The World Wide War on Drugs #7 - Uruguay is tegen, wie volgt?

Zangeres Zonder Naam - Mexico

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'Hollandse misdaad' verschuift naar het zuiden

De traditionele Hollandse criminele netwerken verschuiven hun activiteiten naar het zuiden van Nederland. Daarom zijn de criminele acties als liquidaties, drugshandel en witwassen daar toegenomen. Het gaat dan met name om Brabant en Limburg, lieten politiebaas Gerard Bouman en OM-baas Herman Bolhaar vandaag weten.

Onder anderen leden van de zogenoemde outlaw motorclubs maken zich hieraan schuldig, stellen ze. 'De oude traditionele Hollandse netwerken hebben steeds meer bemoeienis in het zuiden van Nederland', zegt Bouwman. In totaal zijn er bijvoorbeeld niet of nauwelijks meer criminele moorden in Nederland.

Meer geweld
Deze misdaad zorgt voor onveiligheid in de samenleving. Het gaat namelijk om onder meer geweld, dealen van drugs, dumpen van gevaarlijke grondstoffen voor drugs, bemoeienis van de misdaad in de horeca, en bedreiging, onder meer van burgemeesters.

Om deze georganiseerde misdaad in het zuiden en de rest van het land te kunnen bestrijden zijn OM en politie vorig jaar begonnen met een bredere aanpak. Niet alleen het strafrecht, maar ook de Belastingdienst en gemeenten moeten helpen bij het bestrijden van de criminaliteit die de Nederlandse samenleving 'ondermijnt'. De eerste resultaten afgelopen jaar zijn positief, concludeert Bolhaar.

Bredere aanpak
Minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) heeft eerder als doelstelling neergelegd dat er in 2014 twee keer zoveel criminele samenwerkingsverbanden moeten worden aangepakt als in 2009. OM en politie gaven toen aan slechts 20 procent van de bekende criminele netwerken te kunnen aanpakken, onder meer door de schaarse opsporingscapaciteit.

Door de bredere aanpak slaagden politie en justitie vorig jaar in die doelstelling al bijna te halen. Door samen te werken met andere organisaties blijkt de capaciteit slimmer te kunnen worden ingezet om 'criminelen zoveel mogelijk te raken'.

Bolhaar houdt er rekening mee dat in 2014 gegeven de beschikbare capaciteit, het plafond voor opsporing is bereikt.

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This ban on khat is another idiotic salvo in the UK's disastrous war on drugs

Making this mild natural stimulant a banned class C drug will only benefit criminal gangs and damage race relations

Khat has been legally imported into this country for 60 years, a mild natural stimulant chewed by a tiny slice of the population at hundreds of community cafes around the country. You may not have noticed these places, since they do not provoke the tension and violence associated with some pubs. But on Tuesday, the bitter-tasting plant became a banned class C drug – the latest example of the idiocy of the damaging war on drugs.

The impact will be felt largely among the Somali, Yemeni and Ethiopian communities, but we should all be concerned. For as 25 countries loosen drug laws and evidence grows from around the globe of the harm caused by prohibition in terms of lives lost and communities wrecked, this shows again how Britain is locked into a futile and backfiring battle that flies in the face of evidence, human rights and logic.

The decision to outlaw khat was taken last year by Theresa May, the home secretary. She ignored her own advisers on drug misuse who told her that it would be "inappropriate and disproportionate" to ban an innocuous trade that earns the Treasury a couple of million pounds a year in taxes. She brushed aside concerns from the Commons home affairs select committee, which concluded that it would make more sense to license importers than drive them underground.

Ministers admitted that it was hard to find evidence to back their ban; even the World Health Organisation says khat use carries low risk of harm. They ignored pleading – and a legal challenge – from Kenya, where farmers cultivating the herb in an impoverished corner of the country fear the decision will make their lives harder. Some tribal leaders called the act "a declaration of war" and threatened reprisals. Meanwhile the coalition boasts about its commitment to helping the Horn of Africa and curbing terrorism.

