Why haven't we learned better lessons from decades of hopeless violence at the #border?
In our magazine, author Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera looks at #Mexico's war on drugs, and uncovers its real goals: land ownership and the control of natural resources such as oil, natural gas, #water, lithium, and more. https://www.texasobserver.org/unwinnable-drug-war/
"The notion that there is a clear division between state forces and crime groups—that corruption and collaboration are the work of a few bad apples—is a hegemonic idea promoted by nation-states and the mainstream media. Undoing this binary means learning from the people whose lives have been directly affected by armed groups whose activity is carried out with impunity. Impunity is not the result of a weak or deficient state, but rather it is actively provided to the gamut of armed groups who commit crimes and acts of terror against citizens, migrants, and the poor. The provision of impunity to armed actors who are politically aligned with capitalism is part of a modern nation state’s raison d’etre."
PH Vice President Sara Duterte accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings while she was Davao City mayor. An ex-cop said "she and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, were the masterminds behind the execution of 10,000 people in the city."
The terrible news of Lee Sun-kyun’s death pushed me to write this reflection on the #WaronDrugs and the harm it causes by building up stigma and demonisation of people who have been connected to drugs in some way, even before investigations come to any conclusion. It’s really terrible and if we don’t rethink this around the world drug policies will keep ruining lives.
Oplevede en fantastisk koncert med gode gamle #Spoon og #WarOnDrugs igår på trapperne op til Operahuset i Sydney. En fantastisk setting for en sådan koncert - specielt her i anledningen af at Operahuset er 50år i år.
I baggrunden står Virgins store cruise skib og deler lidt kærlighed ud til folket med deres "lysshow".
Opium’s Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs
Upending all we know about the war on drugs, a history of the anti-narcotics movement’s origins, evolution, and questionable effectiveness.
Opium’s Orphans is the first full history of drug prohibition and the “war on drugs.” A no-holds-barred but balanced account, it shows that drug suppression was born of historical accident, not rational design.
They are a new breed of #journalist ; daring, determined and tech-savvy, #freelance#ForeignCorrrespondents fill the void left by a #MainstreamMedia retreating from international news coverage. #IndependentJournalist Bill Gentile introduces us to the workplace of his fellow freelancers in #Mexico , where the so-called #WarOnDrugs has left at least 175,000 people dead in the last decade, and 104 journalists murdered since the year 2000.
1 in 5 U.S. adults say they’ve had a family member killed by a gun.
1 in 6 have witnessed a shooting.
1 in 5 have been personally threatened with a gun.
@WorkingFamilies
Yet despite Germany having 16,7M confirmed and estimated >40M illegal firearms and Switzerland still allowing civilan possession of newly made machine guns, advanced suicides are basically nonexistant compared to the USA even when adjusted per capita.
Maybe havin also accessible mental healthcare is the reason why people here don't do that.
One thing I’ll never understand is why the GOP rails against Biden for stopping loads of fentanyl from entering the country. Every time there’s a major bust, they treat it like it means things are going badly for the country—when in fact it means the precise opposite. They are stopping more of the bad guys. You just can’t win with the GOP spin.
@georgetakei personally I think the #WarOnDrugs needs to end including cancelling all #VictimlessCrimes, purging all convictions, freeing as well as rehabilitating and reimbursing those affrcted by it.
In order to address the root causes of rising overdose and homelessness rates, policymakers, elected officials, and funders need to stop investing in strategies that focus on criminalization and punishment.
In the latest attack on people who use drugs, San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, advocates for requiring substance abuse screening and treatment for low-income residents to be eligible for welfare funds.
"Drug users and experts said that, in reality, the proposal would likely lead users to other means, like crime, to fund their addiction. Cutting cash off could even worsen health outcomes by limiting access to basic needs like food or housing"
With SF's 45th mayor, as it was with the 45th president, the cruelty is the point. #sfPol#WarOnDrugs
It’s Time To Quit Bullshitting Ourselves About The War On Drugs!
Legalizing and decriminalization drugs would enable governments to enforce strict safety regulations, ensuring that only substances meeting specific purity standards reach consumers. This would drastically reduce the risks associated with contaminated drugs and drug overdose deaths, saving lives
"To say nothing of the (1,000,000,000.00) that could have be spent on so many other worthwhile human needs"
“The war on drugs: Is it a genuine public health crusade or an attempt to carry out what author Michelle Alexander characterizes as ‘the New Jim Crow’?
A new report by Dan Baum for Harper's Magazine suggests the latter. Specifically, Baum refers to a quote from John Ehrlichman, who served as domestic policy chief for President Richard Nixon when the administration declared its war on drugs in 1971.
According to Baum, Ehrlichman said in 1994 that the drug war was a ploy to undermine Nixon's political opposition — meaning, black people and critics of the Vietnam War”
Direct action works, the #warOnDrugs doesn't. SF under Breed won't set up a supervised drug use site, so activists did it themselves and reversed 2 overdoses on the first day
"There’d be a lot more deaths if we didn’t have resources like this. There’s no telling what would happen. If they got such a problem with us being on the streets, they should put us inside.”
@design_law where are the reparations for all the lives destroyed by #MassIncarceration led by the genocidal #WarOnDrugs? nobody should get to trademark shit until everybody incarcerated for marijuana related offenses are freed and they, along with the surviving families of the dead get monetary restitution.
it's criminal this is being expedited while millions are still living with the consequences of #Reaganomics fascist policies.