United States President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated that the building of US-Mexico border would help to stem the flow of illegal drugs, such as heroin and narcotics into the country.

While speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire, which has been the primary city exposed to opioid deaths Trump came up with the decision to build the wall to &quot;keep the damn drugs out&quot; and has come up with numerous ways to fight the epidemic.&nbsp;

&quot;Eventually the Democrats will agree with us and we&#39;ll build the wall to keep the damn drugs out,&quot; he said.

The drug overdose rose to 23 per cent in the city in the first two months of 2018, reports said.&nbsp;

At the same time, the outlet reported that overdose deaths were down 27 percent. Trump said 90 percent of illicit drugs come into the United States via the Mexican border.

In a speech on opioid epidemic at New Hampshire, President Trump vowed to be &quot;extremely tough&quot; on rampant drug crime in the country, adding that he would give &#39;death penalty&#39; to the country&#39;s drug dealers.

&quot;If we don&#39;t get tough on drug dealers, we are wasting our time, and that toughness includes the death penalty. We have got to get tough. This isn&#39;t about nice anymore,&quot; he asserted.

He spoke in front of a banner that read, &quot;Opioids: The Crisis Next Door&quot; and was flanked by law enforcement members.

He vowed that his administration would be spending a lot of money on a public awareness campaign to prevent American youth from taking drugs.

&quot;That&#39;s the least expensive thing we can do, where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials. And we&#39;ll make them very bad commercials; we&#39;ll make them very unsavoury situations,&quot; added President Trump.

The US President also called for greater access to treatment and praised American pharmaceutical companies that are making &quot;lifesaving overdose-reversing drugs&quot;.

The Trump administration is also calling for a national prescription-drug-monitoring database, where prescriptions can be tracked across the country. Each state has its own system and some share data. The administration also wants to cut opioid prescriptions by one-third nationwide.

&quot;The plan contains some important steps that will increase access to effective, evidence-based treatment, particularly Medication-Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction,&quot; Chuck Ingoglia, senior vice president for public policy and practice improvement at the National Council for Behavioral Health, said in a statement.

The opioid epidemic or opioid crisis is the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in the United States and Canada beginning in the late 1990s and continuing throughout the first two decades of the 2000s.&nbsp;

Opioids are a diverse class of moderately strong painkillers, including oxycodone (commonly sold under the trade names OxyContin and Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and a very strong painkiller, fentanyl, which is synthesized to resemble other opiates such as opium-derived morphine and heroin.

(With inputs from ANI)

In a speech on opioid epidemic at New Hampshire, President Trump vowed to be 'extremely tough' on rampant drug crime in the country, adding that he would give 'death penalty' to the country's drug dealers

United States President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated that the building of US-Mexico border would help to stem the flow of illegal drugs, such as heroin and narcotics into the country. While speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire, which has been the primary city exposed to opioid deaths Trump came up with the decision to build the wall to "keep the damn drugs out" and has come up with numerous ways to fight the epidemic. "Eventually the Democrats will agree with us and we'll build the wall to keep the damn drugs out," he said. The drug overdose rose to 23 per cent in the city in the first two months of 2018, reports said. At the same time, the outlet reported that overdose deaths were down 27 percent. Trump said 90 percent of illicit drugs come into the United States via the Mexican border. In a speech on opioid epidemic at New Hampshire, President Trump vowed to be "extremely tough" on rampant drug crime in the country, adding that he would give 'death penalty' to the country's drug dealers. "If we don't get tough on drug dealers, we are wasting our time, and that toughness includes the death penalty. We have got to get tough. This isn't about nice anymore," he asserted. He spoke in front of a banner that read, "Opioids: The Crisis Next Door" and was flanked by law enforcement members. He vowed that his administration would be spending a lot of money on a public awareness campaign to prevent American youth from taking drugs. "That's the least expensive thing we can do, where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials. And we'll make them very bad commercials; we'll make them very unsavoury situations," added President Trump. The US President also called for greater access to treatment and praised American pharmaceutical companies that are making "lifesaving overdose-reversing drugs". The Trump administration is also calling for a national prescription-drug-monitoring database, where prescriptions can be tracked across the country. Each state has its own system and some share data. The administration also wants to cut opioid prescriptions by one-third nationwide. "The plan contains some important steps that will increase access to effective, evidence-based treatment, particularly Medication-Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction," Chuck Ingoglia, senior vice president for public policy and practice improvement at the National Council for Behavioral Health, said in a statement. The opioid epidemic or opioid crisis is the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in the United States and Canada beginning in the late 1990s and continuing throughout the first two decades of the 2000s. Opioids are a diverse class of moderately strong painkillers, including oxycodone (commonly sold under the trade names OxyContin and Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and a very strong painkiller, fentanyl, which is synthesized to resemble other opiates such as opium-derived morphine and heroin. (With inputs from ANI)

Building US-Mexico border to 'keep the damn drugs out': Trump

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday apologised to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the &quot;drug trade&quot;.

The development came to light after the former Punjab minister took to Twitter to share the apology letter sent to him by the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Taking to Twitter, Bikram Majithia wrote, &ldquo;CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court, for all the baseless&amp;false allegations he &amp; his party levelled against me in drug issue.My mother suffered the most due to all this and this apology is a vindication of her faith in Waheguru&rsquo;s power of justice.&rdquo;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
CM <a href="https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArvindKejriwal</a> has tendered an apology to me in the court,for all the baseless&amp;false allegations he &amp; his party levelled against me in drug <a href="https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW">https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW</a> mother suffered the most due to all this&amp;this apology is vindication of her faith in Waheguru&rsquo;s power of justice <a href="https://t.co/YXs3f710eu">pic.twitter.com/YXs3f710eu</a>
&mdash; Bikram Majithia (@bsmajithia) <a href="https://twitter.com/bsmajithia/status/974273822017970176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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According to the apology letter, CM Kejriwal has retracted his allegations that he made against the former Punjab Minister and has further offered his regret.&nbsp;

During the 2017 Punjab elections, Kejriwal had attacked the Punjab government and particularly Majithia for being hand in glove with the drug mafia in the state.

Majithia had filed a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party chief and others following the allegation made during campaigning in the Punjab assembly elections.

A media reports said that Kejriwal, who has some 20 defamation cases filed against him, will make apologies for them too.

(WIth inputs from Agencies)

CM Kejriwal has retracted his allegations that he made against the former Punjab Minister and has further offered his regret.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday apologised to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the "drug trade". The development came to light after the former Punjab minister took to Twitter to share the apology letter sent to him by the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Taking to Twitter, Bikram Majithia wrote, “CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court, for all the baseless&false allegations he & his party levelled against me in drug issue.My mother suffered the most due to all this and this apology is a vindication of her faith in Waheguru’s power of justice.” CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court,for all the baseless&false allegations he & his party levelled against me in drug https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW mother suffered the most due to all this&this apology is vindication of her faith in Waheguru’s power of justice pic.twitter.com/YXs3f710eu — Bikram Majithia (@bsmajithia) March 15, 2018 × According to the apology letter, CM Kejriwal has retracted his allegations that he made against the former Punjab Minister and has further offered his regret. During the 2017 Punjab elections, Kejriwal had attacked the Punjab government and particularly Majithia for being hand in glove with the drug mafia in the state. Majithia had filed a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party chief and others following the allegation made during campaigning in the Punjab assembly elections. A media reports said that Kejriwal, who has some 20 defamation cases filed against him, will make apologies for them too. (WIth inputs from Agencies)

Kejriwal says sorry to former Punjab minister, other apologies may follow

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday apologized to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the &quot;drug trade&quot;.

The development came to light after the former Punjab minister took to Twitter to share the apology letter sent to him by the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Taking to Twitter, Bikram Majithia wrote, &ldquo;CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court, for all the baseless&amp;false allegations he &amp; his party levelled against me in drug issue.My mother suffered the most due to all this and this apology is a vindication of her faith in Waheguru&rsquo;s power of justice.&rdquo;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
CM <a href="https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArvindKejriwal</a> has tendered an apology to me in the court,for all the baseless&amp;false allegations he &amp; his party levelled against me in drug <a href="https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW">https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW</a> mother suffered the most due to all this&amp;this apology is vindication of her faith in Waheguru&rsquo;s power of justice <a href="https://t.co/YXs3f710eu">pic.twitter.com/YXs3f710eu</a>
&mdash; Bikram Majithia (@bsmajithia) <a href="https://twitter.com/bsmajithia/status/974273822017970176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

According to the apology letter, CM Kejriwal has retracted his allegations that he made against the former Punjab Minister and has further offered his regret.&nbsp;

During the 2017 Punjab elections, Kejriwal had attacked the Punjab government and particularly Majithia for being hand in glove with the drug mafia in the state.

Majithia had filed a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party chief and others following the allegation made during campaigning in the Punjab assembly elections.

(WIth inputs from Agencies)

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday apologized to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the "drug trade". The development came to light after the former Punjab minister took to Twitter to share the apology letter sent to him by the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Taking to Twitter, Bikram Majithia wrote, “CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court, for all the baseless&false allegations he & his party levelled against me in drug issue.My mother suffered the most due to all this and this apology is a vindication of her faith in Waheguru’s power of justice.” CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court,for all the baseless&false allegations he & his party levelled against me in drug https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW mother suffered the most due to all this&this apology is vindication of her faith in Waheguru’s power of justice pic.twitter.com/YXs3f710eu — Bikram Majithia (@bsmajithia) March 15, 2018 × According to the apology letter, CM Kejriwal has retracted his allegations that he made against the former Punjab Minister and has further offered his regret. During the 2017 Punjab elections, Kejriwal had attacked the Punjab government and particularly Majithia for being hand in glove with the drug mafia in the state. Majithia had filed a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party chief and others following the allegation made during campaigning in the Punjab assembly elections. (WIth inputs from Agencies)

Arvind Kejriwal apologises to ex-Punjab minister Bikram Majithia

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will withdraw his country&#39;s ratification of the International Criminal Court&#39;s (ICC) Rome Statute, due to what he said were attacks by United Nations officials and violations of due process by the ICC, according to a draft statement.

The statement, which had yet to be signed by Duterte, was given to reporters by presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo, who confirmed that the document was authentic.

It said the move was due to the &quot;baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person as well as against my administration&quot; by UN officials, and what he said was an attempt by the ICC prosecutor to seek jurisdiction over him &quot;in violation of due process and presumption of innocence&quot;.

The ICC last month started a preliminary examination to establish whether crimes against humanity may have taken place during Duterte&#39;s deadly war on drugs and whether the ICC had jurisdiction to take on the case. A complaint was filed with the ICC by a Philippine lawyer last year.

