Category Archives: War On Drugs

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors increasingly are being called for duty in the nationwide war on drugs, particularly in covert operations where the government believes those in the corporate supply chain have crept over enemy lines.

In the midst of one of the worst drug abuse crises in American history, the Department of Justice has the responsibility to ensure that our drug laws are being enforced, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. Part of that mission is holding drug manufacturers accountable for their actions.

In a first-of-its-kind case that highlights the governments broadening enforcement stance to conquer the nationwide opioid epidemic, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticalsa maker of generic oxycodoneon July 11 reached a $35 million settlement with the government to resolve allegations that the pharmaceutical manufacturer failed to report suspicious orders of pharmaceutical drugs, and for record-keeping violations.

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The compliance side of the war on drugs - Compliance Week (subscription)

Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to continue his deadly crackdown on drugs, telling users they face either jail or hell.

Responding to growing international criticism of his violent war on illicit drugs, which is understood to have claimed the lives of more than 7,000 people, the Philippine President said he would not be scared by threats of prosecution.

He urged his critics not to trivialise government efforts by demanding human rights be upheld, telling an audience at his annual state of the nation address on Monday: Do not try to scare me with prison or the International Court of Justice.

"I'm willing to go to prison for the rest of my life.

"The fight will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting.

"There is a jungle out there, there are beasts out there preying on the innocent, the helpless."

To applause from his national police chief, Ronald del Rosa, Mr Duterte added: The fight will not stop until those who deal in (drugs) understand that they have to stop because the alternatives are either jail or hell.

Mr Dutertes fierce defence of his drugs policy came as thousands of protesters marched to the House of Representatives to demand he deliver on promises made in his first state of the nation speech last year, from holding peace talks with communist insurgents to improving internet speed.

Activists burn an effigy of Mr Duterte in Quezon City, northeast of Manila, where the speech was taking place (EPA)

Human Rights Watch has accused Mr Duterte of unleashing a human rights calamity in the Philippines.

The extraordinary brutality of the Duterte drug war is undeniable, it said in a statement released last week.

Many of the victims are found in back alleys or street corners wrapped in packing tape, their bodies bullet-ridden or bearing stab wounds and other signs of torture.

The 71-year-old President won approval in Congress at the weekend for an extension of martial law in the south to deal with the siege of Marawi by pro-Isis fighters.

The fight against Islamist militants in one of the countrys biggest southern cities continues two months on, with more than 500 dead.

Separately, Mr Dutertes top ally in Congress has proposed new bills to legalise same-sex marriage and divorce.

Our citizens should not be excluded from society just because of the person they love. They must also be treated with equality before the law," Pantaleon Alvarez said.

The Vatican and the Philippines are the only states in which divorce is outlawed.

In the most recent opinion polls, Filipinos have overwhelmingly rejected same-sex marriages, with the latest survey in 2015 showing nearly 70 per cent of 1,200 respondents strongly disagreed.

Laws on same-sex marriages have been proposed as far back 2006, but none has gained traction.

However, the latest attempt could gain momentum because it has the endorsement of Mr Alvarez, a close ally of Mr Duterte.

Additional reporting by agencies

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Rodrigo Duterte: Human rights concerns in the Philippines will not stop deadly war on drugs - The Independent

To rescue the lost generation of the City of Tshwane, executive mayor Solly Msimanga has signed service level agreements (SLA) with 23 nonprofit organisations (NPOs) to take up the fight against drugs.

Msimanga said he made a commitment to partnering with civil society to ensure that the R40 million earmarked for the fight on drugs is used properly to support the NPOs in helping communities fight this problem.

I urge you to comply with the requirements as stipulated in the SLA and use the funds wisely and responsibly and make a difference, the mayor told NPO representatives on Friday.

He said that, like most cities in South Africa, Tshwane faced challenges of poverty, inequality and substance abuse.

The 2015 Gauteng safety strategy states that the province has been experiencing an increase in the violence used during the commission of crime.

On the other hand, the same report notes that substance abuse, particularly the use of nyaope, has been linked to cable theft, metal infrastructure destruction and common theft, Msimanga said.

The mayor said while they werefighting crime, they werealso creating opportunities for employment and productivity across the city to employ people so that they couldlive a better life and not be condemned to a life of poverty or becondemned to death.

We have to rescue our lost generation from this and we have to leverage our regions and existing tools to make progress in this regard.

