PROHIBITION FAILS AGAIN

File image of various ecstasy pills

A man has died and six others have been hospitalised after suffering medical episodes at yesterday's Dreamstate music festival in Sydney. Drug overdoses are suspected but no official diagnosis has emerged so-far. Some online chatter suggests the problem was high-dose MDMA pills containing another chemical. News reports do not mention that any drug-testing services were available at the event. By contrast, three testing stations are being provided at today's Laneways festival as recommended by the NSW Government's drugs summit last year. Premier Chris Minns has expressed opposition to drug testing because it "sends the wrong message". I guess people dying needlessly must be "the right message". As usual, no news reports mention the ultimate cause of this carnage: the failed ideology of prohibition.

Failed prohibition threatens forever wars

Trump vs Liberty

Absolutely NOBODY is correctly analysing Trump's kidnap of Nicolas Maduro and his wife (killing 40 people in the process). It's ultimate proof that the PROHIBITION OF DRUGS does more harm than the drugs it fails to control, as another 'forever war' threatens to engulf the Americas. 

It all goes back to the American lies and deceptions that brought in drugs prohibition in the 1930s after the failure of alcohol prohibition. Alcohol was just too popular for it to work but it lingers on for drugs because only a minority of people tolerate and enjoy them, creating a handy way to persecute minorities. Trump has just adopted the whole clusterfuck because it suits his cruel purposes.

The head of the deceptive and self-serving DEA is now crowing about his involvement in the Maduro kidnap. 

The whole deadly house of cards is built on the lies of Henry Anslinger as documented elsewhere in this blog. Or just search 'The lies of Henry Anslinger" for your own edification. Meanwhile it's US demand for drugs that drives the accused 'narco-terrorists'. #Venezuela #Trump #Maduro

Note, the links in this post are inserted by Lord Google in a new feature it offers.  

 

More evidence that prohibition achieves its opposite

 “So, over the past 15 years, Australia has tripled its drug law enforcement budget. Back in 2009-10, it was around $1.2 billion. And in 2020-21 it rose to $3.5 billion,” he says.

“But what we’ve seen is, yes, record numbers of arrests and record numbers of drug seizures and volumes of drug seizures. Despite that, we have seen no demonstrable impact on the ground in terms of drug availability.” – Dr James Martin, a Deakin University criminology course director and illicit drug market researcher, tells The Saturday Paper.

What the NSW Drugs Summit requested

Just for the record, and to highlight the craven bad faith showed by Chris Minns and the Labor party, here are the full recommendations of the Summit. These are the top ones:

Safety And Justice 

• Decriminalise drug use and possession 
• Introduce Drug Checking Services 
• Stop the use of drug detection dogs at music festivals and in public spaces 
• Stop strip searches for suspected drug possession 
• Review of EDDI including: enhanced eligibility, removing police discretion, consistency between EDDI and the Cannabis Cautioning Scheme and a clear evaluation framework

NSW regresses to the 1930s by ignoring its own Drugs Summit

Mr 1930s ignoring truckloads of evidence
that the War on Drugs has failed.

Oh dear, the NSW Drugs Summit is reportedly getting fractious as experts find themselves ignored by Labor Premier Chris Minns, who declared before it even started that he would not be decriminalising cannabis.

He offered no rationale for his position except to say he had no mandate for it. Such cross-eyed nonsense implies that a government cannot do anything unless it was part of its election pitch – and ignores that the Drugs Summit was part of its election pitch.

To promise this Summit only to ignore its findings is disingenuous to say the least. At least Minns and his minions are not (so far) trotting out the usual dribbling response that  decriminalisation would "send the wrong message".

Minns also ruled out pill-testing before the summit, presumably because he was keen to see more kids die at music festivals after being strip-searched by police. However reports say he might now consider a trial program, ignoring the clear success of such schemes in the ACT and Queensland.

Roadside drug tests are also at issue, with delegates urging that medical cannabis users be treated the same as people using other prescription drugs. Currently a positive Roadside Drug Test does not prove impairment but results in immediate license suspension and prosecution. Among many thousands of people who have lost their transport and their jobs from this law is a Victorian truck driver who testified at an inquiry in his state.

The man, who had a prescription for medical cannabis for chronic pain, tested positive and lost his licence. Unable to drive, he had to sell his truck which was being paid off, and eventually his home – all on the strength of mere presence of cannabis in his body with no evidence of impairment. He now uses addictive but legal opioids for his pain even though they definitely impair driving.