The statement, which had yet to be signed by Duterte, was given to reporters by presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo, who confirmed that the document was authentic

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will withdraw his country's ratification of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Rome Statute, due to what he said were attacks by United Nations officials and violations of due process by the ICC, according to a draft statement. The statement, which had yet to be signed by Duterte, was given to reporters by presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo, who confirmed that the document was authentic. It said the move was due to the "baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person as well as against my administration" by UN officials, and what he said was an attempt by the ICC prosecutor to seek jurisdiction over him "in violation of due process and presumption of innocence". The ICC last month started a preliminary examination to establish whether crimes against humanity may have taken place during Duterte's deadly war on drugs and whether the ICC had jurisdiction to take on the case. A complaint was filed with the ICC by a Philippine lawyer last year.

Philippines' Duterte to issue notice of withdrawal from ICC

A vast research study that sought to settle a long-standing debate about whether or not anti-depressant drugs really work has found they are indeed effective in relieving acute depression in adults.

The international study - a meta-analysis pooling results of 522 trials covering 21 commonly-used antidepressants and almost 120,000 patients - uncovered a range of outcomes, with some drugs proving more effective than others and some having fewer side effects.

But all 21 drugs - including both off-patent generic and newer, patented drugs - were more effective than placebos, or dummy pills, the results showed.

&ldquo;Antidepressants are routinely used worldwide yet there remains considerable debate about their effectiveness and tolerability,&rdquo; said John Ioannidis of Stanford University in the United States, who worked on a team of researchers led by Andrea Cipriani of Britain&rsquo;s Oxford University.

Cipriani said these findings now offered &ldquo;the best available evidence to inform and guide doctors and patients&rdquo; and should reassure people with depression that drugs can help.

&ldquo;Antidepressants can be an effective tool to treat major depression, but this does not necessarily mean antidepressants should always be the first line of treatment,&rdquo; he told a briefing in London.

According to the World Health Organization, some 300 million people worldwide have depression. While both pharmacological and psychological treatments are available, only one in six people with depression in rich countries gets effective treatment. That drops to one in 27 patients in poor and middle-income countries.

Effectiveness varies

The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, found some differences in the effectiveness of the 21 drugs.

In general, newer antidepressants tended to be better tolerated due to fewer side effects, while the most effective drug in terms of reducing depressive symptoms was amitriptyline - a drug first discovered in the 1950s.

Some well-known medicines - such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine, sold under the Prozac brand - were slightly less effective but better tolerated.

The scientists noted that their study could only look at average effects, so should not be interpreted as showing that antidepressants work in every patient. Only around 60 percent of people prescribed depression medication improve, Cipriani said.

&ldquo;Unfortunately, we know that about one-third of patients with depression will not respond to them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s clear there is still a need to improve treatments further.&rdquo;

Several experts not directly involved in the study said its results gave a clear message.

&ldquo;This meta-analysis finally puts to bed the controversy on antidepressants,&rdquo; said Carmine Pariante, a professor at Britain&rsquo;s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.

James Warner, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London, added: &ldquo;Depression causes misery to countless thousands every year and this study adds to the existing evidence that effective treatments are available.&rdquo;

Cipriani said these findings now offered “the best available evidence to inform and guide doctors and patients” and should reassure people with depression that drugs can help

A vast research study that sought to settle a long-standing debate about whether or not anti-depressant drugs really work has found they are indeed effective in relieving acute depression in adults. The international study - a meta-analysis pooling results of 522 trials covering 21 commonly-used antidepressants and almost 120,000 patients - uncovered a range of outcomes, with some drugs proving more effective than others and some having fewer side effects. But all 21 drugs - including both off-patent generic and newer, patented drugs - were more effective than placebos, or dummy pills, the results showed. “Antidepressants are routinely used worldwide yet there remains considerable debate about their effectiveness and tolerability,” said John Ioannidis of Stanford University in the United States, who worked on a team of researchers led by Andrea Cipriani of Britain’s Oxford University. Cipriani said these findings now offered “the best available evidence to inform and guide doctors and patients” and should reassure people with depression that drugs can help. “Antidepressants can be an effective tool to treat major depression, but this does not necessarily mean antidepressants should always be the first line of treatment,” he told a briefing in London. According to the World Health Organization, some 300 million people worldwide have depression. While both pharmacological and psychological treatments are available, only one in six people with depression in rich countries gets effective treatment. That drops to one in 27 patients in poor and middle-income countries. Effectiveness varies The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, found some differences in the effectiveness of the 21 drugs. In general, newer antidepressants tended to be better tolerated due to fewer side effects, while the most effective drug in terms of reducing depressive symptoms was amitriptyline - a drug first discovered in the 1950s. Some well-known medicines - such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine, sold under the Prozac brand - were slightly less effective but better tolerated. The scientists noted that their study could only look at average effects, so should not be interpreted as showing that antidepressants work in every patient. Only around 60 percent of people prescribed depression medication improve, Cipriani said. “Unfortunately, we know that about one-third of patients with depression will not respond to them,” he said. “It’s clear there is still a need to improve treatments further.” Several experts not directly involved in the study said its results gave a clear message. “This meta-analysis finally puts to bed the controversy on antidepressants,” said Carmine Pariante, a professor at Britain’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. James Warner, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London, added: “Depression causes misery to countless thousands every year and this study adds to the existing evidence that effective treatments are available.”

Study seeks to end antidepressant debate: The drugs do work

Sport, and particularly the International Olympic Committee (IOC), needs a new approach to doping &ndash; one in which it frankly and independently interrogates what went wrong and uses that analysis to secure the future.

Mistakes have been made to the extent that doping scandals have dominated the build-up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. This is one of the IOC&rsquo;s marquee events, and the financial viability of the Olympic &ldquo;movement&rdquo; depends on it.

The background to the latest scandal is easily explained. But the lessons that need to be learned are not so simply analysed.

Background to the saga&nbsp;

Allegations of a Russian state-sponsored doping conspiracy at the 2014 Sochi Olympics prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to commission an investigation by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren. His report fed into the IOC&rsquo;s investigation of the Sochi Olympics and its own disciplinary process.

This all led to the IOC&rsquo;s decision in December 2017 to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect.&nbsp;

Nevertheless, the IOC also decided it would still be open to inviting individual Russian athletes to compete in Pyeongchang. But this would be under strict conditions that, if met, would only allow them to participate under a separate designation of &ldquo;Olympic Athlete from Russia&rdquo;.

An IOC panel appointed to oversee this process initially reviewed applications submitted by 500 Russian athletes &ndash; 111 were refused almost immediately. It now looks as if 169 Russian athletes will compete in Pyeongchang.

The IOC disciplined a separate tranche of 43 Russian athletes. These athletes had to forfeit the medals they won at Sochi and received life bans from future Olympics. But 39 of them appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and 28 were successful. The court held there was insufficient evidence to establish they had committed anti-doping infractions.

Although the court&rsquo;s mandate was to consider the individual appeals and not to determine whether there was systemic doping at Sochi, its decision was a bad defeat for the IOC.

With 169 Russians permitted to go to Pyeongchang by its own review panel plus the 28 cleared by case, it could be said there are now 197 holes in the key pieces of evidence relied upon by the IOC &ndash; the McLaren report and that of Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.

Also, the Russian press has interpreted the CAS decision annulling the medal forfeiture as meaning that Russia is reinstated in first place on the unofficial Sochi Olympics medal tally.

Even in the CAS decision to uphold the findings of doping violations against the other 11 Russian athletes, the IOC&rsquo;s victory was partial. These athletes had their life bans reduced to a ban for the duration of the Pyeongchang Games only.

After the CAS decision, IOC President Thomas Bach said reform may be needed to the way the court operates &ndash; as did WADA vice-president Linda Hofstad Helleland.

So, sport is now in a politically charged and totally conflicted situation. Its doping prosecutor (WADA) and the executive that governs sports policy globally (the IOC) have both said an inquiry is needed into the workings of sport&rsquo;s judiciary. And that inquiry has been prompted by a CAS judgment that applied the anti-doping laws WADA and the IOC wrote, but with whose interpretation they now disagree.

The IOC has refused to invite the CAS-cleared athletes to compete in Pyeongchang. It seems to have suggested its rationale is twofold: it still has to get the full reasons for the CAS decision, and it has &ldquo;additional information&rdquo; on doping related to those athletes.

But this raises fresh questions about why this supplementary evidence wasn&rsquo;t supplied to CAS and what exactly are the criteria used &ndash; as opposed to the evidence relied upon by the IOC in deciding whether to invite the athletes.

Some of those athletes are now (re)challenging the IOC and the carousel of Sochi-related appeals at CAS continues. It&rsquo;s unclear if it will stop before the Pyeongchang Olympics begin on Friday.

What lessons can be learned?

The International Paralympic Committee comprehensively banned Russia &ndash; a move CAS upheld. The IOC did not do this; it pursued individuals. There are questions over whether it &nbsp;unnecessarily rushed that process (and its lawyers), and whether it had a contingency plan to respond to the worst-case scenario of losing at CAS.

In the long term, questions may well be asked of CAS and whether it has outgrown its current structures to the extent that a permanent, standing court is needed for sport.

More importantly, it must be asked whether the current anti-doping system, which has its origins in responses to the systemic doping of East Germany and others in the 1980s, is designed to pursue and punish instances of institutional or collective or team-mandated doping.

In addition, the system is premised largely on catching individual dopers. Maybe a better way to test the system&rsquo;s integrity is for entities such as WADA, in conjunction with athlete representative bodies, to continuously and first to ask itself: what if we accuse someone in the wrong? What about a false positive?

If the anti-doping system is scrutinised in this way, it may well prompt uncomfortable questions about the scientific integrity and efficacy of current testing, the resources needed to independently prosecute doping, and the political will to do so.

