Category Archives: War On Drugs

Since taking office on June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a war on drugs that has led to the deaths of over 12,000 Filipinos to date, mostly urban poor. At least 2,555 of the killings have been attributed to the Philippine National Police. Duterte and other senior officials have instigated and incited the killings in a campaign that could amount to crimes against humanity.

Human Rights Watch research has found that police are falsifying evidence to justify the unlawful killings. Despite growing calls for an investigation, Duterte has vowed to continue the campaign.

Large-scale extrajudicial violence as a crime solution was a marker of Dutertes 22-year tenure as mayor of Davao City and the cornerstone of his presidential campaign. On the eve of his May 9, 2016 election victory, Duterte told a crowd of more than 300,000: If I make it to the presidential palace I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, holdup men, and do-nothings, you better get out because I'll kill you.

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Philippines War on Drugs - Human Rights Watch

If you live in the United States, you may have heard about the war on drugs at some point. The war has been going on for decades, as America fights to keep drugs from entering the nation and cracks down on drug users in the country. In recent years, this issue has fallen under heavy scrutiny and remains a political hotspot in America.

In 1971, the US government began cracking down on illegal drug use and distribution under President Nixon. Officially, the war on drugs came about due to a rise in recreational drug use during the 1960s. The goal? To increase penalties for drug-related crimes, more heavily enforce these efforts, and put more drug offenders behind bars.

The movement increased the enforcement and penalties offenders face, calling drug abuse public enemy number one. But it also increased the need for federal funding for drug-control agencies and the prison system. Thus, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was created in 1973 to tackle drug use and the smuggling of illegal narcotics into America, much of which enters the U.S. through the southern boarders and Mexico.

In recent decades, public support for the war on drugs varies drastically, with critics pointing to data on how people of color are targeted for drug suspicion whereas Caucasians can often receive lesser sentences for the same or similar crimes. Some also claim the country could benefit from legalizing and taxing drugs similarly to alcohol and tobacco, which many states are showing could be lucrative forms of government funding for other issues. Policymakers and other Americans, on the other hand, continue to support the war on drugs.

Regardless of popular support, the war is weighing. With many states legalizing marijuana, more political views are swaying toward tolerating recreational drugs. Countless facts and reports have shown little results from the war, yet a high cost for Americans. The war on drugs continues, just with less intensity today than in the early years of its creation.

To enforce the war on drugs, the U.S. spends over $51 billion each year. On the home front, each federal inmate costs an average of $30,619 in 2017, and $92 million was requested to fund drug court cases in the judicial system. Half of the inmates in federal prisons were serving on drug charges last year, which has cost the U.S. over $450 billion to maintain federal prison systems.

Another $20 billion has been spent fighting drug cartels in South America and Afghanistan, and $49 billion has been spent on enforcing and protecting Americas boarders with the goal of cutting off illegal drugs from entering the country.

American taxpayers also fund the war, ponying up over $213.5 billion for national drug control strategy since 2008. Money from taxpayers is spent covering drug treatment programs, law enforcement agencies, and both public and private prison systems and companies. There are also countless other prevention organizations that receive funding, such D.A.R.E. or Just Say No that have cost over $33 billion in marketing since 1970.

Although the war on drugs has fallen under scrutiny recently, policymakers still spent $31 billion in 2017 for drug control efforts.

Thanks to the war on drugs, you can find a lucrative career as a DEA agent. With over 10,000 professionals serving in various DEA related roles, the agency employs the following each year:

These professionals spend their careers investigating and prosecuting drug gangs and cartels that illegally transfer different types of drugs, from narcotics to pharmaceuticals. Because drug trafficking is often conducted by large and violent criminal organizations or terrorists, DEA agents work both domestically and internationally. Jobs range based on the type of work a DEA professional conducts, from working in the field to conducting research in a lab setting.