The Victorians have responded to their inquiry by allowing medical cannabis use to be a defence in court after a positive roadside test. Small mercies but streets ahead of NSW. Just how much reality can Minns ignore in his blind addiction to a 1930s prohibition mindset? Ignoring too much stuff only leads to ignorance and a minus political score.

Meta-study debunks claims of next-day impairment from cannabis

Results of the Sydney University study.

Yet more evidence shows up the unfair and draconian drug driving laws in NSW and other states, which can heavily convict people for cannabis traces detected days after consumption.

“Most studies didn’t detect ‘next day’ effects of cannabis use, and the few that did had significant limitations,” Dr McCartney said.

“Overall, it appears that there is limited scientific evidence to support the assertion that cannabis use impairs ‘next day’ performance.

ACT decriminalises, will we see ramped-up drug policing?

Great to see the ACT decriminalising drugs. Amusing to see butt-hurt conservatives, welded to prohibition myths from last century, bleating "It sends the wrong message" and ensuring they will never be elected. 

Alarm must be spreading through police drug squads as they see their dream wicket of easy busts, helicopter joyrides and regular promotion under threat. I predict they will follow the example of some US states after legalisation and ramp up actions like roadside drug tests and sniffer dog patrols so they can lie: "See, usage has gone through the roof. We told you so!". That of course will be amplified by the Murdoch press.

This follows the discovery of a new unknown drug, sold as ketamine, by the ACT's pill testing centre – another measure slammed by conservative fossils for "sending the wrong message". Because good information and facts are left-wing, you know.  Far better to ride high on the fictions and lies of the likes of Donald Trump, Alex 'Sandy Hook' Jones and Sky News. Reality is very inconvenient.

War on pot a huge success

 

NSW doubles down on tired Drug War rhetoric, street murders

Welcome to NSW, the family-friendly state

The NSW Libs today, backed by Labor, doubled down with tired old rhetoric that decriminalisation of possession of small amounts of drugs would 'send the wrong message'. Of course they can 'send any message' they like so it's utter BS.This comes after them sitting on the findings of the Ice Inquiry for over two years. Decriminalisation was a key recommendation. Refusing to decriminalise 'illicit drugs' of course keeps them illicit, a perfect circular logic. 

Meanwhile Sydney's Postcode Wars will continue, underpinned by rivers of drug money enabling public executioners to be paid six-figure sums as shown in the recent Four Corners episode. That program, however, joined a conspiracy of media silence by never once mentioning Prohibition, the framework that enables these criminal gangs. That, apparently, is the 'right message'. https://www.abc.net.au/.../the-postcode-wars.../14051188

Blathering boofhead bigwigs blow hard about prohibition

Lying racist Henry Anslinger
at the height of his corrupt power.

Idiotic prohibitionists flaunt their ignorance all over the papers today in their spray about Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) Cocaine culture. "This drug is illegal for good reason" lied Police Minister David Elliott as Magistrate Ross Hudson sprayed similar nonsense. "These people seem to think cocaine is part of a normal night out," one blathered even in the face of his outrage that it evidently is exactly that. THESE people seem to actually believe certain drugs are prohibited for some valid reason, contrary to all evidence and expert opinion. They simply repeat the lies of the original, deeply corrupt far-right murderer and prohibitionist, Henry Anslinger who produced the now hilarious movie 'Reefer Madness'. I'm no fan of coke myself – at least not the highly cut crap mostly available in Australia – but these pontificating clowns are completely detached from reality. And they rule us.

ANOM sting fuels increased surveillance and prohibition

The recent global mega-bust around the ANOM app and devices is predictably being used by politicians to push for increased surveillance powers for police and spy agencies, and to justify drug prohibition.

The sting uncovered a wealth of drugs and drug money along with very welcome takedowns of people planning murder and violence. Conservatives and police have leapt on this opportunity to reinforce the old but false prohibition narrative, conflating drugs and criminal violence. 

This is essentially a circular argument because the only link between drugs and criminals is of course prohibition. In essence it reads “we need prohibition because prohibition”. The police always boast that huge drug hauls have been “taken off the market” rather than admit they are evidence prohibition has failed. The unspoken assumption is that drug use will increase under a legal, regulated framework, despite clear evidence it does not.

