Duck and Cover: The Mexican Drug War Edition

Remember that grainy footage of children during the Cold War, ducking under their desks for cover, believing it protection if atomic armageddon broke out? It's the type of government-sponsored footage your history professor uses to evoke the cataclysmic fear felt by most at a time of simmering hostility between the USSR and the USA.

Now, twenty years since the Cold War's thaw, reporters are confirming that duck and cover are back. This time, though, it's a tactic taught in Mexico's schools as a way to survive shootouts at a time when much of the country continues a descent into internecine violence. The other tactic was to close school entirely, which is what the Governor of Nayarit State did in June.

Among other newspapers, USA Today reports that the officials have issued:

New guidelines [which] instruct teachers to take all students indoors, lock classroom doors and keep the children away from windows. Children should lie on the floor and cover their heads with their hands to protect themselves from flying glass or chips of concrete. Above all, children should not take pictures or video of
the shootout.

The guidelines are designed to try to keep students and teachers safe from harm. The fear is not unfounded: over the course of this year, two students died at the Tec de Monterrey, a private university in the State of Nuevo Leon. Still other students have witnessed violence around their school, when police, army, and cartel members have engaged in shootouts. To practice responses to gunfire, some states ensure that students and staff go through regular "shootout drills." As reported by REDIM, an organization that supports children's rights, the warnings come too late for some youth aged 15 to 17, especially in Border States, where rates of violence have surged to astronomic levels.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that some Mexico City youth, mainly from marginal, impoverished locales, seem to have another idea to save themselves from destruction, worshipping at the shrine of San Hipolito, and clutching statuaries of St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless clauses.

Smile, it's Cannabis Camera: Mexico City Residents Questioned About Marijuana Use

Imagine the improbable scene: off camera a young woman places a microphone to the faces of couples and individuals who appear to be enjoying a lazy afternoon. Unaccented Spanish can be heard all around, indicating the people are somewhere in the Americas, probably Mexico. The setting is a sedate plaza, people clutch ice creams, others drink fruit juices or flavored waters. The young woman wanders through the plaza with her camera and mic, asking questions of several couples and a number of individuals:

"Do you know anybody who smokes or consumes marijuana?" she asks.

Though most who respond break a cheeky grin, the substance of the responses vary--some people don't admit to knowing anything about marijuana, others say that their friends who smoke the dried plant are fun, a good laugh, that it doesn't hurt anybody. Still several others suggest that marijuana ruins mental and physical health. Yet another respondent -- none of whom provide their names -- says that the only people he knows who smoke marijuana are foreigners. But even the most tight-lipped respondents have smiles on their faces, or are attempting to hide them.

If you hadn't guessed it already, the location is Mexico City. The specific location is Coyoacan, an old colonial center in the south of the city, originally established as the home of Hernan Cortes in post-conquest, sixteenth century Mexico. Now in the twenty-first century Coyoacan's popular with couples, children, and individuals who want a day out away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, and all without leaving the city. The young woman with the camera and mic represents Colectivo Por Una Politica Integral Hacia las Drogas (CuPIHD), a civil society organization dedicated to finding a sensible solution to the so-called drug war.

CuPIHD's on-camera questioning warrants remark because Mexico is in the grips of a terrifying war between the government and drug cartels. With 23,000 dead, with civilians often in the crossfire, the last thing one would expect are Mexicans willing to share their opinions candidly about drugs. It's especially important to mention that journalists--civilians who also ask questions in public and publish their findings in newspapers and other media--have also been in the front line of the drug war. Mexico is the most dangerous place in the Americas for journalists to do their work. The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) records high levels of violence. Just as recently as the end of June, the IAPA records its outrage over the assassination of two journalists in Guerrero. Asking questions about drugs clearly has it's dangers.

And yet these on-camera respondents do share candidly their opinions about drugs. This means that CuPIHD's video has found an opening in a debate about drugs in a society notoriously conservative about illicit drug use. (Mexicans are mostly unbothered by consumption of licit drugs, such as cigarettes and alcohol.) Take a look at the following chart, which comes from the Mexico City-based polling firm Parametria who conducted a survey in February 2008 about legalization of marijuana and other drugs. The results demonstrate that prevailing opinion in Mexico makes it a difficult place to organize in favor of drug reform.

The large green bar on the top graph represents the 21% of Mexico City residents who are in favor of legalizing marijuana. Nationally, and then in the rest of the states outside of Mexico City, support for marijuana legalization dwindles. And yet, in the bottom graph, which represents for (green) and against (red) legalization of other drugs, far fewer Mexicans support more liberal drugs laws.


