9 Huge Blows to the Catastrophic War on Drugs -- Will We Have Sane Drug Policy Some Day?

2011 has been a watershed year for the movement working to end our county’s disastrous war on drugs.

AlterNet / By Tony Newman

2011 has been a watershed year for the movement working to end our county’s disastrous war on drugs. Below are the top stories of the year that exemplify the momentum and give us hope that we can find alternatives to drug war madness.

#1. World Leaders Make International News by Calling for Marijuana Legalization and End to Drug War

This summer, the Global Commission on Drug Policy made worldwide news in more than 3,000 outlets when they released a report calling for a paradigm shift in global drug policy -- including not just alternatives to incarceration and greater emphasis on public health approaches to drug use, but also decriminalization and experiments in legal regulation. The Commission is comprised of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan; Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; four former presidents, including the commission's chairman, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil; George P. Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State; Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve; and several other distinguished world leaders.

#2. 40-Year Anniversary of Nixon’s Launch of Drug War Met with Nationwide Protests

June 17 marked forty years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as “public enemy No. 1”, declared a "war on drugs." A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, a political consensus is emerging that the war on drugs is a counterproductive failure. The Drug Policy Alliance led advocates all across the country in marking the auspicious date with a day of action to raise awareness about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition and to call for an exit strategy from the failed war on drugs. More than 50 events on the anniversary generated hundreds of local and national stories.

#3. Gallop Poll Shows Historic Support: 50% of Americans Favor Ending Marijuana Prohibition

For the first time a Gallup poll has found that 50% of Americans support making marijuana legal. Public support for making marijuana legal has shifted dramatically in the last two decades, particularly in the last few years. Gallup has been asking Americans since 1970, “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?” Forty years ago support registered at 12%, rose to 28% percent by the late ‘70s, dipped slightly during the 1980s, and then rose gradually to 36% in 2005. The past six years, however, have witnessed a dramatic jump in support, with important implications for state and national marijuana policy. Majorities of men, liberals, 18-29 year-olds, moderates, Independents, Democrats, 30-49 year-olds, and voters in Western, Midwestern and Eastern states now support legalizing cannabis.

#4. NYPD Commissioner Directs Police to Stop Improper Marijuana Arrests

In 2010, the New York City Police Department arrested 50,383 people for low-level marijuana offenses. Arrests for low-level marijuana possession offenses are the number one arrest in New York City, making up 15 percent of all arrests. What makes these record number of arrests even more outrageous is that under 7/8 of an ounce of marijuana is supposed to be decriminalized in New York and a non-arrestable offense. The only reason people should be arrested with under an ounce is if they are smoking it in public or it is in plain view. The NYPD has been stopping and frisking 100,000’s of black and Latino youth and then tricking them to emptying out their pockets. Once the person pulls out the joint or small bag of marijuana, the NYPD says it is “in public view” and arrests them. A campaign led by the Drug Policy Alliance, the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives, and VOCAL pounded away at Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD for the racist enforcement of marijuana arrests – and in October, NYPD Commission Ray Kelly issued an internal order commanding officers to follow existing New York State law by ending arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana – as long as the marijuana was never in public view.

To read more HERE.

Is the CIA behind Mexico's Bloody Drug War?

Summary: The militarization of the war on drugs has been a colossal disaster which has accelerated the pace of social disintegration. Mexico is quickly becoming a failed state, and Washington's deeply-flawed Merida Initiative, which provides $1.4 billion in aid to the Calderon administration to intensify military operations, is largely to blame.

by Mike Whitney

On April 23, two patrol cars were ambushed by armed gunman in downtown Ciudad Juarez. In the ensuing firefight, seven policemen were killed as well as a 17-year old boy who was caught in the crossfire. All of the assailants escaped uninjured fleeing the crime-scene in three SUVs. The bold attack was executed in broad daylight in one of the busiest areas of the city. According to the Associated Press:

