tagged w/ Heroin
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Pentagon originally said Marine killed in combat.
The Pentagon confirmed late Tuesday that it is investigating the death of a 24-year-old Indiana Marine after he was shot to death in Afghanistan, allegedly by several US-paid private security contractors.
The contractors, according to a fellow Marine in Afghanistan who communicated with an investigative reporter in Chicago, were Afghanis who were found with "copious amounts of opium" and had been paid by the United States as guards.
"He was killed by American Hired Local National Contractors that were high on opium the morning of the 19th," the ABC reporter quotes a friend and fellow colleague of Lance Corporal Joshua Birchfield as saying in an email message.
Lance Corporal Joshua Birchfield was killed after being shot in the head Feb. 19. The Department of Defense originally reported that he died of "small arms fire" while in combat.
But the story is apparently darker and more complex -- raising questions of whether the Pentagon originally concealed information about the Marine's death.
The Chicago Marine who tipped off the ABC reporter purportedly wrote a detailed email surrounding the circumstances of Birchfield's death. In it, he asserts that the young Marine was killed by Afghanis paid as private contractors.
"These men are armed to the teeth and supposedly here for our protection," the fellow Marine is said to have emailed. "We have been shot at by the contractors on several cases before this incident. We have been told to refrain from returning fire and attempt to identify ourselves as Marines so they stop shooting."
"They are also drug abusers," he continued. "The shooter was found to have copious amounts of wet opium on him shortly after the shooting ... we found a bag of wet opium in the compound that the contractors were using to get high."
"A mix of drugs and gray areas of loyalty between U.S. forces and Taliban seems to be the motivation behind the shooting," he added.
The Pentagon, announcing an investigation into the death on Wednesday, declined to say what exactly they were investigating.
more at link...
Afghanistan is the drug war. It has nothing to do with Islam, everything to do with Heroin.Pentagon originally said Marine killed in combat.
The Pentagon confirmed late... more
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The US refusal to destroy opium poppy crops in Afghanistan guarantees that raw drug sources there will be inviolable, leading to heavy drug use in Russia, the head of the Russian federal drug control agency said.
The amount of narcotics brought into Russia has increased two-fold since the beginning of the anti-terrorism operation in Afghanistan, Viktor Ivanov, Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief, said on Saturday. “Afghan heroin amounts to 90% of all drugs sold in Russia. Annual supplies stand at 35 tonnes or 5 billion shots,” Ivanov said, as quoted by Interfax news agency.
At the same time, the Taliban’s share in Afghan drug production is minimal, Ivanov pointed out. “Nevertheless, the NATO command has focused entirely on this minority producer and generously lets local Afghan authorities combat the remaining 99% of drug production,” he said.
It is high time to formally declare the phenomenal narcotics production in Afghanistan to be a threat to international peace and security, Ivanov said. Viktor Ivanov warned that drugs production in Afghanistan is “a global factor destabilizing the situation in Russia as the target market and in Central Asia which has become a transit territory.”The US refusal to destroy opium poppy crops in Afghanistan guarantees that raw drug... more
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Readers of reports on the Pune bombing of the German Bakery will have noted that the venue was an alleged source of illicit drugs for foreigners. This is nothing new for India: the country has long been at the crossroads of drugs supply between the sources in South East and South West Asia and foreign adventurers – once know as ‘hippies’, now called ‘backpackers’. It seems, however, that India’s crime problem with drugs may be taking on a new, more sinister dimension.
Crime statistics in India, such as they are, do not tell the whole story concerning governance, crime and violence. There is evidence that India’s crime problem is seriously under-reported, and worse, that this under-reporting occurs in part due to a loss of faith in policing in India.Readers of reports on the Pune bombing of the German Bakery will have noted that the... more
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The UNODC Container Control Programme continues to show positive results as two drug seizures were reported in Panama, one of the latest ports to join the programme.
In the first case, a container destined for New Jersey, United States, purportedly carrying coffee was found, on 3 February, to be carrying 24 kg of cocaine and 2 kg of heroin (with a US street value of US$ 2.9 million and US$ 0.26 million respectively) stashed in a sports bag. The container was tracked and identified with information from the police and drug prosecution officials of Panama.