This myopic move comes as more progressive nations see that regulation is a more sensible solution than prohibition to the human desire to get high. After four decades, the war on drugs has cost hundreds of billions of pounds and thousands of lives. Anne-Marie Cockburn, whose teenage daughter died tragically from over-strong ecstasy, is the latest bereaved mother to jointhe campaign for reform; little wonder many doctors, police officers, intelligence officials and even politicians privately back her brave stance.

What will happen now? No doubt some people will stop chewing khat. Most traders in a thriving £15m-a-year sector will close down successful businesses, forcing scores of staff into unemployment. But others may carry on trading, joining the inevitable black market that springs up when something is banned. In the United States, where khat is already a controlled substance, it sells for 10 times its price on British streets; clearly, there will be hefty profits for any criminal gangs stepping in to meet demand.

As some MPs and community leaders have pointed out, asking the police to enforce a ban that only affects specific ethnic minorities also risks damaging race relations. There is a grave danger that outlawing khat risks further alienating sections of the Somali and Yemeni communities, already among the most marginalised groups in Britain and coming under increased pressure amid alarm over Islamic militancy.

There were claims of links between the khat trade and terrorism, but these seem tenuous. After all, al-Shabaab also bans its usage while the government's own drug experts have repeatedly said there is no evidence of criminal or terrorist involvement. They added, however, that they feared this might change following a ban; terror gangs have raised millions elsewhere in Africa by exploiting the drug market.

Such is the stupidity of Britain's latest salvo in the silly war on drugs. This will cost the country cash, put people out of work, increase communal tensions and may even help fund terrorism. One thing is sure: it will not terminate use of the banned substance.

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EXCLUSIVE: The Counterinsurgency War on—and Inside—Our Borders

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The Mexican police helicopter that flew into Arizona last month and fired shots near U.S. Border Patrol agents was no fluke—such incursions have become so frequent they amount to an internationalized shooting war along our southern border.

It’s not just Mexican police helicopters; Mexican military aircraft entered U.S. territory 49 times from 2010 through 2012. That’s according to a Customs and Border Protection list acquired through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by WhoWhatWhy.

Along with other documents obtained independently by WikiLeaks, the recent incidents confirm that the U.S. has been taking a full-bore counterinsurgency approach to the border drug war. The possibility that was happening is something we told you about earlier.

Official statements and media reports about the Arizona incident have not come close to explaining the real significance of such cross-border operations. The facts are now clear: the Pentagon’s push to use counterinsurgency tactics against drug traffickers is giving Mexican armed forces the leeway to operate in the airspace above U.S. territory.

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Specific Mexican military helicopter incursions and near-incursions are detailed in intelligence reports obtained by WikiLeaks and assessed by WhoWhatWhy. The reports were created by the Border Security Operations Center, an Austin nerve center run by the Texas state police that oversees hundreds of intelligence analysts and manages untold surveillance cameras. The reports came to WikiLeaks after hackers broke into the servers of private intelligence firm Stratfor, which got the documents from its sources.

These revelations about the extent of the cross-border war on drugs are the latest fruit of our investigative partnership with WikiLeaks to carefully assess selected documents from its vast trove. (Take a look at our earlier collaborations with the whistleblower group here and here.)

The Rio Grande Firefight

As the Pentagon faces sequestration funding cuts and a fighting force exhausted from Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is relying more and more on foreign armed forces, police and private contractors like Stratfor.

The close cooperation between U.S. and Mexican forces against drug traffickers follows from modern counterinsurgency strategy, which dictates that police should function like soldiers when necessary to deny funds to whichever rebels—or drug cartels—are out of favor.

This approach is on display in part of a report published by the Austin center on May 6, 2011. The document is marked “Law Enforcement Sensitive.” This means it was intended for law enforcement eyes only, according to intelligence analyst Kendra Miller. She was a contact point for those seeking access to the reports. [Email-ID 1966867, May 9, 2011]

The document describes a firefight about 30 miles from McAllen, Texas, during which a police chopper from that state provided targeting assistance to the Mexican military as an alleged drug smuggler was killed. It includes this photograph of a Mexican Air Force chopper flying above the Rio Grande:

CaptureThis apparent incursion, or near-incursion, was not included on the Customs and Border Protection list we obtained in response to our Freedom of Information request – indicating that Mexican military operations along the U.S. border are even more numerous than the FOIA document suggests.

