Category Archives: War On Drugs

Tribune News Service

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Bathinda, February 25

At a time when drug addiction is on the rise, residents of Kaljharani village in the district have literally waged a war against chitta, a highly addictive synthetic drug. Many youngsters have died due to drug overdose in the district in the recent past and the issue had been raked up by various political parties during the recently concluded Assembly elections.

Also read:Congress, Akalis' incompetence to blame for people taking law into own hands against drug menace: AAP

No help in securing bail: Panchayat

Muktsar: After a teenager allegedly died of drug overdose at Gurusar village in Gidderbaha, the panchayat on Friday decided not to help anyone secure bail if found selling drugs. The decision was taken after villagers assembled in protest.

Irked at the sale of drugs at the village, the Kaljharani panchayat has resolved to break the legs of drug peddlers selling contraband in the village. Alarmed at the move, the district police have approached the villagers seeking cooperation in their fight against drugs and warning them against taking law into their own hands.

Addressing villagers, sarpanch Kamal Kaurs husband Datinder Singh said they had decided to punish those peddling drugs in the village. Villagers claimed they had been forced to take law into their own hands owing to police inaction. On most occasions when the police are informed about drug peddlers, the offenders are taken into custody but released after some time, they claimed.

Bathinda SSP Amneet Kondal said: After the issue came to my notice, DSP (Rural) Gurdeep Singh and DSP (NDPS) Satvir Singh were sent to the village. Both held a meeting with villagers and assured them of taking strict action against drug peddlers. They sought their cooperation in our fight against drugs and warned them against taking law into their hands.

She said a notice had been issued to the Sangat police station SHO, asking him to explain why the village had taken such a decision and what action was being taken to deal with the drug menace.

As per cases registered in various police stations, 20 persons have died due to drug overdose in the past six months in Bathinda. However, sources claim the actual number could be higher as many cases went unreported.

Dr Vitull K Gupta, a social activist, said: FIRs are registered in only a fraction of cases as most cases go unreported. It is a grave issue and the administration must step up and take remedial measures.

#drug menace

Excerpt from:

War against 'chitta': Bathinda villagers vow to 'punish' drug peddlers themselves - The Tribune India

By David Maxted, LaQunya Baker, Lindsey Webb, and Z Williams

The tragic rise in overdose deaths from fentanyl and other opiates deserves urgent attention from Colorado leaders. Evidence-based harm reduction policies such as free and widespread access to naloxone, public education regarding the risks of fentanyl, free testing supplies like fentanyl test strips, and supervised use sites will save lives.

Paired with productive policies like low-barrier drug treatment, stable housing, and investment in community-driven overdose prevention, we can overcome this crisis and improve public health and safety in our state.

In awidely-publicized press conference, Colorado state senator and U.S. congressional candidate Brittany Pettersen, state Sen. Kevin Priola, and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced they would take on the overdose crisis. Although public health measures received mention, they put disturbing emphasis on police enforcement and increasing prison sentences, most notably making possession of small amounts of fentanyl a felony.

Pettersen even claimed they will go after the cartels and end the crisis by increased spending on law enforcement and prison sentences.

This surprising rhetoric would have us repeat the failed war on drugs, which since the 1980s has led to mass incarceration and the systemic racism infecting our criminal system. We do not have to imagine what happens when our government spends billions of dollars claiming to go after the cartels. We know.

The result is not reduced overdose deaths, nor is it a reduction in drug supply. The result is aggressive racial profiling, militarized policing of poor and working-class communities, and thousands of Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and other people of color disproportionately and systematically funneled into excessive prison sentences.

If prison worked, or if enforcement eliminated drug supplies, the U.S. would have seen a decrease in drug use and overdose deaths in the decades since the war on drugs began.

When people incarcerated for drug possession return to their communities, they do so with stigma, trauma, untreated health issues, and significant barriers to both employment and stable housing. The harm inflicted by excessive prison sentences the economic waste, trauma and fracture ripples through families and communities for generations to come. Meanwhile, wasted spending on incarceration drains resources from effective public health solutions such as housing and health care, and the crisis only deepens.