Another fallacy in this narrative is the lumping together of all illicit drugs. These spruikers push a moral panic around ice, heroin and cocaine and rarely mention more benign and non-addictive drugs like cannabis and MDMA.

“There is nothing social about illicit drug use in this country,” intoned a pious and triumphant Prime Minister Scott Morrison, eagerly taking some credit for this operation, while conveniently deflecting from more troublesome issues denting his popularity. He went on to appeal to Australians to stop using drugs because it fuels organised crime.

War on Drugs linked to Aboriginal deaths

 

Taylah Gray. Pic: Max Mason-Hubers/
Newcastle Herald

Some important dots were joined today, linking the War on Drugs with Aboriginal deaths in custody.

"Police in NSW pursue more than 80 per cent of Aboriginal people found with a small amount of cannabis through the courts while letting others off with warnings.

"Start with bail and stop locking black people up, let our children home. Bailey Mackander whose inquest was happening today was a 19-year-old boy in prison."

Thus spake University of Newcastle PHD candidate and Wiradjuri woman Taylah Gray in the Newcastle Herald today.  

While Australia struggles with solutions to the problem despite the Black Deaths Royal Commission laying out several actions, legalising and regulating cannabis (and even all other drugs) would eliminate one of the big four reasons First Nations people are locked up in the first place.

Of course it would solve many other problems, and could even create revenue for the government, as is now clear from the success of legalisation and decriminalisation in other countries and states.

There is no rational reason for prohibition. We know it does not work, with history including Al Capone waging Tommy-Gun battles on the streets and now daily drive-by shootings, stabbings and murders in some parts of Sydney as criminal dealer gangs fight out their differences.

But Liberal and Labor governments turn a blind eye to the obvious and perpetuate this failed, expensive, murderous policy. More people should punish them at the ballot box!

Australia left behind as Mexico legalises cannabis

A woman carries a cannabis plant
in a street protest in Mexico – Reuters

Mexico's lower house of Congress has passed new laws to fully legalise cannabis for recreational, medical and scientific use. The move is likely to defuse some of the extreme violence inflicted on people by illegal drug cartels and their militias, whereby hundreds of thousands have been killed and tens of thousands 'disappeared'.

The "War on Drugs" campaign of former President Calderon only increased this violence and enabled widespread police corruption, police in some cases working directly for cartels. Between 2007 and 2014, over 160,000 people were murdered, far more than civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq combined over the same period.

Meanwhile, at the time of this writing, NSW Police are conducting another drug blitz in the Northern Rivers region, where cannabis has long been popular. The discredited prohibitionist dogma of Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has clearly failed across the world and it is puzzling why he continues to persecute drug users despite the landslide of social and scientific evidence refuting it. The Daily Telegraph has published speculation that Mr Fuller is running for preselection for the Liberals in Craig Kelly's seat of Hughes.

This comes after NSW police dropped investigations into the clear forgery tabled by Liberal Energy Minister Angus Taylor, and into allegations of historical rape by Attorney-General Christian Porter. There is no evidence that these events are in any way connected – but it surely makes a bad look.

Australia is lucky not to suffer the extreme violence of Mexican cartels but there are regular drive-by shootings and murders in Sydney explicitly linked to organised gangs peddling drugs.

One of the most frequent lies of prohibitionists, that cannabis causes serious health problems, is being challenged in Mexico. “With this, the false belief that cannabis forms part of Mexico’s serious health problems is left behind,” said one ruling party member.

Meanwhile a New York court has heard that a drug clan leader bribed the President of Honduras in 2012 with $250,000 to prevent his extradition to the USA. Australia has had its own drug bribery scandals, so it is remarkable that authorities still prosecute the failed and corrupt War on Drugs.

With Australia being left behind by yet another supposedly third-world country, can it be the case that we are becoming a fourth-world banana republic?

NSW Police aim at warrant-free drugs crackdown

NSW has proposed an extraordinary Bill that allows Police, without a warrant, to detain and search anyone who had a drug supply conviction in the past ten years.

A two-year trial would target Bankstown, the Hunter Valley, Coffs Harbour and Orana in the west.

This doubling-down on a failed prohibition regime ignores the clear success of decriminalisation in Portugal, and successful legalisations in other places. Where such approaches can bring in solid streams of revenue for governments, the neanderthal NSW approach will cost taxpayers more, even as the state is smashed by Covid-related expenses and revenue reduction.

