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

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Nutella boos op wietpasta 'Nugtella'


De makers van de chocoladepasta Nutella, de Italiaanse onderneming Ferrero, gaat juridische stappen nemen tegen de Amerikaanse bereiders van Nugtella, een sterk op Nutella gelijkende bruine pasta waar hazelnoten en marihuana in zijn verwerkt.

@volkskrant bestaat echt pic.twitter.com/4vZEr47FNE

Nugtella bevat wat in Californië 'medische marihuana' wordt genoemd en is uitsluitend verkrijgbaar voor mensen die een speciale vergunning hebben om vanwege hun gezondheid marihuana te kunnen aanschaffen. Nugtella is duurder dan Nutella. Een potje kost 25 dollar (18,65 euro).

De verpakking van het Californische Nugtella lijkt sprekend op die van Nutella. 'Ferrero zal alle mogelijke stappen ondernemen om zijn rechten te beschermen en om verwarring (van Nugtella) met het wereldberoemde merk Nutella uit te sluiten', zei een woordvoerder van het bedrijf in het weekeinde tegen het Duitse weekblad Wirtschaftswoche.

Ferrero verkoopt zijn bekende hazelnootpasta al sinds de jaren 60. Inmiddels is Nutella volgens het bedrijf in meer dan 190 landen verkrijgbaar. Ferrero is ook het moederbedrijf van merken als Kinder en TicTac.

Bron: Volkskrant

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Op zondag 25 augustus 2013 20:59 schreef Brum_brum het volgende:
http://nos.nl/video/544175-conflict-dreigt-om-coffeeshops.html
Kan iemand mij vertellen wat nou precies het probleem en de overlast is in dit stukje staats tv?

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Op zondag 25 augustus 2013 21:14 schreef Brum_brum het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk ook dat mensen intimideren aan de grens meer overlast geeft dan een blower, maar ik hoop eigenlijk op de anti drugs mensen die dit helemaal kunnen verklaren voor ons.

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Mexico: rise of vigilante groups adds to turmoil over crime gangs | World news | theguardian.com

President Enrique Peña Nieto has been forced to dilute plans for new national police force to fight drug cartels

Mexican authorities are struggling to control growing numbers of small town vigilante groups which have taken up arms in the name of protecting their communities against organised crime after local and federal police forces have failed to keep them safe.

On Monday police in the town of Tixtla in the southern state of Guerrero were attacked and had their weapons taken by one such group. On Tuesday scuffles broke out when the army disarmed another group marching to demand the release of a recently arrested leader.

Also on Tuesday, sympathisers of a self-defence group in the mountain town of Aquila in the neighbouring state of Michoacan accused state police of killing two people after a mass arrest of the local "community guard". "The problem is getting worse and it is a serious matter," said security expert Eduardo Guerrero, who closely monitors the dynamics of Mexico's drug wars and government strategy. "It seems to me that the government does not have clear information from the field and that leads to ambiguity in the response."

Increasing numbers of so-called self-defence groups have been formed across the country over the past year. They typically argue that they have no other option for limiting the abuses carried out by organised criminal groups that operate extorsion and kidnapping networks backed up by extreme violence.

President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December promising to implement a new strategy in the country's raging drug wars. But although the government claims better co-ordination between different security forces has prompted a drop in the murder rate, violence remains extreme and on Tuesday Peña Nieto was forced to dilute plans for a new national police force to lead the struggle against the cartels.

Security forces have proved unable – and sometimes unwilling – to crack down on organised crime groups, prompting growing support in some areas for vigilante groups. But while many self-defence groups have grown out of local communities, some have themselves been accused of participating in criminal activities, or acting as front organisations for the cartels.

The particular circumstances triggering the formation of each vigilante group, their type and level of organisation, as well as the sophistication of the weapons they carry, vary greatly from place to place.

"Some are clearly authentic efforts by communities to protect themselves, but others appear to have been infiltrated by criminals [from rival cartels]," said Guerrero.

He said the phenomenon also fed into divisions within communities, making for highly complex and explosive situations.

The movements have been particularly intense in Guerrero and Michoacan, which have both been severely hit by cartel violence and corruption.

In some towns the groups have negotiated with the state authorities, particularly in Guerrero where there was already a well-established tradition of community policing in indigenous communities.

Olinala is one such case in which an initial uprising in October last year was followed by a period of relative calm when the army was deployed in the area. Several months later a community police was formed led by a local woman called Nestora Salgado, but complaints of arbitrary justice soon began to surface.

