Category Archives: War On Drugs

But its not just the old favourites that are available in such glut: psychedelic oddities such as DMT and 2-CB once known only to the tripping cognoscenti are now part of a narcotic smorgasbord found at every festival and every house party, along with LSD, nitrous oxide, and, of course, ketamine. And that is thanks to technology.

Read this next: The rise and fall and rise of ketamine

Darknet markets using encryption and bitcoin have revolutionised the way drugs are bought and sold, starting with the Silk Road in February 2011. And while occasional busts do occur, police claims of success are always overstated. As soon as one market closes, another opens. A quick scan of the web shows 25 markets all online today.

And even if you or your friends dont score on a darknet market, your dealer may well do.

Before 2015, I didnt have a connect for bulk mandy (MDMA), says Ben*, a 35-year-old bar worker and part-time dealer in east London. Now I get 250g for 1,200 on the dark web twice a month. Sometimes we use Wickr (a secure messaging app) if the markets go down. It costs me about a fiver a gramme. I knock it out at 3g for 100 (33 a gramme) delivered, on Friday and Saturday nights.

Read this next: We spoke to an ecstasy dealer from the acid house era

Ben uses WhatsApp and Signal (an encrypted messaging app) to collect orders in the week, and has two trusted workers making rounds at weekends. He, and they operate a multi-level marketing system: introduce new customers, and you get free drugs.

This model of technology-assisted acquisition and distribution is commonplace now, and its one that simply did not exist a decade ago.

Drugs, then, have never been more available, abundant, pure or cheap as they are in 2019.

And they have never been more popular, according to the latest Home Office data. Almost 4 per cent of people in England and Wales 1.25 million people reported they had taken a Class A drug in the last year. This is the highest proportion of Class A drug use since data-collection began in 1996.

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Bust to boom: How drugs won the war on drugs - Mixmag

This year, VICE Studios released Rat Park, a documentary that dives into the socio-psychological causes of drug addiction. By looking at drug epidemics in three countriesPortugal, the United States, and the Philippinesthe documentary focussed on how class, wealth, social status, life struggles, and politics play into the ongoing war on drugs.

The title comes from an experiment performed by Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander in 1978. He found that by keeping lab rats in isolation and giving them the choice between morphine and water drips, almost all chose the morphine, and many died. However, when the rats were placed in a sort of rat havena rat park, as he called itwith open space, activities, and other rats, almost all of them preferred water to morphine. Thus, he concluded that there are numerous factors that cause someone to use hard drugs, and that addiction is not as simple as the drug itself.

The documentary first peered into the life of Justin Kunzelman, a former drug user in Florida who has started a harm reduction not-for-profit organization called Rebel Recovery. Florida has had an ongoing opioid epidemic for nearly three decades. Before the so-called pain clinics were recently shut down, opiates were easily accessible in the state. Now, many who have since become addicted to them have turned to the cheaper alternative: Heroin. With the governments unsympathetic view of addicts who cannot simply stop using, it is up to organizations like Rebel Recovery to help them through their addiction in the safest environment possible.

Next, the film covered Vincent Go, a photojournalist in Manila who is actively investigating the killings of drug-users that are being carried out by the controversial president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. Since his declaration of the war on drugs, over 20,000 people have been killed due to suspicion of drug usage.

Countries like Portugal, on the other hand, have taken things in the opposite direction. In 2001, Portugal decriminalized possession of all drugs, and according to the documentary, overdose deaths have decreased by 80 per cent since the law went into effect. Tiago Praca, a visual artist from Lisbon who had previously been used heroin and crack cocaine for over 20 years, explained why criminalizing and demonizing drug usage is ineffective in the film.

There will always be drugs, Praca said. So, if you want to solve [] the problem, you just have to change the attitude.

Thomas Brown, an assistant professor of psychiatry at McGill, explained that Portugals success may cause other countries to follow suit.

