The World Wide War on Drugs #5 - Het begin van het einde?

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UN sounds alarm on widespread designer drug use | World news | The Guardian

Associated Press= VIENNA (AP) — VIENNA — The U.N. drug control agency on Wednesday sounded the alarm on the spread of designer drugs, which are sold openly and legally and sometimes result in deadly highs, while reporting that global drug use generally remains stable.

Such substances "can be far more dangerous than traditional drugs," the agency said in a statement accompanying its annual report. "Street names, such as 'spice,' 'meow-meow' and 'bath salts' mislead young people into believing that they are indulging in low-risk fun."

A six-page summary of the report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime warned that "the international drug control system is foundering, for the first time, under the speed and creativity" of their proliferation.

It said countries worldwide reported 251 such substances by mid-2012, compared with 166 at the end of 2009. The problem, said the report, is "hydra-headed" in that as fast as governments ban the drugs, manufacturers produce new variants.

Nearly 5 percent of European Union residents aged between 15 and 24 have already experimented with such drugs, said the report.

In the United States, 158 kinds of synthetic drugs were circulating during 2012, more than twice as many as in the EU, and use was growing in East and Southeast Asia, including China, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Gil Kerlikowske, director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the United States faces "continuing challenges with prescription drug abuse and new synthetic drugs." But he also noted successes, telling participants meeting in Vienna for the report's launch that U.S. cocaine use has decreased by 50 percent since 2006.

In a statement accompanying the organization's 151-page report, UNODC head Yury Fedotov said that while drug use and production overall appears to be stable in recent years, illicit drug consumption still kills around 200,000 people each year.

However, the office lowered its estimate of the number of people injecting drugs and those living with the HIV virus worldwide because of such injections.

It said 14 million people between the ages of 16 and 65 inject drugs and of those, 1.6 million have the virus as a result of such injections — 12 percent and 46 percent less respectively than last estimated five years ago.

In other findings, the agency reported:

— heroin and opium use remains steady at around 16.4 million people, or 0.4 percent of the world's adult population.

—heroin use appears to be declining in Europe, with users aging and because of more efficient drug seizures.

—cocaine use, although still rare, appears to be growing in China and Hong Kong as shown by seizures of the drug, apparently reflecting the growth of a more affluent society.

—U.S. cocaine use fell by 40 percent between 2006 and 2011, due in part to less production in Colombia, more efficient law enforcement and disruptive turf wars among drug cartels.

—seizures of "amphetamine-type" drugs rose by 66 percent in 2011 compared with the year before, to 123 tons.

—the use of "ecstasy," one such drug, is declining globally but appears to be growing in Europe.

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Vancouver's harm reduction strategy has reduced illegal drug use and improved public safety in the Downtown Eastside: study | CTV News


^{Registered nurse Sammy Mullally holds a tray of supplies to be used by a drug addict at the Insite safe injection clinic in Vancouver on May 11, 2011. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)}


VANCOUVER -- Harm reduction -- not a war on drugs -- has reduced illicit drug use and improved public safety in what was once Ground Zero for an HIV and overdose epidemic that cost many lives, says a 15-year study of drug use in Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside.

The report by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS found that from 1996 to 2011, fewer people were using drugs and, of those who were, fewer were injecting drugs, said Dr. Thomas Kerr, co-author of the report and co-director of the centre's Urban Health Research Initiative.

"A public health emergency was declared here because we saw the highest rates of HIV infection ever seen outside of sub-Saharan Africa -- in this community. At the same time, the community was being levelled by an overdose epidemic," Kerr said after presenting his findings to members of the group affected at a community centre in the heart of the neighbourhood.

Vancouver took a public health approach to the crisis, opening the country's first supervised injection site in 2003, and Kerr said the statistics show that approach was successful.

There were fewer people sharing needles in 2011, and there were fewer new infections of HIV and Hepatitis C related to sharing needles, the study found.

In 1996, almost 40 per cent of drug users reported sharing needles, but by 2011, that had dropped to 1.7 per cent. About 25 per cent of Vancouver's drug users are HIV positive, and about 90 per cent suffer from Hepatitis C.

