Category Archives: War On Drugs

NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he wants the city to promote its impending legal cannabis industry and assist people from minority communities most affected by marijuana-related offenses to become marijuana entrepreneurs.

Adams is set to propose Wednesday that the city spend $4.8 million to reach out to those most impacted by the so-called war on drugs. His plan would help them learn about the industry and set up their new small businesses things like navigating the licensing process and obtaining financing, among other areas.

Now is the time for our city to make proactive investments to ensure the people disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of these substances can reap the benefits of the new industry, Adams said in a statement.

The mayor, a Democrat and former police captain, has said the legal marijuana industry could be a key driver for the citys post-pandemic economic recovery, along with a revival in tourism, nightlife and people returning to offices.

The announcement coincides with April 20 also known as 4/20 the date known for celebrating marijuana, and a day before neighboring New Jersey begins its own recreational pot sales.

New York legalized adult recreational marijuana a year ago for adults 21 and over. Recreational sales are not expected to start until later this year or early next year as the state sorts out regulations for what's expected to be one of the biggest legal U.S. markets for the drug.

In New York City alone, the industry is expected to generate $1.3 billion in sales in its first year, according to estimates from City Hall.

New York was the 16th state to legalize marijuana for adults, and the second-most populous state after California to do so.

A key theme in marijuana legalization in recent years has been social equity, and New York's laws have built in ways to redress how the justice system locked up a disproportionate number of people of color for drug crimes. That includes the state's goal of awarding half of marijuana licenses to individuals from underrepresented communities. The state has also been expunging some past marijuana convictions.

Adams' plan continues in that vein, suggesting the city help those most impacted by the criminalization of the drug if they now wish to become marijuana entrepreneurs. The city's agencies devoted to small business services, economic development and criminal justice would work together to identify where to target the efforts, launch a public education tour and ad campaign and even help those setting up businesses find real estate to set up shop.

The proposal is part of the mayor's city budget plan that he's set to unveil next week. Along with the rest of the budget, the proposal will be negotiated with the city council and is expected to be agreed upon this summer.

New York City Councilmember Julie Menin, who chairs the council's small business committee, and Councilmember Amanda Faras, who chairs the council's economic development committee, both released statements supporting the mayor's plan to help marijuana entrepreneurs.

Menin said it was of critical importance for New York City to establish the legal pot industry in neighborhoods that were devastated by the war on drugs.

We need to be mindful of marginalized communities that have been disproportionately incarcerated because of punitive marijuana laws, she said.

Adams has separately said, in the absence of much available land in the city, he's exploring the idea of allowing the growing and cultivation of marijuana on the rooftops of the city's public housing buildings. But that idea is likely to run into major roadblocks because the housing is heavily subsidized by the federal government, which still criminalizes marijuana.

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NYC wants to help those hit by 'war on drugs' sell legal pot

In 1963 the vision of a pan-African future was formalised by the heads of 32 independent African states, forming the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa. Africa Day celebrates that hope of kinship and solidarity between the independent African states emerging from the chains of colonialism.

The aims of the OAU were to promote unity and solidarity among African states, defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence and eradicate all forms of colonialism (and apartheid). Later amendments included the promotion of international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations and the adoption of the UN Charter for Human Rights.

By 2002, the consensus was that the OAU had been successful in several areas, including decolonisation, the defence of member sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the promotion of African culture. It was time to refocus, so the African Union replaced the OAU.

However, the door to continued colonisation, disregard for sovereignty, disregard of African tradition and the gross violation of human rights was forced wide open by the acceptance and promotion of prohibitionist drug policies.

The war on drugs approach to drug policy was born out of a racist agenda and continues to disproportionately harm and subjugate Africans. Prohibition-focused drug policy remains one of the fundamental barriers we must remove before Africa can escape colonialism and ensure the freedom, sovereignty and rights of all Africans.

For centuries cannabis and the stimulant plant, khat, have been used by African communities. Their use was governed by social contracts, cultural beliefs and practices. The traditional production, use and trade of cannabis and khat have been significantly disrupted through policies that criminalise their use. The replacement of cultural controls with criminal sanctions to prohibit all use has contributed to the problematic use of these drugs.

Under prohibition, the global demand for drugs and the value of the drug market has grown exponentially. Established without colonialisms artificial boundaries, ancient trade routes across Africa to Europe have been exploited by drug traffickers who profit significantly from drug prohibition. The trade of drugs and the massive economic incentives have added to the regions instability and have funded several political campaigns.