These NPOs are in Pretoria North, Soshanguve, Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, Temba, Hammankraal, Midrand, Cullinan, Lynnwood Glen, Moregloed, Eersterust, Bronkhorstpruit, Ekangala, Lotus Gardens and Saulsville.

Three of these centres are situated in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, where the bluetooth drug craze was first reported. Earlier this year, 380 drug addicts volunteered to join a rehabilitation programme offered by the Gauteng department of social development but more than 200 left the programme.

The city hopes that they will make more progress and have more success with the rehabilitation of drug addicts.

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Msimanga wages war on drugs in Tshwane - Citizen

As is true in most industries, women are largely relegated to the lower echelons of the drug trade. They have been aggressively prosecuted on the theory that they would lead law enforcement to elusive drug kingpins. Yet because they had little information to trade, they were often saddled with sentences much longer than those of men higher up in the industry.

Then there are the police encounters that lead to these sentences, which are often characterized by physical, sexual and sometimes deadly violence.

The infamous former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw convicted in 2015 of 18 counts, including the rape and sexual battery of black women often ordered women to lift their shirts or open their pants to show him they were not carrying any drugs. In another notorious case, four women arrested on drug-related charges came forward to accuse two Los Angeles police officers of coercing sex from them. Research suggests that drug law enforcement is too often accompanied by such sexual shakedowns, in which women who may or may not be using, carrying or dealing drugs are given the choice between performing sexual acts or facing what could be decades in prison.

A Government Accountability Office report on contraband searches at airports, released in 2000, reflected another form of violation. Black, Asian-American and Hispanic women, it found, were almost three times as likely as men of the same race to be subject to humiliating strip-searches. Black women in particular were more likely than any other group to be X-rayed in addition to being frisked, though they were less likely to be actually carrying drugs. The report also mentioned instances in which travelers were subjected to body cavity searches and monitored bowel movements.

Such intrusive procedures are not limited to airports. In 2015 Charneshia Corley was pulled out of her car at a gas station after a police officer claimed he smelled marijuana during a traffic stop. Two female officers then forced her legs apart and probed her vagina in full view of passers-by.

Three years earlier, two other black women, Brandy Hamilton and Alexandria Randle, were also subjected to a roadside cavity search by officers who claimed to have smelled marijuana. These incidents eventually prompted the Texas Legislature to pass a bill banning cavity searches during traffic stops absent a warrant.

You may now be asking yourself: Can police officers actually get a warrant to search someones vagina? The answer is yes.

One night in 1986 Massachusetts police officers showed up at Shirley Rodriquess house, forced open her door and, finding her sleeping in bed with her husband, told her that they had a warrant to search her vagina for drugs. When she refused their order to reach inside herself and take out the stuff, police took her to a hospital where, Ms. Rodriques said, a physician forcefully searched her vagina while a nurse held her down on the table.

No drugs were found. But when Ms. Rodriques filed a lawsuit claiming her rights had been violated, courts found no wrongdoing, citing the existence of a valid judicial warrant. It is still possible to get such a warrant today.

Finally, there are the fatalities. While there are no official statistics on the number of women killed or injured in drug raids and arrests, the cases that have come to light give plenty of cause for concern. Some victims were mothers, like Tarika Wilson, shot to death by a SWAT team in 2008 in Ohio, as she stood, unarmed in a bedroom with her six children, holding her 1-year-old baby. Some were pregnant, like Danette Daniels, shot to death by a New Jersey police officer following a drug arrest. Some, like Frankie Perkins and Theresa Henderson, were choked to death by officers who believed erroneously, it turned out that they had swallowed drugs. In one case, a transgender teenager named Shelly Hilliard was brutally murdered after being set up by police as an informant.

In addition to the drug war, women have also suffered from the broken windows policing practices the aggressive enforcement of minor offenses on the unproven theory that it will prevent more serious crime that Mr. Sessions promotes. For instance, soon after Eric Garner suffocated in a police chokehold, Rosann Miller, a black woman who was seven months pregnant, said she was also placed in a chokehold by a New York City police officer during an encounter that started over the use of a barbecue outside her home.

Officers have also used the threat of arrests for minor broken windows offenses to extort sex. In one case, a New York City officer was convicted in 2010 of official misconduct for offering to rip up a summons for being in a park after dark in exchange for oral sex.