But at least with CuPIHD's video there's evidence that it's possible to talk sensibly about drugs in Mexico. And their work may make people think more about the costs--in lives, and to the truth--of prohibition.

Did You Know? The War on Drugs Edition

Check out this great video from the International Centre for Science and Drug Policy. It serves as a quick yet thorough introduction to the War on Drugs. For new SSDP members, watching the video will make them aware of drug war facts. And this new awareness could spark a desire to make a difference, a sentiment common among drug policy reformers.

The video shows that our current drug policies are harmful, ineffective, and counterproductive. The War on Drugs--which set out to reduce drugs' supply and use--has done little to accomplish these goals. After forty years of prohibiting illicit drugs and incarcerating their users, these drugs are readily accessible to youth, more so than legally regulated drugs like alcohol and cigarettes. In a damning indictment of prohibition, rates of drug use have remained mostly constant over the same four decade trajectory.

Such failures evince an ineffective strategy: by creating a profitable black market for drugs, prohibition has increased drug-related violence. Americans have seen this scenario of illegal market formation and escalating violence before, with alcohol's prohibition in the 1920s. Indeed, echoing seventeenth-century Enlightenment penal reformer Cesare Beccaria, Albert Einstein made the following observation during Prohibition:

"Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."

Einstein couldn't foresee the astronomically high rates of incarceration which have followed from prohibition in the war on drugs. Nor could anyone predict the costs upon our education and health care systems, heavy burdens for society that have fallen on drug users and non-users alike. That's why the International Centre for Science and Durg Policy's work helps us understand the unintended, devastating consequences of the War on Drugs.

The Vienna Declaration Calls For Reorientation of Illicit Drug Policy

The Vienna Declaration is a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. This is the official declaration of the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) to be held in Vienna, Austria from July 18th to 23rd. The declaration was drafted by a team of international experts and initiated by several of the world's leading HIV and drug policy scientific bodies: the International AIDS Society, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

The declaration states that the criminalization of illicit drug users is fueling the HIV epidemic and has resulted in overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. These harmful effects include but are not limited to:

• HIV epidemics fueled by the criminalization of people who use illicit drugs and by prohibitions on the provision of sterile needles and opioid substitution treatment.
• HIV outbreaks among incarcerated and institutionalized drug users as a result of punitive laws and policies and a lack of HIV prevention services in these settings.
• The undermining of public health systems when law enforcement drives drug users away from prevention and care services and into environments where the risk of infectious disease transmission (e.g., HIV, hepatitis C & B, and tuberculosis) and other harms is increased.
• A crisis in criminal justice systems as a result of record incarceration rates in a number of nations. This has negatively affected the social functioning of entire communities. While racial disparities in incarceration rates for drug offenses are evident in countries all over the world, the impact has been particularly severe in the US, where approximately one in nine African-American males in the age group 20 to 34 is incarcerated on any given day, primarily as a result of drug law enforcement.
• Stigma towards people who use illicit drugs, which reinforces the political popularity of criminalising drug users and undermines HIV prevention and other health promotion efforts.
• Severe human rights violations, including torture, forced labour, inhuman and degrading treatment, and execution of drug offenders in a number of countries.
• A massive illicit market worth an estimated annual value of US $320 billion. These profits remain entirely outside the control of government. They fuel crime, violence and corruption in countless urban communities and have destabilised entire countries, such as Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan.
• Billions of tax dollars wasted on a “War on Drugs” approach to drug control that does not achieve its stated objectives and, instead, directly or indirectly contributes to the above harms.

It acknowledges and concludes that:

"Basing drug policies on scientific evidence will not eliminate drug use or the problems stemming from drug injecting. However, reorienting drug policies towards evidence-based approaches that respect, protect and fulfill human rights has the potential to reduce harms deriving from current policies and would allow for the redirection of the vast financial resources towards where they are needed most: implementing and evaluating evidence-based prevention, regulatory, treatment and harm reduction interventions."

To read and sign the Vienna Declaration, please click here. By adding your name to the Vienna Declaration, you will be joining scientists, health practitioners, and other members of the public who all support the implementation of science-based policies to meaningfully improve community health and safety by reducing the toll of drugs globally.

Senator Aims to Force Drug Testing Upon Unemployed

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has introduced an amendment that would require drug tests of anyone who applies for welfare or unemployment benefits. Under the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, states have the authority to enact drug testing requirements, but they are not mandated to conduct tests under current law.

"This amendment is a way to help people get off of drugs to become productive and healthy members of society while ensuring that valuable taxpayer dollars aren't wasted," says a press release from Hatch's office. "Money saved as a result of this amendment would be used to reduce the deficit."

