Category Archives: War On Drugs

Asbury Park Press Published 4:56 a.m. ET Dec. 8, 2019 | Updated 9:02 a.m. ET Dec. 8, 2019

The struggles of two New Jersey men -- one addicted to crack, the other to opioids -- show the differences and similarities of the two epidemics. Brian Johnston, Doug Hood, Peter Ackerman and Thomas P. Costello, Asbury Park Press

In the late 1980s, thecrackepidemic launched a War on Drugs that disproportionately arrested and punished black Americans.

But a generation later, when a new drug scourge struck white communities across the country, the response was dramatically different. The focus shifted to saving lives, treatment, and second chances.

A year-long investigation by the Asbury Park Press and the USA TODAY Network reveals a glaring double standard that hinges on race.

The project examineshow the responses to crack and opioidscreated anunfair justice system;what needs to be done to fix the inequity;the role that cultureand comedy play; andour top 5 takeaways from the project.

Here's a recap of our special report.

A young Richie Lapinski (left) with his brother and sister in a family photo. All three siblings would battle opioid addiction in the years to come, and are now in recovery.(Photo: Doug Hood )

The '80s crack era and the heroin crisis today are separated along racial lines when it comes to arrests andjail time.

America's views on addiction may have softened because of the terrible toll of the opioid epidemic, but the country is still plagued by stark racial disparities in drug enforcement and the collateral damage of ruined lives and hollowed-out neighborhoods caused by the "lock 'emup" policies of the past.

Follow the drastically different paths of those who were involved in the drug trade in both eras consumers, dealers and others through emotional and intimate interviews. See the crises through the decades in vintage photos and video footage (and an exclusive documentary).

Michelle Goodwyn, whose life was destroyed by crack, speaks candidly about the role of race in America's response to drug abuse. Tanya Breen, @tanyabreenphoto

Hear from those who fought the "war on drugs,"and learn what itll take to put an end to the injustice that persists even today.

The project also includes an interactive town-by-town database of cocaine and opioid arrests andcommentary from CNN's Van Jones,former President Barack Obamas first drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, Darryl Strawberryand more.

Here's what you need to know.

Search our interactive town-by-town FBI database of drug arrestsfor cocaine (which includes crack), or our opioids arrest database (which includes heroin) to dig deeper into the data.

In the 80s and 90s, jokes about crack were a staple on the comedy circuit; but jokes about opioid addiction are rare. Why is that? We explore the role society plays in how we view these crises.

This piece on solutions shares five thoughts from experts on how to fix the racial inequity that appears built into the system.

Here are the top things we learned duringour investigationinto the crack and heroin crises and what needs to be done going forward.

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Read or Share this story: https://www.app.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/2019/12/08/crack-heroin-opioids-race-double-standard-drug-wars-arrest-blacks-whites/4356684002/

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Crack vs. Heroin: Drug wars' racial double standard arrested millions of blacks, saw compassion for whites - Asbury Park Press

With the tap of a computer key, prosecutors in Los Angeles and Chicago plan over the coming weeks to erase tens of thousands of marijuana convictions from peoples criminal records, a key part of a progressive crime-fighting strategy that is seeking to rectify the wrongs of a decades-long drug war.

Prosecutors and legal aid advocates say purging arrest and conviction records removes barriers to jobs and housing, helping to stabilize and improve troubled communities. Jettisoning marijuana convictions has taken on added urgency as more states legalize the possession and sale of marijuana, a lucrative trade, and confront the vexing question of how to handle convictions for crimes that are no longer crimes.

We are undoing the harm prosecutors have caused, said Cook County States Atty. Kim Foxx, whose office handles prosecutions in Chicago, a city of 2.7 million residents, and who has been one of the leading national advocates of expunging peoples records.

Prosecuting these cases was not in the public interest, or in the interest of public safety. These convictions kept people out of the housing market, job market, Foxx said. Folks are going to be making billions of dollars on this, selling it by the metric ton, on the backs of communities that were devastated by the war on drugs. Is that fair? No.

Foxx plans on Wednesday to begin clearing nearly 18,000 misdemeanor convictions for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. The convictions are the first of potentially hundreds of thousands of marijuana cases, including felonies, that could be wiped from the countys court system.

Los Angeles County prosecutors say they plan to expunge or reduce to lower-level offenses some 50,000 marijuana convictions. The convictions could involve any of four different charges: possessing marijuana, cultivating marijuana, possessing marijuana for sale, and selling or transporting marijuana.

So many people, particularly in communities of color, have been disproportionately affected by cannabis convictions, Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said in a statement. My prosecutors are working diligently to ensure that we are on track to expunge or reduce 50,000 felony convictions in coming weeks.

Lacey is seeking reelection next year and facing a challenge from former San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon, who led an effort to purge marijuana convictions in his previous post.

