing method, the mushrooms do not cause a psychedelic episode, and patients can resume day-to-day tasks normally. Psilocybin is sourced from magic mushrooms and is shown to have a positive effect in treating depression, anxiety, addiction, and even PTSD. It is one of the two most used drugs in micro-dosing as small doses do not present any visual/perceptual changes. Moreover, ibogaine is the key psychoactive component of the Iboga plant. It is an anti-addiction drug and the main alkaloid of tabernanthe iboga, a shrub native to Central West Africa. While high doses include trance-like states (hallucinations, altered perception of time), low doses suppress appetites and increase feelings of euphoria. By combining the two drugs, PsyRx hopes to treat patients suffering from mental illnesses quickly and effectively within a day or two, rather than most drugs which take at least several weeks to kick in.

PsyRx was founded in 2019 by Itay Hecht (CEO), Kobi Buxdorf, PhD (CTO), and Asher Holzer, PhD (President). The rest of the team includes Noam Barnea-Ygael, Ph.D. (Research Officer), Jonathan Baram, Ph.D. (Lead Chemist), and Noam Permont (VP of Business Development, PR, and IR). PsyRx is currently going through trials at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). PsyRx, which is located in Tel Aviv, has seven team members and ten employees.

Continuing the conversation on mental health, anxiety is one of the leading mental illnesses today, affecting over 275 million people worldwide. Anxiety for some comes in a form of heightened nervousness for short periods, which is relieved with time while for other patients it is not that simple. Often, anxiety leads to the feeling of being trapped in a whirlwind of fear and panic which causes a rapid heartbeat that for some, cannot be controlled. These episodes can be brought on spontaneously with no known reason and can last for minutes or even hours. Cannabis has been linked with positive effects on anxiety, movement disorders, and pain, and that is where StickIt Labs comes in. The Israeli startup has signed a cooperation agreement with Green Globes Hempacco to produce herb and hemp cigarettes or, cannabis sticks' ' which is a toothpick-like sticks of cannabis components that can be inserted easily into a cigarette. This ultimately aims to reduce anxiety, safely. The patented cannabis sticks contain CBD, but no THC which means that patients can use the sticks to relieve symptoms of their anxiety without feeling the effects of being high and thus do not impair their daily activities. StickIts sticks allow for accurately measured doses of cannabis in each stick, making them easier and safer to regulate.

StickIt Labs was founded in 2019 by Dr. Asher Holtzer (President). Eli Ben Arush serves as the CEO. StickIt Labs is a small business with only four employees, however, has received $750,000 in investment funds from GGII (Green Globe International). StickIt has recently launched on the Canadian Stock Exchange at a value of $50 million. They plan on expanding into different markets in America and Mexico.

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Israeli tech is taking a different stance on the War on Drugs - Geektime

Srinagar: War against drugs has entered a decisive phase after anti-narcotics agencies were able to reduce the poppy cultivation by over 75 percent in Kashmir.

For the last few years, the excise department has gone the whole hog against poppy cultivation. Poppy crop over thousands of kanals of land has been destroyed. Vulnerable areas were put under a scanner which has helped in curbing the menace.

Data accessed by The Kashmir Monitor reveal that the illegal cultivation of poppy has reduced from 2206 kanals in 2018 to mere 549 kanals in 2022.

As per the excise department, the poppy crops over 549 kanals of land have been successfully destroyed this year.

Illegal cultivation of poppy has been eliminated from Kupwara. However, Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, and Shopian continue to have poppy fields. Nearly 430 kanals of land are under poppy cultivation.

In Anantnag, poppy cultivation over 206 kanals of land was destroyed. It was followed by Pulwama where crop spread over128 kanals of land was destroyed. Likewise, in Sjoppian, the crop spread over 40 kanals of land was destroyed. Poppy spread over 56 kanals of land was destroyed in Kulgam.

The excisedepartment destroyed the poppy cropover 21 kanals of land in Baramulla. In Bandipora, Srinagar, Budgam,and Ganderbal, the department destroyed poppy crops over 4,3,88 and 3 kanals, of land respectively.

Tahir Ajaz,Deputy Excise Commissioner (Executive) Kashmir told The Kashmir Monitor that the department is conducting a drive every year to eliminate the poppy cultivation in Kashmir.

