Highbrow Magazine - war on drugs https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/war-drugs en The Opioid Crisis in Black and White https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7712-opioid-crisis-black-and-white <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 06/25/2017 - 12:09</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1opioidcrisis.jpg?itok=W14do7RR"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1opioidcrisis.jpg?itok=W14do7RR" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2017/06/the-opioid-crisis-in-black-and-white.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>On March 29, 2017, the mood at the White House was somber when Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a commission charged with making recommendations on dealing with the opioid crisis. At the signing, all the talk by Trump and other administration officials was about a big ramp-up in treatment, counseling, addiction recovery programs, and health services to alleviate the crisis. They, and the media, used the term, “epidemic.” This suggested that it’s an illness, but not a criminal offense. There was not one word from Trump or White House officials at the signing about more arrests, tougher sentencing or incarceration for offenders.</p> <p>       </p> <p>Trump appointed his close political backer, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to head up the commission that would come back with recommendations on dealing with the crisis. Christie made plain what the focus would be: “What we need to come to grips with is addiction is a disease and no life is disposable,” he said. “We can help people by giving them appropriate treatment.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The compassion, sympathy, and official search to find ways to help white opioid addicts that oozed out of the White House that day was in sharp contrast to the memo Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a few weeks later. Sessions ordered U.S. attorneys around the country to get tough on drug crimes by demanding more convictions and jail time. Sessions wasn’t talking about white addicts, the ones whom the opioid crisis affects the most.</p> <p> </p> <p>There were three reasons for that. One is politics. The opioid crisis slams suburban and rural areas, big swatches of which are Trump-friendly. The second is that it has become a serious health issue, with reports that there were more than a million hospitalizations last year from opioid addiction. The third is race. Countless studies have shown that blacks use drugs about the same as whites, some drugs such as marijuana, and powdered cocaine even less. Yet, for three decades they have been the ones slapped with massive arrests, mandatory minimum sentences, and lengthy prison terms. They are the ones who pack America’s jails and prisons for drug crimes. They are the ones who will again be prime targets when Sessions reignites the drug war.</p> <p> </p> <p>Whether it is cocaine, marijuana, or the heroin surge in rural areas and the suburbs, the relatively few times that whites are popped for drug use, the pipeline for them is never to the courts and jails, but to counseling and treatment, therapy and prayers. Their drug abuse is chalked up to escape, frustration, or restless youthful experimenting. They get indulgent sympathy, compassion, and a never-ending search for rational explanations, or should I say justifications, for acts that are deemed crimes when the offenders are black.</p> <p> </p> <p>The brutal racial double standard rests squarely on the pantheon of stereotypes and negative typecasting of young black males. These stereotypes continue to have deadly consequences, in the gunning down of unarmed black men under questionable circumstances.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1jeffsessions.jpg" style="height:313px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The hope was that President Obama’s election buried once and for all negative racial typecasting and the perennial threat racial stereotypes posed to the safety and well-being of black males. It did no such thing. Immediately after Obama’s election, teams of researchers from several major universities found that many of the old stereotypes about poverty and crime and blacks remained just as frozen in time. The study found that much of the public still perceived that those most likely to commit crimes were poor, jobless and black. The study did more than affirm that race, poverty and crime were firmly tied together in the minds of the American public. It also showed that once the stereotype is planted, it’s virtually impossible to root out.</p> <p> </p> <p>White rural and suburban drug users have something else that black users don’t. That is political clout. The instant heroin became a “crisis” among whites, and now opioid an “epidemic,” arch-conservative GOP congresspersons whose districts were hardest hit leaped over themselves to declare it a health issue. They proposed a litany of new initiatives to treat the problem as a health problem. Police officials quickly followed suit. Dozens of police departments have publicly invited heroin users who want help stopping into their local police headquarters, in many cases with drugs or needles on their person. They would not be arrested, but shuttled promptly to a treatment program, no questions asked.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s one final great cruelty in the glaring racial double standard on drugs. The reports and statistics on opioid and heroin addiction, the wrath of news stories and features on it, and the calls for legislative action to deal with the problem, have not changed one whit the deeply embedded perception that drugs in America invariably come with a young, black face. Trump’s call for compassion and treatment for opioid addicts won’t change that.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book, The Trump Challenge to Black America (Middle Passage Press), will be released in August.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2017/06/the-opioid-crisis-in-black-and-white.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/opioids" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">opioids</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/opioid-addiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">opioid addiction</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jeff-sessions" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jeff sessions</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 25 Jun 2017 16:09:07 +0000 tara 7586 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7712-opioid-crisis-black-and-white#comments A Step Towards Fascism in the Philippines? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6045-step-towards-fascism-philippines <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 14:55</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1philippines.jpg?itok=gCFQLDve"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1philippines.jpg?itok=gCFQLDve" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.iexaminer.org/2016/10/the-war-on-drugs-in-the-philippines-a-step-toward-fascism/">International Examiner</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>On September 22, 1972, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines, resulting in the dismantling of the Philippine Congress, suspension of a free press, freedom of speech, and right to due process, and an overall violation of peoples’ human rights. Over 75,000 human rights cases have been filed under a law passed by the Philippine Congress for people seeking compensation for torture and death under the Marcos dictatorship.</p> <p> </p> <p>Forty-four years later, many are concerned that the specter of martial law may be on the horizon under newly-elected President Rodrigo Duterte, wiping out the democratic gains of the “People Power” movement that overthrew Marcos in 1986.</p> <p> </p> <p>Duterte won the Philippine elections last May in a field of five candidates. Running on a platform of implementing law and order and ridding the country of drugs, Duterte has made good on his promise. However, human rights activists and lawyers and sectors of the international community, including President Barack Obama and UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon, have raised concerns over the extrajudicial killings, numbering over 3,500 as of September 22, under Duterte’s “War on Drugs.” According to a report from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, just from July 1 to September 8 of this year, 1,445 people have been killed in police operations, 15,762 have been arrested, and 704,074 have “surrendered.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In long-drawn-out press conferences, Duterte has repeatedly given power to the police and vigilantes to kill drug dealers and users with impunity. Shortly after his election, Duterte said he would kill 100,000 criminals during his first six months in office. In a response to the United Nations’ experts urging President Duterte to stop the extrajudicial killings, he responded that at least half of the Filipino population is involved in drugs-related trades and, given that, he was not going to stop the killings until the population is reduced by half. The latest government survey in 2012 found 1.3 million people in the Philippines were drug users.</p> <p> </p> <p>In response to these extrajudicial killings, a Senate hearing in the Philippine Congress’s Justice and Human Rights Committee, chaired by Senator Leila de Lima, was convened. De Lima, former Chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and Secretary of the Department of Justice, later ousted as chair of the committee in a coup by her colleagues. They charged her with spreading disinformation and revealing a self-confessed hitman who accused Duterte of ordering killings in Davao, where Duterte had served as mayor. An outspoken critic of Duterte even when he was mayor, de Lima has stated that Duterte’s placement of the Philippines under a “state of lawlessness” after a recent bombing in Davao is martial law without a declaration. The “state of lawlessness” will ensure coordinated efforts between the police and the military in the government’s fight against terrorism and illegal drugs. Human rights advocates claim this is one step toward officially declaring martial law.