Federal forces arrested Salgado earlier this month on charges of kidnapping, prompting protests from part of the community including the march on Tuesday that was reportedly disarmed and disbanded amid much shouting and pushing only after hundreds of soldiers surrounded the protesters with a helicopter circling overhead.

Local press reported on Wednesday that the road blockade went ahead anyway with the demand for the return of the weapons added to the call for Salgado's release.

Meanwhile, the official response to the disarming of municipal police by vigilantes in the town of Tixtla has so far been much more tolerant, with governor Angel Aguirre complaining that the violent events obstructed talks with community defence groups, but little else.

A video of the incident broadcast on national media shows police being beaten up and their guns taken. It also shows police and members of the self-defence group taking up positions behind walls and market stalls, weapons aimed at each other, while civilians run for cover in terror.
.

Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Electric Zoo music festival cancelled over drug-related health concerns | World news | theguardian.com

Two attendees died and four others were hospitalised during first two days of performances of New York City festival

The last day of a New York City dance music festival featuring high-profile acts including Avicii, David Guetta and Diplo has been canceled over drug-related health concerns.

The city says it recommended that the Electric Zoo festival not continue Sunday after two attendees died and four others had to be hospitalized during the first two days of performances on Friday and Saturday. The festival took place on Randall's Island in the East River.

A statement from the fesitval's organiser, Made Event, said: "The founders of Electric Zoo send our deepest condolences to the families of the two people who passed away this weekend. Because there is nothing more important to us than our patrons, we have decided in consultation with the New York City parks department that there will be no show today."

The city says the deaths appear to have been linked to drugs, specifically MDMA, or ecstasy. Definitive causes of death have not yet been determined.

The event's founders expressed condolences on its website to the families of those who died.

The festival has been held since 2009.

Bron: www.theguardian.com

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War on Drugs Leads to Better, Cheaper Dope, Study Says

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The American war on drugs has cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. For decades, it has put away mothers and fathers, husbands and daughters, giving the United States one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
Then-President Richard Nixon first identified drugs as a top target in 1969 and more formally declared war in 1971. What has this four-decade battle really gotten us?
Stronger and cheaper drugs.

Really.

So says a study this week by researchers at the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy that was published in the British Medical Journal Open.

The academics from the University of British Columbia looked at drug use in the United States over roughly two decades (1990 to 2009) and discovered a correlation between the war and the availability of more affordable, more potent street narcotics.

For example, the researchers say, the purity of cocaine was found to have increased by 11 percent. The purity of heroin: 60 percent.

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Drugs Like Krokodil Are the Result of Irresponsible 'War on Drugs' Policy

A flesh-rotting drug is eye-popping, but the real story should ask why we aren’t doing more to help impoverished addicts.

It’s easy to focus on the sensational aspects of the emerging krokodil “ flesh-rotting drug” story, but that ignores the most troubling issues around its origins, its popularity and its continued use. Krokodil is the street term for a home-made injectable opioid called desomorphine, a drug with effects similar to, but not as long lasting, as heroin. Desomorphine was first patented in the U.S. in 1932, but the homemade version has risen in popularity in Russia in recent years. Desperation often breeds tragedy and disaster, and Russia’s

shoddy methods of treating their sick and addicted created the desperation that led to the disastrous popularity of krokodil.

In Russia, there is no methadone, drug treatment is totally inadequate, the street price of heroin can be very high and drug users are left to struggle with their addictions with no real therapeutic assistance. In that awful climate krokodil emerged and spread. Lacking any real alternatives, drug users attempt to manage their addictions themselves by creating a substitute for heroin. According to the World Health Organization, the Russian Federation has one of the highest rates of opiate use in the world. Millions of drug users throughout Russia urgently need access to evidence-based treatment and medication for their drug use, but are refused it, largely due to stigma and ignorance.

Earlier this year, the Pulitizer Center reported on the dire situation in Russia, describing it as “Death by Indifference.” But this is hardly breaking news. We’ve known about these failures a long time. Back in 2008, the New York Times reported on it, shining an important light on the urgent need for methadone access.

People who use drugs urgently need, at minimum, access to evidence-based treatment and the full range of therapeutic interventions and medications that can help them. We take this for granted in the U.S., because we do a pretty good job at helping people access substance abuse treatment. But when drug users are pushed to the margins of society and denied access to lifesaving interventions, including rehabilitation and treatment services, we see the failures of the drug war in stark relief: underground drug markets explode and flourish; HIV is transmitted via shared syringes; serious medical consequences are exacerbated due to neglect; human beings are pushed in corners, forgotten about and essentially left for dead.