The data from Portugal are promising, but decriminalization must be accompanied by a concerted, systematic, and an adequately supported bouquet of first, second, and third line preventative mental health strategies, Brown wrote in an email toThe McGill Tribune.

Norman White, a professor in the McGill Department of Psychology, agreed with Brown that decriminalization cannot be the sole solution.

Its pretty clear that the current policy of trying to prohibit all aspects of drug commerce and use is a total failure, White wrote. Some kind of harm reduction approach is clearly indicated.

Brown supports the idea that drug addiction is a complex concept.

Contribution to addiction is multifaceted: Environmental factors including drug accessibility, poverty, early life stress and trauma, [and] social genetics [are all factors], Brown wrote.

Indeed, Rat Parkshowcases that putting peopleand ratsin an environment where they can thrive socially and experience a high quality of life drastically diminishes their propensity to turn to drugs.

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Rat Park and the War on Drugs - McGill Tribune

Rarely do we get the chance to right the wrongs of the past. But Rhode Island has an unprecedented opportunity to do exactly that in legalizing marijuana. Marijuana criminalization has been the tip of the spear in the disastrous War on Drugs. A drug whose criminalization ravages communities and overstuffs prisons is now set to make a few wealthy business owners even richer. Will Rhode Islanders demand that our state right a grave wrong, or will we simply let a few cash in on decades of injustice?

Right now, there are still tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders with marijuana charges on their record; convictions have disproportionately impacted people of color. The ACLU notes that black Rhode Islanders were 2.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white neighbors, despite similar marijuana usage rates. These convictions prevent people from accessing jobs, housing, education, and other pillars of stability. In 2017 alone, nearly 600,000 people across the country were arrested for marijuana possession, and nearly half of those arrested were people of color. While some Rhode Island elected officials have championed this issue for years state Representatives Scott Slater, Anastasia Williams, and Marcia Ranglin-Vassell, Senator Joshua Miller, and many others our state has been too silent for too long on the need for equity and the need to repair the damage so wantonly perpetrated.

In 2018, the state passed an important law to fast-track record expungement of criminal records, but the process remains expensive, cumbersome, and complicated. In short, people with fewer resources will have less access to this remedy. Instead, the state must do the equitable thing: administratively expunge records from the back end so people can build lives for themselves after surviving a harm in which we were all complicit.

As the new economy develops, state leaders must ensure that impacted communities have meaningful access. The financial capital and connections necessary to open a dispensary often present insurmountable hurdles for many people who might want to plant their feet in the lucrative industry. Responsively, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission instituted a Social Equity Program, intended to give people wronged by the drug war access to the new economy

Although not quite a silver bullet, this program begins the process of acknowledging the duplicity of allowing well-connected entrepreneurs to capitalize on decades of destruction. While the revenue generated from legalization is slated to go primarily to the General Fund, it is imperative that the state reinvest those dollars in the communities torn apart by criminalization.

Within our lifetimes, we may not again have the opportunity to meaningfully repair historical harm. Lets ensure that we do just that: Clear the records, support access, and reinvest where it matters most.

Jordan Seaberry is director of Public Policy and Advocacy at the Nonviolence Institute. Annajane Yolken is executive director of Protect Families First.

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A way to right a drug war wrong - The Boston Globe

LONDON Homeless drug users in Scotland will be allowed to inject pharmaceutical-grade heroin twice a day under the supervision of medical officials as part of a new program intended to reduce drug deaths and H.I.V. infection.

From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, a $1.5 million facility in Glasgow that opened on Tuesday will allow a handful of drug users to receive doses of the drug alongside other treatment for their physical and psychological health, according to Glasgow City Council.

The pilot project, known as heroin-assisted treatment, is the first such licensed operation in Scotland, a country that has been called the drug death capital of the world. It has struggled to cope with high rates of fatal drug overdoses and its worst H.I.V. outbreak in decades.

The program will target those with the most severe, longstanding and complex addiction issues, the City Council said.