And yet, if those questions are answered honestly and the necessary checks and balances are put in place, the anti-doping system would be strengthened &ndash; and the mistakes of the recent past would be confined to the past.&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Doping scandals have dominated the build-up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

Sport, and particularly the International Olympic Committee (IOC), needs a new approach to doping – one in which it frankly and independently interrogates what went wrong and uses that analysis to secure the future. Mistakes have been made to the extent that doping scandals have dominated the build-up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. This is one of the IOC’s marquee events, and the financial viability of the Olympic “movement” depends on it. The background to the latest scandal is easily explained. But the lessons that need to be learned are not so simply analysed. Background to the saga Allegations of a Russian state-sponsored doping conspiracy at the 2014 Sochi Olympics prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to commission an investigation by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren. His report fed into the IOC’s investigation of the Sochi Olympics and its own disciplinary process. This all led to the IOC’s decision in December 2017 to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect. Nevertheless, the IOC also decided it would still be open to inviting individual Russian athletes to compete in Pyeongchang. But this would be under strict conditions that, if met, would only allow them to participate under a separate designation of “Olympic Athlete from Russia”. An IOC panel appointed to oversee this process initially reviewed applications submitted by 500 Russian athletes – 111 were refused almost immediately. It now looks as if 169 Russian athletes will compete in Pyeongchang. The IOC disciplined a separate tranche of 43 Russian athletes. These athletes had to forfeit the medals they won at Sochi and received life bans from future Olympics. But 39 of them appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and 28 were successful. The court held there was insufficient evidence to establish they had committed anti-doping infractions. Although the court’s mandate was to consider the individual appeals and not to determine whether there was systemic doping at Sochi, its decision was a bad defeat for the IOC. With 169 Russians permitted to go to Pyeongchang by its own review panel plus the 28 cleared by case, it could be said there are now 197 holes in the key pieces of evidence relied upon by the IOC – the McLaren report and that of Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov. Also, the Russian press has interpreted the CAS decision annulling the medal forfeiture as meaning that Russia is reinstated in first place on the unofficial Sochi Olympics medal tally. Even in the CAS decision to uphold the findings of doping violations against the other 11 Russian athletes, the IOC’s victory was partial. These athletes had their life bans reduced to a ban for the duration of the Pyeongchang Games only. After the CAS decision, IOC President Thomas Bach said reform may be needed to the way the court operates – as did WADA vice-president Linda Hofstad Helleland. So, sport is now in a politically charged and totally conflicted situation. Its doping prosecutor (WADA) and the executive that governs sports policy globally (the IOC) have both said an inquiry is needed into the workings of sport’s judiciary. And that inquiry has been prompted by a CAS judgment that applied the anti-doping laws WADA and the IOC wrote, but with whose interpretation they now disagree. The IOC has refused to invite the CAS-cleared athletes to compete in Pyeongchang. It seems to have suggested its rationale is twofold: it still has to get the full reasons for the CAS decision, and it has “additional information” on doping related to those athletes. But this raises fresh questions about why this supplementary evidence wasn’t supplied to CAS and what exactly are the criteria used – as opposed to the evidence relied upon by the IOC in deciding whether to invite the athletes. Some of those athletes are now (re)challenging the IOC and the carousel of Sochi-related appeals at CAS continues. It’s unclear if it will stop before the Pyeongchang Olympics begin on Friday. What lessons can be learned? The International Paralympic Committee comprehensively banned Russia – a move CAS upheld. The IOC did not do this; it pursued individuals. There are questions over whether it unnecessarily rushed that process (and its lawyers), and whether it had a contingency plan to respond to the worst-case scenario of losing at CAS. In the long term, questions may well be asked of CAS and whether it has outgrown its current structures to the extent that a permanent, standing court is needed for sport. More importantly, it must be asked whether the current anti-doping system, which has its origins in responses to the systemic doping of East Germany and others in the 1980s, is designed to pursue and punish instances of institutional or collective or team-mandated doping. In addition, the system is premised largely on catching individual dopers. Maybe a better way to test the system’s integrity is for entities such as WADA, in conjunction with athlete representative bodies, to continuously and first to ask itself: what if we accuse someone in the wrong? What about a false positive? If the anti-doping system is scrutinised in this way, it may well prompt uncomfortable questions about the scientific integrity and efficacy of current testing, the resources needed to independently prosecute doping, and the political will to do so. And yet, if those questions are answered honestly and the necessary checks and balances are put in place, the anti-doping system would be strengthened – and the mistakes of the recent past would be confined to the past. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Russian Olympic doping calls for different approach in future Olympics

Myanmar troops seized $7 million worth of narcotics, precursors and equipment in a raid on drug labs in the restive north, the army said Monday, as it continues a war against ethnic rebels accused of profiting from the drug trade.

Soldiers and local officials found 259 kilogrammes (571 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine and 120 kg of opium in a sweep of the illicit drugs factory spread across 34 buildings near Lwalkhan, a village in war-hit Shan state near the Chinese border.

The army statement, posted on the commander-in-chief&#39;s Facebook page, also listed in rare detail the seized drug-producing equipment and precursors, including hundreds of barrels of acid and diesel, 750 bags of caustic soda, 22 freezers, 12 generators and huge caches of caffeine and other chemicals.&nbsp;

&quot;The Tatmadaw (military) seized the drugs in the raid and cooperated with the drug enforcement police team. The legal process is still ongoing,&quot; a senior police officer from the anti-drug department said on the condition of anonymity.

The bust took place in Kutkai township, where a record seizure last month brought in 30 million meth pills, two tonnes of &quot;ice&quot; -crystal meth- and heroin, with an estimated combined value of $54 million.&nbsp;

The raids come as the military continues its seasonal offensive against ethnic minority armed groups in the lawless border areas.

Last week alone, clashes between the army and rebels in Kutkai and neighbouring Hseni township displaced some 870 civilians, according to the UN&#39;s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Myanmar&#39;s conflict-riddled northeast is a hub for Asia&#39;s meth producers, who pump out narcotics that are showered across Southeast Asia and beyond.

Drugs trafficking fuels much of the fighting between the army and the ethnic rebels -- both of whom are accused of profiting from the illicit trade.

Myanmar is the second-largest opium producer in the world after Afghanistan, although a surge in demand for meth has caused a slump in poppy cultivation in recent years.

Rights groups accuse the military and armed groups of extrajudicial killings, torture and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Myanmar troops seized narcotics, precursors and equipment in a raid on drug labs in the restive north as it continues a war against ethnic rebels accused of profiting from the drug trade

Myanmar troops seized $7 million worth of narcotics, precursors and equipment in a raid on drug labs in the restive north, the army said Monday, as it continues a war against ethnic rebels accused of profiting from the drug trade. Soldiers and local officials found 259 kilogrammes (571 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine and 120 kg of opium in a sweep of the illicit drugs factory spread across 34 buildings near Lwalkhan, a village in war-hit Shan state near the Chinese border. The army statement, posted on the commander-in-chief's Facebook page, also listed in rare detail the seized drug-producing equipment and precursors, including hundreds of barrels of acid and diesel, 750 bags of caustic soda, 22 freezers, 12 generators and huge caches of caffeine and other chemicals. "The Tatmadaw (military) seized the drugs in the raid and cooperated with the drug enforcement police team. The legal process is still ongoing," a senior police officer from the anti-drug department said on the condition of anonymity. The bust took place in Kutkai township, where a record seizure last month brought in 30 million meth pills, two tonnes of "ice" -crystal meth- and heroin, with an estimated combined value of $54 million. The raids come as the military continues its seasonal offensive against ethnic minority armed groups in the lawless border areas. Last week alone, clashes between the army and rebels in Kutkai and neighbouring Hseni township displaced some 870 civilians, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Myanmar's conflict-riddled northeast is a hub for Asia's meth producers, who pump out narcotics that are showered across Southeast Asia and beyond. Drugs trafficking fuels much of the fighting between the army and the ethnic rebels -- both of whom are accused of profiting from the illicit trade. Myanmar is the second-largest opium producer in the world after Afghanistan, although a surge in demand for meth has caused a slump in poppy cultivation in recent years. Rights groups accuse the military and armed groups of extrajudicial killings, torture and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Myanmar seizes drugs and equipment worth $7 million in lab raid

Myanmar troops seized $7 million worth of narcotics, precursors and equipment in a raid on drug labs in the restive north, the army said Monday, as it continues a war against ethnic rebels accused of profiting from the drug trade.

Soldiers and local officials found 259 kilogrammes (571 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine and 120 kg of opium in a sweep of the illicit drugs factory spread across 34 buildings near Lwalkhan, a village in war-hit Shan state near the Chinese border.

The army statement, posted on the commander-in-chief`s Facebook page, also listed in rare detail the seized drug-producing equipment and precursors, including hundreds of barrels of acid and diesel, 750 bags of caustic soda, 22 freezers, 12 generators and huge caches of caffeine and other chemicals.&nbsp;

&quot;The Tatmadaw (military) seized the drugs in the raid and cooperated with the drug enforcement police team. The legal process is still ongoing,&quot; a senior police officer from the anti-drug department told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The bust took place in Kutkai township, where a record seizure last month brought in 30 million meth pills, two tonnes of &quot;ice&quot; -- crystal meth -- and heroin, with an estimated combined value of $54 million.&nbsp;

The raids come as the military continues its seasonal offensive against ethnic minority armed groups in the lawless border areas.

Last week alone, clashes between the army and rebels in Kutkai and neighbouring Hseni township displaced some 870 civilians, according to the UN`s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Myanmar`s conflict-riddled northeast is a hub for Asia`s meth producers, who pump out narcotics that are showered across Southeast Asia and beyond.

Drugs trafficking fuels much of the fighting between the army and the ethnic rebels -- both of whom are accused of profiting from the illicit trade.

Myanmar is the second-largest opium producer in the world after Afghanistan, although a surge in demand for meth has caused a slump in poppy cultivation in recent years.

Rights groups accuse the military and armed groups of extrajudicial killings, torture and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Myanmar troops seized $7 million worth of narcotics, precursors and equipment in a raid on drug labs in the restive north, the army said Monday, as it continues a war against ethnic rebels accused of profiting from the drug trade. Soldiers and local officials found 259 kilogrammes (571 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine and 120 kg of opium in a sweep of the illicit drugs factory spread across 34 buildings near Lwalkhan, a village in war-hit Shan state near the Chinese border. The army statement, posted on the commander-in-chief`s Facebook page, also listed in rare detail the seized drug-producing equipment and precursors, including hundreds of barrels of acid and diesel, 750 bags of caustic soda, 22 freezers, 12 generators and huge caches of caffeine and other chemicals. "The Tatmadaw (military) seized the drugs in the raid and cooperated with the drug enforcement police team. The legal process is still ongoing," a senior police officer from the anti-drug department told AFP on the condition of anonymity. The bust took place in Kutkai township, where a record seizure last month brought in 30 million meth pills, two tonnes of "ice" -- crystal meth -- and heroin, with an estimated combined value of $54 million. The raids come as the military continues its seasonal offensive against ethnic minority armed groups in the lawless border areas. Last week alone, clashes between the army and rebels in Kutkai and neighbouring Hseni township displaced some 870 civilians, according to the UN`s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Myanmar`s conflict-riddled northeast is a hub for Asia`s meth producers, who pump out narcotics that are showered across Southeast Asia and beyond. Drugs trafficking fuels much of the fighting between the army and the ethnic rebels -- both of whom are accused of profiting from the illicit trade. Myanmar is the second-largest opium producer in the world after Afghanistan, although a surge in demand for meth has caused a slump in poppy cultivation in recent years. Rights groups accuse the military and armed groups of extrajudicial killings, torture and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Myanmar seizes drugs, equipment worth $7 mn in lab raid

In a rare case, an Indian-origin Malaysian on death row in Singapore for possessing drugs has been acquitted by the country&#39; apex court.

According to the judgement yesterday, Gopu Jaya Raman successfully proved that he did not know that controlled drugs were hidden in the motorcycle he was riding into Singapore.

On March 24, 2014, Gopu was arrested after he entered Singapore through Woodlands Checkpoint on the north with three black bundles of diamorphine hidden in his motorcycle&#39;s fender.