These encounters do not reduce violence; they contribute to it. Critics of police violence and mass incarceration have rightfully shed light on the pain of families separated by long prison terms, of women torn from partners and children. But womens suffering isnt restricted to heartbreak: They have been raped, choked and killed, all in the service of public safety. Sadly, the recommendations of D.O.J.s task force are likely to be a recipe for more of the same.

Andrea J. Ritchie is a lawyer, a researcher in residence at the Barnard Center for Research on Women and the author of the forthcoming Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 23, 2017, on Page SR5 of the New York edition with the headline: The Female Victims of the War on Drugs.

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A Warrant to Search Your Vagina - New York Times

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recent promotionof Drug Abuse Resistance Education unearthed argumentsover the efficacy of the hallmark anti-drug program that began proliferating in K-12 schools over three decades ago.

I believe that D.A.R.E. was instrumental to our success by educating children on the dangers of drug use, Sessions said during his July 11 remarks at a D.A.R.E. training conference in Dallas, Texas.

Whenever I ask adults around age 30 about prevention, they always mention the D.A.R.E. program, he added.

Voters are split over the merits of the program, part of the broader War on Drugs made famous in the 1980s by then-first lady Nancy Reagans Just Say No campaign. A recentMorning Consult/POLITICO surveyshows 38 percent of registered voters said D.A.R.E. has been effective,while 35 percent disagreed. Twenty-seven percentsaid they didnt know or had no opinion.

The survey shows there is some datato back up Sessions anecdote, even though respondents were generally lukewarm on D.A.R.E.ssuccess. Voters aged 30-44 were the most likely of any age group to have a positive view of D.A.R.E., with 45 percent of those voters backing theprogram and 34 percent calling it ineffective. By contrast, 33 percent of voters aged 55-64 said D.A.R.E. was effective and 40 percent said it wasnt. Support for the program was even lower among voters aged 65 and older: Twenty-sixpercent of those voters said it was effective and 34 percent said it wasnt.

Younger voters were the most likely to take a position on the program. Only 22 percent of voters aged 18-29 and 21 percent of voters aged 30-44 said they didnt know or had no opinion, numbers which continued to rise among voters in older age groups, peaking at 39 percent among voters 65 and older.The youngest voters (aged 18-29) were also the most closely split on D.A.R.E.svalue, with 41 percent saying it was an effective program and 37 percent disagreeing.

There was little partisan divideon the topic, although independents (31 percent) were less likely than Democrats (41 percent) or Republicans (40 percent) to back the program.

While the voting public is split on its effectiveness, the experts are not: They firmly arguethat the programhas been a waste of government resources in combating drug abuse.

There are multiple studies that have shown that D.A.R.E. has had no meaningful long-term impact on drug abuse of any kind, including on opioid use, said Jonathan Blanks, a research associate at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institutes Project on Criminal Justice, ina Thursday phone interview.

Alist compiled by the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University contains various studies showing D.A.R.E.s ineffectiveness over the past few decades.One 2009 study even found an increase in self-reported alcohol and cigarette use from D.A.R.E. participants.

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Voters Split on 'War on Drugs' Program DARE - Morning Consult

Its not unusual for proponents of legalized marijuana to argue for a change in federal law that currently lists cannabis among the United States worst illegal drugs. Its not even unusual for some groups to call for decriminalization of drug possession and use.

But in its new report this month, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) details why drug laws in the U.S. should change and provides a roadmap to unwind our failed drug war.

The Drug Policy Alliance has a national office in Washington, D.C., and state offices in California, New Mexico, Colorado, New Jersey and New York. The entire report can be read here. What follows are some highlights.

Related:Somebody Needs to Tell Jeff Sessions That Legalized Marijuana Does Not Cause More Crime

The report calls the War on Drugs a catastrophic failure. The Drug Policy Alliance argues that the war involves punishment and coercion, and has filled jails and prisons with millions of otherwise law abiding civilians now branded as criminals.

Statistics from the report include the following.

The DPA argues that decriminalization of drugs at the federal level would have an immediate, positive impact on a number fiscal, health, social and safety issues society faces.

Here are some of the impacts the DPA projects would happen with decriminalization.

The DPA points out that some states have decriminalized marijuana possession while others have reduced possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. Hawaii has created a commission to study decriminalizing drug use and possession entirely.

Related:Is Alaska Poised to Be the Best State for Pot?

