Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Pentagon Finally Stops Hiding Military Overdose Epidemic

THE U.S. ARMY Special Forces, better known as the Green Berets, has a serious problem with substance abuse and fatal drug overdoses. The same is true of the Army’s two most important infantry divisions: the 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division.

That’s the takeaway of data released by the Pentagon this week to a group of five U.S. senators, led by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey. Markey, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and others grew concerned about rising drug use in the military after reading a report in the September issue of Rolling Stone that at least 14 and as many as 30 American soldiers had died in 2020 and 2021 of overdoses at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Fort Bragg is the headquarters of the Special Forces, as well as the top-secret Joint Special Operations Command, the “black ops” component of the military.

The senators wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in late September requesting detailed statistics, going back five years, on accidental overdoses in the ranks. “We share your concern that drug overdose is a serious problem,” the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness wrote in response this week. “We must work to do better.”

A total of 15,293 American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines overdosed on illicit drugs from 2017 to 2022, according to a compendium of data and analysis enclosed with the letter. Of those, 332 cases were fatal.

Consistent with Rolling Stone’s recent reporting, the data showed a rising long-term trend, followed by a sharp spike in overdose deaths among active-duty military men in 2020 and 2021. Fentanyl was by far the biggest killer, accounting for more than half of the casualties. “The number of OD deaths involving fentanyl has more than doubled over the past five years,” the Pentagon disclosed.

“With hundreds of fatal overdoses reported on U.S. military bases in recent years,” Markey writes in a statement to Rolling Stone, “the toll is mounting. We can and must curb this tragic trend.”

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Inside the Scandal That Took Down the DEA’s ‘Cowboy’ Chief in Mexico

Relations between the U.S. and Mexico were extremely tense when the DEA’s top boss in Mexico City decided to throw himself a birthday party. It was late October of 2020, and Mexico’s president was furious over the DEA’s arrest of a top military general accused of cartel corruption. But at the fiesta, the mood was jovial. There was drinking and food and a mariachi band to entertain the guests.

The attendees included several high-ranking Mexican officials, along with a few bigwigs from other U.S. law enforcement agencies. At least one person left wondering how the host, who was celebrating his 50th birthday, managed to score a taxpayer-funded house so large and outside the zones typically authorized for housing for senior U.S. officials in Mexico City. One person described the house as a “mega-mansion.”

The party was one of several events that contributed to the downfall of regional director Nick Palmeri, who quietly retired from the DEA last year one day before he was due to be fired. Parts of his undoing, including allegedly improper meetings with defense attorneys who represent cartel members, have recently been made public. But there’s far more to the story, including bitter infighting at the highest levels of the DEA, allegedly

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Trump Plans to Bring Back Firing Squads, Group Executions if He Retakes White House

“WHAT DO YOU think of firing squads?”

That’s the question Donald Trump repeatedly asked some close associates in the run-up to the 2024 presidential campaign, three people familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone.

It’s not an idle inquiry: The former president, if re-elected, is still committed to expanding the use of the federal death penalty and bringing back banned methods of execution, the sources say. He has even, one of the sources recounts, mused about televising footage of executions, including showing condemned prisoners in the final moments of their lives.

Specifically, Trump has talked about bringing back death by firing squad, by hanging, and, according to two of the sources, possibly even by guillotine. He has also, sources say, discussed group executions. Trump has floated these ideas while discussing planned campaign rhetoric and policy desires, as well as his disdain for President Biden’s approach to crime.

In at least one instance late last year, according to the third source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, Trump privately mused about the possibility of creating a flashy, government-backed video-ad campaign that would accompany a federal revival of these execution methods. In Trump’s vision, these videos would include footage from these new executions, if not from the exact moments of death. “The [former] president believes this would help put the fear of God into violent criminals,” this source says. “He wanted to do some of these [things] when he was in office, but for whatever reasons didn’t have the chance.”

A Trump spokesman denies Trump had mused about a video-ad campaign. “More ridiculous and fake news from idiots who have no idea what they’re talking about,” the spokesman writes in an email. “Either these people are fabricating lies out of thin air, or Rolling Stone is allowing themselves to be duped by these morons.”

Trump’s enthusiasm for grisly video campaigns has been documented before, including in an anecdote from a former aide that had the then-president demanding footage of “people dying in a ditch” and “bodies stacked on top of bodies” so that his administration could “scare kids so much that they will never touch a single drug in their entire life.”

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The sick reality: Drugs advertised most on TV have LEAST health benefits, according to analysis of $6bn-a-year industry

The drugs that are advertised most on TV are also the least effective, according to a major analysis.

Johns Hopkins University researchers found that spending on promoting prescription drugs rose from $1.3 billion in 1996 to $6 billion in 2016. Ninety-two of 135 drugs included in the study, or nearly 70 percent, were deemed to have little health benefits. 

