The World Wide War on Drugs #8 - Demonstraties in Mexico

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Mexican cartel boss vows to fight to the death instead of surrendering

Net may be closing on Knights Templar leader Servando Gómez, alias La Tuta, as he releases rambling online video message

The fugitive leader of one of Mexico’s most violent and bizarre drug cartels has said that he regrets choosing a life of crime, but vowed that he would never let himself be taken alive.

“I have committed many crimes like an idiot, and I will have to pay for them when the time comes, but I don’t plan to do that on this earth,” said a man who identifies himself as Servando Gómez, alias La Tuta, in a 24-minute recording, posted on social media. “I am not going to give myself up. I am going to fight until the end.”

The Knights Templar cartel, or Caballeros Templarios, gained notoriety for its signature blend of extreme violence with faux medieval rituals and a rhetoric of social justice.

The cartel once trafficked large quantities of drugs and iron ore, while imposing a reign of terror throughout its main bastion in the Tierra Caliente, or Hot Lands, in the western state of Michoacán. The group was severely weakened after the rise of an armed vigilante movement in the region prompted federal forces to step up efforts against the Knights Templar.

With all the other major cartel leaders now dead or in prison, the recording, first posted on the internet late on Tuesday, appears to confirm reports that the circle is now closing in on La Tuta.

“Just like they say I am alone, hiding in the sierra, riding a donkey and I haven’t seen any of my women for a year,” says Gómez, who in the course of the rambling message complained that authorities had detained members of his family who had nothing to do with the drugs trade.

Interior minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong appeared to accept the authenticity of the recording when he told reporters that it showed “a cornered criminal who recognises that the state has been effective.”

In the recording, Gómez appears resigned to being tracked down by the authorities, but he also accuses the government of protecting other narcos – and rival groups which have risen to occupy the power vacuum left by his cartel’s demise.

He reserves particular venom for the new rural police set up in an effort to control the vigilante movement.

“For 10 years we fucked over Michoacán,” the voices announces, while expressing regrets at having led the Knights Templar. “Now they are arming more criminals than there were before.”

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In 1996, Downey was diagnosed with lung cancer and had one of his lungs removed. He did a complete about-face on the issue of tobacco use, going from a one-time member of the National Smokers Alliance to a staunch anti-smoking activist. He continued to speak against smoking until his death from lung cancer in 2001
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5fc_1370833748#gLE52mXmE1HXxFra.99

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Eleven countries studied, one inescapable conclusion – the drug laws don’t work

Eight month study shows legalisation policies do not result in wider use, and the US should be watched with interest

The Home Office comparison of international drug laws, published on Wednesday, represents the first official recognition since the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that there is no direct link between being “tough on drugs” and tackling the problem.

The report, which has been signed off by both the Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, and the Liberal Democrat crime prevention minister, Norman Baker, is based on an in-depth study of drug laws in 11 countries ranging from the zero-tolerance of Japan to the legalisation of Uruguay.

The key finding of the report, written by Home Office civil servants, lies in a comparison of Portugal, where personal use is decriminalised, and the Czech Republic, where criminal penalties for possession were introduced as recently as 2010.

“We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country’s enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country,” it says. “The Czech Republic and Portugal have similar approaches to possession, where possession of small amounts of any drug does not lead to criminal proceedings, but while levels of drug use in Portugal appear to be relatively low, reported levels of cannabis use in the Czech Republic are among the highest in Europe.

“Indicators of levels of drug use in Sweden, which has one of the toughest approaches we saw, point to relatively low levels of use, but not markedly lower than countries with different approaches.”

Endless coalition wrangling over the contents of the report, which has taken more than eight months to be published, has ensured that it does not include any conclusions.

However, reading the evidence it provides, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Home Office civil servants who wrote it seem to have been impressed that a health-based rather than a criminal justice-based approach is where effective policies lie.

It also, rather remarkably, says that the experiments in legalisation now under way in the US states of Washington and Colorado, and in Uruguay, should be watched with interest. This is a world away from the “war on drugs” rhetoric that has formed the mainstay of the political debate on drugs in the past four decades.

The report, Drugs: International Comparators, documents in great detail the experience of Portugal, where personal use was decriminalised nearly 11 years ago and those arrested for drugs are given the choice of going before a health “dissuasion commission” or facing a criminal justice process.

“Trend data from Portugal shows how levels of drug use changed in the years following decriminalisation in 2001. Although levels of drug use rose between 2001 and 2007, use of drugs has since fallen to below 2001 levels. It is clear that there has not been a lasting and significant increase in drug use in Portugal since 2001,” the report says.