In the second seizure, made following a verbal tip to a police officer, officials confiscated eight bags containing 177 kg of cocaine (with a Spanish street value of US$ 15.6 million) from a container at the port of Manzanillo. The container originated in Venezuela and was destined for Bandar Abbas, Iran, via Barcelona, Spain. It is assumed that the drugs were to be offloaded in Barcelona.The UNODC Container Control Programme continues to show positive results as two drug... more
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An anthrax contamination linked to heroin has killed nine people in Scotland and infected a man in England, authorities said.
The latest victim is a man now being treated in a London hospital, said Britain's Health Protection Agency, noting the case is the first recorded case in England of anthrax transmission through drugs.
"It must be assumed that all heroin in London carries the risk of anthrax contamination," HPA director Brian McCloskey told The Scotsman in a story published Saturday.
In all, 20 drug users -- 19 in Scotland and the one in England -- tested positive for anthrax, including the nine who died in Scotland since last year, the newspaper reported.
The contaminated heroin may be coming from a single source of the drug, authorities said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8500743.stmAn anthrax contamination linked to heroin has killed nine people in Scotland and... more
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"Ricky Donnell Ross (aka Freeway Ricky Ross), the convicted drug dealer who was featured in a Gary Webb expose on CIA involvement in the drug business gives an exclusive 1 hour interview with Alex Jones.
Part 1 of 5"Ricky Donnell Ross (aka Freeway Ricky Ross), the convicted drug dealer who was... more
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That Taliban dope is working!!
Deep Cover Operatives Find A Way to Deal With It - British warn drug users of Anthrax-laced heroin http://twurl.nl/wapu30That Taliban dope is working!!
Deep Cover Operatives Find A Way to Deal With It -... more
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The Iranian Law Enforcement Police have seized considerable amounts of illicit drugs in several operations in the country’s southern province of Fars, a provincial police commander announced on Monday.
Commander of the anti-drug squad of Fars province Mohammad Esmail Mesri told reporters that 285.3 kg of illicit drugs has been seized during four separate police operations in the province.
He added that 119 kg of hashish as well as 10 kg of opium were discovered from a car in Shiraz, the provincial capital city. Police have arrested the driver.The Iranian Law Enforcement Police have seized considerable amounts of illicit drugs... more
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"Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers have attacked buildings in the heart of the Afghan capital, Kabul, setting off explosions and sparking gun battles.
Fighting erupted near the Serena Hotel and the presidential palace, although Afghan President Hamid Karzai says security has now been restored.
Officials say that two civilians and three security personnel have been killed and 71 others wounded.
Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said that seven attackers had also been killed."
When the spring comes, the attacks will increase and the war will deteriorate into another Vietnam. It is unfortunate that history has to repeat itself and thousands have to die before people wake up and the end foreign entanglements that George Washington and our founding fathers continually warned us about."Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers have attacked buildings in the heart of the... more
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Blur's lead singer Damon Albarn, speaking in the new film 'No Distance Left To Run', which chronicles the bands rise from Britpop darlings to reunion legends, admitted that heroin created problems for the band in the early 90s.
"That whole period of a lot of people's lives was fairly muddied by heroin. It's in that place. A lot of stuff was at that time."
The film, trailer below, will now be shown at very select Odeon and Picturehouse cinemas country wide from January 19, in addition to the Broadway Nottingham Cinema. The DVD version of No Distance Left To Run will be released on February 15.
Scroll down to watch the trailer.
http://drownedinsound.com/news/4138843-damon-albarn-admits-blur-were-muddied-by-heroin-useBlur's lead singer Damon Albarn, speaking in the new film 'No Distance Left... more
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richjm
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Amritsar is one of India’s most magnificent cities – home to the stunning golden temple … but a staggering seventy per cent of the city’s young people are drug addicts.Amritsar’s proximity to the heroin trail out of Pakistan and Afghanistan makes it a prime target for drug traffickers.
http://ekawaaz.org/2010/01/10/indias-drug-capital-amritsars-youth-drug-addiction-video/Amritsar is one of India’s most magnificent cities – home to the stunning... more
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The 3rd and Final installment of the Reality Show By Killa Phil, 407 Street, Killa Phil takes us to the Rough Trashy Streets of Orlando, Florida and shows us what its like to be homeless in Orange County, Hence the name 407 Street. Explicit Content - Killa Phil Addresses a serious issue in a humorous way . EnjoyThe 3rd and Final installment of the Reality Show By Killa Phil, 407 Street, Killa... more
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A pamphlet designed to help heroin users with advice has come under fire, with some now questioning whether the public health brochure can actually be used as a how-to guide on drug use.