It aims to reduce the risk of overdoses and the spread of viruses such as H.I.V. by prescribing diamorphine the clinical name for pharmaceutical-grade heroin for patients to inject in a secure clinical room under the supervision of trained medics.

The clinic opened in Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, after Britains Home Office granted it a license, and follows a similar initiative that began in Middlesbrough, England, last month.

Up to 20 patients are expected to take part in the first year of Glasgows program, with the number set to double in the second year.

Heroin-assisted treatment is a much more clinical service aimed at getting people stable, Andrew McAuley, a senior research fellow on substance use at Glasgow Caledonian University, said in an interview on Wednesday. The program is a significant step forward, albeit for a very small number of people.

The program, called the Enhanced Drug Treatment Service, is intended for those who have exhausted other treatment options such as residential rehabilitation, methadone and community addiction services. It is available only to drug users already involved with the citys team fighting addiction among homeless people.

The program is not intended to be long-term, with research suggesting that clinical benefits can be seen after six weeks of treatment.

It requires patients to visit the city clinic twice a day, seven days a week, a demand that may be too much for those not used to such a routine, Mr. McAuley said.

Its a large commitment, he said.

Glasgow has ambitious plans to support its residents with drug-addiction issues, but Scottish officials say it has been hindered by Britains 1971 drug law.

Glasgow officials have pushed for years to establish consumption spaces in the city where drug users could inject their own drugs in a safe, clean environment, but their efforts have been rebuffed by the British government.

Britains Misuse of Drugs Act, the 1971 law, stipulates that anyone concerned in the management of any premises or any occupier who knowingly allows drugs to be prepared there can face prosecution.

It is still illegal to have safe consumption sites, which puts us out of sync with most Western countries, said Mr. McAuley, whose research group will evaluate the Glasgow program. Glasgow is arguably the most compelling case for a drug consumption site.

Austin Smith, a policy officer at Scottish Drugs Forum, a national resource of expertise on drug use issues, said, This part of the law was to stop people opening up opium dens and was never intended to stop safe services, but that is what it does.

More than 100 supervised consumption services have been established in countries like Australia, Canada, France, Switzerland and Germany, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based organization that campaigns to end Americas war on drugs.

A report on Scotlands drug problem that was released this month by the British Parliaments Scottish Affairs Committee endorsed the treatment method.

Safe drug-consumption facilities are proven to reduce the number of drug-related deaths and can act as a gateway to further treatment, said Pete Wishart, the committees chairman. Every drug death is preventable, and these centers could play a vital role in addressing Scotlands drug crisis.

Scotlands drug problem has worsened in recent years, and official statistics indicate that drug-related deaths there are at a record high. Fatal drug overdoses have been highest among older users.

The number of deaths directly caused by drugs has risen in Scotland almost year on year since records began in the mid-1990s. And the number has climbed drastically: to 1,187 drug-related deaths last year from 244 in 1996, according to the National Records of Scotland.

Scotlands drug death rate is nearly three times that of Britain as a whole and is the highest in the European Union.

By some measures, Scotland has even surpassed by a small margin the United States rate of 217 drug-related deaths per million of the population.

The number of homeless drug users with H.I.V. in Glasgow also increased in recent years, which one study attributed to the sharing of needles and other equipment. City health workers say the outbreak has still not been contained.

This challenging social issue demands innovative treatments, the chairwoman of Glasgows Alcohol and Drug Partnership, Susanne Millar, said in a statement on Tuesday.

People might question why health services are spending money providing heroin for people with addictions, she said. The answer is we cant afford not to.

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Where the Nurse Prescribes Heroin - The New York Times

At last the penetration of narcotics has caught the attention of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah who has ordered a high-powered task force to curb this problem, especially in educational institutions. The use of drugs in schools and colleges, especially the elite ones, is quite a new phenomenon, which has occasionally made headlines because of deaths of students from overdose. Seeing the prevalence of drugs, the chief minister reportedly said that we all had to work together to stop it right from the borders to cities to schools. His statement points to the failure of the law-enforcement agencies and border control bodies. For years, heroin and cannabis are being smuggled here from Afghanistan, cocaine from South Africa and synthesis and ice from China. Similarly, the widespread use of drugs on streets and campuses is the utter failure of families and parents to keep their youth on the right track. In all, the whole society should be blamed for the fiasco.