Other countries have taken the lead in this area. Portugal decriminalized most drug use and possession in 2001. Numbers from the DPA show drug use has dropped across all age demographics in the years since.

To stay up to date on the latest marijuana related news make sure to likedispensaries.comonFacebook

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Policy Group Argues It's Time to End the Failed War on Drugs - Entrepreneur

A few things defined the war on drugs, the federal governments decades-long effort to reduce drug use and related crime: prosecuting drug offenders to the fullest extent of the law, cracking down on states that had enacted more permissive policies, empowering law enforcement to go after suspected criminals, instilling in American youth a zero-tolerance outlook on drug use.

These ideas dominated the federal approach to drug enforcement policy and criminal justice from the 1980s well into the 2000s, until Barack Obamas administration prompted by evidence these tough-on-crime policies did not work took steps to roll them back, while Republicans and Democrats alike cheered.

With the election of Donald Trump, these pillars of the war on drugs are back in vogue. The president made clear his stance on drug policy by selecting Jeff Sessions, a former U.S. senator from Alabama and a prosecutor at the height of the crack epidemic, to head the Department of Justice.

Sessions, now the countrys top law enforcement official, is a drug crime hard-liner, who once proclaimed that marijuana users are bad people, and openly pines for the '80s and '90s heyday of the drug war.

In his short tenure as Attorney General, Sessions has already taken steps to influence federal policy in a number of areas related to drugs and criminal justice, from toughening sentencing rules for nonviolent offenders to cracking down on medical marijuana.

As a federal official, Sessions can only influence state and local policy so much. But some Minnesotans are wary that big changes in Washington may affect what they see as progress on criminal justice issues.

After Sessions was narrowly confirmed in the U.S. Senate, much of the publics scrutiny of the new AG centered around his ties with Russian government officials during Trumps run for president, in which the then-senator served as a key backer and adviser.

As Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation and testified before Congress on the subject, he moved quickly to establish himself in another realm: advancing a strident vision of federal criminal justice and drug policy.

In May, Sessions took aim at an Obama-era policy that eased sentencing guidelines for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. While in office, former Attorney General Eric Holder instructed federal prosecutors to avoid charging people with crimes that would trigger so-called mandatory minimum sentences, in which the defendant is subject to a fixed amount of time in prison.

Per the federal criminal code, for example, a person with a prior drug felony on their record who is charged with possession of 50 grams of methamphetamine would face a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

A wealth of research has indicated that mandatory minimums have been ineffective in tackling crime rates, and that their use has significantly contributed to the massive increase in the U.S. prison population.

In a letter to the roughly 5,000 federal attorneys that work for him, Sessions directed them to seek the harshest punishments possible in court. Prosecutors should pursue the most serious, readily provable offense, Sessions wrote.

The last attorney general to take such a move was John Ashcroft, who served under George W. Bush. Under his watch, the federal prison population swelled by over 50,000.

Since taking office, Sessions has also advanced his harsh views on drugs, claiming in a speech in March that using them will destroy your life. He has followed up on that rhetoric by pushing for repeal of a key protection granted by Congress to states where marijuana is legal for medicinal or recreational purposes.

In June, Sessions sent a letter to lawmakers asking them to drop the so-called Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which allows medical marijuana providers to operate in states where it is legal without fear of retaliation from the feds, who still classify marijuana as a high-level narcotic. The legislation, passed in 2014 with bipartisan support, does this by barring federal government funding from going toward the prosecution of marijuana providers.

Sessions wrote that it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime. (He did not address the fact that the current drug epidemic primarily involves opioids, and that medical marijuana has been identified as a way to help mitigate the crisis.)

Beyond that, in a speech to prosecutors in Minneapolis this week, Sessions called for the Department of Justice to increase civil forfeitures, or police seizures of money and property from those suspected of crimes, particularly drug crimes. Frequently abused around the country, asset forfeitures were another drug war tactic the Obama administration rolled back. The Department of Justice will reportedly restore police authority to seize suspects property, but with some new safeguards intended to prevent abuse.

Finally, Sessions has called for a return of the quasi-defunct D.A.R.E. Program, the anti-drug education program for U.S. schoolkids that embodied the zero-tolerance culture of the drug war. Sessions said in a July speech that D.A.R.E. is needed; research, including from the federal government, found the program to have produced no meaningful outcomes.

