Category Archives: War On Drugs

When Ian McCall retired in 2018, at age 34, from an 11-year career in mixed martial arts, he dedicated himself to a new kind of fight.

He wanted relief from the depression and anxiety that had plagued him since he was growing up in Costa Mesa, where he was known as a bully, a gang member and a self-proclaimed savage. His initial mental health issues had been compounded over the years by personal traumas and brain injuries that McCall sustained from a snowboarding accident and years in the octagon.

Hed sought refuge in oxycontin, fentanyl and cocktails of other substances. At times McCall contemplated suicide, once going so far as putting a loaded gun in his mouth.

But today, two years into his retirement, the Mission Viejo resident says hes found solace. Hes off painkillers. He says his mental health issues are in check, and he no longer struggles to accomplish simple tasks. Most importantly, he said, I dont want to kill myself anymore.

The improvement, he says, has come from his controlled embrace of psychedelics.

In this, McCall is not alone.

Psychedelics everything from ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew with Amazonian origins, to psilocybin, the mind-altering compound produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms are at the center of the kind of burgeoning image and legal makeover most recently seen in Americas relationship with cannabis.

Though psychedelic drugs remain illegal under federal law, and in most states, a handful of cities across the country have decriminalized psilocybin. Oregon on Nov. 3 became the first state to decriminalize all drugs, while voters also approved a measure that will legalize and regulate psilocybin for therapeutic use in special clinics.

Theres a push to do the same in California. Both a revived ballot measure and promised legislation from State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, could open access to hallucinogenic mushrooms and perhaps other psychedelics in the Golden State within the next two years.

I think we should fast track it, said Del Potter, a medical anthropologist whos studied use of psychoactive plants in Latin and South American cultures.

These really seem to be game-changing in terms of being able to make real difference in peoples lives.

Many medical experts who study psychedelics also believe they hold promise in treating a wide variety of conditions, with minimal risks of side affects or addiction.

That includesAlan Davis, a clinical psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who specializes in psychoactive drug research. Still, while he supports decriminalization, Davis warns against creating a commercial market and he urges caution on rushing into even a supervised therapeutic model like the one Oregon is creating.

I think that there is a potential for people who are not trained well to deliver a treatment that has the potential to harm someone, Davis said.

The idea that psychedelics might free the mind and heal the soul is far from a new concept. Many cultures around the world have used psychoactive plants in rituals and ceremonies for millennia.

The practice gained favor in the West in the early 1950s, as psychiatrists experimented with using hallucinogenic mushrooms, newly discovered LSD, and other psychedelics to treat patients for a range of mental health issues. Hundreds of scientific papers from the era suggested psychedelics could be useful in helping people overcome everything from alcoholism to trauma.

But in the 1960s the federal government began clamping down on LSD and other psychedelics. And most scientific work was officially squelched in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act. That law classified psilocybin alongside heroine as a schedule I drug, the most restrictive category of drugs said to have a high risk of addiction while containing no medicinal value.

That act did not fit even the current evidence at the time, Davis said. But the legislature just decided not to listen to that.

Scientists in Europe and the United States started to study psychedelics again in the 1990s, kicking off a second wave of research thats now grinding into high gear. While American scientists have to jump through major hoops to do trials with schedule I drugs, studies have continued to show psilocybin can help treat conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorderand tobacco addiction.

Some of the most promising research suggests psilocybin might be of use to address various forms of depression.

Davis and his team recently published results of a randomized clinical trial using psilocybin to treat 24 patients suffering from major depressive disorder. After hours of psychotherapy, they gave patients synthetic psilocybin. Patients sat on a couch in a room with pleasant music playing while two experts monitored them throughout the eight-hour trip. Davis team then followed up with those patients to assess the results.

More than two-thirds of those patients reported reductions in their symptoms and 54% remained in remission a month later. Those outcomes, Davis said, are about four times better than most legal antidepressants.

It represents an opportunity for real healing unlike things weve seen before, Davis said.

Compass Pathways, a London-based biopharma company, is close to starting phase three of clinical trials into using synthetic psilocybin to ease treatment-resistant depression. The study could be wrapped up by the end of 2021, with the company hoping to secure Federal Drug Administration approval for the first psilocybin-based drug.