Diamorphine also known as Heroin, is an opioid most commonly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects.

When immigration officers stopped him and found the drugs, he said he did not know the drugs were hidden in the motorcycle.

Gopu, also claimed the motorcycle was not his.

Tay Yong Kwang, the sole dissenting judge in yesterday&#39;s judgement, noted that Gopu had trafficked drugs into Singapore on two other occasions before he was caught on March 24, 2014. He had been trying to repay a 4,000 Malaysian Ringgit loan.

He was not convinced by Gopu&#39;s reasons for entering Singapore or how he came to possess the motorcycle.

He said Gopu&#39;s admission to trafficking drugs into Singapore on the same motorcycle on two other occasions did not bolster his credibility.

After the authorities found the drugs, they got Gopu&#39;s help to try to nab others in the ring who might turn up to collect the drugs, the judgement stated. The operation, however, was called off when no one turned up.

Authorities monitored his conversation with the man who had helped to get him the motorcycle.

After listening to a number of exchanges, officers told Gopu to send a message, indicating that he had no knowledge of the drugs.

In yesterday&#39;s judgement, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Judge of Appeal Judith Prakash found that Gopu would have missed the drugs when he was checking for them, given the bundles&#39; &quot;size and dark colour&quot;.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

According to the judgment yesterday, Gopu Jaya Raman successfully proved that he did not know that controlled drugs were hidden in the motorcycle he was riding into Singapore

In a rare case, an Indian-origin Malaysian on death row in Singapore for possessing drugs has been acquitted by the country' apex court. According to the judgement yesterday, Gopu Jaya Raman successfully proved that he did not know that controlled drugs were hidden in the motorcycle he was riding into Singapore. On March 24, 2014, Gopu was arrested after he entered Singapore through Woodlands Checkpoint on the north with three black bundles of diamorphine hidden in his motorcycle's fender. Diamorphine also known as Heroin, is an opioid most commonly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. When immigration officers stopped him and found the drugs, he said he did not know the drugs were hidden in the motorcycle. Gopu, also claimed the motorcycle was not his. Tay Yong Kwang, the sole dissenting judge in yesterday's judgement, noted that Gopu had trafficked drugs into Singapore on two other occasions before he was caught on March 24, 2014. He had been trying to repay a 4,000 Malaysian Ringgit loan. He was not convinced by Gopu's reasons for entering Singapore or how he came to possess the motorcycle. He said Gopu's admission to trafficking drugs into Singapore on the same motorcycle on two other occasions did not bolster his credibility. After the authorities found the drugs, they got Gopu's help to try to nab others in the ring who might turn up to collect the drugs, the judgement stated. The operation, however, was called off when no one turned up. Authorities monitored his conversation with the man who had helped to get him the motorcycle. After listening to a number of exchanges, officers told Gopu to send a message, indicating that he had no knowledge of the drugs. In yesterday's judgement, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Judge of Appeal Judith Prakash found that Gopu would have missed the drugs when he was checking for them, given the bundles' "size and dark colour".

Indian-origin Malaysian on death row in Singapore wins acquittal

Nearly two-thirds of multi-drug antibiotic cocktails sold in India between 2007 and 2012 were unapproved, said researchers Monday, warning such &quot;illegal&quot; compounds were fuelling the spread of drug-resistant diseases.

In total, 118 different types of &quot;fixed-dose combination&quot; antibiotics -- formulations combining two or more drugs in a single pill -- were sold in India in the five years under review, a team reported in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Of these, &quot;64 percent were not approved by the national drugs regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation&quot;, they said.

The sale of unapproved drugs is illegal in India.

The 118 formulations were sold as 3,307 different brand-named products, produced by 476 pharmaceutical companies -- including a dozen multinationals, said the team.

There were also 86 single-drug formulations, of which 93 percent had regulatory approval.

&quot;Selling unapproved, unscrutinised antibiotics undermines measures in India to control antimicrobial resistance,&quot; said the study&#39;s lead author Patricia McGettigan of the Queen Mary University in London.

&quot;Multinational companies should explain the sale of products in India that did not have the approval of their own national regulators and, in many cases, did not even have the approval of the Indian regulator,&quot; she said in a statement.

India already has one of the highest rates of drug resistance in the world, said the team, coupled with one of the highest antibiotic consumption rates.

The UN warns that the emergence of drug-resistant germs is a &quot;global health emergency&quot; threatening progress made by modern medicine, and risking a future in which people die of ailments that are easily curable today.

A report commissioned by the British government warned in 2014 that antibiotics-resistant infections could kill 10 million people per year globally by 2050, making it the leading cause of death over heart disease and cancer.&nbsp;

Bacteria acquire drug resistance partly through exposure to antibiotics.&nbsp;

Instead of killing the germs, the wrong type of antibiotic or the wrong dose can stimulate the bugs to fight back -- either by spontaneous DNA mutations that confer immunity, or by transferring resistant genes between themselves.

This can also happen when humans are exposed to antibiotics in animals they consume, or in the water or soil they come into contact with.

The study appeared in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

Nearly two-thirds of multi-drug antibiotic cocktails sold in India between 2007 and 2012 were unapproved, said researchers Monday, warning such "illegal" compounds were fuelling the spread of drug-resistant diseases. In total, 118 different types of "fixed-dose combination" antibiotics -- formulations combining two or more drugs in a single pill -- were sold in India in the five years under review, a team reported in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Of these, "64 percent were not approved by the national drugs regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation", they said. The sale of unapproved drugs is illegal in India. The 118 formulations were sold as 3,307 different brand-named products, produced by 476 pharmaceutical companies -- including a dozen multinationals, said the team. There were also 86 single-drug formulations, of which 93 percent had regulatory approval. "Selling unapproved, unscrutinised antibiotics undermines measures in India to control antimicrobial resistance," said the study's lead author Patricia McGettigan of the Queen Mary University in London. "Multinational companies should explain the sale of products in India that did not have the approval of their own national regulators and, in many cases, did not even have the approval of the Indian regulator," she said in a statement. India already has one of the highest rates of drug resistance in the world, said the team, coupled with one of the highest antibiotic consumption rates. The UN warns that the emergence of drug-resistant germs is a "global health emergency" threatening progress made by modern medicine, and risking a future in which people die of ailments that are easily curable today. A report commissioned by the British government warned in 2014 that antibiotics-resistant infections could kill 10 million people per year globally by 2050, making it the leading cause of death over heart disease and cancer. Bacteria acquire drug resistance partly through exposure to antibiotics. Instead of killing the germs, the wrong type of antibiotic or the wrong dose can stimulate the bugs to fight back -- either by spontaneous DNA mutations that confer immunity, or by transferring resistant genes between themselves. This can also happen when humans are exposed to antibiotics in animals they consume, or in the water or soil they come into contact with.

64% of antibiotic cocktails sold in India 'illegal': Study

An American woman has been arrested by the Delhi NCB(Narcotics Control Bureau) team reportedly with&nbsp;1.9 kilograms of cocaine worth Rs 10 crores.

The women - named, Stephanie Caprio Policarpio - was allegedly arrested by the police the same day from a hotel in central Delhi&#39;s Paharganj area, reports said.&nbsp;

The drug, worth Rs. 10 crore, was smuggled to India from Brazil&rsquo;s S&atilde;o Paulo by Ethiopian airlines, reports indicated.

A large amount of cocaine was reportedly given to Stephanie by a Nigerian national in Brazil.&nbsp;

Reports say that it was discovered from her passport that she had travelled to Spain, Switzerland &amp; Uganda since February 2017.

Delhi NCB has seized 26.34 kg cocaine and arrested twenty foreigners so far this year with most carriers from South America and&nbsp;African countries.

This is the&nbsp;first time an American has been arrested.&nbsp;

NCB says that the route usually taken for drug trafficking is from Brazil&#39;s Sao Paulo to India via Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Adis Ababa.

The women - named, Stephanie Caprio Policarpio - was allegedly arrested by the police the same day from a hotel in Central Delhi's Paharganj area, reports said

An American woman has been arrested by the Delhi NCB(Narcotics Control Bureau) team reportedly with 1.9 kilograms of cocaine worth Rs 10 crores. The women - named, Stephanie Caprio Policarpio - was allegedly arrested by the police the same day from a hotel in central Delhi's Paharganj area, reports said. The drug, worth Rs. 10 crore, was smuggled to India from Brazil’s São Paulo by Ethiopian airlines, reports indicated. A large amount of cocaine was reportedly given to Stephanie by a Nigerian national in Brazil. Reports say that it was discovered from her passport that she had travelled to Spain, Switzerland & Uganda since February 2017. Delhi NCB has seized 26.34 kg cocaine and arrested twenty foreigners so far this year with most carriers from South America and African countries. This is the first time an American has been arrested. NCB says that the route usually taken for drug trafficking is from Brazil's Sao Paulo to India via Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Adis Ababa.

Watch: American woman arrested in Delhi with cocaine worth Rs 10 crore

At least 14 people were killed and eight injured tuesday&nbsp;night in northern Mexico when an armed group opened fire in a drug addiction rehabilitation center, local police said. 
 
In a statement security officials in the city of Chihuahua said &quot;an armed group entered the Uniting Families rehabilitation center,&quot; attacking those inside with assault rifles. 
 
First responders arrived on scene to care for the wounded in the center, where some 25 people were estimated to have been during the attack.&nbsp; 
 
The state of Chihuahua, which borders the United States, has endured some of the worst violence in Mexico&#39;s decade-long militarised battle against drug trafficking.&nbsp; 
 
In the past decade at least half a dozen attacks have taken place in rehabilitation centers, and according to authorities are generally perpetrated by gang members settling scores with rivals hiding in the centers. 
 
Since the Mexican government launched its war on cartels in 2006, more than 200,000 people have died or disappeared amid the violence.

The state of Chihuahua, which borders the US, has endured some of the worst violence in Mexico's decade-long militarised battle against drug trafficking

At least 14 people were killed and eight injured tuesday night in northern Mexico when an armed group opened fire in a drug addiction rehabilitation center, local police said. In a statement security officials in the city of Chihuahua said "an armed group entered the Uniting Families rehabilitation center," attacking those inside with assault rifles. First responders arrived on scene to care for the wounded in the center, where some 25 people were estimated to have been during the attack. The state of Chihuahua, which borders the United States, has endured some of the worst violence in Mexico's decade-long militarised battle against drug trafficking. In the past decade at least half a dozen attacks have taken place in rehabilitation centers, and according to authorities are generally perpetrated by gang members settling scores with rivals hiding in the centers. Since the Mexican government launched its war on cartels in 2006, more than 200,000 people have died or disappeared amid the violence.

Attack on Mexico drug rehab center leaves 14 dead

A woman in Montana allegedly called the police to report that she had bought &quot;bad meth&quot; that caused a &quot;bad taste in her mouth&quot;.

