Category Archives: War On Drugs

GUWAHATI: Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Kamrup (M) and Kamrup police on Sunday seized a huge consignment of heroin from Sijubari under Hatigaon police station here.

The contraband drugs seized from a vehicle have been valued at Rs 3.5 crore in the grey market.

However, the drug peddlers, carrying the heroin, managed to escape even though the police opened fire to stop them.

According to the police, the heroin weighing 500 grams, originated in Manipur and was to be delivered in Kamrup district.

The recovery of the drugs was linked to a previous haul.

It needs mention that Guwahati has become a hotbed of smuggling of narcotic drugs. Narcotic drugs and other contraband items are often smuggled to other parts of the country through the city, which is often referred to as the gateway to the northeast.

Also Read: Assam on way to becoming another Kashmir, say media reports; Himanta dismisses

On August 29, Guwahati police had seized 1.75 kg of heroin from two different places and arrested six drug peddlers. The seized heroin was valued at Rs 14 crore in the grey market.

On September 2, the city police had arrested two drug dealers and seized over 2.5 kg of heroin, valued at Rs 17.5 crore, from their possession.

The Assam government led by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has launched a war on drugs, to free the state from its menace.

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Heroin smuggling continues unabated in Assam despite the state govts war on drugs - Prag News

Police had more than a passing interest in the Kahu when they pinpointed the former navy patrol boat floating off south Devon 10 days ago.

It was escorted into Plymouth, and officers found more than 2,000kg of cocaine hidden within its 37-metre hull. For investigators, its cargo confirmed a troubling trend.

Until relatively recently, such enormous seizures were considered almost unthinkable by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Yet the Kahus illicit freight is not even its biggest cocaine find this year.

Lawrence Gibbons, drug threat lead for the NCA and an investigator who has monitored the shifting dynamics of the global narcotics trade for the past 40 years, said the haul underlined a tendency for increased risk-taking by organised crime groups (OCGs), an impulse that meant the size of single cocaine shipments has steadily grown. What you dont read about these days is our 100, 200, 300kg seizures because theyre almost run of the mill, said Gibbons.

Ten years ago, Id have been over the moon if I was the SIO [senior investigating officer] for a 200kg job. In fact, I was the SIO for a 230kg find about a decade ago and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

The Kahus illegal consignment may have ramifications far beyond the six men charged over the 160m haul. Experts say the seizure should preempt a more honest discourse on the UKs war on drugs. In particular, they point to a recent announcement by the home secretary, Priti Patel, in which she urges police forces to make an example out of middle-class cocaine users by naming and shaming them.

Policy analysts say Patels promised middle-class crackdown is facile, ignoring the reality of what the size of the Kahu haul tells us. Cocaine, they say, is not a middle-class drug. Every stratum of British society frequently uses cocaine.

Jan Gerber, who runs the Paracelsus Recovery addiction clinics in London and Zurich, has closely observed how cocaine has become normalised in all societal groupings. Its moved down the socio-economic scale. A demographic of people who, in the past, wouldnt have been associated with cocaine use are regular users, he said.

Gerber added: Cocaines become very normal, people are less afraid they will be judged or criminally implicated by offering it.

Ian Hamilton, a senior lecturer in addiction and mental health at the University of York, goes further, believing that cocaine can be categorised as a working-class narcotic. Anecdotally, I hear of all sorts of people using it; builders, plumbers, joiners, whoever.

Cocaine, he says, has undergone a radical brand transformation that the government is choosing to overlook. Im old enough to remember yuppies in the 1980s that image stayed with cocaine for a while. Newer generations dont have that baggage, or perception. Also, they havent experienced crack cocaine in the same way as people did in the 80s and 90s.

Its so widely used that its now no longer seen as risky. The way its framed for most people is that its a bit of a treat.

A cursory scan of newspaper stories from the past week confirms cocaines reach. Convictions include a Lancashire tree surgeon, a former footballer in the Scottish Highlands and, 500 miles south in Oxfordshire, a semi-professional player caught storing cocaine in his grandmothers house. Elsewhere, a mother from Sunderland was found carrying a bag of cocaine and, in the same city, a 34-year-old quality control manager was caught with the substance following disorder in a pub.

Even the nations troops are unable to resist. On Wednesday, it emerged that 1,700 military personnel have tested positive for the class-A drug over the past three years.

For many, the realisation that cocaine is a drug of the masses arrived during Julys Euro 2020 final at Wembley. Numerous social media clips showed supporters snorting white powder on trains, outside the stadium and in its seats. Police said the images reflected cocaines growing use in wider society.

Elsewhere, officers like Gibbons have observed how South Americas supply chain has responded to domestic demand. The NCAs latest strategic threat assessment estimates the cocaine market across England, Scotland and Wales is worth more than 25.7m daily. Consumption is believed to be 117 tonnes per year, an increase of at least 290% in the past decade.

Of the 1,716 OCGs involved in UK drug supply, most receive cocaine via shipping container, although yachts like the Kahu remain a persistent threat.

Several key elements are driving powdered cocaines popularity. The first is affordability. The drugs street price has largely remained stable for years as wholesale prices per kilo have fallen. Its become more affordable; relative to income, its a very good value drug, said Hamilton.

The second factor is quality. Purity has soared over the past decade, attracting a new generation of users. Gibbons led Operation Kitley, which ironically helped improve the quality of cocaine after it criminalised the import of cutting agents, such as benzocaine, in 2015.

Previously, a two-tier market existed, with poor quality cocaine its purity was as low as between 3-9% sold at a cheaper price. That competed against a more expensive product with higher purity of around 30%.

Gibbons says that street cocaine is now uniformly around 60% purity. More people will buy a better product. And, like any business model, demand generates supply, said the investigator. Gerber says that dealers brag about offering cocaine with high purity levels to secure word-of-mouth referrals.

Another variable is accessibility. Cocaine is ordered and delivered like pizza these days, usually by moped with transactions arranged through end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp.

Andrew Noor, head of trends and analysis at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, said: Its more readily available. The fact is, you cant take the drug if its not available. His agency found that more young adults in Britain took cocaine in 2018 than anywhere else in Europe, according to the latest data available.

There are also cultural reasons why the UK has embraced cocaine so readily. Something that gets lost a little bit is how well cocaine and alcohol go together. Cocaine as a stimulant facilitates longer drinking, and alcohol is well embedded in our society, so you get word-of-mouth recommendations, which is really how cocaine popularity is spread, said Hamilton. But, of course, there is a dark side. Reports of addiction referrals are up, with cocaine deaths increasing for the eighth year running. The rate of cocaine-related deaths among women has increased by more than 800% in the last 10 years, data reveals.

On top of this, Gibbons says, there is the unrelenting knife crime and county lines violence associated with cocaine, along with the misery, brutality and extortion within the South American source countries.

Fifty years after US president Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs, many British experts despair that the UK government remains fixated on middle-class cocaine use.

Laura Garius, policy lead for Release, the national centre of expertise on drugs and UK drugs law, said: The governments plan is not going to work. Firstly, we know that cocaine use is not confined to a particular socio-economic group and, secondly, we know that the criminalisation of people who use drugs has no real deterrent effect on use.

This tired tough on drugs rhetoric is a distraction from the failings of current drug policy, added Garius.