Special agents may physically track down traffickers aboard whereas administrative support jobs like an attorney would prosecute, detain, or deport offenders. Forensic science jobs also exist, from fingerprint specialists to computer forensic examiners, to investigate crime scenes and the evidence needed to convict in a court of law.

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War on Drugs - History and Facts - Criminal Justice Programs

Since becoming president of the Philippines in June 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has launched a war on drugs that has resulted in the extrajudicial deaths of thousands of alleged drug dealers and users across the country. The Philippine president sees drug dealing and addiction as major obstacles to the Philippines economic and social progress, says John Gershman, an expert on Philippine politics. The drug war is a cornerstone of Dutertes domestic policy and represents the extension of policies hed implemented earlier in his political career as the mayor of the city of Davao. In December 2016, the United States withheld poverty aid to the Philippines after declaring concern over Dutertes war on drugs.

How did the Philippines war on drugs start?

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When Rodrigo Duterte campaigned for president, he claimed that drug dealing and drug addiction were major obstacles to the Philippines economic and social progress. He promised a large-scale crackdown on dealers and addicts, similar to the crackdown that he engaged in when he was mayor of Davao, one of the Philippines largest cities on the southern island of Mindanao. When Duterte became president in June, he encouraged the public to go ahead and kill drug addicts. His rhetoric has been widely understood as an endorsement of extrajudicial killings, as it has created conditions for people to feel that its appropriate to kill drug users and dealers. What have followed seem to be vigilante attacks against alleged or suspected drug dealers and drug addicts. The police are engaged in large-scale sweeps. The Philippine National Police also revealed a list of high-level political officials and other influential people who were allegedly involved in the drug trade.

When Rodrigo Duterte campaigned for president, he claimed that drug dealing and drug addiction were major obstacles to the Philippines economic and social progress.

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The dominant drug in the Philippines is a variant of methamphetamine called shabu. According to a 2012 United Nations report, among all the countries in East Asia, the Philippines had the highest rate of methamphetamine abuse. Estimates showed that about 2.2 percent of Filipinos between the ages of sixteen and sixty-four were using methamphetamines, and that methamphetamines and marijuana were the primary drugs of choice. In 2015, the national drug enforcement agency reported that one fifth of the barangays, the smallest administrative division in the Philippines, had evidence of drug use, drug trafficking, or drug manufacturing; in Manila, the capital, 92 percent of the barangays had yielded such evidence.

How would you describe Dutertes leadership as the mayor of Davao?

After the collapse of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, there were high levels of crime in Davao and Duterte cracked down on crime associated with drugs and criminality more generally. There was early criticism of his time as mayor by Philippine and international human rights groups because of his de facto endorsement of extrajudicial killings, under the auspices of the Davao Death Squad.

Duterte was also successful at negotiating with the Philippine Communist Party. He was seen broadly as sympathetic to their concerns about poverty, inequality, and housing, and pursued a reasonably robust anti-poverty agenda while he was mayor. He was also interested in public health issues, launching the first legislation against public smoking in the Philippines, which he has claimed he will launch nationally.

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What have been the outcomes of the drug war?

By early December, nearly 6,000 people had been killed: about 2,100 have died in police operations and the remainder in what are called deaths under investigation, which is shorthand for vigilante killings. There are also claims that half a million to seven hundred thousand people have surrendered themselves to the police. More than 40,000 people have been arrested.

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Although human rights organizations and political leaders have spoken out against the crackdown, Duterte has been relatively successful at not having the legislature engaged in any serious oversight of or investigation into this war. PhilippineSenator Leila de Lima, former chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and a former secretary of justice under the previous administration, had condemned the war on drugs and held hearings on human rights violations associated with these extrajudicial killings. However, in August, Duterte alleged that he had evidence of de Lima having an affair with her driver, who had been using drugs and collecting drug protection money when de Lima was the justice secretary. De Lima was later removed from her position chairing the investigative committee in a 16-4 vote by elected members of the Senate committee.

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What is the public reaction to the drug war?