Growing inequality, urbanisation and the exploitation of Africas natural resources have created a growing population of young people who have little hope for the future and suffer from an increasing sense of psychosocial dislocation. The collision between psychosocially dislocated young people and the availability of drugs predictably led to increased use and dependence. Alarmed by increases in drug use, African policymakers have continued to implement the failed prohibitionist policies of their colonisers.

Africa should heed the experiences of Central and South American nations who have joined US-led initiatives to combat the flow of drugs. The legacy is alarming. The war against drugs has justified the presence of foreign police, advisors and military on African soil. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) provides training to police in many African countries. Their heavy-handed responses, military tactics, and health system interference are well documented. The only thing Africa can learn from the DEA is that almost all their efforts at controlling the availability of drugs have failed and resulted in harm.

Criminal justice responses to the use of drugs do not work. The United Nations has admitted as much in a 2019 report where the heads of 31 UN agencies strongly supported the decriminalisation of drug use. In the wake of failed criminal justice responses, the latest focus is on biomedical interventions for drug use. Expensive treatment centres and long-term interventions do not provide the coverage needed to accommodate the millions of people who may need help resolving their drug-related issues.

The aims of the OAU have been compromised significantly by adopting drug policies that criminalise African cultural traditions, criminalise the youth, allow foreign influence to shape policy, increase human rights abuses and pathologise entire communities. Adopting colonial drug policies has perpetuated apartheid-type policing, and there is a need to decolonise all drug policy in Africa and globally.

While the increases in drug dependence in Africa are cause for concern, heavy-handed policies and responses contribute significantly to the harmful effects of drug use. We need to rely on better, thoughtful responses that will result in long-term solutions and better lives for all Africans. Money should not be wasted on policing and incarcerating people who use drugs but on human rights-informed policies, economic growth and opportunities, community-based resources and development. We need to reduce, not increase, harm.

Any celebration of the decolonisation of Africa while prohibitionist drug policies dominate is premature. DM

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OPINIONISTA: The 'war on drugs' is a failure that criminalises African cultural traditions and our youth - Daily Maverick

Many people are justifiably concerned about the ongoing disruption of the global supply chain. More than 70 percent of Americans have either been unable to get a certain product, or have experienced a delay.

Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply has struggled to keep up with demand. Shortages of materials and parts have combined with protectionist trade policies, leading to empty shelves and inflated prices.

But another factor contributing to kinks in the supply chain is a lack of truck drivers. In an October report, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimated that the trucking industry was short 80,000 drivers, and the shortage could be twice that by the end of the decade.

Given that deficit, it would make sense to take all steps necessary to open up the pool of qualified candidates. Unfortunately, arcane drug war policies are needlessly holding up the process.

Beginning in 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)part of the Department of Transportation (DOT)implemented new rules for trucking companies and state regulatory agencies. Beginning in January 2020, the FMCSA increased the rate of random drug and alcohol testing for drivers; all drivers who fail a test are required to be entered into the FMCSA's Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, a searchable online database, where their records are retained for at least five years. Additionally, employers are required to check all new hires against the database, as well as annually re-checking every one of their employees. A failed drug test can lead to either a mandatory substance abuse evaluation or termination.

While it makes intuitive sense to screen long-haul truck drivers for drunkenness and other substance abuse problems, conflating alcohol with drugs is deceptive. For example, the FMCSA classifies a violation as driving "with alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater or while using any drug specified in the regulationsother than those prescribed by a licensed medical practitioner." But alcohol is cleared from a person's system within about 12 hours; marijuana, on the other hand, can be detectable days or even weeks after use. Even if somebody used marijuana in a state where it's legal to do so, and allowed plenty of time to make sure they could safely drive, they could still fail a random drug test and be deprived of their livelihood.

And that's exactly what has happened: According to the FMCSA Clearinghouse's monthly report covering through the end of March, drivers tested positive for marijuana more than 10,000 times just this year. From the beginning of 2020, the number of positive tests is over 70,000. That constitutes 70,000 instances in which a driver was taken off the road, with no distinction between whether they were unsafe to drive or had merely used marijuana recently.

Even in states where marijuana is legal for recreational use, federal regulations allow for no distinction. According to the FMCSA, marijuana "continues to be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance" federally, and as a result, "a person is not physically qualified" to drive a commercial vehicle "if he or she uses any Schedule I controlled substance such as marijuana." And despite the Clearinghouse's exception for prescribed drugs, "a driver may not use marijuana even if is recommended by a licensed medical practitioner."

