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August 2006

The Archives

• Kids and Drugs, North America, War on Drugs

  Maryland Court rejects reckless endangerment convictions for prenatal drug use

  08.04.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  The Court of Appeals for the State of Maryland has ruled that a mother who intentionally ingests an illegal drug while pregnant cannot be found guilty of “reckless endangerment” towards a baby that is later born.

  The issue came up after two mothers, Regina Kilmon and Kelly Lynn Cruz, were both convicted last year, in separate cases held in the Talbot County Circuit Court, of reckless endangerment towards their baby boys. Both babies tested positive to cocaine upon being born. Andrew Kilmon was underweight, coming in at five and a half pounds, while Denadre Michael Thomas Cross was born after only 29 weeks, weighing three pounds and two ounces.

• Asia

  Community anti-drug policing initiative in Jakarta isn’t a lemon

  08.03.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  While there probably isn’t any free lemonade being given away, a community policing initiative by Jakarta police aimed at quelling drug dealing and associated violence in a neighbourhood notorious for such activities has some similarities with a scheme in Minneapolis I wrote about last month.

  Police in the north of Minnesota’s capital closed off half a street with room for a basketball hoop, allowed passers-by to talk to police and receive free lemonade, all the while being positioned near a major drug-dealing hot spot.

  Jakarta police are setting up two tents in the busy area of Kebon Pala in the east of Indonesia’s capital. According to the Jakarta Post, it is “a crowded area and a safe haven for drug dealers, couriers and users” and being close to a highway enables “people to come and go easily.” As a result, residents were understandably scared to hang around outside too long. But not even their houses were necessarily safe, with drug dealers commandeering local homes to get away from police raids. And despite these raids, drug dealing didn’t abate.

• North America

  Distributing surplus anti-cancer drugs in North Dakota

  08.02.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  AP has a brief story about how the North Dakota chapter of the American Cancer Society (ACS) is looking for ways of getting unused anti-cancer drugs to those who can’t afford them, based on successful programs in other states.

  It’s a great idea as long as the pills are not damaged or contaminated and thus those who get to use them can be confident of them being as safe as purchased drugs. Since it is possible in other states, one would think that it should be quite doable in North Dakota, as long as there are enough doctors and pharmacists available or willing to help track the medicines.

• North America, War on Drugs

  Drug Torching in Knox County

  08.02.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  I have written several times on the tradition of the “drug torching” in the landscape of the modern war on drugs. The public display of destruction of drugs is something that has become synonomous with the fight against traffickers and dealers around the world.

  My general point of view is that a public bonfire of drugs is rarely anything more than a public relations stunt generally aimed at securing more funding for bureaucrats. It has been used that way in many (usually aid-receiving) countries around the world.

• Entertainment, Latin America, People

  Favela Rising

  08.01.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  While “Favela Rising” is an absorbing documentary about a crime-ridden slum in Rio de Janeiro and a former inhabitant who, through the use of music and dance, inspirationally rises above his surroundings to help turn kids away from drug dealing and gangs, it can’t quite transcend its material they way its hero has.

  The film opens with the disturbing statistic that 3,937 children were murdered in Rio between 1987 and 2001, also right away introducing someone who could so easily have been one of those unfortunate kids: Anderson Sa, who grew up in the slum of Vigário Geral.

  He describes the first murder he ever saw when, as a 10-year-old, a man nearby was shot in the head as a result of yet another gang-related dispute, the noises of which he heard every night as he went to sleep. As he grew older he himself moved closer to this world, actively involved “on the edge” of the drug scene, while never actually selling drugs themselves.

• Uncategorized

  Drug War Erupts in Ibiza

  08.01.06 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  One of the great things about drugs is that the market is necesarily monopolised by criminals. That is the effect of criminalising something for which there is an established and steady market.

  Little surpirse then, when the criminals start acting as such.

  The latest drug gang war to erupt, was this week on the idyllic party island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean.

  According to reports, two carloads of men opened fire on each other in close proximity to a swathe of tourists. Three people were taken to hospital, one with serious chest injuries.

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