In the immediate future, most observers expect current drug policy to result in ever greater cocaine consumption. Release added that supply-chain issues with cocaines party drug rival MDMA had left cocaine in an even stronger position.

Since the second national lockdown, we have seen an increase in the popularity of cocaine purchasing, and with disruptions to the MDMA market, we might expect to see this increase continue, said Garius.

Hamilton says: During the pandemic, stimulant use went down but, as things are opening back up, theres likely to be a surge, he said.

Away from the nightclubs and bars, Gibbons and his fellow investigators will continue to scan the UKs shipping channels. Theres no doubt another cocaine-carrying yacht like the Kahu will soon be on its way. The only question is when.

Read more here:

Cocaine, the yuppie drug? Not now, say experts its lure is crossing all classes - The Guardian

Here is a song that will make you long to be back in a concrete arena filled with 20,000 new friends, singing together in a way that makes you think, if only for a moment, that humanity might not be swirling toward total catastrophe. You can feel the stick on the soles of your feet just by listening to this thing. You can smell the frankfurters. Its the type of anthem that makes one of those $18 Budweisers in a commemorative plastic cup seem like a damn bargaina small price to pay to briefly heighten some sense of communion after a year and a half of pandemic seclusion.

Everything about the title track to the War on Drugs upcoming fifth album is gloriously unsubtle, including its opening lines. I was lying in my bed/A creature void of form, sings bandleader Adam Granduciel, nodding to Dylan. Been so afraid of everything/I need a chance to be reborn. And honestly, who doesnt feel like that right now? Cue the synths reminiscent of Don Henleys Boys of Summer, the drums sparkling enough to make 80s stadium-rock guru Mutt Lange bow down in appreciation, and the gospel-tinged backing vocals that urge you to believe in something beyond yourself. Granduciel has been meticulously mining classic rock sounds for more than a decade, but never quite like this; his Springsteen fandom is well-documented (his young son is named Bruce) but hes never made a song as welcoming as Hungry Heart until now.

I Dont Live Here Anymore celebrates getting to the point in life when youre no longer drowning in waves of old memories but surfing atop them. The title is not a lament but a point of pride. Amid a daydreaming verse, Granduciel wonders, Is life just dying in slow motion/Or getting stronger everyday? Then a cascade of toms and guitars give way to the majestic hook, and the answer could not be clearer.

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Listen to I Don't Live Here Anymore by The War on Drugs - Pitchfork

14 Best Songs of Week: The War on Drugs, Hatchie, Sam Evian, Magdalena Bay, and MorePlus Tonstartssbandht, Snail Mail, My Morning Jacket, Coco, Ducks Ltd., and a Wrap-up of the Weeks Other Notable New Tracks

Sep 17, 2021By Mark Redfern (with Joey Arnone)

Welcome to the 35th Songs of the Week of 2021. It was a blockbuster week for new songs, with lots of strong contenders. We tried to show a bit of restraint and keep it to an already over-stuffed Top 12, but then we just went for it with a Top 14. I mean, whose going to tell us we cant pick 14 favorite songs? Its our website and we have no corporate overlords.

In the last week we posted interviews with Madi Diaz and Jos Gonzlez.

In the last week we also reviewed a bunch of albums.

To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 14 best the last week had to offer, along with highlighting other notable new tracks shared in the last seven days. Check out the full list below.

1. The War on Drugs: I Dont Live Here Anymore (Feat. Lucius)

The War on Drugs are releasing a new album, I Dont Live Here Anymore, on October 29 via Atlantic. On Wednesday they shared its second single, I Dont Live Here Anymore, which features backing vocals from Lucius and has a big bold 1980s rock sound. It was shared via an Emmett Malloy-directed video that features the band performing the song on a rooftop with the downtown Los Angeles skyline behind them (which is also very 1980s), among other things.

Previously The War on Drugs shared the albums first single, album opener Living Proof, via a video for it. Living Proof was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Then they remotely performed Living Proof on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

I Dont Live Here Anymore is the follow-up to 2017s A Deeper Understanding (which won the 2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album and was our #1 album of 2017), although in 2020 they released a live album, simply titled LIVE DRUGS, via frontman Adam Granduciels own Super High Quality Records.

Sessions for the album began in early 2018, when Granduciel, bassist Dave Hartley, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca recorded some demos in Upstate New York, including early versions of some of the songs on I Dont Live Here Anymore. But the album was recorded during more than 12 sessions, in seven studios (including Electric Lady in New York and Los Angeles Sound City), and over three years, with co-producer/engineer Shawn Everett helping to guide the ship. Living Proof was recorded in May 2019 at Los Angeles Electro-Vox studios with the bands entire lineupwith the aforementioned members joined by keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, and saxophonist Jon Natchez. A press release says that Granduciel puts War on Drugs records together like a kind of rock n roll jigsaw puzzle.

Read our review of A Deeper Understanding here.

Read our interview with the band about making A Deeper Understanding.

Read our interview with Adam Granduciel on recording A Deeper Understanding.

2. Hatchie: This Enchanted

On Tuesday Hatchie, the dream pop project of Australian musician Harriette Pilbeam, shared a new song, This Enchanted, via a video for it. It is her first single for Secretly Canadian and her signing with the label was also announced on Tuesday. This Enchanted again finds Hatchie ably putting a modern spin on early 90s shoegaze music, producing a song thats at once pleasing to old school fans of the genre but is also accessible to contemporary listeners with no proven affinity for shoegazers. The video finds Pilbeam wandering around a city at night while wearing angel wings, as well as showing her performing the song with her band.

This Enchanted is Hatchies first single since the 2019 release of her acclaimed debut album, Keepsake, which came out via Double Double Whammy. The song came together in February 2020, while Pilbeam and her romantic partner, and Hatchie guitarist, Joe Agius (who also releases music as RINSE) were writing in Los Angeles and working with producer Jorge Elbrecht (Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast, Wild Nothing).

Pilbeam had this to say about the song in a press release: This Enchanted encapsulates everything I wanted to do moving forward from my first album. I started writing it with Jorge and Joe in February 2020 and completed it from afar in lockdown later in the year. We had been talking about making something dancey but shoegaze.

Its one of the more lighthearted, lyrically vague songs of my new recordings about falling in love; its not a perfect relationship, but youre enthralled by one another and its an easy love. Its one of the most fun songs Ive written, so it was a no-brainer to pick it as my first solo release in almost two years. It feels so right to be working with a label as exciting as Secretly as I step into new territory with Hatchie. Ive been counting down the days until its release for a long time.

Read our rave 8.5/10 review of Keepsake here.

Read our 2018 interview with Hatchie on her EP Sugar & Spice.

Read our My Favorite Album interview with Hatchie on Carole Kings Tapestry.

3. Sam Evian: Time to Melt

Sam Evian is releasing a new album, Time to Melt, on October 29 via Fat Possum. On Monday he shared its second single, title track Time to Melt, via a trippy video for it. John TerEick directed the video, in which Evian meets an alien in the woods. It was filmed in the woods near Evians house.

Evian had this to say about the song in a press release: If youre familiar with tarot, I think of it as pulling the death card in a positive way. Its like facing the idea of death, which I think everyone thought about a lot this past year, maybe more than usual collectively.