One suggestion reads, "Use with someone else. If you're alone and something goes wrong, no one can help."
Indeed, "there is no safe way to inject" agreed Des Jarlais, in response to criticism that the pamphlet presents heroin use as harmless. "I think the word 'safely' is wrong," he said, but if people do inject drugs, he hopes large information campaigns can help lessen risks.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/04/ny.heroin.pamphlet/index.htmlA pamphlet designed to help heroin users with advice has come under fire, with some... more
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I wonder how much this would happen if Big Pharma and doctors were held responsible like drug dealers.I wonder how much this would happen if Big Pharma and doctors were held responsible... more
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As 2009 winds to a close, we review the global year in drug policy. There were a number of events of global significance -- the trend toward decriminalization of drug possession in Europe and Latin America, the slow spread of heroin maintenance therapy, the frontal assault on global prohibitionist orthodoxy at the UN -- as well as new developments in ongoing drug-policy related struggles from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the cannabis cafes of Amsterdam.
This review can't cover everything -- it's a big world, and there's a lot happening in drug policy these days. Among the items worth at least mentioning in passing: Israel's embrace of medical marijuana, Canada's flirtation with mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana growers (still in process, and amended to be less harmful by the Canadian Senate), the continuing resort to the death penalty for drug offenses in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the bemusing link between cannabis and schizophrenia apparently at work only in some Commonwealth countries, the Andean drug war (unchanged in its essential outlines this year), and the rise of poor West African nations as favored smugglers' destinations.
What about Mexico? There is one glaring omission here, but there is a reason for that: In the third year of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's offensive against the so-called drug cartels, the violence is more intense and destabilizing than ever. What is happening in Mexico is certainly a drug policy-related phenomenon of global significance, but this year, with more than a billion US dollars in the anti-drug aid pipeline, beefed up border security, official acknowledgement that insatiable American appetites play a crucial role, and growing public and political concern about the violence on the border, we will examine the Mexican drug war in the context of US domestic drug policy issues. Look for it to be among the Top 10 domestic drug policy stories in our feature next issue.
With that as a caveat, here are this year's biggest global drug policy developments:
Afghanistan: War on Drugs, Meet War on Terror
Eight years after the US and NATO forces invaded and occupied Afghanistan, driving the Taliban from power, the Taliban have returned with a vengeance, fueled by revenues from the country's primary cash crop: opium. Western estimates of Taliban income from the poppy and heroin trade are in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, which buys a lot of shiny new weapons for the resurgent insurgents.
This year has been the bloodiest yet for Western occupiers, with 495 US and NATO forces killed this year, according to iCasualties.org. Part of the uptick in violence can be attributed to the Taliban's opium wealth, but the decision by US and NATO forces to move aggressively into the Taliban's eastern and southern heartlands, especially Helmand and Kandahar provinces, has also led to increased fighting and higher casualties.
In June, President Obama, adhering to his election campaign vows if not the wishes of his some of his most ardent supporters, moved to directly confront the drug trade, sending 20,000 troops into Helmand to take on the Taliban and allied traffickers. But while that looked like more of the same, just weeks later, the US announced a major shift in its anti-drug policy in Afghanistan when US envoy Richard Holbrooke announced the US would no longer participate in poppy eradication campaigns. That was a startling, reality-driven break from previous US policy in Afghanistan, as well as with current US policies against coca production in Colombia and Peru.
Instead of persecuting poverty-stricken opium-growing peasants, the US and NATO would concentrate on drug manufacturers and traffickers, but only those linked to the Taliban -- not those linked to the corrupt and illegitimate (after this fall's fraudulent election fiasco) regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The US beefed up the in-country DEA contingent and even came up with a "hit list" of some 50 Afghan traffickers linked to the Taliban.
This fall, fighting has been intense in southern and eastern Afghanistan, as well as across the border in Pakistan, and now, the first of President Obama's promised 30,000-troop escalation is headed precisely for Helmand, where one of its first assignments will be to take and hold a major Taliban trafficking center. The war on drugs and the war on terror will continue to collide in Afghanistan, but now, at least, the imperatives of the war on terror have forced a historic shift in US anti-drug policy, at least in Afghanistan.