The cultivation of poppy is banned in Jammu and Kashmir since 1959. Our employees destroy the crop in every district. We have entered a full elimination phase. We have succeeded in reducing the cultivation by 1/8thin the last few years, he said.

Ajaz said there was no more large-scale cultivation of poppy recorded in Kashmir now. Now, we are focusing on destroying the crop on small patches including lawns and kitchen gardens. Our employees survey a particular areaand accordingly destruction activity begins, he said.

Pertinently, the administration this year involved PRIs, village heads, and chowkidars in every tehsil to curb the menace of poppy cultivation. Religious scholars too were roped in to create awareness about the poppy in Kashmir.

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War on drugs: Poppy cultivation drops by 75% in Kashmir - The Kashmir Monitor - The Kashmir Monitor

The war on drugs is an everyday battle for those who are directly affected by it.

ALSO READ: Former addict commits to war against drugs

This war propelled a mother Lucille Pienaar to open a recovery centre where families and recovering addicts can receive support and care.

Germiston City Recovery and Care Centre was officially opened in April.

The centre offers stay-in facilities, support, treatment, and specialised aftercare.

Centre manager Elna Latchman says the objective is to address the need in the Ekurhuleni area, which is infested with drug and substance abuse.

There was a dire need for a rehabilitation centre, said Latchman.

The community has been very responsive and supportive of the centre. Many send their loved ones to the centre for help. We reached out to the schools in the area to offer our assistance and support, said Latchman.

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The centre offers an accredited programme that includes the 12-Step programme.

Medical assistance and guidance are also part of the package.

They have a full-time doctor, nurse, psychologist and counsellors on standby to assist.

Latchman said the rehabilitation of drug and substance abuse is costly, hence some people dont get the chance to get clean.

The effects of Covid have not made it easy for families to get help for their loved ones because of loss of employment.

Drug addiction affects the family, community and society emotionally, financially and physically, said Latchman.

The addict must have the desire to get clean. The family must be prepared to assist or support the addict through the process of recovery. Dealing with the recovery of an addict has to be done holistically, said Latchman.

ALSO READ: Ekurhuleni committee commits to combat drug abuse

She said that sometimes families get left behind during recovery and when an addict is discharged, they are not sure how to offer support.

Our support groups help the family and friends to understand that they too need help in coping with the emotional journey of living with an addict, said Latchman.

She said they opened their doors because they have seen the demand and need from the Germiston community for help.

The centre established the Real Campaign to raise funds for rehabilitation.

Those who need assistance can contact Elna Latchman at 072 935 0320 or 011 826 6026.

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Germinston centre on war with drugs - Germiston City News

It seems that every large city in America has marked off a neighbourhood where drug addicts are free to die in the streets. San Franciscos Tenderloin district, downtown Portland, Skid Row in Los Angeles, Hunts Point in New York, Kensington in Philadelphia: These are places where, by unspoken agreement between society and its outcasts, the normal rules cease to apply and the bodies are collected.

Where its warm enough, people sleep in tents or on the streets. Drugs and sex are openly sold and laws are enforced erratically. The result, which I observed during a 2019 trip toSkid Row, was a hellish concentration of deprivation and disorder, interspersed with a concentrated complex of non-profit and social service organisations.

What was already hellish was made even worse in recent years by the rapid spread of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid some 50 times more potent than heroin. Driven largely by fentanyl, which is now used to cut virtually every other drug, overdoses set a new record in the US in 2021, killing nearly 108,000 people. Up roughly 15% over 2020s record death toll, overdoses killed more people last year than guns and cars combined. In San Francisco, an average of 53 people died every month from overdoses last year, many of them outdoors and on sidewalks in front of buildings.

Before the fentanyl spike, overdoses had been rising in the US for the past two decades while raising little public alarm. But now, with the scale of deaths being declared an emergency and health epidemic, public officials are embracing supposedly radical new solutions to the problem, the most popular of which is harm reduction.