Prosecutors are clearing convictions in response to state legislation that requires the automatic clearing of such criminal records. California, Illinois and New York have passed laws that put the onus on officials to clear the records, and other states are likely to follow suit.

Critics argue that automatically erasing such records is a mistake for a variety of reasons. The process could lead to errors, and convictions should be cleared on a case-by-case basis, not under a blanket policy, they say. Marijuana also has serious collateral consequences, they argue, pointing out that the illicit marijuana trade often was tied to violent drug gangs.

These are people who were convicted of making a decision to break the law, said Bob Bushman, president of the National Narcotic Officers Assns. Coalition. It was illegal when they did it and their convictions were the consequences for their illegal actions. They shouldnt get a free pass like it never happened.

Frankly, we see this as another attempt to normalize and make drug use acceptable, Bushman added. Were going down a very slippery slope when we allow people to choose what laws they want to respect and obey, and which ones they dont.

Advocates counter that clearing minor marijuana convictions is a small step in addressing decades of drug enforcement that disproportionately targeted minorities. Studies have shown that people of color are more likely to be arrested and punished in connection with marijuana offenses, even though white, black and Latino people use and sell marijuana at similar rates.

The result of that unequal enforcement, progressive prosecutors and advocates say, is a cycle of poverty and incarceration that has kept many minorities from getting jobs, going to school or finding housing.

Its truly the gateway conviction, Foxx said in an interview in her Chicago office.

That is true for many of Regina Hernandezs clients. A lawyer for Legal Aid Chicago, a nonprofit group that provides lawyers to the poor, Hernandez said her clients are eagerly awaiting the clearing of their marijuana records. After the county erases those cases, Hernandez will help clients seal other, often more serious, convictions.

Automatic expungement is a very good first step, Hernandez said. Our clients often have very complicated records. And marijuana is often the first conviction and then they cant get jobs or housing, and then there are more convictions.

To speed their work, prosecutors are getting help from Code for America, a nonprofit that aims to improve government efficiency by writing software to improve government services. The group has played a key role in automating the expungement process by creating programs that comb digital records and generate the required court motions to vacate convictions.

As district attorney in San Francisco, Gascon joined forces last year with Code for America, and the group aided in clearing more than 8,000 convictions -- before the state even passed the law requiring prosecutors to take such action.

It took just 10 minutes to do it, once they flipped the switch, Gascon said. It was crazy fast.

Gascon said he automated the process because manually clearing convictions devoured manpower. Erasing such convictions was too important, he said, to allow the process to drag on for months, or years.

Outside experts and advocates say the push to automatically clear pot convictions will gain more traction as more states legalize marijuana, the public becomes more comfortable with the drugs use and progressive prosecutors become more influential in the criminal justice system.

In addition to the three states that have passed laws for automatic expungement of conviction records, 12 others have enacted laws that allow residents to seek the erasure of low-level cannabis convictions. The legal process is time-consuming, complicated and often requires a lawyer, however, so many people arent taking advantage of the opportunity, advocates say.

States are saying, Because we are now regulating this, and it is a big industry, we need to undo past injustices, said Sam Kamin, a professor of law at the University of Denver who focuses on marijuana policy. They want to make this as easy as possible. Its the fair thing to do.

Eleven states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, with additional states legalizing medical pot. California voters in 2016 approved Proposition 64, which legalized, among other things, having and buying up to an ounce of marijuana, and allowed people to grow up to six plants for personal use.

The Proposition 64 changes were retroactive, which meant people convicted of marijuana offenses could petition to clear or reduce their records. But the process was time-consuming and hard to navigate, so few people sought relief.

Last year, the state passed a law requiring the California Department of Justice to create a list of everyone potentially eligible to get their records cleared and provide it to local prosecution offices.

Prosecutors are required to review all the cases by July 2020 and decide whether to challenge any dismissals or reductions. They must then inform the courts whether they agree with an expungement or will seek to block it.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) said he introduced the bill to make the process automatic because after Prop. 64 passed, he was frequently asked to help fund workshops to explain to people how to clear their records.

I would ask myself, why are we doing this at all? Why are they going through all these hoops, all these hurdles? Bonta said. Good government takes that wall away and brings you closer to your rights. It doesnt put barriers in the way.

Illinois state legislature in June became the first to pass a law legalizing the possession and sale of up to an ounce of marijuana (laws in other states were approved in referendums). The law also included a sweeping provision for the automatic expungement of low-level marijuana convictions by state officials and local prosecutors.

Foxx pushed hard for the measure, speaking about it in personal terms. She grew up in a public housing project, she said, and her mother smoked marijuana nearly every day to deal with bipolar disorder.

She told me it leveled her out, Foxx recalled. She never was arrested for it, but if she had been we could have lost our housing. The idea she could have been considered a criminal is absurd. She wasnt out there hurting people.