It’s not clear if that Mexican chopper flew into U.S. airspace. But there’s no doubt the Americans took part in the gun battle, because the Texas state police helicopter guided the Mexican chopper and ground forces to the suspects, including one who was hiding in the brush.

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World Health Organisation calls for the decriminalisation of drug use

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This month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) – the UN agency that coordinates international health responses – launched a new set of guidelines for HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations. The new document is the culmination of months of consultation and review, and pulls together existing guidance for five groups: men who have sex with men, people in prisons and other closed settings, sex workers, transgender people, and people who inject drugs. These key populations are the most-at-risk of HIV, yet the least likely to access services – a fact that “threatens global progress on the HIV response” according to WHO. By consolidating previous guidance, the document is able to highlight common barriers and needs – including recommendations for legal reforms to support service delivery.

The guidance puts forward a “comprehensive” package of interventions that governments should provide:

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Crucially, the WHO Guidance also recommends that Laws, policies and practices should be reviewed and, where necessary, revised by policymakers and government leaders, with meaningful engagement of stakeholders from key population groups. Within this so-called critical enabler (see graphic) is an explicit calls for the decriminalisation of drug use in order to reduce incarceration as well as calls to reform laws and policies that block harm reduction services, and the end of compulsory treatment for people who use drugs. The Guidance also cites the experience of Portugal in terms of decriminalisation citing successes such as the increase in people accessing treatment, the fall in HIV cases among people who use drugs (from 907 cases in 2000 to 267 in 2008), reductions in drug use and less overcrowding within the criminal justice system. According to the press release accompanying the Guidance, Bold policies can deliver bold results.

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Drugsmokkelaars opgehangen in Singapore

Twee drugssmokkelaars zijn vandaag in Singapore opgehangen. Het waren de eerste executies in meer dan 3 jaar tijd. De smokkelaars van 36 en 28 jaar oud kwamen uit Singapore. Ze waren gepakt met heroïne en zijn in de Changi-gevangenis terechtgesteld.

Singapore heeft alle doodstraffen in 2011 opgeschort vanwege een herzieningen van de plicht voor rechters om drugssmokkelaars de doodstraf te geven.

Rechters hebben inmiddels meer armslag gekregen. Zo werd in november voor het eerst een doodstraf van een veroordeelde drugssmokkelaar omgezet in gevangenisstraf.

Nieuw proces
Door de nieuwe regels konden alle ter dood veroordeelden proberen een nieuw proces te krijgen. De twee opgehangen criminelen zagen daar zelf vanaf.

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Obama says he ended the ‘War on Drugs.’ Don’t believe him

If the Obama administration is to be believed, America’s infamous “War on Drugs” is over.

In its most recent National Drug Control Strategy, released last week, officials promised a more humane and sympathetic approach to drug users and addiction. Out, the report suggests, are “tough on crime” policies. Rather than more police and more prisons, officials talk about public health and education. They promise to use evidence-based practices to combat drug abuse. And they want to use compassionate messaging and successful reentry programs to reduce the stigma drug offenders and addicts face.

Unfortunately, the government’s actions don’t jibe with their rhetoric.

For decades, the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and its allies have used government resources to marginalize, stigmatize, and demonize drug users. There were the nonsensical ads like “this is your brain on drugs” and inexplicable demonstrations like torching cars and valued possessions. The ONDCP, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Ad Council, and Above the Influence portrayed small time dealers as snakes and users as rats.

This Is Your Brain On Drugs (Original)

They also showed drug use as a gateway to prostitution and, in the wake of 9/11, explicitly linked casual drug users to supporting terrorism and cop killing. The United States has spent millions stigmatizing drug use, sale and abuse — all before one even begins to calculate the costs to arrest, try, and incarcerate offenders for the past 40 years. This, of course, comes in addition to the stigma that comes with incarceration and criminal records.

