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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #903 -- 9/24/15
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/903>

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

Table of Contents:

1. COLOMBIA REVAMPS DRUG POLICY, AS PEACE NEGOTIATIONS ADVANCE [FEATURE] Colombian President Santos is opening a new chapter in that country's
struggle to come to grips with coca and cocaine production. It is
happening at the same time that peace negotiations with the long-running
FARC insurgency have reached a breakthrough too. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/23/colombia_revamps_drug_policy_pea>

2. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
A sitting US senator addresses the marijuana industry, California cops
raid an Indian reservation grow op, Florida signature-gathering for
another initiative is well underway, and more. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/23/medical_marijuana_update>

3. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A strange tale out of Kentucky, and two New York cops get slapped on the
wrist for their misdeeds. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/23/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories>

4. CHRONICLE AM: NEEDLE EXCHANGES SPREAD IN WVA, OBAMA ADMIN EASES BUPRENORPHINE RESTRICTIONS, MORE (9/18/15)
It's looking like Arizona will vote on marijuana legalization next year,
the Obama administration eases restrictions on the opiate maintenance
drug buprenorphine, needle exchanges expand in West Virginia, and more. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/18/chronicle_am_needle_exchanges_sp>

5. CHRONICLE AM: MIDWEST MARIJUANA, CLINTON LOOKS ABROAD TO FIGHT
HEROIN, DAN RUSH INDICTED, MORE (9/21/15)
Michigan has two legalization initiative campaigns and now it has a legalization bill, Ohio's legalization initiative ballot language is
set, a key UFCW organizer gets indicted, Chuck Schumer calls on the DEA
to do something about Chinese drug sales web sites, and more. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/21/chronicle_am_midwest_marijuana_c>

6. CHRONICLE AM: MA LEGALIZATION CAMPAIGN ROLLS OUT, FEDERAL "SYNTHETIC
DRUGS" BILL FILED, MORE (9/22/15)
Signature gathering is getting underway in Massachusetts; the
Albuquerque city council votes narrowly for decriminalization, but faces
a possible veto; New York's junior senator addressed the National
Cannabis Industry Association, and more. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/22/chronicle_am_ma_legalization_cam>

7. CHRONICLE AM: CA COPS RAID INDIAN RESERVATION GROW, COLOMBIA
ANNOUNCES NEW DRUG STRATEGY, MORE (9/23/15)
The era of aerial herbicide spraying of Colombia's coca crops is at an
end, California cops raid an Indian reservation marijuana operation,
medical marijuana bills are moving in Michigan, and more. <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/23/chronicle_am_ca_cops_raid_indian.

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================

1. COLOMBIA REVAMPS DRUG POLICY, AS PEACE NEGOTIATIONS ADVANCE [FEATURE] <http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/sep/23/colombia_revamps_drug_policy_pea>

Marking the end of an era, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
Tuesday unveiled a new policy for dealing with coca cultivation and
cocaine production, one that will rely on crop substitution and
alternative development, with manual crop eradication only to be used as
a last resort.

Santos then flew to Havana, where he met with leaders of the leftist
FARC guerrillas and Wednesday announced an agreement (<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34338208>) on a
transitional justice deal that should lead to the end of the world's longest-running insurgency by March 2016. The agreement on how to deal
with combatants in the nearly half-century long civil war is the latest
in peace talks that have been going on in Havana since November 2012. Negotiators had already forged agreements on the thorny issues of land
reform, the FARC's political participation after peace is achieved, and
how to deal with illicit drug production.

Colombia's years-long policy of attempting to eradicate coca crops by
spraying fields with herbicides will be history at the end of this
month. That policy was backed and financed by the United States as part
of its multi-billion dollar effort to defeat drug trafficking and,
later, to defeat the FARC.

Despite the billions spent, Colombia remains the world's largest coca
and cocaine producer, according to the US government. While production
is down from record levels early this century, it rose 39% last year to
about 276,000 acres. Figures from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime show
a lower extent of cultivation (170,000 acres), but echo that it is on
the increase. According to UNODC, the increase was 44% last year.