The new Sindh body to control drug abuse the Chief Ministers Task Force on Narcotics Control includes the chief minister as the head and director general of Sindh Rangers, inspector general of police, excise and health ministers and secretaries, chief ministers law adviser, regional director of the Anti-Narcotics Force and provincial heads of intelligence agencies as members. The results of the top-down approach will be measured in terms of controlling drug trafficking and coordinating with administrations of schools and colleges. Under the body, three sub-committees have been tasked with checking inter-provincial borders for surveillance on drug traffickers, monitoring and conducting operations against drug dealers, and coordinating with educational institutions to stop drug penetration.

Recently, Federal Minister Sheheryar Afridi announced conducting students drug tests across the country to ascertain the level of drug use in schools. The new task force may coordinate with the ministry as well as other provinces to launch a coordinated war on drugs in campuses. Most of the addicts start their catastrophic journey as recreational users only to end up as hardened addicts ready to be exploited by gangs of drugs dealers. While control on drug delivery is important, the rehabilitation of addicts should also be taken into consideration. *

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Sindhs war on drugs - Daily Times

Representative Matt Gaetz was quoted in the article with, We are being dragged forward by our constituents.

Even if your constituency is and has been predominantly conservative, why are you complaining about meeting the demands of YOUR constituency? Isnt that the purpose of electing you to office?

Although I do agree with his thoughts that the recent amendment to the bill where the 5 percent excise tax will go to helping the people most targeted by the war on drugs start new legal weed businesses is most likely too progressive for the Republican controlled senate to pass if this gets through the house.

I believe the States Act would have a much better chance at becoming law, because it has had more support from both major parties. While it does not have the federal aid programs, those are things that could potentially be added later with a different majority senate. I would prefer to take a smaller progressive step in the present, than be stubborn for the aid programs and not see this pass for another 4 years (or ever).

I am not disputing the discrepancies that lie in the war on drugs and judicial system that attacks them between issues of race/sex/wealth; they are all skewed in some way or form, usually to the deficit of the less fortunate. However, current aid programs exist and we could develop more in the future; dont let this hiccup hold back the possibility of removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.

Payton Mitten, senior biology major, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh

Excerpt from:

Re: Legalizing marijuana in the U.S. takes first step in House | PennLive letters - PennLive

In 2019 we bid farewell to one of crime fictions iconic investigators, Bernie Gunther. His final outing, completed shortly before author Philip Kerrs untimely death last year, is just as gripping and immersive as its predecessors. Metropolis (Quercus) is set in Berlin in 1928, where the young Gunther finds himself on the trail of a killer of sex workers and a serial murderer who targets disabled war veterans.

This years most impressive debuts include the brilliant literary thriller Kill [redacted] by Anthony Good (Atlantic), an inventive exploration of the morality of revenge after a terrorist attack, and Holly Watts To the Lions (Raven), the first in a new series featuring investigative reporter Casey Benedict. Others worth seeking out are Kia Abdullahs thought-provoking legal thriller, Take It Back (HQ); Laura Shepherd-Robinsons vivid evocation of the slave trade in Georgian England, Blood & Sugar (Mantle); and Scrublands (Wildfire), an accomplished slice of outback noir by Australian journalist Chris Hammer. American Spy (Dialogue) by Lauren Wilkinson is the story of black agent Marie Mitchell, recruited in the 1980s by the CIA as the bait in a honeytrap for the president of Burkina Faso, whose fledgling government the Americans are keen to destabilise.

