Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Latin American Leftists Call For U.S. To Stop Drug-Fighting Efforts In The Caribbean

A small group of foreign ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) regional bloc met on Monday morning for a “profound reflection” on the United States’ ongoing efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters.

CELAC is a 33-country regional bloc founded in Caracas in 2011 and largely promoted by late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez as a U.S.-free affiliation at the time of its creation. Presently, far-left Colombian President Gustavo Petro occupies CELAC’s rotating chairmanship. CELAC, which does not include the United States and Canada, has no executive or resolution capacity and the results of its meetings are simply “declarations.”

On Sunday, Colombian Foreign Ministry Yolanda Villavicencio called for an urgent Monday morning online meeting to “exchange views and reflections on the regional situation” after the United States deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other resources as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters.

“Member States hope that this space will allow for an open and constructive discussion of concerns surrounding recent military movements in the Caribbean and their possible implications for regional peace, security, and stability,” the Colombian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. “The intention is to strengthen channels of dialogue and cooperation, recognizing that transnational challenges require joint and coordinated responses.”

Over the past days, Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and members of his authoritarian regime have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the United States seeks to “invade” Venezuela and oust dictator Nicolás Maduro from power.

Maduro, who has clung to power by holding several sham elections over the past decade, stands accused by U.S. authorities of multiple narco-terrorism charges. He is long suspected of being a leading figure of the Cartel of the Suns, an international cocaine trafficking operation run by leading figures of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and by some top Venezuelan military officials.

In July, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced that the United States included the Cartel of the Suns in its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities. Days later, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the United States doubled its bounty on information that can lead to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.

Foreign Minister Villavicencio, who hosted the virtual encounter, called upon CELAC to reject the U.S. military deployment, as well as “any possible military intervention in a CELAC member country.”

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Hungary Unleashes Major Drug-Prevention Task-Force To Safeguard ‘The Fabric Of Society’

Major General Sándor Töreki, Hungary’s deputy chief of police for criminal matters, has revealed that the Delta action program launched this year has led to a large-scale, offensive professional action to detect drug-related crimes, reports Mandiner. He highlighted that thousands of procedures have been initiated, significant quantities of drugs have been seized, and significant financial assets and assets have been seized from the perpetrators of the crimes.

The program has been running for six months, and according to Sándor Töreki, professional evaluations are currently underway, and the results will be presented in the near future. 

Prevention, noted the general, is also playing an important role, for which a professional program has been developed. 

“Not only does the school year start on September 1st, but so does drug prevention.”

At a drug prevention press conference this morning, he noted how drug use and drug distribution destroy the fabric of society, that drugs tear apart human communities, and destroy the security of society as a whole. 

Mass consumption of designer drugs has appeared in medium-sized and small settlements across Hungary.

According to the general, the police want to be the driving force behind drug prevention activities. The program will also call upon civilians, as they also need to carry out drug prevention in schools. So far, 3,049 police officers are participating in the REDP program, which school guards are also joining.

With more than 200 million forints available for prevention, Sándor Töreki said that the target audience of the program is students, teachers and parents. They will participate in professional workshops, where the harmful effects of drug use will be presented. Any work done in educational institutions will be constantly monitored and measured via questionnaires. 

There will also be joint programs with prisons, and authorities are continuously investigating what drug prevention programs exist in neighboring countries to learn from them as well. 

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Democrat Lehigh County PA Commissioner Arrested at City Hall In Massive Multi-State Drug Bust

Lehigh County Commissioner and Bethlehem Right-to-Know Officer Zachary Cole-Borghi has been arrested as part of an expansive, three-year, multi-state drug ring investigation.

District Attorney Gavin Holihan revealed Friday, that a sweeping narcotics operation led to the arrest of 22 individuals, including Mr. Cole‑Borghi, reportedly nabbed Thursday, at his City Hall office by the Lehigh County Drug Task Force with assistance from the Bethlehem Police Department.

According to court documents, Cole‑Borghi faces charges of possession of one pound of marijuana with intent to deliver.

He has since posted bail and was released.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Authorities executed 26 search warrants and coordinated enforcement across Lehigh, Northampton, Montgomery counties, and even into New York, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Daily Voice reported:

“The commissioner is one of more than 20 people charged in a case driven by Lehigh County’s 12th Investigating Grand Jury, which oversaw a probe spanning several years and involving federal, state, and local authorities.

The coordinated operation included arrests across Lehigh, Northampton, and Montgomery counties, as well as in New York, Illinois, and Wisconsin, the DA explained.

In total, investigators executed 26 search warrants, froze 283 financial and cryptocurrency accounts, and seized:

  • More than 2,000 pounds of marijuana
  • Large quantities of THC liquid, cocaine, and MDMA pills
  • Over $100,000 in cash
  • At least 25 firearms, including semi-automatic rifles and ghost guns

Two clandestine laboratories manufacturing illegal THC products were also dismantled by Pennsylvania State Police during the raids.”