Harm reduction promises reasonableness. Rather than trying to eradicate drug use, the public-health framework, which has been embraced by the White House and cities across America, works to reduce risks by prioritising the safety of individuals over curing social ills. The point is to meet people where they are, according to advocates, not to change them. Its appeal is that it is humane and takes the opposite approach of the failed war on drugs. But thats only part of the story.

Look through the harm-reduction telescope and you glimpse the grand project of the therapeutic society that animates modern progressivism. At one end the individual is seen in minimalist terms, powerless to control their own desires, a victim of systemic forces far beyond their ability to resist. Look through the other end, and you find a maximalist view of the state in which a vast apparatus of administrators surveil and treat citizen-patients based on vague definitions of wellness and harm.

Look back in time, and the rise of harm reduction from the work of devoted activists to the official policy of the federal government traces a larger transformation in American politics. It is a project, in short, of the same political forces who want to defund the police, while empowering a surveillance and enforcement regime that punishes people for making sexist Facebook comments.

While harm reduction has been an official policy for decades in a number of European countries, its expansion in the US, where it began as a grassroots movement during the AIDS crisis in the Eighties, is a more recent phenomenon. San Francisco was an early adopter. In 2000, the citys Health Commission unanimously voted to adopt a harm reduction policy for drug offences. The city effectively decriminalised drug use while at the same time shifting public funding away from enforcement and toward providing clean needles, distributing the drug naloxone, which can reverse opioid overdoses, and offering methadone and other drug treatment plans. In 2020, San Francisco led the country in overdose deaths.

Last year, New York City allowed the opening of two safe injection sites, a term for facilities where drug users can consume their wares under the supervision of a mix of medical professionals and former addicts who can intervene and revive them if they overdose. The clinics have intervened in more than 300 potentially fatal overdoses since they opened, according to staffers. Despite the sites being illegal under federal law, city officials have allowed them to operate without interference, setting a precedent for other cities to follow.

New Yorks experiment follows the three-decade harm reduction trial in Canada, which includes the establishment in 2003 of the Insite safe injection facility in Vancouver. While advocates point to the number of overdoses averted and reversed at these facilities, its possible that the policy led to more overall use, potentially contributing to more overdoses outside the clinics than lives saved within it. In British Columbia overdose deaths were up 151% between 2008 and 2020, with much of the increase coming from Vancouver. In Oregon, another place where hard drugs were decriminalised in 2020, overdose deaths were up 41%, in 2021 from 2020, compared to a 16% increase nationwide.

Some harm reduction programs such as needle exchanges, fentanyl testing strips, and free testing kits for HIV, appear to have been broadly beneficial. But in the absence of a commitment to the full recovery of individuals, harm reduction morphs into a permanent method of managing chronic drug addiction by expanding the nonprofit-bureaucratic sector. Administrators count lives saved and ODs reversed without registering the broader increase in addiction they help to accommodate. Success is measured not by freeing individuals from addiction so they can live full lives, but by the growth of the treatment bureaucracy.

General Jeff, a black community activist who has lived in Skid Row for a decade described a similar dynamic in the approach to homelessness when I spoke with him a few years ago. Theres never been a shortage of funding in modern-day Skid Row, Jeff told me, blasting the areas nonprofits as poverty pimps. This isnt really about trying to end homelessness. Thats just a marketing campaign. Just to make people outside of Skid Row feel good.

Bureaucracy, wrote Christopher Lasch in The Culture of Narcissism, transforms collective grievances into personal problems amenable to therapeutic intervention. Lasch does not pretend that individual moral accountability is sufficient to redress collective grievances or systemic injustices, but nor does he attempt to dismiss it as an anachronism. Morality grounds the sense of dignity and self-worth that provide us with our best internal defence against the unavoidable calamities of fortune. It is not a replacement but a precondition for a meaningful politics of collective action. The transformation observed by Lasch has repurposed the minimalist do no harm ethos as a maximalist licence to redesign society.

Harm reduction was never just about the drugs or the deaths or the diseases, wrote Daniel Raymond, a policy and planning leader at the Harm Reduction Coalition, in a March 2020 essay on Harm Reduction in the Time of the Coronavirus. Rather, writes Raymond in the morally inflationary language used by activists staking out a claim to administrative power, harm reduction is heir to the multiple legacies of the communities and struggles we come from the hybrid wisdom that emerges from communal survival in the face of threats of being dispossessed, disenfranchised, displaced, disappeared.