Meth or Methamphetamine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug. The drug has gained worldwide recognition courtesy to American drama series &quot;Breaking Bad&quot;.

On receiving the call, the police department in Great Falls city of Montana sent a police officer to 33-year-old Margery Ann Dayrider&#39;s residence, who had a bad reaction after injecting meth.

Dayrider mentioned to Officer Jon Marshall that the side effects of the reaction included vomiting, tingling tongue, bad taste in her mouth.

According to local media reports, Dayrider reported, &ldquo;I do meth three times a day every day and have never had this reaction before.&rdquo; She also mentioned that she, along with her boyfriend, had purchased the drug the night before and that she injected herself at 9 AM, 11 AM, and 3 PM.

She also told the patrolling police officer that she &ldquo;still had some meth inside her bra.&rdquo;

She then handed over the remaining meth to the officer. The field test of the crystalline substance was positive for methamphetamine.

Dayrider was arrested on a felony narcotics possession charge. The offence carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

She also told the patrolling police officer that she 'still had some meth inside her bra'

A woman in Montana allegedly called the police to report that she had bought "bad meth" that caused a "bad taste in her mouth". Meth or Methamphetamine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug. The drug has gained worldwide recognition courtesy to American drama series "Breaking Bad". On receiving the call, the police department in Great Falls city of Montana sent a police officer to 33-year-old Margery Ann Dayrider's residence, who had a bad reaction after injecting meth. Dayrider mentioned to Officer Jon Marshall that the side effects of the reaction included vomiting, tingling tongue, bad taste in her mouth. According to local media reports, Dayrider reported, “I do meth three times a day every day and have never had this reaction before.” She also mentioned that she, along with her boyfriend, had purchased the drug the night before and that she injected herself at 9 AM, 11 AM, and 3 PM. She also told the patrolling police officer that she “still had some meth inside her bra.” She then handed over the remaining meth to the officer. The field test of the crystalline substance was positive for methamphetamine. Dayrider was arrested on a felony narcotics possession charge. The offence carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Woman calls police to complain about bad meth quality

India has been enduring the menace of drug trafficking for four decades. Although India has been a traditional consumer of opium and cannabis derivatives, the trends and patterns of drug trafficking demonstrate that there is a gradual shift from traditional/natural drugs towards synthetic drugs that are being trafficked and consumed in the country. In the 1980s, a large quantity of heroin and hashish was smuggled into the country through various borders. While these narcotics are still trafficked, albeit, in lesser quantities, the share of synthetic drugs has gone up tremendously. Various studies and media reports indicate that drug consumption and trafficking in the country are, in fact, showing an increasing trend. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Trend in drug and narcotics trafficking &nbsp;

Being closer to the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle, India has been vulnerable to the trafficking of narcotics and drugs such as heroin, hashish, and synthetic drugs produced in these areas. Heroin was first trafficked into India in the mid-seventies from the Golden Triangle, which picked up by eighties. However, the quantity of the trafficked heroin through the India-Myanmar border into the Northeast has always been very small as it is meant for local consumption only. &nbsp;

The Golden Crescent, on the other hand, has remained the primary source of trafficked heroin in the country since the early eighties when traffickers started rerouting heroin from this region through India following the Iran-Iraq war. Although the end of the war and reopening of the Balkan trafficking route in the late eighties resulted in a dip in heroin trafficking in the country, the trend did not sustain. After a gap of almost two decades, it again picked up in 2012. Increased production of opium in Afghanistan, greater domestic demand in India, and connivance of state government officials and border guarding forces together contributed towards this increase in heroin trafficking, especially in the Punjab sector.&nbsp;

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Besides heroin, hashish and marijuana are the two derivatives of Cannabis which are extensively trafficked in India. Hashish and marijuana have been traditionally trafficked into India from Nepal and therefore, Nepal remains a major source even though its share has been decreasing over the past few years. In addition, the Golden Crescent has also been a major source of hashish in India. Incidentally, a lot of these narcotics that are trafficked into India not consumed domestically but transit the country for destinations such as Europe, Canada and the United States of America. Lately, trafficking of cocaine into India has been observed. This is a result of diversification of cocaine markets globally. Cocaine produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia travels to India through West Asia and Gulf Countries.&nbsp;

Apart from narcotics, India has been experiencing a significant rise in the use of psychotropic substances and medicinal preparations among addicts since late 1990. Stringent narcotics and drugs laws, rising price of heroin and easy availability of synthetic drugs have propelled this shift in the consumption pattern and hence their trafficking. Amphetamine Type Stimulant (ATS) and Methamphetamine produced in large quantities in South-east Asia especially in the Golden Triangle are trafficked into India through the porous India-Myanmar border. India also manufactures a lot of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals which are smuggled out of the country. Pharmaceutical preparations containing Dextropropoxyphene and Codeine are trafficked to the neighbouring countries especially to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Ketamine is yet another medicinal preparation which is smuggled out of India to various South-east Asian countries. Similarly, Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine used for manufacturing ATS and Acetic Anhydride used for the manufacturing of heroin are smuggled into the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle from India.&nbsp;

Threat to National Security&nbsp;

This two-way illegal movement of narcotics and drugs pose a significant threat to the national security. For one, the breach of the international borders of the country by drug traffickers implies that the same routes could be used for smuggling in weapons as well as terrorists into the country. In fact, it has been established that the arms and explosives used in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai were transported by the Dawood Ibrahim gang through the traditional trafficking routes. Investigations into the Pathankot attack that took place on 31st December 2015 also hinted that the terrorists entered into India from Pakistan through the routes tried and tested by drug traffickers.

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The nexus between drug traffickers, criminal networks and terrorists are another potent threat. Exploitation of the trafficking routes by terrorists with the help of well-entrenched criminal networks to infiltrate with arms and explosives adds a critical dimension to the security of the borders. It has been proven that the D Company had facilitated activities of Islamist terror groups in India by supporting their cross-border movement and providing them with funds and shelter in the country. Composite seizures of drugs and arms by security forces at the borders points to a close nexus between drug traffickers and anti-national elements. &nbsp;

Further, the money generated by the illegal sale of narcotics and drugs is used for financing terrorist activities. In India, the Kashmiri, Sikh and Northeast militants have used drug money to finance their &lsquo;struggle&rsquo; against the Indian state. It is estimated that 15 per cent of the finances of the J&amp;K militants were generated through the sale of drugs. In the Northeast, while the smaller insurgent organisations are directly involved in drug trafficking to generate quick funds, the bigger insurgent organisations collect protection money from the drug peddlers in lieu of safe passage of drug consignments through their territory.&nbsp;

Last but not least, large-scale availability of narcotics and drugs encourages demand for narcotics and drugs by domestic population. Consumption of which produces dysfunctional behaviour thereby creating law and order problem in the society. It also causes a huge economic drain on the country through loss of production and diversion of resources for caring and rehabilitation of the drug addicts, etc. Drug trafficking also has a direct bearing on the political process as drug cartels subvert, penetrate and further corrupt state institutions to control the illegal drug trade.&nbsp;

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Response&nbsp;

Given these challenges, India has adopted a comprehensive approach to reducing supply as well as demand for narcotics and drugs. The approach comprises four elements &ndash; a) enacting legislation such as the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS); b) ensuring physical security of the borders and coasts by strengthening patrolling and surveillance; c) eliciting cooperation from neighbours by entering into several bilateral and multilateral agreements on prevention of illicit traffic of drugs and chemicals, and; d) co-operating with voluntary organisations in the endeavour to prevent abuse of narcotics and synthetic drugs.&nbsp;

Conclusion&nbsp;

Despite these measures, prevention of drug trafficking in India has achieved only partial success. Low priority accorded to the prevention of drug trafficking is one of the main reasons why concerned organisation do not display required urgency in apprehending drug peddlers and subsequent investigation. Turf wars between various agencies, corruption, intelligence failure, lack of manpower and infrastructure, poor drug detection training, and procedural delays are other factors that hamper the effectiveness of the country&rsquo;s drug prevention efforts. Since drug trafficking has serious ramifications on the country&rsquo;s security, it is time India pays much more attention to the problem and formulates robust measures to overcome the loopholes in its strategy for prevention of drug trafficking.&nbsp;

Apart from posing a threat to security, there is now a gradual shift in domestic consumption of drugs from natural to synthetic in India

