Category Archives: War On Drugs

President Donald Trump was recently briefed on the opioid crisis, and he offered the following advice afterward. The best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place. If they dont start, they wont have a problem So, if we can keep them from going on and maybe by talking to youth and telling them: No good, really bad for you in every way. But if they dont start, it will never be a problem.

It is obvious that Trump has no understanding of addiction or abuse. His words are reminiscent of Nancy Reagans Just say no policy and drug education programs such as the DARE program. The evidence is clear that Just say no and DARE were and are nave and ineffective.

So, the message is dont start but for those who do, the Trump administration has a second prong to their approach, which is the criminal justice system and punishment.

COMMENTARY: Im a Trump supporter. Thank you for disagreeing with me.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced earlier this month the requirement that federal prosecutors must charge drug offenders with the most severe offenses possible. Sessions words in the speech send a clear message: In recent years some of the government officials in our country I think have mistakenly sent mixed messages about the harmfulness of drugs We cannot capitulate intellectually or morally unto this kind of rampant drug abuse. We must create a culture thats hostile to drug abuse.

For the past 50 years, we have been waging a war on drugs that has relied nearly exclusively on supply control and tough punishment. It hasnt worked.

Despite the logic of limiting the availability of drugs and threatening and punishing those who are involved in the drug trade and using drugs the report card for tough on drug crime is bleak. We have invested more than $1 trillion during the past 45 years on the war on drugs. There is essentially no evidence in support of the success of that effort, and one would be hard-pressed to find many with knowledge of the war on drugs who would claim it has worked.

Why has it failed?

The medical community declared nearly 70 years ago that drug and alcohol addiction and dependence are medical disorders. We cant punish diabetes or cancer away. Why do we think getting tough on addiction would work?

To complicate the landscape, approximately 40 percent of opioid-dependent individuals have depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder, and some have co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorders are also present, though less frequently. Punishment is not only ineffective, it often exacerbates these mental health disorders.

Punishment also does not deter those with substance use disorders. Today, the vast majority of individuals who enter the U.S. criminal justice system have problems with drug addiction, dependence or abuse. The recidivism rate for those with such disorders is nearly 80 percent. The reason is simple: Punishment does nothing to address drug abuse, dependence or addiction.

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Its time to stop disregarding the scientific and clinical evidence. Its time to get realistic about how we should address the drug problem. The evidence is unequivocal: We cannot effectively control supply. There is simply too much money to be made. We should recalibrate drug policy by ramping up evidence-based strategies of demand reduction.

The only way to reduce the incidence of substance-use disorders is effective treatment. Ideally, that should occur outside the confines of the justice system with community-based treatment. Those who end up in the justice system should be diverted to treatment, not simply locked up.

Drug abuse is a public health problem. It is time we treat it that way.

Kelly is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas and an author of books on criminal justice reform.

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Commentary: Trump's policy is another 'war on drugs'... - MyStatesman.com

Photo by Philip Cosores

The War on Drugs are the latest act to partake in the Spotify Singles series. As with past contributions, the band recorded a live take of one of their own tracks as well as a cover song at Spotify Studios NYC.

For their own song, TWOD delivered Holding On, the lead single off their forthcomingA Deeper Understanding. The bands choice of cover was Warren Zevons ballad Accidentally Like a Martyr. While remaining largely faithful to the original, TWODs unmistakably psychedelic take on heartland sounds amplifies the guitar bends throughout. Take a listen:

(Read:Top 50 Albums of1987)

A Deeper Understanding is due out August 25th, and The War on Drugs will tour behind it throughout the fall. Their updated itinerary is ahead.