No one is immune: DDAP encourages Pa. workers, health care workers, to invest five minutes to better understand addiction

If prison worked, or if enforcement eliminated drug supplies, the U.S. would have seen a decrease in drug use and overdose deaths in the decades since the war on drugs began. Instead, data show that we suffer from 10 times the number of overdose deaths compared to 1990, despite billions spent on prohibition. The use and availability of fentanyl and other opiates has increased, not decreased. This trend is, at least in part, a result of the increasingly intense criminalization of drug trafficking which has driven the suppliers market toward more potent and easily transportable drugs such as illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogues.

Every overdose death is a tragedy, and too many Coloradans have been impacted by overdoses and a lack of health care for users. But lets not be fooled. Its easy for politicians to jump to lock em up policies as a supposed quick fix to try to appease voters. We know from more than four decades of the failed war on drugs that this quick fix is a fiction. Prison and enforcement has not and will never make us safe from the risks of substance use. We need our leaders to tell the truth about this fact. We owe it to those who have lost their lives to overdose, and to those lives that can still be saved.

Communities most impacted by the overdose crisis have led effective outreach and intervention, and will continue to do so for the safety and health of Coloradans. Rather than rebranding old failed policies that will only cause more harm, our legislators and Attorney General Weiser must listen to public health advocates and the voices of marginalized communities. They must courageously focus on evidence-based public health solutions to overcome this crisis and save lives.

David Maxted is a civil rights and criminal attorney atMaxted Law LLC. LaQunya Baker is a part-owner of Baker Oliver Simpson Law, a criminal defense law firm, and a visiting assistant professor of the practice of law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Lindsey Webb is associate professor at Denver Law School. Z Williams is an activist and 2021 graduate of Denver Law School. They wrote this piece for Colorado NewsLine, a sibling site of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, where it first appeared.

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The war on drugs failed. Don't try it again - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Its pretty much like clockwork for the War on Drug.

These Philly rockers release a new record and then, a few months later, it winds up on multiple year-end best-of lists.

Thats what happens when you keep putting out such awesome efforts as 2014s Lost in the Dream and 2017s A Deeper Understanding.

The trend definitely continued with last years I Dont Live Here Anymore, which ended up being included on the best-of-2021 lists by such publications as Paste, Spin, the Guardian and, yes, even this newspaper.

Chalk it up to the genius of frontman Adam Granduciel, who manages to construct exciting new works that somehow have the feel of a great lost classic-rock album. Plus, hes one of the top guitar heroes of his generation, painting notes that seem to draw from the palettes of such all-time greats as Mark Knopfler, Mike Campbell and Phil Manzanera.

Expect a fantastic night of music when the War on Drugs performs Feb. 25 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets are $46, apeconcerts.com.

Read more here:

Just say yes to the War on Drugs in San Francisco - East Bay Times

If you are a Massachusetts resident who has been harmed by the war on drugs, either personally, through a family members experience, or in your community, now is the time to pay attention to the cannabis industry and make your voice heard.

The state Cannabis Control Commission is evaluating which Massachusetts cities and towns were hit hardest by previous marijuana prohibition and enforcement, and which residents, by law, should be eligible to receive the benefits of the now-legal, $2.5 billion industry.

Our state was the first in the nation to enact a mandate to promote equity in the regulated marketplace. As a result, our agency offers benefits to certain populations, including those who have resided in 29 specific municipalities designated as disproportionately impacted areas. Of those 29, municipalities with populations over 100,000 have been subdivided into census tracts.

Individuals who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area may be eligible to participate in the commissions Social Equity Program, for example. The program provides training and technical assistance to prospective marijuana business owners, employees, and ancillary companies that provide services to licensees, and other licensing benefits. Plus, each license applicant who comes before the commission must submit a plan to positively impact disproportionately harmed people, detailing how it will invest resources in communities on the DIA list and other populations.