The war on drugs has received a high level of popular support from across the class spectrum in the Philippines. The most recent nationwide survey on presidential performance and trust ratings conducted from September 25 to October 1 by Pulse Asia Research showed that Dutertes approval rating was around 86 percent. Even through some people are concerned about these deaths, they support him as a president for his position on other issues. For example, he has a relatively progressive economic agenda, with a focus on economic inequality.

Duterte is also supporting a range of anti-poverty programs and policies. The most recent World Bank quarterly report speaks positively about Dutertes economic plans. The fact that he wants to work on issues of social inequality and economic inequality makes people not perceive the drug war as a war on the poor.

How is Duterte succeeding in carrying out this war on drugs?

The Philippine judicial system is very slow and perceived as corrupt, enabling Duterte to act proactively and address the issue of drugs in a non-constructive way with widespread violations of human rights. Moreover, in the face of a corrupt, elite-dominated political system and a slow, ineffective, and equally corrupt judicial system, people are willing to tolerate this politician who promised something and is now delivering.

Drug dealers and drug addicts are a stigmatized group, and stigmatized groups always have difficulty gaining political support for the defense of their rights.

There are no trials, so there is no evidence that the people being killed are in fact drug dealers or drug addicts. [This situation] shows the weakness of human rights institutions and discourse in the face of a popular and skilled populist leader. It is different from college students being arrested under the Marcos regime or activists being targeted under the first Aquino administration, when popular outcry was aroused. Drug dealers and drug addicts are a stigmatized group, and stigmatized groups always have difficulty gaining political support for the defense of their rights.

How has the United States reacted to the drug war and why is Duterte challenging U.S.-Philippines relations?

Its never been a genuine partnership. Its always been a relationship dominated by U.S. interests. Growing up in the 1960s, Duterte lived through a period when the United States firmly supported a regime that was even more brutal than this particular regime and was willing to not criticize that particular government. He noticed that the United States was willing to overlook human rights violations when these violations served their geopolitical interests. He was unhappy about the double standards. [Editors Note: The Obama administration has expressed concern over reports of extrajudicial killings and encouraged Manila to abide by its international human rights obligations.] For the first time, the United States is facing someone who is willing to challenge this historically imbalanced relationship. It is unclear what might happen to the relationship under the administration of Donald J. Trump, but initial indications are that it may not focus on human rights in the Philippines. President-Elect Trump has reportedly endorsed the Philippine presidents effort, allegedly saying that the country is going about the drug war "the right way," according to Duterte.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

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Is it time to end the 'war on drugs?' This conservative Christian activist thinks so. - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Oct. 14Christina Dent and her husband have spent many years as foster parents. The challenges are numerous, but after a while, they started seeing an undeniable pattern.

She started researching what she was seeing, and what she discovered was eye-opening.

"Around 50% of all children in foster care are there because of drug-related removals," Dent said.

In 2017, Dent a "conservative Christian who supported criminalizing drugs" read Johann Hari's book "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs." She started book club discussions with other parents, and eventually her worldview changed.

"As foster parents, we were trying to figure out ways to address some of the drug and substance abuse issues being faced by children in foster care," she said.

That led to the founding of End It For Good, a nonprofit organization whose aim is to educate people on the harm being done by the war on drugs and the good that could be done if law enforcement and lawmakers changed tactics.

Last week, End It For Good released a report Misplaced Priorities that looks at the negative impacts the war on drugs has had on Mississippi.

Some of the most damning data illustrate how drug usage has increased especially among children since the war on drugs was first "declared" in 1971 by then-President Richard Nixon.

Likewise, overdose deaths have increased dramatically over the past decade 40% from 2011 to 2019, with 2020 numbers 12.7% higher than the year before.

For Dent, the most startling discovery was the number of violent crimes committed versus the number of arrests made.

"I'm not sure people realize just how many violent crimes and property crimes go unsolved," Dent said. "At the same time, we are arresting thousands of people every year for drug possession."