At this stage, its unclear the extent of the impact Sessions policy changes will have on Minnesota.

In recent years, Minnesota has taken significant steps to relax its sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. They were once among the harshest in the country: through the 1990s and 2000s, possessing 10 grams of a hard drug like cocaine would automatically subject a defendant to a 86-month minimum sentence. Experts say this effectively put drug kingpins and small-time dealers and users in the same category.

Last year, the Minnesota legislature passed legislation to implement new sentencing rules, reducing the recommended sentences for possession and sale of certain hard drugs, and raising the threshold of possession that triggers the most serious criminal charges.

Before those changes, according to Kelly Mitchell, executive director at the Robina Institute of Criminal Law at the University of Minnesota, federal authorities would occasionally push to state-level prosecutors some drug cases because Minnesotas sentencing rules were stricter than the feds.

With Sessions new directive, its possible a new disparity may open up between state and federal rules but in the other direction. Much depends, though, on who will take the place of Andy Luger, the former U.S. attorney for Minnesota who Trump fired.

As the states lead federal prosecutor, Luger made homegrown terrorism a priority, and had latitude to direct significant resources and personnel toward that issue. Observers from the state legal world say that drug crimes were not a marquee priority in that office.

According to Brock Hunter, the former president of the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Lugers replacement will have some room to decide how much to hew to Sessions drug enforcement priorities or whether to do so at all.

Trump fired all the U.S. attorneys who did not resign after his election, leaving him with 93 positions to fill. So far, he has only sent to the Senate nominations for a handful of those spots, even as he blames Democrats in the chamber for obstruction.

Theres been an ebb and flow over the last seven years as to what U.S. attorneys decide to do, Hunter said. With the new appointment of a new U.S. attorney here in Minnesota, everyones going to be waiting to see what that means on the ground.

Minnesota is also one of 29 states where medical marijuana is legal, so pot providers in the state though they are few in number, thanks to the conservative nature of the states medical marijuana law could be affected by a repeal of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. Ultimately, however, Congress will decide how to proceed on that statute, and there is significant bipartisan support for it.

With plenty of specifics still to be determined, legal experts and policymakers affirmed that big changes in D.C. could affect the criminal justice landscape in Minnesota in unexpected ways.

Mitchell, who formerly ran the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, says federal changes do have impact on the state level, even if their court systems are generally separate. When I worked at the Commission, we were aware of the smart sentencing movement at the federal level, she said,. It certainly influenced [our] thinking about what might be the appropriate way to sentence a drug offender, its the kind of thing that might make anyone think twice.

Hunter said that he doesnt believe that some county attorneys, like those in liberal Hennepin or Ramsey counties, would significantly change what they were doing based on what the presidential administration was doing. But, he added, Its unprecedented territory were in.

Sessions agenda is also facing resistance from Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress, which has become increasingly interested in significant reforms to the criminal justice system.

Its a big departure from the 1990s and 2000s, when tough on crime ideas were broadly popular across the ideological spectrum. Lately, bipartisan bills to reform aspects of the criminal justice system have drawn in dozens of sponsors in both chambers: in 2015, senators introduced a landmark bill that came close to gathering enough momentum in the last session of Congress. That legislation proposed cutting mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, and funds programs designed to reduce recidivism rates.

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Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison and 2nd District Rep. Jason Lewis, though they are on the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum within the Minnesota congressional delegation, have both been vocal voices in favor of criminal justice reform. The two lawmakers, along with 6th District Rep. Tom Emmer, have co-sponsored legislation protecting individuals from asset forfeiture, for example.

It took us 26 years to come to the conclusion that the war on drugs was bad for the U.S., and that it didnt stop drug usage, and it ruined a lot of lives, Ellison told MinnPost. The abuses of the war on drugs seem to be lost on Jeff Sessions.

The bipartisan consensus about a better, more effective way to deal with drugs had arrived, he said. So its not all Republicans, its some. But the ones who want to take us back to the bad old days are in power.

Lewis told MinnPost he has serious concerns with the direction the administration has taken on medical marijuana, sentencing, and asset forfeiture. Calling himself a 10th Amendment guy referencing the constitutional amendment that reserves for the states powers not specified for the federal government Lewis argued the federal criminal code is too big, and that states should be left to make their decisions on these issues.

Weve got over two million people incarcerated, Lewis said. In federal prison, over half of those are for drug offenses, many of those nonviolent. I dont think that would occur on the same level if it were relegated to the states.