</p> <p> </p> <p>Duterte, however, remains highly popular amongst the Philippine population, with a positive rating of 91 percent. This popularity, similar to that of Donald Trump in the United States, reflects the disgruntlement of both populations with ongoing contradictions in our societies.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the Philippines, people face ongoing problems with corruption in the government, especially highly publicized cases of politicians from the traditional political parties, including some of the 2016 presidential candidates; persistent poverty and lack of health care; a large overseas workforce due to limited economic opportunities within the country; high crime rates; and, in the largest cities, huge traffic and public transportation issues. Duterte has been able to build a cross-class popular movement, because he is not from the traditional political circles that people have become disillusioned with. He became well-known for his “successful” war against crime in Davao, although it is rumored that over 1,000 extrajudicial killings took place during his mayoralty.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2philippines.jpg" style="height:428px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>While the drug situation, especially around a synthetic drug called shabu, is a real issue throughout the Philippines, it may not be as extensive as it is here in the United States. In a September 18 article on Philstar.com, based on a national survey, drug use in the Philippines could range from 1.8 to 4.74 percent, which falls below the global average of 5.2 percent. Free or government-run drug treatment centers are nonexistent, and so the war on drugs is targeted at the poor. For those who surrender, jail and prison is the protocol, where overcrowding and violence were at an extreme before Duterte’s drug war.</p> <p> </p> <p>The extrajudicial killings have reignited activists from the former anti-Marcos movement, both in the Philippines and the United States—especially the victims of torture and detention and the families of those who died under the dictatorship. In response to Duterte’s intention of giving Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial in the Philippine national cemetery Libingan Ng Mga Bayani (LNB)—comparable to Arlington National Cemetery in the United States—protests were held in the Philippines and in front of the U.S. consulates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.</p> <p> </p> <p>These coalitions have expanded their call for a halt to the extrajudicial killings to include “No burial for Marcos at LNB!” and “No to dictatorship.” But in the years since the Marcos dictatorship, the lack of education about the repression and acts of corruption the Marcoses and their cronies committed, including robbing the national treasury of billions of dollars, has left a generation ignorant about that period. Over 50 percent of the Philippine population has been born since the People Power Revolution led by Cory Aquino overthrew the Marcoses. Now, the country is feeling the impact of a generation of Filipinos that knows nothing of a dictatorship, and, in fact, is open to the idea that drugs are to blame for the ills of Philippine society and that some must be sacrificed so that others can live better lives.</p> <p> </p> <p>Duterte’s war on drugs is his main initiative. Without sufficient attention, economic development, antipoverty initiatives, land redistribution, closure of the largest foreign-owned mines, and reproductive health have fallen by the wayside. Duterte has had some success with his peace initiative with the Communist Party and the New Peoples’ Army, garnering a cease-fire, and, it is hoped, moving toward negotiations. He also appointed three members from the left to key positions in his cabinet.</p> <p> </p> <p>The international community plays an important role in bringing attention to the human rights violations in the Philippines. As the situation in the Philippines worsens, and fear takes hold of its society in the midst of vigilante and police extrajudicial killings, it may be up to us in the United States to lobby Congress and make our voices heard that we will not allow fascism to take hold in the Philippines again. As the slogan in the Philippines says, “NEVER FORGET! NEVER AGAIN!”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Cindy Domingo has been doing Philippine support work for over four decades. Her brother, Silme Domingo, and fellow trade unionist Gene Viernes were murdered in the United States by the Marcos regime in 1981. In 1989, their families won a landmark civil suit in federal court against the Marcoses, winning a $23 million judgment, the first of its kind in the United States.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.iexaminer.org/2016/10/the-war-on-drugs-in-the-philippines-a-step-toward-fascism/">International Examiner</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/duterte" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">duterte</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/philippines" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">philippines</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-wars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug wars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/filipinos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Filipinos</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marcos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">marcos</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Cindy Domingo</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 30 Oct 2016 18:55:51 +0000 tara 7216 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6045-step-towards-fascism-philippines#comments Why Decriminalizing Marijuana Will Help the Failing War on Drugs https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3707-why-decriminalizing-marijuana-will-help-failing-war-drugs <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 11:09</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarijuanaarticle%20%28NAM%29_3.jpg?itok=R7LJTEum"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarijuanaarticle%20%28NAM%29_3.jpg?itok=R7LJTEum" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/01/president-obama-casts-ugly-glare-on-race-tainted-drug-war.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p>President Obama again cast an ugly glare on the race-tainted drug laws in a recent interview and in reports from the White House. He specifically fingerpointed marijuana. Virtually all medical professionals have repeatedly said that marijuana use is no more damaging than alcohol, and so did Obama. If anything, judging from the thousands of family breakups, the mountainous carnage from alcohol-related accidents and physical deaths from liquor addiction, marijuana use is far safer than alcohol. But marijuana, as with the wildly disparate racial hammering of minorities with cocaine drug busts, has also been yet another weapon in the ruthless, relentless and naked drug war on minorities, especially African Americans. The difference is that the gaping racial disparities in crack cocaine prosecutions and sentencing have gotten massive public attention, White House and legislative action to close the legal gap. Marijuana, by contrast, has flown far under the public and lawmaker’s radar scope.</p> <p> </p> <p>But the racial war that has been blatantly evident in the drug war is just as, if not more blatant, in who’s arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced for marijuana use and sale. Take two states, Minnesota and Iowa. Minorities and especially blacks make up a relatively tiny overall percentage of residents of these two states. Yet blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested than whites. An ACLU study released last June found that in nearly every county in the nation the arrest rate for marijuana possession among blacks was at least four times higher than that for whites. Even worse the big gaping disparities in arrest numbers for blacks and whites come at a time when public attitudes have radically softened on both personal and medicinal marijuana use. Many states and locales have drastically decriminalized marijuana possession, and two states have legalized its use, and other states are poised to vote on legalization. Even worse, the huge race tinged arrest numbers come at a time when the incidences of nearly every other type of crime has plummeted.</p> <p> </p> <p>The reasons aren’t hard to find. The near institution of open and covert stop and frisk laws that target minorities, incentives to pad arrest numbers to insure greater federal funding and to bolster the perceived crime-fighting stature of police agencies, and the ease and cheapness of focusing on low-level crimes are major reasons for the continued war on minorities for marijuana use.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then there are the public attitudes toward black and white drug offenders. The top-heavy drug use by young whites has never stirred any public outcry for mass arrests, prosecutions, and tough prison sentences for them, many of whom deal drugs that are directly linked to serious crime and violence.</p> <p> </p> <p>Whites unlucky enough to get popped for drug possession are treated with compassion, prayer sessions, expensive psychiatric counseling, treatment and rehab programs, and drug diversion programs. And they should be. But so should those blacks and other non-whites victimized by discriminatory drug laws.