See the original post here:

States prepare to purge tens of thousands of pot convictions - Los Angeles Times

One of our new writing fellows, Camille Squires, published a piece on Monday telling us that the Kamala was a cop meme didnt originate with Bernie-bro-ish white guys. Rather, it originated on Black Twitter among African Americans who were keenly familiar with Kamala Harriss mixed record as Californias attorney general. Harris billed herself as Californias top cop, and in this era of mass incarceration that just didnt sit well. Its a good piece, and I only wish it had been longer since I would have been interested in a deeper dive into exactly what Black Twitter thought of Harris.

Squiress piece also reminded me that, after years of not getting around to it, I finally read Michelle Alexanders groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow, a few weeks ago. For those of you who havent read it, heres a nickel summary:

Alexander argues that America has a long history of controlling the black population by whatever means it can get away with. First it was slavery. Later, when that was outlawed, we turned to Jim Crow because it was the best we could do. Then, following the civil rights era, we turned to mass incarceration. It wasnt as effective as either slavery or Jim Crow, but again, it was the best we could do.

The core of Alexanders case is the obvious one: we imprison a lot of people, and among those people we imprison a far bigger share of African Americans than we do of white people. The excuse for this is the war on drugs, which led to the arrest and incarceration of vast numbers of black men. Crucially, Alexander says, we arrest black men for drug offenses that we barely touch white men for. We make up lots of reasons for this, but they mostly turn out to be spurious. Basically, even though black and white men are involved in the drug trade about equally, we mostly imprison only black men for violating our drug laws.

One of the things that struck me as I was reading The New Jim Crow was that it sounded familiar. Not just in its themes, but almost literally. And then it hit me: it sounded very much like some of the things that Angela Davis and her colleagues wrote about incarceration in the early 70s. After rummaging around a bit, I finally found what I was thinking of: an essay by Bettina Aptheker called The Social Functions of the Prisons in the United States, part of Daviss 1971 essay collection If They Come In the Morning. I reread it, and it was eerily similar to Alexanders book.

But it was written 50 years ago. How could it be so similar if Alexander was focused on two recent phenomena: the era of massive prison construction and the war on drugs? And that in turn prompted me to think about timing: Alexanders argument could only be persuasive if the data on black imprisonment fits the timing of the war on drugs. So I started to root around. This chart is the result:

This data is surprisingly hard to come by, and I had to cobble it together from a wide variety of sources. Luckily, in 1991 the Bureau of Justice Statistics published a short study called Race of Prisoners Admitted to State and Federal Institutions, 1926-86. I say luckily because this is not a statistic that can simply be pulled from a database somewhere. A researcher has to dig into the data, clean it up, and finally come up with a reliable and consistent table of data that covers a long time period. I also say luckily because this appears to be the only study ever done on this exact subject and it forms the backbone of my chart.

Thats the dark blue line. The orange line is simple prison population by race, and this is a little easier. Early data comes from census reports and later data from annual Justice Department bulletins. As you can see, it follows the blue line pretty closely and provides a good check that the 1991 study is fairly reliable.

So what does this show us? Surprisingly (to me, anyway), what it shows is that there wasnt a huge surge in the rate of black imprisonment during the drug wars of the 70s and 80s. Rather, the share of black men being arrested and imprisoned has gone up slowly but steadily since at least 1926. Between 1970 and 1990, the total number of people in prison skyrockets, but the share of prison admissions thats black continues the same slow ascent its displayed all along.

Im not sure what to make of this. Alexanders argument about the war on drugs might still be correct. Contrary to what most people think, our nations prisons arent mostly filled up with drug offenders. Its mostly filled up with robbers and murderers and carjackers and other folks who have committed violent crimes. So even if the drug offenders who are arrested and imprisoned are very heavily black, it might not affect the overall black imprisonment rate a lot.

Im not sure, and Im not going to draw any conclusions here. Maybe Im missing something in the data. Or maybe it doesnt matter. Maybe the black share of prisoners didnt change much during the prison-building boom of the 70s and 80s, but the simple act of imprisoning more people was all we needed to make sure we got lots of black men off the streets and under the control of the criminal justice system. If a few white men were collateral damage, so be it.

Either way, though, it seems like the story changes. The war on drugs, in particular, doesnt seem like it had a noticeable effect on black imprisonment rates, and Alexander tosses around numbers so blithely in her book that its impossible to construct a consistent statistical argument from them.

The New Jim Crow was published in 2012, and its entirely likely that its been discussed to death since then. Maybe my objections here are nothing new and have been addressed before. But if they have, I havent noticed it. Im curious if anyone has anything to say about this.

POSTSCRIPT: Its worth noting that the imprisonment rate of black men began to fall a couple of decades ago and has continued to fall ever since. Its still far higher than the white imprisonment rate, but theres at least some progress being made.