The War on Drugs 2017 Tour Dates:09/18 Portland, ME @ State Theatre 09/19 New York, NY @ Terminal 5 09/21 Philadelphia, PA @ Dell Music Center 09/22 New York, NY @ SummerStage in Central Park 09/23 Boston, MA @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion 09/25 Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte 09/26 Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle 09/28 Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory 09/29 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Outside Lawn) 09/30 Austin, TX @ Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater 10/05 Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre 10/06 Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre 10/09 Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre 10/10 Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre 10/11 Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 10/13 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex 10/14 Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre 10/15 Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre 10/18 St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre 10/19 Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre 10/20 Columbus, OH @ Express Live! 10/21 Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall 10/22 Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall 10/23 Washington, DC @ The Anthem 11/02 Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS Live 11/03 Cologne, DE @ E-Werk 11/04 Brussels, BE @ Forest National 11/06 Paris, FR @ Bataclan 11/07 Lille, FR @ lAronef 11/09 Glasgow, UK @ Barrowlands 11/10 Glasgow, UK @ Barrowlands 11/12 Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Manchester 11/13 Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Manchester 11/14 London, UK @ Alexandra Palace 11/15 Portsmouth, UK @ Portsmouth Guildhall 11/17 Zurich, CH @ X-tra 11/18 Milan, IT @ Fabrique 11/20 Mnchen, DE @ Muffathalle 11/21 Hamburg, DE @ Groe Freiheit 36 11/22 Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom 11/24 Oslo, NO @ Spektrum 11/25 Copenhagen, DK @ Tap 1 11/26 Copenhagen, DK @ Tap 1 11/27 Stockholm, SE @ Annexet 11/29 Antwerp, BE @ Lotto Arena

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The War on Drugs cover Warren Zevon's Accidentally Like a Martyr ... - Consequence of Sound (blog)

Its been three years since Philadelphia-based rock act the War on Drugs released their breakthrough album, Lost in the Dream, though singer, guitarist and songwriter Adam Granduciel has hardly been dormant in the ensuing period.

We finished touring on that record in October 2015, he says, and by December I was pretty much moved into my new studio in Los Angeles and starting to write heavily again. All in all it was about two-and-a-half years of writing and about a year-and-a-half of actively recording.

The result is the new A Deeper Understanding, the War on Drugs fourth full length and perhaps their most fully realized effort yet.

Over the course of their first three albums, Granduciel and the bandwhich consists of a somewhat loose configuration of musicians, and in its earliest days included fellow Philadelphian Kurt Vile in a co-writing and co-guitar positionstaked out a distinct corner of the modern music world with an approach that was definitively guitar-centric and classic-rock based but also bolstered by pulsating keyboards and synths, metronomic drums and impressionistic, plainspoken vocals, all of it blending into a swirling, atmospheric miasma of sound to produce a sort of ambient Americana.

On A Deeper Understanding, the songs are even more open and expansive (see the 11-minute centerpiece, Thinking of a Place), with Granduciel leaving plenty of space to unspool the type of sprawling, and sometimes squalling, exploratory guitar solos that have become his trademark.

As for where his guitar influences sit, Granduciel says, Its guys like Neil Young, Jeff Tweedy, and even someone like Sonny Sharrock, who had these really wild, dark tones. Players that are real free.

Despite the somewhat improvisatory nature of his playing, Granduciels songs usually dont stem from jams. Rather, he tends to compose on his own and bring in additional musicians later in the process. I kinda just write, and I use the instruments and the colors I like to use, whether its drum machines, guitars, whatever, he says. For certain material, the process of being alone, you end up with stuff youre not gonna get with six people in the room. So I just chip away at the songs.

That said, with A Deeper Understanding, he adds, I also wanted to make a record that feels like what it feels like to be in the room when were playing. I wanted something a little bit more powerful, sonically, than other records we had made. And I think we got there.

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The War on Drugs Gain 'A Deeper Understanding' of Their Craft - Guitar World Magazine

ESPINO

THE regional directors of the Police Regional Office 7 (PRO-7) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 7 (PDEA-7) have agreed to synchronize their efforts in the fight against illegal drugs.

During his courtesy call to PRO-7 Chief Jose Mario Espino yesterday, PDEA-7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz showed to Espino the names of drug personalities based on their intelligence report.

Espino also gave PDEA-7 the names of drug personalities based on their intelligence gathering.

We had a very productive meeting. Nahiusa atoang (We united our) purpose, objectives and targets for Region 7, Ruiz said.

Ruiz said the proliferation of illegal drugs is a big problem and that the two offices should synchronize their efforts to address this.

Ruiz also admitted that they need to strengthen coordination with the police especially in going after the drug suspects.

On the part of PRO-7, Espino said they will review the strategies of both offices in fighting illegal drugs.

He said the PRO-7 and PDEA-7 will also strengthen cooperation and collaboration in going after the supplier of illegal drugs in the region.

PDEA-7 will play an active role to reduce illegal drug cases, and we will just help, Espino said.