The Hill noted that: "Under the Hatch amendment, individuals who fail to qualify for benefits because they failed a drug test wouldn't necessarily be jailed, but would be enrolled in a state or federal drug treatment program."

Linda Hilton of the Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City argues that the amendment would actually cost the government money, because federal officials would have to free up more funding for alcohol and drug treatment programs. "If people who need all kinds of help can't get certain kinds of help, that is just not right," Linda said. She added that she "couldn't fathom the idea of denying assistance to a person with an alcohol dependency, and she worries it could punish entire families for the addiction of a parent."

This is just another ineffective, counterproductive, and expensive plan that, while claiming to save money, will ultimately be another example of the drug war pissing taxpayers' money down the drain.

Summer Comes Early for Youth in Mexico: School Too Dangerous

Nayarit's a small, Pacific Coast state in northwest Mexico. It's sandwiched between two larger states, Jalisco to its south and a northerly neighbor, Sinaloa. Nayarit is not a well-traveled tourist destination, and rarely attracts much news. But this past week its governor made history by canceling school early, three weeks early, in fact.

His reason? Widespread fear of the four-year drug war -- known by Mexicans as "the Uncertainty" -- that's seen students, young people and other civilians turned into "collateral damage" in an internecine war between drug cartels and government forces. Since 2006 throughout Mexico killings have soared to 23,000. Nayarit is in the domain of the Sinaloa Cartel, but other cartels, such as La Familia of Michoacan State, have made a claim on their territory, heightening the bloodshed.

The decision to close schools has attracted some criticism. Both the federal Ministry of Education (SEP) and the Interior Ministry (SEGOB) opposed the governor's decision. And high school students feared they would not be able to graduate or hold graduation ceremonies since they must attend school for a federally mandated period of 200 days. But Governor Ney Gonzalez Sanchez's statement indicated closures only for kindergarten, primary, and secondary schools. Nayarit's secretary of education has supported the decision because of widespread "psychosis and panic."

Parents in the state supported the move, too. They delivered a petition for closure to the governor. And the leader of the National Federation of PTAs, Leopoldo Garcia, told newspaper El Universal that his organization would respect the petition as "we are not going to risk our children." Garcia explained that the fear came from a showdown over the previous weekend in an area of the state capital Tepic which houses three schools and in which thirty people died.

In northern states such as Nayarit -- and certainly in other Mexican states know for cartel turf wars -- parental fears may not be misplaced. Since 2006 and the onset of President Felipe Calderon's militarized strategy, the homicide rate for youth aged fifteen to seventeen has increased dramatically. An NGO based in Mexico City called the Network for the Rights of the Child (REDIM) has calculated that the homicide rate for children in Nayarit between 15 to 17 years old in 2006 was 1.67 per 100,000 in that age range. Fast forward to 2008 and the rate was 10.24 per 100,000 in the same age range. Similar leaps in homicide rates for youth may be found in every northern state on the Pacific Coast.

Will school closures bring peace for children? It's unlikely: the Governor sent a request to the President for police and military reinforcements at the same he ordered school closures. And over the past four years, but especially in the border town of Ciudad Juarez, militarization has brought more deaths, not less. Meanwhile in Nuevo Leon, another northern state, news sources report that the state has just issued a manual for students at schools which come under gunfire.

Medical Marijuana Costs Parents In Child Custody Disputes

While medical marijuana laws protect patients from some criminal charges, it seems that some patients have been deemed inadequate parents based solely on their marijuana use, even without evidence of drug abuse. 

Unfortunately, this can result in loss of custody and even visitation rights of their children. Americans for Safe Access has reported that since mid-2006, they have received calls about 61 such cases. Judges and court councils have seemed to overlook medical patients who use marijuana responsibly, and have labeled all users as unfit parents. 

In Colorado last month, an appeals court ruled that medical marijuana use is not necessarily a reason to restrict a parent's visitation. Washington courts say otherwise:

"The court cannot countenance a situation where a person is using marijuana, under the influence of marijuana, and is caring for children," an Island County, Wash., judge ordered in one such dispute. "There's nothing in the medical marijuana law that deprives the court of its responsibility and legal authority to provide for proper care of children so that people aren't caring for children who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs."

Nicholas Pouch, a Washington medical marijuana patient, grows cannabis in an old chicken coop on his organic farm. He uses it to treat pain from carpal tunnel syndrome and old sports injuries. Acting on a tip from his former partner, a drug task force raided his grow operation in 2007. Even though Pouch's criminal charges were dropped, his partner cited the arrest and his marijuana use to win full custody of their 9 and 11 year old boys. For the past two and a half years, Pouch has seen the boys twice a month during supervised visits.