Several studies, largely relying on arrest data, poverty rates, and racial demographics, inform the commissions ongoing review of disproportionately impacted areas. In 2017, an independent researcher published The Impact of Drug and Marijuana Arrests on Local Communities in Massachusetts. In 2021, the commission and the UMass Donahue Institute released, Identifying Disproportionately Impacted Areas by Cannabis Prohibition in Massachusetts. The data and methodology used to determine the most harmed communities are available for public review.

Ive expressed concerns about lingering gaps. For one thing, crime does not always occur where offenders live. In other words, Boston census tracts in downtown and Back Bay may experience a high concentration of property crimes due to increased daytime population, the presence of stores, and more opportunities for theft. However, that does not mean residents of those areas have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition or should be eligible for the benefits of legalization. It is critical that we recognize important indicators of disproportionate impact in offenders own communities, and that their neighbors be considered for these benefits.

My colleagues and I have met with community leaders, municipal officials, licensees, and equity applicants to understand their perspectives on possible changes to the current list. Now, the public is invited to weigh in by submitting comments to Commission@CCCMass.com by March 4.

Some may argue that expanding the disproportionately impacted areas list is better for the cannabis industry because more eligibility means more areas benefit. However, that ignores the purpose of Massachusetts equity mandate and undercuts the restoration of communities that are still living with the impact of the war on drugs.

According to a MassINC study, approximately half of Department of Correction inmates are released into just 10 communities statewide. Unsurprisingly, they are among the highest crime areas in the Commonwealth and have experienced firsthand collateral damage caused by the war on drugs. Whats more, people of color represent three-fourths of those convicted of mandatory minimum drug offenses in Massachusetts but make up less than one-fourth of our population. That reality must be represented on the disproportionately impacted areas list.

Despite legalization, marijuana enforcement continues to hurt urban communities and destabilize high-incarceration-rate neighborhoods. For decades, men and women were kept out of the workforce while serving time for cannabis offenses; then, upon release, they were effectively barred from jobs, housing, and opportunity because of those criminal records. Persisting systemic disparities and inequities completely sidelined talent and stunted economic growth for entire communities. Meanwhile, thousands now reap the rewards of a thriving legal industry in Massachusetts.

The complexities of the war on drugs evoke discomfort and pain, particularly among those coping with its collateral consequences. However, to ensure justice in the booming Massachusetts cannabis industry, it is critical that those who should benefit participate in this process.

If we, as a collective, do not pay attention to how the DIA list evolves, the very people Massachusetts is mandated to support are at risk of further disenfranchisement. The commission can and must do better with a more comprehensive and inclusive approach.

We owe it to ourselves, our families, and our communities to get involved now.

Ava Callender Concepcion is a Massachusetts Cannabis Control commissioner and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. She lives in Uphams Corner in Boston.

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The state Cannabis Control Commission seeks to right the wrongs of the war on drugs - The Boston Globe

Watch Adam Granduciel celebrate his birthday by performing Against The Wind.

By Andy Kahn Feb 16, 2022 6:30 am PST

The War On Drugs covered Bob Segers classic Against The Wind during their show on Tuesday in St. Paul, Minnesota. The bands first of two concerts at the Palace Theatre coincided with frontman/guitarist Adam Granduciels birthday.

Its my birthday and Im going to play a fucking Bob Seger song!, Granduciel told the audience.

He and his bandmates then ran through a mid-set rendition of Against The Wind, which served as the title track to Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Bands 1980 album. The cover was preceded by a tease of Segers Night Moves.

Touring in support of the 2021 LP, I Dont Live Here Anymore, The War On Drugs setlist Tuesday night contained nine of the records 10 tracks. The show also included the tour debut of Disappearing from 2014s Lost In The Dream. During the evenings encore, Night Moves was again teased before the Occasional Rain finale.