It is a big step away from the idea of a free democracy. 

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties said the bill would give “extraordinary” powers to police “in circumstances where adequate powers currently exist to search and seize items related to drug activity”.

The "Supply" definition includes people convicted of deemed supply which could include a kid busted at a festival with five or so ecstasy pills.

The Bill is backed by Labor, causing dissent it its ranks, but opposed by the Greens. MP David Shoebridge said “I find it hard to understand how NSW Labor can back this in. It makes you wonder what it would take for them to say no to more money or more power for police.” 

It's not clear whether police will use number-plate scanning to identify targets, as the WA police started doing some years ago. It must be asked, why might this technological intrusion be used against a victimless crime rather than convicted murderers or pedophiles? These prohibitionists are obsessively twisted out of shape.

When will these people learn that prohibition does not stop drug use but only increases violence by handing the supply chain to gangs? They have no recourse in law so they resort to violence. 

It's clear – America's Prohibition era saw Tommy-gun battles in the street between rival gangs, Al Capone style. That stopped when prohibition was repealed. Today we have drive-by shootings and home invasions in south-west Sydney and elsewhere. 

But you don't see rival brewers' trucks running around shooting each other in the streets, do you. They are regulated, provide revenue to the government and have recourse to law to solve disputes, as in a civilised democracy.

This new Bill is a step towards repressive autocracy.

USA creeps towards leglisation during presidential vote

Several US states have voted to decriminalise drugs in referenda taken during the 2020 presidential election. 

In a historic first, Oregon voted to decriminalise all illegal drugs...

Meanwhile, in other parts of the US, voters backed the decriminalisation of recreational marijuana: in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota.

That takes the tally of states where recreational weed is allowed up to 15.

Back in slow-moving Australia, the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2019 showed that more people supported legalisation (41%) than opposed it (37%).

And a referendum on legalising cannabis in New Zealand was lost even as an assisted dying bill passed and Jacinda Ardern was returned with her own majority. No doubt the No case was run by the usual self-interest groups – The alcohol industry, pharmaceutical groups and the police.  

But they are on the wrong side of history.

One by one the false tropes of prohibition are falling. Prohibitionists always assert that steps toward legalisation would lead to mass abuse of drugs like cannabis. However the Household drug use survey says otherwise –

Interestingly, if cannabis were legal, 78% of surveyed Australians said they would not use it. Only 3% said they would increase their use.
Moreover prohibition has not reduced drug use between 2016 and 2019, rather it is increasing –
This includes the proportion of Australians who used cannabis (up from 10.4% to 11.6%), cocaine (2.5% to 4.2%), ecstasy (2.2% to 3.0%) and ketamine (0.4% to 0.9%).

It's astounding that our democratic country also continues to tolerate mass murder in the Philippines in the name of the War on Drugs, with Amnesty International conservatively estimating that 8.000 people have been murdered without a trial, and even some priests who spoke out about the carnage have themselves been assassinated. Prohibition does way more harm than the drugs it fails to control! 

 

 

Heroin trials succeed in UK

Before the legal Injecting Centre in Kings Cross,
sights like this were fairly common in the street.

After the conservative government de-funded heroin trials in the UK, some local authorities have continued them, with dramatic reductions in crime and homelessness. 

One habitual user told how he used to have to shoplift £80 worth of goods each day to yield £40 for heroin. I'm sure the local shopkeepers prefer this new option. 

Prohibitionists of course are horrified at such a measure, preferring the endless round of expensive and destructive police, court and jail action that had clearly failed before these programs were launched – a system which also boosted a criminal supply chain with its endemic violence and corruption.

Legalise, regulate, tax and treat!

NZ to vote on cannabis legalisation and control

Even as Australia bumbles along, clinging to 1930s-style prohibition, New Zealand will vote on legalising Cannabis in September.

And as NSW massively increases police detection quotas for drugs, former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark  has labelled prohibition as "the worst waste of taxpayers' money".

“For me, it’s just a no-brainer to stop wasting our taxpayers’ money with police helicopters hovering over the Kiwi bush, hounding ordinary citizens who are having a joint of cannabis rather than a glass of wine, hunting down the Kiwis who are desperate for some kind of relief for a medical condition. Let’s stop all that... lets put it into something better,” she said.