Dent and others argue in part that the overbearing focus on drug possession (not drug trafficking or selling offenses) takes attention away from investigating violent crimes. There is likely some validity to this, but there is also the reality that violent and property crimes are often harder to solve. I definitely don't see the absolute cause-and-effect others do.

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Nevertheless, the continuing increase in arrests for possession charges raises real questions. Dent is not alone in pushing for decriminalization of possession, particularly in moving such crimes from felony to misdemeanor level.

"It is so easy for a drug offense to become a felony offense, and felonies make a thriving life so difficult to build," she said.

Dent believes that the war on drugs has a) led to growing violence by pushing the drug trade underground, b) caused more harmful drugs to appear on the streets because of a lack of control over the substances people are using and c) forced more people into the criminal justice system instead of the health care system, where they can get assistance to fight substance abuse.

The report details the success of alternative treatment programs, pre-arrest diversion programs and intervention drug courts. Dent wants to see more resources allocated toward these kinds of initiatives and less focus placed on criminal enforcement of minor possession offenses.

Dent believes "some sort of legalization would help" address the violence and overdoses associated with drugs. But she is also realistic about such efforts in Mississippi.

While I'm not onboard with legalization, I do believe Mississippi should heed some of the advice Dent and her group has offered. It echoes what other organizations and many law enforcement groups have said.

By further decriminalizing certain current offenses, raising the threshold for felony charges, and putting more time and money toward treatment and diversion programs, the war on drugs could actually start making real headway.

SAM R. HALL is executive editor of the Daily Journal. Contact him at 662-678-1586 or sam.hall@djournal.com. Follow @samrhall on Twitter.

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Sam R. Hall: Is it time to end the 'war on drugs?' This conservative Christian activist thinks so. - Yahoo News

The so-called war on drugs is outdated and doesnt work, a former Conservative health minister has said.

Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, said the government had to rethink how it dealt with drug addiction.

The backbencher still serves as a NHS mental health doctor and was a health minister under David Cameron between 2012 and 2015.

In an interview with GB NewsGloria De Piero,Poulter said:The aggressive law and order approach where we criminalise, have very strong criminal sanctions for people who are caught in possession of drugs is frankly, you know, outdated and it doesnt work.

What we see is that the number of people dying from overdoses of heroin is going up.

The number of people who are dying, who have they been poorly affected by other drug related harms is increasing. So we need a different approach.

I also dont believe just in incarcerating people or giving them a criminal sanction for possession of drugs when they may be dependent on drugs or addicted to drugs isnt necessarily a very helpful way forward. And I think weve got to rethink it.

Asked if the phrase war on drugs was sensible, helpful, achievable, Poulter added: To be frank, no.

Poulter said the government should look to the example of Portugal, where possession of drugs, not large-scale dealing, was dealt with by supporting people and treating it rather than as a criminal problem.

In the UK, a number of people dying from heroin overdoses is rising. Portugal its falling, he said.

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War On Drugs 'Outdated And Doesn't Work', Says Former Health Minister - HuffPost UK

Welcome back toForeign Policys Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week:Mexico and the United States nix the George W. Bush-era Mrida Initiative, a Nobel Prize highlights groundbreaking work in the economics of migration, and the Honduran opposition forms an alliance ahead of next months presidential election.

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U.S.-Mexico security cooperation is getting a rebrand. Last week, on Oct. 8, top officials from both countries held a high-level meeting on the matter in Mexico City. In the press conference that followed, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced the end of the Mrida Initiative, an anti-drug program that has seen the United States send Mexico more than $3 billion in financing for military equipment, law enforcement training, and other crime prevention measures since its inception in 2008.

The Mrida Initiative was born out of former U.S. President George W. Bushs support for then-Mexican President Felipe Calderns militarized, combat-focused approach to the drug trade. Caldern embraced the so-called kingpin strategy, in which authorities focused on taking down drug bosses in the hopes that doing so would erode the organizations beneath them.