Other studies are looking at how psilocybin might be used in issues ranging from anorexia to Alzheimers to opiate abuse.

Psilocybin has both biological and psychological effects on the brain.

As with many pharmaceutical antidepressants, it elevates levels of serotonin, a chemical messenger that regulates mood, sleep, appetite, sex drive and more. But psilocybin also strengthens and makes new connections between different parts of the brain. Potter said those connections make the brain more elastic, so we can see beyond our regular routines and immediate struggles.

Thats tied to the harder-to-explain psychological, and often spiritual, impacts of psilocybin.

Potter relayed a story of a friend whod been highly allergic to cats. While that friend was under the influence of psilocybin, a cat jumped into his lap. Potter said the friend told himself he wasnt allergic to cats anymore, and said the friend never had symptoms again.

While the science cant yet explain such changes, Davis said there are anti-inflammatory benefits to psilocybin, with inflammation tied to allergies. The placebo affect also can be very real, where the brain can convince the body something is true.

Psilocybin and other psychedelics generally arent recommended for people who are schizophrenic or suffer other borderline personality disorders, Davis said, since they can trigger those conditions. But he said psilocybin shows virtually no signs of creating physical addiction. The biggest risk seems to be having a bad trip, or what insiders prefer to call a challenging experience which can become dangerous if people havent been properly prepared and arent monitored by a trained professional while theyre under influence.

But challenging doesnt always mean bad, Davis said, with intense experiences often tied to breakthroughs during any form of therapy.

One of the patients in Davis study, for example, experienced a vision of getting buried alive over and over again. Eventually, the patient came to realize the hands burying him were his own. That helped him finally accept that he has control over his life. Davis said the patient went from being suicidal for a decade to being in remission from depression.

While the patients in Davis study took large doses, theres a growing trend toward microdosing psilocybin. In that model, people take the drug regularly but in doses small enough that they can go about their normal day.

Jackie McGowan, a longtime cannabis activist from the Bay Area, said soon after she started microdosing psilocybin earlier this year, police raided the Oakland church where she was getting her mushrooms. She was devastated, since she was experiencing relief from severe depression and a longtime tobacco addiction. The church soon reopened, but McGowan said the incident drove home for her the importance of making sure psilocybin is readily accessible.

With high interest in finding new ways to address mental health conditions, plus a sweeping push foran end to the war on drugs, many cities and states are eyeing decriminalization and regulation of psychedelics.

Denver was the first city to tell its cops to deprioritize psilocybin crimes with a ballot measure in May 2019. Oakland, Santa Cruz and Ann Arbor, Mich. followed suit through city council votes, with Washington, D.C. voting to join the ranks Nov. 3.

Oregon on that day also set in motion a plan in which by 2023 people could use psilocybin in open clinics. In this model, certified specialists will provide psilocybin doses that would be taken under observation.

So far, Griffen Thorne, a Los Angeles-based attorney who works with businesses interested in getting into this space, said the federal government hasnt interfered into any of these city or state programs. He expects this area of law will be treated much like cannabis, which remains illegal at the federal level though states are now largely allowed to set their own rules regulating use and sales.

State Sen. Wiener said he plans to introduce a bill when the legislature reconvenes in January that would make it no longer a crime to possess psychedelics.

Decriminalization California, a campaign that aims to also create a commercial market for psilocybin, failed to get the signatures needed to qualify for the Nov. 3 ballot. The team is ready to try again for 2022, said campaign spokesman Paul Antico. But Antico said theyre meeting with Wieners team this week in hopes of encouraging him to introduce three bills: one to decriminalize all drugs, one to support psychedelic research and one to create a commercial market for psilocybin.

McCall believes theres big money to be made in psychedelics. Hes started a new career as a psychedelic integration coach, where hes trying to help top MMA fighters and special forces soldiers find relief. He said a Canadian company is interested in his formulations of certain mushroom strains. And he plans to open a psychedelic sports institute on a 40-acre farm he owns near Desert Hot Springs.

Though hes interested in the industry, McCall speaks about psychedelics like a preacher, with a reverence thats as close to religion as the self-proclaimed proud pagan gets.