At the same time, it notes there have been significant reductions in the number of drug users diagnosed with HIV and Aids at a time when drug-related deaths have remained stable: “These outcomes cannot be attributed to decriminalisation alone, and are likely to have been influenced by increases in the use of treatment and harm reduction,” it says, stressing that it is difficult to disentangle the impact of decriminalisation from wider improvements in drug treatment and harm reduction over the same period.

Nevertheless, it firmly rejects claims that decriminalisation in Portugal has led to a spike in drug use. It goes on to contrast Portugal with the Czech Republic, where an evaluation found that there was no significant decline in the availability of drugs following the implementation of stricter laws in 2010.

On the situation in Colorado, Washington and Uruguay, the Home Office says their experimental policies which legalise production, supply and recreational use of cannabis have the common aim of disrupting organised crime and exercising greater control over the use of cannabis.

“The American states have a market-driven approach, with lighter regulation than Uruguay and fewer limitations on consumption and use. Uruguay, which has growing concerns about organised crime, has a stronger role for the state, with limitations in size of the market, the strains and potency of cannabis, and the quantity that an individual can purchase in a month.”

Crucially, the report adds: “It is too early to know how these experiments will play out, but we will monitor the impacts of these new policies in the coming years.”

The report examines various harm reduction initiatives in 11 countries, including the use of drug consumption rooms, the prescription of heroin under medical supervision, and prison-based needle exchange programmes. In particular it found evidence that heroin prescribing, including in three limited trials in Britain, can be effective.

There is no overall conclusion to the report, but in its last paragraph the Home Office authors reflect that the lack of any clear correlation between “toughness” of approach and levels of drug use demonstrates the complexity of the issue: “Achieving better health outcomes for drug users cannot be shown to be a direct result of the enforcement approach.”

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Op donderdag 30 oktober 2014 23:07 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

[..]

*lachen inhouden...*

Papierversnipperaar, dit fragment mag zeker in de OP erbij!

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Ministers high on their war on drugs need a speedy cure

A psychology of macho law-making dominates British drugs policy – in defiance of both public opinion and common sense

The government should ban all reports on drug legalisation. They get you hooked on rage. Evidence-based reform is a gateway substance to common sense. Just send a message: no thought means no.

Parliament’s response to this week’s report on the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act shows that psychoactive substances are the last taboo to afflict Britain’s elite. It has got over past obsessions with whipping, hanging, sodomy and abortion, but it is still stuck on drugs. There is no point in reading the latest research on drugs policy worldwide. It is spitting in the wind. The only research worth doing is on why drugs policy reduces British politicians to gibbering wrecks.

In 2000 the Police Foundation committee chaired by Lady Runciman (on which I served) proposed an end to imprisonment for “soft” drug possession and cultivation, together with lower penalties for hard drugs. In particular we pointed to the nonsense of classifying half-safe drugs such as ecstasy with heroin, suggesting that the latter was no more harmful than the former. It was pretty mild stuff.

Tony Blair’s Downing Street went ape. What would they say at the Daily Mail, then ruling Britain much as the pope rules Ireland? Blair’s aide Alastair Campbell ordered the hapless home sectary, Jack Straw, to rubbish our report over the weekend before it was even published.

In the event the report was welcomed by the Mail, as well as by the Express, the Telegraph and more liberal papers. The Mail on Sunday even published a poll showing 60% of people in favour of decriminalising cannabis. Such was Straw’s embarrassment that he later partly climbed down. Cannabis law enforcement was eased, but the sense of panic surrounding the subject remained. There has been no liberalisation since.

It did not matter that the law was almost 30 years old and had manifestly failed to suppress narcotic use or abuse. It did not matter that most of the press were in favour of reform, or that at the time, eight Tory shadow ministers admitted to having taken drugs.

Today it still does not matter that a 2012 ComRes poll showed three quarters of MPs in favour of reform. An Observer poll last month showed 52% of the public wanting US-style legalisation of medical and recreational marijuana, while a Sun poll this week had 71% accepting that the “war on drugs” had not worked. The Sun itself concluded: “We can’t just carry on with the status quo.”

If the Archangel Gabriel came down from heaven and said decriminalising drugs would end war, banish poverty, reduce obesity and defeat child sex abuse, it would make no difference to a British cabinet. David Cameron might have favoured reform before taking office, as he will doubtless favour it after leaving – in common with many world leaders. When he has power to do something about it, he runs scared. The great taboo tightens its iron grip on his throat, as it does on that of his ambitious home secretary, Theresa May.