"There's no reason anybody should have to go through this..." Pouch said. "...I am not an activist at all, but I have the right to use this. It aids my pain, and it allows me to function in my everyday activities where pills and opiates don't."

Some patients need medical marijuana to provide better care for their children. Jacqueline Patterson, featured in the documentary: "In Pot We Trust", is a widowed mother of four children. She also suffers from cerebral palsy, which causes a severe stutter. When she uses medical marijuana to relieve muscle tension, her speech dramatically improves. Cannabis actually enables her to be a better mother to her four kids.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, two of the 14 states with medical marijuana laws - Michigan and Maine - specify that patients won't lose custody or visitation rights unless the patient's actions endanger the child or are contrary to the child's best interests. All medical marijuana laws need to include protecting parents' rights to save families from splitting apart. 


The children that are caught in these messy custody-divorce cases are just another causality  of the war on drugs.

National Call-In Day: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

SSDP is participating in the National Call-In Day to tell Congress to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. Please do your part to help reform our criminal justice system.

BACKGROUND INFO: In 2009, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and 15 bipartisan cosponsors introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, S. 714 , legislation that would create a bipartisan Commission to review and identify effective criminal justice policies and make recommendations for reform. The Senate Judiciary Committee has reviewed and favorably passed the bill and it is now awaiting passage out of the United States Senate. We need your help urging Senate Leadership to prioritize and pass this important legislation! 

On Wednesday, June 23rd, individuals nationwide will urge passage of this legislation by calling Senate Leadership to ask them to prioritize and support Senate passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, S. 714. We hope that you will join us by making these critical calls!

Please call the following Senators to ask them to prioritize and support Senate passage of this legislation:

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), 202-224-5556
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 202-224-3135
• Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), 202-224-9447

RSVP to our Facebook Event for this day of action to receive updates and communicate with other participants.

MESSAGE: I am calling to ask the Senator to prioritize and support immediate Senate passage of S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, because:

• Having a transparent and bipartisan Commission review and identify effective criminal justice policies would increase public safety.

• The increase in incarceration over the past twenty years has stretched the system beyond its limits.  These high costs to taxpayers are unsustainable, especially during these times of economic downturn.

• The proposed commission would conduct a comprehensive national review – not audits of individual state systems – and would issue recommendations – not mandates – for consideration.

Norway Contemplates Heroin Treatment Centers for Addicts

Norway took a tentative step towards a more compassionate drug policy this week. The drug in question? Heroin. The tactic? Opening up treatment centers where heavy addicts can receive doses of heroin prescribed by a doctor. The reason? A controversial report delivered to the government by a committee chaired by a well-connected elder statesman.

Norway's leading drug reform group, the Association for Humane Drug Policy, led by Arild Knutsen, called the approach "rational and humane." He told Norwewgian media that "it offers medical professional assessments as grounds for choice of medicine, rather than ideological constraints."

The news of a more relaxed policy follows a recommendation for "heroin addiction treatment"-- even for addicts under 18 -- from an official report by current Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's father, Thorvald Stoltenberg. The Prime Minister supports the nine-member Stoltenberg committee's recommendations.

The older Stoltenberg's committee -- comprised of a district attorney and a representative from police, government, religious, and community members -- attracted much attention when its findings were leaked a day before publication. The committee has been criticized for not including scientific professionals. Critics challenge Stoltenberg's chairmanship for a supposed conflict of interest: his daughter, Ninni, has suffered heroin addiction. For his part, Stoltenberg told NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, that he is not "embarrassed" by his committee's recommendations.

Other critics include Norway's Salvation Army, the police community association, and some psychiatrists. The health minister has not taken a position, preferring instead to wait for the results of a broad consultation over the summer.

The Justice Minister Knut Storberget supports the proposals. "My attitude is that here we must dare to think differently. Over 60 per cent of those who sit in Norwegian prisons struggle with significant drug problems, and it shows us that we need other tools that are not subject to punishment and imprisonment."

Heroin may be one of the most widely consumed drugs in Norway. According to Erowid, current Norwegian law lists heroin as Schedule 1. The UK drugs charity states that users can already receive free needles but the opium derivative remains illegal to procure or possess.

The Economist Magazine Sparks Public Debate on Drug Legalization

"Where do you stand?" The Economist's new ad campaign in the UK asks readers to think about where they stand on a variety of issues. A billboard poster campaign outlines opposing viewpoints on the issues, the first being drug legalization.

The Economist has succeeded in bringing the discussion of drug policy reform into clear public view. However, these billboards aren't the only way to stimulate public discussion. The campaign is also supported by a series of Twitter debates and a Facebook page where anybody can debate about the topics.

For more about drug policy reform and ending the War on Drugs, read Failed states and failed policies: How to stop the drug wars.