Scholars, however, believe this approach may have had the opposite effect. Many have tracked how the kingpin strategy splintered and multiplied Mexican drug gangs rather than eliminate them. Since 2008, annual homicides in Mexico have more than doubled. On the other side of the border, U.S. drug overdose deathswhich in recent years have been driven up by the mass production of synthetic drugs in Mexicorose from 36,450 in 2008 to a record 93,331 in 2020.

Washington adjusted the Mrida Initiatives course under former U.S. President Barack Obama, introducing new efforts to train judges and prosecutors in Mexico to fight crime without the use of force. But over the years, the initiative suffered from a lack of consensus on how to evaluate its performance, Mexican diplomat Martha Brcena Coqui told El Economista this month. In 2020, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. State Department had not consistently tracked performance data for its Mrida programs.

At last weeks summit, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that the countries past joint attempts at improving safety had relied too much on security forces and too little on other tools in our kit. Ebrard said the next phase of cooperation would be superior to Mrida because it will be based more on respect, co-responsibility, and reciprocity.

In place of Mrida, officials said they are laying plans for what is being called the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities, a nod to the 200th anniversary of official diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States. A joint statement from the two delegations said the measure, due to be finalized in January 2022, will focus on preventing substance abuse, providing economic alternatives to organized crime, promoting human rights, and increasing investigative abilities.

Its highly ambitious talk. And Mexican analysts were quick to voice skepticism about Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obradors commitment to improving investigations into organized crime. After taking office in 2018, Lpez Obrador abolished a federal police force that had received years of U.S. training, creating a new force called the National Guard in its place. His government has also failed to comply with a 2018 Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling requiring Mexico to create an independent oversight panel to monitor abuses of power by its police.

Although Lpez Obrador has often called for an alternative to Mridas military-heavy approach to drug violencevoicing support for hugs not bulletshe has overseen a massive expansion of the Mexican militarys role in everyday life. During his term, the number of army and navy personnel deployed inside the country has risen from around 69,000 people to 125,000 people, according to data compiled by Ibero-American University consultants Ernesto Lpez Portillo and Samuel Storr. Those numbers dont include the new 90,000-strong National Guard, which is composed of around 75 percent military personnel.

In fact, judging the Lpez Obrador administration by its actionsrather than the Bicentennial Framework fact sheet released last weekBrookings Institution fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown wrote that Washingtons desired areas of security cooperation with the United States appear quite narrow. They include reducing the flow of illegal arms to Mexico from the United States.

Washington, far more than Mexico City, is interested in aggressive anti-crime probes. But it was easy enough for Mexico to nod along last weekbefore any specifics had been agreed to.

Despite the many obstacles facing the Bicentennial Framework moving forward, last weeks meeting showed some concrete progress. Most importantly, it means Mexico and the United States are talking again. In October 2020, the U.S. arrest of a former Mexican defense secretary in Los Angeles on drug charges badly soured relations between the two countries, bringing security cooperation to its lowest levels in some 15 years, former Mexican ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhn told CNN. Mexico largely suspended U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operations on its soil and denied visas to DEA agents. CNN reported last week the agency is still unable to conduct most operations in Mexico.

Besides last weeks dialogue, there are other signs that U.S.-Mexico security coordination is improving. This week, Milenio reported that a joint U.S.-Mexican investigation is probing a Mexican chemical-maker for allegedly importing materials to make fentanyl, a key ingredient fueling U.S. opioid deaths.

Its a small step. The full Bicentennial Framework as announced is a much taller order. Conceptually, it represents an important move beyond failed war on drugs strategies of the past. At a minimum, ongoing consultations to shape a new approach could bring U.S.-Mexico relations to a more positive place than the low they experienced at start of the Biden presidency.

Tuesday, Oct. 19: A Brazilian Senate committee that has been probing the governments handling of the pandemic presents its findings.