</p> <p> </p> <p>A frank admission that the laws are biased and unfair, and have not done much to combat the drug plague, would be an admission of failure. It could ignite a real soul-searching over whether all the billions of dollars that have been squandered in the failed and flawed drug war -- the lives ruined by it, and the families torn apart by the rigid and unequal enforcement of the laws -- has really accomplished anything.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumobamacolorlines_0.jpg" style="height:375px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This might call into question why people use and abuse drugs in the first place -- and if it is really the government's business to turn the legal screws on some drug users while turning a blind eye to others?</p> <p> </p> <p>The greatest fallout from the nation's failed drug policy and that certainly includes racially skewed marijuana arrests is that it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it further embeds the widespread notion that the drug problem is exclusively a black problem. This makes it easy for on-the-make politicians to grab votes, garner press attention, and balloon state prison budgets to jail more black offenders, while continuing to feed the illusion that we are winning the drug war. On the other, the easing up of marijuana arrests and prosecutions of whites permits much of the public and lawmakers to delude themselves that the nation has become much more prudent and enlightened in how it views the drug fight.</p> <p> </p> <p>In his interview Obama was blunt, "We should not be locking up kids or individuals for long stretches of jail time when those writing the laws have probably done the same thing.” Obama certainly could testify to that since he has frankly admitted his use of drugs in his youthful days. This frank admission and the realization that more prisons, the hiring and maintaining of waves of corrections officers, and the bloating state budgets in the process, not to mention political pandering is a lose-lose for the nation. The biggest loser of all with the nation’s disastrously failed and flawed drug war, is minorities and especially blacks. Marijuana is no different.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/01/president-obama-casts-ugly-glare-on-race-tainted-drug-war.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marijuna" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">marijuna</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pot" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pot</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smoking-pot" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">smoking pot</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/legalizing-marijuana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">legalizing marijuana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-wars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug wars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama-administration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama administration</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hard-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hard drugs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/blacks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">blacks</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/minorities" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">minorities</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 05 Feb 2014 16:09:39 +0000 tara 4236 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3707-why-decriminalizing-marijuana-will-help-failing-war-drugs#comments Rethinking and Reforming the War on Drugs https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2704-rethinking-and-reforming-war-drugs <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 08/14/2013 - 10:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1warondrugs.jpg?itok=bnsqa6Lp"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1warondrugs.jpg?itok=bnsqa6Lp" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From our content partner, <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/08/holder-says-the-obvious---drug-war-is-a-war-on-minorities.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p>The scuttlebutt is that Attorney General Eric Holder is poised to say what has long been obvious to anyone who has the faintest notion about how the wildly failed, flawed war on drugs has been waged for three decades. The obvious is that the war on drugs has been a ruthless, relentless and naked war on minorities, especially African-Americans.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the coming weeks, Holder may tell exactly how he’ll wind that war down. It shouldn’t surprise if he does. President Obama and Holder have been hinting for a while that it’s time to rethink how the war is being fought and who its prime casualties have been. Their successful push a few years back to get Congress to finally wipe out a good deal of the blatantly racially skewed harsh drug sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine possession was the first hint. Another is the mixed signals that both have sent about federal marijuana prosecutions, sometimes tough, sometimes lax.</p> <p> </p> <p>But if, and more likely when, Holder acts on much needed and long overdue drug law reforms, he’ll do it standing on solid ground. Past surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the sex and drug habits of Americans and a legion of other similar surveys have tossed the ugly glare on the naked race-tainted war on drugs. They found that whites and blacks use drugs in about the same rate.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet, more than 70 percent of those prosecuted in federal courts for drug possession and sale (mostly small amounts of crack cocaine) and given stiff mandatory sentences are blacks. Federal prosecutors and lawmakers in the past and some at present still justify the disparity with the retort that crack cocaine is dangerous and threatening, and lead to waves of gang shoot-outs, turf battles, and thousands of terrorized residents in poor black communities. In some instances, that's true, and police and prosecutors are right to hit back hard at the violence.</p> <p> </p> <p>The majority, however, of those who deal and use crack cocaine aren't violent-prone gang members, but poor, and increasingly female, young blacks. <a href="http://www.recovery.org/topics/about-rehab-and-recovery/">They clearly need treatment</a>, not long prison stretches.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's also a myth that powder cocaine is benign and has no criminal and violent taint to it. In a comprehensive survey in 2002, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House's low-profile task force to combat drug use, attributed shoplifting, burglary, theft, larceny, money laundering and even the transport of undocumented workers in some cities to powdered cocaine use. It also found that powder cocaine users were more likely to commit domestic violence crimes. The report also fingered powder cocaine users as prime dealers of other drugs that included heroin, meth and crack cocaine.</p> <p> </p> <p>The big difference is that the top-heavy drug use by young whites -- and the crime and violence that go with it -- has never stirred any public outcry for mass arrests, prosecutions, and tough prison sentences for white drug dealers, many of whom deal drugs that are directly linked to serious crime and violence. Whites unlucky enough to get popped for drug possession are treated with compassion, prayer sessions, expensive psychiatric counseling, <a href="http://heroin.net/">treatment and rehab programs</a>, and drug diversion programs. And they should be. But so should those blacks and other non-whites victimized by discriminatory drug laws.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumdrugsarticle_1.jpg" style="height:335px; width:600px" /></p> <p>A frank admission that the laws are biased and unfair, and have not done much to combat the drug plague, would be an admission of failure. It could ignite a real soul searching over whether all the billions of dollars that have been squandered in the failed and flawed drug war -- the lives ruined by it, and the families torn apart by the rigid and unequal enforcement of the laws -- has really accomplished anything.</p> <p> </p> <p>This might call into question why people use and abuse drugs in the first place -- and if it is really the government's business to turn the legal screws on some drug users while turning a blind eye to others?</p> <p> </p> <p>The greatest fallout from the nation’s failed drug policy is that it has further embedded the widespread notion that the drug problem is exclusively a black problem. This makes it easy for on-the-make politicians to grab votes, garner press attention, and balloon state prison budgets to jail more black offenders, while continuing to feed the illusion that we are winning the drug war.</p> <p> </p> <p>In an interview, Holder on that point was blunt, “There’s been a decimation of certain communities, in particular communities of color.” This is no accident. The policy deliberately targeted those communities due to a lethal mix of racism, criminal justice system profit, political expediency, and media-fed public mania over drug use. This is why Obama and Holder have delicately, but to their credit, publicly inched towards a rethink of the drug war, including whom it benefits and whom it hurts. They should be applauded for that.