The overall health of drug users had improved and more people were accessing addictions treatment, jumping from 12 per cent on methadone treatment in 1996 to 54.5 per cent since 2008, statistics showed.

"This is probably the city with the most aggressive harm reduction approach, yet we're seeing declining rates of drug use within this community," Kerr said.

Still, the Conservative government continues to fight programs such as supervised-injection sites, he said.

Earlier this month, the federal government introduced the Respect for Communities Act, which will require applicants of drug injection sites to consult with the community, provincial and municipal authorities and law enforcement officials, before setting up new facilities.

A federal Conservative party campaign suggested drug consumption sites could open across the country over the objections of local residents and law enforcement.

Several policing associations have sided with the federal government on the issue, but in B.C. the provincial government is a supporter of Vancouver's InSite.

The Supreme Court of Canada ordered the Conservatives to keep the Vancouver clinic open, despite their objections, but proponents of the site say the federal legislation would make it almost impossible to open another.

"We have a federal government that ignores science in favour of ideology, and people are sick and dying as a result," Kerr said.

"When we're dealing with matters such as life and death, I think we're obligated to base our decisions on the best available scientific evidence. I think it's unethical to do otherwise."

Dave Hamm, president of the Vancouver-Area Network of Drug Users, which has advocated for harm reduction measures, said that as Vancouver has promoted a health strategy, the federal government has promoted an American-style war on drugs.

"Crime is going down, drug use is going down, and they're still putting more into policing," he said.

The study found that illicit drugs continue to be easily available on the streets of Vancouver, despite enforcement efforts.

The centre and Hamm's group are divided, however, when it comes to legalization. The centre does not support the legalization of illegal drugs.

"We think the mistakes that were made through privatizing tobacco sales and alcohol sales have been well-documented, and we don't want to see the same mistakes made with illicit drugs," Hamm said.

There was some disappointing news for health officials in the study.

There has been only a slight drop in mortality rates among the city's illicit drug users, who have a death rate eight times higher than the general population.

And while overall drug use has declined, there is an increase in the use of crystal meth, in particular among street youth.

There has also been an increase in the availability of prescription opioids on the street, and housing continues to be a problem, with between 50 and 70 per cent of drug users homeless or reliant on shelters or the cheap single-room occupancy units available for rent in the city.

Bron: www.ctvnews.ca

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Ken Clarke: UK plainly losing war on drugs

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has told MPs that the UK is "plainly losing" the war on drugs.

He said those working to reduce addiction were "disappointed" by a lack of progress over the last 30 years.

However, government departments were working together better than ever before to fight the problem, he added.

Mr Clarke told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that he was not convinced by arguments for decriminalising drugs.

The committee is compiling a report on drugs use in the UK, focusing on the effectiveness or otherwise on the government's strategy, published in 2010.

'Going backwards'

Mr Clarke, who served as home secretary, education secretary, health secretary and chancellor in the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s, said: "I've not reached a stage of that blinding insight about exactly how we're going to improve our record, is the honest truth.

"We've engaged in a war against drugs for 30 years. We're plainly losing it. We have not achieved very much progress.

"The same problems come round and round but I do not despair. We keep trying every method we can to get on top of one of the worst social problems in the country and the single biggest cause of crime."

Mr Clarke said: "What has improved is the co-ordination between departments. I was once given the thankless task of co-ordinating the government's whole approach to drugs, pulling together the work of the different departments in the late 1980s.

"It was a complete waste of time. I did not have sufficient seniority in the government to get anybody to take the faintest notice of me."

In January, the entrepreneur and campaigner Sir Richard Branson told the committee that abuse of illegal substances should be treated as a health issue, while only suppliers should be the people facing tough penalties.

But Mr Clarke said: "The government has no intention whatever of changing the criminal law on drugs."

'Learning from the past'

Asked about his personal opinions on tackling drug abuse, he added: "I have never been persuaded by the decriminalisation arguments. I've frankly conceded that policy has not been working. We are disappointed by the fact that, apart from making progress, it can be argued we are going backwards at times.