Wednesday, Oct. 20: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Bogot for high-level U.S.-Colombia talks.

Honduran election shake-up. With just 44 days to go before Hondurass presidential election, two top opposition candidates announced this week they had formed an alliance. Television personality Salvador Nasralla dropped out of the race and called on his supporters to back leftist Xiomara Castro, the wife of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

Nasrallas endorsement of Castro puts her in a significantly stronger position against Nasry Asfura, the candidate favored by outgoing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernndez. Castro and Nasrallas combined support is higher than any other candidates, totaling 36 percent to Asfuras 21 percent, according to a September poll. But whether the election will be free and fair is another question: Hernndezs party faced serious allegations of vote-rigging in the last presidential election in 2017.

Brazils ag-tech boom. The number of agricultural technology firms in Brazil grew by 40 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to government research. Agricultural technology can range from artificial intelligence-based precision farming to lab-raised, pest-eating organisms.

The Financial Times looked at the companies dominating the growing field, including Rizoma Agro, a large organic grain grower that focuses on carbon sequestration (the process of storing carbon dioxide so it does not enter the atmosphere). Last month, Brazil and Chile became the first countries to approve Bovaer, an additive to cow food that reduces cattle-made methane emissions.

Flexing on Mercosur. On Oct. 8, Argentina and Brazil proposed the Southern Common Market trade bloc, known as Mercosurwhose other members include Paraguay and Uruguayto reduce its shared tariff on all incoming goods by 10 percent. Mercosur tariffs currently average around 13 percent depending on the type of product, according to Brazils Ministry of the Economy.

The proposal came after vocal arguments from Uruguay earlier this year that the blocs resistance to change is holding back members trade relations with other countries. Uruguay has flirted with breaking the blocs rules entirely to form a bilateral trade pact with China.

Conflict in Chile. Chilean President Sebastin Piera declared a state of emergency and deployed troops to four provinces in the countrys south in response to a string of arson attacks against forestry and transportation infrastructure. Many such attacks in recent months have been claimed by supporters of Mapuche Indigenous groups, which have long disputed ownership to ancestral lands in the region.

Latin Americas largest economies continue to march forward with COVID-19 inoculations. But several poorer countries, including Haiti, are still suffering dramatic vaccine shortages.

As of Oct. 10, what percent of Haitis population had received at least one jab?

Less than 1 percent

Less than 3 percent

Less than 5 percent

Less than 10 percent

As Haiti experiences a security crisis and political upheaval, a Haitian health ministry source told news agency EFEthat the country will return around 250,000 vaccines sent by the United Nations COVAX mechanism because it does not have the capacity to administer the shots before they expire on Nov. 6. COVAX is slated to make a replacement delivery in the future.

In Focus: The Economics of Migration

The mass outflow of Cuban migrants to the United States in 1980a phenomenon known as the Mariel boatliftfigures into the body of research that earned University of California, Berkeley, economist David Card this years Nobel Prize in economics.

In 1990, Card wrote an influential paper that looked at how relatively unskilled migrants sudden arrivalspurred by economic troubles at home and new permissions to leave issued by then-Cuban President Fidel Castroaffected wages and unemployment rates in Miami. Counterintuitively, Card found that a 7 percent expansion of the labor market had virtually no effect on wages or unemployment for low-skilled, non-Cuban workers.

The paper was one example of how Card and his fellow prizewinners, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens, helped mainstream the use of so-called natural experiments in economics. Such experiments consider events that, due to a fluke or policy change, resemble the conditions of a controlled trial. The fact that they unfold in messy, real-world conditions can make conclusions more challenging to pinpoint, leading some economists to scorn them in past decades.

Cards workand the methods behind ithelped inspire further research into immigration policies and their effects on labor markets worldwide. In one example, a paper by Michael Clemens, Ethan Lewis, and Hannah Postel found that the 1964 termination of the Bracero programwhich had granted U.S. guest-worker permissions for Mexicans in the agricultural sector for more than two decadesdid not substantially impact U.S. wages or employment levels, as policymakers had intended.