He had this to add about the video: I met a lonely alien in the woods and they taught me a jig. As the night went on they convinced me to try huffing some special kind of bug spray, which opened a wormhole vortex to another dimension.

Previously Evian shared Time to Melts first single, Knock Knock, via a video for it. Knock Knock was one of our Songs of the Week.

Evian recorded the album in his own studio, Flying Cloud Recordings, in a Catskills town in Upstate New York, where he lives with his romantic partner, fellow musician Hannah Cohen after decamping from New York City. The album was recorded during the pandemic and it features Cohen, as well as remote contributions from Spencer Tweedy, Chris Bear, and Jon Natchez (The War on Drugs).

Evians last album was 2018s You, Forever.

On tour Evian will be joined by Brian Betancourt (bass), Michael Coleman (keys), Sean Mullins (drums), and Liam Kazar (guitar, synths).

4. Magdalena Bay: You Lose!

Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay (aka Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin) are releasing their debut full-length album, Mercurial World, on October 8 via Luminelle. On Wednesday they shared its third single, You Lose!, via an amusing video that features the band having a series of unfortunate events, such as losing the ice cream off a cone or running out of toilet paper.

In a joint press release statement the band say the new single is about trying to be a musician and feeling like time for success is always running out. Its definitely melodramatic, describing ourselves as aging and nearing death, but sometimes it really feels that way.

Previously the band shared the albums first single, Chaeri, via a video. Chaeri was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, Secrets (Your Fire), via a fun video that features the band getting sucked into a computer. Secrets (Your Fire) was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

Mercurial World is the follow-up to 2020s A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling EP. The band wrote, produced, and recorded the album themselves.

We spend all of our time together, and in some ways Mercurial World is about that particular sense of madness in containment, Lewin said in a previous press release. We live together and make art together; this immerses you in our creative, insular universe.

5. Tonstartssbandht: What Has Happened

This week Tonstartssbandht (the brother duo of Edwin and Andy White) announced the release of their 18th album, Petunia, which will be out on October 22 via Mexican Summer. They subsequently shared a Case Mahan-directed video for the albums lead single, What Has Happened. Check out the albums tracklist and cover art here.

Mahan states in a press release regarding the new video: We shot a couple hundred feet of Super 8 in the hot Orlando sun. That nocturnal bird that showed up midday gave us permission to film a heavy subject on a beautiful afternoon. Not premeditated, everything seemed to fall into place much like the bands performances that are sometimes seemingly improvised.

The vast majority of Petunia was written and recorded by the duo at their home studio in Orlando between April and August 2020. It was mixed by Joseph Santarpia and Roberto Pagano at The Idiot Room in San Francisco.

The bands previous album, Sorcerer, came out in 2017 via Mexican Summer. By Joey Arnone

6. My Morning Jacket: Love Love Love

My Morning Jacket are releasing a new self-titled album on October 22 via ATO. On Tuesday they shared its second single, Love Love Love, which features a simple but universal message: The more you give yeah/The more you get now/Go tell it to the world. It was shared via a vibrant George Mays-directed video.

Previously My Morning Jacket shared the albums first single, Regularly Scheduled Programming, via a video for it. Regularly Scheduled Programming also made our Songs of the Week list.

My Morning Jackets frontman Jim James had this to say about Love Love Love in a press release: Love Love Love is trying to steer the ship away from everything Im talking about in Regularly Scheduled Programming, and speak toward positivity and pure love, finding truth within yourself and in the world around you.

James produced and engineered My Morning Jacket over two multi-week sessions at Los Angeles, CAs 64 Sound. A press release says that the band almost called it quits prior to recording the album, but were inspired by performing four shows in summer 2019, in particular two nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, that encouraged them to make a new album and keep going as a band.

I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since weve all been cooped up for so long, said James in a previous press release. I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that were able to be a part of peoples lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that were still around to keep doing that.

My Morning Jacket released a new album, The Waterfall II, just last year via ATO after announcing it only a few days earlier. The album was the long-awaited follow-up to 2015s The Waterfall and was recorded at the same time as that album. When The Waterfall was released it was said to be part one of a two-part album and five years later they delivered on that promise. While no pre-release singles from the album were shared, when the album was released Feel You and Wasted both made our Songs of the Week list.

My Morning Jacket are currently on their first full on headline tour in five years. The band are partnering with PLUS1 so that $1.00 from every ticket will go to support non-profits working for environmental justice, racial equity, and securing access to mental health care for all.

In 2019, James released The Order of Nature, a new live album recorded with The Louisville Orchestra in collaboration with conductor/arranger/composer Teddy Abrams, via Decca Gold.

Read our interview with Jim James on the 2018 midterm elections.

Read our review of The Waterfall.

Read our interview with My Morning Jacket on The Waterfall.

7. Snail Mail: Valentine

On Wednesday Snail Mail (aka Lindsey Jordan) announced the release of her sophomore studio album, Valentine, which will be out on November 5 via Matador. Jordan also shared a new Josh Coll-directed video for the albums title track and announced a new 2021/2022 tour. Check out the albums tracklist and cover art, as well as the list of tour dates, here. The video is age restricted and can only be watched on YouTube, so weve also included the basic audio of the song.

Jordan speaks about the new album in a press release, stating: I wanted to take as much time as possible with this record to make sure I was happy with every detail before unleashing it unto yall. Referring to the process as the deepest level of catharsis and therapy I have ever experienced would be a huge understatement. Valentine is my child!

She adds, regarding the Valentine video: It was so rewarding concocting this video alongside the brilliant Josh Coll! Watching a few perverse images in my head metamorphose into this gorgeous storyline and eventually into a tangible visual was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. We connected over a mutual interest in the intersection between terror and devastating beauty. But also Tim and Eric and watered down ginger ale, which I had to drink a shocking amount of in those drink-bombing scenes.

Valentine was written and produced by Jordan and co-produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). Jordans debut album as Snail Mail, Lush, came out in 2018.

Read our interview with Snail Mail on Lush. By Joey Arnone

8. Coco: Come Along

This week Coco, a trio consisting of Maia Freedman (Dirty Projectors), Dan Molad (Lucius), and Oliver Hill (Pavo Pavo), shared a video for their new single titled Come Along. It is the latest release from their forthcoming self-titled debut studio album, which will be out on October 29 via First City Artists/Awal.

The band states in a press release: The skeleton of Come Along was recorded live, all together, with Oliver on guitar, Maia on drums, and Danny on bass. The underlying chord loop plays throughout as other instruments are weaved in one by one, picking up momentum and rolling forward as everything joins in harmony. The video mimics the song in this way, portraying our individual days-in-the-life with each of us filming one another on handheld camcorders. The day culminates in our first performance together as Coco, at a house show in Olivers garage with our friends as backing band. When it all came together we were pleased with the juxtaposition of the comically low fidelity and fast-paced editing, like a homemade action movie. Just as releasing music anonymously felt natural in 2020, it now feels natural to share ourselves and delight in the connection we make with our listeners.

Last year, Dirty Projectors shared an EP anthology album, 5EPs, via Domino. By Joey Arnone

9. Still Corners: Heavy Days

On Tuesday Still Corners shared a new single titled Heavy Days. The duo also announced a new 2022 U.S. tour in tandem with a set of rescheduled Europe dates. Check out the tour dates here.