This week’s report is another reminder of the limits of the criminal law in telling people how to order their own lives. It finds no correlation between the toughness of a country’s penalties and drug consumption. You can nudge but you cannot ban. Besides, illegality imposes huge burdens on the justice system, prisons and the health service. A 2009 report by the charity Transform suggested legalisation could save as much as £14bn, while taxing cannabis, as the US has started doing, could raise £1.3bn. Better by far to spend this money on countering addiction and policing the drugs market.

It is foolish to deny that drug abuse can cause harm, as does the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other substances. This is not an issue. The issue is the capacity of the law to mitigate it. “Sending a message” may make ministers feel tough, but it is clearly wrecking thousands of lives and enriching criminals. Cameron pleads that “our drugs strategy is working”. That some areas of consumption are falling – in tough and tender regimes alike – does not make the policy a good one. Drug abuse is about physical and mental health. It should no more be about crime than is obesity or alcoholism.

The Independent yesterday asked, “Is Britain ready to grow up?”. I fear the answer is no. I cannot face more reports on how much more humane are the drugs policies of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colorado and Uruguay. I give up reading of the hell that criminalisation – abetted by an antediluvian UN – inflicts on the people of Mexico, Colombia, Afghanistan and Burma. Pretending to ban cocaine production may delight rightwing opinion, but it exacts a ghastly price from people in producer countries.

As for the government proposal to ban “legal highs”, the Home Office appears not to have heard of the internet. The BBC revealed last August that there are now 23 distinct online operators on the dark web, covering about 250 products. This market has doubled in size in the past year, with heaven knows what unregulated junk flooding the mail.

The best deterrent to drug misuse is publicity, just as the best cure is treatment. Instead Theresa May and her political colleagues (including Labour) are the drug dealers’ useful idiots. To leave young people to the mercy of pushers and adulterators is the real crime. The chaotic nature of these markets causes more harm than do the substances themselves. Nor does the liberal Home Office minister Norman Baker, who backs reform, have a coherent strategy. He wants to “crack down on the Mr Bigs and criminal gangs”. I can hear them laughing. His job should be to regulate them out of business.

The psychology of repressive law-making and its appeal to political machismo is the most sinister branch of public life. The belief of those in power that they can command private behaviour with the flick of a law or the cosh of a penalty is fantasy. I once hoped that sheer embarrassment at the harm they cause might shame Britain’s politicians down the road increasingly taken by those in the rest of Europe and north and south America.

But no. May could not even bring herself to publish her own department’s factual survey on the drugs market for three months of infighting with Baker and the Lib Dems. Britain will soon be to drugs what Ireland is to abortion, in a dark ages zone. Unlike Ireland it cannot even blame religion, only stupidity.

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Op donderdag 30 oktober 2014 15:39 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Eleven countries studied, one inescapable conclusion – the drug laws don’t work

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UK government’s drug laws survey was suppressed, Lib Dem minister says

Norman Baker says Tories did not like evidence gleaned as deputy prime minister Nick Clegg criticises foot dragging over report that says tough laws make no difference

A groundbreaking Home Office report which concluded that tougher enforcement of drug laws does not lead to lower levels of drug use was “suppressed” by the Conservatives, a Liberal Democrat minister has said.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Home Office drugs minister, said the report, published on Thursday, had been suppressed not by the home secretary, Theresa May, but by the Conservatives.

In support, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said there had been a lot of “foot dragging” over the publication of the report but urged the Tories to “have the courage just for once to break some of the taboos about Britain’s ineffective drug laws”.

The deputy prime minister accused Downing Street of being frightened to open its eyes to the way in which Britain’s drugs laws leads to 2,000 deaths a year while “the pushers, the Mr Bigs and the criminal gangs get richer and richer”.

The government’s first evidence-based survey examined international drug laws and said there was no evidence that tough enforcement of laws on personal possession led to lower levels of drug use. The Home Office document brings to an end 40 years of almost unbroken official political rhetoric that only harsher penalties can tackle the problem caused by the likes of heroin, cocaine or cannabis.

The report was signed off by May and Baker and was published on Thursday alongside an official expert report calling for a general ban on the sale and trade in legal highs, although Baker has said it had been ready for publication since July.

