The World Wide War on Drugs #10 - Dag ter Bestrijding van Drugs

MS-13 - Root Of All Evil

Reefer Madness (1936) Full Movie

Retired Police Captain demolishes the War on Drugs

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Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2013: Peter Hitchens - There is No War on Drugs

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In beeld: wereldwijd drugs in de fik gestoken | NOS

Het is vandaag Internationale Dag ter Bestrijding van Drugs. En daarom worden er op verschillende plekken in de wereld partijen drugs verbrand.

De dag is in 1987 door de Verenigde Naties vastgesteld vanwege het groeiende drugsprobleem in de wereld. Sinds die tijd wordt er ieder jaar stilgestaan bij de strijd tegen illegale drugshandel en de negatieve gevolgen die drugs kunnen hebben.

Bron: nos.nl

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SDPcampaign twitterde op zondag 26-06-2016 om 13:30:50 Join #SupportDontPunish to make the 2016 Global Day of Action the biggest worldwide call to end the #WarOnDrugs https://t.co/HQAvFPhuii reageer retweet

twitter:

TheUNonDrugs twitterde op zondag 26-06-2016 om 13:40:26 On the Global Day of Action, we call for an end to the #WarOnDrugs and for better drug policies! #SupportDontPunish https://t.co/KhfIgkA4m3 reageer retweet

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Tim Hofman pleit in Tweede Kamer voor openlijker drugsdebat | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl

BNN-presentator Tim Hofman, die woensdag namens Spuiten en Slikken te gast was in de Tweede Kamer, pleitte daar voor een openlijker debat over het drugsgebruik en een minder strikt drugsbeleid.


Volgens Hofman is het uit de criminele hoek halen van drugsgebruik een belangrijke bijdrage aan de vermindering van de gevaren ervan.

Hofman was te gast in de Tweede Kamer omdat het programma Spuiten en Slikken 41.000 handtekeningen had verzameld om het drugsbeleid via een zogenoemd burgerinitiatief op de agenda te krijgen. In het "vastgeroeste" debat over drugs wordt volgens Hofman "gestunteld".

Hofman, die zichzelf ziet als een "fervent non-drugsgebruiker", noemde bijvoorbeeld dat festivalgangers nu niet zou gauw naar de EHBO als ze zich niet goed voelen, omdat ze bang zijn voor de gevolgen van hun drugsgebruik. Het bezit van meer dan één xtc-pil kan je momenteel namelijk een strafblad bezorgen.

Toch haalde het bezoek aan de Tweede Kamer weinig uit. Justitieminister Ard van der Steur schreef vorig jaar september al naar aanleiding van het burgerinitiatief dat hij geen aanleiding zag het beleid te veranderen en daar blijft hij bij.

Net als vele andere partijen in de Tweede Kamer zag onder andere het CDA niet in waarom er veranderingen moeten komen. "Er rijden ook mensen door rood", zo luidde de conclusie.

Ook de vrees dat iemand door het bij zich hebben van een paar pillen nooit een Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag (VOG) meer zou kunnen krijgen, bleek niet terecht.

Bron: www.nu.nl

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Protesters stand up for drug users' rights following the death of Karl Brunner in Bedford | Bedfordshire News

A DEMONSTRATION highlighting how people who use drugs continue to be 'abused and stigmatised' will be held in Bedford on Sunday, inspired by the death of Karl Brunner last month.

As part of the Support, Don't Punish Campaign, the event will take place outside Greyfriars Police Station at midday to pay tribute to the man who died while being arrested by police on the corner of Battison Street and Midland Road on May 12.

READ MORE: Three Bedfordshire cops served with gross misconduct notices following death of Karl Brunner

The Support Don't Punish Campaign claims it is taking action against those tortured, beaten and even killed in the name of the war on drugs.

READ MORE: Karl Brunner's arrest death in Midland Road, Bedford branded a human rights issue

Local drug activist Kevin Jaffray, who is backing the demonstration, said: "Regardless of who or what Karl was, he does not deserve to be dead.

"Turning his death into 'just another drug addict' scenario is completely unfair and that is why we need to stand up and urge police to Support, Don't Punish as part of the event this week."

Bron: www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

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Hoe Duterte de criminaliteit zijn stad uit kreeg? Een meedogenloos politieapparaat is zijn wapen en, naar verluidt, ook doodseskaders. Meer dan duizend kleine criminelen, drugsgebruikers en handelaren zijn de afgelopen jaren zonder vorm van proces geliquideerd, zeggen mensenrechtenorganisaties als Human Rights Watch. Duterte zelf ontkent elke betrokkenheid, maar pochte onlangs in een interview wel dat het er geen 1.000 maar 1.700 zouden zijn geweest. Duterte geeft toe dat hij onlangs zelf 'een stuk of drie' rovers heeft doodgeschoten. Hij toont zich absoluut niet rouwig om de moorden. De slachtoffers hebben het aan zichzelf te danken, zegt hij. Maar activisten betwijfelen dat.

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Trimbos: drinken, roken, blowen neemt af, lachgas zorgenkindje | NOS

Jongeren tussen de 12 en 16 jaar roken, drinken en blowen steeds minder. Het gebruik daalt al jaren, de trend zette ook in 2015 door. Het Trimbos Instituut, dat iedere vier jaar een groot onderzoek uitbrengt naar het gebruik van drugs, alcohol en tabak, waarschuwt wel voor nieuwe verleidingen, zoals lachgas en de e-sigaret.