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Autho Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network. </em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eric-holder" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eric holder</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-use" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug use</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/illegal-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">illegal drugs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-addiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug addiction</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-laws" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug laws</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:29:52 +0000 tara 3349 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2704-rethinking-and-reforming-war-drugs#comments The Trillion Dollar Fail: How the War on Drugs Was Lost https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1924-trillion-dollar-fail-how-war-drugs-was-lost <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/07/2013 - 10:13</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarijuanaarticle%20%28NAM%29_0.jpg?itok=-06HahOR"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarijuanaarticle%20%28NAM%29_0.jpg?itok=-06HahOR" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> <em>“If we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely in time destroy us.” –<strong>Richard Nixon, 1971.</strong></em></p> <p>  </p> <p> After an often-spiteful campaign season filled with hyperbole and defensive posturing, the 2012 election proved to be exceedingly successful for the Democratic Party. Amidst Barack Obama’s reelection and several key Senatorial wins, the Progressive Movement also celebrated other understated, albeit significant, ballot victories. For the first time in United States history, two states, Colorado and Washington, voted to legalize the personal use of recreational marijuana. These ballot triumphs represent an unprecedented step in the liberalization of America’s drug laws and the upward trend of Americans coming to favor the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It has however been a long and arduous battle to realize such successes, necessitating not only political savvy, but also an existential shift in the sensibilities of the voting public and politicians on an issue that has been typically accepted at status quo. Until very recently, America’s drug policy has echoed the model of the “War on Drugs” Richard Nixon infamously declared in an address to Congress in 1971, precipitating a wholly austere, merit-based credo characterized by unrelenting prohibition and interdiction.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, The War on Drugs costs the federal government approximately $15-20 billion per year, and with <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/13/us-war-on-drugs-has-met-n_n_575351.html">negligible</a> success in lowering the supply of drugs or drug abuse rates, politicians and experts on all points of the political spectrum have deemed the War on Drugs an objective failure. With particular emphasis on cutting off the supply of narcotics, the United States drug policy has been predicated on the theory that eradication of an unwanted external malefactor can only be achieved through persecution of the malefactor and its backers. As the War has escalated, funding for rehabilitation and prevention has diminished, and resources are instead carved out, many believe imprudently, for law enforcement, mass incarceration, SWAT style raids, and militarization of the US/Mexico border, the entry point through which most of America’s drugs are smuggled. According to the World Health Organization, the United States still has the highest rate of illegal drug use in the world.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Now, more than forty years after Nixon declared the United States drug problem as “public enemy number one,” there is nothing to show for the eradication efforts except for over a trillion dollars spent, an incarceration rate eight times higher than any other industrialized nation, devastating collateral penalties for drug users, and perhaps most indicative of a policy failure, stagnant rates of drug use among Americans. With overcrowded prisons and violent crimes going unnoticed every day, Americans are fed up with the warped priorities that were championed by their parents and grandparents. In 2011, 50.8 percent of federal inmates were <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/ibtimes.com/war-drugs-total-failure-statistics-prove-it-291447">incarcerated</a> for drug offenses. This compares to just 4.2 percent for robbery, 2.7 percent for homicide/assault/kidnapping, and 4.7 percent for sex offenses. In a congressionally mandated annual report to the U.S. Sentencing Commission on the operation of federal sentencing guidelines, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in August of 2012 that continuing increases in the federal prison populations and spending are "unsustainable."</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumdrugsarticle.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Although drug prohibition speaks to a number of controlled substances, reformation of marijuana laws has been the most reasonable starting point in addressing failed drug policy. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States, and according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation more than 757,000 people were arrested in the U.S. in 2011 for marijuana-related offenses, an overwhelming majority of them for simple possession, costing the tax payers approximately $8 billion. Reform advocates are waiting anxiously to see how the state ballot victories will fare once implemented, provided that marijuana is still a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance under federal law, the most severe classification for a narcotic.</p> <p>  </p> <p> There is reason to believe that Colorado and Washington are no anomaly, and simply the first experimenters in a wave of impending marijuana reformation throughout the country. According to Gallup, in 2011 a record high 50 percent of Americans said that use of marijuana should be fully legal. In 2002, that number was only at 34 percent, in 1994 it was about 24 percent. Today, over 70 percent of Americans believe marijuana has valuable medical usages and should be decriminalized (which is different from legalization).</p> <p>  </p> <p> Reform efforts on the state level reflect the frustration with federal prohibition, and although in the past such efforts were glossed over as fringe movements peddled by a feckless counterculture, the successes in 2012 and rapidly changing public opinion suggest otherwise. Tom Angell, the <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/11/07/what-tuesdays-marijuana-victories-mean-for-the-war-on-drugs">Chairman</a> of Marijuana Majority, says the election results will indeed catalyze a ripple effect upon the rest of the country. “I do think you will see polling support for legalization go up significantly now that Colorado and Washington have taken the first step and shown that legalization is possible,” says Angell, noting that California, Oregon and Rhode Island could be next in line for legalization initiatives.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Widespread acknowledgement of the statistical failure of drug prohibition begs the question why we have remained faithful to these policies for so long. To answer that question, we have to look at the history of the War on Drugs, not just as it relates to facts and figures, but the hearts and minds of the American public.</p> <p>  </p> <p> There was a small window in the 1970s to shape drug policy such that it could have prevented much of the mire we find ourselves in today. In the same speech Richard Nixon declared War on Drugs, he also thoughtfully noted, “as long as there is a demand, there will be those willing to take the risks of meeting the demand.” In theory, it appeared he understood some of the inherent problems with prohibition, namely, the mistake of ignoring unyielding demand. However in practice, Nixon defied his own wisdom and pinned the drug problem on the moral deterioration of America, labeling drug abusers as criminals for whom the only recourse was punishment.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumdrugsarticle_0.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 401px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was created under Nixon in 1973 and the government spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to stifle drug trafficking throughout Latin America. Nixon identified marijuana as a ‘gateway drug’ to experimentation and addiction of other harder drugs and thus invested largely in efforts to stamp out production and refinement of cannabis plants throughout Mexico (there has been little evidence to support the ‘gateway drug’ <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/22/yale-study-alcohols-gateway-effect-much-larger-than-marijuans">theory</a>). Nixon’s efforts in Latino America ended up <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/reformdrugpolicy.com/beckley-main-content/war-on-drugs/origins-of-us-led-prohibition/nixon-and-the-beginning-of-the-war">helping</a> large-scale narcotics traffickers and estimates today show there have been at least 55,000 deaths that can be attributed to the grave violence propagated by the War on Drugs.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Nixon’s rhetoric and centralization of drug policy began to induce a shift in the mindset of many Americans, and more tangibly in the distribution of funds from prevention and rehabilitation toward the targeted enforcement and prohibition that we see today. Neil Franklin, the Executive Director at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) says, “Local authorities being recruited by President Nixon during the onset of the drug war in the early seventies is partially the blame for what’s wrong with drug enforcement today.” There was little questioning the Nixon approach throughout the next several decades, and any attempts to do so were usually futile.