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The "War on Drugs"

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So who's winning the war on drugs? Presented with a crime, it is reasonable to ask who benefits from it. Material gain is a motive, after all. This much is familiar to anyone who watches crime drama or reads crime novels. Perhaps, then we should apply this principle to the millions of crimes that together constitute what the American government calls the War on Drugs.

The standard account goes something like this. The main beneficiaries of the trade in illegal drugs are those who control the growing areas, the international supply routes, and the distribution networks in consuming countries. Popular movies and music tell us that drug dealing in America itself is hugely lucrative for the individuals involved. This account is only fitfully accurate and conceals much more than it reveals. Banking on it Clearly a small number of criminals make significant sums from the trade. So, who does gain from the drugs trade? The benefits for banks don't stop there. The War on XYZ There are other winners.

The War on Drugs - Latin America

Victims of U.S. “Drug War” Mount as Media Yawns. Last week, you would have been lucky to find even a small blurb in a few newspapers about but another journalist killed in post-coup Honduras — the 19th in the last two years, making Honduras by far the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist. Indeed, Honduras is now the murder capital of the world. It is important to note the comparative silence about the mass killing of journalists in Honduras with the mass outpouring of grief the media showed for the two Western journalists (Marie Colven & Remi Ochlik) killed in Syria recently, with the photo of Ms. Colven donning the front page of every paper in the U.S. the day after her killing. Of course, Ms. The reason for the disparate treatment of these journalists is easy to explain. It may also delegitimize the U.S. role in the rest of the region, from Colombia through Mexico – a region where the bodies count continues to grow to extra-ordinary numbers due to the so-called U.S.

Who benefits?

At what cost? Resources. To sort... The War on Drugs is a War on You. By Michael Boldin The drug war is based on a repugnant assertion: that you do not have ownership over your own body; that you don’t have the right to decide what you’ll do with your body, with your property and with your life. The position of the drug warriors is that you should be in jail if you decide to do something with your body that they don’t approve of. This is an abomination of everything that America is supposed to stand for.

As long as this country continues the drug war, you are not free. At the root, then, those that force the drug war on you are enemies to your freedom. If you are concerned at all about liberty, the economy, the Constitution and the power of the Federal Government – you cannot ignore the US government’s longest and most costly “war” – the War on Drugs. But no matter how long it lasts, how much is costs, how many lives are disrupted, and how much it fails – the war rages on. Why? All they care about is their own power. Period. If not, what’s going to be next? ... Global war on drugs 'has failed' say former leaders.

2 June 2011Last updated at 09:30 Opiate use rose by 35% worldwide from 1998-2008, in spite of anti-drug efforts The global war on drugs has "failed" according to a new report by a group of politicians and former world leaders. The Global Commission on Drug Policy report calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users. The panel includes former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the former leaders of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, and the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. The US and Mexican governments have rejected the findings as misguided. The Global Commission's 24-page report argues that anti-drug policy has failed by fuelling organised crime, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and causing thousands of deaths. It cites UN estimates that opiate use increased 35% worldwide from 1998 to 2008, cocaine by 27%, and cannabis by 8.5%.

Cesar Gaviria said the US came in for criticism 'No harm to others' Continue reading the main story Analysis Adam MynottBBC News.

War on drugs - curators..

Diplomatie hors-série n°11 Géopolitique mondiale de la drogue. The global drug war and the Nixon connection. On June 2, a report form the prestigious Global Commission on Drug Policy told the world what it already knew: the decades-long war on drugs has been a spectacular failure. "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," said the report in its executive summary, "fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed.” As one indication of how badly the war on drugs has failed, the report cited UN data showing a 34.5 per cent increase in opiate use from 1998 to 2008, along with a 27 per cent increase in cocaine and an 8.5 per cent increase in cannabis.

It went on to highlight counter-productive aspects of the war on drugs, noting that "repressive efforts directed at consumers impede public health measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalitiesand other harmful consequences of drug use". Drug policies must be based on solid empirical and scientific evidence. In cahoots with cartels? Dying to cover the drug war - Features. Pedro Torres doesn't have the air of a man who stares down death on a daily basis. He is a mild mannered reporter during the day, and at night. But just showing up for work at El Diario newspaper in Juarez, one of the world's most dangerous journalism jobs, could be considered a heroic feat.

"This is what I like to do, I have been here for 25 years," Torres says during an interview in his office. It's a standard answer for a newspaper man, except that two of his staff members have been gunned down in cold blooded shootings in the last few years, as drug violence rages in this border city. The desk where Armando "El Choco" Rodriguez once sat - writing tracks on crime and government corruption -has been left vacant as a shrine after he was murdered in a targeted killing in November, 2008. "Journalists are being killed systematically and regularly," says Bruce Bagley, chairman of the international studies department at the University of Miami, who researches Mexico.

Massacres. Harvest of Hypocrisy? UK opium poppy farming kept hush-hush. Freedom from Pain - People & Power. For much of the Western world, physical pain ends with a simple pill. Yet more than half the world's countries have little to no access to morphine, the gold standard for treating medical pain. Freedom from Pain shines a light on this under-reported story. "For a victim of police torture, they will usually sign a confession and the torture stops," says Diederik Lohman of Human Rights Watch in the film. "For someone who has cancer pain, that torturous experience continues for weeks, and sometimes months on end. " Unlike so many global health problems, pain treatment is not about money or a lack of drugs, since morphine costs pennies per dose and is easily made. In India, the first stop in the film and the world's largest grower of medicinal poppy for developed countries, there are severe restrictions to the use of morphine domestically.

Nadia, a single mother living in Kiev, tells of the anguish of living with a son in constant pain.