De daling heeft te maken met een toename van campagnes en veranderde wetgeving. Zo is het sinds twee jaar verboden om alcohol of tabak te kopen onder de 18. Daarnaast zijn er sinds 2006 steeds meer waarschuwingscampagnes gevoerd.

Het heeft ertoe geleid dat het aantal jongeren dat wel eens heeft gerookt, is afgenomen: van 33 procent in 2011 naar 23 procent vorig jaar, staat in de Trimbos-publicatie Jeugd en riskant gedrag 2015. Het aantal jongeren dat dagelijks rookt is gehalveerd van 6 naar 3 procent. Voor cannabis geldt dat in 2015 10 procent blowde, vier procent minder dan in 2011. De populairste harddrug is nog steeds xtc. Ook de alcoholconsumptie liep terug: vorig jaar dronk 38 procent elke maand wel eens alcohol, tegen 26 procent vorig jaar.

Volgens het onderzoeksinstituut geldt: hoe lager het opleidingsniveau, hoe meer scholieren roken, drinken of blowen.

Op andere gebieden is er wel reden tot zorg. Het Trimbos waarschuwt voor lachgas. Bijna een op de twaalf jongeren heeft wel eens lachgas gebruikt, maar welke gevolgen herhaaldelijk kortstondig zuurstofgebrek op jonge hersenen heeft, is onbekend. Lachgas heeft bovendien een positief imago onder jongeren; het wordt niet als drugs gezien, maar als een onschuldig middel.

Een andere ontwikkeling waar het instituut alert op is, is de e-sigaret. In 2015 hebben meer scholieren tussen de 12 en 16 jaar wel eens een e-sigaret of een shisha-pen gebruikt (34%) dan een gewone sigaret gerookt (23%). Een op de tien basisschoolleerlingen heeft wel eens een trekje genomen van een e-sigaret. Ook de populariteit van de waterpijp baart het Trimbos zorgen.

En er is voor het eerst gekeken naar online gokken. Vorig jaar speelde een kwart van de jongeren een online gokspel, vijf procent speelde ook echt voor geld. het populairst zijn sportweddenschappen door jongens.

Staatssecretaris Van Rijn zegt blij te zijn dat het de goede kant uitgaat qua blowen en drinken. Ook hij zegt dat nieuwigheden zoals de lachgas en de e-sigaret goed in de gaten moeten worden gehouden. "Als dat uit de klauwen loopt, grijpen we in."

Wel wil hij meer aandacht voor de omgeving van de jongeren wat betreft alcohol. Driekwart van de jongeren krijgt drank via familie of vrienden. "Maar liefst een kwart gaf aan alcohol meestal van de ouders te krijgen, dit was in 2011 nog 16 procent. Ik vind dit percentage echt heel hoog". Volgens Van Rijn is er nog wel wat werk te verrichten om de bewustwording onder ouders te verbeteren.

Bron: nos.nl

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A declaration against the war on drugs

^{Danielle Allen is a political theorist at Harvard University and a contributing columnist for The Post.}

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one part of the American people to affirm the political bands which connect them to the other parts, and to assume within the nation, the connected and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of their fellow citizens requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to affirm their connection.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among us, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and, if they choose the path of alteration, to abandon old and institute new legislation, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing the powers of government in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that legislation long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to repudiate the integral connection among Americans, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such legislation, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of African Americans; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to advocate the end of Prohibition. The history of the present War on Drugs is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having as a direct consequence the severing of the connection between African Americans and the rest of the American polity. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Drug laws are disproportionately enforced against African American and Latino Americans even though Americans of all ethnic backgrounds use illegal drugs at the same rates, with the exception of Asian Americans, who use them somewhat less.

The use of racial profiling as a technique of investigation strips African Americans and Latino Americans of equality before the law and robs them of the presumption of innocence, the purpose of which is to protect all democratic citizens from tyrannical intrusion.

The categorization of minor, nonviolent drug offenses as felonies, combined with the disproportionate enforcement of those laws against African Americans and Latino Americans, has served to strip large numbers of Americans from these communities of their right to vote.

The judicial system is swollen with nonviolent drug offenses, leading to a reduction of resources for investigating and prosecuting homicides, which in turn has dramatically reduced homicide clearance rates in all major cities.

The failure of the criminal justice system to resolve homicides in major cities leads to an acceleration of violence in those cities, and a trigger-happy environment in which police as well as civilians are more likely to misuse lethal force.

Violence in inner cities reinforces negative stereotypes of African Americans as dangerous and threatening, making unarmed African Americans disproportionately vulnerable to police violence and feeding implicit bias that negatively affects the employment prospects of African Americans.

School discipline policies disproportionately punish African American students, even in pre-kindergarten ; although no black-white achievement gap exists at the start of kindergarten, when one controls for socio-economic status, such a gap does exist by the end of that year.

Laws establishing school funding on the basis of property taxes ensure that schools that have an especially high need to provide security, and other ancillary resources, in support of their educational mission, are unable to fulfill their mission, thereby violating for students enrolled in those schools the right to education that is to be found in 49 of 50 state constitutions.

Legal restrictions on employment by minors, combined with low rates of labor opportunity in inner cities, increase the likelihood that 11- and 12-year-olds in the inner city will be recruited into participation in gangs and thereby be almost irremediably cut off from connection to legal employment.