Latin American Leaders Call for a Drug Policy Paradigm Shift
In February, a blue-ribbon panel of Latin American leaders, including former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, and former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria issued a report and statement saying the US-led war on drugs has failed and it is time to consider new policies, particularly treating drug use as a public health matter and decriminalizing marijuana possession.
The report, Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift, is the work of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which also includes prominent writers Paulo Coelho, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Ramírez and Tomás Eloy Martínez as well as leading scholars, media members and politicians.
Latin America is the leading exporter of both cocaine and marijuana. As such, it has faced the ravages of heavy-handed American anti-drug interventions, such as Plan Colombia and earlier efforts to destroy the Bolivian coca crop, as well as the violence of drug trafficking organizations and politico-military formations of the left and right that have grown wealthy off the black market bonanza. And while the region's level of drug consumption has historically been low, it is on the rise.
"The main reason we organized this commission is because the available evidence indicates the war on drugs is a failed war," said Cardoso at a February press conference in Rio de Janeiro to announce the report. "We need a different paradigm to cope with the problem of drugs. The power of organized crime is undermining the very foundations of democracy in some Latin American countries. We must acknowledge that these policies have failed and we must break the taboo that prevents us from discussing different strategies."
The report garnered considerable attention, not only in the US and Latin America, but worldwide, and it set the tone for a very reformist year in Latin America.
Mexico Decriminalizes Drug Possession,
Argentina Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession,
UN's Global Anti-Drug Bureaucracy Meets Organized Resistance,
Czech Republic Decriminalizes Drug Possession,
Science vs. Politics in Great Britain
>>>CONTINUED>>>
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/613/2009_international_drug_policy_storiesAs 2009 winds to a close, we review the global year in drug policy. There were a... more
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Nothing is as American as taking advantage of a new President to sell some crap. Come along with us and celebrate a year full of Baracksploitation.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.Nothing is as American as taking advantage of a new President to sell some crap. Come... more
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A heroin user who died in hospital has tested positive for anthrax, and another addict confirmed as being infected.
The man, who died on Wednesday at Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow, has not been identified. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said that blood tests had shown the presence of the deadly bacteria.
A woman being treated at the same hospital has also tested positive, while a third patient, a man being treated at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, is being tested after presenting with a serious soft tissue infection.
Health chiefs are working with police and prosecutors to establish the source of the anthrax. They believe that a batch of contaminated heroin or a contaminated cutting agent could be responsible for its spread.A heroin user who died in hospital has tested positive for anthrax, and another addict... more
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“The Year of the Flood’’
starts off at a pitch of sensory intensity that hooks the reader immediately. It’s just after a catastrophe called the Waterless Flood has devastated the earth, sometime in the near future noted only as “Year Twenty-Five.’’ Toby, one of two women who at first appear to be the only survivors, is watching the sunrise from her rooftop refuge. “As the first heat hits, mist rises from among the swath of trees between her and the derelict city. The air smells faintly of burning, a smell of caramel and tar and rancid barbecues, and the ashy but greasy smell of a garbage-dump fire after it’s been raining. The abandoned towers in the distance are like the coral of an ancient reef - bleached and colourless, devoid of life. . . . The sun brightens in the east, reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant ocean. The vultures roosting on hydro poles fan out their wings to dry them, opening themselves like black umbrellas.’’
If “The Year of the Flood’’ had continued at this level of sensory immersion, the post-apocalyptic world Atwood creates could have been as vividly and deeply experienced as the battle scenes in “War and Peace.’’ But Atwood has a different agenda. The novel is divided into 14 sections, each introduced by a hymn from a religious cult called God’s Gardeners and a sermon by the sect’s leader, Adam One. The hymns read like secular versions of actual religious songs - a kind of High Doggerel - and the sermons ape with stunning accuracy the ponderous, snooze-inducing rhetoric of actual sermons. This reader’s temptation - as strong as in real life - to skip both hymns and sermons testifies to Atwood’s skill as a parodist. Within its sections the novel alternates point of view between two survivors - Toby, a middle-aged herbal healer, and Ren, a young erotic dancer. Each of the women’s stories shuttles between past (pre-Flood) and present (post-Flood).
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/12/06/the_way_we_live_now/“The Year of the Flood’’
starts off at a pitch of sensory... more
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