Established practitioners who go from strength to strength include Mick Herron, whose Slough House series of spy thrillers the sixth and most recent title is Joe Country (John Murray) is being televised, with Gary Oldman slated to play the spectacularly repulsive Jackson Lamb. The final thriller in Don Winslows Cartel trilogy, The Border (HarperCollins), is social fiction at its finest, showing how Mexican gangsters, enriched by decades of Americas wrong-headed war on drugs, are now taking advantage of the opioid crisis. Theres more astute state-of-the-nation commentary, this time on Brexit Britain, from John le Carr in Agent Running in the Field (Viking), and on US race relations in Heaven, My Home (Serpents Tail) by Attica Locke. Also on the police procedural front, but in the UK, Jane Casey published her eighth DS Maeve Kerrigan book, Cruel Acts (HarperCollins), and Sarah Hilarys DI Marnie Rome made her sixth appearance in Never Be Broken (Headline) two intelligent series whose protagonists have real emotional depth.

Tana French took a break from her superb Dublin Murder Squad series for The Wych Elm (Viking), a compelling examination of the unreliability of memory, the effects of trauma and the relationship between privilege and what we perceive as luck. Other changes of direction include The Chain (Orion), a standalone thriller from Adrian McKinty, author of the Sean Duffy series, which invests a pyramid kidnapping scheme with compellingly appalling plausibility; and The Whisper Man (Michael Joseph), a police procedural with supernatural overtones by Steve Mosby, writing as Alex North. After almost a decade, Kate Atkinson was reunited with her series character Jackson Brodie. In Big Sky (Doubleday) the gruff PI returns to his native Yorkshire and becomes involved in a case of human trafficking and a historic paedophile ring.

Catastrophically dysfunctional friendships are the key ingredient in an increasingly popular domestic noir sub-genre, of which The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins) is an outstanding example. When a group of thirtysomething chums go on a mini-break to an exclusive hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands, things soon begin to unravel: everyone, it turns out, has something to hide. Another exceptional read in this vein is Mel McGraths The Guilty Party (HQ), in which a group of friends all have reasons for not reporting the rape of a stranger who is later found dead.

Something this reviewer is delighted to see on the rise is what might be described as hot-flush noir put-upon middle-aged women against the world a hitherto neglected sub-genre that, given the crime-reading demographic, publishers really ought to be encouraging. Two stand-out examples are Helen Fitzgeralds sublime Worst Case Scenario (Orenda), a foul-mouthed, satirical revenge thriller in which Glasgow probation officer Mary Shields battles career burnout and the menopause, and The Godmother (Old Street) by Hannelore Cayre, translated from French by Stephanie Smee. Winner of both the Grand Prix de Littrature Policire and the European Crime Fiction prize, this witty, acerbic gem is the story of a fiftysomething widowed mother of two who, facing a precarious future, decides to become a drug dealer.

This year saw the 50th anniversary of the Manson murders and books exploring cults included Lisa Jewells The Family Upstairs (Century) and Fog Island (HQ) by Scientology survivor Mariette Lindstein, translated from Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles.

Lastly, there have been a number of welcome reissues, including Susanna Moores erotic classic In the Cut (W&N), a terrifying tale of death and sex first published in 1995, and, from several decades earlier, The Listening Walls and A Stranger in My Grave (both Pushkin Vertigo), by the queen of north American domestic noir, Margaret Millar (1915-1994). It all adds up to a bumper year.

Save up to 30% on the books of the year at guardianbookshop.com

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Best crime and thrillers of 2019 - The Guardian

Speckles of sweat form on his brow.

On December 28, 2016, the sound of a motorcycle parking outside the 19-year-olds girlfriends house roared through music in Caloocan City in Metro Manila, Philippines. Then gunfire.

It was all a blur, next thing I know I realise I got shot on my hip, said Ryan.

Blood gushed from his side and he collapsed. But the bullets kept coming.

I looked around and everyone was dead, he said.

Three of his friends, two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old were shot by masked gunmen. His girlfriends brothers pregnant wife, her brother and mother were killed. There were allegations the gunmen were targeting a drug suspect.

