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Review by Organisation of American States on illicit drugs ‘could mark beginning of the end’ of prohibition
5/18/2013
by Jamie Doward / The Guardian
European governments and the Obama administration are this weekend studying a “gamechanging” report on global drugs policy that is being seen in some quarters as the beginning of the end for blanket prohibition.
Publication of the Organisation of American States (OAS) review, commissioned at last year’s Cartagena Summit of the Americas attended by Barack Obama, reflects growing dissatisfaction among Latin American countries with the current global policy on illicit drugs. It spells out the [...]
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5/17/2013
The allegations were exposed in several chapters of a television program, ‘Journalism for all’ produced, directed and conducted by a well known Argentine investigative reporter Jorge Lanata.
The Sunday night program which has had record ratings is aired in a channel belonging to the powerful Clarin media group that has been targeted by President Cristina Fernandez for dismembering under a new Media Law. However the Clarin group has managed to contain the attack so far with a raft of delaying injunctions but the Argentine president is pushing through Congress a judiciary reform that could finally speed her [...]
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5/17/2013
By Rory Carroll / The Guardian
The author of a pioneering blog about Mexico’s drug war has said that she has fled the country and that her blog partner has gone missing.
The young woman, using her pseudonym Lucy, said her colleague phoned her last week to say a single word – “run” – and then vanished, prompting her to flee to the United States and then Spain.
“I’m trying to think positively but I’m scared something terrible has happened. ‘Run’ was our codeword for when something was very wrong. We had never used it before.”
Blog [...]
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Seattle Ranch Puts Weed in the Pigs’ Feed
5/16/2013
by Bryan Le / The Fix
The pigs at the BB Ranch in Seattle, Washington are getting high off a local marijuana dispensary’s supply—and they are also getting fat off it.
William von Schneidau, the ranch’s owner, is “puttin’ some weed to the feed, if you know what I mean,” he explains in a video (below).
“We’re actually feedin’ ‘em marijuana.”
These so-called “pot pigs” are following in the footsteps of their predecessors, “vodka pigs,” who have been fed with vodka grains from a local distillery for some [...]
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5/16/2013
by Victoria Kim / The Fix
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) released a federal legislative guide today, titled An Exit Strategy for the Failed War on Drugs, calling for drastic reform.
It was released at a forum on Capitol Hill, cosponsored by Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)—both of whom fought for local drug policy reform before becoming members of Congress.
“The US has approximately 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prison population, largely resulting from failed policy decisions connected to the war on drugs,” says Jeffries, in a [...]
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5/16/2013
By Sibylla Brodzinsky / The Guardian
No matter the time of day or night, morticians stand guard by the gate of the city morgue, waiting for the next body to be released so they can offer their services to grieving families. In the most violent city in the most violent country in the world, they never have to wait for long.
“Satan himself lives here in San Pedro,” says one nervous mortician who asks to be identified only as Lucas. “People here kill people like they’re nothing more than chickens.”
Last year, an average of 20 people [...]
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5/15/2013
by Angela Kocherga / KHOU 11 News
Mexican drug cartels fighting each other for smuggling routes face increasing competition in the U.S. where legalization in some states has increased the amount of marijuana available.
The drug war in Mexico may have helped U.S. growers gain a foothold in some regions.
“The majority of this weed is coming from California, a little bit of it is coming from Colorado,” said a narcotics officer with the El Paso Police Department who works undercover.
According to the DEA, the amount of marijuana from Mexico seized in the El Paso area [...]
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5/14/2013
by JAMES QUEALLY / AP
FLEMINGTON, N.J. — There are no heroin kingpins in Hunterdon County, according to Prosecutor Anthony Kearns, and he wants to keep it that way.
Most people don’t associate the mostly rural county of 130,000 with drug trafficking, but as the number of young prescription pill addicts turned heroin junkies balloons throughout the state, Hunterdon has become a battleground.
The number of New Jerseyans between the ages of 18 and 25 in treatment for heroin addiction jumped by 12 percent between 2010 and 2011, records show, and Hunterdon felt the brunt of that [...]
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5/15/2013
by Stephen C. Webster / The Raw Story
Ben Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, appeared on Current TV’s “Viewpoint” Tuesday night to explain why he and 174 other celebrities and activists signed an open letter sent to President Barack Obama this week urging him to take decisive action on drug war reforms.
“For about 40 years, we’ve decided that [prison] is how we solve almost every problem, whether it’s homelessness or drug addiction,” he said. “We’ve gotten to a place where black men in this country are three times more [...]
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5/14/2013
Sixteen people face federal charges for conspiring to distribute cocaine in Arkansas from Mexico.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Little Rock held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to announce the charges, which totaled 25 indictments handed down by a federal grand jury.
The investigation centers around the Gulf Cartel, based out of Matamoros, Mexico. The cartel is alleged to have distributed “multiple hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in the United States,” according to a news release.
The indictment accuses the lead defendant, Idalia Ramos Rangel, 57, of keying a drug ring that delivered more than 100 kilograms [...]
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