Id also like to point out, as usual, that even if you think the prison-building spree of the 70s and 80s was misguided, it wasnt completely irrational. Violent crime really did start to skyrocket in the mid-60s, and it really did scare peopleincluding black people in urban cores who were the most numerous victims. As we now know, the crime increase was largely caused by lead poisoning, but nobody knew it at the time. They just knew that their streets were unsafe and they wanted something done about it.

Read more here:

Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison? - Mother Jones

Progress has been made in the fight against the opioid epidemic, but it could all be lost unless we make a critical pivot in our approach.

The numbers are striking: In 2018, drug overdoses claimed more than 68,500 lives, and 47,600 were the result of opioid overdoses. The upside is that these same figures show that overdose deaths overall dropped about 5% year-over-year, the first decrease since 1990. Yet a deeper dive into these figures reveals where the problem grows more acute.

To this point, most of our efforts to combat this crisis have centered on opioid addiction treatment and over-use in the medical industry, and the numbers do indicate some positive impacts. Between legislation and self-regulation by pharmaceutical companies and doctors, important steps have been taken to reduce over-prescription and the risk of getting people unwittingly addicted in the first place. However, the larger opioid threat comes not from prescription abuse, but from illicit sources such as heroin and fentanyl.

In 2016, for example, around 75% of opioid-related deaths were caused by illicit drugs. When opioid-related deaths increased almost 13% the following year, fatalities from prescription painkillers leveled off but fatalities from fentanyl and related synthetic opiates rose by nearly 50%.

These statistics demonstrate that while there was indeed initially a need to introduce measures to prevent misuse of opioid-based painkillers, a narrow approach confining our focus to pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals threatens not only to slow down the gains that have been made but actually make the situation worse.

The problem is political as much as anything else.

It is politically easy but intellectually lazy to just go after big businesses or the pharmaceutical industry and focus on the softer side of the equation, such as treatment, education, and so on. Its also become far less popular to advocate the tougher, law enforcement side of things. This political reality is an over-correction from the much-maligned War on Drugs, which aggressively targeted supply but failed to control demand.

The current state of play is simply untenable. The much-needed awareness effort calling attention to over-prescription of opioids has now morphed into a series of politically-expedient measures and frivolous lawsuits aimed at the convenient boogieman of the pharmaceutical industry. Meanwhile, the criminal problem continues to grow. The reality remains that Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is the chief culprit.

It is up to 50 times more potent than heroin, so toxic that only a few milligrams of the stuff can kill. Carfentanil, a closely-related fabrication, is even deadlier, requiring only a single grain to result in a lethal overdose. Paradoxically, its potency is what makes it so attractive to addicts, who are continuously chasing an increasingly powerful high up until the one that kills them.

The dilemma gets even more complicated when tracing the origin of these drugs.

China is one of the largest sources of fentanyl and related substances. The country provides it to criminal enterprises, which then handle the distribution. Enormous quantities of fentanyl and its chemical components are sent from China to Mexico, where they are turned into the final product, sometimes mixed with heroin and other drugs, or pressed into counterfeit pills and then smuggled across the border.

Efforts by Chinese authorities to shut down the thousands of labs capable of producing synthetic opioid compounds have proven frustrating, and one wonders how motivated the Chinese government is to stem the tide of drugs into the U.S. in the first place. American law enforcement agencies, meanwhile, such as Customs and Border Protection, have found themselves woefully under-equipped to stop these substances at the border.

Meanwhile, the increasing restrictions placed on doctors who treat chronic pain have prevented patients from receiving relief in the form of properly prescribed pain medication another over-correction that may create a whole new class of potential victims for predatory drug dealers.

If we are serious about combating the opioid crisis, we need to acknowledge the limits of our current approach and recognize the problem as one of criminal interdiction. Law enforcement must be provided the resources necessary to fight illegal opioids where they exist, on the streets, and at the borders.

Kelly Sloan is a former employee of the Calgary Police Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police and graduated from Mount Royal University with a degree in Criminology. He now resides in Denver, CO.

Link:

We're at risk of losing all our progress in the fight against the opioid crisis - Washington Examiner

The New South Wales government will ignore the bulk of the recommendations from a landmark inquest into drug deaths at music festivals, with the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, saying she is closing the door on pill testing.

On Wednesday, the government announced its response to the findings of deputy state coroner Harriet Grahames inquest into six drug-related deaths of young people at music festivals in the state.

Handed down last month, the long-awaited report recommended the government introduce a pill-testing trial, limit the use of strip-searches at music festivals to cases of suspected drug supply and stop the use of sniffer dogs.

But the government has ignored the majority of the recommendations from the inquest, instead saying it would introduce drug amnesty bins at music festivals to allow festival-goers in the state to discard illegal substances without fear of prosecution or penalty.

What we want to do is send a strong message out to young people which is the most important one: do not panic if you see police officers, if you see anything that worries you because youve got pills on your person or your friends do, just throw the pill away, no questions asked, she said.

Just dont take them because that can kill you or kill one of your friends.