The Lib Dem Home Office minister said: “The reality is that this report has been sitting around for several months. I’ve been trying to get it out and I’m afraid that I believe that my coalition colleagues who commissioned the report jointly don’t like the independent conclusions it’s reached.

“It was suppressed, not by Theresa May, it was suppressed by the Conservatives and the reality is that it has got some inconvenient truths in it.”

Baker said the international comparisons demonstrated that “banging people up and increasing sentences does not stop drug use”. He said the last 40 years had seen a drugs debate in Britain based on the “lazy assumption in the rightwing press that if you have harsher penalties it will reduce drug use, but there is no evidence for that at all”.

Baker added: “If anything the evidence is to the contrary.”

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, he said some Conservative colleagues did not like the evidence that had come out but “if you see a tree, it is a tree”.

Downing Street insisted the report did not reach the conclusions Baker claimed and accused him of a desperate spinning operation.

In a statement, Number 10 said: “This report provides no support whatsoever for the Lib Dem’s policy of decriminalisation. In fact, it clearly states that it would be inappropriate to draw those kind of conclusions.

“The Lib Dem policy would see drug dealers getting off scot-free and send an incredibly dangerous message to young people about the risks of taking drugs “As the report makes very clear, the Government’s approach already provides a good balance between enforcement and treatment, drug use is plummeting as a result and there is simply no chance that we will entertain such a reckless change of course .”

Clegg, speaking on LBC, said: “I think the Tories have a misplaced, backward-looking, outdated view that the public would not accept a smarter approach on how to deal with drugs. The argument I have made to them privately and publicly is pluck up the courage to face up to the evidence that what we are doing is not as effective as it should be, there are lessons we can learn from other countries and if you are anti-drugs you should be pro-reform. Have the courage for once just to break some of the taboos.”

He said: “We have got to get away from this facile view that talking tough solves this problem. It is a betrayal of those 2,000 families of those that die every year in our country.”

Clegg said he had unsuccessfully pressed his Conservative colleagues to set up a royal commission, but then persuaded them to undertake an international comparative study that had finally been published after “lots and lots of foot dragging”.

He stressed that he was not advocating decriminalisation of drugs, saying he did not support a free-for-all, but wanting more criminalisation of the pushers.

“I hope today’s report is a wake-up call to Ed Miliband and David Cameron to open their eyes and actually get on with changing things so we can help the addicts to break their habit and really get the criminals that should be behind bars in prison.”

Michael Ellis, a Tory member of the home affairs select committee, accused Baker of naked political posturing and being pro-drugs, adding Baker was acting in desperation as his party fell behind the Greens in opinion polls.

Baker added that wider societal factors, such as a more risk-averse generation of young people who suffered fewer alcohol problems and were healthier, contributed to the general downward trend in drug use.

The international report documents in detail the successes of the health-led approach in Portugal, combining decriminalisation with other policies, and shows reductions in all types of drug use alongside falls in drug-related HIV and Aids cases.

The Home Office international research paper on the use of illegal drugs, which redeems a Lib Dem 2010 election pledge for a royal commission to examine the alternatives to the current drug laws, also leaves the door open on the legalisation experiments in the American states of Washington and Colorado, and in Uruguay. It said: “It is too early to know how they will play out but we will monitor the impacts of these new policies in the years to come.”

Regarding legal highs, Baker said the government would look at the feasibility of a blanket ban on new compounds of psychoactive drugs that focused on dealers and the “head shops” that sell tobacco paraphernalia rather than users.

“The head shops could be left with nothing to sell but Rizla papers,” Baker said. “The approach of a general ban had a dramatic effect on their availability when it was introduced in Ireland, but we must ensure that it will work here.”

A ban would apply to head shops and websites. Legal highs are currently banned on a temporary 12-month basis as each new substance arrives on the market. Legislation is possible before the election but not certain.

The new blanket or generic ban would not be accompanied by a ban on the possession or use of the new psychoactive substances, which often mimic the effects of traditional drugs. This would remain legal.

It is expected the expert report on legal highs will recommend a threshold for substances to be banned so that those with minimal psychoactive effects – such as alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee – would not be caught by the proposed new ban.

The report firmly rejects a New Zealand style-approach of regulating head shops and other sales outlets for legal highs.

Publication of both reports has been held up for months as interminable negotiations between the two coalition parties have gone on over every detailed issue.

Baker has repeatedly warned of the dangers of legal highs, citing evidence that some cannabinoids synthesised in chemical labs are 100 times more powerful than traditional strains of cannabis.

The expert report says there were 60 deaths related to new psychoactive substances in 2013 – up from 52 the year before.