No shabu lab in Cebu

Meanwhile, Ruiz said that based on their monitoring, there is no shabu laboratory in Cebu.

Ruiz commented on rumors that there might be a shabu laboratory in Cebu after the confiscation of P6.9 million worth of shabu in Mandaue City last Saturday.

As of now, we havent monitored a shabu laboratory (in the region). And if we receive information regarding this, we will immediately conduct an investigation to validate the report, Ruiz said.

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Police, drug agents agree to synchronize war on drugs | Cebu Daily ... - Inquirer.net

Photo by Flickr user Oregon Department of Transportation

As reported by WRBL news, early Wednesday morning, after an 18-month investigation, 26 suspected drug traffickers were arrested as part of a joint federal, state, and local police operation.

The investigation began after the Auburn Police reached out to the DEA about an influx of drugs they observed entering the city. Upon further investigation, state and federal officials learned that the drug ring spanned from Alabama to California and involved the exchange of millions of dollars.

After the arrests were made, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, Clark Morris, said,

Drug dealers to me, have the biggest ripple effect of any other crime. Drug dealers not only affect themselves and their families but the addicts and their families. That ripple effect then goes into oh, I need my drugs, and I dont have any money, so Im robbing people and stealing things. All of this increases the crime rate, and it creates addicts, which can ultimately create overdoses. Now, were talking about deaths. When you take 26 drug dealers off the streets, you are making a huge impact in a small community like Auburn or the Lee County area.

The federal indictment alleges possession with the intent to distribute the following drugs: cocaine, marijuana, Xanax, and methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA/ecstasy).

Besides the obvious threat of addiction and overdose caused by the availability of drugs on our streets, drug traffickers are often found with stolen or illegal weapons.

In last weeks arrest, for example, a myriad of weapons were found after the assailants were taken into custody. These include Ar-15s, 44-magnum handgun, and various long guns.

Speaking at the conclusion of the 18-month investigation, Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes said,

I hear a lot about drugs being a victim-less crime. Well, not only do drugs wreck individuals, or they wreck families, but they bring in guns and gun crimes to our community. What yesterday was about was removing the garbage from our streets, and yesterday was trash day.

In recent years Alabama has experienced a spike in illegal drug use. From pain pills to heroin, the threat of drug addiction in Alabama is a serious concern.

The arrests made last week are a positive step towards combating Alabamas drug crisis. However, more must be done. To see what steps Attorney General Jeff Sessions is taking to combat drug gangs like MS-13, check out his new conditions for sanctuary cities.

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The War on Drugs in Alabama: New Operation Nabs 20 Traffickers But Where Does It End? - Yellowhammer News

Analysis Health Systems

Aug 7, 2017, 6:27pm Kim Tran

Safe injection sites, professionally supervised facilities where drug users can inject pre-obtained drugs, are considered by many experts to be the next frontier in harm reduction.

On a sunny morning in July, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed addressed a group of doctors, service providers, researchers, and community members about drug addiction and overdose. The small crowd was gathered for the second meeting of the San Francisco Safe Injection Services Task Force.

Like most people in the room, Breed was earnest about finding a solution to the escalating opioid crisisand for someone like her, whose younger sister died from an opioid overdose, the subject was especially personal.

With that in mind, Breed said, a safe injection site (SIS) might make it possible for somebodys life to change. She urged participants to understand why a site is important whether they agree with it or not.

Safe injection sites are professionally supervised facilities where drug users can inject pre-obtained drugs. Many expertsconsider them to be the next frontier in harm reduction, a public health framework that seeks to reduce the negative consequences associated with drug use. It also emphasizes civil and social respect for people who use drugs.

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The task force held its first meeting in June and will come together for the last time later this month, when it will finalize recommendations to San Franciscos mayor about potentially establishing the first SIS in Californiaan objective that may be aided by a bill making its way through the state legislature. In 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,52,404 people died of drug overdose in the United States; more than 60 percent of the mortalities involved an opioid. In the city of San Francisco alone, nearly 23,000 people inject drugs. Of that group, half use heroin and nearly 70 percent are homeless.