India has been enduring the menace of drug trafficking for four decades. Although India has been a traditional consumer of opium and cannabis derivatives, the trends and patterns of drug trafficking demonstrate that there is a gradual shift from traditional/natural drugs towards synthetic drugs that are being trafficked and consumed in the country. In the 1980s, a large quantity of heroin and hashish was smuggled into the country through various borders. While these narcotics are still trafficked, albeit, in lesser quantities, the share of synthetic drugs has gone up tremendously. Various studies and media reports indicate that drug consumption and trafficking in the country are, in fact, showing an increasing trend. Trend in drug and narcotics trafficking Being closer to the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle, India has been vulnerable to the trafficking of narcotics and drugs such as heroin, hashish, and synthetic drugs produced in these areas. Heroin was first trafficked into India in the mid-seventies from the Golden Triangle, which picked up by eighties. However, the quantity of the trafficked heroin through the India-Myanmar border into the Northeast has always been very small as it is meant for local consumption only. The Golden Crescent, on the other hand, has remained the primary source of trafficked heroin in the country since the early eighties when traffickers started rerouting heroin from this region through India following the Iran-Iraq war. Although the end of the war and reopening of the Balkan trafficking route in the late eighties resulted in a dip in heroin trafficking in the country, the trend did not sustain. After a gap of almost two decades, it again picked up in 2012. Increased production of opium in Afghanistan, greater domestic demand in India, and connivance of state government officials and border guarding forces together contributed towards this increase in heroin trafficking, especially in the Punjab sector. Increased production of opium in Afghanistan, greater domestic demand in India, and connivance of state government officials and border guarding forces contributed towards increase in heroin trafficking, especially in the Punjab sector. × Besides heroin, hashish and marijuana are the two derivatives of Cannabis which are extensively trafficked in India. Hashish and marijuana have been traditionally trafficked into India from Nepal and therefore, Nepal remains a major source even though its share has been decreasing over the past few years. In addition, the Golden Crescent has also been a major source of hashish in India. Incidentally, a lot of these narcotics that are trafficked into India not consumed domestically but transit the country for destinations such as Europe, Canada and the United States of America. Lately, trafficking of cocaine into India has been observed. This is a result of diversification of cocaine markets globally. Cocaine produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia travels to India through West Asia and Gulf Countries. Apart from narcotics, India has been experiencing a significant rise in the use of psychotropic substances and medicinal preparations among addicts since late 1990. Stringent narcotics and drugs laws, rising price of heroin and easy availability of synthetic drugs have propelled this shift in the consumption pattern and hence their trafficking. Amphetamine Type Stimulant (ATS) and Methamphetamine produced in large quantities in South-east Asia especially in the Golden Triangle are trafficked into India through the porous India-Myanmar border. India also manufactures a lot of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals which are smuggled out of the country. Pharmaceutical preparations containing Dextropropoxyphene and Codeine are trafficked to the neighbouring countries especially to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Ketamine is yet another medicinal preparation which is smuggled out of India to various South-east Asian countries. Similarly, Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine used for manufacturing ATS and Acetic Anhydride used for the manufacturing of heroin are smuggled into the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle from India. Threat to National Security This two-way illegal movement of narcotics and drugs pose a significant threat to the national security. For one, the breach of the international borders of the country by drug traffickers implies that the same routes could be used for smuggling in weapons as well as terrorists into the country. In fact, it has been established that the arms and explosives used in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai were transported by the Dawood Ibrahim gang through the traditional trafficking routes. Investigations into the Pathankot attack that took place on 31st December 2015 also hinted that the terrorists entered into India from Pakistan through the routes tried and tested by drug traffickers. Breach of the international borders by drug traffickers implies that the same routes could be used for smuggling weapons and terrorists into the country. × The nexus between drug traffickers, criminal networks and terrorists are another potent threat. Exploitation of the trafficking routes by terrorists with the help of well-entrenched criminal networks to infiltrate with arms and explosives adds a critical dimension to the security of the borders. It has been proven that the D Company had facilitated activities of Islamist terror groups in India by supporting their cross-border movement and providing them with funds and shelter in the country. Composite seizures of drugs and arms by security forces at the borders points to a close nexus between drug traffickers and anti-national elements. Further, the money generated by the illegal sale of narcotics and drugs is used for financing terrorist activities. In India, the Kashmiri, Sikh and Northeast militants have used drug money to finance their ‘struggle’ against the Indian state. It is estimated that 15 per cent of the finances of the J&K militants were generated through the sale of drugs. In the Northeast, while the smaller insurgent organisations are directly involved in drug trafficking to generate quick funds, the bigger insurgent organisations collect protection money from the drug peddlers in lieu of safe passage of drug consignments through their territory. Last but not least, large-scale availability of narcotics and drugs encourages demand for narcotics and drugs by domestic population. Consumption of which produces dysfunctional behaviour thereby creating law and order problem in the society. It also causes a huge economic drain on the country through loss of production and diversion of resources for caring and rehabilitation of the drug addicts, etc. Drug trafficking also has a direct bearing on the political process as drug cartels subvert, penetrate and further corrupt state institutions to control the illegal drug trade. Drug trafficking also has a direct bearing on the political process as drug cartels subvert, penetrate and further corrupt state institutions to control the illegal drug trade. × Response Given these challenges, India has adopted a comprehensive approach to reducing supply as well as demand for narcotics and drugs. The approach comprises four elements – a) enacting legislation such as the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS); b) ensuring physical security of the borders and coasts by strengthening patrolling and surveillance; c) eliciting cooperation from neighbours by entering into several bilateral and multilateral agreements on prevention of illicit traffic of drugs and chemicals, and; d) co-operating with voluntary organisations in the endeavour to prevent abuse of narcotics and synthetic drugs. Conclusion Despite these measures, prevention of drug trafficking in India has achieved only partial success. Low priority accorded to the prevention of drug trafficking is one of the main reasons why concerned organisation do not display required urgency in apprehending drug peddlers and subsequent investigation. Turf wars between various agencies, corruption, intelligence failure, lack of manpower and infrastructure, poor drug detection training, and procedural delays are other factors that hamper the effectiveness of the country’s drug prevention efforts. Since drug trafficking has serious ramifications on the country’s security, it is time India pays much more attention to the problem and formulates robust measures to overcome the loopholes in its strategy for prevention of drug trafficking.

Drug trafficking a challenge to India's security

Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia torched nearly $1 billion worth of seized narcotics on Monday, a defiant show of force as police struggle to stem the rising flow of drugs in the region.

The burnings, to mark the UN&#39;s world anti-drugs day, follow another year of record seizures of narcotics from the remote borderlands of Myanmar, Laos, southern China and northern Thailand.

Myanmar in particular remains one of the world&#39;s great drug-producing nations, a dark legacy of decades of civil war in its frontier regions where troops and ethnic rebel forces have vied for control of the lucrative trade.

Armed gangs churn out vast quantities of opium, heroin and cannabis and millions of caffeine-laced methamphetamine pills known as &quot;yaba&quot; which are then smuggled out across Southeast Asia.

An estimated $385 million was burnt in three official ceremonies around Myanmar on Monday, according to a senior police officer in the capital Naypyidaw.

At the biggest bonfire in Yangon, huge clouds of smoke filled the sky as authorities set fire to stacks of opium, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine tablets worth almost $230 million. &nbsp;

&quot;We burnt a record amount of drugs today... because police have seized more in recent years,&quot; drug enforcement officer Myo Kyi told AFP.

On an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thai authorities incinerated some $589 million worth of drugs including 7,800 kilogrammes of yaba pills and 1,185 kilogrammes of the more potent crystal methamphetamine.&nbsp;

And in Cambodia, officials burned 130 kilogrammes of drugs estimated to be worth some $4 million.&nbsp;

The huge seizures are often touted as proof these countries are making inroads into the vast regional drug trade.&nbsp;But law enforcement agents say they are just the tip of the iceberg as producers ramp up production to meet growing demand across Southeast Asia and increasingly in Bangladesh and India.

And unlike their Latin American counterparts, cartel leaders in the Golden Triangle are rarely ever arrested or killed.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Rising production

The senior officer in Naypyidaw said almost all of the drugs burned at Myanmar&#39;s official ceremonies originated in the eastern state of Shan in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups.

The kingpins are the United Wa State Army, a 25,000-strong militia known as Asia&#39;s most heavily-armed drug dealers who boast their own autonomous territories on the border with China and have close links with Beijing.

Despite their reputation, the Wa deny producing drugs and even staged their own burning session on Monday in the village of Ponpakyin.

Myanmar has also been struggling to stem a growing tide of drug addiction inside its borders. Experts say yaba use has exploded as ethnic armed gangs switched from exporting all the pills abroad to increasingly targeting domestic users.

Buddhist monks and military officers were among 13,500 people prosecuted for drugs crimes in 2016, up 50 per cent from the previous year, according to data seen by AFP.

&quot;Drug production has increased every year since 2006,&quot; Yangon police chief Win Naing told crowds gathered for Monday&#39;s ceremony on the outskirts of the city.

In a bid to combat the growing scourge, Myanmar&#39;s new civilian government is seeking to overhaul stringent anti-drug laws brought in under the former military government. Current legislation means anyone found with even small amounts of drugs can be jailed for years.&nbsp;

Thailand meanwhile has the world&#39;s sixth-largest prison population and the tenth highest incarceration rate in the world, largely thanks to its strict anti-drug laws.

&nbsp;

But while the enormous piles of drugs seem like a lot, experts say it's just the tip of the iceberg as producers ramp up production

Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia torched nearly $1 billion worth of seized narcotics on Monday, a defiant show of force as police struggle to stem the rising flow of drugs in the region. The burnings, to mark the UN's world anti-drugs day, follow another year of record seizures of narcotics from the remote borderlands of Myanmar, Laos, southern China and northern Thailand. Myanmar in particular remains one of the world's great drug-producing nations, a dark legacy of decades of civil war in its frontier regions where troops and ethnic rebel forces have vied for control of the lucrative trade. Armed gangs churn out vast quantities of opium, heroin and cannabis and millions of caffeine-laced methamphetamine pills known as "yaba" which are then smuggled out across Southeast Asia. An estimated $385 million was burnt in three official ceremonies around Myanmar on Monday, according to a senior police officer in the capital Naypyidaw. At the biggest bonfire in Yangon, huge clouds of smoke filled the sky as authorities set fire to stacks of opium, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine tablets worth almost $230 million. "We burnt a record amount of drugs today... because police have seized more in recent years," drug enforcement officer Myo Kyi told AFP. On an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thai authorities incinerated some $589 million worth of drugs including 7,800 kilogrammes of yaba pills and 1,185 kilogrammes of the more potent crystal methamphetamine. And in Cambodia, officials burned 130 kilogrammes of drugs estimated to be worth some $4 million. The huge seizures are often touted as proof these countries are making inroads into the vast regional drug trade. But law enforcement agents say they are just the tip of the iceberg as producers ramp up production to meet growing demand across Southeast Asia and increasingly in Bangladesh and India. And unlike their Latin American counterparts, cartel leaders in the Golden Triangle are rarely ever arrested or killed. Rising production The senior officer in Naypyidaw said almost all of the drugs burned at Myanmar's official ceremonies originated in the eastern state of Shan in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups. The kingpins are the United Wa State Army, a 25,000-strong militia known as Asia's most heavily-armed drug dealers who boast their own autonomous territories on the border with China and have close links with Beijing. Despite their reputation, the Wa deny producing drugs and even staged their own burning session on Monday in the village of Ponpakyin. Myanmar has also been struggling to stem a growing tide of drug addiction inside its borders. Experts say yaba use has exploded as ethnic armed gangs switched from exporting all the pills abroad to increasingly targeting domestic users. Buddhist monks and military officers were among 13,500 people prosecuted for drugs crimes in 2016, up 50 per cent from the previous year, according to data seen by AFP. "Drug production has increased every year since 2006," Yangon police chief Win Naing told crowds gathered for Monday's ceremony on the outskirts of the city. In a bid to combat the growing scourge, Myanmar's new civilian government is seeking to overhaul stringent anti-drug laws brought in under the former military government. Current legislation means anyone found with even small amounts of drugs can be jailed for years. Thailand meanwhile has the world's sixth-largest prison population and the tenth highest incarceration rate in the world, largely thanks to its strict anti-drug laws.

Southeast Asian nations burn $1 billion of seized drugs

India&#39;s top court on Wednesday ordered the government to come up with a plan to tackle child drug abuse, acting on a petition from Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi&#39;s child rights group.

With government figures showing almost 20 per cent of addicts in India are under 21, the Supreme Court said more needed to be done to educate young people about the dangers of substance abuse in India.

The court ordered New Delhi to &quot;evolve a national action plan within six months to combat drug abuse amongst school children&quot;.

It said the government should conduct a national survey to determine how widespread the problem is, and include education about drugs in the school curriculum.

&quot;Trafficking and drug abuse, inherently linked to each other, are the most prevalent forms of organised crime in the world,&quot; said Satyarthi in response to the judgement.

&quot;This petition was filed to ensure that children are provided with a better, more healthy childhood,&quot; he said in a statement.

India&#39;s Supreme Court regularly intervenes on public policy issues. Last month it ordered the government to curb air pollution, which it said was a &quot;public health emergency&quot;.

Satyarthi&#39;s Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) filed the petition before the Supreme Court in 2014.

The child rights group asked the court to order the government to create rehabilitation centres in each district of India, with a special wing for children.

It also urged a national action plan on substance abuse, to include counselling and rehabilitation.