The growing body of evidence-based research on migration and labor markets is a boon to debates that are often heavy on assumptions and light on facts. Card and his colleagues work is known in economics circles as the credibility revolution.

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US and Mexico Are Ending the Mrida Initiative, Overhauling Security Cooperation - Foreign Policy

Photo:Shawn Brackbill

The War On Drugs have shared a clip of a new song.

The band took to Instagram to tease the untitled track, revealing that it would arrive on October 29, the same date their first album in four years is set to arrive through Atlantic Records, 'I Don't Live Here Anymore'.

They've already unveiled two cuts from the LP,Living Proof and its title track. They'll support it with previously announcedtour dates in North America, the UK and Europe in 2022. Tickets are on sale now.

The War On Drugs Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows

Tue March 22 2022 - HELSINKI Ice Hall (Finland)Thu March 24 2022 - STOCKHOLM Annexet (Sweden)Sun March 27 2022 - OSLO Sentrum Scene (Norway)Mon March 28 2022 - OSLO Sentrum Scene (Norway)Wed March 30 2022 - COPENHAGEN KB Hallen (Denmark)Thu March 31 2022 - COPENHAGEN KB Hallen (Denmark)Sat April 02 2022 - BERLIN Verti Music Hall (Germany)Mon April 04 2022 - ZURICH Halle 622 (Switzerland)Tue April 05 2022 - MILAN Alcatraz (Italy)Thu April 07 2022 - MUNICH Zenith (Germany)Sat April 09 2022 - PARIS Olympia (France)

Mon April 11 2022 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy BirminghamTue April 12 2022 - LONDON O2 ArenaThu April 14 2022 - DUBLIN 3ArenaSat April 16 2022 - LEEDS first direct ArenaSun April 17 2022 - EDINBURGH Edinburgh Corn ExchangeMon April 18 2022 - EDINBURGH Corn Exchange

Wed April 20 2022 - COLOGNE Palladium (Germany)Thu April 21 2022 - WIESBADEN Schlachthof (Germany)Fri April 22 2022 - AMSTERDAM Ziggo Dome (Netherlands)Sat April 23 2022 - ANTWERP Sportpalais (Belgium)

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The War On Drugs Continue To Tease 'I Don't Live Here Anymore' With Clip Of New Track - Stereoboard

There's a drug war on TV. It has nothing to do with cocaine or heroin but does involve an addiction the pharmaceutical industry's compulsion to charge Americans an average 3.4 times more for brand-name drugs than people in other countries pay. Step 1 in the rehab program is to let Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices.

The drug makers, represented by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the main industry lobbying group, are running scare ads where seniors fret that they'd be denied lifesaving drugs if Congress applies brakes on what they can charge Medicare. In opposition, the leading interest group for older Americans is sponsoring ads in support of price negotiations. The AARP insists its elderly members would still get the drugs they need, pay lower premiums and get new benefits.

The AARP is right. Most Democrats agree, and so did Donald Trump when he first ran for president.

"We are not allowed to negotiate drug prices. Can you believe it?" candidate Trump said in 2016. "We pay about $300 billion more than we are supposed to, than if we negotiated the price. So there's $300 billion on Day One we solve."

Upon getting elected, Trump made a top drug-company executive head of Health and Human Services, and the campaign promise vanished. But we can now update his figure on savings to at least $450 billion over 10 years, based on Congressional Budget Office numbers.

Most of those savings wouldn't leave the Medicare program but, as the budget plan says, go to providing dental, hearing and vision coverage. And beneficiaries would enjoy a $14 billion cut in their Part D premiums by 2029, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Then there are the taxpayers. General revenues that is, federal income taxes cover 71% of the costs of Medicare Part D, and states another 12%.