"Hours after the attack, a painted message directed to top federal police commanders and claiming responsibility for the attack appeared on a wall in downtown Ciudad Juarez. It was apparently signed by La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel. The Juarez cartel has been locked in a bloody turf battle with the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

"This will happen to you ... for being with El Chapo Guzman and to all the dirtbags who support him. Sincerely, La Linea," the message read." ("7 Mexican police officers killed in Ciudad Juarez", Olivia Torres, AP)

The massacre in downtown Juarez is just the latest incident in Mexico's bloody drug war. Between 5 to 6 more people will be killed on Saturday, and on every day thereafter with no end in sight. It's a war that cannot be won, but that hasn't stopped the Mexican government from sticking to its basic game-plan.

The experts and politicians disagree about the origins of the violence in Juarez, but no one disputes that 23,000 people have been killed since 2006 in a largely futile military operation initiated by Mexican president Felipe Calderon. Whether the killing is the result of the ongoing turf-war between the rival drug cartels or not, is irrelevant. The present policy is failing and needs to be changed. The militarization of the war on drugs has been a colossal disaster which has accelerated the pace of social disintegration. Mexico is quickly becoming a failed state, and Washington's deeply-flawed Merida Initiative, which provides $1.4 billion in aid to the Calderon administration to intensify military operations, is largely to blame.

The surge in narcotics trafficking and drug addiction go hand-in-hand with destructive free trade policies which have fueled their growth. NAFTA, in particular, has triggered a massive migration of people who have been pushed off the land because they couldn't compete with heavily-subsidized agricultural products from the US. Many of these people drifted north to towns like Juarez which became a manufacturing hub in the 1990s. But Juarez's fortunes took a turn for the worse a few years later when competition from the Far East grew fiercer. Now most of the plants and factories have been boarded up and the work has been outsourced to China where subsistence wages are the norm. Naturally, young men have turned to the cartels as the only visible means of employment and upward mobility. That means that free trade has not only had a ruinous effect on the economy, but has also created an inexhaustible pool of recruits for the drug trade.

Washington's Merida Initiative--which provides $1.4 billion in aid to the Calderon administration to intensify military operations--has only made matters worse. The public's demand for jobs, security and social programs, has been answered with check-points, crackdowns and state repression. The response from Washington hasn't been much better. Obama hasn't veered from the policies of the prior administration. He is as committed to a military solution as his predecessor, George W. Bush.

But the need for change is urgent. Mexico is unraveling and, as the oil wells run dry, the prospect of a failed state run by drug kingpins and paramilitaries on US's southern border becomes more and more probable. The drug war is merely a symptom of deeper social problems; widespread political corruption, grinding poverty, soaring unemployment, and the erosion of confidence in public institutions. But these issues are brushed aside, so the government can pursue its one-size-fits-all military strategy without second-guessing or remorse. Meanwhile, the country continues to fall apart.

THE CLASHING CARTELS

The big cartels are engaged in a ferocious battle for the drug corridors around Juarez. The Sinaloa, Gulf and La Familia cartels have formed an alliance against the upstart Los Zetas gang. Critics allege that the Calderon administration has close ties with the Sinaloa cartel and refuses to arrest its members. Here's an excerpt from an Al Jazeera video which points to collusion between Sinaloa and the government.

"The US Treasury identifies at least 20 front companies that are laundering drug money for the Sinaloa cartel...There are allegations that the Mexican government is "favoring" the cartel. According to Diego Enrique Osorno, investigative journalist and author of the "The Sinaloa Cartel":

"There are no important detentions of Sinaloa cartel members. But the government is hunting down adversary groups, new players in the world of drug trafficking."