Bachpan Bachao Andolan activist Bhuvan Ribhu said millions of children are hooked on drugs, many of whom later turn to dealing to fund their habit.

Experts say peer pressure and academic stress are driving children to drugs, but there is scant data on the scale of the problem.

&quot;We can find solutions to a problem only after determining the severity,&quot; Ribhu told AFP, calling it a &quot;landmark judgement&quot;.

A 2013 report by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights estimated 40-70 percent of India&#39;s 18 million homeless children were exposed to some form substance abuse.&nbsp;

Many of them started taking drugs as young as five years old, the report found.

It estimated almost one in five of India&#39;s drug and alcohol addicts in 2011 were under the age of 21.

(AFP)

The court was alarmed that almost 20 per cent of addicts in India are under 21 years of age

India's top court on Wednesday ordered the government to come up with a plan to tackle child drug abuse, acting on a petition from Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi's child rights group. With government figures showing almost 20 per cent of addicts in India are under 21, the Supreme Court said more needed to be done to educate young people about the dangers of substance abuse in India. The court ordered New Delhi to "evolve a national action plan within six months to combat drug abuse amongst school children". It said the government should conduct a national survey to determine how widespread the problem is, and include education about drugs in the school curriculum. "Trafficking and drug abuse, inherently linked to each other, are the most prevalent forms of organised crime in the world," said Satyarthi in response to the judgement. "This petition was filed to ensure that children are provided with a better, more healthy childhood," he said in a statement. India's Supreme Court regularly intervenes on public policy issues. Last month it ordered the government to curb air pollution, which it said was a "public health emergency". Satyarthi's Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) filed the petition before the Supreme Court in 2014. The child rights group asked the court to order the government to create rehabilitation centres in each district of India, with a special wing for children. It also urged a national action plan on substance abuse, to include counselling and rehabilitation. Bachpan Bachao Andolan activist Bhuvan Ribhu said millions of children are hooked on drugs, many of whom later turn to dealing to fund their habit. Experts say peer pressure and academic stress are driving children to drugs, but there is scant data on the scale of the problem. "We can find solutions to a problem only after determining the severity," Ribhu told AFP, calling it a "landmark judgement". A 2013 report by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights estimated 40-70 percent of India's 18 million homeless children were exposed to some form substance abuse. Many of them started taking drugs as young as five years old, the report found. It estimated almost one in five of India's drug and alcohol addicts in 2011 were under the age of 21. (AFP)

Top court orders action on child drug abuse

Delhi High Court stayed on Thursday a government ban on 344 drugs that it deemed lacked therapeutic efficacy, after over six months of hearing more than 300 petitions filed by drugmakers against it.

Sanjay Jain, a lawyer representing the central government, told Reuters the government was evaluating the decision and planned to appeal at a higher court. The exact reasons for the stay are not yet known, as the order has not been made public yet, but are expected to be uploaded on the court website.

Thursday&#39;s decision provides interim relief to several local and multinational drugmakers operating in India&#39;s $15 billion drugs industry whose business had been hit by the ban. Many, however, had obtained stay orders days after the ban was announced in March.

The move covered fixed-dose combination drugs, which are cocktails of medicines that are used worldwide to improve patients&#39; compliance in complicated courses of treatment, especially for conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

In India, however, lax regulation and inconsistent enforcement of laws has led to many such drugs entering the market without central government approval, a Reuters investigation found last year. Roughly half the drugs sold on the Indian market are combination medicines, including many antibiotics, the misuse of which leads to antibiotic resistance.&nbsp;

The government announced the ban in March saying extensive deliberations with scientific experts had found the medicines lacked therapeutic efficacy.

Most companies filed petitions arguing the government did not exercise its powers appropriately.

The reversal of the ban means companies can continue to sell these drugs.

The decision is another setback for India&#39;s efforts to weed out irrational fixed-dose combination drugs from the market. A similar move in 2007 to ban about 294 such drugs was also met with stiff resistance from the industry, which obtained a stay.

(Reuters)

The ban had affected local and multinational drugmakers operating in India's $15 billion industry

Delhi High Court stayed on Thursday a government ban on 344 drugs that it deemed lacked therapeutic efficacy, after over six months of hearing more than 300 petitions filed by drugmakers against it. Sanjay Jain, a lawyer representing the central government, told Reuters the government was evaluating the decision and planned to appeal at a higher court. The exact reasons for the stay are not yet known, as the order has not been made public yet, but are expected to be uploaded on the court website. Thursday's decision provides interim relief to several local and multinational drugmakers operating in India's $15 billion drugs industry whose business had been hit by the ban. Many, however, had obtained stay orders days after the ban was announced in March. The move covered fixed-dose combination drugs, which are cocktails of medicines that are used worldwide to improve patients' compliance in complicated courses of treatment, especially for conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. In India, however, lax regulation and inconsistent enforcement of laws has led to many such drugs entering the market without central government approval, a Reuters investigation found last year. Roughly half the drugs sold on the Indian market are combination medicines, including many antibiotics, the misuse of which leads to antibiotic resistance. The government announced the ban in March saying extensive deliberations with scientific experts had found the medicines lacked therapeutic efficacy. Most companies filed petitions arguing the government did not exercise its powers appropriately. The reversal of the ban means companies can continue to sell these drugs. The decision is another setback for India's efforts to weed out irrational fixed-dose combination drugs from the market. A similar move in 2007 to ban about 294 such drugs was also met with stiff resistance from the industry, which obtained a stay. (Reuters)

India: Delhi High Court quashes government ban on 344 drugs after industry petitions

The state security chief for Brazil&rsquo;s Rio de Janeiro, Jose Mariano Beltrame, who was behind a controversial &quot;pacification&quot; plan for impoverished neighbourhoods, resigned on Tuesday following a spike in violent crimes.&nbsp;

Beltrame, a former police officer, was lauded because of reduced violence in recent years and inroads against criminal gangs in Rio.&nbsp;

In the post since 2007, Beltrame is best known for creating the so-called Police Pacification Units (UPPs) to crack down on drug gangs that had seised control of the impoverished slums that dot the Brazilian capital.

Starting in 2008, UPPs were set up in 264 slums, in a bid to restore law and order in the city ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

Beltrame&rsquo;s resignation came in only a day after gun battles between police and drug traffickers killed at least three people and wounded five in two slums in the neighbourhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema, the kind of incident the UPPs were meant to stop.

Beltrame had long pleaded for money for &quot;phase two&quot; of the pacification plan, in which the Brazilian government was to fund schools and clinics in the slums in an effort to turn short-term security gains into long-term ones.

Rio Governor Luiz Fernando Pez&atilde;o,told Reuters the state reluctantly accepted Beltrame&#39;s resignation. &quot;It was 10 years of service, lots of wear and lots of pressure,&quot; Pez&atilde;o said. &nbsp;

Beltrame will be replaced by his deputy, Roberto Sa, starting Monday, the state government said.

Violent crime has been on the rise in Rio in recent months, exacerbated by a severe budget crisis.The state security budget was cut by 30 per cent this year, AFP reported.

(WION with inputs from agencies)

The state security budget was cut by 30 per cent this year, fuelling a spike in violent crime in the Brazilian capital

The state security chief for Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, Jose Mariano Beltrame, who was behind a controversial "pacification" plan for impoverished neighbourhoods, resigned on Tuesday following a spike in violent crimes. Beltrame, a former police officer, was lauded because of reduced violence in recent years and inroads against criminal gangs in Rio. In the post since 2007, Beltrame is best known for creating the so-called Police Pacification Units (UPPs) to crack down on drug gangs that had seised control of the impoverished slums that dot the Brazilian capital. Starting in 2008, UPPs were set up in 264 slums, in a bid to restore law and order in the city ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. Beltrame’s resignation came in only a day after gun battles between police and drug traffickers killed at least three people and wounded five in two slums in the neighbourhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema, the kind of incident the UPPs were meant to stop. Beltrame had long pleaded for money for "phase two" of the pacification plan, in which the Brazilian government was to fund schools and clinics in the slums in an effort to turn short-term security gains into long-term ones. Rio Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão,told Reuters the state reluctantly accepted Beltrame's resignation. "It was 10 years of service, lots of wear and lots of pressure," Pezão said. Beltrame will be replaced by his deputy, Roberto Sa, starting Monday, the state government said. Violent crime has been on the rise in Rio in recent months, exacerbated by a severe budget crisis.The state security budget was cut by 30 per cent this year, AFP reported. (WION with inputs from agencies)

Brazil: Rio security chief quits amid surge in violent crime

&nbsp;

&nbsp;There are two versions of how Manila pedicab driver Neptali Celestino died.

According to Philippines police, he shot at plainclothes officers during a sting operation on September 12, and they returned fire. His family says police burst into their ramshackle home, cornered an unarmed Celestino and shot him in front of his teenage sons.

Whatever the case, Celestino&#39;s days seem to have been numbered. His name had appeared on a police &quot;watch list&quot; of drug suspects drawn up with the help of community leaders and other people who lived alongside him in Palatiw, a frenetic, traffic-choked area on the eastern side of the nation&#39;s capital.

The local officials who help cops draw up these lists are foot soldiers in a war on drugs that has led to the killing of more than 3,600 people since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30.

Most of the 1,377 people shot by the police had appeared on the lists, according to national police chief Ronald Dela Rosa. It was unclear how many of the remaining 2,275 victims, who human rights activists suspect were mostly killed by vigilantes, were on the lists.

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The campaign draws its momentum from President Duterte: Last Friday, he seemed to compare himself to Hitler and said he would be &quot;happy to slaughter&quot; three million drug addicts in the Philippines. But the campaign&#39;s efficiency depends on the lowliest officials in the country&#39;s barangays - its districts and villages.

&quot;They are on the forefront of this fight,&quot; Dela Rosa told Reuters. &quot;They can identify the drug users and pushers in their barangays. They know everyone.&quot;

Motorbike-riding assassins

Interviews with local police, residents and barangay officials reveal the mechanics of an anti-drugs crusade that the popular Duterte has vowed to wage until next June in the face of global condemnation.

Barangay leaders, known as &quot;captains&quot;, have been instrumental in drawing up the lists, say police.

Maricar Asilo Vivero is the captain of Pinagbuhatan, a Manila barangay with about 145,000 people, and says she is an enthusiastic supporter of Duterte&#39;s campaign.

&quot;The war on drugs is good,&quot; she said. &quot;It lowers crime. It identifies those who want to change.&quot;

The night before, said Vivero, motorbike-riding assassins killed two men who had been named as pushers on the barangay&#39;s watch list. Vivero said she sympathised with the victims&#39; families but didn&#39;t feel responsible for the deaths.