This proposal hardly starves the pharmaceutical companies of revenues. It would cap the prices charged Medicare at 120% of those paid in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. In other words, we could still be paying more than these otherrichcountries. The difference is that drug makers could no longer gouge Americans with impunity.

The proposed Medicare cap would have reduced U.S. spending on insulin and 50 top brand-name drugs by 52% during 2020 a savings of $83.5 billion, according to a RAND Corporation report. (The Veterans Administration has long negotiated prices and pays 54% less for drugs than does Medicare.)

PhRMA's public relations department recently wrote that efforts to stop drug makers from charging the federal health insurance program for the elderly whatever they want "should enrage every senior who relies on Medicare for their life-saving medicines."

Actually, they're not enraged. An AARP survey finds that 87% of Americans 50 and older support letting Medicare negotiate drug prices. And nearly 90% of the general public wants it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

One PhRMA ad falsely claims that politicians will "decide which medicines you can and can't get." The budget bill does no such thing. It would not require a prescription drug formulary. Insurers offering Medicare drug plans would still decide what drugs to cover. The negotiations would apply to only a few drugs that account for the highest spending and that lack generic competitors.

Lawmakers intent on protecting the drug-pricing racket include some Democrats. What most have in common with like-minded Republicans is open palms at the bottom of Big Pharma's money chute.

At some point, Americans will stop playing the world's suckers. Letting Medicare negotiate drug prices would be a fine place to start recovering our self-respect.

Froma Harrop's column is distributed by Creators Syndicate.

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We can stop being the world's suckers on drug prices - theday.com

Theres a drug war on TV. It has nothing to do with cocaine or heroin but does involve an addiction the pharmaceutical industrys compulsion to charge Americans an average 3.4 times more for brand-name drugs than people in other countries pay. Step 1 in the rehab program is to let Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices.

The drug makers, represented by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the main industry lobbying group, are running scare ads where seniors fret that theyd be denied lifesaving drugs if Congress applies brakes on what they can charge Medicare. In opposition, the leading interest group for older Americans is sponsoring ads in support of price negotiations. The AARP insists its elderly members would still get the drugs they need, pay lower premiums and get new benefits.

The AARP is right. Most Democrats agree, and so did Donald Trump when he first ran for president.

We are not allowed to negotiate drug prices. Can you believe it? candidate Trump said in 2016. We pay about $300 billion more than we are supposed to, than if we negotiated the price. So theres $300 billion on Day One we solve.

Upon getting elected, Trump made a top drug-company executive head of Health and Human Services, and the campaign promise vanished. But we can now update his figure on savings to at least $450 billion over 10 years, based on Congressional Budget Office numbers.

This proposal hardly starves the pharmaceutical companies of revenues. It would cap the prices charged Medicare at 120% of those paid in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. In other words, we could still be paying more than these other rich countries. The difference is that drug makers could no longer gouge Americans with impunity.

The proposed Medicare cap would have reduced U.S. spending on insulins and 50 top brand-name drugs by 52% during 2020 a savings of $83.5 billion, according to a RAND Corporation report. (The Veterans Administration has long negotiated prices and pays 54% less for drugs than does Medicare.)

PhRMAs public relations department recently wrote that efforts to stop drug makers from charging the federal health insurance program for the elderly whatever they want should enrage every senior who relies on Medicare for their life-saving medicines.

Actually, theyre not enraged. An AARP survey finds that 87% of Americans 50 and older support letting Medicare negotiate drug prices. And nearly 90% of the general public wants it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

Lawmakers intent on protecting the drug-pricing racket include some Democrats. What most have in common with like-minded Republicans is open palms at the bottom of Big Pharmas money chute.

At some point, Americans will stop playing the worlds suckers. Letting Medicare negotiate drug prices would be a fine place to start recovering our self-respect.

Froma Harrop is a writer and author. She is best known for her bi-weekly syndicated column. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.

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Stop being the world's suckers on drug prices - News-Press Now