The Archives

Entertainment, North America
Cocaine Cowboys - release date and clip previews
07.31.06 | Permalink | Comment?

“Cocaine Cowboys“, the documentary about the 1980s Miami cocaine business that its distributors, Magnolia Pictures, are positioning as the “Real Miami Vice”, will be released in selected cities of the United States on the 27th of October.

If you can stand to live in cold and wet Melbourne, Australia, it will have two showings at the forthcoming Melbourne Film Festival, on the second and eighth of August.

In the warmer surroundings of Miami, Florida, locally-based director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman spoke this past weekend at the Rewind/Fast Forward Film & Video Festival, showing clips of their film. Here is an interview they had with the Miami Herald before the festival.

Two clips from the film that have been posted on Youtube are below.
Asia, Treatment
Football therapy for Indian drug addicts
07.31.06 | Permalink | Comment?

There’s a nice story from AFP about Sahara, an NGO based in south New Delhi that provides treatment for ex-drug addicts and those with HIV/AIDS. What is interesting is that football - soccer - has been used as a key form of therapy for its men in this cricket-mad country. Its female patients receive vocational training in handcrafts and pig farming, which can lead to self-employment.

Sahara has been around for 28 years and seems to have a reputation for innovative programs designed to give those previously marginalised in general society the confidence and opportunity to become more integrated with the wider community - and hopefully vice versa. It caters for about 200 patients at any one time.
Uncategorized
How Drug Money Can Destabilise Governments
07.31.06 | Permalink | Comment?

You hear a lot about how the drug trade “destabilises” states and governments without ever really getting a more in depth explanation than that.

Well, here is a pretty concrete example of how that can happen.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, they have been largely destroyed and forced to retreat to teh mountains and souther area of the country. Despite having formerly been one of the most stringently and successfully anti-drug governments in the world, the organisation has now found itself under seige strapped for cash due to the efforts associated with the War on Terror.
Asia
Charge sheet to be filed in Rahul Mahajan case
07.30.06 | Permalink | Comment?

After a nearly two month investigation into the Rahul Mahajan drug case it looks like Delhi police will finally be filing a charge sheet this week.

Rahul Mahajan, the son of slain former senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, was rushed to a Delhi hospital early one morning in June along with his father’s former aide Vivek Maitra, both initially suspected of suffering from food poisoning. Tests later revealed that they both had cocaine and heroin in their systems. While Maitra was dead on arrival, Mahajan recovered and has been in the sights of police ever since.

In addition to charges of drug possession and distribution against Mahajan, the charge sheet will also detail evidence against:

* Sahil Zaroo, an associate of Maitra’s who was said to have ordered the drugs.
* Three Nigerians who allegedly supplied the drugs in question.
* Mahajan’s aide, Harish Sharma, plus his housekeeper Ganesh, both for allegedly destroying evidence at his home.
Europe, North America, People, Smuggling
Giles Carlyle-Clarke given bail
07.30.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Giles Carlyle-Clarke, an Englishman of aristocratic lineage who was recently extradited to the United States because of a marijuana smuggling charge dating back to the 1980s, has been granted bail set at $464,000 and will be monitored electronically while under house arrest.

He will only be released from the Baldwin County Corrections Center, Alabama, once he has drummed up the finances for the bond and has found a place to live; his lawyer, Jeff Deen, offered to let him stay at his place but U.S. Magistrate Judge William Cassady rejected this option due to “potential conflicts”.
Africa
Former Drug Board Chair Nkrabea Effah-Dartey won’t defend drug dealers
07.29.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, currently a member of parliament and a former chairman of Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board (NCB), who raised a storm of controversy recently after his decision to represent drug defendants in court as an attorney, has reversed his decision after a meeting with Attorney General Joe Ghartey.

Effah-Dartey, who lost his position as Deputy Minister of the Interior during the last ministerial shuffle and had to relinquish his chairmanship as a result - the one position goes with the other - initially justified his decision by invoking a right to earn fees for the vocation he had trained for. He will now pull out of a court case he is currently involved in, defending an alleged drug trafficker.
Europe
Stephen Soans-Wade
07.28.06 | Permalink | Comment?

An independent inquiry into what drove Stephen Soans-Wade, a mentally ill man and drug addict, to push Christophe Duclos under a train at a London underground station in September 2002 has concluded that mental health services had failed to assess the risk he posed to others in the weeks building up to the murder. However, the report also concluded that even if he had received the best care possible he still might have gone on to push the security guard from France onto the tracks of Mile End tube station.
Kids and Drugs, North America, Studies
College prep
07.28.06 | Permalink | Comment?

In my great state of Pennsylvania it seems that high school seniors are well on their way to fitting right into the college life style. In a recent survey 44% of the states high school seniors said that they drink fairly regularly and many would say pretty heavily despite all sorts of law enforcement initiatives and scholastic programs illustrating the dangers and the illegality of underage drinking and driving under the influence. It also didn’t seem to dissuade anyone in this demographic that their peers were dying all around them.
North America, War on Drugs
Inmate shackled for five days gets drug case reprieve
07.27.06 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Does this sound like cruel and unusual punishment to you, or just an unreasonable search that posed an unreasonable risk to the life and health of a defendant?

In June of last year, Brian Willert, an inmate at Colorado state prison, swallowed four bags of what was thought to be heroin, after his girlfriend kissed him during a visit. Authorities then put Willert in a “dry cell” - containing no toilet or sink - and waited five and a half days for him to pass the bags.

During this time he was shackled to a chair by his legs and belly, given no sleep or exercise in a room that was lit the whole time, strip- and cavity-searched 17 times despite a guard being constantly a few feet away, and not given medical treatment on the fourth day after he tested positive for methamphetamine - the drug which was actually in the bags - even though it could have come from a leak.
Kids and Drugs, Websites
Not the usual “Bed time” story
07.27.06 | Permalink | Comment?

It was only a matter of time before someone finally got the right idea when it came to educating kids about drugs at an early age. Even the standard “Talk to your kids about drugs” and it’s wisdom is starting to be questioned by some researchers, some saying it might even plant the seed into action for some who are not doing drugs. And this from people studying advertising and it’s power of suggestion. But that’s for another time.

Ricardo Cortes is the author of what is turning out to be a pretty controversial read, not because it’s about marijuana, but that’s it’s a children’s book about marijuana! This has garnered everything from severe consternation from American legislators and pundits to open applause and kudos from more sensible and reasonable minds.