International Security Expert, Edgardo Buscaglia, says that "of over 50,000 drug related arrests, only a very small percentage have been Sinaloa cartel members, and no cartel leaders. Dating back to 2003, law enforcement data shows objectively that the government has been hitting the weakest organized crime groups in Mexico, but they have not been hitting the main crime group, the Sinaloa Federation, that's responsible for 45% of the drug trade in this country." (Al Jazeera)

There's no way to verify whether the Calderon administration is in bed with the Sinaloa cartel, but Al Jazeera's report is pretty damning. A similar report appeared in the Los Angeles Times which revealed that the government had diverted funds that were earmarked for struggling farmers (who'd been hurt by NAFTA) "to the families of notorious drug traffickers and several senior government officials, including the agriculture minister." Here's an excerpt from the Los Angeles Times:

"According to several academic studies, as much as 80% of the money went to just 20% of the registered farmers...Among the most eyebrow-raising recipients were three siblings of billionaire drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, and the brother of Guzman's onetime partner, Arturo Beltran Leyva". ("Mexico farm subsidies are going astray", Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times)

There's no doubt that if the LA Times knows about the circular flow of state money to drug traffickers, than the Obama administration knows too. So why does the administration persist with the same policy and continue to support the people they pretend to be fighting?

In forty years, US drug policy has never changed. The same "hunt them down, bust them, and lock them up" philosophy continues to this day. That's why many critics believe that the drug war is really about control, not eradication. It's a matter of who's in line to rake in the profits; small-time pushers who run their own operations or politically-connected kingfish who have agents in the banks, the intelligence agencies, the military and the government. Currently, in Juarez, the small fries' are getting wiped out while the big-players are getting stronger. In a year or so, the Sinaloa cartel will control the streets, the drug corridors, and the border. The violence will die down and the government will proclaim "victory", but the flow of drugs into the US will increase while the situation for ordinary Mexicans will continue to deteriorate.

Here's a clip from an article in the Independent by veteran journalist Hugh O'Shaughnessy:

"The outlawing and criminalizing of drugs and consequent surge in prices has produced a bonanza for producers everywhere, from Kabul to Bogota, but, at the Mexican border, where an estimated $39,000m in narcotics enter the rich US market every year, a veritable tsunami of cash has been created. The narcotraficantes, or drug dealers, can buy the murder of many, and the loyalty of nearly everyone. They can acquire whatever weapons they need from the free market in firearms north of the border and bring them into Mexico with appropriate payment to any official who holds his hand out." ("The US-Mexico border: where the drugs war has soaked the ground blood red", Hugh O'Shaughnessy The Independent)

It's no coincidence that Kabul and Bogota are the the de facto capitals of the drug universe. US political support is strong in both places, as is the involvement of US intelligence agencies. But does that suggest that the CIA is at work in Mexico, too? Or, to put it differently: Why is the US supporting a client that appears to be allied to the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico? That's the question.

THE CHECKERED HISTORY OF THE CIA

In August 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb released the first installment of Dark Alliance in the San Jose Mercury exposing the CIA's involvement in the drug trade. The article blew the lid off the murky dealings of the agency's covert operations. Webb's words are as riveting today as they were when they first appeared 14 years ago:

"For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a Mercury News investigation has found.

This drug network opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the "crack'' capital of the world. The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America

and provided the cash and connections needed for L.A.'s gangs to buy automatic weapons.

It is one of the most bizarre alliances in modern history: the union of a U.S.-backed army attempting to overthrow a revolutionary socialist government and the Uzi-toting "gangstas'' of Compton and South-Central Los Angeles." ("America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", Gary Webb, San Jose Mercury News)

Counterpunch editor Alexander Cockburn has also done extensive research on the CIA/drug connection. Here's an excerpt from an article titled "The Government's Dirty Little Secrets", which ran in the Los Angeles Times.

"CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz finally conceded to a U.S. congressional committee that the agency had worked with drug traffickers and had obtained a waiver from the Justice Department in 1982 (the beginning of the Contra funding crisis) allowing it not to report drug trafficking by agency contractors. Was the lethal arsenal deployed at Roodeplaat assembled with the advice from the CIA and other U.S. agencies? There were certainly close contacts over the years. It was a CIA tip that led the South African secret police to arrest Nelson Mandela." (The Government's Dirty Little Secrets, Los Angeles Times, commentary, 1998).

To read more HERE.