Federal marijuana prohibition is becoming increasingly untenable at a time when nearly two-thirds of U.S. states have legalized its use to some degree. At a time when so much of the economy is still struggling to get back to some form of normalcy, it would make sense to remove all possible barriers to trade. Unfortunately, common sense and genuine need are not enough to overcome the bad policy relics of the war on drugs.

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The Drug War Is Keeping Truckers Off the Road - Reason

After decades of battle, the war on men is finally being recognised. A soldier reports.

Weve been fighting the war on men for so long weve forgotten what its like to be a chattel. Ive been on the frontlines since I was a child, recruited by my feminist primary school teacher and indoctrinated into the army of women. The army is underfunded but the propaganda is strong, with war cries of girls can throw and the doctor was his mother.

There are millions of us. Walk down a darkened alleyway at night and youll hear whispers that there are in fact billions of us. It never ends, and it wont end until every man is gone. Until every man has been cancelled. Until every man has stopped being a little bit shit. In this weeks Listener magazine, the skin of a man flayed in the midsts of battle and visibly dry is stretched across the cover, a warning to the few men remaining. The skin is white, signalling the key target. THE WAR ON MEN: Isnt it time it stopped? A question for all people, followed by the lesser advertised articles about menopause diets and wine. The holy woman trinity.

The message is spreading. This week its the Listener, next week, the world.

First there was the war on drugs a heavy-handed approach to a harmful substance, with questionable results. The war on men is the same. We know theyre out there. We know some people even young people! use them for pleasure, and in moderation they can be harmless, even enjoyable. But overall, theyre dangerous. They hurt people, they kill people, and theyre not going away. Thats what this war is about: clearing our streets of the things that harm us the most.

If you dont think youre part of the war on men, think again. Everything is a weapon and everyone is a target. Are you a man saying dumb shit? Youre a target. Are you a man obsessed with beef and trans people? Youre a target. Are you in a position of immense power and privilege and have you also behaved questionably? Uh oh, watch your back, buddy.

Every man is a target and every woman is nearby, hiding, ready to lob grenades like hey, thats gross and please stop saying that gross thing and please stop doing the gross things when youre born with an innate advantage in both social standing and upward mobility. You men wont see it coming and itll ruin your life. So many lives have already been ruined. Jobs lost, fortunes seized, livelihoods threatened. Its happened to so many men and it could happen to you.

But it takes two sides to have a war. And while the war on men has been dramatic, with the deadliest social media posts, violent business boycotts, placards and the most high level forces deployed at protests, the army against men isnt invincible.

Weve lost hundreds and thousands of soldiers in the war. Some cannot enlist because theyre too busy being underpaid. Others pull out of the army, too busy raising young boys who theyll sadly have to brutally fight when theyre older. Many have been wounded on the streets, raped, murdered in their own homes, during this war on men. Isnt it time it stopped?

This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our members. If you value what we do and believe in the importance of independent and freely accessible journalism tautoko mai, donate today.

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On the frontlines of the war on men - The Spinoff

Government plans announced at the Home Office national drugs summit last week, including the expansion of football banning orders to include those convicted of drug possession offences, herald a significant shift in rhetoric and approach as the war on drugs meets the culture wars. Labour can now score an easy win by presenting itself as the party of rationality, evidence and reform.

Policing ministers Kit Malthouse has outlined a range of plans designed to reduce demand from what he calls middle-class coke heads ahead of an upcoming drug policy white paper. Some of the prospective measures included: five-year football banning orders for drug offences; the confiscation of passports and driving licences; use of electronic tags and skin detectors to detect signs of drug use; and the roll-out of US-style random drug testing across society.

These are worrying developments, raising profound human rights and civil liberties concerns, and paving the way for the eventual criminalisation of people being found to have drugs and/or their metabolites in their system, something that does not currently constitute a criminal offence only the production, supply or possession of controlled substances is against the law.

The Tories alarming but predictable authoritarian turn on drugs, doubling down on 50 years of policy failure, gives Labour a golden opportunity to put clear red water between themselves and the government, and embrace evidence-based, cost-effective positions that we already know are popular with the public (the wider rollout of diversion schemes, drug testing services and the legalisation of cannabis, for example).

Keir Starmer himself backed the use of diversion schemes where people found in possession of small quantities of drugs are dealt with outside of the criminal justice system during the Labour leadership debates in 2020, but risks further undermining his credibility with sections of the party by failing to offer his support for such schemes which are already used widely across the country.

Senior party figures including Sadiq Khan and David Lammy, meanwhile, have signalled their support for changing our approach to cannabis with Lammy calling for full legalisation, regulation and taxation of the drug. But Labour, which issued online adverts attacking the Lib Dems for being soft on drugs during the recent local elections,risks being outflanked on drug policy by the Greens and the Lib Dems who have much more progressive and substantive policy agendas.