Where the two differ is how important Sessions, who has made opposition to drugs a pillar of his career, is in all of this.

Ellison, who described Sessions as a racist, called his rise a nightmare scenario. Hes horrible on every issue He believes in using the criminal justice system as an instrument of racial and economic control of poor people and brown people.

Lewis, on the other hand, did not have much to say about Sessions, and said that overreach from the federal Department of Justice has occurred through several presidencies.

This one, he said, is no different. If I think theyre overreaching the way the Clinton Drug Enforcement Agency did, Im going to say so, and Im going to oppose it.

Correction: Due to a transcription error, a previous version of this article incorrectly quoted Rep. Jason Lewis, misrepresenting his remarks.

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Jeff Sessions wants to restart the war on drugs. How far can he go? - MinnPost

Co-Chairmen Representatives McGovern and Hultgren and members of the commission, thank you for the opportunity to testify at todays hearing on the human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines.

This hearing comes at a critical moment for the people of the Philippines.

Since taking office, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has unleashed a human rights calamity. The governmentsmurderouswar on drugs, drug-relatedovercrowding of jails, and theharassmentandprosecutionof drug war critics has caused a steep decline in respect for basic rights since Dutertes inauguration on June 30, 2016. Duterte justifies his anti-drug campaign as a life-or-death struggle against a drug menace that he claims threatens to transform the Philippines into a narco state. He is untroubled by the fact that the statistics he brandishes to back up this hyperbole are flawed, exaggerated, or fabricated.

In the Philippines, security forces and unidentified gunmen have killed more than 7,000 suspected drug users and dealers since July 1, 2016, including at least 3,116 killings by police, according to government data. That death toll also doesnt include the victims that Duterte calls collateral damage children shot in the crossfire of anti-drug operations. The extraordinary brutality of the Duterte drug war is undeniable. Many of the victims are found in back alleys or street corners wrapped in packing tape, their bodies bullet-ridden or bearing stab wounds and other signs of torture.

Human Rights Watchfield research found that government claims that the deaths of suspected drug users and dealers were lawful were blatant falsehoods. That research paints a chilling portrait of mostly impoverished urban slum dwellers being gunned down in state-sanctioned death squad operations that demolish rule of law protections. Interviews with witnesses and victims relatives and analysis of police records expose a pattern of unlawful police conduct designed to paint a veneer of legality over extrajudicial executions that may amount to crimes against humanity. Our investigations revealed that police routinely kill drug suspects in cold blood and then cover up their crimes by planting drugs and guns at the scene.

While the Philippine National Police have publicly sought todistinguishbetween suspects killed while resisting arrest and killings by unknown gunmen or vigilantes, Human Rights Watchfound no such distinctionin the cases investigated. In several such cases, the police dismissed allegations of involvement when only hours before the suspects had been in police custody. Such cases call into question government assertions that most killings have been carried out by vigilantes or rival drug gangs.

Efforts to seek accountability for drug-war deaths have gone nowhere. Philippine National Police Director-General Ronaldo dela Rosa hasrejectedcalls for a thorough and impartial probe of the killings as legal harassment and said it dampens the morale of police officers. Duterte and some of his key ministers have praised the killings as proof of the success of the anti-drug campaign.DuterteandSecretary of JusticeVitaliano Aguirre III have sought to justify their total disregard for the rule of law and due legal process for drug personalities by questioning the humanity of suspected drug users and drug dealers.Dutertes instigation of unlawful police violence and the incitement of vigilante killings may amount to crimes against humanity in violation of international law.

The Duterte administration has subjected prominent critics of the governments abusive anti-drug campaign to harassment, intimidation, and even arrest. In February 2017, the police detained former secretary of justice Senator Leila de Lima on politically motivated drug charges. Her arrest followed arelentless government campaign against her in evident response to her outspoken criticism of Dutertes war on drugs and her calls for accountability. Other critics of the killings including activists,journalists, international officials, and ordinary Filipinos have been threatened online by pro-Dutertesupporters and trolls.Those targeted includeAgnes Callamard, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, andinternational expertson drug dependency.

The war on drugs has also worsened the alreadydire conditions of Philippine jail facilities, including inadequate food and unsanitary conditions.Government data indicatesthat the countrys jail facilities run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which have a maximum capacity of 20,399, currently hold nearly132,000 detainees, an overwhelming majority of them awaiting trial or sentencing. The bureauattributesthe overcrowding to the arrest of tens of thousands of suspected drug users and dealers since the anti-drug campaign began.