While the government has maintained a steadfast opposition pill testing, the premiers refusal to adopt the coroners recommendation was immediately criticised by advocates and both Labour and the Greens.

The emergency doctor David Caldicott, a long-time pill testing advocate who has overseen the only Australian trial of the method in ACT, wrote on Twitter that he found it hard to recall a time when a politician has announced that they are closing the door on any health intervention that has as much expertise behind it.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said amnesty bins on their own will not save lives.

My fear is that police will use amnesty bins as an excuse to increase their intimidation tactics in the hopes that they can scare kids into throwing away their drugs, she said.

The war on drugs has proven that a focus on getting people to not take drugs doesnt work. If we cant keep drugs out of prisons were not going to keep them out of festivals.

The reality is that thousands of people will still take drugs at festivals. Amnesty bins will do nothing to reduce the harms of drug use for those inside.

While she said some recommendations might still be considered in the future, Berejiklian said that she was closing the door on pill testing as an option as well as incorrectly claiming the method was unable to check drug purity.

Certainly I read the findings of the deputy coroners report and it was harrowing reading and if you look at the causes of deaths of those young people, it was pure MDMA in five out of the six cases and in the sixth case was the combination of cocaine and MDMA, she said.

None of those lives would have been saved [by pill testing] because it was pure MDMA that killed those young people.

In fact the inquest heard that purity testing had been available at music festivals in Europe for several years and in her findings Grahame wrote that though it was more expensive, claims pill testing couldnt check for purity were clearly incorrect.

In her findings, Grahame wrote that she was satisfied there was significant evidence that intensive and punitive drug policing operations were increasing drug-related risks and harm and called for a complete overhaul of government policy including the decriminalisation of possession.

I am of the firm view there is sound evidence that high-visibility policing and the use of drug dogs is a harmful intervention, Grahame said at the time.

The wholesale practice of strip-searching young people was of grave concern, and its use to target people suspected of drug possession was out of line with the purposes of the legislation.

Standing beside both the commissioner of police Mick Fuller and police minister David Elliott both vocal supporters of strip search tactics Berejiklian said the force was reviewing the operations of how strip-searches are conducted and to make sure that police follow the letter of the law.

Berejiklian has long resisted calls to introduce pill testing in the state despite a long list of medical bodies calling for it to be used. On Wednesday she said people should take personal responsibility for drug use.

I will say today dont take those pills, she said.

That is the strongest message we can send to everybody. Please dont take these pills. These pills can kill you. At the end of the day there is also, and I know, I have to be careful how I use my words, but there is also a level of personal responsibility here.

People have to step up and acknowledge that if you take a pill, if you take multiple pills, it can kill you, it can kill your friends.

Link:

Drug deaths inquest: Gladys Berejiklian says she is 'closing the door' on pill testing - The Guardian

Two Sidesto Every Story

To the Editor,

What happened to the premise that there aretwo sides to every story? I wish yourreporter did some more investigation regarding the Peace Park, aka: the TotLot, on Mt Vernon Street. I am 85 yearsold and have lived here 65 years, raised my children here, and was a communityactivist all my life. Years ago my neighbors and I appealed to the PortAuthority, who at the time owned the land at the corner of our street.

We got permission to turn the land into aTot Lot. We received no funding and rancake sales and dances in the parish hall to raise the funds. The men of the neighborhood built a woodenfence in the park to protect the children.For years this was used as a Tot Lot for children to play. Improvements were made from time to time asyounger mothers got involved (chain linked fence, benches, trees, trashcontainers, etc.). This was not an abandoned piece of property. The currentcontroversy is unfortunate, it came about when the people working on the lotwere questioned by the residents, and became enraged. It seems to me when anytype of construction takes place abutters are notified. I have been notified several times ofconstruction in my neighborhood, there was nothing to that effect in this case. I am sure this ugly situation could havebeen avoided. To name one person fordestroying this park with no evidence, just hearsay, is terribly unfair. I feel for the pain of the relatives of thesepeople who tragically died. Also for themany people who their actions have effected.There are many innocent victims in this war on drugs. Are we ready to name one more?

PS: If going forward the committee of thepeace park want my help, I am ready to assist.

Mary Hayes

Charlestown

Read more:

Letter to the Editor - Charlestown Patriot Bridge

RAMON T. TULFO

YES, there were some reports of rape by policemen involved in the war on drugs despite the blanket denial of the spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP) but these have been addressed and the culprits punished.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has reported that Philippine law enforcers were involved in the rape of women arrested in the drug war.

Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, the PNP mouthpiece, said the rape claims of the ICC were unfounded and devoid of truth from the beginning.

One drug related-rape took place in Sampaloc, Manila last year when a 15-year-old girl was raped by a rookie cop, who arrested both her parents for drug pushing.

But the culprit, Patrolman Eduardo Valencia, was severely punished and humiliated in public by Maj.Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Guilor Eleazar, then the chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Valencia has since been kicked out of the service and is now detained while facing charges of rape.