Frontwoman Tessa Murray talks about the new song in a press release, stating: Sometimes it all feels like too much, theres a lot to take in reading the news all the time. We wanted to write a reminder to put the phone down now and again and get out there and live life to the fullest while you can.

The bands most recent album, The Last Exit, came out earlier this year on their own Wrecking Light label. By Joey Arnone

10. Ducks Ltd.: Under the Rolling Moon (Feat. The Beths)

Toronto-based duo Ducks Ltd. are releasing their debut full-length album, Modern Fiction, on October 1 via Carpark. On Tuesday they shared its third single, Under the Rolling Moon, which features backing vocals from labelmates The Beths. It was shared via a video featuring the band in a Hearse in the desert. Ambar Navarro and Max Flick directed the video and they were aiming for the feel of a low to mid budget video from 1985, such as some of the videos by The Cure.

The band features Evan Lewis on lead guitar and Tom McGreevy on vocals and rhythm guitar.

Under the Rolling Moon is about trying to be there for a friend who is in a moment of crisis, says McGreevy in a press release. Some of the frustration maybe of witnessing someone elses extremely recognizable self-defeating behavior, but mostly just the feeling of caring for them, knowing they can be ok and hoping that they can find their way to seeing that.

Previously the band shared its first single, 18 Cigarettes, via a video for it. 18 Cigarettes was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, How Lonely Are You?, which features labelmates The Beths. How Lonely Are You? also landed on our Songs of the Week list.

Modern Fiction follows their Get Bleak EP, which was originally put out in 2019 and given an expanded reissue by Carpark this past May. It included the new song, As Big As All Outside.

Producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) put finishing touches on the album and Carpark labelmates The Beths did backing harmonies on three of the albums songs. 18 Cigarettes features Eliza Neimi on cello.

11. Absolutely Free: Remaining Light

Torontos Absolutely Free are releasing a new album, Aftertouch, on September 24 via Boiled Records. This week they shared its second single, the Pink Floyd-esque Remaining Light.

The band collectively had this to say about the new single in a press release: Remaining Light expresses the frustration felt towards invincible and corrupt institutions that uphold structural inequities, including police brutality and manufactured poverty experienced primarily by racialized communities. Written during a heat wave in the summer of 2016, the song dishearteningly remains as relevant as ever today.

Previously Absolutely Free shared the albums first single, How to Paint Clouds, via a video for it made via an AI system.

Aftertouch is the bands first full-length album in seven years. Jorge Elbrecht produced the album, which a press release describes as such: Culling from a myriad of influences that span Krautrock, New Wave, the proliferation of international psychedelic and funk compilations, and early forms of electronic dance music, Absolutely Free has created a patina of disparate but harmonic styles distinctly its own.

Aftertouch follows the bands excellent 2019 EP, Geneva Freeport. That EPs first single, Currency (Extended Mix), which featured U.S. Girls (aka Meghan Remy), was one of our Songs of the Week. Its title track also made our Songs of the Week list, as did The Endless Scroll.

Absolutely Free havent released a full-length album since their 2014-released self-titled debut album. The bands core lineup is Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg, Michael Claxton, and Matt King.

12. Makthaverskan: This Time

This week Swedish post-punk band Makthaverskan announced the release of their fourth studio album, Fr Allting, which will be out on November 12 via Run For Cover. They also shared the albums lead single, This Time. Check out the albums tracklist and cover art here.

Fr Allting features production by Hannes Ferm (HOLY), as well as the incorporation of drum machines and synthesizers, something previously not used by the band. Guitarist Hugo Randulv states in a press release: When we started the songwriting process for this album, I think we all were pretty determined to take the music in a new direction. Not necessarily that we would sound different, but to work on the songs using somewhat different methods than before. For our previous albums, we wrote the songs in our rehearsal space and pretty much recorded them the way they were. For this album, we intended the songs to be finalized in the studio and left some more room to work with.

The bands most recent album, III, came out in 2017 via Luxury/Run For Cover. By Joey Arnone

13. Marissa Nadler: If I Could Breathe Underwater (Feat. Mary Lattimore)

Marissa Nadler is releasing a new album, The Path of the Clouds, on October 29 via Sacred Bones and Bella Union. On Tuesday she shared its second single, If I Could Breathe Underwater, via a video for the song that fittingly features Nadler underwater. The song features harp playing from Mary Lattimore, a longtime friend of Nadlers. Jenni Hensler directed the video, which was partially shot with 16mm film camera.

Nadler had this to say in a press release: When I wrote If I Could Breathe Underwater, I was contemplating the possibilities of possessing various superhuman powers: teleportation, shapeshifting, energy projection, aquatic breathing, extrasensory perception, and time travel to name a few. As a lyrical device, I married those powers with events in my life, wondering if and how they could change the past or predict the future. I loved working on the melody for this song and bringing the choruses to their climaxes. Marys layered, hallucinatory shimmers really echo the netherworld of the story.

Hensler had this to say about the video: This song took on many meanings to me and I love that about it. How beauty and tragedy collide. Dreaming of having supernatural powers to change reality and have the ability to live and breathe underwater. It could also speak to the duality of existence. That we all have inner personas or shadow selves, and how we envision those different masks we wear. I chose to make something that touched on the idea of duality and the inner persona. To connect to the two worlds.

Previously Nadler shared the albums first single, Bessie, Did You Make It?, via a video for it. Bessie, Did You Make It? was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Nadler wrote and recorded the album during the pandemic and was partially inspired by binging reruns of Unsolved Mysteries as she began to notice parallels between many of its stories and her own life, as a press release puts it. On The Path of the Clouds she worked with various collaborators, including Mary Lattimore, Simon Raymonde (of Cocteau Twins and Lost Horizons and the head of Bella Union), multi-instrumentalist Milky Burgess, Jesse Chandler (Nadlers piano teacher and a member of Mercury Rev and Midlake), Emma Ruth Rundle, and Black Mountains Amber Webber. Seth Manchester (Lingua Ignota, Battles, and Lightning Bolt) mixed the album.

Nadlers last album was 2018s For My Crimes.

14. Dean Wareham: Cashing In

Dean Wareham (of Luna, Galaxie 500, and Dean & Britta) is releasing a new solo album, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A., on October 15 via Double Feature. Today he shared its next single, Cashing In, in which Wareham sings Im not selling out/Im cashing in. Leanna Kaiser directed the accompanying video.

Wareham had this to say about the new single in a press release: Musically I was inspired by Michael Rothers great, late-70s instrumental guitar records. And also by Peter Hook; I played the new Hooky 6-string bass I bought last year, its a big part of that early New Order sound.

Previously Wareham shared the albums first single, The Past Is Our Plaything, via a video for it. The Past Is Our Plaything was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Warehams last solo album was 2014s Dean Wareham but since then hes kept busy, including doing the soundtrack for Mistress America with his wife, Britta Phillips, and reuniting and touring with Luna.

The hard thing is just to start, Wareham says of the gap between solo albums. When I sat down and did it, the songs came pretty quickly.

Papercuts Jason Quever produced and played on the album, which also features Phillips on bass, vocals, and keys, and Roger Brogan on drums.

In terms of the albums title, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A., and what he would say if he actually met the mayor of Los Angeles, where Wareham and Phillips have been based since 2013, Wareham responds: Its gonna happen. But the answer is right there tooI have nothing to say.