The Obama administration says it wants to de-stigmatize drug addiction. But no matter how hard it tries, it’s virtually impossible to de-stigmatize behavior that is still a crime.

And the administration is doing little to actually de-stigmatize drug use. Despite their supposed adherence to “evidence-based practices,” officials steadfastly refuse to consider legalization or decriminalization, even though the evidence unambiguously shows drug prohibition has been a disaster.

Prohibition-related violence has killed thousands in this country and multiples of that number more in supplier nations like Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan. In the United States, incarceration rates have become so onerous (over 700 adults per 100,000) that research suggests they’re probably doing harm to society by pulling too many workers out of the economy, breaking up families and making offenders less employable upon release.

Although “alternatives to incarceration” are touted throughout the latest strategy, suggestions for fully or even partially separating nonviolent drug use from the criminal realm altogether are absent. Indeed, the marijuana liberalization in Colorado and Washington State are mentioned only as adding “challenges” the ONDCP’s efforts to maintain the perception of the drug’s harm.

Though the ONDCP repeatedly states that drug addiction is a disease, police and incarceration remain the primary instruments to treat its myriad manifestations. (After all, you can’t get to drug court without being arrested first.) Unless the government plans to start selling MRAPs to the American Cancer Society, it’s fair to say that disease takes a backseat to the still-aggressive law enforcement tactics as the first weapon against American drug use and sale — even if the rhetoric sounds less harsh than it used to.

Supposing the old commercials and posters are relics of the past and the ONDCP has legitimately turned over a new leaf, there are others within the Obama administration that still haven’t received the memo. Seemingly everyone can agree that some drugs are more harmful than others, but the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration was unable or unwilling to say to Congress that marijuana was less harmful than methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin.

Even under a prohibition regime like the United States’s, it is absurd to suggest that an honest, relative assessment of harms and consequences is unknown to the people in charge of setting and executing drug policy. Yet the nation’s top drug enforcement agent can’t say a drug on which is virtually impossible to fatally overdose is less harmful than drugs that kill thousands of Americans each year.

Clearly, this is not yet a federal government willing to apply compassion, embrace evidence, and repudiate years of drug misinformation.

If this administration is serious about ending the stigma associated with drug addiction and is truly dedicated to education and evidence-based methods to fight drug abuse, it must first address and then reject the rank dishonesty and propaganda that has defined the American drug war for decades. The ONDCP’s language seems to be moving in the right direction, but the government remains unable to be honest with itself, let alone the general public. As people in recovery might suggest, getting past entrenched denial is a requisite first step toward fixing America’s drug war problem.

This is your government on drugs. Any questions?

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vprogids twitterde op zaterdag 19-07-2014 om 20:00:20 In het Mexicaanse Chihuahua is de Amerikaanse ‘war on drugs’ totaal uit de hand gelopen. (Vranckx, Canvas, 20.10) reageer retweet

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Op zondag 20 juli 2014 03:42 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

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Ik praat het uiteraard niet goed, maar heroine is klotespul. Wiet en ecstacy zijn echt compleet andere middelen. Vind dat er veel beter onderscheid gemaakt moet worden naar het soort drugs.

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Op zondag 20 juli 2014 09:00 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

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Het is al verboden.

Maar doen alsof alle drugs hetzelfde zijn

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Duitse patiënten mogen zelf cannabis kweken

Chronisch zieke patiënten mogen in Duitsland in beginsel onder voorwaarden cannabis verbouwen ter bestrijding van pijn. Dit heeft een rechter in Keulen vandaag bepaald.

De administratieve rechtbank oordeelde in een zaak van vijf patiënten tegen medische autoriteiten. Die hadden hun toestemming geweigerd om thuis cannabis te verbouwen voor pijnbestrijding.

De rechter stelde drie van de vijf klagers in het gelijk en bepaalde dat de autoriteiten hun weigering moeten herzien, meldde de krant Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.

Verboden
Cannabisgebruik is in Duitsland verboden. Wel mogen zo'n 270 mensen de drug in de apotheek kopen omdat voor hun aandoening, meestal pijnklachten, geen andere werkzame behandeling beschikbaar is.