Whilst the Greens advocate for the legal regulation of all drugs, and the Lib Dems call for both diversion schemes and the legalisation of cannabis, Labour has said it does not support changing the law[s] on drugs, and will absolutely look at naming and shaming those caught in possession of illegal drugs. This sort of policy-by-focus-group populism, undoubtedly formulated with an eye on Red Wall voters, is both unsatisfactory and unnecessary.

Polls have consistently shown that on issues from trans rights to the four-day working week, the Red Wall isnt as socially conservative as the media narrative and the shadow cabinet WhatsApp leaks might suggest. Even if it was, Labour has spearheaded progressive change against the will of public opinion before (reform of laws on abortion, death penalty, divorce, contraception and homosexuality in the 1960s and 70s) because politicians have the ability to shape and lead public opinion, as well as react to it.

Keir Starmer is an outstanding case in point. As a former director of public prosecutions and eminent human rights lawyer, he is in a uniquely credible position with the public, his colleagues in parliament and the legal and policing establishment to embrace and advocate for desperately needed reform to our current drug laws enabling a future Labour government to save thousands of lives and billions of pounds in the process.

With a general election likely over two years away, we are yet to truly find out if Labours principles of security, dignity and respect apply to drug policy. But the rhetoric isnt encouraging. Labour under Starmer has a once in a generation chance to own the issue, overhaul our laws on drugs and change societal attitudes towards people who use drugs in the process. Failure to do so would constitute nothing less than a dereliction of duty to the most vulnerable in our society and would come at huge human, financial and political cost.

Starmer describes himself as a box-to-box midfield general, and the Tories draconian proposed reforms have provided an open goal for Labour on drug policy. Its time for the midfield general to show the required leadership and beat the war on drugs once and for all.

LabourList has more readers than ever before - but we need your support. Our dedicated coverage of Labour's policies and personalities, internal debates, selections and elections relies on donations from our readers.

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An authoritarian turn from the Tories on drug policy leaves Labour an open goal - LabourList

Vermonts governor has vetoed a bill that would have charged a state panel with standardizing personal use amounts of various illegal drugs. Reformers saw the measure as a first step toward decriminalizing drug possession in the state.

The bill vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott (R) on Thursday, H.505, also would have removed the states sentencing distinction between crack and powder cocaine, a difference critics say disproportionately punishes people of color.

In a veto statement, Scott wrote that the bill, which would not itself have changed criminal laws around drug possession, placed no limits on which drugs can be contemplated for legalization or the amounts.

I agree that the criminal justice system cannot, and should not, be the only tool in this work and in Vermont, it is not, the governor said. However, we cannot completely abandon reasonable regulation and law enforcement as a tool.

Drug reform advocates, however, point out that the bill would not have legalized any drug-related conduct in Vermont and would have reduced penalties only around crack to put them in line with powder cocaine.

This bill is a stepa tiny, baby stepin the direction of reducing the harms of drugs, said Dave Silberman, a pro bono drug reform advocate and the elected high bailiff for Addison County. The governors veto statement makes the bill out to be a decriminalization bill, when in fact it did no such thing.

(Disclosure: Silberman supports Marijuana Moments work through a monthly pledge on Patreon.)

I think there is a distinct pattern of conduct by the governor, Silberman continued, to say things like, We need to treat substance use disorder as a medical problem, followed by actions that are directly contradictory to those kinds of statements.

Scotts veto statement complains that the legislation included absolutely no recognition of the often-disastrous health and safety impacts of using drugs like fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and more. Nor, the governor said, does it acknowledge the role of enforcement in tracking down and stopping the dealers who seek to poison Vermontersincluding childrenfor profit.

Scott also pointed to provisions in the bill itself that seem to contemplate future steps toward decriminalization, such as a line that says an intended goal of the reform would be preventing and reducing the criminalization of personal drug use.

As originally introduced, H.505, which state lawmakers sent to Scotts desk earlier this month, would have made a number of changes to Vermonts drug laws, for example reclassifying some felonies as misdemeanors. As the measure made its way through the legislature, however, lawmakers chipped away at the bill while also added provisions from a separate decriminalization measure introduced this session, H.644.

Two lawmakers filed similar decriminalization legislation last year, but that bill did not advance.

The version of H.505 lawmakers ultimately sent to Scott contained two significant reforms, which together spanned about five pages. They included removing the legal distinction between crack and powder cocaine as well as setting up a so-called Drug Use Standards Advisory Board under the Vermont Sentencing Commission.