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As drug abuse spiked during the 1980’s with scores of cocaine coming over the border and the advent of the crack epidemic, America’s hysteria over drugs heightened. The average annual amount of funding for eradication and interdiction programs increased from an annual average of $437 million during the administration of his predecessor Jimmy Carter, to $1.4 billion in Ronald Reagan’s first <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/341/reagan.shtml">term</a>. Reagan’s harsh language linking drug use to moral decay fueled the American public’s complicity in increasingly severe laws, which included mandatory minimum sentencing, three strikes laws and the death penalty for “drug kingpins.” The coinage of incendiary terms like “crack babies” and “gangbangers” cemented the wickedness Americans now associated with drugs. For politicians, it was foolish to take anything other than a hardline stance on the issue and risk seeming soft on crime. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the number of people in prison from drug-related crimes increased tenfold between 1980 and 2010.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Although Bill Clinton attempted to allocate more funding to prevention and rehabilitation, the forgotten demand side of the drug war, the 104<sup>th</sup> Republican Congress rejected such efforts, and supply side tactics remained the mainstream strategy. According to the Pew Center, from 1987 to 2007, nationwide spending on corrections increased by 127 percent, while there was only a 21 percent increase in spending on higher education. Clinton, who has in recent time has come to disavow the Drug War, authorized more than $16 million for the expansion of state and local police forces and state prison grants. Additionally, under Clinton’s welfare reform, anyone convicted of a felony drug offense was punished with a lifetime ban for federal economic assistance.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The George W. Bush administration continued to intensify the surveillance and control culture; overseeing a new <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/drugpolicy.org/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war">strategy</a> that included paramilitary-style SWAT raids on Americans, mostly for nonviolent drug law offenses, often misdemeanors. While federal reform mostly stalled under Bush, state-level reforms finally began to rein in the rapid expansion of the Drug War. By the time President Obama was inaugurated in 2009, 13 states had legalized medicinal marijuana. On Election Day in 2012, Massachusetts become the 18th state to do so.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumobamaclinton_0.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> While the War on Drugs has had devastating effects on all Americans, people of color have been disproportionately on the receiving end of its worst effects. According to federal statistics, today African Americans represent about 13 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, but are 34 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 45 percent of those held in state prisons for drug offense. What is particularly insidious about federal drug policy is that it functions under the guise of protecting communities, when in fact in has severely escalated crime and misery. According to Michelle Alexander, author of <em>The New Jim Crow</em>, by criminalizing drug users who would be much better served by treatment, the United States has created a cohort of citizens being shuffled through the criminal justice system, coming out losing their voting rights, employment opportunities, and furthermore are often severely psychologically damaged.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Despite high hopes of drug reform advocates, President Obama has not enacted the kind of policy shift surrounding marijuana prohibition that many thought he might. Over the past three years, the DOJ has undertaken more than 200 SWAT-style federal DEA <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tara/My%20Documents/Downloads/rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216">raids</a> on legitimate medical marijuana businesses in at least six states. This represents a raid rate twice as high as under the Bush Administration. In addition, U.S. Attorneys have threatened public officials who attempt to pass laws regulating local distribution. Some theorize that President Obama had to relegate drug reform to a very low priority on his first-term agenda, provided the tremendous scrutiny he was under in remedying an ailing economy. Others believe drug reform would have been far too progressive a policy goal to pursue in his first term and would have damaged his chances in 2012.</p> <p>  </p> <p> With the President’s reelection, activists are hopeful the federal government will begin to scale back their assault on medical marijuana dispensaries, and that the administration will not fight, or better yet even support, state efforts to liberalize marijuana laws. In a bipartisan coalition, Representatives Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA), who have fervently supported the legalization of marijuana in the past, wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to respect the will of the voters in Colorado and Washington. In an interview with Barbara Walters on December 11, the President said drug prosecution in states that have legalized marijuana would not be “a top priority” of federal law enforcement. However, skeptics note that the President made similar comments about states with medicinal marijuana laws at the beginning of his administration.</p> <p>  </p> <p> While federal law has remained fairly untouched, rhetoric surrounding the Drug War <em>is </em>changing under President Obama. In fact, in 2009 R. Gil Kerlikowske, the current director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, signaled that the Obama administration would no longer use the term “War on Drugs,” rendering it “counterproductive.” The new drug strategy, at least in theory, reflects a more holistic and realistic approach to America’s drug problem. The Obama administration has made a point of defining the drug problem as one that requires a response not only by law enforcement but also by systems that provide education, mental health services, job training, community development and other infrastructure. Kerlikowske has extensively discussed of the need to treat small-time users rather than criminalize them. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the new approach will “target screening and early intervention, so we can avoid the enormous human and economic costs of full-blown addiction.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Part of the challenge in ending the Drug War has been the inability to frame the issue in a tone that appeals to patriotic values. It was easy for us, deeply dedicated to merit-based principles, to get on board with the law and order approach espoused by Nixon and his successors. Drugs are criminal, and people who use them are obviously deserving of punishment. This ideology has underscored the Drug War and represents the crux of the struggle today between competing dogmas on how to approach issues of drugs, violence and poverty. However, even among Americans who will never use drugs or be affected by drugs, there is a growing receptivity to ending the Drug War, because it simply does not align with our priorities anymore. Brian Vicente, a Denver lawyer who helped write Colorado's winning Amendment 64 says of garnering support for marijuana reform, "If we can focus attention on the fact we can bring in revenue, redirect law enforcement resources and raise awareness instead of focusing on pot, that's a message that works."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Retribution is accepted as an essential tenet of our justice system, however, growing frustration with the federal government has ushered in an era of libertarian-minded activism that deems freedom the most fundamentally American principle.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The marijuana ballot victories in 2012 will likely assist in further mainstreaming a political affront that had been generally ignored until recently, the War on the War on Drugs. Although marijuana reform covers only one drug in an expansive battle, it is a crucial stepping-stone in helping Americans reach a consensus about our drug policy. Now, policymakers who have been pressured to ignore the Drug War for fear of political ramifications will continue to come out of the shadows and help to inform public opinion that is indisputably shifting. Confronting the failed prohibition policies of past generations will no longer be seen as radical, but responsible, rational, and indicative of an agenda that has our nation’s best interest at heart. Washington’s legalization went into effect on December 6, 2012, and Colorado’s will follow no later than January 6, 2013.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Gabrielle Acierno is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-laws" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug laws</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marijuana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">marijuana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/legalizing-marijuana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">legalizing marijuana</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama-administrations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">obama administrations</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/richard-nixon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Richard Nixon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">George W. Bush</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-policies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug policies</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Gabrielle Acierno </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:13:51 +0000 tara 2150 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1924-trillion-dollar-fail-how-war-drugs-was-lost#comments Ongoing Drug Wars Overshadow New Mexican President’s Arrival in Office https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1832-ongoing-drug-wars-overshadow-new-mexican-presidents-arrival-office <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 12/05/2012 - 15:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummexicanpresident%20%28NAM%29.jpg?itok=npA3a-5f"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummexicanpresident%20%28NAM%29.jpg?itok=npA3a-5f" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/12/the-skeletons-in-calderons-closet.