The War On Drugs returns to the Palace Theatre for another show tonight. Watch video footage of last nights Against The Wind and Night Moves fake-out via Kyle Matteson below:

Read more:

The War On Drugs Covers Bob Seger In St. Paul - JamBase

Opinion: Republicans talk tough on border security, but they're bluffing about going after the drug cartels and seriously addressing overdoses at home.

The Republicanwar against drug cartels is all a bluff and thats most unfortunate.

For all their tough talk, they dont really mean to crack down on transnational cartels that are blanketing the U.S. market with fentanyl and all sorts of other deadly drugs.

If they were serious about going after the cartels, they would have done so already atthe U.S.-Mexico border, and most importantly, in the heartland where traffickers are easily distributing drugs that killed more than 100,000 people just last year.

Butbluffing about waging an unconstitutional war at the southern border gets thepublics attention, which they needto win voters leading up to this years midterms.

Case in point. Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich this week issued a legal opinion effectively saying that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey can send troops to the border.

That argument is highly disputed by constitutional lawyers. But thats inconsequential for Brnovich who doesnt mind making a fool of himself in his quest to become a U.S. senator.

Ducey is termed out and isnt running for anything yet.

Still, Duceyis peddling the notion that America is under attack at the southern border and that drug cartels must be reined in.

The GOP is using that strategy nationally to win governorships and local races, and to take the U.S. Congress back from Democrats.

Republicans are good at staying on the border invasion message, which is to attack illegal immigration and blame the Democrats for it.

But its all anillusion. They arent going after the cartels operating freely and violently in Mexico and distributing the drugs here.

The Mexican people have paid a heavy price in that countrys war on drugs the body count surpassing more than 250,000.

Americans remain oblivious to thedeadly war raging south ofthe border while our own people consumethe narcotics.

The U.S. has never taken the demand side of things seriously, former Mexican President Felipe Caldern told The Wall Street Journal.

Caldern unleashedthe Mexican war on cartels during his 2006-12 presidency that has left a trail of bodies.

Its clear who won not just in Mexico but north of the borderwhere cartel distribution networks reach all corners of the U.S.

Americans, gullible enough to believe politicians, are eating up the border invasion rhetoric while people are dying of overdoses courtesy of the cartelsoperating on Americas streets.

Caldern is right.

Americasdrug war, which President Richard Nixon started in 1971, has failed because it has primarily focused on the countries supplying the drugs, including Mexico, Colombia, China and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, not enough attention and resources are given to the demand side.

And now more than 100,000 people have lost their lives, mostly due to fentanyl. Drug overdoses increased by 28% from last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unfortunately, the death toll is likely to rise in part because potent drugs like fentanyl are readily available in the U.S.

The CDC defines fentanyl as a synthetic opioid, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Theres no questionthat Mexican cartels are smuggling fentanyl to the U.S.

But synthetics can now be manufactured almost anywhere, using easily obtainable chemicals, according to extensive reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

That deserves serious attention not just sending a handful of National Guardsmen to the border to support law enforcement or setting up a mostly ineffective Border Strike Force.

Ducey and other local leaders needto do more to curb drug trafficking and tackle the huge drug addiction problem.

Governors like Duceycant arbitrarily declare war the Founding Fathers left that responsibility up to the federal government.

Ducey is smart not to take Brnovichs opinion to declare war seriously.

But its also too bad that he and others are distracting voterswith a border invasion of mainly poor and desperate asylum seekers instead of joining forces with Democrats to fight the cartels.

It really is too bad the Republicansholding office are just bluffing.

A real and thoughtful war on drugs could help Mexicans desperate to end the cartel killings, and most importantly, curtail Americans demandfor drugs.

Elvia Daz is an editorial columnistfor The Republic and azcentral.Reach her at 602-444-8606 orelvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter,@elviadiaz1.

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The Republican 'war' at the border is a bluff. They aren't about to take on the cartels - The Arizona Republic

BOXING champion and Senator Emmanuel Manny D. Pacquiao on Wednesday said he would allow an international probe of Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs if elected.