"Obama's Mexico Standoff" (The Daily Beast/Newsweek, March 2nd, 2011)

Alexandre Meneghini / AP Photo; J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo(www.thedailybeast.com)

Political stability is at risk not only in the Middle East, but also south of the U.S. border. The Mexican people are getting increasingly frustrated with the failure of President Felipe Calderón to win the “drug war” and resolve their basic needs. They could soon take matters into their own hands. When Calderón visits Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner should use the opportunity to announce concrete new measures in support of the Mexican people. Otherwise, the emerging discontent could lead to a repudiation not just of Calderón but also of the entire U.S. political establishment.

Surprisingly, Mexico is one of the most “anti-American” countries in the world. A recent global survey conducted by the BBC revealed that only 13 percent of the population has a “mainly positive” view of the U.S.’s worldwide influence, while 49 percent has a “mainly negative” one. Of the 28 countries surveyed, only Pakistan and Turkey have stronger anti-American sentiment. Both the Egyptians and the Chinese are far more positive than the Mexicans.

To an extent, these perceptions are linked to history and geography. Mexico lost a third of its territory to the U.S. during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. And U.S. troops occupied Mexican territory at two crucial moments during the Mexican revolution of 1910-17.

But the negative views of the U.S. derive principally from what’s happening now. Hundreds of migrants die trying to cross the border each year. Incidents of U.S. border agents shooting or killing Mexicans, often for no apparent reason, are not uncommon. The number of deportations from the U.S. has risen sharply in recent years, and the Obama administration has made absolutely no progress on immigration reform...

FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE AVAILABLE AT THE DAILY BEAST

FOR ACCESS TO OTHER RECENT ARTICLES BY JOHN M. ACKERMAN IN ENGLISH ON MEXICO AND US-MEXICO RELATIONS CLICK HERE

Mexico: Military’s Battle Against Mexican Drug Cartels Terrorizes Civilians

Mexican citizens face the constant threat from organized crime and the force that is supposed to protect them: the military.

By José Luis Sierra , New America Media.