This whole thing is going to save humankind and the human condition and make us all better people and love each other like were supposed to be doing.

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Will magic mushrooms go the way of cannabis? Legalization efforts are growing - Vallejo Times-Herald

By Live4ever -Posted on 25 Nov 2020 at 6:45am

Kings Of Leon performing for NBCs Today Show (Photo: Paul Bachmann for Live4ever)

Spains Mad Cool festival has just added to its line-up for July next year in a big way with the additions of The War On Drugs, Kings Of Leon, Cardi B and Haim.

In total, 27 new names have joined the previously announced Red Hot Chili Peppers, Twenty One Pilots and The Killers, more of these including Phoebe Bridgers, Zara Larsson and Editors.

If youre as into their new live album as we are, the addition of The War On Drugs alone might be enough for you to consider walking to Madrid if needs be, LIVE DRUGS a record which, in year of live music shutdown, makes you wish you could be there, in a time where you want to be everywhere but cant.

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The War On Drugs, Kings Of Leon, Cardi B among latest Mad Cool 2021 additions - Live4ever Media - Live4ever

MEXICO CITY Tiger cubs and semiautomatic weapons. Piles of cash and armored cars. Fields of poppies watered to the sound of ballads glorifying Mexican drug cartel culture.

This is the world of Cartel TikTok, a genre of videos depicting drug trafficking groups and their activities that is racking up hundreds of thousands of views on the popular social media platform.

But behind the narco bling and dancing gang members lies an ominous reality: With Mexico set to again shatter murder records this year, experts on organized crime say Cartel TikTok is just the latest propaganda campaign designed to mask the blood bath and use the promise of infinite wealth to attract expendable young recruits.

Its narco-marketing, said Alejandra Len Olvera, an anthropologist at Spains University of Murcia who studies the presence of Mexican organized crime groups on social media. The cartels use these kinds of platforms for publicity, but of course its hedonistic publicity.

Circulating on Mexican social media for years, cartel content began flooding TikTok feeds in the United States this month after a clip of a high-speed boat chase went viral on the video-sharing platform.

American teens were served the boat chase video on their For You page, which recommends engaging videos to users. Millions liked and shared the clip. Their clicks boosted the video in the For You page algorithm, which meant more people viewed it.

And once they viewed the boat chase video, the algorithm began to offer them a trickle, then a flood of clips that appeared to come from drug trafficking groups in Mexico.

As soon as I started liking that boat video, then theres videos of exotic pets, videos of cars, said Ricardo Angeles, 18, a California TikToker interested in cartel culture.

Its fascinating, he said, kind of like watching a movie.

Others began noticing the surge of cartel videos as well, and posting reactions to the deluge of guns and luxury cars filling their feeds.

Did the cartels just roll out their TikTok marketing strategy? asked one flummoxed user in a video viewed some 490,000 times. Is the coronavirus affecting yalls sales?

Asked about their policy regarding the videos, a TikTok spokeswoman said that the company was committed to working with law enforcement to combat organized criminal activity, and that it removed content and accounts that promote illegal activity. Examples of cartel videos that were sent to TikTok for comment were soon removed from the platform.

While cartel content might be new for most teen TikTokers, according to Ioan Grillo, author of El Narco: Inside Mexicos Criminal Insurgency, online portrayals of narco culture go back more than a decade, when Mexico began ramping up its bloody war against the cartels.

At first, the videos were crude and violent images of beheadings and torture that were posted on YouTube, designed to strike fear in rival gangs and show government forces the ruthlessness they were up against.

But as social platforms evolved and cartels became more digitally savvy, the content became more sophisticated.

In July, a video that circulated widely on social media showed members of the brutal Jalisco New Generation Cartel in fatigues, holding high-caliber weapons and cheering their leader next to dozens of armored cars branded with the cartels Spanish initials, C.J.N.G.

The show of force appeared online at the same time President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador was visiting the states that make up the cartels stronghold.

That is kind of a kick, a punch in the stomach to the governments security strategy, Mr. Grillo said.

Mr. Lpez Obrador, who campaigned on a promise of confronting crime with hugs not bullets, has so far been unable to make a significant dent in the countrys soaring violence, with a record 34,582 murders registered last year alone.