Read more:

14 Best Songs of Week: The War on Drugs, Hatchie, Sam Evian, Magdalena Bay, and More - Under the Radar Mag

American indie rock band The War On Drugs have unveiled the title track for their upcoming fifth studio album I Dont Live Here Anymore.

The track features Lucius vocalists Jess Wolfeand Holly Laessig backing up lead vocalist Adam Granducie during the choruses. The song itself is a dreamy mix of synths and guitars. Sounding quite a bit like the background music in The Breakfast Club, the amount of echo and gated reverb on the track is prime 1980s territory.

The band had previously mentioned that the LP would be an uncommon rock album about one of our most common but daunting processesresilience in the face of despair. Were starting to get a clearer picture of what thats going to look like, and good news: it comes with Bob Dylan references!

When we went to see Bob Dylan/We danced to Desolation Row/But I dont live here anymore/But Ive got no place to go. Do people actually dance to all eleven minutes of Desolation Row or was that just a convenient rhyme? Either way, it gives old school music nerds like me something to think about.

The War On Drugs actually have strong ties to Bob Dylan. Granducie is an avid fan, and when he met fellow musician Kurt Vile, the two bonded over their shared love for the singer, eventually leading to the formation of The War On Drugs. The band shared their cover of Tangled Up In Blue before, and their continued reverence of Dylan is easily found in their latest song.

Check out the video for I Dont Live Here Anymore down below. I Dont Live Here Anymore will be released on October 29.

See the original post here:

The War On Drugs release new single 'I Don't Live Here Anymore' - Far Out Magazine

Its time to abandon the failed war on drugs and stop criminalising those who use them, according to an MSP.

The call from Gillian Mackay, Scottish Greens health and social care spokesperson, came as it was revealed there were a total of 67 suspected drugs deaths in Lanarkshire during the first half of this year.

The MSP also called for drugs legislation in Scotland to be devolved.

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The sad statistic of 67 suspected deaths in Police Scotlands Lanarkshire division area is the second highest of any in the country, exceeded only by the Greater Glasgow division.

The newly released figures by the Scottish Government compiled from police management information has revealed that the number of people who died from suspected drugs deaths in Lanarkshire for the latest quarter April to June 2021 was recorded as 29. Thats in addition to the 38 people who died in the first quarter of the year.

Although the number for the latest quarter is down significantly from the 53 who died in the same period last year, Ms Mackay believes its time for powers over drugs legislation to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

The Central Scotland MSP also called for safe drug consumption units to be exempt from prosecution in the meantime.

She said: This is a public health crisis. Health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and powers over drugs legislation should clearly also be devolved so we can abandon the failed war on drugs and focus on harm reduction.

"We need action now, however, and the new Lord Advocate should use her authority to exempt lifesaving services such as safe drug consumption rooms from prosecution. The Minister for Drug Policy has said that work is underway on this issue and it is vital that meaningful progress is made.

Police Scotland compiled the latest data on the basis of reports from police officers who attended the scene of someones death. A suspected drug death is based on an officers observations and initial enquiries at the scene.

The statistics also show that there were 722 suspected drug deaths across Scotland in the first half of 2021.

That total is down slightly from the 731 people suspected to have died from drugs in the first six months of last year.

Glasgow City was again the hardest hit by far with 95 deaths in the latest quarter, to add to the 92 in the first three months of the year.

These figures remind us of the devastating impact that drug-related deaths continue to have on communities and families in Lanarkshire and Scotland as a whole, Ms Mackay said.

Too many people who use drugs are still being failed by the Scottish and UK Governments. We need to stop criminalising and stigmatising people who use drugs and take a more compassionate approach which recognises their right to dignity and treatment.

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Call to abandon 'failed' war on drugs as report reveals death count in Lanarkshire for first half of year - Daily Record

The war on drugs may profess to be waged against narcotics, but it overwhelmingly targets people a view increasingly shared by experts on drug use. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, touched on this recently when she wrote about addiction stigma in STAT, noting that "societal norms surrounding drug use and addiction continue to be informed by myths and misconceptions."

Starting in the 1980s, a rowdy group of individuals began advocating for a different approach to drug policy called harm reduction. These activists, researchers, social workers, attorneys, and others, from a myriad of different backgrounds, have focused on the harms of drug use not the drugs alone.

Maia Szalavitz's new book "Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction" is an in-depth history of a powerful idea, exploring many angles of drug policy, including prescription drug use, supervised consumption, and legalizing cannabis. Throughout, she also details the racial inequities and social justice tensions that have defined the drug war.

Szalavitz, a science journalist, unwraps the many layers of harm reduction, a philosophy that has also been adopted in approaching sex work, restorative justice, Covid-19, and other areas. When it comes to illicit substances, harm reduction runs the gamut from sterile syringe access programs to supervised drug injection rooms to distributing the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone.

Depending on who you ask, harm reduction has many different definitions, including "radical empathy" which requires "meeting people where they're at." Szalavitz offers multiple interpretations, but writes that, simply: "Harm reduction applies the core of the Hippocratic oath first, do no harm to addiction treatment and drug policy. This takes the focus off of psychoactive drug use itself."

Tracing the roots of the movement, Szalavitz introduces us to characters like the "Goddess of Harm Reduction" and the "Johnny Appleseed of Needles," whose lives are dedicated to spreading evidence-based practices of harm reduction. Some advocates were arrested, ostracized by friends and family, or lost their lives to overdose.

For years, the U.S. government rejected harm reduction services, even going so far as to ban federal funding for needle exchange programs. But now there are jobs, conferences, and nonprofit organizations committed to harm reduction. And in President Joe Biden's budget for the 2022 fiscal year, $30 million has been earmarked for services like syringe access, the first time Congress has appropriated funds specifically for harm reduction, according to The New York Times.

Szalavitz follows the evolution of the movement, beginning with her own story in New York in the 1980s. Addicted to opioids during the height of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic, the young writer had no clue that sharing syringes could spread the deadly new virus that was already killing so many. Yet between 55 and 60 percent of people who use intravenous drugs at the time were positive with the virus.

Ideally, of course, people who inject drugs should never share syringes. Doing so can spread bloodborne pathogens like HIV and hepatitis C. But ideal situations don't always exist in the world of street narcotics. So some public health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, began recommending a middle ground: If you must reuse a syringe, properly disinfect it using bleach and clean water, which by some estimations can greatly reduce the chances of contracting HIV (though certain sources say otherwise).

Before that knowledge became more widely known, a friend's girlfriend taught Szalavitz this trick to lower her risk of infection, setting her life on a completely different course. She credits this fortuitous acquaintance with saving her life.

Szalavitz became enraged that no one had given her this simple advice. Why had she not encountered a public health campaign blasting this information to all who needed to hear it? But back then, Szalavitz says, few in government seemed to care about people who use drugs. "It didn't seem fair or right to see anyone as being that worthless," Szalavitz writes. "I needed to know," she adds, "how to keep others from suffering the fate I'd only narrowly avoided."

Thus began a three-decade reporting career on harm reduction, drug policy, and crucially, science, that has spanned, as she likes to put it, "from High Times to The New York Times" (and includes Undark). In this book, she interviewed hundreds of people to catalog the first- and second-hand accounts of people who have helped bring harm reduction into the public consciousness.