The Board may provide additional recommendations to the Commission and the General Assembly regarding how to transition from a criminal justice approach to a public health approach to addressing drug possession, the bill said.

While the advisory board would serve an important purpose if lawmakers choose to pursue decriminalization, Silberman said, the primary goal of forming the body was simply to clarify how people currently use drugs in Vermont and how much of a given drug the average user tends to possess or consume.

The bill creates this advisory board to give the next legislature information, he said. The governor doesnt even want to know. Hes clearly sticking his head in the sand and refusing to accept information, which is stunning.

Silberman said Vermonts existing penalties and possession thresholds for drugs are incoherent. Its as if somebody threw darts at a dartboard.

That incoherence, he argued, has led to sharp disparities in how the states drug law impacts people. A report published earlier this year by the Council of State Governments Justice Center found that Black people in Vermont are 14 times more likely than whites to be a defendant in a felony drug case.

Another bill Scott vetoed this week, H.534, would have expanded eligibility for people convicted of certain nonviolent crimes to have those records sealed or expunged. The governor said it was overbroad, noting it could have applied to home improvement fraud, identity theft and other crimes.

Silberman, however, said the second veto provides further evidence of the Scott administrations aversion to drug reform generally.

There is a pattern of conduct of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, Silberman said. Whenever there is a choice between taking a new approach to drugs or doubling down on the war on drugs, they always choose to double down.

State Marijuana Regulators Say Banking Fix Will Make Their Jobs Easier In Addition To Helping Businesses

Photo courtesy of Markus Spiske

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Vermont Governor Vetoes Bill On 'Reducing The Criminalization' Of Drugs By Setting Personal Use Amounts - Marijuana Moment

The significance of casting Treat Williams for a one-off role as an academy instructor on tonights episode ofWe Own This Citywill not be lost on anyone whos seen Sidney LumetsPrince of the City, a brilliant 1981 crime drama about police corruption. Based on the true story of NYPD narcotics detective Robert Leuci, the film is about a rogue investigative unit not unlike the GTTF, full of dirty cops who rob criminals, plant evidence, and get involved in the drug transactions theyre supposed to be stopping. Williams plays a man driven by conscience to cooperate with a federal investigation with the caveat that he wont turn on his partners, but circumstances force him to betray them anyway, and multiple tragedies unfold as a result. In the end, he avoids prosecution and winds up with a job as you guessed it a police-academy instructor.

Williamss appearance here is a postscript for his character inPrince of the City, though the show does not imply that he was a dirty cop during his decades on the force. He tells Nicole he started serving in 1972 and did his longest stint in Homicide, though hes been around long enough to know how the department works and how its changed. Theres not much he tells Nicole that she doesnt already know or us, for that matter, after watching four and a half episodes of the show but he does reinforce the themes at play here about the complete loss of trust citizens have in cops, which is inevitable when youre beating on them or youve got a hand in their pocket. And he gives an eloquent soliloquy (scripted by George Pelecanos) about the destructive nature of the war on drugs: With a war comes police militarization. SWAT teams, tactical squads, stop and frisk, strip searches. A complete gutting of the Fourth Amendment. Its like were fighting terrorists on foreign soil.

The bleak message ofWe Own This Cityis that such trust is not only nearly impossible to reestablish through police reform but that such reform is a political nonstarter. As Nicole and Ahmed wrap up their federal consent decree for approval, they have to feed it through the eye of a needle: Once the Trump administration takes power, the Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions is going to shut down any activity from the Civil Rights Division. So in order to get the decree passed, it has to be approved by a commissioner with no job security and a new mayor whos loathe to invest the resources and political capital necessary to improve the department. Commissioner Davis, whos been one of the most nuanced and fascinating figures on the series, seems sincere in wanting to take Nicoles report seriously, but asking him to make cuts from the current budget to pay for reforms is a roundabout way of killing them. It would be hard enough to implement changes in a hostile department without also slashing jobs and resources.

And so the best that can be done is to deal with the bad apples, even if the orchard itself remains poisoned to the root. Part Five deals mostly with the conflicting testimonies of Gondo and Jemell, who turn on each other under interrogation like the GTTF members turned on each other in the field. And just as Hersl got promoted to the unit because he was too problematic to stay on a beat, Jemell went to GTTF after serving a two-year paid suspension while under investigation for a shooting incident one of three, according to Gondo. Calling it failing upward doesnt quite cover it because its not as if Hersl or Jemell are backing their way into the unit. Its more that theyve successfully auditioned for it, having proven in the field that they have the moral flexibility to stuff ill-gotten cash into their pockets.