So, just because women arrested on drug charges were raped by their police captors does not mean that the government tolerates the rape of drug suspects.

* * *

Since 2015, there have been 43 rape cases filed against policemen that have been reported but most of them did not involve women who were arrested on drug charges, according to records.

And those reported cases were acted upon by the PNP.

Of the 43 rape cases, only 14 policemen-culprits have been dismissed from the service so far, a sad commentary on the brand of discipline within the Philippine National Police.

In most of those cases, the women were reportedly visiting husbands or other relatives who were detained for various offenses other than drugs.

Many of these women, who were detained, were enticed by policemen and jail guards.

But these reports are not so shocking, considering the ill discipline within the PNP and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

In the case of the rape of the 15-year-old girl, the suspect, Patrolman Valencia, justified his offense by claiming that raping female drug suspects was normal practice among policemen.

In Patrolman Valencias own words, Sir, hindi na po bago sa aming mga operatiba yung ganoon (Raping drug suspects or their relatives is nothing new among police operatives).

Valencia was addressing General Eleazar when he said that.

Sanamagan!

* * *

For the nth time, Im calling on President Digong to appoint Eleazar as the next PNP chief.

Eleazar, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class 1987, brooks no abusive behavior among the police rank and file, as well as in the officers corps.

Millions were witness to how Eleazar would beat up Metro Manila policemen who were involved in heinous crimes such as robbery, rape and murder even in front of reporters when he was NCRPO chief.

Eleazar didnt do that for show; reporters who covered him as NCRPO chief knew he was upset and could not hold his temper.

The country needs him at the helm of the PNP.

With three years to go before he retires in 2022 that is, if he gets appointed now and with his brand of discipline, Eleazar will be able to create mechanisms that could make our policemen among the most disciplined in the world.

* * *

In last Saturdays column, I wrote that retired Lt. Gen. Alexander Par Aguirre was indisputably in my opinion the most honest and incorruptible police officer of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC).

The PC is the forerunner of the PNP.

But Aguirre, my uncle-in-law (he married my mothers youngest sister Chit) vehemently takes issue with my saying that he was found to have a mistress.

Hi Mon, your compliments about my service record is fair, but the postscript you wrote is absolutely untrue. I will never do that or anything that will hurt your Auntie Chit and our reputation as good and loving husband and wife, Uncle Alex said in a text message to me.

Why am I smiling?

More:

The government never tolerates rape of drug suspects - The Manila Times

The Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC will complete its preliminary investigation into the war on drugs in 2020. Will it have a case to charge Duterte for crimes against humanity?

Editorial

InternationalCriminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda indicated on Thursday that the Officeof the Prosecutor would soon conclude its preliminary investigation intoFilipino President Rodrigo Dutertes drug war and could seek to open a formalinvestigation.

In a report, the prosecutor indicated that her office had significantly advanced its assessment since opening a preliminary investigation in 2018. All signs are pointing to a tumultuous 2020 for Rodrigo Duterte.

In an attempt to tackle the nations drug problem, Rodrigo Duterte sanctioned the extra-judicial killing of drug users and dealers across the Philippines. The president told police officers: Do your duty, and if in the process you kill one thousand persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you.

And protectthem he has. Since taking office, between 5,000 and 30,000 suspected drug usersand dealers have been killed. International governments, including the US,diverted aid from the Philippine National Police (PNP) in response to killings,citing their inconsistency with international norms.

In May 2017, 11 months after Duterte took office, lawyer Jude Sabio filed a complaint with the ICC accusing the president of engaging in crimes against humanity, prompting the ICC to open a preliminary investigation the following February.

The ICC is notoriously thorough, and it can take years to bring a case to trial. Of the roughly 12,000 complaints filed with the ICC since its birth, only nine have made it to trial.

That said, thereis a strong case to be made for bringing Duterte to trial. The first step ofthe process, currently underway, is a preliminary trial where the ICCestablishes jurisdiction. To meet the criteria, the national legal system mustbe unwilling or unable to prosecute the crimes itself.

There is strong evidence to indicate that the Philippine legal system is not capable of prosecuting crimes linked to Dutertes war on drugs. Since it began, only one case has been brought to trial in the Filipino courts. Three arresting officers were convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos during an anti-drug operation in 2017.

Thousands of killings have gone unsolved. There have also been reports of rapes carried out against females affiliated with the victims by police officers, and threats of violence made against critics of the war on drugs.

In an attempt to derail a potential ICC investigation, Duterte filed a written notification to withdraw the Philippines from the ICC tribunal in March of 2018. However, the withdrawal took a year to take effect, meaning the court retains jurisdiction over any crimes committed up to March 17, 2019.