De overheidsinstantie BfArM die daar vergunningen voor afgeeft, vindt productie thuis onveilig. Het zou kunnen gebeuren dat patiënten hun woningen onvoldoende beveiligen. De advocaat van de chronisch zieke patiënten houdt er dan ook rekening mee dat de staat in beroep gaat tegen de beslissing van dinsdag.

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Satelliet moet genadeklap worden voor hennepteelt in open lucht

Politie en gemeenten in Limburg willen satellieten gaan inzetten voor de opsporing van hennep in maïsvelden en natuurgebieden.

Er loopt al een proef met het gebruik van satellietbeelden. Wanneer die test naar tevredenheid verloopt, is de hennepteelt in de buitenlucht binnen een paar jaar verleden tijd.

Dat zegt burgemeester Antoin Scholten van Venlo, die in Limburg de bestuurlijke aanpak van de wietteelt coördineert.

Vliegtuigen

Sinds 2005 spoort de politie al vanuit vliegtuigen en helikopters wietplanten op. Maar daarmee worden lang niet alle openluchtkwekerijen gevonden.

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Op donderdag 31 juli 2014 14:00 schreef Tism het volgende:

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http://www.nu.nl/festival(...)stival-roermond.html
Tien aanhoudingen bij Solar festival Roermond
De politie heeft vrijdag op het terrein van het Solar Festival in Roermond tien mensen aangehouden. Ze bleken in het bezit van kleine hoeveelheden harddrugs.
Tien aanhoudingen bij Solar festival Roermond
Foto: ANP
Volgens een woordvoerder van de politie kunnen ze een boete tegemoet zien van tussen de vijfhonderd en duizend euro.
Bovendien mogen ze het festivalterrein niet meer op. Tijdens deze tiende editie van het muziek- en creativiteitsfestival Solar aan de Maasplassen bij Roermond wordt streng gecontroleerd op drugs. Donderdag pakte de politie een dealer met ruim honderd xtc-pillen op. Hij kreeg via snelrecht een werkstraf van honderd dagen opgelegd.

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Op vrijdag 1 augustus 2014 19:31 schreef OllieWilliams het volgende:
Zero-tolerance bij festivals anno 2014

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Paris police lose 51kg of seized cocaine from their own headquarters

Drugs worth £2m vanish from force's famous HQ at 36 Quai des Orfèvres, just months after building was mired in rape allegation

Paris police are investigating the disappearance of 51kg of cocaine from a supposedly locked and sealed room in their own headquarters on the banks of the Seine.

The cocaine "bricks" with a street value of around ¤2.5m (£2m) were seized a month ago after officers smashed a drug trafficking network in the capital.

They were supposed to be under lock and key at the force's legendary headquarters at 36 Quai des Orfèvres, for ever associated with the fictional French detective Maigret.

Officials say the cocaine, placed in numbered evidence bags, was definitely still in the secured store room on 23 July when it was last checked, but was definitely missing on Thursday.

Police chiefs immediately ordered an inquiry, and the force's own internal investigations squad was sent into the building with sniffer dogs. So far, there have been no leads.

It is the second time this year that 36 Quai des Orfèvres has made damaging headlines.

In April, two officers belonging to an "anti-gang crime" squad were put under official investigation for the alleged rape of a 34-year-old Canadian woman visiting Paris. She had met the men during an evening of heavy drinking at a nearby Irish pub. The officers said she agreed to follow them to their headquarters, just across the Seine from the pub. Once there she said she was raped. One of the police officers charged admitted having sex with the woman, but claimed she had consented. The investigation is ongoing.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has ordered the national police investigation squad to leave no stone unturned in its search for the missing drugs and promised the culprits would be treated with "the utmost severity".

In a statement, the prefecture of police said: "This investigation will look into whether the relevant rules were followed for the management of evidence in the offices of this brigade in particular, and at 36 Quai des Orfèvres in general."

It promised "very firm measures" would be immediately taken "if the investigation shows the law has been broken".