JUAREZ, Mexico -- "Alfa," as he wants to be called, remembers his ordeal well. His story is not uncommon in Mexico's drug wars.
"I was kept blindfolded and they stripped off my clothes again and wrapped me in a blanket like a taquito, and they wet the blanket and connected [two] electric wires, one to each testicle. They made sure they were in place and took an instrument that sounded like a small refrigerator or a battery charger and started giving me electric shocks.
"They would also sit me in a chair and cover my head with a plastic bag and close it until I almost suffocated. Then they would remove the bag and let me breath again and begin the questioning."
But Alfa is not talking about Mexico's notorious drug lords. In his testimony to the Chihuahua Human Rights Commission, Alfa is describing being abducted by the military -- the forces that are supposed to protect the civilians in President Felipe Calderón's war against drug cartels.
The body count has dropped since Calderón deployed troops to patrol Ciudad Juárez. But the fear of being arrested for practically no reason, "disappeared" for days, and tortured by the very force that is supposed to protect the population, is on the rise.
Alfa continued his story:
"I was detained very early in the morning by members of the army who got into my house by breaking the front door. Besides arresting me, they searched all my belongings and kept all the valuables for themselves. I remember hearing one of the soldiers ask another one for a gold chain, claiming that it would fit his daughter and would be a nice birthday gift. They didn't find any drugs or anything illegal, but they took a Jeep Cherokee and a Dodge car.
"They blindfolded me and took me to a place where I could hear the sound of helicopters and other military roaming around. I was kept blindfolded for several days, and I noticed that one side got brighter in the afternoons, so I think it was a window.
"I could feel that there were another 10 or 20 other people there. Now and then, soldiers would come inside and start hitting people, saying things like: 'No te hagas pendejo (Don't be a fool). Where are you hiding the drugs for Azucena Street? Or where is the hiding place for [alleged drug dealer] "El Chivo"?'
"They tortured them, but when they got an answer [it seems to me that] they let them go. They started to torture me, and I told them that I could lead them to the place and that the only thing I knew was that they used to sell drugs in the 'hood. But the soldier in charge of the torture seemed to know more, and he would tell me, 'No te hagas pendejo.' "
Between January 2008 and March 2009, the Juarez Human Rights Office has collected hundreds of reports from people stopped at checkpoints or in their homes who claim that the "Operación Conjunta," -- the joint operation of the federal police, municipal police and military forces -- has resulted in violations of their civil liberties.
While the figures suggest that the heavy presence of the military has indeed reduced the number of executions, extortions and kidnappings, it has not been able to eliminate the violence. The difference is that this time, forces in charge of public safety are being fingered as the perpetrators of the crimes once attributed to the drug cartels.
"We went from reporting 20 to 25 killings a month, to reporting 40 killings a day, all related to the drug wars," says Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, chief investigator of the state's Human Rights Commission. Now, he says, "the number of killings has decreased, but the claims of human and civil rights violations have increased, and most of them are attributed to the police and military forces … the very same people in charge of protecting us."
De La Rosa and other lawyers claim that Juárez and other cities subjected to the same military operation are living in a de facto "state of exemption," a legal term that implies that all civil rights and liberties have been suspended, and police and military forces are free to detain and search individuals without cause.
The operation began in March 2008 and is scheduled to end by 2013, but lawyers and local civil rights activists complain that it has not provided results and that the price tag is too high.
"We are supposed to be protected by over 9,000 soldiers and federal police who are strangers to this city, don't know our customs and frankly don't care about our way of life. And now these same forces are stopping us anywhere they please, and arresting people for almost no reason at all!" says Genaro Armendariz, a community leader at a local church in the city's west side neighborhood known as Villa Miseria, roughly translated as Misery Village.
"They stop thousands of people a day, but usually in the very low-income areas of the city. Affluent neighborhoods are hardly visited," says Hector Pedraza Reyes, a professor at the local university.
According to estimates from the local Human Rights Commission, out of every 300,000 people searched by the police, only 10 are arrested, most of them for driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
On April 18, Maria Rosa Ontiveros Garay told local authorities that her son, Jesús Tejada Ontiveros, was arrested "illegally" by members of the army, when soldiers entered his home without a search warrant or any other legal document.
They entered the house at 9:30 a.m. to search for drugs, and kept Tejada Ontiveros' wife and children in one bedroom while they ransacked the house. Ontiveros Garay says the soldiers bound her son and covered his head while they searched the property. Later, Tejada Ontiveros was removed from his home and taken to an undisclosed location where he was allegedly tortured for information about drugs he was suspected to be selling.
Tejada Ontiveros remained sequestered in an undisclosed location for three days, without being able to communicate with his family. On Tuesday, he was finally turned over to the PGR (Federal Attorney's Office), on charges that he was found in possession of 10 bags of cocaine for sale. His lawyer says each bag contained the equivalent of a daily dose for one person.
"He could get up to 10 years in jail, but there is no evidence that he was indeed in possession of the drugs.
"Besides, he was arrested in his home, without a legal warrant or search document to enter the house. They found no drugs there, and he was kept incommunicado for three days before he was turned over to the proper authorities for prosecution," says his lawyer.
The attorney general's office declined to comment about this case, or any other claims, arguing that all cases are currently under investigation.
In the same week, three men declined to testify in front of a judge after being charged with crimes unrelated to their arrest order.
There are hundreds of stories of people being detained in their homes or while driving and charged with drug possession. The majority of them claim that police or soldiers took their valuables, including jewelry, TV sets, electronics or cash, and never reported the seizures, so the owners are unable to get them back.
"I have reports that they opened the fridge and took the food inside," says Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, chief investigator of the state's Human Rights Commission, says in an interview in his makeshift office in a converted two-story house. "We live in a state of constant violations of civil and human rights and the violence doesn't stop."
Luz Elena Mears Delgado, head of the Juárez Human Rights Office agrees. "We just don't have the resources to investigate every claim, but it's nonstop."