Because harm can be found anywhere, harm reduction now appears everywhere. The framework is applied to criminal justice, diet and exercise, prostitution, curbing adults sexual attraction to minors otherwise known as paedophilia and a range of other seemingly unrelated fields. Harm reduction, as a framework, acknowledges that white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, fatmisia, transmisia, ableism, xenophobia, and myriad other systems of oppression infuse space and structures and are a part of our socialisation, wrote the authors of an academic journal article on Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics in March.

The essential alchemy of progressivism is performed by converting drug addiction from a vice afflicting individuals, which they have the power to change, into the basis of an identity group with a claim to government services. The collective grievances relating to the social and economic policies that might have pushed hundreds of thousands of people into drug dependency are first privatised through addiction and then bureaucratised so they can be managed by a class of appointed supervisors. In turn, the power of the bureaucracy is redirected from enforcing behavioural norms to overseeing the consequences of their dismantling.

This transformation is consummated with a novel language that marks the new political identity within the lexicon of professional progressivism. Following the lead of those in harm-reduction and drug-users rights groups, I decide to scrub the word addict from my vocabulary, wrote Sarah Resnick in a piece featured in The Best American Essays 2017 anthology. As alternatives to addict, Resnick finds: person with a substance-misuse disorder; person experiencing a drug problem; person who uses drugs habitually; and person committed to drug use.

The stiltedness of the language would be a small price to pay if harm reduction policies reduced drug dependency but since its not clear thats the case, the effort turns on trying to alter language and perception. Dont be ashamed you are using, be empowered that you are using safely, declared a poster by the New York City Health Department that recently appeared in the subway system. Shame is a useless emotion that often keeps ppl from investing in themselves or others. We should be celebrating ppl who are taking the steps in this poster, tweeted Kassandra Frederique, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the leading drug policy reform organisations in the US. Frederiques statement was retweeted by a spokesman for the New York City Department of Health.

Instead of fostering the behaviour necessary to give someone a genuine sense of self-worth a project that may well be beyond the power of anyone but the individual and their maker harm reduction converts the bare physicality of safety into the cheap currency of empowerment. The message presumes that addicts would not and should not feel shame for their dependency absent external judgements. It minimises the ravages attendant to drug addiction such as criminality, homelessness, despair and decay by framing them as the consequences of unsafe practices, without any connection to the spiritual poverty of dependency. In the religious and humanistic view, shame is the voice of the individuals conscience. Others may seek to shame us, but true shame arises only when the individual has transgressed against their own innate sense of decency. But the conscience has no place in the maximalist world view of the harm reductionists, except as a relic of the retrograde morality that prevents addicts from experiencing empowerment.

At what end is the policy of harm reduction aimed? The war on drugs promised end point was, obviously, unreachable, but the harm-reduction crusade has no ending at all except the construction of a new system of power, no less punitive than the one it seeks to replace.

Many people seem to have accepted that harm reduction efforts are a temporary life-saving measure a way of buying time for people caught in a cycle of addiction while moving them gently toward recovery. But its by no means clear that people doing harm reduction work all see it this way. Some are explicit about the fact that they see nothing wrong with hard drug use and and view attempts to force people into recovery as puritanical efforts to stamp out pleasure.

Others genuinely want to help drug users and other people in high-risk lifestyles by keeping them alive and guiding them toward lives free from addiction. But even those efforts are bound up in the expansionist project to treat an endless and ever expanding litany of harms by means of a bureaucracy in which being exposed to racism and being addicted to drugs are understood as two expressions of the same oppressive system. Harm reduction is friends; the law is cops, wrote one devoted adherent to the practice in a 2019 essay about sex work.

In 2022, the White House National Drug Control Strategy devoted a full chapter to harm reduction. Which is to say that, whatever its beginnings, harm reduction is now the self-talk of the state bureaucracy, not only the law but its spirit.

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How harm reduction captured the US - UnHerd

Deaths by drug overdose in the US and Canada, particularly by recreational use of fentanyl, continue to break records, a UN report says.

Preliminary estimates in the United States point to more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021, up from nearly 92,000 in 2020, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report released on Monday.