There is asteady stream of families waiting to tell their stories of the circumstances thatled to the death of their loved ones. These narratives, combined with thewealth of evidence from journalists, academics, aid workers, and government officials,should provide ample grounds for taking the process to the pre-trial stage in2020.

Dutertesearly attempts to undermine the investigation are a likely indicator of what isto come. He once told reporters he would feed ICC investigators to crocodilesif they ever set foot in the country.

Dutertesobstinance will represent a challenge for the ICC. Without a police force orenforcement body, the ICC relies on states and cooperation to hand over suspects.Even if a pre-trial ICC judge issues a summons or arrest warrant for RodrigoDuterte or his former chief of police, Ronald dela Rosa, it will likely have towait until Duterte leaves office, and a willing collaborator becomes presidentto be enforced.

If Dutertespopularity remains high, even after leaving office, and his successor isunwilling to risk their popularity on cooperating with the ICC, Duterte could stillevade justice.

Should theICC decide to investigate in 2020, the Philippines National Police (PNP) will finditself in a fragile position.

History islittered with examples of senior police officers convicted of crimes against humanityfor their participation in human rights abuses carried out by violent regimes.

Ramn Camps and Miguel Etchecolatz were both senior Argentine police officers in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police. They were convicted of crimes against humanity for their participation in the forced disappearances and murders of regime opponents in the 1970s and 1980s.

After the fall ofthe Third Reich, when the concept of crimes against humanity was firstintroduced, senior police officials of the Nazi regime, including Ernst Kaltenbrunnerand Maximilian Grabner, were also charged and found guilty of crimes againsthumanity.

The weight ofhistory should press heavily on the senior figures of the PNP. If the ICCdecides to bring a case against Duterte and prosecutors seek the PNPs cooperationwith their investigation, PNP officers will have to decide whether to standwith Duterte and risk falling by his side or to cooperate in the hope that theyare spared from prosecution.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is urging the PNP to make the right decision. As Duterte steps down from office in just a little over two years, he would not be able to protect you. In fact, even Duterte wont be able to protect himself, he warned.

A trial in theICC could take several years to materialise. That is plenty of time for publicopinion to change, political leaders to rise and fall, and feelings of self-preservationto bubble to the surface. Those that Duterte has relied on to carry out hisviolent policy aimsthe Philippine policecould yet become his undoing.

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The ICC has nearly completed its preliminary investigation into Dutertes drug war: Is justice coming? - ASEAN TODAY

The landscape for marijuana sales is shifting so rapidly it is difficult for those who arent actively keeping track of state laws across the United States to know where it is legal.

Marijuana is fully illegal like it was in the 1970s in the whole country in only nine states. Most states have either legalized it, legalized medical marijuana or have decriminalized marijuana use. State policies will sometimes surprise you. Even in conservative Utah where I live, medical marijuana use is legal (though highly regulated). Eleven states and the District of Columbia have fully legalized marijuana.

The shifting sands have a tragic even if ironic outcome. In many places where marijuana is now legal, people are serving time or have served time in prison for activities that are now legal. Their records could haunt them forever.

Rashaan Everett, 24, is a cannabis entrepreneur who successfully launched a production and distribution business in California called Good Tree. In under two years, the business has generated $3.5 million, $2.2 so far this year, and he says the business is profitable.

Rashaan Everett

Recently, he spun out the technology he uses in the Good Tree business to allow other cannabis entrepreneurs to license it as well. The new business is called Growing Talent. The new business will also operate an incubator to train the licensees.

Some of those entrepreneurs will receive training at a deep discount. Instead, the equity partners will get their training in exchange for equity in their respective businesses. To qualify for the program, the entrepreneurs must be people of color who were adversely impacted by the war on drugs for committingor being closely related to someone who committedthen criminal acts related to marijuana.

Growing Talent is now raising money on Republic.co, a FINRA-registered crowdfunding portal. Under Regulation Crowdfunding, the startup can raise up to $1,070,000 from ordinary investors anywhere in the country. The offering has garnered over $100,000 in support in just a few weeks. Investors dont need to be accredited under SEC standards of wealth to participate in the offering.

Everett says, As more and more states legalize cannabis, there is a huge opportunity to cultivate and train entrepreneurs of color, especially those affected by the war on drugs, so they can begin to sell, manage, analyze, and expand their businesses under a nationally recognized brand.

The cannabis issue again leapt to the nations consciousness in recent weeks, when former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he opposed full federal legalization of marijuana and Senator Cory Booker famously quipped to Biden, I thought you must have been high when you said it.

Earlier this week, the FDA updated its official position on cannabidiol or CBD, the marijuana extract that contains virtually no THC, the chemical that creates the high that recreational users seek. Products containing CBD have proliferated in recent years and are now big business. The update includes the dire language, CBD has the potential to harm you, and harm can happen even before you become aware of it.