The book takes us from Vancouver, Canada and San Francisco, California, to Liverpool, England. Throughout are gossipy details about regular people: their broken relationships and personal dramas, their allegiances and falling outs. This isn't the book's main focus, but is a reminder that every movement involves a decent share of infighting and argument, tiny tests that demonstrate the resiliency of an idea.

To make harm reduction work, its progenitors needed to rely on strong research. In 1987 several drug activists in Liverpool started The Mersey Drugs Journal, where they documented local efforts and helped put the term "harm reduction" on the map. Because their ideas reached beyond the borders of Merseyside County, the publication was renamed The International Journal of Drug Policy. Currently issued by Dutch publishing monolith Elsevier, the peer-reviewed journal has an impact factor of 5.0 (meaning it is often cited by other researchers) and is indexed in 11 international databases.

By "emphasizing conducting research on its efforts, harm reduction created an enormous intellectual obstacle for its opponents," Szalavitz writes. "After all, if studies show that a policy doesn't reduce harm, it can't be part of harm reduction. And how can you oppose a policy that works?"

Szalavitz has often been witness to harm reduction history, including an important 1991 court case that paved the way for legalizing syringe access in New York. It began in March of that year with the arrest of eight demonstrators from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, commonly known as ACT UP, a grassroots political group that fought to end the HIV/AIDS crisis through civil disobedience. They were about to hand out sterile syringes on a Lower East Side intersection when the police swarmed the crowd and handcuffed the activists, charging them with needle possession.

Reporting for local outlets, Szalavitz witnessed the arrests and much of the trial, with opposing sides offering evidence for and against syringe access. Testifying for the defense was the city's former health commissioner, Stephen Joseph, who had notably clashed with ACT UP on numerous occasions. But this time he agreed with them, describing their actions as "courageous," and drew a parallel to 19th-century British physician John Snow, who traced a cholera outbreak to a single London water pump, similar to how ACT UP activists traced HIV to unsterile injection needles and sought to eliminate the source of infection.

The defense also presented evidence that syringe access programs reduce the transmission of infectious disease and encourage people who use drugs to enter treatment. One witness "noted that the U.S. was nearly alone in the developed world in rejecting needle exchange," and pointed to supportive data from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia. As Szalavitz writes, there was "no scientific evidence that needle exchange caused harm all of the existing data showed the opposite."

Without refuting evidence, the prosecution lost their case and the door opened for needle exchange programs to be legalized in New York. Decades later, the data is even stronger for syringe access, a practice that has been championed by the CDC, the American Medical Association, and the World Health Organization.

Yet the fight for harm reduction is far from over. In mid-July, the Atlantic City Council voted to shut down New Jersey's largest needle exchange program, ignoring the objections of the city's health director and many other healthcare professionals. A similar scenario played out this year in Scott County, Indiana, which was the epicenter of a devastating HIV outbreak in 2015. Experts say a syringe program helped put a lid on the outbreak. Yet in June, Scott County commissioners voted to end the program.

And in July, President Biden tapped former West Virginia health commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta to be director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. But some have criticized Gupta's failure while commissioner to protect syringe access in West Virginia, which has consistently had the highest rate of overdose deaths in the U.S. in recent years, according to the CDC. The state severely restricted syringe exchange earlier this year, amid an HIV outbreak the CDC described as the "most concerning" in the country.

June 17, 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the War on Drugs, in which President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse "public enemy number one." Yet last year was by far the most deadly period in American history for drug overdoses. More than 92,000 people lost their lives, according to preliminary data from the CDC. This in spite of more than $1 trillion spent over four decades by the United States to enforce its drug policy.

The harm reduction movement offers a vastly different approach. It has also acknowledged, Szalavitz notes, that the drug war is historically documented to be deeply rooted in racism, not science, and has been disproportionately waged against people of color. "The essence of harm reduction," Szalavitz, writes, "is compassion and respect for the inherent dignity and value of human life."

"A philosophy and strategy developed by drug users and researchers for drug users, however improbably," she continues, has "gone global and proved to be a gift to public health."

* * *

Troy Farah is an independent journalist from Southwest California. His reporting on science, drug policy, and public health has appeared in Wired, The Guardian, Discover Magazine, Vice, and others. He co-hosts the drug policy podcast Narcotica. Follow him on Twitter @filth_filler.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.

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The rise of harm reduction in the war on drugs - Salon

Gian Cassinis Comala is one of at least two documentaries showing at major film festivals this yearanother being Karim Anouzs O marinheiro das montanhas, premiering in Cannesin which a filmmaker digs into the family history tying him to an absent father. Just like Anouz in his masterly film, Cassini is decidedly ambivalent about his father, having more than ample reason to be so: his father was a Mexican hitman, or sicario, who walked out on Cassini and his mother.

That word, sicario, crops up more than once in clippings examined by Cassini to describe his father, James El Jimmy Oleg Cassini Monarrez: seen here, the word is a needling throwback to the American action-thriller Sicario, whose perspective on Mexican drug wars was hardly a lesson in empathy. Comala takes a richer, more humane route, embedding its elliptical portrait of a wayward father in a sensitive understanding of the drug wars and patriarchal culture that shaped him. Although Cassini, as a director, is too gentle in his approach to force the point, his film adds up to a bitter broadside against a poisonous, and poisoned, type of masculinity.

The context in which Comala must be understood, is the Mexican chapter of the so-called War on Drugs as practiced by the United States: the U.S. is the worlds biggest consumer of cocaine, demand for which has ensured that Mexico, placed between the U.S. and Latin America, is the most common route for illegal drug imports into the country. Since 2006, American efforts have ramped up to tackle this situation, but violence within the industry, mostly between cartels vying for supremacy, has been rife for decades. This is the world that Comala looks at with a delicate, sorrowful eye.

Cassini shows the attraction of the gangster life, looking at several men in his family, from father to uncle to half-brother, whose taste for womanizing and violence led them to embrace that existence, before, in the case of his uncle and brother, dying before their time. The directors sympathies lie, clearly, with the betrayed wives, single mothers, abandoned daughters and scorned mistresses swept into these mens livesand it may be that his perspective as a gay man, referred to somewhat obliquely here, gives him the requisite distance from that world to critique it in full.

As the film begins, Cassini sets out to uncover the father whom he knew so patchilya man he barely saw throughout his childhood before reconnecting with him as a teenager and then again dropping out of touch. Placing himself in the frame as both filmmaker and subject, the director stumbles occasionally in scenes that enact documentary clichs, such as poring over old letters and photographs, or contemplating the seas steady churn during moments of reflection. Nevertheless, Cassini has an eye, and seizes a few startling images on the fly as he sets about his investigation, like a curbside stall of childrens toys featuring a clutter of gaudy pink toys (for girls), and just one black machine gun (for boys).

Cassinis deceptively probing style as an interlocutor, meanwhile, yields some moving testimonials from his mother and grandmother, and gives his male interviewees enough rope with which to hang themselves. One scene in particular, of an aged relative showing off his weaponry with barely concealed pride and bloodlust, feels quite acidic in its depiction of vain, pig-headed masculinity undimmed by years. At another point, Cassini captures an uncle talking with astonishing candor about his first murder, at the age of fourteen: this is the desperate, pain-ridden world that he has managed to escape.