Increased harmful levels of non-medical pharmaceutical drug use were reported in the coronavirus pandemic period, the report found. Today, more young people are using drugs compared with earlier generations, and women in particular are unable to find treatment.

Women account for over 40 per cent of people using pharmaceutical drugs for non-medical purposes, and nearly one in two people using amphetamine-type stimulants, but only one in five in treatment for amphetamine-type stimulants is a woman, Ghada Waly, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said.

In April, US President Joe Biden announced a new strategy designed to battle drugs use.

It includes expanding access to antidotes to prevent overdoses, treatment services, new efforts to disrupt transnational criminal organisations' financial networks and supply chains.

Its time we treat addiction like any other disease. And at the same time, we are disrupting drug traffickers financial networks, supply chains, and delivery routes, including on the internet, Mr Biden said at the launch of the strategy.

Amphetamine misuse is not limited to North America. The Middle East is dealing with floods of the amphetamine known as Captagon from Lebanon and Syria, UNODC found.

Saudi Arabia seized the most amphetamines in 2020, at the equivalent of almost 30 tonnes, followed by the United Arab Emirates at roughly 12.5 tonnes.

Traffickers are known to employ unusual methods for smuggling, like placing the drugs inside a shipment of fava beans, or hiding them inside grapes, or tea bags.

Saudi Arabia banned Lebanese produce last year after announcing it had stopped 600 million pills and hundreds of kilograms of hashish from Lebanon from entering the kingdom in the six years before.

The 10-year civil war in Syria created a fertile environment for Captagon production, which, the UN said, has become increasingly important to the illicit economy in the country.

Last month, Jordan's military said it reported a sharp rise in attempts to smuggle drugs worth millions into the country from Syria, particularly Captagon pills.

The Jordanian armed forces are confronting a drugs war on the [Syrian] border, Col Mustafa Hiyari, head of military media, told reporters.

In Africa's Sahel, armed groups associated with Al Qaeda and ISIS are exploiting the drug trade for gain, the UN report said.

The drug commonly trafficked there is cannabis, mainly produced in Morocco for consumption in Europe and the Middle East.

There is mounting evidence that the Sahel route is being used for cannabis resin trafficking, and the Security Councils Panel of Experts on Mali reports several instances in which large cannabis resin shipments transiting from Morocco to Libya have produced deadly clashes between groups in the region, potentially constituting ceasefire violations.

Daily cannabis use, especially among young adults with mental health issues, has become prevalent, the report said.

Cannabis legalisation in North America appears to have increased daily cannabis use, especially potent cannabis products and particularly among young adults.

The Captagon pills were hidden inside plastic lemons. Photo: Dubai Police

Associated increases in people with psychiatric disorders, suicides and hospitalisations have also been reported. Legalisation has also increased tax revenue and generally reduced arrest rates for cannabis possession.

Cocaine manufacture hit a record in 2020 up almost 11 per cent from the year before as gaps continue to appear in the availability of drug treatments for women, the report said.

Cocaine seizures also increased, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, to a record 1,424 tonnes in 2020, the UN found.

While North America and Europe are the main markets for the drug, more cocaine is being trafficked to Africa and Asia.

Updated: June 28, 2022, 2:13 PM

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Drug overdose deaths 'break records' in US and Canada - The National

Patients could become the collateral damage of a tug of war that Washington is playing between lowering drug prices and lowering the death rate from cancer. It comes at a moment when the White Houses proposed Cancer Moonshot initiative took center stage at the flagship meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) resumes talks with Democratic leadership to revitalize drug price controls. Despite the great intent of the Cancer Moonshot, new evidence tells us the joint implementation of such price controls from Congress will raise cancer mortality substantially and stall out decades of progress to discover treatments for a devastating and personal disease.

Cancer is the second leading cause of deaths in the U.S. today, killing about 600,000 Americans a year. Most of us have been left behind by loved ones who became victims of the dreadful disease. Given its large historical presence, in 1971 theNational Cancer Act was passed in a bipartisan fashion, spurring the War on Cancer through decades of significant public investment in cancer research that continues to this day.Evidence has foundthat theeconomic rates of returns of this war, the gains in cancer longevity relative to investments in research and development (R&D), have been enormous and that cancer patient gains from the war have been five times as large as those of drug companies who made such investments.