In the most recent stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for a change of orientation on the part of our fellow Americans by arguing that black lives matter, too: Our repeated Petitions have often been answered by repeated insult. Such failures of reciprocity on the part of our fellow Americans call into question whether we the people are fit to govern ourselves as a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our fellow Americans. We serve in the military; we vote at high rates; we meet massacres with calls for forgiveness. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. Episodically, our forefathers have pursued separation — whether in the case of African Americans who sought to return to Africa or segregationists who built a world of “separate but equal.” We denounce such projects of separation and affirm the necessity of connection. We cannot be a people and be at war with ourselves; the War on Drugs must end.

We, therefore, a portion of the American people, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, out of respect for the Name and Authority of the good People of this Country, solemnly publish and declare, That the people of this country ought all to be connected to one another and equal; that all legislation erecting the War on Drugs, and turning the American people against one another, ought to be totally dissolved; that the free and independent states and territories have full power to pursue narcotics control through the tools of public health policy, instead of the criminal justice system; that the free and independent states and territories should so use their powers and do all other Acts and Things by which they may foster a people connected and equal. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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HSBC avoided US money laundering charges because of 'market risk' fears - BBC News

US officials refused to prosecute HSBC for money laundering in 2012 because of concerns within the Department of Justice that it would cause a "global financial disaster", a report says.

A US Congressional report revealed UK officials, including Chancellor George Osborne, added to pressure by warning the US it could lead to market turmoil.

The report alleges the UK "hampered" the probe and "influenced" the outcome.

HSBC was accused of letting drug cartels use US banks to launder funds.

The bank, which has its headquarters in London, paid a $1.92bn (£1.48bn) settlement but did not face criminal charges. No top officials at HSBC faced any charges.

The report says: "George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the UK's chief financial minister, intervened in the HSBC matter by sending a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke... to express the UK's concerns regarding US enforcement actions against British banks."

The letter said that prosecuting HSBC could have "very serious implications for financial and economic stability, particularly in Europe and Asia".

Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said a series of factors were considered when deciding how to resolve a case, including whether there may be "adverse consequences for innocent third parties, such as employees, customers, investors, pension holders and the public".

The report also accuses former US Attorney General Eric Holder of misleading Congress about the decision.

The report says Mr Holder ignored the recommendations of more junior staff to prosecute HSBC because of the bank's "systemic importance" to the financial markets.

"Rather than lacking adequate evidence to prove HSBC's criminal conduct, internal Treasury documents show that DOJ [Department of Justice] leadership declined to pursue [the] recommendation to prosecute HSBC because senior DOJ leaders were concerned that prosecuting the bank 'could result in a global financial disaster'," the report said.

Instead, the Department of Justice and HSBC reached the settlement, which some politicians criticised for being too lenient.

Testifying before Congress in 2013 Mr Holder said the size of some financial institutions can make it difficult to bring criminal charges.

He later tried to clarify those remarks telling Congress: "If we find a bank or a financial institution that has done something wrong, if we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, those cases will be brought."

Congress's report deemed these comments to be misleading in light of emails from Treasury Department staff that recommended criminal charges.

The 2012 settlement with HSBC detailed how the bank violated US sanctions by conducting business for customers in Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba.

HSBC accounts were also used by the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico and Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia to launder $881m.

The settlement allowed the bank to avoid pleading guilty to any wrongdoing.

If HSBC had been proven guilty of criminal action, it could have lost its banking charter in the US.

HSBC and US regulators declined to comment on the report.

The UK Treasury has not commented either.

Bron: www.bbc.com

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Haagse agent blijkt mol voor drugsbende | NOS

Een Haagse politieagent die op 1 juni door de Rijksrecherche werd aangehouden voor het lekken van informatie, blijkt die informatie te hebben doorgespeeld aan een Marokkaanse drugsbende.

De agent gaf de bende een tip op het moment dat zijn collega's informatie kregen over een hennepplantage of een opslagplaats van drugs. Hij belde een contactpersoon, waarna deze snel naar de bewuste locatie ging om daar vlak voor de komst van de politie alle hennep te stelen.

Gisteren verlengde de raadkamer van de rechtbank Den Haag het voorarrest van de agent met zestig dagen. De 28-jarige man van Marokkaanse afkomst wordt verdacht van corruptie, schending van het ambtsgeheim, het medeplegen van inbraken en deelname aan een criminele organisatie.

Het is de tweede keer binnen een jaar tijd dat de politie wordt opgeschrikt door een corruptieschandaal met een politiemol. Eerder bleek Mark M. uit Weert gevoelige informatie door te spelen aan allerlei criminelen. De man die nu verdacht wordt, speelde zijn informatie voor zover bekend alleen door aan zijn 'eigen' bende.

Naast de 28-jarige agent zijn nog drie andere bendeleden aangehouden: een 27-jarige man uit Den Haag en twee mannen van 27 en 29 jaar oud uit Leidschendam. Dit drietal zou op aanwijzing van de politiemol de inbraken hebben gepleegd bij hennepkwekerijen en -opslagplaatsen.

Tegelijk met de agent werd ook een 25-jarige vrouw uit Moordrecht aangehouden. Zij is weer vrijgelaten, maar wordt nog wel als verdachte beschouwd.

Bron: nos.nl

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Autoverhuurbedrijven hand in hand met Brabantse drugscriminelen | NOS

Veel autoverhuurbedrijven in Brabant zijn nauw betrokken bij zware criminaliteit. Dat zegt de politie Zeeland-West Brabant na maandenlang onderzoek. Autoverhuurders verhuren auto's met verborgen ruimten aan criminelen die er drugs, wapens en geld mee vervoeren. Eigenaren en medewerkers van verhuurbedrijven zijn volgens de politie niet zelden verbonden aan criminele organisaties.