But while some videos are still made to strike terror, others are created to show young men in rural Mexico the potential benefits of joining the drug trade: endless cash, expensive cars, beautiful women, exotic pets.

Its all about the dream, its all about the hustle, said Ed Calderon, a security consultant and former member of Mexican law enforcement. Thats what they sell.

According to Falko Ernst, senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group, a global think tank, some of the TikTok videos may be produced by cartel members themselves, especially young hit men or sicarios keen to show off the spoils of war.

Still, he said, most are probably filmed by young, lower-level operators in the gangs, then shared widely on the web by their friends or those longing for the lifestyle.

But whether they are made and shared by cartels or simply produced by aspiring gangsters, the ultimate goal is the same: drawing in an army of young men willing to give their lives for a chance at glory.

The gangs, Mr. Ernst said, depend on this sea of youngsters.

And while videos of bejeweled guns and decked-out cars have been circulating on Instagram and Facebook for years, TikTok has brought a new dimension to the cartel genre.

The message has to be quick, it has to be engaging, and it has to be viral, said Ms. Len, the anthropologist. Violence becomes fun, or even put to music.

One video, which attracted more than 500,000 likes before it was removed, shows a farmer slicing unripe seed pods in a field of poppies, presumably to harvest the resin for heroin production.

Here in the mountains, there are only hard workers, says a voice-over. Just good people.

In another video, from a now-disabled account called The clown of the CJNG, in reference to the Jalisco cartel, a figure dressed in black with a bulletproof vest and an AR-15 rifle does a dance move known as the Floss.

Such videos may be intended for a Mexican audience, but for users in the United States who help promote them, they tap into an increasingly popular fascination with the cartel world, one propagated by shows like Narcos on Netflix.

That was in part the allure for Mr. Angeles, the California teenager, whose parents emigrated from Mexico before he was born.

Even as he acknowledged the real-world violence behind the videos, Cartel TikTok has become a way of connecting with Mexican popular culture from a safe distance.

Theres a difference between watching Narcos and getting kidnapped by one, Mr. Angeles said.

The videos also provide a stark reminder of what life may have looked like had his parents not sought better opportunities north of the border.

I couldve been in that lifestyle, Mr. Angeles said. But I would much rather be broke and nameless than rich and famous.

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Guns, Drugs and Viral Content: Welcome to Cartel TikTok - The New York Times

In recent weeks, documented cases of police brutality amid the pandemic have sparked a national conversation about criminal justice reform. Regardless of our diverse opinions regarding law enforcement and the Black Lives Matter movement, this is an opportunity to thoughtfully consider if there is room for systemic reform.

The fact of the matter is, there are flaws in our criminal justice system. One policy that has contributed to the glaring division for decades now, with little discernible benefit, is the war on drugs.

Data indicate that the war on drugs has been a policy failure. Drug laws were originally designed to keep individuals healthier and substance-free, but decades of research indicates that these laws are more a hindrance than help.

Self-reported drug use has increased since the 1970s. Today, 26.5 percent of high-school seniors say it is fairly easy or very easy to obtain cocaine. Since former President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse Public Enemy No. 1, signed the Controlled Substances Act and rejected the findings of the Shafer Commission in 1971, enforcing drug laws has cost U.S. taxpayers over $1 trillion.

The most recent data from 2019 reveal that drug overdoses are on the rise once again. Maine is in the top ten states for opioid-related deaths per person.

This opioid epidemic is primarily a public health issue, not one of criminality. The cost to society to arrest and incarcerate the drug-addicted instead of using substance abuse and mental health treatment options greatly outweighs the potential deterrent effects of criminalization.

Drug charges frequently have catastrophic effects on Mainers after they are released from jail or prison. Those with a criminal history involving drug charges have a harder time finding employment, thereby eroding their ability to function in a self-sufficient manner while also taking a toll on that individuals mental health.

Further complicating the issue, individuals who are incarcerated for drug possession are housed with others who have been charged for drug trafficking, which forces us to consider the possibility that incarceration actually assists users and dealers in building working relationships.

