war on drugs

WHO's study fails to shed any light on the war on drugs

 The results of a macro, cross-national study commissioned by the World Health Organisation’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative seem to confirm every myth of drug consumption. Firstly, the research emphasises the very close relationship between youth and drug use arguing that there is a bigger drug involvement among younger people than older generations in all countries. This generational gap suggests that drug use has and may continue to change over historical time.

Rising drug use in Afghanistan

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Most of the British public know that the majority of the world’s heroin comes from Afghanistan.

Fierce gun battles rage in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas

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Mexican citizens are taking it upon themselves to report gun battles between drug traffickers because the main stream media is not reporting them and local state officials claim that the situation is calm. The video above which was take on the morning of Saturday 27th of February and uploaded to YouTube shows the aftermath of gun battle that according to the person filming lasted for 6 hours

Death squads act with impunity in Mexico

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After the brutal massacre of 16 youngsters between the age of 15 and 20 last week in Ciudad Juarez, residents of the most heavily militarised city in Mexico are asking the authorities how this could happen. One distraught citizen said in a television interview “We don’t have anyone to defend us or look after us, we pay taxes for all the police and military to come to the city but they are only decoration.” As of march 2009 there were 7500 federal police and soldiers in Juarez, the city with the highest murder rate in the world.

Snitchville, USA

 Imagine this: a police force that makes its living on commissions alone, in other words, the more arrests they make the more money they earn. Violent offenders aren’t easy to catch red-handed and they usually are in possession of few items of value, whereas drug-related offenders (who are essentially either consumers or merchants) are easier to catch in the act and are often in possession of large sums of money, cars and/or contraband substances.

Drug Policy Alliance wants to decriminalize khat use.

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Khat is a plant which originally grows in East Africa and in the Arabian Peninsula. It can grow to a height of 20 metres. It has been used for centuries as a stimulant for its euphoric and exciting effects. Khat contains cathinone, cathine, cathidine, norpseudoephedrine and edulin, which act on the neurotransmitters in the brain and the brain stem in a similar fashion to amphetamine.

Maldives Urges UN to refocus fight on drugs

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According to a news story published today on Miadhu News,  the Maldives has urged the United Nations to refocus its fight against illicit narcotics from security protection to enhanced public health. The Maldives made the statement today at the Social, Human rights and Cultural Committee of the General Assembly of the UN.

The country, which is a tropical paradise for tourists, is faced with the realities of a youth drug addiction that touches nearly every family, as UNICEF estimates that about 40% of the country's youth take hard drugs.

Indonesia’s life or death Drug Laws

On Monday 15 September 2009, the Indonesian Parliament voted in stricter drugs laws as part of the Government's efforts to toughen up their national "War on Drugs".

The law maintains the death penalty for some drug offences and has criminalised drug addiction. Now, Indonesian parents must also be aware that they have committed a crime if they fail to notify the authorities of their drug addicted children.

Drugs scandal engulfs Japanese pop star

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The month of august has seen Japanese pop icon Noriko Sakai transformed from a squeaky clean idol, whose hits have included “Blue bunny” and “Please your smile”, to a ‘junkie’ with ‘yakuza links’ over a miniscule amount of narcotics found in her Tokyo apartment.

Ethan Nadelmann at ACLU - Part 2

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Part 2. Ethan Nadelmann (Drug Policy Alliance) talking at ACLU Cleveland, Ohio on drug war failure, civil liberty, preventing children using drugs.

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