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‘We Have Many Options’: US Warships Pass Through Panama Canal Toward Southern Caribbean

U.S. warships were seen entering the Panama Canal while navigating east toward the Atlantic, according to photos taken on Aug. 30.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Aug. 19 that President Donald Trump was “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into [the United States] and to bring those responsible to justice.”

“Many Caribbean nations and many nations in the region have applauded the administration’s counterdrug operations and efforts,” Leavitt added.

As Jacob Burg reports below, the previous day, a White House official told The Epoch Times that U.S. naval and air assets would deploy to the southern Caribbean Sea amid a heightened counternarcotics effort.

That deployment puts U.S. warships a short distance off Venezuela’s northern coastline, following years of strained relations between the United States and Venezuela.

In 2017, Trump told reporters, “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.”

Trump rejected the 2018 snap presidential election, in which Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner. He also backed then-Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaidó’s efforts to declare himself the rightful head of state of Venezuela until new elections commenced.

In 2019, Guaidó led a short-lived attempted uprising against Maduro. A year later, the U.S. Department of Justice declared that Maduro was linked to both drug and weapons trafficking and offered $15 million for information leading to the regime leader’s arrest.

When Maduro claimed he had won Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, the Biden administration rejected the results, and accusations mounted that the outcome was rigged for Maduro.

Now, the Justice Department is offering $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

Maduro denounced the news that U.S. warships were traveling to the Southern Caribbean this week.

On Aug. 28, Venezuela criticized the U.S. naval buildup to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and accused Washington of breaking the founding U.N. Charter.

“It’s a massive propaganda operation to justify what the experts call kinetic action—meaning military intervention in a country which is a sovereign and independent country and is no threat to anyone,” Venezuelan U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada told reporters after meeting with Guterres.

In February, the Trump administration designated several transnational gangs, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as global terrorist organizations.

In response to the U.S. actions, Maduro said, “Our diplomacy isn’t the diplomacy of cannons, of threats, because the world cannot be the world of 100 years ago.”

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Canada’s Experience Provides Evidence Marijuana Legalization Doesn’t Fuel Gun Violence

On Fox News this week, Laura Ingraham and Alex Berenson pushed the narrative that marijuana use is fueling violent crime and mass shootings, with Berenson claiming cannabis is regularly found in autopsies and warning that rescheduling would put “public safety at stake.” It’s a familiar line from prohibition-era talking points — and one that falls apart when you look at Canada.

Canada legalized recreational marijuana for adults 18 and older in October 2018. In the years since, millions of Canadians have consumed marijuana legally, with usage rates climbing steadily. If marijuana truly triggered psychosis and mass violence on the scale Ingraham and Berenson suggest, Canada would have seen a dramatic rise in gun deaths and shootings. That hasn’t happened.

Statistics Canada data shows the homicide rate in 2019 — the first full year after legalization — actually declined slightly from 2018. Gun deaths have fluctuated year-to-year, but there has been no sudden increase linked to cannabis policy, with mass shootings remain exceedingly rare. The country’s worst modern mass shooting, in Nova Scotia in 2020, involved illegal firearms and police have confirmed that it had nothing to do with marijuana. In response, Canada tightened gun laws further, banning more than 1,500 models of assault-style weapons.

Meanwhile, cannabis consumption has grown. Surveys show that adult use climbed from around 22% in 2018 to about 27% in 2021. Emergency room visits related to cannabis rose somewhat, but public health experts attribute this to more people being willing to disclose use, not to a sudden surge in dangerous outcomes.

In short, Canada provides years of data proving that legalizing marijuana does not drive psychosis-fueled gun deaths or mass shootings. Claims to the contrary are rhetoric, not reality.

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Treasury Says Chinese Money Launderers ‘Vital’ To Cartel Fentanyl Trafficking

The Treasury Department revealed in an Aug. 28 advisory the scope of Chinese money laundering networks’ role in the fentanyl crisis and the harm they have caused the United States.

Banks are required by law to report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering. Reports between January 2020 and December 2024 show approximately $312 billion linked to suspected Chinese money laundering activity, according to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

These money laundering networks, run by Chinese nationals, are preferred by major cartels, including the Mexico-based Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, because of their speed, effectiveness, and willingness to absorb financial losses or assume risks on behalf of the cartels, according to the FinCEN report.

The cartels, many of which have been designated as terrorist organizations, control “nearly all illegal traffic across the southwest border,” to which the launderers contribute in a “vital” way, according to the report.

“Money laundering networks linked to individual passport holders from the People’s Republic of China enable cartels to poison Americans with fentanyl, conduct human trafficking, and wreak havoc among communities across our great nation,” John Hurley, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

Communist China is already considered a key contributor to the fentanyl crisis because the majority of chemicals used to assemble illicit fentanyl are known to originate in Chinese chemical companies.