It also considers basing future controls on the effect on the brain rather than the current test of their chemical structure.

Frontline health staff are also urged to receive strengthened training to deal with their effects.

Danny Kushlik, of the Transform drugs charity which campaigns for drug legalisation, said the international report represented a landmark in British drugs policy since the introduction of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that is still in force today.

“This is a historic moment in the development of UK drug policy. For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn’t necessarily reduce levels of drug use,” said Kushlik.

“It has also acknowledged that decriminalising the possession of drugs doesn’t increase levels of use. Even more, the department in charge of drugs prohibition says it will take account of the experiments in the legal regulation of cannabis in Washington, Colorado and Uruguay.

“Pragmatic reform will only happen if there is cross-party support for change and we can assume now that the Labour party can engage constructively on this previously toxic issue.”

A Home Office spokesperson, responding to the evidence of the international report, said: “This government has absolutely no intention of decriminalising drugs. Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK.

“It is right that we look at drugs policies in other countries and today’s report summarises a number of these international approaches.”

Earlier this year the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, pledged to abolish prison sentences for the possession of drugs for personal use – including class-A substances such as heroin and cocaine. He urged David Cameron to look at issues such as decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs.

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Nederland krijgt enorme cheque met Amerikaans drugsgeld



Nederland krijgt 3 miljoen dollar van de Amerikaanse overheid vanwege de hulp met het bestrijden van grootschalige drugshandel. Nederland deelt mee in de opbrengst van het onderzoek, dat drie jaar duurde.

Het ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie assisteerde sinds 2009 bij een grootschalig onderzoek naar internationale drugshandel, operatie Pac Rim. Het onderzoek duurde drie jaar en vond plaats in verschillende landen, waaronder de VS, Nederland en Colombia.

ZIE OOK: Topman drugskartel opgepakt tijdens voetbalwedstrijd

Bij het onderzoek in Nederland, waarbij de Nederlandse politie assisteerde, werd 6 miljoen euro gevonden. Die opbrengst deelt de VS nu met Nederland. De Amerikaanse ambassadeur heeft Nederland (letterlijk) een grote cheque gegeven. Het geld gaat naar de begroting van Justitie.

In totaal leidde het onderzoek tot inbeslagname van meer dan 175 miljoen dollar cash. Ook werden er bezittingen met een waarde van 850 miljoen dollar in beslag genomen. Er werden 37 mensen aangeklaagd en 26 veroordeeld.

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Norman Baker resigns as Home Office minister with parting shot at May

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Coalition relations hit a new low on Monday night when the Liberal Democrat Norman Baker resigned as a Home Office minister after likening his experience working under Theresa May to “walking through mud”.

In a sign of the loveless nature of the coalition in the final six months before the general election, Baker announced his resignation in an interview with the Independent apparently without notifying the home secretary.

Nick Clegg, who will on Tuesday announce a replacement for Baker as minister for crime prevention with responsibility for drugs policy, alerted Downing Street earlier in the day.

Baker announced he had decided to stand down after a row over drugs policy with the home secretary showed there was little support for “rational evidence-based policy” in the Home Office. He had criticised May for sitting for three months on an official report which showed that tougher enforcement of drug laws does not lead to lower levels of drug use.

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Burgemeester opgepakt in zoektocht naar vermiste studenten Mexico

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De burgemeester van de Mexicaanse stad Iguala, waar op 26 september 43 studenten verdwenen na rellen, is dinsdag opgepakt. Hij was voortvluchtig.

Dat meldt de BBC op basis van lokale media. Jose Luis Abarca zou in Mexico-Stad zijn aangehouden. De autoriteiten spraken eerder al het vermoeden uit dat de burgemeester en zijn vrouw verantwoordelijk zijn voor de ontvoeringen.

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Jaarbericht Nationale Drug Monitor 2013/2014 verschenen

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De jaarlijkse update van de Nationale Drug Monitor is verschenen. Naast de laatste cijfers over gebruik van alcohol, tabak, drugs en slaap- en kalmeringsmiddelen, wordt ook een overzicht geboden van de laatste ontwikkelingen in wetgeving en beleid en alcohol- en drugsgerelateerde criminaliteit.

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Voorbereiding grootschalige illegale wietteelt wordt strafbaar

Mensen die meewerken aan voorbereidingen van grootschalige illegale wietteelt kunnen straks worden vervolgd.