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://frontera.nmsu.edu/">Frontera NorteSur</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Editor's Note:</strong> <em>The recent inauguration of Mexico's new President, Enrique Peña Nieto, has Mexicans wondering how the new government will confront the crisis of narcoviolence. In the last weeks of the administration of outgoing President Felipe Calderón, Mexican authorities recovered the remains of scores of murder victims.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> As outgoing Mexican president Felipe Calderon prepares to enter the Ivory Tower of Harvard, skeletons are rattling the walls of Mexico during the last few days of his administration.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Within the past week, Mexican authorities have recovered the remains of scores of murder victims from mass grave sites situated in different regions of  the country. At the same time, relatives of victims of gender, state and other forms of violence have been staging demonstrations in Mexico City, Chihuahua City, Acapulco and other places in demand of justice for murder victims and thousands of disappeared persons, some missing for decades.</p> <p>  </p> <p> To top it all off, the media is riveted by a new scandal involving accused, U.S.-born drug lord Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez Villareal.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the rural Juarez Valley south of the large Mexican border city, personnel from the Chihuahua state government spend last weekend excavating the desert and pulling out the remains of 20 men said to have been killed during the peak of regional violence in 2009-2010. The so-called narco-fosas were reportedly found due to a tip from the U.S. government based on information divulged by Jose Antonio Hernandez Acosta, or “El Diego, an imprisoned leader of La Linea, the Juarez Cartel’s enforcement branch.</p> <p>  </p> <p> During the war between the Juarez Cartel and rival Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa-based group, the Juarez Valley was subjected to a scorched earth campaign that unfolded under the noses of the Mexican military and Federal Police. The once-vibrant farming area has also been repeatedly used as a dumping ground for female murder victims since the 1990s, including many young women who vanished from the streets of Ciudad Juarez.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In Tijuana, Baja California, federal law enforcement began probing the ground this week for the remains of an estimated 75-80  murder victims disposed of on a property utilized by the infamous “Pozole Maker,” Santiago Lopez Mera, who was employed by organized crime several years ago as a body disposal specialist. Lopez was known for dissolving murder victims in acid. Pozole is a stew-like dish popular in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, especially during the winter holiday season.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “This confirms what we have denounced so many times, but have not been taken seriously,” said Fernando Ocegueda Flores, president of the United Association for the Disappeared of  Baja California. “We are almost sure there are 80 bodies here and we are going to wait until the operation is over to give tranquility to the families.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> In Acapulco, Guerrero, meanwhile, Mexican marines recovered at least eight murder victims of both sexes in clandestine graves situated on the edge of the El Veladero National Park and near a high school in the hills just above the Pacific coast resort. The discovery was made after the arrests of five individuals suspected of involvement in the recent kidnapping of a university professor.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The El Veladero discovery followed a similar but bigger find in Acapulco earlier this year. First excavated in September, the so-called Piedra del Chivo narcofosa, also located in hilly terrain but closer to the middle-class Costa Azul district popular with tourists, yielded 31 victims by the first week of November. Of the 25 remains examined at the time, two belonged to women.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Even as skeletons were dug from the earth a jailed crime boss, Edgar Valdez Villareal,  caused a stir in the national media this week with explosive accusations that President Calderon had attempted to forge a pact among warring narco bands, and that top federal law enforcement officials had been on the take.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In a letter delivered to the Mexican daily Reforma and the El Paso Times, Valdez claimed he was arrested and targeted for murder because he refused to go along with a pact that was under negotiation in 2010. Valdez said the Calderon administration’s liaison in the grand scheme was Mexican General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, a leading executioner of the Mexican government’s dirty war against leftist guerrillas and dissidents in the 1970s.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Acosta Chaparro later spent several years in an army lock-up accused of involvement with the Juarez Cartel but was later absolved of charges and given military honors. He was shot to death in broad daylight on a Mexico City street in April of this year. The legendary general had survived an earlier assassination attempt in 2010.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Valdez implicated the late Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, who was killed along with federal anti-organized crime police official Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos in a strange 2008 plane accident, in the narco-pact deal-making.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “La Barbie” further claimed that Mexican federal security chief Genaro Garcia Luna, a key U.S. drug war ally, received payments from drug traffickers. A former enforcer for the late drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva who went on to form his own organization, the 38-year-old Texan named a bevy of other federal law enforcement officials allegedly on the narco payroll, including the Federal Police’s Facundo Rosas, who served as the Calderon administration’s point man in Ciudad Juarez during Joint Operation Chihuahua.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The public functionaries that I mention are also part of the criminal structure of this country,” Valdez charged.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediummexicanflag%20%28Esparta%20Palma%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 400px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The Calderon administration quickly refuted Valdez’ statements, contending that the prisoner’s accusations were designed to smear officials and win favorable prison treatment.</p> <p>  </p> <p> At a Mexico City press conference in which no questions were allowed, Federal Police spokesman Jose Ramon Salinas read a statement countering Valdez. The inmate, Salinas said, had the objective of “inhibiting official action against criminal organizations through the public discrediting of those who have combated (criminal) acts.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Valdez faces extradition to the U.S. on drug-related charges.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the final days of the Calderon government, renewed attention has focused on the human cost of the so-called drug war that escalated sharply after Calderon took office in December 2006. The Tijuana newspaper Zeta published an analysis by its reporters that was based on homicide statistics drawn from the National Institute for Statistics, Geography and Informatics, state prosecutors’ offices and non-governmental organizations.</p> <p>  </p> <p> After analyzing different sources of data, Zeta concluded that 72 percent of 114,158 murder victims, or 83,000 people, were killed in a manner consistent with organized crime methods from December 1, 2006 to October 31, 2012.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Separate pieces underscored how Ciudad Juarez suffered a grossly disproportionate share of the carnage. A story in El Diario de Juarez reported 10,500 murder victims from December 1, 2006 to November 25, 2012, while New Mexico State University librarian Molly Molloy counted 11,179 victims during the same period of time. Ciudad Juarez accounts for roughly one percent of Mexico’s total population.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Tijuana’s Zeta also contended that the identities of 36,413 murder victims nationwide remain unknown.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As if the violence of the past six years wasn’t enough, killings rolled along at a brisk  pace this week.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For example, on Wednesday, November 28,  at least two dozen new murder victims of suspected criminal violence were reported across the country. The crime scenes were predictable: Gomez Palacio, Durango, Torreon, Coahuila, Acapulco, the Jalisco-Zacatecas borderlands, Chihuahua….