According to FinCEN, the primary goal of these networks is to acquire large quantities of U.S. dollars and other currencies. FinCEN released a trend report on Chinese money laundering networks earlier in August that outlines ties to other crimes unrelated to fentanyl trafficking, such as health care fraud and illicit gambling activity.

Both Mexico and China have laws that restrict citizens from depositing large amounts of U.S. currency. As a result, cartels and Chinese citizens seeking to circumvent the Chinese regime’s currency reporting requirements have turned to laundering networks, according to the report.

“Chinese money laundering networks are global and pervasive, and they must be dismantled,” FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said.

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Fentanyl Involved In 70% Of US Drug Overdose Deaths

Perhaps the most dangerous thing about fentanyl is the fact that, due to its low price and high potency, it is often used to lace other drugs.

Whether it’s heroin, cocaine, meth or counterfeit pills mimicking prescription opioids such as Vicodin or Oxycontin – fentanyl is frequently used to increase the potency of illicit drugs, often unbeknownst to the user.

As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, this hidden presence dramatically increases the risk of accidental overdose, since people may take what they believe is a familiar drug but are actually playing a game of Russian Roulette, always in danger of ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl.

According to CDC data, synthetic opioids, i.e. mostly fentanyl, are now involved in 7 out of 10 overdose deaths in the U.S. after having contributed to a dramatic surge in drug-related mortality over the past decade.

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Texas Bills To Ban Consumable Hemp Products With THC Stall Out During Special Session

After several months of fiery debate and tearful testimonies over the prospect of banning THC statewide, proposed measures to do so have stalled in the Texas House.

Senate Bill 6, which would have created a blanket ban on products containing any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid” other than cannabidiol and cannabigerol, better known as CBD and CBG, non-intoxicating components of cannabis, hasn’t been heard in a House committee after the Senate passed it August 19. The House’s version of the bill hasn’t been heard in its chamber’s committee either.

Ten days might not be long for a bill to sit dormant during a regular legislative session, but with state leadership suggesting that the current special legislative session could wind down in the coming days, lawmakers would have to move fast on THC upon reconvening after Monday’s holiday.

Without further regulations or a ban being discussed by lawmakers in the House, the most likely scenario is that hemp-derived THC remains legal in Texas, but with more enforcement of current laws restricting the drug.

“It seems like a lot of people don’t want anything to do with it,” said Lukas Gilkey, chief executive of Hometown Hero, an Austin-based manufacturer of hemp-derived THC products. “It’s a hot potato.”

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Democratic Lawmakers File Bill To Federally Legalize Marijuana As Trump Weighs Rescheduling

As the Trump administration considers rescheduling marijuana, Congressional Democrats have filed a bill to federally legalize cannabis by descheduling it altogether.

In addition to removing the drug from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the new legislation also contains a variety of provisions meant to promote equity and address the collateral consequences of prohibition.

On Friday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), reintroduced the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, alongside three dozen cosponsors.

This is the fourth session in a row that Nadler has put forward the proposal. It passed the House twice under Democratic control while the sponsor served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, but it did not advance last session with Republicans in the majority.

“As more states continue to legalize marijuana and public support increases, federal laws must catch up and reverse failed policies criminalizing marijuana,” Nadler said in a press release. “It is long past time to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge marijuana convictions, and facilitate resentencing, while reinvesting in the communities most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.”

Despite uncertainty about its prospects of advancing this Congress—especially at a time when President Donald Trump is actively considering a more modest proposal to simply reschedule cannabis—advocates are again touting the MORE Act as an example of the type of wide-ranging cannabis reform legislation would take necessary steps to right the wrongs of prohibition and promote social equity.

The latest version of the legislation is largely consistent with past iterations, with certain technical changes including updated data in its findings section, for example.

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526 Members of Congress Decline to Join Anti-Marijuana Rescheduling Letter to AG Bondi, Just 9 Sign On, Down From 25 in 2024

The signatories include Representatives Pete Sessions (TX), Andy Harris (MD), Robert Aderholt (AL), Paul Gosar (AZ), Chip Roy (TX), Blake Moore (UT), Gary Palmer (AL), David Rouzer (NC), and Mary Miller (IL). No senators signed the letter.

The contrast with last year is stark. In 2024, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) circulated a similar letter opposing rescheduling that drew the support of 25 lawmakers, including several U.S. senators. This year’s version secured less than half as many backers, with support confined entirely to a small bloc of House Republicans.

The letter, led by Congressman Pete Sessions, warns that rescheduling would provide tax benefits to marijuana businesses and drug cartels, while citing concerns about addiction, mental health impacts, and links to foreign crime organizations. Despite these claims, the limited number of signatures—despite the letter being heavily circulated among lawmakers—underscores the declining influence of marijuana reform opponents in Congress.

With public opinion polls consistently showing majority support for legalization and more states moving to regulate marijuana, the shrinking list of congressional voices against reform highlights how rapidly the political landscape is shifting. Opposition to rescheduling, once much broader, is now increasingly isolated to a small group of lawmakers.

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