Police look at the body of Rolito Nunez at the crime scene in Barangay Old Balara, Quezon City in April, 2017. Credit:Kate Geraghty

They were buried on January 10, 2017 in what is now known as the Caloocan massacre, casualties in Philippines President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs.

They have no empathy, to them its like theyre merely killing animals, Ryan says.

Three years after the bloody incident, he is still in hiding.

After his election in June 2016, Duterte launched a hardline campaign against drugs, claiming the Philippines had become a "narco-state". Thousands of people have been killed since, accused of being drug dealers, drug users or both.

President Rodrigo Duterte.Credit:AP

Cruzs friends added to an increasing body count, but the true number is widely disputed.

The Filipino government claimed that as of March 2019, there were 5375 deaths of drug personalities during anti-drug operations.

In June, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Bernard Banac said publicly the number was closer to 6600 killings by police. He said they were killed because they were armed. The casualties have included three-year-old Myca Ulpina, killed in raid targeting her father Renato Dolofrina in June.

Human rights activists light candles in Quezon City for the victims of extra-judicial killings.Credit:AP

According to the PNP, 22,983 deaths were classified as "homicides under investigation" because they were outside "legitimate police operations".

But local media reports the death toll may be up to 29,000, and made allegations of systematic extrajudicial executions and vigilante-style murders fuelled by a culture of impunity.

Police attribute them to drug turf wars and Duterte vehemently denies that police are in cahoots with vigilantes.

Ryan was 19 when he was shot, he was taken to hospital. A few weeks later Rise Up - originally a group of churches which formed in response to the war on drugs - quickly placed him in hiding.

When I first met him, he was nervous. He turned his shirt inside out, worried that people may recognise his clothes when being filmed. Two years later, he is still just as scared.

I am scared that they will hurt me or even kill me, he said.

Shanty dwellers living inside the cemetery look at bodies being buried in Manila, Philippines.Credit:Getty Images

"Ive endured so much for so long. I cant go home anymore. The fear is constant. Whenever I see a cop, I stay away, I avoid them. Were meant to trust them but its the opposite. You cant trust them if they themselves kill.

Rise Up coordinator Deaconess Rubylin Litao couldnt say how many people they were assisting in hiding, but that not everyone who had been impacted by an extra-judicial killing was living undercover.

There are people in different kinds of situations, what we try to do is help people to know what they need to do given their lives are different before they were impacted by the war on drugs, she said.

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We are not encouraging people who have had a family killed to automatically go into hiding, she said.

We believe what is most helpful is when the community can bond together and can support each other.

The dull pain of the shrapnel still haunts him, he tells me through a translator.

The shrapnel of the bullet is still down near my knee. Thats why when it is cold out it still really hurts. I can still feel it, he said.

At night, the shooting floods back to him in vivid detail.

The impact is too much, he said. I still have trouble concentrating on things. I cant focus.

Rise Up helped relocate him, so he no longer lives near his family or friends and his true identity is shielded from his neighbours. Only Rise Up knows who he really is.

He speaks with his father and brother through a messaging service, but it's too dangerous to see them.

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I usually want to be low-profile, especially if I met my brothers, they will be tailed and they will follow me and the threat will be continuous to me, he said.

I am very hesitant and cautious about travelling and thats what affects me.

For me its difficult because I havent done anything wrong, so what am I hiding for?"

Duterte has faced international criticism for his bloody crusade and sparked calls that his actions amount to crimes against humanity.

Ryan believes the main targets in the war on drugs have been petty criminals in crime-prone urban slums.

"Its the poor that he targets. We the poor got him elected, but we can also bring him down. As long as we can, well try to, he said.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is investigating the killings and the International Criminal Court is conducting a preliminary examination of allegations of crimes against humanity, but Duterte vowed to continue his anti-drug until the last day of his presidency in June 2022.

In March, Manila withdrew from the ICC, claiming it was never a part of the tribunal.

Despite the deaths, Duterte remains hugely popular with Filipinos, although according to Pulse Asia survey, his approval rating dropped from 85 per cent in June to 78 per cent in September.