One scene in particular, of an aged relative showing off his weaponry with barely concealed pride and bloodlust, feels quite acidic in its depiction of vain, pig-headed masculinity undimmed by years.

Comala has a story to tellone of abandonment and murderand in true modern documentary style it withholds a few twists and turns until the later stages, albeit without becoming manipulative. This is the story of Jimmys involvement with several women, and of Gians mother protecting him from his fathers world as best she could. The manner of Jimmys death, and Cassinis reasons for ceasing contact with him, are also alluded to, in ways that make narrative sense, while not feeling especially suspenseful. That want of a driving force can mean that the movie loses its pace and rhythm, dawdling a little over various letters and recollectionsand if Comala has a clear perspective, it still lacks a bit of power. A more forceful, stylized brand of filmmakingComala, with its naturalistic camerawork and palette, is rather polite in visual terms, with an unobtrusive scorecould doubtless have conjured something more piercing.

Still, Comala collects enough riches to make it a sobering experience, and many of its lines or asides may stay with the viewer for some time after watchingsuch as the observation from Cassinis uncle, Daker, that Mexicos drug lords put their children through college with their illegal gains, and with the building works required to build their showy homes, created more jobs than any federal schemes ever did. Another line, Your father was like me, he loved to fuck, will doubtless ring in this reviewers ears for some time. Ultimately, Comala returns us, as it should, to the mother, and her hopes for her son, which lie in understated counterpoint to the crimes and schemes of the men weve met. The films final dedication, to Cassinis young nephew, a man of the future whom we have glimpsed in tender embrace with his uncle, is hopeful and heartrending.

Originally posted here:

The Terror and Agony of Being a Mexican Hitman's Son - The Daily Beast

For Immediate Release 09.10.2021 Governor Hutchinsons Weekly Address | A Thousand Deep: Reflections of 9/11

Governor Hutchinson'sweeklyradioaddresscan be found in MP3 format and downloadedHERE.

LITTLE ROCKOn September 11, 2001, I had just taken charge as administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. For todays weekly address, we are offering a shortened version ofA ThousandDeep: Asa Hutchinson Remembers 9.11which is a video with my reflections about the day of the9/11 attacks and the valor of America'sresponse.

***

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was strapped into a National Guard plane that lifted off into an empty sky from the Albuquerque airport. The scene was the same around the nation. Within hours after a 33-year-old Egyptian terrorist crashed a Boeing 767 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the FAA had stopped all air travel over the United States.

At 7 that morning, I was preparing to leave my hotel in Albuquerque when I heard the first report that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Only a month earlier, on the nomination of President George W. Bush, I had taken the job as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. I had traveled to New Mexico for a public debate with Governor Gary Johnson about drug policy.

My staff and members of my security team understood quickly that we wouldnt be returning to Washington on a commercial flight. We went to the Albuquerque DEA office. We sent out word to all of the field divisions to work their informants for any hint of a further attack.

By the time we had secured a National Guard plane and pilot to take us to Washington, 29-year-old Arkansan Sara Low was already among the victims. Sara, a native of Batesville, was an attendant on Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center. Malissa White-Higgins, born and raised in Bald Knob, Arkansas, worked in human resources for Marsh & McLennanon the 99thfloor of the North Tower. She died after the plane struck.

***

We evacuated the DEA offices in Washington, which were directly across the street from the Pentagon. Several DEA employees had seen American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., nearly an hour after the first crash.

Navy Operations Specialist Second Class Nehamon Lyons, the third Arkansan to die on 9/11, was killed in the assault on the Pentagon. He was born in Pine Bluff in March 1971. He was 30.

***

As our plane entered Washington airspace that evening, a fighter jet accompanied us to a military facility. At the smoke-filled DEA headquarters, I gathered with my executive staff. I had been on the job for a little over a month, and my job was changing dramatically. The DEA was pivoting from the war on drugs to the war on terrorism. Our agents across the country were watching for any tip about another attack.

I went home about midnight.

***

A week or so after the attack, Attorney General John Ashcroft called a meeting of the Justice Department in the Justice Department Command Center. Attorney General Ashcroft said: Ive just been told by the President of the United States, Dont let this happen again. Ive got to expect more from each of you. Youve got to expect more from all of your people. Youve got to work longer hours. Youve got to work harder. Weve got to do everything we can to make sure there is not another attack. Weve got to change from prosecution to prevention. If you are not willing to carry out that responsibility, say so now, and get up and walk out.

***

The terrorists and their sponsors hoped to destroy the United States. Although they killed nearly 3,000 people, our enemies learned that they had mistaken Americas kindness, generosity, and compassion for weakness. In the same way that many of our enemies before them have underestimated our strength, the attackers mistakenly believed that they could deliver a sharp blow, and America would falter.

The terrorists did, indeed, strike a grievous blow. But as the world knows, their mission failed. Utterly and completely.

***

The 9/11 attack brought out the best in Americans, from our next-door neighbors, first responders, elected officials, and law enforcement at all levels. Twenty years later, I am still amazed, but not surprised, at the dedication of DEA employees.

As the administration and the FAA talked about how to get our planes flying again, we knew we needed to enlarge our Air Marshal Program. I sent out a directive to DEA employees asking for volunteers to work as a sky marshal. We needed a hundred.

We got four hundred.

DEA employees lined up a thousand deep. Thats a powerful message and a forceful discouragement to our enemies. When America is called to stand against evil, we will line up on the front lines a thousand deep.

CONTACT:Press Shop (press@governor.arkansas.gov)

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Governor Hutchinson's Weekly Address | A Thousand Deep: Reflections of 9/11 - Governor Asa Hutchinson

U.S. Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne division off load during a combat mission from a Chinook 47 helicopter March 5, 2002 in Eastern Afghanistan.

Keith D. McGrew | U.S. Army | Getty Images News

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that took 2,977 lives and changed the world forever. It permanently altered the security landscape in the United States and elsewhere, forcing governments to completely overhaul their defense strategies, policies and counterterrorism tactics.

Twenty years on, events in the very country that harbored the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks Afghanistan have seen the War on Terror come eerily full circle.

The collapse of Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal, and its takeover by the Taliban the group that hosted al-Qaeda as it plotted its attacks on the West for many represents a symbolic and devastating failure.

In the last two decades of the war against terrorism, millions of lives have been lost and trillions of dollars spent. CNBC spoke to CIA, military and diplomatic veterans of the ongoing War on Terror, asking what they feel America has learned and failed to learn since Sept. 11, 2001.

Nada Bakos, former CIA analyst

"Honestly, I don't think we've learned that much; I think we're probably destined to be making some of those mistakes again. But hopefully we're done with giant occupations of other countries.

"I hope that we have gotten to the point now where we understand that we can't spread our democracy and rebuild other countries in our model, in a way that we were naive enough to think would work at that time."

Jay, former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan war veteran

"We've learned that 20 years of war has made us the best in the world at small unit tactics, but continuing to fight insurgencies is none of our business.

I think the consequence (of Afghanistan) is nobody's going to be rushing to intervene. Anywhere. Until the trauma of this has all disappeared.

William Patey

Former U.K. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq

"I think many Americans have learned not to trust their government. 'Leadership' lied to the American public for 20 years, while the actual situation on the ground in Afghanistan was no mystery to the people who served there. This has gone on for two decades as senior 'leadership' moves from the military or government into high-paying defense contractor jobs."

