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IDPC, HRA and Youth RISE News Digest, Asia-Pacific, 7 - 13 March 2017
This News Digest presents a range of articles relevant to drug policy and the Asia-Pacific region that have been published by media outlets in the past week, and do not all reflect the views and positions of the International Drug Policy Consortium, Harm Reduction Australia and Youth Rise.
__________________________________________________________________GLOBAL & REGIONAL
The Guardian 10/3
The attorney general, Jeff Sessions advises the federal prosecutors under his authority across the US to re-intensify the nation’s drug war as part of a Department of Justice initiative to target violent crime.
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AUSTRALIA
SBS 13/3
The longitudinal study involving researchers at Curtin University, University of New South Wales, University of Newcastle and Monash University also found more frequent use of the illicit drug was associated with more frequent trips to emergency and psychiatric hospitals but fewer trips to GPs and counsellors.
The Conversation 9/3
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the perceived clash between medicinal cannabis and our decades-long commitment to drug prohibition is now the major impediment slowing the introduction of medicinal cannabis in Australia.
ABC 8/3
Police Minister Lisa Neville said drug makers were getting around the legislation by tweaking the formula of products after they were banned, to create "new" products that were not listed on the banned register. She said the legislation will be amended to apply a blanket ban to the production, sale and promotion of any substance that has a psychoactive effect.
ABC News 7/3
Substance abuse experts and families torn apart by methamphetamine are warning major political parties they can not "arrest" their way out of Western Australia's drug problem.
__________________________________________________________________CAMBODIA
Khmer Times 10/3
A man, who police claim was a drug dealer, was gunned down during a police sting on Wednesday at Takeo province’s Samraong district.
Asian Correspondent 8/3
Cambodian authorities have arrested more than 4,800 people in a two-month-old campaign against drugs and that number could be more than double, the country’s drug czar said.
The Phnom Penh Post 8/3
The chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs called on the courts to dole out more life sentences for large-scale narcotics dealers during a meeting yesterday, accusing the judiciary of not being hard enough on those his men are arresting.
__________________________________________________________________INDONESIA
The Jakarta Post 13/3
Rebuffing an outcry over the previous execution of 18 death row inmates, most of whom were drug convicts, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has instructed officers in relevant agencies to hunt, arrest and “crush” smalland big-time drug dealers.
The Guardian 13/3
Indonesia has transferred a convicted US citizen to its so-called execution island, prompting fears among rights organisations that the government may be preparing another round of firing squads.
__________________________________________________________________MALAYSIA
Free Malaysia Today 12/3
Efforts to smuggle large amounts of drugs worth millions of ringgit across the Thai border since March last year raises all important question on who the Malaysian mastermind is.
__________________________________________________________________MYANMAR
A Times 9/3
There is little disagreement that Myanmar, despite a recent shift from military to semi-democratic rule, remains one of the world’s largest producers of illicit drugs, including opium, heroin, methamphetamine and other synthetic narcotics.
__________________________________________________________________NEW ZEALAND
Newshub 13/3
Using samples from the city's wastewater treatment plants, researchers found "high levels of methamphetamine, codeine, morphine and methadone", while cocaine and MDMA - the active ingredient in ecstasy - were "relatively rare".
Scoop 11/3
Associate Health Minister, Hon Peter Dunne will this week attend the 60th session on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UNCND) in Vienna, Austria. While there Mr. Dunne will deliver a national statement on behalf of New Zealand and also undertake a number of bilateral meetings with counterparts from around the world.
NZ Herald 8/3
Since 2010 prisoner-on-prisoner violence spiked astronomically, and has more than doubled since 2014.
Newshub 8/3
We all know that New Zealand has a methamphetamine problem. Some drug rehabilitation centres are reporting that up to 65 percent of its residents are recovering from P addiction. But the more worrying problem is the new trend emerging - that of mixing P with GHB.