On November 6, Duterte handed the" war on drugs" to his vice-president and former critic Leni Robredo.

Leni Robredo is sworn in as Vice-President in June. She will keep that job - which is elected separately to the presidency - but quit her cabinet post.Credit:AP

If I could save one innocent life, my principles and my heart tell me, that I should try, she said.

But just as quickly as she was given the title, was it stripped.

"They may have taken away my position but they cannot take away my determination to stop the killings, hold the responsible to account and win the campaign against illegal drugs," Robredo said.

A for Ryan, Rise Up is giving him a new chance at life.

The former construction worker missed out on an early education due to his poor upbringing, but he's started attending an alternative learning school and peppers our conversation with English.

*Ryan (not his real name) has been in hiding for almost three years after he was shot in 2016 in Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs continues.Credit:Nicole Precel

We can see the changes in them and were so proud of them, but we also know that the system itself, life itself has not been very fair or caring to many poor families, said Litao.

Ryan is trying to make the best of his life in the shadows. He dreams of one day becoming a teacher or a doctor.

"I'm looking forward to someday... not being in hiding anymore. I just want to make sure that (the people) who killed my friends and what happened to me will be held accountable."

"Life is precious and important to us. So thats why we need to take care of every life," he said.

-with Reuters

Nicole Precel is a video journalist and reporter at The Age. She is also a documentary maker.

Originally posted here:

'I looked around and everyone was dead': life in hiding - Sydney Morning Herald

The last Democratic debate brought the expected sparring and little substantive content about how we might address the many serious challenges we face as a nation. It would appear that the only item the candidates can agree on is to condemn the orange man currently occupying the White House.

It is even more unfortunate that the only truly independent voice, that of Tulsi Gabbard, is being drowned out by the drivel being spewed out by the traditional Democratic National Committee outlets (like the New York Times and CNN). Intellectual luminaries and foreign policy experts such as Times Maureen Dowd, Gail Collins and Bianca Vivion Brooks variously suggested that she return to the Fox news nation (Dowd), that her best talent is tearing down other candidates (Collins) and that she is robotic, uninspiring (Brooks).

Sadly, this reflects the reaction of a large majority of Democrats who know little or nothing about Gabbards progressive policies, and who prefer to obsess about substitute problems while the nation burns. One might even ask, where is identity politics when we really need it? This is, after all, a female candidate and a woman of color.

Uniformly, the left-leaning talking heads condemn Gabbard for her appearance on Fox news, while at the same time lamenting the political divisions in America.

It is particularly puzzling when a candidate who expresses the desire to build the coalition around the country and bring people together (Harris) chooses to lambast Gabbard for attempting to bridge the deepest political divide in America by speaking to Fox news audiences as a Democrat. But you cant have it both ways. If we wish to bridge the gaps and reduce the hate speech on both sides of the political spectrum, someone must reach out to the other side.

Gabbard is clearly a Democrat, a progressive Democrat. Her policies embody all of the values that Democrats hold dear. In addition, she is the only candidate who sees the astronomical costs of the endless wars we wage, and, in her words, misguided regime change attempts, which are bankrupting us both financially and morally.

But all of her valid criticisms of the established policies, often policies being promoted by both parties (regime change wars, the war on drugs), are eclipsed in a political climate where dissent is not tolerated.

More than anything, Gabbard has been guilty of the crime of apostasy. Whether its independent thought now, criticisms of President Obamas foreign policies, or her 2016 resignation as a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee due to her desire to endorse Bernie Sanders, rather than the DNCs favorite Hillary Clinton. (Might there, perhaps, be a connection between Hillarys recent accusations of Gabbard being a Russian asset and Gabbards earlier support for Bernie?)

Tulsi Gabbard is not attacking the Democratic Party. Rather, she is attempting to address some of the deep flaws in how the Democrats have governed the nation, in particular, the hawkish foreign policy perhaps the one point of agreement between Democratic and Republican administrations. She dares to speak up and represents a dissenting voice among the Democrats when it comes to foreign policy. For this, she is marginalized, called a Russian asset, accused of collaborating with Putin and Assad and a range of other libelous accusations.

