The War On Drugs

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/what-the-drug-war-could-look-like-under-president-trump-w457192

sounds good

The series, executive produced by Julian P. Hobbs, Elli Hakami and Anthony Lappé, is a standard TV documentary; there’s the amalgam of interviews, file footage and dramatic recreations. What’s not standard is the story told on camera by former Drug Enforcement Administration operatives as well as journalists and drug dealers themselves. (One of the reporters is Ryan Grim, The Intercept’s Washington bureau chief and author of “This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America.”)

There’s no mealy-mouthed truckling about what happened. The first episode opens with the voice of Lindsay Moran, a one-time clandestine CIA officer, declaring, “The agency was elbow deep with drug traffickers.”

Then Richard Stratton, a marijuana smuggler turned writer and television producer, explains, “Most Americans would be utterly shocked if they knew the depth of involvement that the Central Intelligence Agency has had in the international drug trade.”

Next New York University professor Christian Parenti tells viewers, “The CIA is from its very beginning collaborating with mafiosas who are involved in the drug trade because these mafiosas will serve the larger agenda of fighting communism.”

For the next eight hours, the series sprints through history that’s largely the greatest hits of the U.S. government’s partnership with heroin, hallucinogen and cocaine dealers. That these greatest hits can fill up most of four two-hour episodes demonstrates how extraordinarily deep and ugly the story is....

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/18/the-history-channel-is-finally-telling-the-stunning-secret-story-of-the-war-on-drugs/

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/ex-undercover-cop-says-widnes-11854487

Ex-undercover cop says Widnes heroin clinic showed decriminalisation works
Experiment shut down by US Government showed that prescribing heroin reduces crime and harm says ex-detective who infiltrated notorious drug gangs

I knew about Neil Woods but this is the first I'd heard about the Dr Marks and the Widnes experiment

Huge step forward by @BetoORourke. Anything less would perpetuate, not eliminate, the racial disparities that are the hallmark of prohibitionist policies. It’s heartening to see him continue his long history of leading on drug policy by embracing this. https://t.co/LGzKmpRiif

— Shaleen Title (@shaleentitle) September 19, 2019

Whataya know? Beto had a good idea! Let's hope it happens.

the second good idea he's stumped for

not going so well

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/health/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html

That is one of the most horrifying things I have read. I’m glad they seated it firmly in the addicts’ and carers’ perspectives but my god, it’s unbearably sad.