__________________________________________________________________PHILIPPINES
CNN Philippines 13/3
Senator Leila De Lima refused to enter a plea on Monday over the "disobedience to summons" case filed against her. The court entered a 'not guilty' plea on her behalf. The Department of Justice filed the case with the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court on December 21, 2016 against De Lima, who advised her former driver-bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, to snub summons to attend the House of Representatives' investigation into the alleged drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison.
ABS CBN News 13/3
The Senate committees which investigated the death of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. found that the slay was "premeditated and with abuse of authority" on the part of the police operatives.
Cebu Daily 12/3
As the police and other law enforcement authorities recalibrated their offensive against illegal drugs, they find themselves facing a troubling aspect of the drug war — dealing with minors caught alongside the adult offenders.
Asia Pacific Report 12/3
At the same time, the Philippine National Police Director General Roland dela Rosa has announced yesterday the launching of “Operation Double Barrel Reloaded”. The operation is said to be a “kinder, gentler” approach for law enforcers to confront the illegal drug problem.
CNN 8/3
The death of Micheal Siaron last July might have gone unnoticed; just one of the over 7,500 lives -- so far -- claimed during Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. But members of a local rap group called One Pro Exclusive, whose cramped home studio is in a tenement in the neighborhood where Siaron once lived, have paid tribute to their slain friend with hip hop.
The Japan Times 7/3
Philippine police killed eight crime suspects in separate gun battles and arrested 21 others in a northern province Tuesday, a day after police were allowed to rejoin the president’s deadly anti-drug crackdown while also launching a drive against illegal guns.
Reuters 7/3
Philippine lower house lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the re-imposition of capital punishment for serious drug offences on Tuesday, clearing another hurdle in President Rodrigo Duterte's drive to use death as a deterrent against crime.
Radio NZ 7/3
The former policeman said he had personally killed 300 people, about 200 as a member of a "Davao death squad", with his last in 2015. He also detailed two cases where he had murdered critics of Mr Duterte, under the instruction of the then-mayor's bodyguard.
__________________________________________________________________SINGAPORE
Straits Times 13/3
The latest Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) figures showed close to a sevenfold increase in the number of people arrested for buying drugs or related paraphernalia online.
The Straits Times 11/3
A man convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to life imprisonment has been acquitted of all charges by the apex court, in a split 2-1 decision.
__________________________________________________________________SRI LANKA
Daily Mirror 11/3
President Maithripala Sirisena reiterated that the government is working with dedication to build a drug free youth in the country.
__________________________________________________________________VIET NAM
VN Express 7/3
Over 500 inmates broke out of the facility in the southern province of Dong Nai.
__________________________________________________________________WHAT WE MISSED IN LAST WEEK’S NEWS DIGEST
GLOBAL & REGIONAL
The Economist 6/3
States are losing the battle against deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl.
The Fix 6/3
After the U.S. State Department condemned the Philippine government for condoning the vigilante murders of drug dealers and users, a spokesman for the government has responded by making a distinction between extrajudicial killings and the execution of drug offenders.
Haaretz 5/3
In Israel, first-time offenders will face $270 fine if caught using marijuana in a public place, but criminal charges will only be brought if person re-offends four times.
Reuters 4/3
The Philippines on Saturday said it was committed to human rights and condemned extrajudicial killings but said those were "not to be confused" with incidents in its war on drugs, after a U.S. State Department report voiced concern about such deaths.
__________________________________________________________________PHILIPPINES
Reuters 6/3
Philippine senators abruptly ended a hearing on Monday into allegations by a retired policeman that a ‘death squad’ operated under President Rodrigo Duterte when he was mayor of Davao City, citing no proof that it even existed.
Reuters 6/3
The Philippines police chief announced the re-launch on Monday of police anti-narcotics operations he hoped would be less bloody, "or even bloodless", entering a new phase in a war on drugs that has caused international alarm.
__________________________________________________________________TAIWAN
Taiwan News 6/3
A Taiwanese man suspected of drug dealing in Indonesia was shot dead by local authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Sunday.
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