Recently the Biden administration aimed to further this ongoing war by reigniting the Cancer Moonshotto substantially cut cancer mortalitythrough its proposed federal budget. Its stated objectives include cutting cancer mortality in half over the next 25 years. Just as for the rest of us, family members of the president were struck with the disease, and this seems to have heightened the relevancy for the president of the Moonshot initiative before his current term in the White House.

In the new budget, the White House proposed a $1.9 billion annual increase in public R&D funding for cancer, mainly through additional funds to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This represents about a 3 percent increase to what we estimate is the current level of cancer R&D, public and private, of about $57 billion, where the private share is not directly reported given the proprietary nature of R&D.

This injection of federal funds comes at a time when cancer research is booming due to existing market and policy incentives. Our analysis finds and astonishing 49 percent of the total FDA pipeline today is for new cancer treatments and 27 percent of new drug and biologics approvals are for cancer.

But the Moonshot is not the only Washington proposal affecting cancer R&D and the discoveryof future treatments for cancer patients. In fact, contradictory to the Biden administrations goals on cancer, a separate effort in Congress to institute price controls on prescription drugs would actually dampen the very efforts to fuel the development of new, potentially groundbreaking cancer treatments.

In a new analysis, researchers at the University of Chicago found that proposed drug price controls on cancer treatments will reduce overall annual cancer R&D spending by about $18 billion per year, or 31.9 percent. Despite admirable efforts by the administration to increase funding for cancer research, the reduction in total R&D spending from the proposed price controls is about 9.5 times as large as such an increase from the budgetary expansion.

In short, cancer patients would miss out on 9.5 times as many new drugs due to price controls as they gain from the Cancer Moonshot initiative.

Despitemountains of evidence, some politicians unfamiliar with how markets work argue that future profits do not drive R&D spending so price controls will not impact the development of new drugs. Maybe a Congressional field visit to a venture capital or private equity firm would be useful, to see in action the self-evident fact that future profits drive the funding rounds needed to finance the trials required by FDA. Or just look at howlittle private researchoccurred understanding COVID natural immunity compared to vaccines because natural immunity cannot be sold but vaccines can. Turns out good science relies on good profits.

Politicians also argue that cancer care is more expensive here than abroad, arguing that we need to import foreign price controls. But if the large U.S. market pays less than the actual value of cancer treatments like foreigners do, it will have larger effects worldwideas the U.S. contributes more than 70 percent of the global drug earnings driving worldwide innovation.

Such innovation is making remarkable strides at the moment. At ASCO this June, researchers presented findings from a small clinical trial for colorectal cancer that triggered a remarkable remission in all 14 patients who received the treatment. It is a testament to what is possible for patients who are suffering from a devasting disease and how dedicated R&D spending can change the course of care. It is also a stark reminder of what is at stake for the president and an administration that is focused on both lowering cancer mortality and prices of cancer treatments.

Though the actions of the administration and Congress are well-intended, price control proposals will unintentionally reverse decades of progress to win the ongoing war on cancer that began in 1971 when President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act.

Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Chair Emeritus at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and a former member and acting chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2017 to 2020. He reports research support or consulting income from many industries including biopharmaceutical companies.

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President Bidens unintended war on cancer patients - The Hill

The US war on drugs that started with the historic address to the nation by then President Richard Nixon on June 17,1971, continues unabated.

.there was a steep decline in illicit drug usage in the earlier years, but it has started picking up again and this time at an accelerated rate. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of illicit drug users rose to 13% among 12 years or older Americans in 2019, nearly reaching its peak from 40 years ago.

When a leader or a political party says that they will wipe out the drug menace from their territory in six weeks or three months, it sounds like a joke. Before their loaded utterances, they probably failed to look at the United States, one of the most powerful nations, that continues to fight the drug menace even after 51 years of its avowed crusade. The US war on drugs that started with the historic address to the nation by then President Richard Nixon on June 17,1971, continues unabated.

