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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #966 -- 3/31/17
Phillip S. Smith, Editor,psmith@drcnet.org http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/966

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Due to staff travel and a high-profile project involving the UN and the Philippines, we did not manage to publish email editions of Drug War Chronicle the last two weeks as scheduled. Please accept our apology for the lapse.

Note also that our last email edition was #964, but you didn't miss an email of issue #965 -- that issue exists only on the web site, and can be accessed athttp://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/965 -- we put it there to hold articles that couldn't fit
into this issue's full text email edition due to the character limit.

Please read our article Human Rights Challenge: Responding to Extrajudicial Killings in the Drug War, below in this issue, to find out about this new work we're involved in which has already made significant waves.

Table of Contents:

1. HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE: RESPONDING TO EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN THE DRUG WAR Vice President Leni Robredo of the Republic of the Philippines recorded a dramatic video for our side event this month at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting: "Human Rights Challenge: Responding to Extrajudicial Killings in the Drug War." The
video has sparked a raging political firestorm in the Philippines about whether she should have made the video, and we need your help to steer the discussion back to the drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/31/vienna_side_event_EJKs

2. BILLS FILED IN DC TODAY ARE "PATH TO MARIJUANA REFORM" [FEATURE]
A three-bill package aimed at creating a federal "path to marijuana reform" was filed today.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/30/bills_filed_dc_today_are_path_ma

3. ONE SIMPLE WAY TO REDUCE DEADLY HEROIN AND PAIN PILL OVERDOSES
Another type of prescription drug is implicated in thousands of opioid ODs each year. Doctors, patients -- and non-medical users -- need to be made aware of the risks.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/29/one_simple_way_reduce_deadly_her

4. THE 23 STATES THAT ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOR PTSD
Millions of Americans -- and not only veterans -- suffer from PTSD. The good news is that access is on the increase.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/11/23_states_allow_medical_marijuan

5. LEGAL MARIJUANA: THE SKY IS (PROBABLY) NOT FALLING [FEATURE]
Will the Trump administration try to roll back legal marijuana? Probably not, but it could cause some headaches.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/26/legal_marijuana_sky_probably_not

6. JEFF SESSIONS CLAIMS MARIJUANA ONLY "SLIGHTLY LESS AWFUL" THAN HEROIN Somebody needs to send the attorney general back to school. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/15/jeff_sessions_claims_marijuana_o

7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
A new study suggests that medical marijuana can reduce opioid abuse, Arkansas and Florida continue to grapple with addressing voter-approved medical marijuana laws, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/29/medical_mj_update

8. CHRONICLE AM: AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS SAYS ADDICTION NOT A MORAL FAILING, MORE... (3/28/17)
A leading doctors' group comes out for a progressive approach to opioid addiction, new research suggests medical marijuana can reduce opioid-related emergencies and overdoses, the Tennessee legislature slaps down pot decriminalization in Memphis and
Nashville, and more. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/28/chronicle_am_american_college_ph

9. CHRONICLE AM: GA CBD BILL ADVANCES, SD MEDMJ & LEGALIZATION INITS PASS HURDLE, MORE... (3/29/17)
South Dakota activists hope the third time's the charm when it comes to medical marijuana initiatives, a Georgia CBD expansion bill advances, the Oklahoma Supreme Court slaps down former Attorney General (now EPA head) Scott Pruitt over medical marijuana
ballot language, and more. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/29/ga_cbd_bill_advances

10. CHRONICLE AM: FEDERAL MARIJUANA REFORM BILLS FILED TODAY, DEA SCORCHED ON SEIZURES, MORE... (3/30/17)
The Congressional Cannabis Caucus is getting down to business, yet another poll shows strong (and increasing) support for marijuana legalization, Trump names an acting drug czar, a California safe injection site bill is moving, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/30/chronicle_am_federal_marijuana_r

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1. HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE: RESPONDING TO EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN THE DRUG WAR http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/mar/31/vienna_side_event_EJKs

On Thursday March 16th our international drug policy work took a new turn, when we presented "Human Rights Challenge: Responding to Extrajudicial Killings in the Drug War," side event at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna. The event
addressed the situation in the Philippines, in which the new president of the country, former Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, entered office last summer promising to slaughter large numbers of purported drug suspects. More than 7,000 people have been killed
in the Philippines at the time of this writing, by police or vigilantes.

Our session unexpectedly drew high-level political interest, and Vice President Leni Robredo of the Philippines, opposition leader and a critic of the killings, recorded a video (https://youtu.be/gfEPvxu8kSA) to be presented there. The video and event
were covered by TIME as part of being made public (one article (http://time.com/4700506/philippine-vice-president-robredo-drug-war/) featuring the video then another (http://time.com/4701765/leni-robredo-duterte-drug-war-philippines/) interviewing
Robredo), and the video has so far garnered over 167,000 views. Other speakers at the event included the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, Chito Gascon; former prime minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Chair of our
partner group the Council of Asian Liberals & Democrats; and experts on international criminal justice.

Unfortunately, allies of Pres. Duterte as well as other rivals of Vice President Robredo seized on the video to attack her politically, claiming that the video constituted a "betrayal of the public trust" that she should be impeached for. Political
figures including the Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives and the president's spokesperson claimed falsely the video's release was timed to coincide with the filing by a member of Congress of an impeachment complaint against the president.
On the same day as the session, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for an end to the killings and for the release of Sen. Leila de Lima, another prominent critic of the killings who has been jailed on charges that are widely viewed as
unsupported. The critics of the vice president, which include Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator who lost by a narrow margin to Robredo in the vice-presidential election and is challenging it in court, have charged that Robredo was behind all
three events and is engaged in a "destabilization campaign" against the Duterte government to make herself president.

By the time the actual session took place, it was already controversial, and the heated political conflict the video prompted has raged in the Philippine media during the two weeks since then, only now possibly slowing down. A Google News search on "
Robredo" turns up dozens of articles about it, most of them mentioning the video and our UN event. We've been able to play a helpful role at times -- the Philippine Daily Inquirer published an article this week which primarily featured an interview with
our executive director (Group Say Duterte, Not Robredo, Upsetting Int'l Community (http://globalnation.inquirer.net/154070/group-says-duterte-not-robredo-upsetting-intl-community)), shared over 7,600 times according to the newspaper's web site, and
several outlets including CNN Philippines (http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/03/20/drcnet-foundation-david-borden-vice-president-leni-robredo-video.html) published a statement we issued clarifying that the video's release was not related to the
impeachment complaint against the president.

We have full footage from the event prepared, which we are shopping around to major media outlets before posting, but which we hope to make public by next week. We hope that seeing footage from the actual event will help to turn the discussion in the
Philippines back to what's important: the extrajudicial killings and other abuses in the president's drug war, and the failure of the drug in the Philippines, US and elsewhere.

In the meanwhile, you can help by circulating the vice president's powerful video message on your networks. If you have a web site, you can post an embedded copy of the YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfEPvxu8kSA&t=2s), or you can post it
to your social media pages. (When posting to Facebook, we recommend you use this Facebook copy (https://www.facebook.com/77796516946/videos/10154509957741947/), as we've heard that Facebook deprioritizes YouTube videos.

Here is the event flyer (http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/drcnet-foundation-side-session-human-rights-challenge.pdf):

And here is Vice President Robredo's video.



================ ...


___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
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Cops say legalize drugs--find out
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Stoners are people too: <http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
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