The darkly funny part of the GTTF scandal and the big difference between its members and what Williamsz character attempts to do inPrince of the City is that theres no honor among thieves. These guys cannot turn on each other fast enough. The FBI has Gondo and Jemell on the wire, laughing about the overtime Jenkins has approved for them with Gondo marveling over an $8,000 check from the city. But once theyre under questioning, theyre in a rush to implicate each other. That mind-set comes straight from the field, too, where theyve agreed to split the cash and drugs they find, but Jenkins always takes the biggest cut and they skim off each others take whenever no ones looking.

Two incidents stand out this week, both involving Hersl and both about Black professional men getting shaken for money without any evidence theyve committed a crime. The first echoes the story last week about a father shot by a dealer after the cops stole cash intended to pay off a debt. Here the consequences are less serious, but Nicole talks to a man who lost $600 in cash, two days in jail, and an HVAC repairman job to Hersl for the crime of driving pizza home to his family. The second is about a sting on an affluent car salesman who had $416,000 in his bedroom when the GTTF invaded, but the county police only found $350,000. The scheme involved Jenkins acting as the least convincing states attorney in history, but its not as if he needed to be Daniel Day-Lewis to pull it off. Jenkins and his crew arent artists like Robert De Niro inHeat. Theyre smash-and-grab guys common crooks.

In the end, the timeline circles back to March 1, 2017, the day the Feds executed the arrest of seven GTTF officers. And despite their arrogance, despite feeling above the law, they cannot be surprised when it happens. The first line of this episode is Gondo saying that Jenkins just didnt care if he saw another sunrise. And in a scene much later between Gondo and Jemell, who are still stealing under an active federal investigation, Gondo says, When this shit ends, it ends. Theyd all set their lives on an irreversible course, one they couldnt retreat from if they tried. Their only play now is to backstab each other into lesser sentences.

Extremely interesting and subtle contrast set up in this episode between Suiter and a devoted Jenkins recruit nicknamed K-Stop. The show has been using Suiter as an example of a good cop, someone who was part of Jenkinss unit but slipped off into the Homicide Division once it was clear he was on the take. But Suiter took the path of least resistance, which isnt the same thing as a clean break. It was easier for him to play along uncomfortably with Jenkins while looking for the exit. By contrast, when Jenkins and Hersl give K-Stop a hypothetical, hes firm about not wanting to be a dirty cop. Its not a one-to-one comparison Suiter is thrust into a situation, not a hypothetical but Suiters guilt over his silence comes through in the final moments here.

In the minds of Wonder Bread Americans, these people arent really victims. They deserved it. Thats Nicoles colleague talking about the racist assumptions many white Americans make about victims of police abuse: They must be guilty ofsomething, or else they wouldnt have drawn the attention from the police at all.

After watchingThe Wire, in which drug dealers suspect police attention and speak to each other in coded language through pay phones and burners, its hilarious to hear how incriminating the taped conversations are between Gondo and Jamell. One brief chat gets the two of them, plus Jenkins, on robbery, wire fraud, and tax evasion.

David Simon absolutely detests former mayor (and failed Democratic presidential candidate) Martin OMalley. The politically ambitious character of Tommy Carcetti (Aiden Gillen) onThe Wirehas been read as a dig at OMalley, and Williamss character here talks about a year when 100,000 were arrested while OMalley was mayor.This is a fun clipin which OMalley confronts remarks given by Simon in an interview.

Thats Justin Fenton, the reporter who wroteWe Own This City, asking a question at the press conference where the arrests are announced.

I dont know if what were doing is going to change a thing, but shit Nicole saying what many well-intentioned Simon characters feel. Justice is elusive, but an effort must be made.

Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!

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'We Own This City' Miniseries, Episode 5 Recap: 'Part Five' - Vulture

Newmai News NetworkImphal | May 24

In the ongoing intensive drive against illicit drug trafficking in Manipur, the police arrested two alleged drug peddlers today along with a huge quantity of smuggled drugs worth over Rs 9.11 crore in the local market. The two alleged drug peddlers were arrested by Tengnoupal district police in two different instances, police said. One of the arrested drug peddlers was identified as Seiminlun Lhuvum of Moreh. 22.8kg of WY tablets were recovered from his possession. The police arrested him after 20 bundles of illegal drugs were found in a Bolero during a check at its check post along NH-102 at Tengnoupal today, the police added. The approximate value of the seized WY tablets is Rs. 4,56,00,000, the police claimed.