Eind vorig jaar stuitten rechercheurs van de politie Zeeland-West Brabant op een opmerkelijk cijfer. Terwijl er in de stad Groningen maar 19 verhuurbedrijven staan geregistreerd, zijn dat er in Tilburg, met ongeveer evenveel inwoners, 34. Daarnaast zijn er nog 22 bedrijven die niet geregistreerd staan. Volgens de Brabantse rechercheurs is het verschil economisch gezien niet te verklaren.

De rechercheurs zijn onderdeel van een speciaal team dat is opgericht om autoverhuurders weerbaar te maken tegen misbruik van hun voertuigen door criminelen. In het onderzoek vonden ze met behulp van speurhonden verborgen compartimenten in verschillende huurauto's. Soms troffen ze drugs, wapens en geld aan in deze ruimtes.

Meestal waren het onopvallende auto's zoals de Fiat Punto, de Volkswagen Polo en de Citroën C3. "Met deze middenklassers blijven ze beter buiten beeld van de overheid en kunnen ze anoniem rondrijden", zegt een van de rechercheurs.

Ook ontdekten ze dat er criminele kopstukken zijn die voltijds rondrijden in soms peperdure huurauto's. Het gaat vaak om mensen die geen officieel inkomen hebben, maar wel een uitkering. De huur betalen ze met cash geld. Doordat de auto's niet op hun naam staan, is het veel lastiger om de auto's af te pakken op het moment dat de politie op zoek is naar crimineel verkregen vermogen.

In totaal zijn de afgelopen maanden in West-Brabant en Zeeland 109 personen gecontroleerd die rondrijden in een huurauto, omdat de politie vermoedde dat er iets mis mee was. Zo'n negentig procent van de gecontroleerde inzittenden had inderdaad een crimineel verleden.

Sommigen autoverhuurbedrijven lijken malafide bedrijven te zijn die speciaal zijn opgericht door criminelen voor hun criminele activiteiten en als manier om geld wit te wassen. Als gewone consument kun je daar geen auto huren. Zo is er in Tilburg een autoverhuurbedrijf dat gevestigd is op de zesde verdieping van een flatgebouw. Een autoverhuurbedrijf in Bergen op Zoom is eigendom van een 19-jarige jongen die een paar maanden geleden nog leefde van een studiefinanciering. Bijna alle gecontroleerde klanten van dit bedrijf bleken antecedenten op drugsgebied te hebben.

"Dat zijn vaak bedrijven die voor gewone burgers nauwelijks benaderbaar zijn", zegt een rechercheur. "Ze hebben bijvoorbeeld geen website en hebben vaak een vast klantenbestand."

Maar criminelen huren ook auto's bij filialen van grote bekende verhuurbedrijven. De Brabantse rechercheurs vermoeden dat deze bedrijven op de hoogte zijn van de criminele achtergrond van sommige van hun klanten, maar omwille van het geld een oogje dichtknijpen. Bij enkele bedrijven zien de rechercheurs dat er mensen werken met criminele connecties. Andere bedrijven lijken er geen problemen mee te hebben dat de huur betaald wordt met cash en maken er geen punt van dat klanten formulieren niet goed invullen.

De afgelopen dagen organiseerde een team van onder andere de Nederlandse en Belgische politie, marechaussee en de douane een grote actie waarbij tien autoverhuurbedrijven werden gecontroleerd. Bij een bedrijf in Roosendaal werd vandaag hennepafval en een automatisch vuurwapen gevonden. Een 25-jarige man is aangehouden.

Een ander bedrijf kondigde aan een faillissement aan te vragen, toen tijdens de actie bleek dat vier auto's niet verzekerd waren. Ook werden bij een bedrijf auto's in beslag genomen omdat de herkomst van de voertuigen niet duidelijk was. De administraties van alle gecontroleerde autoverhuurders zijn mee genomen voor onderzoek.

Hoewel het team alleen onderzoek deed in Brabant, is het volgens de rechercheurs niet alleen een Brabants probleem. Eerder al kwam de Amsterdamse politie tot vergelijkbare conclusies. "We wisten al langer dat deze branche gevoelig is voor georganiseerde misdaad", zegt een van de rechercheurs. "Het is voor criminelen een goede manier om zichzelf en hun goederen te vervoeren. En via cash betalingen komen ze van hun zwarte geld af."

Bron: nos.nl

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Italy's plan to legalize weed could help fight the Islamic State and the mafia

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Italy is about to begin a national debate about legalizing marijuana, and one senior official is promising that, should the country forge ahead in regulating and taxing pot, it could be a blow to the Islamic State and the mafia at the same time.

Legislation will be introduced in the Italian parliament next week to remove criminal prohibitions on marijuana, let Italians grow up to five plants at home, and buy cannabis from a state-run monopoly.

If that bill passes, the smuggling route from the northern tip of Africa could be disrupted, according to Franco Roberti, the country's top prosecutor in charge of fighting both the mafia and terrorism.

"Decriminalization or even legalization would definitely be a weapon against traffickers, among whom there could be terrorists who make money off of it," Roberti told Reuters in April.

Roberti says this is because the mafia and "suspected terrorists" share smuggling routes in North Africa, and collaborate to move product into Italy and then throughout Europe.