Dissent is not tolerated in the Democratic Party and those who dare to criticize the partys idols pay a heavy price. Strange state of affairs for a party that so emphasizes diversity and inclusion. It would appear that not all diversities are created equal. Diversity of political and policy opinions is certainly not encouraged.

It is truly unfortunate, for our country and for the world, that Tulsis ranking in the primaries reflects the persistent efforts by mainstream media to discredit her and her candidacy. This, of course, is not new. We only have to go back to 2016 and see what the main stream media did to Bernies campaign to see how ideas that dont conform to the DNC mantras and threaten the status quo are handled by the main stream media.

Sadly, her current standing also reflects the fact that critical, independent, informed thought in America is becoming extinct.

Gabbard has the intellect, experience, knowledge and moral fortitude to be the next president and to effect real change in America. Not the type of change that brought us the first eight years of continuous wars ever under President Obama, but a change that would channel the trillions of dollars currently fueling the endless wars to repairs of our failing infrastructure and educational system, as well as to implementing a Medicare for All program and developing sustainable technologies.

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Guest column Eva Hudlicka: What happened to independent thought in America? - GazetteNET

Sydney grandmother Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto has won her appeal against a death sentence for drug trafficking in Malaysia and will be freed after nearly five years in jail and 18 months on death row.

Her appeal for trafficking more than 1kg of crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, through Kuala Lumpur airport in December 2014, was heard in Malaysias court of final appeal on Tuesday.

Chief justice of Malaysia Tengku Maimun Binti Tuan Mat delivered the finding, overturning her conviction and ordering her release. Exposto was led from the court still shackled.

Expostos long-running case had won global sympathy after judges heard how she was set up through a love scam online.

The 55-year-old grandmother from Cabramatta West in Sydney was initially found not guilty in a lower court after it heard how she was set up in an online boyfriend scam by a man who identified himself as Captain Daniel Smith, a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan.

They arranged to meet in Shanghai, where he claimed he was to lodge documents for his retirement from the military, but he never turned up.

Instead, Exposto was befriended by a stranger. She testified that he had asked her to take a black backpack, which she thought contained only clothes, to Melbourne.

During a stopover in Kuala Lumpur customs officers noticed irregular stitching inside the backpack and found packages of ice hidden inside the lining of the bag.

She was charged, and while the lower court initially believed she had been an unwitting drug mule, prosecutors appealed and won and she was sentenced to death early last year.

Her final appeal against that sentence had been complicated by changes in laws governing executions.

There is currently a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Malaysia as legislation is pending that will remove mandatory death penalties for traffickers and give judges greater discretion in sentencing.

Expostos lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court of final appeal on Tuesday that his client was so naive about drugs that when customs officers told her theyd found ice in the bag she was carrying she said it couldnt be because it would have melted. Hed earlier described her conviction as perverse.

But prosecutors argued love sickness was not a defence for drug trafficking and she could not appeal to naivet. Ignorance is not a defence.

Following the quashing of her conviction, Exposto said in a statement: I thank God and my lawyers for my freedom after almost five painful years in jail.

Her son, Hugo Pinto Exposto, told reporters outside court she had missed a lot of precious moments.

Itll be overwhelming for her to come back home. All I want to do is just take her home, take her away, and just catch her up on all the things shes missed.

Harsh and mandatory penalties for drug trafficking were introduced in south-east Asia after intense lobbying by the United States amid its war on drugs and a strategy to curb heroine and opium smuggling out of the notorious Golden Triangle in the 1970s and 1980s.

Among those caught in the crackdown on narcotics were Australian drug traffickers Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, who became the first westerners sent to the Malaysian gallows, in 1986.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

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Sydney woman Maria Exposto has drug conviction and death sentence overturned in Malaysia - The Guardian