The Philippine governments drug war has sparked a surge in demand for drug rehabilitation facilities by those fearful of the governments extrajudicial measures. The December 2016 opening of a China-funded 10,000-bed mega treatment and rehabilitation center within the Fort Magsaysay military base 75 miles north of Manila, however, raises serious concerns. Instead of providing evidence-based drug treatment services, the rehabilitation services may mirror models documented by Human Rights Watch elsewhere in Southeast Asia where the only treatment offered was abuse. The Philippines is in dire need of voluntary, community-based drug dependence treatment services that comport with international best practice standards and human rights principles.Until there is a clear commitment from the Philippine government to support drug rehabilitation services based on these principles, the US government should not provide support for rehabilitation services and Congress should ensure they are not funded.

Despite statements from President Donald Trump that appear supportive of Dutertes abusive policies, the US State Department has taken some important steps to register disapproval of the drug war. These include the November 2016 suspension of the sale of 26,000 military assault rifles to the Philippine National Police. The State Department took this step in large part because of opposition from Senator Ben Cardin, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who opposed the dealdue to concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines.

In addition, the US Embassy in Manila announced on December 14 that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)would defer a decision on new funding for the Philippine government due to significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines. The statement justified that decision on the basis that criteria for MCC aid recipients includes not just a passing scorecard but also a demonstrated commitment to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights.

Human Rights Watch urges the State Department and the MCC to maintain these suspensions of assistance until the killing stops and meaningful steps to accountability are underway. We encourage Congress to play an active oversight role to ensure vigilance going forward.

Congress can also engage more directly to stop the bloodshed in the Philippines. First, it should further restrict assistance to the Philippine security forces by imposing specific human rights benchmarks, including requiring Duterte to end the drug war killings and allow a United Nations-led investigation into the deaths. And Congress can direct the Secretary of State to work with other foreign governments to impose similar restrictions.

Notably, on May 4, 2017Senators Cardin (D-MD), Rubio (R-FL), Schatz (D-HI), and Markey (D-MA) introduced the Philippines Human Rights Accountability and Counternarcotics Act of 2017, a bill that places restrictions on defense aid to the country, provides additional funding for the Philippine human rights community, and supports a public health approach to drug use. We would like to see a similar bill introduced in the House and would encourage prompt passage into law, as doing so may save lives while also reminding Duterte that his government will pay a price for its ongoing murderous campaign.

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Human Rights Consequences of the War on Drugs in the Philippines - Human Rights Watch

A Deeper Understanding,the fourth album from Phillys beloved War on Drugs, arrives August 25. The timing is perfect.This is when summer begins its slowdissolve. Youve still got a solid month of beach weather left, but youre already preoccupied with everything you have or havent managed to do in the days that are already used up. You convince yourself that youre actually going tomissthe humidity and grit of the season, and the air takes on a glow thats all the more appealingfor the knowledge that it will expire soon. This kind of nostalgia for the present is the War on Drugs specialty, and on the secondDeeper Understandingsingle Strangest Thing, theyre serving it up in fine form.

The band has spent almost a decade refining its formula, and from the sound of the two singles weve heard, the new album makes no attempt at a total overhaul.Tunnel of Love- and Streets of Philadelphia-era Bruce Springsteen, a little Tom Petty, Harmonia and other bands exploring the softer side of krautrock, the entire production canon of Daniel Lanois. (The hyperreal Americana offered onOh MercyandTime Out of Mind,Lanoiss two albums for Bob Dylan, feels especially prescient here.) On past albums, the War on Drugs had a tendencywhich you may haveloved or hated, depending on your dispositiontoblanket these influences with the sonic equivalent of an Instagram filter, flattening theircontrasts in the service of the aforementioned wistful feeling.

Strangest Thing dropsthe haze and just goes for it. Ive been hiding out so long, Ive gotta find another way, bandleader AdamGranduciel sings at the opening, over a inauspiciousarrangement heavy on reverb and electric piano. Patiently, the songgathers force with every line: a flanged guitar fill here, synth strings there, some choral-sounding backing vocals, then a pair of brief and magnificent guitar solos, arriving with a snare drum like a starter pistol and a whammy bar wiggle that may make certain listeners weak in the knees. In spirit more than sound, the finished product also also evokes the specter of Spector, perhaps the first studio tinkerer to dream that something so base as rocknroll could dare to reach for transcendence. Strangest Thing is nearly seven minutes long. By the time its over, like the summer, it feels like its hardly begun. Fortunately, in this case, you can always rewind and start again.