Incarceration for drug use also breaks up family units, which increases the likelihood of financial hardship and repeat offending. Society can do more to break this cycle.

Excessively stringent drug laws dont just harm individualsthey also negatively affect communities. The war on drugs has been linked to increases in violence because it has led to the development of drug cartels and gangs. Were seeing concrete examples of drug trafficking and violent activity in Maine, such as in Downeast Maine, where fishermen in particular are struggling with opioid abuse.

In an article published by CBS News, Charles Rudelitch, an economist from Maine, noted, We know that millions of dollars of income that otherwise should have been spent in our coastal communities is being lost to heroin and diverted to prescription drugs.

The loss of community cohesion should be significant enough to make us reconsider our drug enforcement laws. But the loss goes even furtherour drug policies have resulted in millions of Maine taxpayer dollars going to waste.

Its difficult to calculate the full cost, since various government entities are responsible for enforcing drug policies. But between 2017 and 2018 alonethe most recent data availableMaines Drug Enforcement Agency spent over $6.5 million to police non-violent drug crimes. Maine jails and prisons spend an average of $43,773 to house each inmate, 22 percent of whom are there for nonviolent drug crimes.

Keep in mind that the majority of Maines drug-related arrests are for possession, not manufacturing or sale.

Even those obligated to enforce drug laws are concerned that drug charges do more harm than good. Earlier this year, two police officers in Maine co-authored and published an article in the Portland Press Herald highlighting their ambivalence about the effectiveness of charging individuals for drug offenses.

These officers observed that we dont turn to the criminal justice system to address hunger or flu outbreaks. Yet for some reason, it is the approach we have chosen for addressing drug use, later adding, The fact is, a lot of people who are in jail for using or selling small amounts of drugs dont need to be there.

If the people responsible for enforcing drug regulation laws doubt these rules are useful, shouldnt we be skeptical too?

In some regards, the war on drugs can be viewed as a more wasteful and hazardous version of the prohibition. The government tries to enforce laws that will carefully guide the behavior of individuals, but the unintended consequences prove to be worse than the original issue.

As drug use becomes increasingly problematic in Maine, we must think critically about our response and admit that charging individuals for drug crimes is a misguided response.

We could re-classify small amounts of drug possession as a civil infraction (rather than labeling mere possession of certain drugs as a felony crime), reducing the majority of drug trafficking charges to misdemeanors, and mandate drug court (rather than incarceration) more broadly.

The status quo of our criminal justice system is not working. If we fail to address our flawed drug regulations, we will continue to see our communities suffer as a result of these policies.

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The War on Drugs has caused more harm than good - The Maine Wire

New device to help war on drugs

Floyd County police use device to detect drugs before they see them.

FLOYD COUNTY, Ga - Floyd County police have a new tool in their battle against the opioid crisis.Investigators saidit's an efficient way to find drugs that are not in plain sight.

"It's called a Viken detection x-ray imager. It sees through surfaces, car panels, walls, in the search for, in our case, illicit contraband," said Floyd County Police Officer Baker Harbin.

Police said it works like a handheld X-ray machine and can detect contraband hidden in a car or building.

Police will use the device to scan a portion of a vehicle, like a door panel or seat, where something illegal might be stashed. During training, the device picked up an image of a large amount of meth hidden in a compartment above the rear tire of an SUV.

The device can pick up drugs, bundles of cash, even guns.

"Most guns have some bit of plastic, like our Glock, so it's going to show," said Harbin.

Officer Harbin saidbecause it is similar to an X-ray, it will not be used on people or cars with people inside.

"Roadside if we were to use this machine, it would be a vehicle we have consent to search or probable cause to search," said Officer Harbin.

Police will also use it while searching a home or building with a search warrant.

The Floyd County Police Department was oneof only fivedepartments across the country to receive a grant for the imaging device.Officers saidthey've been particularly impacted by the opiod crisis.

"In the past twoyears, we've had an exponential growth of opiod deaths. With the number of state highways, corridors that are being used to traffic drugs to Rome, away from Rome or through it.," said Harbin.

Officer Harbin says this will make a tremndous difference when it comes to keeping drugs off the streets.