The same district police arrested yet another alleged drug peddler and recovered 2.7kg of WY tablets packed in 20 bundles. The arrested drug peddler was identified as Shotinlen Khongsai of New Moreh, according to police.

The drugs were found in another Bolero he was driving when the police conducted a search of the vehicle on suspicion. The value of the seized drug would be around Rs 4,55,00,000 in the local market, the police further said.

The seizure of the drugs value around Rs 9,11,00,000 was made during the intensive drive against smuggling of drugs into the state for the neighbouring country, Myanmar under the state governments war on drugs 2.0, the police added.

Yet in another instance, a team of narcotic and affairs of border (NAB) division of Manipur police arrested one alleged drug peddler along with 300 gram of heroin powder on Monday.

Md Aktar Khan of Thoubal district was nabbed by the NAB team during a check along NH-2 near High Court of Manipur complex at Mantripukhri yesterday, said the police. The heroin powder was found concealed in 25 soap cases.

During preliminary verification, it was revealed that the drug was brought from one person in Thoubal district for onward delivery at Guwahati (Assam), the police claimed.

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Manipur: Alleged drug peddlers arrested with drugs worth over Rs 9.11 crore - Morung Express

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If you were to lay out in one place the Bush familys contributions over the last half century, it would not be a particularly balanced ledger. In one column, youd have PEPFAR; birth control; good reflexes; and one very succinct distillation of Donald Trumps inaugural address. In the other: the never-ending War on Terror; two wars with Iraq; Iran-Contra; torture; war crimes; Clarence Thomas; Samuel Alito; same-sex marriage bans; tax cuts for rich people; illegal surveillance; global warming; the AIDS epidemic in the US; private equity; the Department of Homeland Security; air pollution; the Florida Recount; Terri Schiavo; school choice; the bungled Hurricane Katrina response; the savings and loan scandal; the Great Recession; Willie Horton; the War on Drugs; and the Texas Rangers baseball stadium.

So you do not have to shed any tears over George P. Bushson of Jeb, nephew of Dubya, grandson of H.W.face-planting in his bid to unseat Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Tuesdays Republican primary runoff. In fact, it would be weird if you did. Bush, the states land commissioner, has coasted through his political career on the back of his family name, and hes now come to at least a temporary stop, in part because of it. But as notable as it is that the Bush dynasty is over (for now), the most important story from the race is that Paxtons own career isnt. Paxton, who narrowly held on to his job in the 2018 Democratic wave, heads into the general election as a clear favorite against either Rochelle Garza or Joe Jaworski.

Paxtons biography is a sort of amalgamation of all the kinds of things that tend to cost public officials their jobs. He has been under indictment since 2015 for alleged securities fraud. Much of his staff quit en masse in 2020 and accused him of abusing his office to help a campaign donor whose home had recently been raided by the FBI. He allegedly cheated on his wife with a state-senate staffer who went on to work for said donor. And he is a bad lawyer. His lawsuit attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election was so error-strewn and poorly argued that the state bar is now suing his deputy over it. It was also so nakedly cynical that it earned Paxton an invite to the Ellipse on January 6th.

But rather than being run out of the party, Paxton has now found an enduring place in it, in part because of that same shamelessness thats characterized his personal and professional dealings. State attorneys general are a huge nexus of power for a political project that has achieved many of its greatest successes by aggressively working the legal system. If your movement is going to be built around chipping away at individual rights and Democratic power via the courts, if it is going to turn every ballot or enacted law into a legal battle, then you need people like Paxton to keep churning out briefs. And he has done that, tossing pitch after pitch at the Supreme Court, waiting for them to take a swing. Sometimes the Supreme Court dismisses your Electoral College lawsuit. Sometimes it tells you youre right about Remain in Mexico.

As I wrote earlier this year in a profile of Paxton for the magazine:

[Y]ou dont need to be brilliant or ethical or charming to wield a lot of power in state government; you just need to keep the right people happy for long enough. And Paxton, for all his transgressions, has been a dependable vehicle for reactionary interests, inside and outside his state, for years. Hes led a legal crusade against immigrants, voting rights, environmental regulations, health care access, and trans equality. Hes scuttled local efforts to protect citizens from gun violence and COVID-19. And hes taking an axe to Roe v. Wade.

Paxtons persistence in the face of endless scandal makes him a model apparatchik for the current moment. He will never be president, but in a golden age of Republican corruption, in which anyone with ambition must bend the knee to an aspiring autocrat, a warm body with nothing to lose can do a lot of damage. By laundering the theories of conspiracists and hacks, he did as much as anyone short of Trump to make the Big Lie the new party orthodoxy. And in the process, he held a black light up to the rest of the conservative legal movementthe institutions and officials and donors who have turned jobs like his into some of the most powerful in state politics, and the compromises theyve made to do it.