"My purely personal view is I'd be worried about losing the deterrent effect of criminalisation on youngsters who start experimenting. The really key thing is to work out what can get fewer young people to start experimenting with drugs...

"One thing that does put them off is they could get into trouble with the police if they do it. Once you tell them they won't get into trouble, I've always felt that more of them would experiment."

Following Mr Clarke's comments, a Home Office spokesman said: "Confronting the enormous harm caused by drugs is a difficult and global problem.

"As the Justice Secretary said, we need to learn from the mistakes of the past which is why all branches of government are now working together to tackle this threat at every level.

"This means challenging and supporting individuals to free themselves from drug dependency, tough punishments for dealers and better international cooperation against organised criminal gangs."

Bron: www.bbc.co.uk

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Twintig arrestaties op Dance Valley wegens drugsbezit


Ongeveer 20 mensen zijn zaterdag opgepakt tijdens het dancefestival Dance Valley. Ze hadden drugs bij zich. De verdovende middelen zijn in beslag genomen, de mensen hebben een boete gekregen. Dat meldde de politie zondag.

Dance Valley werd zaterdag voor de 19de keer gehouden. Het festival was met ongeveer 40.000 bezoekers vrijwel uitverkocht.

De organisatoren hadden dit keer minder podia neergezet dan bij eerdere edities. Ook was er een extra gebied voor mensen die van wat hardere muziekstijlen houden. Op het programma stonden ongeveer 90 acts, onder wie Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Paul van Dyk, Chris Liebing, Far East Movement, The Flexican ft. MC Sef en Yellow Claw.

Bron: Volkskrant

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Belgische burgemeester wil grens dichtgooien


Omdat Maastricht drie coffeeshops richting de grens met België mag verplaatsen, dreigt een Belgische burgemeester ermee de grenzen dicht te gooien. Burgemeester Huub Broers van Voeren vreest overlast.

'Ik kan alle voertuigen die van Maastricht terugkeren aan controles onderwerpen. Als burgemeester heb ik die macht', zei de burgemeester woensdag tegen Vlaamse media. 'Europa laat dit toe in het geval van risicovolle activiteiten.'

Voeren en andere Belgische grensgemeenten voeren al jaren strijd met Maasstricht over de verhuizing van coffeeshops.

Bron: Volkskrant

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Sweeping reversal of the War on Drugs announced by Atty General Holder - ABA Journal

_{Posted Aug 12, 2013 1:44 PM CDT
By Terry Carter}

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking to the ABA's 560-member policy making House of Delegates, on Monday announced a sweeping initiative by the Justice Department that in effect renounces several decades of tough-on-crime anti-drug legislation and policies.

Significantly, among initiatives Holder outlined today, Holder announced a change in DOJ policies for dealing with low-level, non-violent drug offenders, with an eye to ending over-incarceration and its counter-productive effects on society, largely because of mandatory minimum sentences.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason," Holder said, receiving applause from the lawyers.

Holder's short-notice, high-profile announcement added extra buzz on the House of Delegates' opening session in the Moscone Center at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The new "Smart on Crime" program will encourage U.S. attorneys to charge defendants only with crimes "for which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins," said Holder.

Video of Holder's speech via ABANow.org

Holder has told U.S. attorneys to "develop specific, locally tailored guidelines–consistent with our national priorities–for determining when federal charges should be filed, and when they should not."

The Smart on Crime effort is limited to the DOJ's policy parameters. Holder said President Obama is asking Congress to pass legislation to give federal judges greater discretion with mandatory minimum sentencing for some drug offenses, among other proposals.

Holder pointed out that senators Dick Durbin (D-Il.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky) are supporting such efforts. They include the proposed Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013, which would lower several drug-crime mandatory minimum sentences, as well as give federal judges leeway to give sentences that are less than called for under sentencing guidelines.

For years, the ABA has been calling these and other reforms to criminal laws.

"The attorney general's announcement is a welcome and much-needed response to serious problems of over-criminalization and over-incarceration," says Neil Sonnett, past chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section.