Dr Michael DiStefano, the lead author of the study, said: ‘The findings suggest that shifting promotional dollars to direct-to-consumer advertising potentially reflects a strategy to drive patient demand for drugs that clinicians would be less likely to prescribe.’

‘When a consumer sees these advertisements on TV or social media, they should really question if it’s the best drug for them and have a conversation with their provider.’

The findings come amid lingering ethical questions regarding TV drug advertising and come just weeks after a Harvard study found a similar discrepancy between the amount spent on medical adverts and the benefit the medicines provide to patients.

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Federal Law Banning Marijuana Users From Having Firearms Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules

A federal law barring marijuana users from possessing guns violates the Constitution, a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled.

The decision cites last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that affirmed an individual right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

The ruling came as challenges to gun laws across the nation have escalated since the Supreme Court struck down a restrictive New York firearms law in June 2022. The high court held that there is a constitutional right to carry a gun outside the home, leading states such as New York, New Jersey, California, and Illinois to respond by doubling down on firearms restrictions.

In that precedent, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court held that gun restrictions must be deeply rooted in American history if they are to survive constitutional scrutiny.

On Feb. 3, Oklahoma City-based U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, threw out an indictment against Jared Michael Harrison, who was charged with violating the ban.

Harrison was pulled over for a traffic stop on May 20, 2022. Police officers searched the car and found marijuana and a loaded revolver. Officers did not conduct a field sobriety test nor did they seek to draw Harrison’s blood for drug testing. On Aug. 17, 2022, a federal grand jury indicted him for possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of marijuana.

As of October 2022, 19 states allowed the recreational use of marijuana while 37 states permitted its medical use, but it remains illegal at the federal level. Oklahoma currently allows medical, but not recreational, use of marijuana.

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Cops Kill Man for Running Away, Shoot Him At Least 5 Times After He Falls to Make Sure He’s Dead

If we were to declare a winner in the decades-long war on drugs today, hands down, drugs would be the victor. For over 50 years, the US has waged a cruel and horrific campaign of violence, injustice, brutality, and oppression to eradicate arbitrary substances they’ve deemed illegal. Not only was this campaign unsuccessful at eradicating substances, but it’s led to the most deadly drug overdose epidemic in history in which enough people die every year to pack an NFL stadium.

Instead of realizing the error of their ways, the callous, obstinate, and violent state has simply doubled down on enforcement — driving a black market consisting of increasingly dangerous synthetic substances. Fentanyl, in particular, has gripped the nation thanks to the prohibition of safer alternatives, driving crime, suffering, and death. As the following case illustrates, it also fuels an incentive for rampant police violence.

Eric Nathaniel Thornton, 38, was suspected of buying this substance in Jacksonville, Florida last month which landed him six feet under. According to police, officers were watching Thorton and Brian Brightman — who they referred to as a “known drug dealer” — conducting an “illegal drug transaction.”

Because cops claim the right to kidnap, cage, and even kill you over these arbitrary substances they deem “illegal,” they moved in to make an arrest. Not wanting to be kidnapped and caged, Thornton ran from officers.

Thornton never once attempted to harm the officers and was merely attempting to avoid being thrown in a cage for his addiction. He needed medical help for a medical problem; instead, he received bullets… at least ten of them.

As Thornton ran from officers, they claimed he was holding a knife and used this as a reason to fill the fleeing man with holes.

“He’s got a knife,” an officer can be heard saying before executing a fleeing man.

As the body camera footage shows, Thornton dropped to the ground, let out a groan, and died on the scene. Police would go on to justify his execution by releasing photos of knives, which they claim were a threat to their lives as Thornton ran away.

We’re told that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is now looking into the matter and the result of the investigation they are conducting on themselves will be released when it’s complete.

Thornton was the third person killed by this same department in the first few weeks of 2023. As long as this country continues to treat addiction and substance abuse with violence and coercion, Thornton will be but a single line on an ever-increasing list of names whose lives were taken by the losers of the war on drugs.

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BC decriminalizes hard drugs amid fentanyl crisis

On Tuesday, following the granting of a three-year exemption from Health Canada, British Columbia became the first province in Canada to decriminalize hard drugs, with the government arguing that “substance use is a public health matter, not a criminal justice issue.”

Many have argued that it will only result in more drugs on the street and, inevitably, more dead British Columbians, while some have praised the move as a step in the right direction.

Under the new laws, adults found possessing less than 2.5 grams of certain formerly-illicit drugs will not face criminal charges, nor will they have the substances seized by law enforcement.

Drugs that can now be possessed and used without punishment include opioids, such as heroin, morphine, fentanyl, crack and powder cocaine, meth, and MDMA. 