Een meerderheid in de Eerste Kamer schaarde zich dinsdag achter het wetsvoorstel van minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie), maar coalitiepartner PvdA steunt het niet.

''De effectiviteit van de wet is zo gering ten opzichte van de huidige wet dat er geen positief oordeel kan komen'', zei Guusje ter Horst (PvdA). Ook D66, SP, GroenLinks en 50PLUS zijn tegen het plan.

Volgens Margreet de Boer (GroenLinks) wordt met het wetsvoorstel ''verwijtbare naïviteit'' strafbaar. Kan een vrachtwagenchauffeur die kunstmest aflevert bij een loods ook vervolgd worden als later blijkt dat er een hennepkwekerij is gevestigd, vroeg De Graaf zich af.

Het gaat om gevallen wanneer ''elk weldenkend mens het handelen achterwege had gelaten'', aldus de minister, dus om ''verwijtbaar wegkijken''. Onoplettendheid en onachtzaamheid vallen hier volgens Opstelten niet onder.

Een motie van de PvdA om een commissie in te stellen die het Nederlandse softdrugsbeleid tegen het licht moet houden, wees Opstelten van de hand. ''Ik heb geen behoefte aan een commissie.''

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California Voters Deal Blow To Prisons, Drug War

California approved a major shift against mass incarceration on Tuesday in a vote that could lead to the release of thousands of state prisoners.

Nonviolent felonies like shoplifting and drug possession will be downgraded to misdemeanors under the ballot measure, Proposition 47. As many as 10,000 people could be eligible for early release from state prisons, and it's expected that courts will annually dispense around 40,000 fewer felony convictions.

The state Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that the new measure will save hundreds of millions of dollars on prisons. That money is to be redirected to education, mental health and addiction services -- a novel approach that reformers hope will serve as a model in the larger push against mass incarceration.

The approval of the ballot measure could also help California grapple with massive overcrowding in its state prisons, which are still struggling to release enough inmates to comply with a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court order.

Although California once led the nation in tough-on-crime policies, like the state's infamous three-strikes felony law, Proposition 47 has led in every poll conducted since it was certified in June. The measure's supporters have been an eclectic bunch, from conservatives like Newt Gingrich and business tycoon B. Wayne Hughes Jr. to liberal performers like John Legend and Jay-Z.

The most vocal opponents of Proposition 47 were law enforcement officials who warned that the measure could make it harder to prosecute felony gun theft or possession of date-rape drugs.

At the same time, a few scattered law-and-order voices, like San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, did come out in favor of the proposition, dismissing those concerns.

Reformers also vastly outspent law enforcement officials and their allies. The main coalition in favor of Proposition 47 raised $7 million as of mid-October, buoyed by contributions from the likes of Hughes, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and a foundation backed by the financier George Soros.

Californians Against Proposition 47, meanwhile, garnered less than $500,000 in the same time period. The state prison guard union -- often a formidable force in debates over mass incarceration -- sat the ballot measure debate out.

"The country seems to have come to a different place [...] I think, most fundamentally, because crime is down," Keith Humphreys, a drug addiction expert who supported the measure, told The Huffington Post in October. "When people are not feeling terrified, they're more willing to back off on the tough-on-crime stuff."

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Saudi Arabia and Lebanon launch crackdown on “digital drugs” sold as MP3s

Authorities in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon have moved to clamp down on so-called “digital drugs” – audio files which claim to get you high.


The theory that you can buzz off “binaural beats” has largely been dismissed by scientists, but Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper is reporting that Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi is pushing to ban the use of the audio files, which can be downloaded for a few dollars each. Saudi Arabia’s national drug control bodies are also having “urgent meetings” to try and prevent their spread, as Arab News reports. The panic follows a similar response in the United Arab Emirates in 2012, when a leading police official called for binaural beats to be dealt with like cannabis and ecstasy.

“Binaural beats” are said to work by playing two pure tones through headphones that combine to make a third ‘phantom’ tone, which induces an altered state. The type of high depends on which track you buy, with companies like i-Doser giving you the option to design your own trip for specific effects.

Most scientists are sceptical of the power of “digital dosing”, pointing out that there is virtually no evidence about their effects yet. Michael Casey, a computer science and music professor at Dartmouth College, told VICE News: “The idea that binaural beats or this very simple sound phenomenon is having an impact on a direct medical condition or a cognitive state such as sleep or increased focus is still a matter of further research at this point.”

We know you want to give it a whirl, so dip into some binauraul beats below.

DIGITAL DRUGS - Binaural beats - WARNING High Intensity