Everett says, It's slightly disingenuous of the agency to use such an alarming tone which startled the public (markets) without the emergence of new facts. Still, transparency around risks, manufacturing, and distribution is the only real solution moving forward. The FDA's statement reveals the need for proper research, clinical trials, and most importantly - regulation.

We need to deschedule so that we can learn more, he adds, referring to removing marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Agencys list of Schedule I controlled substances, those with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, that also includes heroin and LSD.

The crazy quilt, state-by-state approach to marijuana regulation in conflict with Federal law has odd effects. For instance, Good Tree, Everetts marijuana production and distribution business cant avail itself of Regulation Crowdfunding because Federal law still outlaws marijuana sales. But Everett believes, and Republic.co apparently agrees, that Growing Talent can.

One of the key issues the country must address, is how to treat people whose experience with the criminal justice system was related to their use or distribution of marijuana, something that is now legal in a dozen places. Everett is tackling this head on with his incubator program designed for them.

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Social Equity Activist Launches Incubator For Cannabis Entrepreneurs And Victims Of The War On Drugs - Forbes

If theres such a thing as the war on drugs the Government is Watford and the gangsters are Liverpool.

Unfortunately for the State, a lot of people are now supporting the narcotic equivalent of the Reds while an increasing number of younger men actually want to play for the team.

In the last few days weve seen the phenomena of the part-time dealer, an individual who, like a farmer, subsidises his income by dabbling in drugs.

Unfortunately for An Post worker Eoin Boylan it cost him his life but it wont put off other young men from following his criminal career path.

The likes of Love/Hate and a plethora of big-budget TV series like Narcos have a lot to answer for.

I have no doubt thousands of young men sitting in their living rooms are on the side of Pablo Escobar and not that of the law enforcement agencies opposing him in this never-ending war on drugs.

Along with the money, theres a certain cachet about being part of a drugs gang, especially if you have few other options in the way of gainful employment.

Theres a type of glamour to the extent Irish teenagers and young men are posing shirtless on social media with guns.

In their heads they are part of Mexican cartel or Nidge from Love/Hate especially when theyve been snorting their own product.

I know some of them and Im actually loosely related to a leading member of one gang which has been involved in dozens of recent incidents.

Five men have died in the killing fields of Coolock the latest is 22-year old postman Eoin Boylan who gardai believe was making around 1,000 a week from selling drugs.

His violent demise will not prevent others from taking his place or joining gangs no more than warnings from the authorities will deter the public from buying drugs.

For if the young men involved in the gangs are delusional so too are those who think they are going to win the war on drugs.

Simply urging habitual drug users to stop using cocaine and cannabis is akin to imploring bankers to stop screwing their customers its totally futile.

It goes along with the line that the unavoidable fact is violence shadows the drugs trade and there would be no drugs trade without the end user.

The trouble is it might be the case some people in the organisations making these pleas are drug users themselves.

It is not just the young who are fuelling demand as some in the media, legal profession, politics and banking also have a taste for coke.

Indeed some of our banks have been fined for laundering drug money... hardly a fitting punishment for a drugs war crime?

The public have been hearing his guff since after the murder of Veronica Guerin and the only difference from then and now is the gangs are better organised, have more guns and are less afraid to use them.

Weve been listening to these mantras for decades but recent statistics suggest cocaine use in Ireland has surpassed even Celtic Tiger-era levels.

As for winning the war on drugs, nothing could be further from the truth.

In the mid-1990s, John Gilligans gang was shipping in huge amounts of cannabis from the continent.

Now its believed Ireland is self sufficient when it comes to cannabis with the majority of the drug on the streets being produced in grow houses and its 10 times more potent than the stuff Gilligan imported.

Were it a legit industry its representative body, lets say Cannabis Growers Ireland would no doubt be boasting about an Irish success story.

Cocaine exporters would also be taking a bow as theres more than enough to go around here, leaving the Kinahan cartel able to open up new markets in lands as far away as Australia.

A Europol report this week warned Ireland has become an international base for the export of drugs.

The EU Drug Markets Report states Notably in Ireland many communities have been severely affected, with major impacts on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities and the functioning of local services and agencies.

This wont come as news to families on most of the housing estates around the country.

The widespread use of narcotics and the violence which followed it was once confined to the cities, but now drugs are everywhere.

Towns like Drogheda have rival gangs engaged in bloody feuds which has resulted in two deaths in the last three months.

Ive lost track of the murders Ive covered in my 25 years as a reporter and the situation regarding narcotics and violence is worse than ever.

The entire premise of the war on drugs is stupid in much the same way as the US Governments war on drink in the 1920s was idiotic and all Prohibition achieved was making the Mafia into the Kinahan cartel of its day.

Whether we like it or not, this State and the EU are facing stark choices and one involves the liberalisation of drug laws. The other is to carry on with the unwinnable war as communities continue to be devastated and the body count mounts.

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Pat Flanagan column: 'Ireland's Narcos generation winning the war on drugs' - Irish Mirror