Even after 51 years, the challenge to eradicate various social, economic and health ills directly related to drugs and their abuse continue to haunt American society. All efforts, including promulgation of legislations from time to time, and huge spendings over the years, estimated to be over a trillion dollars, have failed to yield the desired results.

Recent studies show that use of drugs has been on the rise again. Though making comparisons are futile as various factors, including socio-economic issues, terrains and people at helm of affairs differ from place to place, yet the fight against drugs has remained on the forefront of various nations. The war on drugs has universal appeal.

Till date no one has succeeded in its war against drugs.

In the United States, the war on drugs was started from the White House, when Richard Nixon declared that the federal government would treat drug addiction as public enemy No. 1. His declaration was to vanquish substance use once and for all. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, Nixon had said, it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive, he had announced.

Where does the US stand in its war against drugs?

Those who have been religiously following the war on drugs say that it has not paid off. Researchers, irrespective of their backgrounds or ideologies, at least agree to disagree that the war has failed to deliver.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been vested with sweeping powers and even after working under multiple administrations, it still finds itself fighting a non-conclusive battle.

The Enforcement Administration has been enjoying an unprecedented level of authority that vests in it powers like mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants. If Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit organization that is mandated to end the war on drugs, is to be believed, the drug war is a failed policy. Kassandra Frederique says, the things that they said would happen people would stop using drugs, communities would get back together, wed be safe, theyd get drugs off the street those things didnt happen. Agreed, there was a steep decline in illicit drug usage in the earlier years, but it has started picking up again and this time at an accelerated rate. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of illicit drug users rose to 13% among 12 years or older Americans in 2019, nearly reaching its peak from 40 years ago. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security, Strategy and Technology at Brookings Institution, says We are still in the midst of the most devastating drug epidemic in U.S. history. There were more than 90,000 deaths in the United State due to overdose of drugs that was far more than 70.630 drug overdose deaths in 2019, a report by Commonwealth Fund said.

Ten years after the war on drugs was initiated, the budget was a billion. It touched $ 34.6 billion in 2020. The increase in budgetary allocation comes to more than 1000% in less than 40 years, say social scientists and researchers questioning the wisdom of increased funding without palpable results.

According to the White House, the national drug control budget has already hit a new level of $ 41 billion with its major chunk going for drug treatment and drug prevention

The Administration has been trying different initiatives. Take mass incarceration for example which has been leaving a heavy burden on both the federal and state governments budgets. The Prison Policy Initiative, a think tank and criminal justice advocacy group, found that 1 in 5 currently incarcerated people in the U.S. are locked up for a drug offense. The same research estimates that it costs an average of about $ 37,500 per annum to house an inmate in federal correctional facilities and that mass incarceration costs the U.S. at least $ 182 billion annually

States found their budgets enormously strapped by having to put funds toward correctional facilities that grew into enormous complexes, explained Felbab-Brown. One unfortunate way that states dealt with it was privatizing correction, something thats a specific feature to the United States. That has been a very problematic and fraught policy, partially driven by the tendency to arrest nonviolent drug offenders.

There is a racial angle to the issue also as there is a massive racial disparity that comes with drug incarcerations.

The Drug Policy Alliance says that nearly 80% of those detained in federal prisons and almost 60 % in state prisons for drug related offences are Black or Latino. Three years ago, when the Black or Latino population was 13.4 % of the countrys total population, the FBI reported that one in four of the drug-related arrests were of Black American adults. Needless to reiterate that Americans attitude toward drugs is changing. New York has become the 15th State to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Oregon, in February, became the first state to decriminalize the possession of any small amounts of drugs.

Paul Larkin, a senior legal research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy think tank, sounds cautious in saying Just as we dont abandon our efforts to prevent violent crime because murders, rapes, and robberies are still committed, we should not abandon our efforts to protect our neighbors and their children from the harms illicit drug use causes. We should pursue our goal with every tool we have, such as education, interdiction, law enforcement and treatment.

The United States may have in its 51-year-long war reversed some of the harshest impacts of the drugs, yet its fight against forbidden substances continues unabated.

(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows. For more in-depth analysis please visit probingeye.com or follow him on Twitter.com/probingeye. He can be reached at [emailprotected])

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Should the U.S. end the war on drugs? - The Indian Panorama