"The main smuggling route for North African hash — compressed cannabis resin — now runs from Casablanca, Morocco, through Algeria, Tunisia to Tobruk in eastern Libya," according to Roberti.

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Tientallen boetes voor drugsbezit in Harlingen | NOS

In Harlingen zijn tientallen mensen beboet die drugs bij zich hadden en met de boot naar Terschelling of Vlieland wilden. De politie hield gisteren en vrijdag een controle in de terminal van de veerdienst om overlast op de eilanden te voorkomen.

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De meeste van de 33 mensen die gisteren werden aangehouden waren minderjarig. Ze hadden onder meer wiet bij zich, xtc, hasj, GHB, speed en ketamine. Vijf minderjarigen hadden alcohol bij zich.

Vrijdag werden 20 verdachten aangehouden voor het bezit van drugs en/of alcoholische dranken. De meeste van hen waren minderjarig.

Een van hen had een frisdrankblikje bij zich met daarin veertig xtc-pillen, hasj en wiet.

Alle aangetroffen drugs en drank zijn in beslag genomen. De jongeren kregen een geldboete die ze gelijk moesten betalen. Tegen vijf verdachten is proces-verbaal opgemaakt.

Bron: nos.nl

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Libertarian Johnson: Drug war 'root cause' of police shootings - POLITICO

Gary Johnson believes the tensions between police and minorities that led to two high-profile police shootings and the deaths of five Dallas police officers has a root cause: The long-running war on drugs.

The libertarian nominee for president did not directly tie the drug war to the shooting deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana by police or the sniper killings of five officers in Texas this week. But poor relations between police and African-Americans stems from the criminalization of drug use, he said.

“The root is the war on drugs, I believe. Police knocking down doors, shooting first,” Johnson said in an interview Friday in Washington. “If you are (black and) arrested in a drug-related crime, there is four times more likelihood of going to prison than if you are white. And shooting is part of the same phenomenon.”

“That’s the common thread. Shootings are occurring with black people, black people are dying,” he added. “This is an escalation.”

The former Republican governor of New Mexico is pitching a complete rewrite of the nation’s drug policy as part of his underdog run for the presidency alongside his running mate, former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Bill Weld. Johnson wants to legalize marijuana and find other ways to deal with harder drugs than long periods of incarceration.

He said that will soon happen, predicting that California will vote this fall to legalize marijuana and President Barack Obama will remove cannabis from its listing as a Class 1 drug. "I think Obama’s going to do that going out the door," Johnson said.

“The focus on drugs needs to be as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue. It can be illegal but does it need to be criminal? Do you need to go to jail for drugs?” Johnson said. “I do believe that the root of the militarization, knocking on doors, is a drug war phenomenon.”

The laid-back libertarian, dressed in jeans and an open-collared button-down in a hotel dining room, declined to join Republicans in criticizing Obama for pointing to “powerful weapons” this week as a cause of violence between police officers and minorities. But Johnson said the focus on assault rifles is misguided.

“That is a category of rifle that contains 30 million rifles. If you ban those rifles tomorrow and said hand ‘em in," only half of the weapons would actually be turned over, Johnson said. "And we’re going to have a whole new criminal class of people.”

Johnson said that as president he’d be open to proposals designed to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and the mentally ill. But he said he’d seen no such workable proposals in Congress, despite unsuccessful attempts by both Democrats and Republicans.

Bron: www.politico.com

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Netherlands closes Down 19 prisons due to lack of prisoners

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The Netherlands will close 19 of its prisons over the next few years because the cost of maintaining them is too high. The reason why the prisons aren’t cost-efficient, however, is something of a national blessing: thanks to the country’s steadily declining crime rate, thousands of prison cells are going unused.

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The Netherlands isn’t the first country to close jails because it doesn’t have enough criminals. Sweden’s prison numbers fell by about 1% per year from 2004 to 2011. Then between 2011 and 2012, they declined by 6%. In 2013, the country announced it would close four prisons and one other correctional facility due to the unusual trend.

One explanation for the decrease in prison numbers, according to the Guardian, was the Swedish supreme court’s 2011 decision to give less harsh sentences for drug offenses, which could have led to inmates spending less time behind bars before going back into society.

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You Can't Beat The Market - VolteFace

There has been much comment and controversy on the extent to which the recent UN summit on the world drug problem reflects a more tolerant and less punitive approach, but there is one key area of the outcome declaration that has received much less attention – the review of strategies, and plans for the future, for reducing the supply of drugs.

My reading of these sections of the declaration is that, whatever you think about the value and consequences of supply reduction activities, there is a worrying lack of analysis of the effectiveness of current strategies, and no sign of new ideas and tactics that might produce better results.

Reducing the illicit supply of drugs remains central to global drug control strategies. The much vaunted ‘consensus’ of global prohibition has for decades been based on these principles:

Politicians and diplomats have found it convenient to always return to these principles in their policies and rhetoric, as they represent a clear determination to ‘solve’ a problem that the public is concerned about, and all strategies, initiatives and operational successes can be presented as steps on the road to the achievement of the eventual aim.

Spice Market

But the evidence and experience from decades of implementing these supply reduction strategies at the very least bring these principles into question – at the macro level, despite trillions of dollars of investment, we are no nearer achieving a ‘society free of drug abuse’. Overall levels of illicit drug use have increased massively since the current global drug control system was put in place 50 years ago (with over 250 million current users worldwide), and the latest UN figures estimate that, far from reducing the number of ‘drug abusers’, the estimated numbers of dependent drug users has risen by almost 10% in recent years, from 27 to 29 million.