Bush, like several other Republican candidates, looked at Paxtons record and somewhat reasonably concluded that someone should be able to beat this guy. But Trumps years of stirring up conservative resentment at the FBI and the so-called Deep State has softened the landscape for scandal-plagued officeholders, and Paxton has embraced the witch hunt ethos. The work Paxton has done as AGtargeting trans kids; restricting abortion access; making life hell for migrants; and rallying a crowd just hours before some of its members stormed the Capitoljust arent deal-breakers right now.

George P. had the support of his uncle. But in the end, Paxton had the backing of the one ex-president the party still reveres.

See the rest here:

The Worst Lawyer in Texas Just Put an End to the Bush Dynasty Mother Jones - Mother Jones

U.S. overdose deaths are at an all-time high. There were more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the United States from December 2020 to December 2021.

LaSalle County has one of the highest overdose death rates in Illinois. It also has high rates of opioid-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits.

But, even in the face of those statistics, the opioid crisis is often still described as a secret hidden in plain sight. Illinois Valley Community Colleges recent One Book, One College project tried to bring that secret out into the light.

Jayna Leipart Guttilla is the colleges collection, development and access librarian. She helped organize this years One Book initiative focused on the book Death in Mud Lick by Eric Eyre, which illustrates how opioids took over a West Virginia mining community.

The book was a jumping-off point to delve into conversations about how the epidemic started and what it looks like in Illinois. Leipart Guttilla calls it less of a book club and more of a set of community meetings with students, faculty and experts.

We are an hour away from any other [higher] educational institution. So we are we reach many people in rural areas, much more than I was initially aware of, she said. You read articles about the opioid epidemic, but what does that mean? It's just words on a page. When you hear the stories of families of people who were loved and cared for who have passed, it really takes on another dimension.

IVCC teamed up with local harm reduction and recovery organization Perfectly Flawed. Its founder Luke Tomsha was an injection drug user for over 14 years and is now trying to build a safe place for people navigating substance use or a path to recovery.

There's so much stigma out there related to substance use, and we've criminalized drug users," he said. "For so long, we've criminalized human behavior when, in fact, we needed to support the people who are struggling."

That perception of people with Substance Use Disorder is why Tomsha says education is so vital. And creating an empathetic environment with IVCC for the community to share their experiences made One Book all the more impactful.

Lori Brown also joined the colleges project. Shes the founder of Buddys Purpose -- an overdose awareness group she created after she lost her son to an overdose. IVCC center for accessibility and neuro diversitys Tina Hardy says hearing Lori and Luke inspired other people to talk about their and their familys experiences with addictive behavior.

We had one of our nursing instructors step forward and tell her story that she said she really hasn't told," said Hardy. "I thought that was really remarkable of her to step out and publicly put that out there. But I think it also helps our students, in the long run, appreciate who we have here and maybe foster closer connections.

She said it was a challenge to engage students, especially when they started and events were mostly online, but eventually, they had students ask really good questions. It helped that Death in Mud Lick author Eric Eyre reached out to Illinois Valley and participated in their analysis of his book.

Conversations around Death In Mud Lick led to a discussion about issues like unethical prescribing practices. It hit close to home. In 2018, a LaSalle County physician was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the illegal distribution of opioids.

But with a crisis with so many layers, they couldnt cover everything. Tomsha says continuing education is crucial.

There are so many racial disparities in the war on drugs as well that we didn't even touch on in the book," he said. "In predominately white communities, we might not think it affects us, but it does."

This Spring, Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled an Overdose Action Plan to limit opioid overdoses. Tomsha was one of the few people with lived experience on the states Opioid Overdose Prevention & Recovery Steering Committee that made recommendations for the report.

Now, he says, its about implementation and more education around issues like the Fentanyl-tainted drug supply, harm reduction techniques and life-saving medications like Naloxone.

Even though Illinois Valleys One Book, One College project on Death In Mud Lick is over, Jayna Leipart Guttilla says the conversations cant stop.

It affects more people than you realize. It certainly affects people in my family," she said. "And it's not something I would necessarily want to talk about. But I felt so empowered by the work that we did. I was really so honored to have the space to discuss these issues that are affecting people and that they don't have to feel shame about.

Tomsha says anyone using substances, seeking support, or treatment can find Perfectly Flaweds text and call line at perfectlyflawed.org.

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Rural community college helps bring opioid crisis conversation out into the open - Northern Public Radio (WNIJ)