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Police in Floyd County have new tool to fight the war on drugs - FOX 5 Atlanta

When Maya Shaw first entered the world of recreational cannabis, she found an industry skilled at churning out Instagrammable content but unableor unwillingto confront its own problems.

"It's crazy that no one was really talking about the fact that we were openly profiting off cannabis and making it cute and making it fun and accessible," says the Richmond, Va., founder and namesake of online smoke shop Shaw. "And it's like, OK, that's cool, but can we have a conversation about what's happening behind the scenes? The War on Drugs?"

Shaw is now part of a group aiming to start those hardconversationsand put some money where the discussion is.

The 27-year-old entrepreneur is an inaugural member of the Floret Coalition, a business collective with the mission of bringing together small businesses in the weed space who are eager to become involved in the fight for restorative justice but might not be entirely sure how or where to start.

The Floret Coalition is a division ofBroccoli, a Portland arts and culture magazine centered on cannabis. It operates as a modified giving circle: Small cannabusinesses join the coalition, receive an onboarding packet and commit to a minimum monthly donation. When the group's board announces the charity of the month, all Floret Coalition members direct donations straight to the recipients.

The three-member board vets each charity, and the board changes yearly. For the coalition's first year, Shaw is joined by entrepreneur and podcaster Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey and cannabis advocate Kassia Graham.

Floret emerged as "both a response and a realization that we had some community power that we could activate beyond just what we could do individually," says Anja Charbonneau,Broccoli's editor in chief. "Seeing the way that people were willing to open their wallets during the first wave of this summer's protests really gave us the push to believe that people were ready to rally."

Shaw puts it another way: "It's time to tell your friends to pull up."

WW: Did the idea for the Floret Coalition arise in response to the George Floyd uprising or had it been in the works before then?

Anja Charbonneau:Floret getting started in June was not only a reaction to the recent Black Lives Matters uprisings but also addressing a longer-term need that we've seen in cannabis to find tangible, financial ways to give back.

Maya Shaw:It was pretty seamless. Anja sent a message to the three of us, and she was just like, "Here's what I want to create, and the three of you would be an awesome first team of board members." And I couldn't agree more. We're all pretty like-minded in the sense that we want to do the right thing and we want to make sure that we're making this the best that it can besetting the ground, setting the stakes, and showing up for our community.

What criteria do organizations need to meet in order to qualify to receive donations?

Shaw:We want to make sure that we are really choosing organizations that are going to use the money properly. We're focused on organizations created so that these communities can have the same resources already available within communities that haven't been affected as such by the War on Drugs. Knowing that the Black community, the Latinx community, and Indigenous people overall are affected most, there's so much opportunity there. It's not necessarily just one specific thing. There are so many pockets and different crevices where we can put the money knowing it's going back into communities in need that are affected.

What criteria must businesses meet to join the coalition, aside from being cannabis adjacent and donation consistency?

Charbonneau:That's pretty much it. The funniest example I have is a brand that makes catnip toys shaped like joints. They're like, "Does this count?" Of courseyou're making money off the idea of weed, so why not?

Can you explain the difference between performative allyship and, as Rihanna put it, "pulling up"?

Shaw:Brands just really need to be honest with themselves in terms of the long run. Silence speaks louder than anything.This industry is built on the backs of Black people, Latin people and Indigenous people, and anyone profiting off this industry needs to be finding a way to donate back to the communities that are affected negatively by the injustice in the industry. It's almost, in a sense, reparations, or reworking profit. If you're profiting, you also need to be giving back.

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The Floret Coalition Is Adapting the Giving Circle Model to Help Address the Damage of the War on Drugs - Willamette Week

From A Thousand Cuts (2020), dir. Ramona Diaz (all images courtesy David Magdael & Associates)

On July 10 of this year, the Philippines House of Representatives voted 70-11 against the license renewal for ABS-CBN, the countrys largest media network. Maria Ressa, executive editor of Rappler, another Filipino news outlet, has faced spurious charges of cyber libel and tax evasion. She sees this as retribution for her four-year crusade against the dictatorial President Rodrigo Duterte, as well as his ever-growing army of online supporters who cheer on his sexism, homophobia, and violence.