For decades we have engaged in an increasingly futile, increasingly costly war on drugs. Prohibition creates an environment for new drugs to emerge; new methods of making drugs contribute to an ever more clandestine ‘make it yourself’ drug market (see the rise of ‘ shake and bake’ at-home meth manufacturing in soda bottles).

Very few details about the emergence of krokodil in Arizona are yet available. What we don’t know about this story far outweighs what little we do know. We don’t yet know anything about the patients treated; other substances they may have been using; the extent of krokodil use in their communities; if their use of krokodil was experimental or daily; if they were using it as a substitute for another opioid; or really anything. Much of the reporting thus far has been little more than a few gory pictures of “flesh rot” and fear mongering about the drug.

The media is highlighting some of the horrific consequences of homemade drug production —but we can’t stop there. Because beyond the eye-popping pictures of necrosis associated with krokodil, there is a question begging to be asked: why aren’t we doing more to help these people? Why are we tolerating a world in which people are driven to extreme and serious medical consequences instead of simply having access to the treatments that can save their lives?

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The war on drugs created a zombie monster drug that rots human flesh

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The war on drugs -- a miserable failure that has militarized our police departments, bolstered the domestic surveillance state, and spawned an incarceration crisis unmatched anywhere else in the world -- has been rotting our democracy for decades.

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'Drugsvrije' wietteelt in Rusland mislukt

Het plan om in Siberië in het wild groeiende wietplanten te verdringen door een 'drugsvrije' variant te planten is mislukt. De krachteloze aanplant paste zich snel aan en ontwikkelde het bestanddeel THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), dat van de plant een verdovend middel maakt.

Afgelopen zomer hebben de autoriteiten in de regio Boerijatia, ongeveer 4400 kilometer ten oosten van Moskou, 300 kilogram aan zaadjes van een 'drugsvrije' cannabissoort geplant in de hoop af te rekenen met de echte soort. Dat is niet gelukt, omdat de drugsvrije aanplant toch het bestanddeel THC ontwikkelde.

Het ministerie van Landbouw van de deelrepubliek Boerijatia laat zich ondanks de mislukking niet uit het veld slaan. Er worden binnenkort nieuwe zaadjes voor nieuwe drugsvrije hennepplanten besteld.

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Colorado farmers harvest industrial hemp despite federal prohibition

Finished hemp, marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin, is legal in the US, but growing it remains off-limits under federal law

Ryan Loflin, a farmer from southeast Colorado, tried an illegal crop this year. He didn't hide it from neighbors, and he was never afraid that law enforcement would come asking about it. Loflin is among about two dozen Colorado farmers who raised industrial hemp, marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin that cannot be grown under federal drug law, bringing in the nation's first acknowledged crop in more than five decades.

Emboldened by voters in Colorado and Washington last year giving the green light to both marijuana and industrial hemp production, Loflin planted 55 acres of several varieties of hemp alongside his typical alfalfa and wheat crops. The hemp came in sparse and scraggly this month, but Loflin said he is still turning away buyers.

"Phone's been ringing off the hook," said Loflin, who plans to press the seeds into oil and sell the fibrous remainder to buyers who will use it in building materials, fabric and rope. "People want to buy more than I can grow."

Hemp's prospects, however, are far from certain. Finished hemp is legal in the US, but growing it remains off-limits under federal law. The Congressional Research Service recently noted wildly differing projections about hemp's economic potential.

However, America is one of hemp's fastest-growing markets, with imports largely coming from China and Canada. In 2011, the US imported $11.5m worth of hemp products, up from $1.4m in 2000. Most of that is hemp seed and hemp oil, which finds its way into granola bars, soaps, lotions and even cooking oil. Whole Foods Market now sells hemp milk, hemp tortilla chips and hemp seeds coated in dark chocolate.

Colorado will nt start granting hemp-cultivation licenses until 2014, but Loflin didn't wait. His confidence got a boost in August, when the US Department of Justice said the federal government would generally defer to state marijuana laws as long as states kept marijuana away from children and drug cartels. The memo did not mention hemp as an enforcement priority for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I figured they have more important things to worry about than, you know, rope," a smiling Loflin said as he hand-harvested 4ft plants on his Baca County land.

Colorado's hemp experiment may not be unique for long. Ten states now have industrial hemp laws that conflict with federal drug policy, including one signed by California Governor Jerry Brown last month. And it's not just the typical marijuana-friendly suspects: Kentucky, North Dakota and West Virginia have industrial hemp laws on the books.