The proposed legalisation will ban items designed to appeal to young people, set a four-year prison term for selling to under 20-year-olds and allow cannabis “coffee shops” to open.

Despite this, local prohibitionists claim the new law would make the drug more available to children, because they apparently trust criminal dealers to protect children better than police and the legal system.

Let's hope common sense prevails. In neanderthal Australia, police continue to burn taxpayers' money taking helicopter joy flights around Nimbin looking for the pot plots of hippies.

NSW cops form drug syndicate to entrap drug syndicates

Seriously, prohibition is just a recipe for corruption. No link provided here because it's behind a paywall but here's the text.

NSW Drug Squad detectives have homes raided by fellow police

An internal investigation is underway into the activities of the high-powered NSW Drug Squad, into allegations their police tactics crossed the line into criminality.

Sharri Markson, The Daily Telegraph
July 2, 2020 8:02am

State Crime Command Drug Squad detectives have had their homes raided as part of a misconduct investigation into allegations they created a drug syndicate and manufactured drugs to entrap criminals.

The Daily Telegraph understands attempted prosecutions brought on by the NSW Drug Squad unraveled when police methodology was questioned.

NSW Police last night confirmed the launch of Strike Force Dominion to investigate the conduct of senior Drug Squad police.

“State Crime Command have referred a matter to the Professional Standards Command for further investigation,” a NSW Police spokesman said in a statement.

“SF (StrikeForce) Dominion has been established by Professional Standards Command and remains an ongoing investigation.

“No further comment can be provided at this time.”

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has been involved in the investigation and the homes of two senior detectives in the Drug Squad were raided on Tuesday.

NSW ramps up drug detection targets as it flogs the dead horse of prohibition

Good policing or self-fulfilling prophesy?

NSW Police are being given detection targets that demand an increase in drug detections by a massive 86%

Certain suburbs like Kings Cross, Broken Hill, Mt Druitt and South Sydney have far higher targets than the average while North Shore suburbs have among the lowest. Cynics may conclude that the well-off areas where cocaine is the drug of choice are getting a 'Get out of Jail Free' card.

And, despite clear international evidence that decriminalisation and case management is a cheaper and more effective way to address illicit drugs, those targets are the highest of all categories.

Critics say this quota approach will result in bias errors like racial profiling and do nothing to increase community safety – at a time where the incarceration rate of non-white people is stoking widespread protest.

From the SMH article linked above –

Professor Murray Lee, director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney, said focusing on... drug supply, could push the offence rates higher over time and risk it becoming a "self-fulfilling prophecy".

"You may well see police going for the low-hanging fruit, whether that's over-policing in particular areas to meet those targets, going after the usual suspects," Professor Lee said.

The target for robbery in Ku-ring-gai has fallen 40 per cent since 2016 to 20 this year, while actual incidents have been increasing in that area, tripling from 10 in 2016 to 30 last year.

How prohibition turned a hippie into a 'terrorist'

George Dickson (pic by Hugh Rimington),

Another example of the toxic chain-reaction sparked by prohibition is reported in the Monthly article 'The Aquarian 'terrorist' (paywall).

Self-described hippie and cannabis legalisation activist George Dickson was arrested in May 2019 for possession in Nimbin, during Mardi Grass, the annual Marihuana Festival.

He ended up being jailed, classified as a terrorist and placed under a full control order, forbidden even from going interstate to his father's funeral and forced to wear an ankle tracker bracelet along with other conditions such as being forbidden to use a computer or phone.

After his initial arrest he was taken 31 kms away from Nimbin to Lismore police station, to be released late on that cold night with no shoes, no money and scant clothes (and, presumably, no pot!). Angered, he smashed the windscreens of two police cars with a rock. Bad and unwise, but it does not make him a terrorist.

This farce happened because of two bad laws, first the law that prohibits cannabis for no rational reason, and second, Australia's then newly minted Terrorism Act. The loose wording of that Act allowed police to draw a link between smashing the windscreens (violence) and Mr Dickson's history of activism in support of cannabis legalisation (a political activity). His activism included things like putting stickers on telegraph poles – hardly the sort of activity the terrorism laws were designed to address.

This apparently resulted in up to 20 police etc at one time being on the case, most reportedly unable to take it seriously.

I'm guessing Mr Dickson takes it pretty seriously.