"We have learned a lot since the widespread enactment of draconian, one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the 1980s," ABA President Laurel G. Bellows said in response to Holder's announcement. "The level of incarceration and the fiscal and human costs under current federal policies are unsustainable. Already, the growth in the budget for the Federal Bureau of Prisons is crowding out and resulting in the elimination of vital law-enforcement programs. These changes outlined by Attorney General Holder today are welcome and much-needed steps toward bringing the federal system into line with smart, evidence-based policy that will better serve taxpayers and public safety."

The increasing economic burden of over-incarceration was a thread running through Holder's statements on fairness and justice.

"It makes plain economic sense," he said, and called on the ABA as a "driver of positive change" to help in the efforts. The association has a number of policies that track several of the DOJ's new efforts.

In recent years the DOJ telegraphed the possibility of Holder's bold move. In February 2012, for example, when Associate Deputy Attorney General Matthew Axelrod, in testimony before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, said that "We are not on a funding trajectory that will result in more federal money spent on imprisonment and less on police, investigators, prosecutors, reentry and crime prevention," adding that "in these budget times, maximizing public safety can only be achieved if we control prison spending."

The DOJ's new initiative announced today includes not just lowering the financial burden of imprisonment, but better funded and focused efforts at law enforcement, as well as programs for treatment and rehabilitation of low-level, non-violent offenders.

Holder said that in 2010, $80 billion went toward incarceration and that prisons are filled 40-percent beyond capacity. Mandatory minimum sentences are partly responsible for those costs and numbers.

Bipartisan support in blue states and red states has led to significant reforms, Holder said, and in turn their prison populations have declined.

The possibility of significant legislative changes in sentencing and incarceration policies got a boost in 2010 when a group of prominent conservatives with tough-on-crime bona fides signed on to a statement of principles supporting such reforms. That document is the backbone of the Right on Crime coalition launched that year, seeking to rework criminal justice policy in part because besides harms to society, tight government budgets have made over-incarceration simply too expensive.

The statement of principles signatories include former attorney general Ed Meese, former drug czar Bill Bennett, Newt Gingrich, conservative movement godfather Richard Viguerie and Grover Norquist, the no-tax-increase guru. It can provide cover to legislators who want to support reform but fear being tagged "soft on crime."

"I used to call Ed Meese or Bill Bennett or some others, time after time, to get them to call individual legislators in support of bills, but now we can just point to the statement of principles and the names behind it," Pat Nolan, who developed the document, told the Journal last year.

He had been the Republican leader in the California State Assembly until he was caught accepting illegal campaign contributions. He went to prison in the mid-1990s, where he would follow Colson's faith-based, redemptive path. Nolan developed the list of big-name conservatives, and he is on it.

"The legislators see they're not alone and supporting oddball aberrations, but are part of the mainstream conservative movement."

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Autoriteiten ontdekken 25 lijken in Mexico


Op drie plaatsen in het zuiden en westen van Mexico hebben de autoriteiten in totaal 25 lijken ontdekt. Negen onder hen werden gevonden in de omgeving van de gemeente Buenavista Tomatlán in de staat Michoacán, aldus een woordvoerder van het Openbaar Ministerie.

De regio wordt door het drugskartel van de Tempelridders gecontroleerd. Bovendien werden in de streek burgerwachten opgericht, die tegen de georganiseerde misdaad strijden.

In de buurstaat Guerrero ontdekte de politie nog eens 16 lijken, aldus het nieuwsmagazine Proceso. Acht onder hen hadden schotwonden. Blijkbaar waren ze bij een vuurgevecht tussen rivaliserende bendes in het oord San Miguel Totolapan om het leven gekomen. De overige acht doden werden in een massagraf in Taxco de Alarcón ontdekt.

Bron: Volkskrant

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Mexico pakt leider machtig drugskartel op


Het Mexicaanse leger heeft zaterdag de leider van het Golf-kartel, een van de oudste en meest gevreesde drugsbendes van het land, opgepakt. Mario Armando Ramírez Treviño, alias 'El Pelon' werd in de noordelijke stad Rio Bravo gearresteerd bij een gezamenlijke actie van het leger en de marine, aldus lokale media.