But, say the champions of supply reduction strategies, these disappointing figures just show that we are not trying hard enough – we need more law enforcement resources, more international co-operation, more deterrence in the form of crackdowns on producers, distributors and consumers, and harsher punishments when they are caught. This seems to be the analysis in the UNGASS declaration, which calls for the international community to:

Basically, business as usual, but with a bit more effort. This commitment to existing supply reduction strategies is also displayed in the declaration’s response to new and emerging challenges – the approach to new psychoactive substances is focused on identifying new substances, and taking action to prohibit them; and the section on internet drug markets assumes that the only task is to close them down. Overall the tone is one of continuing faith in existing strategies, and there is no attempt to assess the extent to which these strategies are achieving their aims, or whether new approaches could give better results.

farmers market

This is a missed opportunity, as there are many reasons to question whether these traditional law enforcement strategies can ever significantly reduce illicit supply, or reduce the related harms:

Overall, we have clear evidence of the balloon effect – the basic rules of any commodity market dictate that, as long as demand for the product exists, and that demand can be met at a profit, then some form of supply will continue. We have numerous examples of long fought for gains in eradicating crops, seizing large consignments, or disrupting retail markets, that have had no long term impact on the scale and nature of consumption.

It is difficult to see, therefore, how the continuing faith in the same strategies can ever deliver the ambitious results that the UN declaration calls for. Indeed, in the absence of any realistic evidence (or even discussion) that the proposed activities can significantly reduce supply, then we can only view this section of the declaration as a politically and diplomatically convenient cover up of an absence of real belief that illicit drug markets can be significantly curtailed.

food market

But there is another approach that has a much better prospect of success. If we change the overall objectives – away from reducing supply, and towards the reduction of illicit market related harms – our strategies and activities will be much better focused, and we have at least the prospect of achieving something.

There is a reasonable consensus on some of the harms arising from illicit drug markets, that we would all want to see reduced. Here are a few objectives I would suggest for future drug law enforcement:

Many governments, and law enforcement leaders, are already integrating these objectives, and the thinking around them, into their strategies. But as long as the international community clings on to unrealistic objectives, and focuses resources on outdated activities, political leaders and diplomats will have many more years of justifying a lack of progress.


Bron: volteface.me

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Secret Garden Party pioneers drugs testing service for festivalgoers

About 200 people use facility offered by charity The Loop, police and council at Cambridgeshire festival aiming to promote safer drug use

An independent music festival in Cambridgeshire has become the first UK event of its kind to offer people the chance to have their illegal drugs tested to establish their content before they take them.

About 200 individuals took advantage of the unique testing facility, brokered in agreement with the local police and council, at this weekend’s Secret Garden Party, an annual arts and music festival on a Georgian farming estate near Huntingdon.

Freddie Fellowes, who founded the festival 12 years ago, said he was “thrilled” to be able to pioneer the service. “Harm reduction and welfare is a vital part of hosting any event and it’s an area that for too long has seen little development or advancement,” he said.

estivalgoers were offered the tests as part of a 10-minute package of health and safety advice provided by The Loop, an organisation that conducts forensic testing of drugs at festivals and nightclubs and offers associated welfare support.

Fiona Measham, co-founder of the organisation, explains: "The Loop has been conducting forensic testing at events for a number of years, but before now, we've only tested drugs seized by police, dropped in amnesty bins or provided by paramedics as a result of a medical incident. In the past we have been able to use that testing information to inform on-site services and for generalised safety alerts."

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He added that while some festivalgoers had been suspicious of the involvement of local police, many were used to similar testing facilities provided at music events in Germany and the Netherlands.

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Italian farmers turning to hemp - Business Insider


^{Hemp is saving Taranto. REUTERS/Issei Kato}

The road into Taranto is dotted with 100-year-old olive trees and low stone houses. The town, in the region of Puglia, is in the heel of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula. “The city between the two seas” straddles the southern Mediterranean, known as the Mar Grande, and a small inlet known as the Mar Piccolo. The air has a heavy metallic scent.

At the edge of town is a farm that has been known, since the 1800s, for its traditional cheeses. People came from all over to buy dairy products handmade in ancient, wood-fired terracotta furnaces. Those days are long gone, owner Vincenzo Fornaro explains, as he stands in a field surrounded by chest-high cannabis plants.

In 2008, local officials forced Fornaro to cull his animals, which were no longer safe for human consumption. They were contaminated with a dangerous cocktail of nickel, lead, and other toxic substances. That was the end of the cheese. The culprit, just over a mile away, is the biggest steel plant in Europe. The cannabis plants have replaced the dairy farm in an attempt to undo the environmental damage.

Fornaro was aware the plant was spewing toxic chemicals into the air and soil, he said, in Italian. “I can see the effects of this horrible factory on me.” When he was 20, he had a kidney removed. He told Italian newspaper La Stampa that his own mother had died after being diagnosed with a tumor.

The Ilva steel plant covers 15 million square meters—nearly three times the size of the city itself. It opened in 1965 and doubled in size by the 1970s. It once churned out almost one-third of Italy’s steel. The plant helped turn Taranto into a grimy industrial city. Smoking chimneys, blast furnaces, and aggregates yards now dominate the once-pastoral town. Even today a giant oil refinery and a huge cement factory welcome visitors.