In a study released in December, researchers found that a supervised injection facility would lower San Franciscos total annual injection-related HIV and hepatitis C infections by 6 percent and 3-to-5 percent, respectively. It would also save the city $3.5 million in a country that loses $75 billion a year as a result of the opioid crisis. An SIS facility would also decrease hospital stays and disease infection rates, the study said, and increase the number of people seeking treatment. A study measuring the impact of a supervised injection site in Vancouver found that they also drastically decrease public injection and discarded needles.

Yet, around the country, legal and political hurdles to SIS facilities abound.

In January, Seattle approved two safe injection sites, the first in the country. In March, conservative political opposition led by state Sen. Mark Miloscia (R-Federal Way) passed SB 5223, which would remove local authority to establish heroin injection spaces in Washington. The bill is currently under review by the states House Health Care and Wellness Committee. To date, the facilities have yet to break ground.

A common argument against SIS is that they encourage of criminal behavior and drug use. On hiswebsite, Miloscia says, Toleration is not compassionate, it is a signal of defeat. We cannot give up on drug users. In the end, these sites will only distract us from getting resources into real, medically proven treatment options.

Despite challenges northward, representatives for Assemblymember Susan Eggman (D-Stockton) dont think political opposition will be a problem for the Bay Area. Last year, Eggman, a former social worker who has experience with substance abuse populations, attempted to pass a bill that would permit testing of supervised injection sites across the state.

It failed, largely due to backlash from law enforcement. This year, she introduced a new bill, AB 186, that would do the same thing in specific counties, including San Francisco. It is the first state bill on supervised consumption services in the country to win legislative votes.

Under existing law, it is a crime to possess, use, or even be in a room where drugs are being unlawfully used. AB 186 would create a highly regulated exception to this policy, making it easier for a safe injection site to survive. Earlier this summer, it passed out of committee with bipartisan support. It now awaits the California Senate.

Eggmans communications director, Christian Burkin, says he is confident AB 186 will garner the necessary support.

The California legislature isnt the U.S. Congress There are broadly changing attitudes about the drug war from both parties, he said in an interview with Rewire.

Some advocates fear that federal pushback may dampen any SIS growth in the state. Recently, for example, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommitted to cracking down on drug-related crime and returning to the sentencing minimums of the 1980s. Lydia Bransten, a manager at St. Anthonys Dining Room, a nonprofit that serves meals and offers a medical clinic in San Francisco, cited the federal government as a major challenge to creating safe injection sites. The Department of Justice is a significant threat right now. I doubt theyll look friendly at SIS, she told Rewire.

Still, Burkin said, Whats going on with Jeff Sessions and the really reactionary direction the federal government is taking is out of step.

Laura Thomas works for the Drug Policy Alliance, overseeing the organizations municipal drug strategy work in San Francisco. She says she has been amazed by the legislative success of AB 186. Thomas attributes its relative ease at the state level to the presidential administration itself. In fact, she says, in part because of the direction of the federal government, California legislators feel even more compelled to listen to community and evidence.

Experts in public health agree, positioning state laws as a primary battleground for combating the opioid crisis. At the task force meeting, Mike Discepola of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation argued that legal barriers will dictate what our options are.

A leader from the San Francisco Drug Users Union who asked that her name be withheld told Rewire that she gets more confident every time [AB 186] passes another committee, another vote.

Regardless, and perhaps because of, the controversy and potential pushback from the current presidential administration, the political will in favor of supervised injection sites in San Francisco and other countries is high.

As Burkin said, California has experience here with doings things that we think are right far before the rest of the country is ready to do themselves and weve been proved right many times over.

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Amid Fear of New Federal 'War on Drugs,' Support Grows in California for Safe Injection Sites - Rewire

War on drugs

I have been around for 89 years and after all this time have some questions about our country's dealings with foreign nations and organizations.

After Pearl Harbor we were involved in Europe and Asia. We won the war, which ended in the mid-1940s. However, since the end of World War II, we have never left Europe or Asia. Why?

In 1950 we entered the Korean conflict, which was fought against communism, i.e. North Korea. This conflict ended with no win. Yet since the peace, we have kept troops in South Korea for over 60 years.

Why? South Korea an economically viable nation and should be able to defend itself. Now, because of our presence, we may get involved in another conflict with North Korea. What is the strategic value of our presence in Korea and its costs?