It is against this bleak political landscape that director Ramona Diaz sets her new documentary A Thousand Cuts, in which Ressa and Rapplers fight against Dutertes war on the press takes center stage. Diaz and Ressa sat down with Hyperallergic for an interview over Zoom. It started with me wanting to make a film on Dutertes war on drugs, Diaz explains. The global audience would probably look at that and think it to be something that was affecting only people in the Philippines. Marias was the loudest voice against Duterte. She was questioning the government-aided dissemination of disinformation and connecting it with Dutertes impunity. The issue of disinformation is very global, and I wanted people all over the world to take note.

It all goes back to Silicon Valley, Ressa adds. A Thousand Cuts follows the Philippines 2019 legislative elections, when for the first time in 80 years, the opposition failed to secure even a single seat. It illuminates the Duterte governments use of propaganda and social media to lie to their citizens, obscuring what many of them know to be the truth. This post-truth reality is one many people are now far too familiar with, even outside the Philippines. When Facebook sells our most vulnerable data to the highest bidder, we no more have facts to hold each other accountable by. Accountability from the tech companies is a prerequisite to claim our democracies back. You do not have democracy if you dont have facts, Ressa asserts. In one scene, Duterte tells a Rappler journalist, You will be allowed to criticize us. But you will go to jail for your crimes. I was immediately reminded of the likes of Gauri Lankesh and Vikram Joshi, journalists back home in India who were murdered for speaking out against the countrys Hindu nationalist government.

Diazs previous film, Motherland (2017), focused on the worlds busiest maternity ward in Manilas Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. Its concurrent themes of womens bodies and the states multi-pronged control over them are carried into A Thousand Cuts. Dutertes government directly encourages rape threats and the sexist dehumanization of Ressa and her colleagues, such as reporter Pia Ranada. At the same time, the state uses the hyper-sexualized bodies of women like pop star Mocha Uson to titillate citizens into voting their way. We must never get used to it, Diaz insists. If every time he opens his mouth, something misogynist comes out, it should shock us every time. Ressa sums up the tragic virulence of this scenario when she responds, Which he are you referring to? As much as Dutertes jokes may shock, the women in his crowds hooting in approval deal the heaviest blow. Misogyny is infuriating, but its even worse to see who willingly serves as its foot soldiers.

In a scene at a rally, Duterte uses his microphone to demonstrate a vulgar joke about his penis. It inescapably brings to mind a president who was plainly recorded boasting about grabbing women by their private parts. Misogyny, fascism, repression of the press, and fake news go hand in hand, and this is not solely a Filipino problem. They surround people in so many countries so densely that we can become dulled to their effects. A Thousand Cuts is a firm refusal to let unholy intersectional fascism be normalized. During a Rappler holiday party, Ressa tells her colleagues, We cannot become monsters when fighting monsters. A Thousand Cuts is a document of journalistic resistance to monsters and their methods of seducing people into inertness. To finish her toast, Ressa says:And the only thing that keeps us from becoming monsters is love.

A Thousand Cuts opens in virtual cinemas August 7.

Link:

Exposing Rodrigo Duterte's War on the Free Press - Hyperallergic

The red or pink pills usually aren't much larger than the fingernail on your pinky. They also don't cost too much - between two and four euros each. Nevertheless, they are among the most significant problems currently facing Bangladesh. Called Yaba, the drug is currently overwhelming the South Asian country.

Estimates hold that around 7 million of the country's 164 million residents are addicted to drugs. Fully 5 million of them are thought to be hooked on Yaba. A mixture of methamphetamines and caffeine, it makes users feel more confident and energetic. Users tend to forego sleep and eat very little, with many taking the drug to help them work longer hours and earn more money for their families. But others just take it to get high.

The pills are produced in industrial quantities next door in Myanmar before being smuggled into Bangladesh across the southern border. In 2018 alone, security personnel confiscated fully 53 million of the pills.

Officially, alcohol and drugs are prohibited in the Muslim country. Nevertheless, Bangladesh is no small part of the methamphetamine problem in South and East Asia, where confiscations of the synthetic drug rose by a factor of eight in the 10 years between 2007 and 2017 - to fully 82 tons according to the UN's most recent World Drug Report released in 2019. The total represents almost 45 percent of all such seizures around the world.