Hemp production was never banned outright, but it dropped to zero in the late 1950s because of competition from synthetic fibers and increasing anti-drug sentiment. Hemp and marijuana are the same species, cannabis sativa, cultivated differently to enhance or reduce marijuana's psychoactive chemical, THC. The 1970 Controlled Substances Act required hemp growers to get a permit from the DEA, the last of which was issued in 1999 for a quarter-acre experimental plot in Hawaii. That permit expired in 2003.

The US Department of Agriculture last recorded an industrial hemp crop in the late 1950s, down from a 1943 peak of more than 150m pounds on 146,200 harvested acres.

Loflin and other legalization advocates say hemp is back in style and that federal obstacles need to go. Loflin didn't have to hire help to bring in his crop, instead posting on Facebook that he needed volunteer harvesters. More than two dozen people showed up — from as far as Texas and Idaho. Volunteers pulled the plants up from the root and piled them whole on two flatbed trucks. The mood was celebratory.

But there are reasons to doubt hemp's viability. "It is not possible," Congressional Research Service researchers wrote in a July report, "to predict the potential market and employment effects of relaxing current restrictions on US hemp production."

The most recent federal study came 13 years ago, when the USDA concluded the nation's hemp markets "are, and will likely remain, small" and "thin". A 2004 study by the University of Wisconsin warned hemp "is not likely to generate sizeable profits" and highlighted "uncertainty about long-run demand for hemp products".

Still, there are seeds of hope. Global hemp production has increased from 250m pounds in 1999 to more than 380m pounds in 2011, according to United Nations agricultural surveys, which attributed the boost to increased demand for hemp seeds and oil. Congress is paying attention to the country's increasing acceptance of hemp. The House version of the stalled farm bill includes an amendment, sponsored by lawmakers in Colorado, Oregon and Kentucky, allowing industrial hemp cultivation nationwide. The amendment's prospects, like the farm bill's timely passage, are far from certain.

Ron Carleton, a Colorado deputy agricultural commissioner who is leading the state's looming hemp licensure, said he has no idea what hemp's commercial potential is. He is not even sure how many farmers will sign up for Colorado's licensure program next year, though he has fielded a "fair number of inquiries".

"What's going to happen, we'll just have to see," he said

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Oreos the Next Target in the War on Drugs

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According to a study from students and professors at Connecticut College, lab rats find Oreo cookies to be as addictive as cocaine.

"Our reserach supports the theory that high-fat/high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do," said Joseph Schroeder, associate professor of Neuroscience at Connecticut College.

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'Drugsbaronnen ontduiken eenvoudig belastingen'

Drugsmiljonairs ontduiken op eenvoudige wijze belasting door een 'uitschrijftruc'. Dat blijkt uit een intern recherchedocument dat in handen is van RTL Nieuws.

Drugscriminelen schrijven zich uit bij de gemeente en zeggen dat ze naar het buitenland vertrekken. Hierdoor verschaffen zij zich een fiscale en justitiële anonimiteit. 'Door deze fiscale anonimiteit is het zicht op het legaal inkomen en vermogen onzichtbaar voor de Nederlandse fiscus', staat te lezen in het rapport 'Nederlandse Belastingnomaden' van de Nationale Recherche.

In werkelijkheid vertrekken die zogenaamde belastingnomaden vaak helemaal niet naar het buitenland. Het gaat om landelijk bekende criminelen, van wie enkelen afkomstig zijn uit het woonwagenmilieu, die de uitschrijftruc 'veelvuldig toepassen'.

Elk jaar worden er meer dan 5.000 wietplantages opgerold. De grote hennepbaronnen blijven vaak buiten schot. 'We hebben het over de topcriminelen', zegt Wim Gerritsen van het Regionale Inlichtingen en Expertisecentrum Criminaliteit (RIEC) Brabant tegen RTL Nieuws. 'Jongens die ontzettend veel geld verdienen. Tientallen, zo niet honderden miljoenen per jaar met drugs en criminaliteit. Daarmee leiden ze hier een ontzettend luxe leven. Dikke huizen, grote auto's, vette Porsches. Maar ze hebben ook hotels in het buitenland, dikke boten in de Middellandse Zee.'

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Under the mask of the war on drugs

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LS: Catherine Austin Fitts, a former investment banker from Wall Street, shared this observation once with me:

Essentially, I would say the governments run the drug trade, but they're not the ultimate power, they're just one part, if you will, of managing the operations. Nobody can run a drug business, unless the banks will do their transactions and handle their money. If you want to understand who controls the drug trade in a place, you need to ask yourself who is it that has to accept to manage the transactions and to manage the capital, and that will lead you to the answer who's in control. [2]

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'It is time to end the war on drugs', says top UK police chief