We have had troops in Germany since 1945. We were there after World War II because of communism. But that is over and Germany and other European nations are stable and financially sound enough to defend themselves. So why are we there and what is the cost to our country of our presence?

We got involved in Vietnam, again because of communism. However, what is the importance to our country of Vietnam? We lost over 58,000 troops and lost the conflict. And the economic cost was terrific.

We defeated Japan. It became an economically strong country. Yet, we still have had troops in Okinawa since 1945. Why? The cost is huge.

We are losing the war on drugs. So why not take all these resources and money and do what is needed in South America and Asia to destroy the drug empire forever? We should win this war!

BERNARD R. JACOBS

Annapolis

Lowering the bar

I would like to remind the reader who shared her opinion in the letter headlined "Intelligent discourse" (The Capital, July 15) that the example should start at the top with the president of the United States.

President Donald Trump is constantly tweeting disparaging remarks such as "the opinion of this so-called judge" and "any negative polls are fake news." Additionally, he tweeted a video showing himself running toward a wrestling ring to tackle another person with the CNN logo superimposed over his face.

This lowers the bar and encourages people to state their opinions in a less dignified and respectful way.

Enough is enough!

LYNN MARANO

Davidsonville

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Letters: War on drugs; Lowering the bar - CapitalGazette.com

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Best new songs to stream: The Roots, The War on Drugs, and more - Digital Trends

Speaking before a large crowd of law enforcement officers on Long Island on Friday, President Trump invoked the MS-13 gang in yet another attempt to paint his administrations crackdown on immigrants as an effort to control gang violence. MS-13 is notorious for using brutal intimidation tactics to maintain control of illegal drug and smuggling markets from Long Island to Central America, and Trump seemed to know that the gangs sensational reputation could be used to scare people.

Theyre animals, Trump said of MS-13. He also urged police not to be too nice when arresting suspects and boasted about deporting immigrants.

In 2016, violent crime rates remainednear the bottomof a 30-year downward trend, with spikes in violence sequestered to a few individual cities. However, in the world according to Trump, violent crime is on the rise across the country, and gangs made up of immigrants and drug dealers are to blame. Never one to be deterred by hard data, Trump said on Friday that American towns must be liberated from the grips of criminals one by one.

Can you believe that Im saying that? Trump said. Im talking about liberating our towns. This is like Id see in a movie: Theyre liberating the town, like in the old Wild West, right?

Angie Junck, the supervising attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told Truthout that Trump continues to exploit tragedy in furthering his political agenda. Murders and disappearances do occur at the hands of gangs such as MS-13, but Trumps heavy-handed response does nothing to promote local solutions to the problem. Instead, it makes communities less safe: Many victims are the same people authorities want to deport.

People are fearful to come out and speak with police, and thats what MS-13 and other gangs capitalize on, Junck said. People want to get out of MS-13, but what are they going to do go to local law enforcement, who will turn them over and expose them so they can die in El Salvador?

For years, the war on drugs and the cartels that traffic in them has been criticized for filling US prisons to the brim and fueling horrific violence in Latin America, all while failing to reduce drug consumption at home. By criminalizing immigrants and framing its law and order agenda around the specter of violent international gangs, the Trump administration is threatening to repeat the same mistakes drug warriors have made for decades.

For example, Trump supports legislation in Congress known asKates Law,which enhances penalties for immigrants who illegally cross the border and have a criminal record in the US, even if that record is simply prior attempts to enter the country without permission. Critics say the legislation would cause the population of people held in privately run immigration jails to explode.

The war on immigrants grew out of the war on drugs, Junck said.

Meanwhile, last week, the new Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety created by Trump and answering to Attorney General Jeff Sessions was expected to release recommendations for addressing violent crime. Civil rights and immigration reform groups, along with the growing legal marijuana industry, hoped the recommendations would provide insight into just how deep the Trump administration will dig into the war on drugs.

The recommendations never materialized, at least in public. Instead, Sessions said in a statement on Wednesday that the task force was providing him recommendations on a rolling basis, and that he would continue to review and act on them, suggesting that the task force has already shaped recent moves to reverse Obama-era policies that made moderate progress towards de-escalating the drug war.

The Justice Department did not respond to an inquiry from Truthout. Still, its becoming increasingly clear in what direction the administration is heading.