</p> <p>  </p> <p> Among this week’s victims were Juventina Villa Mojica and her young son Reynaldo Santana Villa.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Villa was the highly visible media spokesperson for La Laguna and two other adjoining communities in the Guerrero mountains that have long been embroiled in violent conflicts involving drug traffickers, illegal loggers, paramilitary groups, soldiers and guerrillas.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Last year, residents fled the zone and were in the process of a second, highly-publicized evacuation when the daytime attack against Villa and Santana occurred, despite the presence of 25 state police officers who were assigned to guard and escort Villa and her neighbors to safety.  Reportedly, nine members of the Santana-Villa family have now been murdered.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “This is the macabre message added to the criminalization, indolence and collusion of some authorities with radical groups of so-called organized crime,” said Javier Monroy Hernandez, coordinator of the Chilpancingo-based Community Development Workshop. “Protecting the people of the communities and natural resources, and delivering security and justice, is not in the plans of bad rulers who are committed with delinquency.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Such is the panorama overhanging the inauguration of Enrique Peña Nieto, fresh back from Washington visits with President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials, as Mexico’s new chief executive on Saturday, December 1.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Additional sources:</strong> <em>El Sol de Tijuana, November 29, 2012. Article by Juan Guizar. El Diario de Juarez/ El Universal/Reforma/Notimex, November 28 and 29, 2012. La Jornada (Guerrero edition), November 28 and 29, 2012. Articles by Francisca Meza Carranza, Margena De La O and Citlal Giles Sanchez.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>La Jornada, November 26, 2012.  Proceso/Apro, November 26, 28 and 29, 2012. Articles by Ezequiel Flores Contreras and editorial staff.  El Paso Times, November 28, 2012. Article by Diana Washington Valdez. Nortedigital.com, November 27, 2012. Article by Ricardo Espinoza. El Diario de Juarez, November 26, 2012. Article by Rocio Gallegos. El Sur,  November 3 and 29, 2012. Articles by Carlos Moreno M., Israel Flores and Zacarias Cervantes.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/12/the-skeletons-in-calderons-closet.php">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: New America Media, Esparta Palma (Flickr, Creative Commons).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/enrique-pena-nieto" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Enrique Pena Nieto</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexico</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexican-president" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexican President</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/calderon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Calderon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-wars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug wars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-related-murders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug related murders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug violence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kent Paterson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:29:00 +0000 tara 2000 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1832-ongoing-drug-wars-overshadow-new-mexican-presidents-arrival-office#comments Mexico Seeks New Solutions to Combat the War on Drugs https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1453-mexico-seeks-new-solutions-combat-war-drugs <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 16:48</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumwarondrugs.jpg?itok=nw3G7pEj"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumwarondrugs.jpg?itok=nw3G7pEj" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/mexicos-president-elect-signals-internationalization-of-drug-war.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> MEXICO CITY – Mexicans have long grown weary of their country’s prolonged War on Drugs. Now, with President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto set to take office in December, it appears change may finally be in the offing.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That change, however, may not be what most Mexicans were expecting.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “A transnational phenomenon requires a transnational strategy,” Óscar Naranjo, Colombia’s former director of the National Police and current advisor to Peña Nieto, told reporters last week.  “No country can succeed in an insular and isolated manner if it is to achieve timely or definitive victories.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Far from “re-envisioning” the approach taken by outgoing President Felipe Calderon, credited with having launched the crackdown on the country’s drug cartels in 2006, Peña Nieto is preparing the Mexican people for a major escalation. It is a shift that could draw in military forces from Mexico’s neighbors, including the United States.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Mexico has not had foreign troops on its soil since the U.S. invaded in 1847. The country’s constitution bans foreign troops from its territory. But Mexican officials have been quietly developing strategies for circumventing these prohibitions. </p> <p>  </p> <p> High-ranking advisors suggest one strategy would be to develop a “multinational” military force comprised of American, Colombian and Chilean military advisors to work with Mexican marines and special forces under an international mandate.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Not only the United States, but the world, must ally with Mexico to help Mexico overcome the challenge of transnational crime,” Naranjo continued. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Still, he insisted, the final “solution to the Mexican problem remains in the hands of Mexicans.” It is an assertion that ignores one crucial fact: the War on Drugs has never been in the hands of the Mexicans. During the recent presidential campaign, none of the candidates were willing to touch the issue.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Josefina Vazquez, candidate from Calderón’s National Action party (PAN), made no mention of it, presumably because she did not want to remind voters that it was her party that first launched the campaign. Peña Nieto steered clear knowing that governors from his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) stood accused of collaborating with drug traffickers, or being corrupted by them. The leftist candidate, Andrés López Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), avoided discussing the War on Drugs simply because he had no new ideas to offer.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Their collective reluctance to broach the subject was cause for much discussion throughout the Spanish-speaking world.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But now that Peña Nieto is well on his way to the presidential palace, he is beginning to reveal his strategy.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For several years Mexico has availed itself of the United States for assistance, including the sending of Mexican marines to the U.S. for Pentagon training in counter-intelligence and special forces military strikes. </p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumdrugwars.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 321px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> “We have learned from American officers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan,” a Mexican marine corporal, who asked that his name not be used as he is not authorized to speak to the media, told American reporters in October 2011. “The Americans suffer from similar types of ambushes in their wars, and have learned how to respond to them in a tight, disciplined way. We apply those techniques to our fight here.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> The training of Mexican marines for Iraq- and Afghanistan-style warfare by the Pentagon is only part of the “transnational” approach pursued by Calderón.  Mexico has received intelligence from the U.S. military as well.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “A sea change has occurred over the past years in how effective Mexico and U.S. intelligence exchanges have become,” Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, confirmed to the New York Times a year ago. “It is underpinned by the understanding that transnational organized crime can only be successfully confronted by working hand in hand, and that the outcome is as simple as it is compelling: we will together succeed or together fail.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> This gradual escalation is set to accelerate once Peña Nieto takes office, with speculation that Mexico might make an appeal to the Organization of American States (OAS) or the United Nations for “help” in preventing the emergence of a “narco-state.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Under this scenario, Latin American countries and the United States would come to the “assistance” of Mexico with the authorization of an OAS declaration or a United Nations resolution affirming the legitimate need for assistance by the Mexican government.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Such help has already come, albeit in clandestine fashion, from the United States. Last year it was revealed that American drones authorized by the Obama administration had violated Mexican airspace. “Stepping up its involvement in Mexico’s drug war, the Obama administration has begun sending drones deep into Mexican territory to gather intelligence,” the <em>New York Times</em> reported.