Production at the plant has declined steadily, from 9 million tons at its height, to 4.7 million tons in 2015. But the environmental effects have been devastating. One study found that 11,000 local residents died as a result of severe toxin poisoning in factory fallout from 2005 to 2012. High levels of lead and dioxins (carcinogenic compounds) were found in the urine and blood of locals who lived near the factory. They had higher rates of heart disease and cancer.

The dilemma is that the plant has dominated the local economy. At its height, it employed 40,000 people, and a European Union report found that the plant made up 75 percent of Taranto’s income in 2008.

Unemployment in the region was almost 20 percent as recently as last year, so for many local residents, the jobs almost make up for the pollution. Initially, the local government didn’t do anything because the steel plant was too important.

“A long time ago, a choice was made to sacrifice this part of Italy, jeopardizing the health of the citizens of Taranto and its community and the biodiversity of the two seas,” said politician Domenico Finiguerra. “It was decided to sacrifice this land in the name of Italy’s economic future, supplying its industry with all the steel it needed.”

Taranto represents an economic model based on cement, steel, and oil, which is no longer sustainable, Finiguerra said. “This poisoned territory urgently needs an ecological regeneration project.”

As the full scale of the environmental devastation became clear, local residents decided to take action. In 2012, the plant was seized by magistrates and put under special administration. Last year, 47 people were indicted for crimes including crimes against public safety, corruption, bribery, abuse of office, and murder and injury by negligence.

Leaves of marijuana plants to extract the hemp fiber that is often used in traditional Japanese clothes and accessories, are seen at Japan's largest legal marijuana farm in Kanuma, Tochigi prefecture, Japan July 5, 2016. Picture taken July 5, 2016. REUTERS/Issei Kato Cultivating hemp for industrial use is legal in Italy. Thomson Reuters

Among those indicted were the powerful owners of the plant, the Riva family, managers at the factory, as well as the former governor of the region and a former mayor of the city of Taranto. Fabio Riva had been on the run since 2012 and had to be extradited from the United Kingdom. His billionaire father died in 2014, after two years of being under house arrest.

The legal action couldn’t save the agriculture sector, however. Since 2012, about 1,000 enterprises have shut down, and there has been a 10-percent decrease in meat production due to the slaughtering of 1,000 animals in the area. The soil is thoroughly contaminated, and farmers are banned from grazing their animals within a 12-mile radius of the steel plant.

Which brings us to hemp.

“We found ourselves at a crossroads, we had to decide whether to leave or to stay,” said farmer Vincenzo Fornaro. “We decided to stay to defend our land.” To do that, he planted marijuana plants, which can absorb toxic substances from the soil and neutralize them. The fist time hemp was used for environmental rehabilitation was after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.

“We started recovering our land using hemp,” Fornaro said proudly as he stood amid the marijuana plants. When I visited, the three-month-old crop was verdant and fragrant. The strong, sweet scent of marijuana coming from the three-hectare field contrasted strongly with the fumes from the nearby steel plant, which still employs 14,000 people.

Fornaro started cultivating the controversial plant two years ago with the help of CanaPuglia, a local startup founded by hemp enthusiast Claudio Natile. “Hemp is a versatile plant, with strong links to the Italian tradition, with thousands of properties, which over the years has been criminalized,” Natile said.

Hemp was a major Italian agricultural crop for hundreds of years. In the ’50s, the country was the second-largest hemp producer in the world after the Soviet Union. Italian hemp seeds provided some of the most resistant fibers, which were turned into clothing. However, with industrialization and the advent of synthetic fibers such as nylon, hemp started to disappear.

Natile said part of CanaPuglia’s work was teaching people that history. “We went to the schools, spoke to the priests, to the farmers, and even the local military police to explain what we were going to use this plant for. The day we planted the seeds we invited all of them.”

Cultivating hemp is legal in Italy, as long as farmers tell the police that they are planting it for industrial use and plant a legal variety, which has low levels of THC, the mind-altering chemical. (Italy is currently considering legalizing recreational marijuana consumption.)

marijuana plant Hemp can absorb toxic substances from the soil. Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters

In just five years, hemp production in Puglia has increased from 3 hectares to 300, with about 100 farmers in the area planting seeds. It has even brought new investments to the region such as the first hemp processing plant in Southern Italy, which transforms the hemp into fiber that can be turned into shoes, bags, clothes and even bricks for construction.

Hemp seeds are ground into high-protein, high-fiber, gluten-free flour that can be used for baking as well as to make pasta. But most farmers in the region, like Fornaro, are planting hemp to help clear their land of toxins. Fornaro can sell plant fibers for processing because the toxins don’t show up in the plant itself, but he is not able to sell the seeds (to be ground into flour, for example) because they could be contaminated.

“We have to start giving back what we took from the environment and provide an alternative employment to our children,” said Fornaro. “For now we use hemp only for industrial processing. I hope in the future we can use it also for nourishment. But what is certain is that we will surround the Ilva plant with hemp.”

Bron: www.businessinsider.com

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Field post: 'Honduras has one of the world's highest rates of urban violence'

The situation in hospitals is dire – patients wait hours, sometimes sleeping overnight in corridors to be first in the queue for their injuries to be treated

It is 3pm and yet another patient is brought to the emergency room with a gunshot wound to the chest. He seems to be in his early twenties. For now, he is talking. From the position of the wound on his chest, it is clear he needs to go immediately to the operating theatre. He has almost certainly been shot in the heart. This makes him one of thousands in Honduras who have suffered the consequences of armed violence.