Crafting a crackdown behind closed doors

Despite the presidents angry outbursts over Sessions decision to recuse himself from the investigation into the Trump campaigns ties with Russia, Sessions and the president are in lockstep when it comes to the war on drugs. Sessionstraveled to El Salvadorlast week to congratulate his counterpart for arresting hundreds of alleged MS-13 members. Back at home, he has shown interest in sending federal officers to states where marijuana is legal, in search of violent, transnational crime rings that he suspects are diverting legal cannabis into the black market.

Again, there isno hard evidencethat marijuana legalization drives violent crime rates; in fact, it may have theopposite effectin some areas. A recentstudyin The Economic Journal shows that crime rates near the southern border dropped after southwestern states legalized medical marijuana a sign that legalizing weed may actually hamper the same international cartel operations Trump and Sessions have pledged to fight.

Unfortunately for cannabis fans and the many thousands of people who are criminalized for using the drug, the attorney general hasseriously outdated views on cannabis, which remains illegal under federal law. The legal marijuana industry has every reason to worry about a crackdown, and lawmakers from legal states are already taking action.

Last week, lawmakers in the Senate Appropriations Committee approved legislation that would prohibit federal funds from being used to prevent states from implementing their own medical marijuana laws, effectively barring the Justice Department from intervening unless there is a clear violation of state law.

The same legislation has passed as an annual budget rider since 2014, but Sessionsrecently asked his former colleaguesin the Senate to ditch it. However, many senators hail from one of the 29 states that has legalized medical weed, and advocates expect the legislation to pass. Thevast majorityof voters supports access to medical marijuana and oppose federal intervention in states where marijuana is legal.

Junck said advocates are pushing for similar legislation that would protect immigrants and citizens alike from being harassed and arrested by the Department of Homeland Security for using state-legal medical marijuana. Immigrants and their family members have reported that border patrol and immigration officers will use lawful marijuana use as an excuse to detain and interrogate them.

In regards to marijuana, Sessions said in April that he was surprised the people didnt like the idea of him cracking down on the states that have chosen to legalize, said Justin Strekal, the political director at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), in an email. In response, Sessions now chooses to operate in secrecy. This is not how our system is supposed to work.

Sessions plans for addressing states where medical and recreational pot are legally regulated have been somewhat unclear due to the glaring discrepancy between state and federal laws. The task forces as-yet-unreleased recommendations along with analysis of apparent links between legal markets to violent crime (if any such links existed) were expected to shape the Justice Departments policies going forward.

In addition, immigration activists hoped to learn from the recommendations just how far Sessions would go to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to participate in federal deportation efforts. The Justice Department began to answer that question last week with amemoinforming city governments that they would not receive certain federal grants unless they give immigration agents access to their jails and notify them before releasing undocumented immigrants. Immigrant rights groups are expected to challenge the policy in court.

Jump-starting the war on drugs

The Trump administrations moves toward revving up the drug war have alarmed advocates across the political spectrum.

Many of the [Justice] Departments recent policy changes have been solutions in search of a problem, and are only going to make our crime and mass incarceration problems worse, said Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Centers Justice Program, which is calling on Sessions to publicly release the task force recommendations.

In recent weeks, Sessions has instructed prosecutors to pursue the harshest charges and sentences for drug offenses,reversing an Obama-era policyaimed at reducing incarceration rates. Sessions also reinstated a policy making it easer for local and state law enforcement to benefit from civil asset forfeiture, where officers seize property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner has not been charged with a crime. The practice has been criticized on boththe right and left,and there has been a bipartisan push for asset forfeiture reform in Congress and states across the country.

Strekal said Sessionss decision to receive the Task Forces recommendations behind closed doors only plays into the publics growing anxiety over his ability to run the Justice Department.

We have already seen the Justice Department issue new guidelines to rev up charges against those suspected of drug-related crimes, pursue maximum sentences for those charges, and an escalation in the departments ability to utilize civil asset forfeiture to deprive those charged of their possessions, Strekal said. Justice is not one sided. Unfortunately, this department is.

First launched by President Nixon 40 years ago, the war on drugs has failed to deliver on its promises, and instead has destroyed millions of lives. In recent years, agrowing numberof global leaders have called for an end to the drug war, anddrug decriminalization is gaining groundin local jurisdictions at home and around the world. By tying the war on drugs to their ongoing war on immigrants, Trump and Sessions have made it clear that they are headed in the opposite direction.