De Amerikaanse anti-narcoticabrigade DEA had een beloning van 5 miljoen dollar voor hem uitgeloofd. Ramírez Treviño kwam aan de macht nadat zijn voorganger Jorge Eduardo Costilla in 2012 werd opgepakt.

De Mexicaanse president Enrique Pena Nieto beloofde bij zijn aantreden in december dat hij alles in het werk zou stellen om het drugsgeweld in Mexico te bestrijden en bendes hard aan te pakken. In zes jaar tijd kwamen al zeker 70.000 mensen om bij drugsgeweld.

Bron: Volkskrant

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Marseille in ban blind geweld waarbij verkoolde lijken op straat worden gedumpt


Samen met het Slovaakse Kosice is Marseille dit jaar de culturele hoofdstad van Europa. Juist nu kampt de tweede stad van Frankrijk met een plaag van zwaar straatgeweld, dat doet denken aan de meedogenloze Mexicaanse drugsoorlog. Vorig jaar waren er minstens 24 moorden door het gangstergeweld. De voorbije twee weken vielen er weer vijf doden. De moorden dragen vaak dezelfde schrikwekkende stempel: het slachtoffer wordt op straat met kogels doorboord en vervolgens in brand gestoken. Verkoolde lichamen zijn immers lastiger om te identificeren.

Het was gangsterbaas Faris Berrahma die de methode voor het eerst introduceerde in het straatgeweld in Frankrijk. Het leverde hem de bijnaam 'Le Rôtisseur' op ('rôtir' betekent 'braden'). Op 24 april 2006 werd Berrhama zelf vermoord door rivaliserende bendes. In Bar des Marroniers was hij naar de voetbalmatch Lyon-AC Milan aan het kijken toen liefst tien gemaskerde schutters het vuur openden. Berrahma werd dodelijk getroffen door negen kogels. Ook twee van zijn kompanen kwamen om bij de bloedige aanslag.

Neergeschoten voor gevangenis
Hierdoor laaide de gangsteroorlog (die rond drugs, wapentrafiek en invloed draait) alleen maar op. Die wordt nu meer en meer op straat uitgevochten. Vorige week werd een gangster, die nog maar net was vrijgelaten uit de Baumettes-gevangenis, vlak voor de uitgang van de gevangenis neergeschoten. Enkele dagen werden twee jongeren van 21 jaar afgeslacht op de openbare weg. Een andere jongere werd gewond bij de nietsontziende schietpartij in de Cité des Bleuets. Vrijdag werd dan weer een verkoold lijk aangetroffen, wat een drugsrazzia van de politie ontketende. De identificatie van het verkoolde slachtoffer is bijna onmogelijk en daarom deed de politie een oproep om vermiste personen te komen aangeven.

Kalasjnikovs
De lokale autoriteiten stonden lang machteloos tegen het buitensporige geweld. Aanvalswapens als Kalasjnikovs zijn erg geliefd bij de straatbendes. De boeven kunnen ze al voor enkele honderden euro's aanschaffen in het illegale wapencircuit. De laatste tijd boekte de politie dankzij een gerichter antwoord wel enkele successen.

Reactie Hollande
De regering van de erg onpopulaire president François Hollande (volgens de laatste peiling is liefst 70 procent van de Fransen ontevreden over zijn beleid) blijft niet bij de pakken zitten. Vorig jaar besliste Parijs al om extra agenten te sturen naar de gewelddadige havenstad, maar nu Marseille ook nog eens cultruele hoofdstad van Europa wordt en het imago onbesmeurd zou moeten blijven, voert minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Manuel Valls de druk nog op. Er werden nog eens 240 agenten ter versterking naar Marseille gestuurd en de eerste resultaten zijn volgens Valls al zichtbaar gezien de grote hoeveelheden drugs die in beslag werden genomen. Ook het systeem met verklikkers werpt meer en meer vruchten af. Zo hopen de agenten stilaan het op de criminelen verloren terrein weer terug te winnen.

Bron: Volkskrant