The One World Trade Center is reflected on a nearby building ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 10, 2021.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

"Here's the scary thing though: I don't think the general public has learned anything. They haven't been invested in the GWOT [Global War on Terrorism] on a large scale. If they had been, they would be demanding accountability for the entire thing, with the debacle in Kabul as the catalyst."

Jay requested his last name be withheld due to professional restrictions on speaking to the press.

Merging terrorism with religion was the biggest mistake I think that was made. We created enemies which were not there.

Sayed Jalal Karim

Former Afghan ambassador to Saudi Arabia

William Patey, former U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq

"We certainly learned the limitations on the use of force in dealing with a problem such as global terrorism we've learned it's more complicated, and that liberal democracies are not very good at devoting the necessary time and resources to doing the work. They are impatient, and their political horizons are very short.

"What we've also learned since 9/11 is that the radical Islamist threat remains as potent as ever, it hasn't gone away. And importantly, we've learned that radical Islamist ideology is not Islam. It's different."

"We continue to have things like war on terrorism, war on drugs. These are wars that fail. These are ongoing societal and ideological questions that need complex, difficult policies that are not easily dealt with by something as simple as war."

Bruce Riedel, former CIA analyst and National Security Council member

"It's what we have not learned in 20 years that stands out. We can not effectively control the terror threat without addressing its root cause: the Palestinian conflict and the occupation.

Listen to our enemies, Usama bin Laden, and listen to our friends, King Abdallah II: they both say the same truth which is the Palestinian issue is the core of the conflict."

Sayed Jalal Karim, Afghan diplomat and former ambassador to Saudi Arabia

"I think the intention that the U.S. had was a good intention, because the 9/11 attack was a horror to all. I believe that the overall war against terrorism is a justified cause.

"But merging terrorism with religion was the biggest mistake I think that was made. We created enemies which were not there."

The rubble of the World Trade Center smoulders following a terrorist attack September 11, 2001 in New York.

Porter Gifford | Getty Images

Cole T. Lyle, former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan war veteran and former Senate military advisor

"In the past twenty years, we've re-learned that the U.S. military cannot be defeated at the tactical or, with rare exceptions, the operational level of warfare. But the United States can be defeated at the strategic one."

Fragile or failed states are hotbeds for terrorism, and I do think that we have created new hotbeds.

Tracy Walder

Former officer, CIA counterterrorism center

"Foreign and defense policymakers in DC need to start thinking longer-term about America's strategic interests globally instead of choosing what is in their best interests short-term. The American people need to demand that their elected representatives have a firm grasp on strategic end-states in any major conflict going forward."

Tracy Walder, former officer, CIA Counterterrorism Center

"9/11 forced us to deal with a war of ideas rather than war of people or conquering territory and land. I think we are safer in that we have a better understanding of that.

"However, we have created some instability in countries because of things that we have done there since September 11. Fragile or failed states are hotbeds for terrorism, and I do think that we have created new hotbeds as a result of that."

Nada Bakos, former CIA analyst

"I think we've ebbed and flowed as far as safety. The U.S. government has caught people planning attacks and stopped them before they're able to take action, since 9/11.

"I do think in some ways we are safer, I think in other ways our actions have created obviously a lot more chaos and harm and ISIS. I mean, let's be realistic, we would not have ISIS had we not invaded Iraq. We wouldn't have al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Sayed Jalal Karim, Afghan diplomat and former ambassador to Saudi Arabia

"I do not believe that we are more unsafe now, but we could have been in a much better position, if we had balanced the fight against terrorism from all different aspects education, economy, mentality, instead of only military and not merged terrorism with religion."

William Patey, former U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq

"It manifestly has been safer for the United States where they have not had a serious terrorist attack in the mainland United States for 20 years. But Europe and the Middle East have seen more terrorist attacks ... The threat has now dispersed across the world.

Taliban take control of Hamid Karzai International Airport after the completion of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 31, 2021.

Wali Sabawoon | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

"We've got better intelligence defenses; it's much more difficult for terrorists to mount complex attacks of the sort that 9/11 was ... but this ideology is still able to produce homegrown people willing to do unspeakable things. And indeed, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will probably have encouraged these people.

"The nature of the threat has changed - it's less concentrated and more dispersed all over the world. The radical Islamist franchise is alive and well."

Ahmad Wardak, Afghanistan expert and former Kabul-based journalist

"I think the United States is much weaker than it was 20 years ago, primarily because of the two wars it fought unsuccessfully. And if we go to pre-9/11, the Middle East was relatively peaceful.

"If you look at failed states, as a result of the U.S. invasions in the Middle East and Afghanistan, so many of these failed states are prone to terrorist organizations. That is a fear for national security."

My heart hurts. It hurts for the people of Afghanistan who haven't known real peace in decades... it hurts for my country, whose national honor has suffered.

Cole T. Lyle

former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan war veteran

"I think the world is not in a better place than before 2001. Now the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East are in a much more vulnerable position with Iran being a regional hegemon in the absence of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban back in power in Afghanistan."

Tracy Walder, former officer of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center

"Those last two weeks of August, just speaking for myself, were incredibly difficult for me. I felt like everything I did didn't matter. Like all of the good that I was trying to do was just sort of erased.

"I feel very frustrated. I feel very much like we literally left people hanging there, to die. I don't place blame on Biden, Trump, Obama - I don't place blame on one person. The whole thing is frustrating. We failed to culturally understand Afghanistan.

William Patey, former U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq

"I think the biggest one is frustration, combined with sadness, because it didn't have to be this way.I think for quite a smallish investment compared to what we put in before, we didn't have to suffer a total defeat.

A man mourns at the 9/11 Memorial on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 11, 2021.

Mike Segar | Reuters

"We built up an Afghan army that was totally dependent on day-to-day air support and logistics, then when we pulled the rug from under them and were a bit surprised when they collapsed. So the manner of our leaving was very frustrating."

Jay, former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan war veteran

"I truly hope more people inside and outside the government have been taking notes and are ready to overhaul the entire national security apparatus because our adversaries around the globe have definitely been paying attention."

Cole T. Lyle, former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan war veteran and former Senate military advisor

"The War in Afghanistan was the most morally justified war American has entered since World War II. But policymakers went in without thought for the end game, and now we're seeing the results.

"How do I feel about the war overall? My heart hurts. It hurts for the people of Afghanistan who haven't known real peace in decades and will now live under the evil rule of the Taliban again.

An artist paints a tribute to victims of the bomb blasts at the Hamid Kazrai International airport in Kabul, outside an art school in Mumbai, India, August 27, 2021.

Francis Mascarenhas | Reuters

"It hurts for the Gold Star families who lost everything. It hurts for my brothers and sisters in the U.S. and U.K. armed forces who lost their friends. It hurts for my country, whose national honor has suffered as we leave behind American citizens and the people who fought with us."

William Patey, former U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq

"The limitations on overwhelming military power that Iraq and Afghanistan have shown will make countries in the West very reluctant to get involved.

"I think the consequence is nobody's going to be rushing to intervene. Anywhere. Until the trauma of this has all disappeared."

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We were naive: Ex-CIA, military and diplomatic veterans reflect on lessons learned, 20 years after 9/11 - CNBC