In an attempt to get the drug problem under control, the government in Dhaka has opted for severity over the last two years in its fight against both drug dealers and users. Violence has been a frequent outcome.

The anti-drug campaign carried out by the Bangladeshi government has been reminiscent of the brutal "War on Drugs" launched by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after he rose to power in June 2016. Suspected drug criminals are essentially executed by Duterte's troops and the offensive has already resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Amnesty International alleges that the government in Dhaka has been similarly brutal in its treatment of alleged dealers and users. The human rights organization has accused Bangladesh of launching a "wave of extrajudicial killings," claiming that 466 people were killed in 2018 alone as part of the anti-drug campaign. That number, the Amnesty report claims, is three times higher than in 2017 and "the highest in a single year in decades."

In a 2019 report, the organization wrote that the victims were initially apprehended by police or simply disappeared. The authorities, according to the report, consistently tell family members that they have no idea where the suspected drug dealers might be. Later, when their bodies are found, the authorities frequently claim that the victim died in a "gunfight."

French photographer Olivier Jobard and investigative journalist Charles Emptaz have looked into the cases of two men who died in one of these alleged "gunfights" in southern Bangladesh. In the course of their reporting, they uncovered several inconsistencies and give credence to suspicions that the two men were executed by Bangladeshi security personnel.

The following photo gallery is a collection of images taken by Jobard showing the means used by the Bangladeshi authorities in their anti-drug campaign:

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Fighting the Yaba Pill: The Death Toll Mounts in Bangladesh's Drug War - DER SPIEGEL

The Guardia Civil made huge progress in the war against organised crime by taking down five very active drug outlets in Torrevieja.

THE criminal outfits were part of an organisation run by several brothers who had a team of drug dealers operating throughout the city.

In total, five homes were raided as part of this operation, four in Torrevieja and one in San Pedro del Pinatar, with a total of 115 grams of marijuana, 200 grams of a cutting substance, 1 precision scale, 3 doses of a doping substance, and 2 vehicles used to acquire more drugs from the outskirts of Murcia, all being seized. Upon thorough search of the properties, 11,000 in cash was also found.

An investigation began in October 2019 following a complaint from a neighbour about the amount of people moving in and out of a house, which happened at all hours of the day and night.

The extensive investigation eventually resulted in nine people being arrested, all between the ages of 25 and 50, and of Moroccan and Algerian nationalities.

They have all been charged and provisionally released pending trial.

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Guardia Civil execute huge drugs bust in the war on crime in Torrevieja - Euro Weekly News

The plummeting human rights situation in the Philippines got even worse this week as the government began considering bills to reinstate the death penalty. The move by the House Committee on Justice came a week after President Rodrigo Duterte used his State of the Nation Address to call for capital punishment by lethal injection for drug offenders.

For years, the Philippines put people to death, particularly in cases of so-called heinous crimes. But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, under pressure from the Catholic Church, abolished the death penalty in 2006. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is inherently cruel and irreversible.

In 2007, the Philippines ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires countries to abolish the death penalty. Countries that are parties to the covenant and the protocol cannot reinstate the death penalty without violating their obligations under international human rights law. Doing so would also likely result in more than just statements of concern from foreign trade partners such as the European Union.

The Duterte governments overwhelming majority in Congress and continuing efforts to promote its campaign against illegal drugs means the justice committee is likely to support death penalty bills. Dutertes war on drugs has resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 persons at the hands of the Philippine National Police and thousands more by unidentified gunmen. Accountability for these police killings, including those that victimized children, is practically nonexistent.

Adopting the death penalty will mean spilling more blood in the name of Dutertes drug war. It will lead the Philippines to descend further into a rights-violating abyss. And the government will lose credibility and leverage to negotiate on behalf of Filipinos who face execution abroad.

Along with the Philippines withdrawal from the International Criminal Court in March 2019 and its human rights disinformation campaign at the United Nations Human Rights Council, reimposing the death penalty would only serve to further cement the countrys growing reputation as an international human rights pariah.

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Death Penalty Danger in the Philippines - Human Rights Watch