The plan announced Tuesday, the Integrated Plan for Crop Substitution <http://wp.presidencia.gov.co/SitePages/DocumentsPDF/6FrentesPlanIntegralSustitucionCultivos_20150922.pdf>,
has as its goals reducing the crime associated with the drug trade by reorienting policing efforts toward processing, trafficking, and money laundering -- not harassing peasants -- improving state capacity through
the improvement of social, economic, and political conditions in the countryside, and dealing with drug consumption with a focus on human
rights, public health, and human development.

It sets out six foci:

* Social Investment. That will include state and private spending on
roads, energy supply, water supply, and investment in public health and education.
* Crop Substitution. A phased-in plan with community involvement that
will create socio-economic stabilization and create new income
opportunities. Agreements will be made with whole communities, not
individual growers. Once a community has agreed to crop substitution,
voluntary coca eradication will begin. If there is no agreement to
eradicate, the government will do it manually, by force.
* Interdiction. Interdiction will continue, but in concert with the priorities of local communities and farmers. The plan also envisions "strengthening the legal tools available to fight the illegal drug
business."
* Investigations and Prosecutions. The government will give top
priority to going after "intermediate and top links of the drug
trafficking chain," not peasant farmers.
* Prevention and Treatment. The new plan will emphasize youth
prevention, as well as drug treatment using "programs founded on
evidence." The plan calls for an increase in the quantity and quality of
drug treatment offered.
* Institutional Reforms. The plan will create a new agency for
alternative development in illicit cultivation zones. The agency will
establish metrics for success, which will be made public on a regular basis.

The government's plan is in line with the recommendations of its
Advisory Commission on Drug Policy in Colombia, which in a May report <http://www.odc.gov.co/Portals/1/comision_asesora/docs/informe_final_comision_asesora_politica_drogas_colombia.pdf>,
called for drug policy to be based on evidence and the principles of
public health, harm reduction and human rights, with effective state institutions to coordinate policy implementation. Combating the drug
trade should focus on trafficking organizations and money laundering,
and peasant coca growers should be offered alternative development, not criminal prosecution, the report also recommended. (The report and the
issues it addressed were recently discussed at this <http://www.brookings.edu/events/2015/09/21-colombian-antidrug-policies-a....
" target="_blank">Brookings Institution event.)

"With this program we hope to have a twofold result: reducing the
illicit cultivation and improving the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of peasants," Santos said in a speech <http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/09/22/colombia-santos-announces-new-anti-drug-plan/>
from the presidential palace.

The plan will focus on the southern provinces of Narino and Putumayo,
"where there are some 26,000 families that produce coca," Santos said.
"Work will be done to construct roads, schools, health clinics,
aqueducts and service networks," he added, noting that coca cultivation
is most extensive in areas where the state is weakest.

While the government will seek agreements with communities to
voluntarily eradicate their coca crops, "if an agreement is not reached,
forced eradication will be resorted to," Santos warned. Forced
eradication has led to conflict between farmers and eradicators in the
past, with nearly 200 eradicators killed <http://www.wsj.com/articles/colombia-takes-u-turn-on-drug-policy-1431650471> in attacks from unhappy peasants or guerrillas of the FARC, which has
taxed and protected coca cultivation in areas under its control.

When Santos arrived in Havana Wednesday he was sounding optimistic, both
about the new approach to coca cultivation and about the prospects for
peace.

"We've already started. And if we can move forward now, imagine how much
we could move forward if we do away with the conflict," said Santos.
"We've already talked with the FARC about joint plans for the
substitution of crops. Imagine what this means. That the FARC, instead
of defending illicit crops and the entire drug trafficking chain, will
help the state in their eradication. As the slogan says, with peace we
will do more," Santos said.

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


___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
Truth:the Anti-drugwar <http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out
why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

Stoners are people too: <http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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