The boxing icon also vowed to fight illegal drugs the right way, noting that innocent people had been executed under the tough-talking leaders anti-narcotics campaign.

I believe there are extrajudicial killings based on what I know, he told foreign journalists at a news briefing. I know some people who have been victimized even though it is not true [that they were involved in drugs].

Mr. Pacquiao, once a staunch Duterte ally, also said he would consider rejoining the International Criminal Court (ICC), from which the Philippines under Mr. Duterte withdrew in 2018. He promised justice for victims of the drug war.

Called Pacman by his Filipino fans, the senator is behind Ferdinand Bongbong R. Marcos, Jr. and Vice-President Maria Leonor Leni G. Robredo in presidential opinion polls.

The Hague-based tribunals pre-trial chamber has ordered a probe of Mr. Duterte as it found a reasonable basis that crimes against humanity might have been committed in his war on drugs.

Back in 2016, the boxing champion had defended Mr. Dutertes anti-illegal drug campaign, but now thinks some drug suspects might have been executed.

Mr. Pacquiao also said he would form a peace panel with China to discuss the South China Sea dispute if he becomes president.

What we hope and seek here is to be friends with all countries, he said in Filipino. Its the agreement that will help develop the lives of every Filipino family.

The deal with China should ensure that Filipino rights are not abused, he said, adding that experts and agencies would be allowed to join the discussion. Our first concern here is the benefits to the Filipino people.

The South China Sea, a key shipping route, is subject to overlapping territorial disputes involving China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China claims more than 80% of the disputed waterway.

The boxing champ said his government would not seek help from other countries in solving the dispute as far as possible.

Several allies have backed the Philippines in the sea dispute with China, whose claim to the sea was rejected by a United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016.

The United States has said it supports the arbitral award and a Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines in case of an armed attack on Philippine Armed Forces, public vessels or aircraft in the sea. Under the treaty, both sides must help each other in case of any external aggression.

NET WORTHMeanwhile, Mr. Marcos, Jr. on Tuesday night said he is OK with divulging his net worth statement if he wins the elections this year. But doing so is still a government officials prerogative, he added.

Its not a problem, he told a presidential debate on Sonshine Media Network International, which is owned by Mr. Dutertes spiritual adviser. There is no need to change the law requiring public officials to disclose their net worth, he added.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) this month rejected lawsuits seeking to disqualify the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos from the presidential race after a trial court convicted him in the 1990s for tax evasion.

The Comelec First Division said the crime did not involve wicked, deviant behavior. The case is on appeal before the en banc.

Mr. Marcos noted that as a private citizen, he had not filed his net worth statement for the past six years, but he would do so once he becomes president. Last month, he said the document could be used to attack political opponents.

Under a memo issued by the Ombudsman in Sept. 2020, an officials net worth report can only be released to his authorized representative or upon a court order. The Ombudsman order also excluded journalists from obtaining copies of the statements.

Mr. Duterte had not disclosed his net worth despite his vow of transparency, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported in 2020.

Since the law requiring public officials to disclose their net worth was enacted in 1989, all five presidents before Mr. Duterte had disclosed their net worth year on year without fail, it said.

At Tuesdays debate, former presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella, labor leader Leodegario Ka Leody de Guzman and former Defense chief Norberto B. Gonzales, who are all running for president, said they would disclose their net worth statement if they are elected.

Also on Wednesday, political analyst Victor C. Manhit said Mr. Marcos has a better chance of winning the presidential race this year after his running mate Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio opted to run for vice-president instead.

Duterte loyalists transferred their support from Ms. Carpio to Mr. Marcos as a result, he told an online news briefing. What we saw is a consolidation of the voices of the Marcoses and Dutertes.

Mr. Marcoss lead in presidential opinion polls has increased in the past months. A Social Weather Stations poll in January found that 50% of Filipinos would vote for him as president, up from 47% a quarter earlier.