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The War on Drugs' Strangest Thing Is a Wistful, Excellent Summer Jam - SPIN

WASHINGTON US legislators savaged President Duterte for the explosion of extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs and urged President Donald Trump to rescind an invitation to the Filipino leader to visit the White House.

If he comes I will lead a protest (against it), said Democratic congressman James McGovern at a US House hearing on Thursday on the human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines.

McGovern, co-chair of the chambers Human Rights Commission, said the EJKs stain bilateral relations with the United States.

There are other alternatives to fighting the spread of drugs consistent with the rule of law rather than killing people in cold blood, he said.

No other country comes to mind where people are assassinated in the name of fighting drugs and leaders brag about it, he said.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier, also a Democrat, said she was disgusted that President Trump invited Duterte to the White House.

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We need to call this (Dutertes) deranged policy out for what it is: state-sanctioned vigilantism that contravenes the rule of law and damages the international standing of the Philippines, she said.

It is critical that both Congress and the President condemn Dutertes unacceptable human rights abuses in the strongest possible terms, and take concrete action to ensure that the United States is not enabling these practices, she added.

Republican congressman Randy Hultgren, the other co-chair of the commission described the EJKs as an appalling epidemic and said 7,000 drug users and dealers have been killed without charges and without trial.

He said it was the obligation of the US Congress to not only advocate for but to defend human rights.

We need to maintain bilateral cooperation with our ally without jeopardizing human rights in the Philippines, he said.

One of the witnesses at the hearing, Ellecer Carlos, spokesperson for In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDEFEND) of the Philippines said Duterte has effectively put in place a de facto social cleansing policy with his war on drugs affecting the most vulnerable and impoverished sections of Philippine society.

He has effectively defined a particular section of Philippine society as inhuman and worthy of elimination, Carlos said.

Another witness, Matthew Wells of Amnesty International, said he has been part of an AI team that has investigated the murderous campaign against drugs in the Philippines.

He said local government officials, at the behest of the police, draw up what is known as a drug watch list that purports to identify people who use or sell drugs in that area. The vast majority of victims come from the poorest segments of Philippine society.

Inclusion is at times based on hearsay, community rumors, or personal rivalry, with little or no verification.

These drug watch lists are then often turned into kill lists. Police units usually rely on these lists to identify targets.

Amnesty Internationals investigation found that, in at least some areas of the Philippines, police officers have received significant under-the-table payments for encounters in which alleged drug offenders are killed.

Payments ranged from P8,000 for killing a person who uses drugs to P15,000 for killing a small-scale pusher.

He called Dutertes war on drugs campaign as one of the worst human rights calamities in the world today.

The Philippines is a treaty ally of the US and the largest recipient of American assistance in East Asia and has a unique leverage and influence to help ensure the war on drugs be reoriented towards a model based on the protection of health and human rights, he said.

On the eve of the hearing, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella in Manila described the Duterte administrations campaign against illegal drugs as a noble effort to protect the security and safety of the Filipino people and the future of the nation.

He said proceedings like the House hearing that allege wrongdoing should provide the opportunity for all sides to be considered. Insinuations and hasty judgments have no place in due process, Dutertes spokesman said on Thursday.

A House spokeswoman said the commission has a policy of not inviting foreign government officials to deliver statements at hearings but pointed out anyone was free to attend the proceedings.

She said a speech by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano at the UN Human Rights Council in May which was sent by the Philippine embassy, was included as an annex to the official record of the hearing.

The Cayetano speech provides a holistic and composite picture of the number of deaths relative to the fight against illegal drugs, an embassy letter said.

Presidential spokesman Abella said the administration is unfazed by criticism coming from US lawmakers.

As the President would say, the real judge of the actions of the administration would be not so much these opinions, but people actually, Abella told a press briefing.

Abella pointed out that streets are safer now for Filipinos as a result of Dutertes tough approach. With Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Helen Flores, Romina Cabrera

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US Congress hits Philippines drug war, wants Rody dis-invited - Philippine Star