The BC government emphasized that “decriminalization is not legalization,” noting that, “under this exemption, illegal drugs (including those listed above) are not legalized and will not be sold in stores. Drug trafficking remains illegal, regardless of the amount of drug(s) in possession.” They added that all prior restrictions relating to drug use at schools, airports, and private establishments will remain in place.

While the aforementioned drugs may not be sold in stores, in Vancouver, opioids were recently made available for purchase via vending machines. The project was meant to give users access to safe medical-grade opioids instead of potentially contaminated street drugs, however, it has come under scrutiny as of late due to the potential of misuse.

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The Biggest Cocaine Boom in History

Just as the impact of slavery in the southern US extended deeply into the “free” states of the north — such as slave labor providing raw inputs for northern industries — the international drug trade has had a broad impact on local economies around the world in recent decades.

The biggest cocaine boom in history has its origins outside towns like La Dorada, Colombia, Matthew Bristow reports here. Cattle ranches and fish farms give way to endless fields of coca, the pale green shrub used for making the drug.

“We’re living in the golden age of cocaine,” said Toby Muse, the author of the 2020 book Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels, who has been reporting on the Colombian drug trade for more than two decades. “Cocaine is reaching corners of the planet that have never seen it before, because there is so much.”

Satellite photos show that the amount of Colombian land planted with coca rose to a record of more than 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) last year, more than five times what it was when the infamous Pablo Escobar was gunned down in 1993. All that supply is flooding markets around the world, bringing violence, corruption and huge profits with it.

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Drug-Testing Company Used in Child Custody Cases Investigated for Fraud

Averhealth, a drug testing company used by courts around the country to decide whether people go to jail or parents retain custody of their children, was under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for fraud in 2022, according to emails reviewed by VICE News.

Averhealth runs millions of drug tests a year, working with courts and government agencies in 34 states. The DOJ was looking into the company as early as June 2021, according to emails between the DOJ and Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, (MDHHS), one of the state agencies that contracted with Averhealth. The investigation was still active as of March 2022. The probe led Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services to stop doing business with Averhealth, according to an internal email at the department. 

The DOJ investigation gathered information about court testimony, given by Averhealth’s former lab director Sarah Riley in 2021, that up to 30 percent of the results reported to the state of Michigan’s child welfare agency were wrong, both false positives or false negatives. As VICE News previously reported, Riley testified Averhealth was botching the quality controls that ensure lab instruments are properly calibrated. The company denies those claims.

The DOJ would not comment on the investigation, including whether it was concluded or ongoing. Neither would Averhealth. 

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Cannibalism, Aliens, and Cartels: The Trial of Mexico’s ‘Supercop’ Just Got Weird

In the months leading up to the trial of Genaro García Luna, the highest-ranking Mexican law enforcement official ever to face charges of narco-corruption in the United States, federal prosecutors made it sound like they had a mountain of evidence. Court filings described more than 1.2 million pages of documents, thousands of recordings, and a roster of cooperating witnesses who could potentially testify about delivering multi-million dollar bribes.

But now, with opening arguments in the trial set to start Monday, the high-stakes case hardly seems like a slam dunk. In a ruling handed down Thursday evening, Judge Brian Cogan—who also presided over the trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán—delivered a blow the prosecution, restricting some types of evidence from being heard by the jury and revealing the names of several likely cooperating witnesses, some of whom appear to have major credibility issues.

Cogan’s ruling, first reported by VICE News, referenced cooperators (former high-ranking cartel members who cut deals with U.S. prosecutors to testify in exchange for reduced sentences) who were allegedly involved in acts of cannibalism, along with another who has expressed beliefs in aliens, witchcraft, and the Illuminati. 

The judge also granted a request by the defense to block evidence of García Luna’s “expensive lifestyle” after he left the Mexican government in 2012 and moved to Miami, where he worked as a private security consultant, lived in a waterfront mansion, had access to a yacht, and enjoyed other trappings of luxury. Cogan ruled that prosecutors had so far failed to present any proof that García Luna’s lifestyle was “financed with cartel money.”

García Luna’s attorneys, Cogan said, will be allowed to show the jury photographs of the defendant meeting with high-level U.S. officials during his time leading the Mexican equivalent of the FBI from 2000 to 2006, and later during his tenure as Mexico’s secretary of public security, which ended when he left office in 2012. The defense has said García Luna interacted with former President Barack Obama, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the late Sen. John McCain, along with former directors of the CIA, FBI, and DEA, among others.

On the flipside, Cogan ruled that the defense will not be allowed to tell the jury about all the ways top U.S. officials have publicly praised García Luna over the years. To present that evidence, Cogan said, García Luna would have to call the officials—who are now presumably less effusive in their praise now that he’s under indictment—to “testify as character witnesses,” which would then make them subject to cross-examination by the government.

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