Link:

Trump and Sessions just jump-started the war on drugs that's also a war on immigrants - Salon

Jakarta: Within days of Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordering police to shoot drug dealers who resist arrest, the government last week announced a radical shake-up of the nation's narcotics-riddled prisons.

Amid revelations that prisoners continue to operate drug syndicates behind bars, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights has come up with an ambitious plan to consolidate drug felons in four jails across the nation.

According to Corrections data the level of drug activity behind bars in Indonesiais extraordinary: of the nation's 225,000 prisoners there are 54,000 dealers and 32,000 users.

The head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN)BudiWaseso-who advocates imprisoning drug offenders on a remote island guarded by crocodiles- goes so far as to say 50 per cent of drug circulation is controlled from prisons.

Jokowi, as he is popularly known, is once again claiming Indonesia is facing a narcotics "emergency", with the BNN pointing to five million drug users, 27 per cent of whom are "active users".

The last time Jokowi invoked this war rhetoric was in 2015, when he used a national drugs emergency to justify the executions of drug felons including Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

The latest crackdown has alarmed human rights activists who point to "sinister echoes" of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs", which has seen more than 7000 drug dealers and users killed.

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"From practice in the field, we see that when we shoot at drug dealers they go away," the National Police Chief, General Tito Karnavian was quoted saying in The Jakarta Post, in an apparent reference to the Philippines.

General Tito vowed police would be particularly firm on foreign drug traffickers, whom Indonesians largely blame for the scourge of drugs.

Shortly afterJokowi's edict,police showered an alleged crystal methamphetamine dealer, who they said resisted arrest, with seven bullets in Pekanbaru on the island of Sumatra on July 29.

However some question whether the tough stance on drugs is more about political populism than a spiralling drug emergency.

"According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, general population prevalence rates of most illegal and illicit drugs in Indonesia largely remained stable since the early 2000s," Claudia Stoicescu, a doctoral researcher at University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence Based Intervention, writes in Al Jazeera.

"Far from constituting an outlier, Indonesia's annual rates of drug consumption are similar to rates in other South-East Asian countries such as Vietnam and Myanmar and much lower than rates in the United States and much of Europe."

The Indonesian Drug Users Network (PKNI), an NGO established to fight the stigma and discrimination faced by drug users, believes Jokowi's order to shoot drug dealers who resisted arrest was made in haste.

His comments - in a speech to a political party meeting - came after four Taiwanese men were arrested and another shot dead for allegedly distributing one tonne of crystal meth in Jakarta.

"Shooting at drug dealers is a violation of human rights," PKNI project manager Arif Iryawan told Fairfax Media.

"Besides, by shooting them to death the police cannot uncover their network properly. So I think killing them should be the last resort."

But GERAM - the People's Movement Against Drugs - said when the police shot dead drug dealers in the 90s the business was drastically reduced.

"Whenever the government wants to uphold the law human rights stand in the way," GERAM founder Sofyan Ali told Fairfax Media.

He said Jokowi was a good president, who unlike previous presidents, "knows what he does because he goes down to the field".

"Other countries like the Philippines or the US take action whenever they see a situation that threatens their people. They forget human rights because the situation is causing a real problem," Sofyan said.

"But it doesn't happen here. We fight against our own people on human rights so we may achieve nothing."

Meanwhile the plan to contain drug offenders in four prisons in West Java, North Sumatra, Central Java and Central Kalimantan was hatched after a prisoner named Aseng on Nusakambangan - Indonesia's equivalent of Alcatraz - was linked to 1.2 million ecstasy pills seized by police.

The four jails would have heightened security, including weapons and x-ray machines. Prison officers, who are often involved in jail-run drug syndicates, would be strictly vetted.

"The biggest problem right now is drug dealers [inside jails] and our officers are overwhelmed," the Security Director from Corrections, Sutrisman, told reporters.

He said the ratio of officers to prisoners was one to 62, when the recommended ratio was one to 20.

"So we must take extraordinary steps by strengthening the officers, by collaborating with BNN [the national narcotics agency] and the police."

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The rest is here:

Facing 'narcotics emergency', Indonesia ramps up war on drugs - The Sydney Morning Herald