A similar poll by Pulse Asia Research Group in January found that six of 10 Filipinos would vote for him, up from 53% a month earlier. Alyssa Nicole O. Tan and KATA

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Pacquiao to allow probe of Duterte war on drugs - BusinessWorld Online

Vermont Business Magazine Decriminalize Vermont, a broad coalition of organizations dedicated to social and economic justice, including criminal justice, drug policy, and law enforcement reform, announced its public launch today.

Decriminalize Vermont is working alongside a group of 42 Democratic, Progressive, and Independent state legislatorsto advance a groundbreaking bill, H.644, that would decriminalize possession of small personal use amounts of drugs.

This initiative builds on the growing support in Vermont and across the nation for approaching drugs and drug use through the lens of public health rather than continuing the failed War on Drugs approach.

With nearly a third of the chamber signed on as original co-sponsors, H.644 is the most broadly-supported decriminalization bill in the nation.

Several coalition members testified at hearings held by the House Committee on Judiciary on H.644 over the past few weeks.

Our current drug laws are overly punitive and deeply harmful. Decriminalize Vermont is working to support a new approach that prioritizes public health and social justice, said Tom Dalton, Executive Director of Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform. We are thrilled to see such a positive response to this bill so far this legislative session.

If passed, H.644 would eliminate criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use;establish a treatment referral system by which Vermonters who need help with substance use disorders can access treatment services; set up a board of drug policy experts to determine appropriate personal use threshold levels for each drug; and create a financial incentive for people with substance use disorder to participate in a health needs screening.

Vermonters have long called for a public health approach to substance use, and yet we as a state have not done nearly enough to make that vision a reality, said Jay Diaz, General Counsel at ACLU-VT. As the devastating human toll of the states failed war on drugs becomes more apparent every year, it is time to insist on bolder, more ambitious solutions including badly overdue drug policy reforms that respect the dignity, health, and well-being of every member of our community.

The coalition includes the following Founding Organizational Members: American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont (ACLU-VT), Better Life Partners, End Homelessness Vermont, Ishtar Collective, Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), Next Generation Justice, Pride Center of Vermont, Recovery Vermont, Rights and Democracy (RAD), Vermont Cares, Vermont Legal Aid, Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, Vermont Interfaith Action, and the Women's Justice and Freedom Initiative.

Decriminalize Vermont is a Vermont-based coalition dedicated to creating a healthier and more just Vermont by reducing the harms and injustices embedded in Vermonts current drug laws.

Montpelier, VT(February 16, 2022) Decriminalize Vermont

Continued here:

New group works to decriminalize small 'personal use' amounts of drugs - Vermont Biz

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The War on Drugs Is a Century Old. These Vancouver Activists Are Pushing to End It - TheTyee.ca

Thedeath of Michael K. Williams put another familiar and widely cherished face among the many that perished from drug overdoses in the US. Most known for his role in The Wire but also for his community activism and public comments on race, class and own drug struggles, Williams died of an accidental poly-drug overdose. Last week, four men were charged in his death with narcotics conspiracy to distribute fentanyl-laced heroin.

The US Attorney Damian Williams said: This is a public health crisis. And it has to stop. Deadly opioids like fentanyl feed addiction and lead to tragedy. NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell applauded the polices efforts and stated they had brought a measure of justice to Williams' family.

But the tragedy of Williams fate, alongside the other 100,000 lives lost to a combination of tainted drug supplies and lack of access to life-saving medicine in the last year in the US alone, is exacerbated by a failure to deliver meaningful justice by addressing the root causes of the opioid crisis.

The criminal justice systems highly individualised response to drug-related deaths where responsibility is placed on an individual or a group rather than a system of marginalisation and criminalisation - does not allow for the transformational justice needed to truly fix the error that led to Williams death in the first place: the War on Drugs. Instead, it is avenging Williams suffering with yet more pain: arresting (potentially for life) all those found to be involved in this specific instance of drug supply.

I cant help but feel like real justice has not been, and could never be, found in this response. How can more criminalisation bring any closure to someone that was forced to seek out their drug of choice from a source thats illegal (and therefore of unknown quality or origin) in the first place?