Since 2010, Honduras has had one of the highest rates of urban violence in the world. Most of the violence we see in the emergency room takes the form of gun and knife injuries, often fatal. The treatment of injuries related to violence is considered by local hospital staff as routine. In the heat and humidity of the emergency room, the stench of blood and sweat hangs in the air.

Drug trafficking and extortion are attributed to the activity of powerful gangs; whole neighbourhoods are said to be controlled by armed groups. There are carjackings, kidnappings, murders and sex crimes. Young men and women and their families seem inextricably caught up in the tragedy of bloodshed. Urban existence is compounded by unemployment and poverty. Local media report on a seemingly continuous loop featuring hospitals struggling to cope with the daily influx of wounded. How then is this a “silent emergency”?

An emergency is any situation that requires urgent action to deter a threat to an individual’s health or life. Have we become so accustomed to urban violence and the failure to meet the most urgent health needs of communities that we have gone quiet? I had the privilege again this year of being deployed as a British Red Cross surgeon to work with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Honduras. I work in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, alongside doctors, nurses and medical students who strive day and night to bring the best medical care possible to the injured.

I am astonished every day by the commitment of medical students and interns who carry out tasks in this ICRC-supported hospital – from portering and taking blood, to cleaning and dressing wounds, and documenting exact causes of injury that I need for my research. Surgical teams work 24 hours, operating round the clock on patients. Every piece of equipment is jealously guarded as resources are scarce. They are cleaned, repaired, protected and used again and again. Local humour translates “use once” in English to the Spanish u-s-e o-n-c-e (use 11 times). The standard of care is high, yet the emergency remains. The situation is dire.

Medical facilities used by most of the population are underfunded and overwhelmed. Outpatient queues extend out of hospital buildings. Patients from the city and surrounding countryside wait hours to be seen. They travel all day from the countryside – on foot or hitchhiking. Beneath the cowboy hats, their skin is tough and burned. The lines on their faces tell their stories. Mothers sleep with their children overnight on the stone floor in corridors, hoping to be first in the morning queues for clinics and pharmacies. As if life is not hard enough, the constant threat of dengue, and now Zika, is a daily reality.

Local doctors and nurses keep working. They are well organised, well informed, resourceful and committed to dealing with the continuous emergency of an overburdened health service. They are not silent, but they are considerate in their thoughts and measured in their comments. They explain the situation to me: there are complex problems here. The most vulnerable are the poor. To address their health, communities need to be safe and they need access to education and employment that pays a regular salary sufficient to feed their families.

The young man shot in the chest survived. He went straight to the operating room. We were ready for him. As usual, the team worked in relative silence and calm. After surgery the doctor explained his injuries quietly to his mother. She was crying silently.

I walk back to a heaving emergency room: the clamour and commotion is deafening. There is nothing silent about this emergency.

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Politie de bomen in op jacht naar wiet | NOS

Staatsbosbeheer en de politie hebben in natuurgebied de Biesbosch bij Dordrecht drie grote hennepvelden ontdekt. Een politiehelikopter had foto's gemaakt, maar om de wiet te bereiken was volgens de politie "een ware survivaltocht" nodig. Boswachters en agenten moesten in bomen klimmen om te zien of ze al in de buurt kwamen.

Bij het eerste veld waren drie mannen planten aan het rooien. Zij zijn aangehouden. Na enig zoeken vond de politie nog twee velden. In totaal stonden er zo'n duizend planten.

Het komt vaker voor dat er wietkwekers in de Biesbosch actief zijn. Volgens Staatsbosbeheer en de politie richten zulke activiteiten grote schade aan aan de natuur.

Bron: nos.nl

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Poll: Majority Of Republicans Now Support Full Marijuana Legalization

Prohibition of cannabis is over. It may not be legally over yet, but in the minds of men and women, it’s over.

A new YouGov poll shows a new record high of Americans now support the legalization of marijuana by a widening gap. Americans that support legalization grew to 55% while those who support prohibition fell to 33%.


The poll showed for the first time a majority of republican voters now support marijuana legalization. Not for medical cannabis, mind you, because a large majority already supported that. A majority of GOP voters now support full legalization for all uses, including recreational.



With several more states voting to legalize cannabis in some fashion this November, expect to see the walls of prohibition continue to crumble.

Read my previous article:
Will Popular Marijuana Strains Become Like Fine Wines?



Marijuana consumers deserve and demand equal rights and protections under our laws that are currently afforded to the drinkers of far more dangerous and deadly, yet perfectly legal, widely accepted, endlessly advertised and glorified as an All American pastime, booze.

Plain and simple!

Legalize Marijuana Nationwide!

It’s time for us, the majority of The People to take back control of our national marijuana policy. By voting OUT of office any and all politicians who very publicly and vocally admit to having an anti-marijuana, prohibitionist agenda! Time to vote’em all OUT of office. Period. Plain and simple.

Politicians who continue to demonize Marijuana, Corrupt Law Enforcement Officials who prefer to ruin peoples lives over Marijuana possession rather than solve real crimes who fund their departments toys and salaries with monies acquired through Marijuana home raids, seizures and forfeitures, and so-called “Addiction Specialists” who make their income off of the judicial misfortunes of our citizens who choose marijuana, – Your actions go against The Will of The People and Your Days In Office Are Numbered! Find new careers before you don’t have one.

The People have spoken! Get on-board with Marijuana Legalization Nationwide, or be left behind and find new careers. Your choice.

Legalize Nationwide!

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Bron: www.mintpressnews.com