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For the White House, it was an embarrassing revelation. But what was “embarrassing” in 2011 may now be part of Peña Nieto’s new strategy, one well-timed with events north of the border.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As American involvement in Iraq winds down and U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan are scaled back, the additional personnel may allow U.S. military officials to contemplate “limited” and “strategic” operations to assist in a “multinational” effort for other missions in Latin America. </p> <p>  </p> <p> This “transnational” nature of the War on Drugs that Mexican officials are now openly discussing is part of a national conversation swirling through the Mexican capital, anticipating how such an approach might succeed where the current Mexico-alone strategy has failed.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> For Peña Nieto, it is clear that had he openly debated this course of action, the presidential election might have turned out differently.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/mexicos-president-elect-signals-internationalization-of-drug-war.php">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: New America Media; AP. </strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexico</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/piena-nieto" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Piena Nieto</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexican-president" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexican President</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/united-states" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">United States</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/narcotics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">narcotics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/calderon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Calderon</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pentagon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pentagon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/afghanistan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Afghanistan</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis E.V. Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:48:02 +0000 tara 1363 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1453-mexico-seeks-new-solutions-combat-war-drugs#comments War on Drugs to Escalate as New Mexican President Prepares for Office https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1263-war-drugs-escalate-new-mexican-president-prepares-office <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 07/03/2012 - 19:10</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummexicanpresident.jpg?itok=s1exWEXU"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummexicanpresident.jpg?itok=s1exWEXU" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> MERIDA, Mexico -- In the wake of Mexico’s presidential election Sunday, analysts are expecting Mexico to launch a major “blitzkrieg surge” against the drug cartels during current president Felipe Calderon’s lame duck period.</p> <p>  </p> <p> President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto won’t take office until Dec. 1, leaving a five-month period during which Mexico is expected to intensify its drive against the drug cartels.</p> <p>  </p> <p> To the Mexican electorate – exhausted by six years of being affronted by the daily body count that was the product of Calderon’s militarization of the drug war – PRI candidate Peña Nieto promised to change strategy and work to reduce violence.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The task of the state, what should be its priority from my point of view, and what I have called for in this campaign, is to reduce the levels of violence,” he said in several interviews, by way of explaining his intention in shifting Calderon’s hard line against the various drug organizations operating throughout the country.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In private, however, Peña Nieto quietly reassured American officials that they could count on Mexico’s continued cooperation in current efforts to continue the war on drugs. A senior Obama official told reporters that Peña Nieto had assured the White House that “he is going to keep working with us.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> To make matters more complicated, Peña Nieto and Calderon have been working together, mindful of the opportunity presented by this lame-duck period – between July 1 and Dec. 1 – which affords Mexico the time frame to intensify military strikes against the drug cartels before the new president is sworn in.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It is expected that a blitkreig-style military “surge” against the drug cartels could strike at the heart of these organizations, and debilitate them to such a degree that the new Mexican president can then begin to implement a different set of strategies. Calderon’s six-year war against the drug cartels has already wreaked havoc, with hundreds of leaders and operatives from the major cartels and drug organizations killed, imprisoned or extradited to the United States.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For a year Calderon has sent almost 2,000 elite Mexican Army special forces to the border states and during the same period the United States has been sending CIA operatives and retired U.S. forces to Mexico.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/MediumObamaPhoto_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 334px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Calderon’s reputation has already been sullied by a drug war that has left more than 50,000 people dead, and his hope is that a final series of strikes will get the job done before he leaves office. If that happens, in due course his image could be rehabilitated and the Mexican public could come to recognize that his policies prevented Mexico from becoming a narco-state.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The incoming president, meanwhile, can only stand to benefit from a major blitzkrieg before taking office.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Peña Nieto appointed Gen. Oscar Naranjo, the former chief of Colombia’s national police, as a “special advisor,” signaling his belief in a strong military approach to the “war on drugs.” Naranjo lives in Washington, D.C. and has been flying between the U.S. capital and Mexico City in an advisory role.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Mexico has accumulated achievements, it's delivered lives, enormous sacrifices," Naranjo told reporters last month. "Security, understood as a democratic value, is expressed in policies that are totally inclusive, that protect everyone."</p> <p>  </p> <p> How closely the Obama administration has been working with Peña Nieto – and his party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has been out of power since 2000 – is a matter of speculation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Rear Adm. Colin Kilrain, a former senior commander of the U.S. Navy's special forces, who worked on anti-terrorism for the National Security Council in 2011, was appointed to the post of military attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City in February 2012.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For Calderon, who is now a lame-duck president, and desperately wants to be vindicated by carrying out a series of “death blows” to the remaining cartel leaders, it is imperative that the next five months include a series of bold, aggressive and successful military strikes against the eight major drug organizations. For the newly elected president, it is preferable that this blitzkreig take place before being sworn in in December in order to distance the new administration from a war that has bloodied Mexico’s international image.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For the Obama administration it is imperative that the surge over the next few months – not unlike the strategy the United States pursued in Iraq and now in Afghanistan – strike mortal blows against the Mexican drug cartels one year after Obama’s achievement in taking down Osama bin Laden.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In this sense, a bold series of strikes against Mexico’s drug cartels would be a win-win-win strategy for Felipe Calderon, Enrique Peña Nieto and Barack Obama.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Seldom do such opportunities present themselves.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/07/mexican-drug-war-set-to-intensify-before-new-president-takes-office.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexico</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-cartels" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug cartels</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on drugs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pena-nieto" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pena Nieto</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">PRI</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/felipe-calderon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Felipe Calderon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama-administration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama administration</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis E.V. Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 03 Jul 2012 23:10:32 +0000 tara 1195 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1263-war-drugs-escalate-new-mexican-president-prepares-office#comments