Vilifying the drug seller is an intrinsic feature of the War on Drugs. Even when there is evidence that they often look out for the health of their customers, it hides the fact that many are pushed into the drug trade as a means of survival. Prohibition ensures that drug sellers are seen as responsible for all the violence that happens in the trade, when much of its violence is a by-product of its illegality.

Giulia Zampini, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Greenwich, added:

The very essence of criminal law is about individualising blame, so authorities who want to escape responsibility resort to it. We see this in cases such as Michael K. Williams, where the figure of the conniving drug dealer becomes the scapegoat. Time and again, this does nothing to address the real issues at the root of these structural problems: prohibition, inequality, trauma.

Sheila Vakharia, Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance,highlighted the issue with individualising the blame for Williams death, raising that these men may not have necessarily known that the heroin they sold contained fentanyl. The infamous opioid has become widely available and frequently mixed into supply, either by a small-scale dealer or by anyone else in the supply chain. Bringing justice to an overdose death in the current criminal justice system implies that all those involved in the drug supply should be charged for this crime. This would be the best-case scenario for law enforcement, who would claim they had successfully served justice to overdose victims.

In Williams case, the US Attorney rightly recognised the nations rampant drug overdoses as a public health crisis: he knows you cannot arrest your way out of it. When a drug policy system wages war on the people that use, produce or sell drugs, that system is inherently, intrinsically, and structurally unjust. This system is not able to address the injustice of the ongoing public health crisis because it has created it, perpetuating its harm by criminalising drugs. This same system deviously prevents the funding and distribution of the harm-reduction tools needed to avoid these tragic fatalities.

Political theoristIris Marion Young, who has written extensively on identifying structural injustices, has defined them as social processes that place groups of people under systematic threat of domination or deprivation of the means to develop and exercise their capacities. Although originally it described how poverty limits peoples available opportunities to improve their situations, the same critique can be applied to prohibition. People who use drugs many times do not have the means to trust the safety of their supply, forced to take huge risks every time they use them.

As Michael K. Williams himselfsaid about the War on Drugs: It's destroyed lives, torn families apart, filled our jails and prisons and hijacked countless futures of black and brown youth - but that's what it was supposed to do. He understood that in the US (but globally under prohibition), no justice can be exacted in a system that has been built to punish certain groups in society, either because of the colour of their skin or the illegality of their substance of choice.

Someproponents of carceral punishment are exploring how drug dealers could be charged with homicide when their clients fatally overdose from fentanyl. In fact,since 2011, 45 states in the US have proposed or implemented increased fentanyl-related penalties to supposedly act as a deterrent to its use.

Obviously, this seems like the next logical step in an eye-for-an-eye model of justice, where a clear culprit must be found wholly responsible for someones death. Imani Mason Jordan, Communications Strategist at Release, disagrees:

They [the state] are completely ignoring any evidence and relying on neoliberal responses that focus on individuals that break a rule rather than structural issues they themselves are causing. That is the real tragedy. If I die of an overdose, I want to be the very last person to die of an overdose! And this is totally within the scope of possibility.

To truly bring justice to every senseless drug death, a radical transformation about the way we deal with drugs in society is needed. Work in this department has already been started with harm reduction, through policies that reduce the number of overdoses,provide life-saving medicine like naloxone, anddistribute fentanyl testing kits to identify dangerous adulterants.

The current criminal justice system does not allow for such opportunities to develop because it is built on blaming people, not identifying and transforming its structural faults.

Would this bring any sense of justice to those that have died? Would they have wanted their circumstances to be used to further criminalise others within their community? Or would it be better to radically overhaul the system that created and continue to fuel the drug overdose crisis? I think Michaelwould have agreed:

As the war on people turns 45, we must collectively acknowledge that it is one of the greatest American injustices ever committed, and turn outrage and frustration into action and progress.

Go here to read the rest:

Where's the Justice in Arresting Michael K. Williams' Drug Sellers? - TalkingDrugs