People weren&#39;t included on the watch list with &quot;the objective of killing them, or asking the police or authorities to kill them,&quot; she said. &quot;Our objective is to guide them, to direct their lives to the better - not to kill.&quot;

Asked if people named on the watch list were more likely to get killed, Vivero replied: &quot;No, I don&#39;t think so.&quot;

There were 323 suspected users and dealers on Pinagbuhatan&#39;s watch list, according to a computer print-out seen by Reuters. It had been swelled by people who had gone to the barangay office to admit to police they were users, a process known as &quot;surrendering&quot;.

Often a family affair

The origins of the barangay system predate the arrival of Spanish colonisers in the 16th century. In Manila, a barangay can consist of just two densely populated streets; in the countryside, it can sprawl for miles.

Each has a barangay captain and six kagawad, or councillors, who are elected in polls often dogged by allegations of corruption. And as with more senior posts in the Philippines, the barangay captaincy often passes between members of the same family.

The barangay office sits at the heart of the community and, on any given day, its hallways are clogged with people seeking so-called &quot;clearances.&quot; These are certificates, signed by the captain, for people needing to establish residency, set up a business, apply for a job or enroll a child at a local school.

Barangay captains routinely attend the weddings, baptisms and funerals of constituents, and even victims of serious crimes will sometimes report to them first rather than the police.

&quot;They trust us more and get an immediate response,&quot; said Eriberto Guevarra, who for 11 years was captain of Palatiw.

His wife Dinah now occupies the position, while Eriberto works at her side as a self-styled &quot;peace and order czar&quot;.

&quot;Drug personalities&quot;

The Barangay Anti-Drug Action Committees (BADACs) play a key role in helping the police identify alleged drug dealers and users in each district.

Each BADAC&#39;s 6-10 members are chosen by the barangay captain, who also chairs the committee. They might be teachers, church workers, youth leaders or members of other civil society groups.

Each BADAC provides the names of what police term &quot;drug personalities&quot;, meaning suspected users or dealers, most of them small-time. Police say they then &quot;validate&quot; these names in consultation with national anti-narcotics and intelligence officials. They also add names of their own.

First created by the government in 1998, BADACs were meant to convene every month, but for years many did little or existed only on paper. Duterte not only revived the BADACs, he made them the lynchpin of his war on drugs.

Duterte pioneered the nationwide campaign in the southern city of Davao, where he was mayor for 22 years.

There, barangay leaders and police compiled similar lists that were used by death squads to assassinate hundreds of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals and street children, said Human Rights Watch in a 2009 report. Duterte denied any involvement in the killings.

&quot;A grudge and a gun&quot;

Officials say the watch lists are not arbitrary hit lists.

Metro Manila&#39;s list of 11,700 users and dealers has been &quot;validated and revalidated by intelligence&quot;, said Kimberley Molitas, police spokeswoman for a region that has seen more than a quarter of the drug-war deaths.

Human rights monitors and some officials counter that the process is open to abuse.

Lists have included the names of people &quot;who are not even drug users, never mind pushers,&quot; said Karen Gomez-Dumpit, a commissioner at the Philippines&#39; Commission on Human Rights.

&quot;It&#39;s an environment conducive to someone with a grudge and a gun to hunt you down,&quot; she said.

In one high-profile case, the bullet-riddled body of Mark Culata was found in Cavite, a province south of Manila, on Sept. 9. It bore a placard identifying him as a drug dealer.

Culata&#39;s mother Eva told local media that her 27-year-old son had nothing to do with drugs and had been heading overseas to start a job. Police told Reuters in a statement that investigators were considering the &quot;illegal drug trade and love triangle&quot; as a possible motive.

Four officers involved in the case have been moved to administrative positions pending an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines equivalent of the FBI. Culata&#39;s death was raised as a possible extrajudicial killing in a Philippines Senate hearing on October 3.

Police told Reuters that watch lists are confidential. But so-called &quot;knock and plead&quot; operations, in which police visit drug suspects at their homes and urge them to mend their ways, means inclusion on a list is often public knowledge.

Drug pushers and users are also urged to &quot;surrender&quot; to the police at barangay meetings that are, again, public. Their names are added to the watch list.

The process resembles a mass arrest. The so-called &quot;surrenderers&quot; are questioned by police, who ask for details of their dealers and fellow users. This information can be used to identify other drug suspects, police said. The names of surrenderers are later added to a national database so they can be watched even if they move to another barangay.

After the questioning, the users are fingerprinted and pose for a mugshot holding a whiteboard bearing their name and that day&#39;s date. Raising their right hands, they then swear to stay away from drugs and support &quot;the government and the police in their noble campaign.&quot;

In the following weeks, said barangay captain Vivero, surrenderers are expected to do community service such as painting walls, unclogging sewers or picking up trash.

Intended to change

Former barangay leader Eriberto Guevarra said he tried to avert the killing of pedicab driver Celestino. The dead man, Guevarra said, was just a small-time dealer and user, not the &quot;notorious pusher&quot; police dubbed him.

&quot;He was endangered because he was on the watch list,&quot; he said.

Guevarra said he had warned Celestino to stop dealing and using drugs. Three days before his death Celestino had attended a three-hour &quot;drug awareness&quot; seminar run by police and barangay officials.

&quot;It was his intention to change,&quot; said Guevarra.

John Patrick Celestino, 17, one of Celestino&#39;s four children, trembled as he recalled the night his father died.

The dogs began barking at about 9 p.m. There were armed men at the door who showed John Patrick a photo on a cellphone. &quot;Is this your father?&quot; they demanded.

When he said it was, according to John Patrick, the men rushed upstairs and kicked open the door to a small room where Celestino was hiding.

John Patrick, who had followed them to the room, said: &quot;The men kept shouting, &#39;Where&#39;s the shabu?&#39; Where&#39;s the shabu?&#39;&quot; referring to the local name for crystal methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug widely available in the Philippines.

He told them his father was unarmed and begged them not to shoot. But one gunman fired three rounds into the room, and the teenager heard his father gasp with pain.

The gunman then ordered John Patrick to flee. As he ran downstairs, he heard five more shots.

Police said they found a .22 revolver and three sachets of shabu on Celestino. His wife Zandey, 38, denies this was the case.

&quot;My husband had already surrendered, so why did they kill him?&quot; she asked. &quot;Why didn&#39;t they give him one more chance?&quot;

Sitting around his coffin, relatives told a Reuters reporter of a long-running feud with another family, who they blamed for telling the police that Celestino was a drug dealer. Reuters was unable to independently verify this claim.

&quot;Nefarious activities&quot;

Celestino was on the watch list as a drug dealer, confirmed chief superintendent Romulo Sapitula, director of the Eastern Police District of Manila.

&quot;The information came from the community,&quot; he said. &quot;It was given by barangay officials and validated by the police.&quot;

The &quot;best information&quot; comes from the neighbourhood itself, he added. &quot;Most of the watch lists which came from that place are true and correct.&quot;

Celestino&#39;s surrender as a drug user didn&#39;t put him above suspicion, said Sapitula.

&quot;There are some on the watch list who surrender but continue their nefarious activities,&quot; he said. &quot;They pretend to embrace the programme, but in reality ... they are still doing their old thing. And there are some who surrender as users when they&#39;re really pushers.&quot;

Sapitula confirmed the operation was carried out by seven or eight members of the anti-narcotics police. He rejected the family&#39;s claim that drugs were planted on Celestino. An internal investigation, he said, had concluded that the police opened fire in self-defence because Celestino had &quot;opted to shoot it out&quot;.

Sapitula said family members shouldn&#39;t be afraid to file a formal complaint, but only &quot;if they&#39;re innocent&quot; and not involved in criminal activities.

The Celestinos told Reuters there was little point appealing to the same people who had killed their relative. Zandey said she feared not only for the safety of her children, but for other members of her extended family who, like Celestino, had &quot;surrendered&quot; to authorities.

Her older son, Cedric, 19, was so traumatised by the killing that he has stopped talking, she said.

&quot;It will be bloody&quot;

Some local leaders plead with the police to spare lives.

In the Manila slum of Tondo, barangay captain Erick Simbiling said two policemen recently told him they had &quot;scheduled to kill&quot; a local man who was a small-time but persistent drug dealer.

&quot;I spoke to the policemen and said, &#39;Please give him a chance,&#39;&quot; Simbiling said.

He then visited the dealer and urged him to surrender to the authorities. The dealer did so, like hundreds of thousands of others nationwide, and then fled the barangay.

The barangay captains are under pressure from the president himself. Duterte has vowed to publish a list of a thousand elected officials suspected of drug ties. Prominent among them are captains who have connived with terrorists and drug lords, he told reporters on Sept. 18.

But not all barangays have toed the line. Police in central Luzon told Reuters that 31 of the region&#39;s 3,100 barangays had not supplied a watch list.

Romeo Caramat, police chief of Bulacan province in central Luzon, said these barangay officials were probably either allied to Duterte&#39;s political opponents or bankrolled by drug traffickers.

&quot;Actually, one of the barangay captains who was uncooperative got killed,&quot; said Caramat. The man was shot in early August in San Jose Del Monte city by unidentified assassins on a motorbike, he said.

&quot;One barangay chairman runs out of luck!&quot; added Caramat, laughing. He described the man as &quot;a well-known drug pusher and user&quot; who had not included himself on his barangay&#39;s watch list.

The dead captain, Damaso Santiago, was a drug user, not a dealer, said his younger brother Arman Santiago. &quot;Anyone you ask, they will say he does not peddle drugs. He was just a victim of drug use,&quot; said Arman.

Police chief Caramat described his province&#39;s 17,000 drug dealers and users as &quot;a walking time bomb&quot;. For him, the death toll in his province is a measure of the campaign&#39;s success.

&quot;It will be bloody,&quot; he said. &quot;You have a problem with dengue. You think you can solve it without killing mosquitos?&quot;

(Reuters)

Most of the 1,377 people shot by police had appeared on the lists, according to national police chief Ronald Dela Rosa

There are two versions of how Manila pedicab driver Neptali Celestino died. According to Philippines police, he shot at plainclothes officers during a sting operation on September 12, and they returned fire. His family says police burst into their ramshackle home, cornered an unarmed Celestino and shot him in front of his teenage sons. Whatever the case, Celestino's days seem to have been numbered. His name had appeared on a police "watch list" of drug suspects drawn up with the help of community leaders and other people who lived alongside him in Palatiw, a frenetic, traffic-choked area on the eastern side of the nation's capital. The local officials who help cops draw up these lists are foot soldiers in a war on drugs that has led to the killing of more than 3,600 people since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30. Most of the 1,377 people shot by the police had appeared on the lists, according to national police chief Ronald Dela Rosa. It was unclear how many of the remaining 2,275 victims, who human rights activists suspect were mostly killed by vigilantes, were on the lists. Duterte's war on drugs has killed more than 3,600 people since he took office on June 30 × The campaign draws its momentum from President Duterte: Last Friday, he seemed to compare himself to Hitler and said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts in the Philippines. But the campaign's efficiency depends on the lowliest officials in the country's barangays - its districts and villages. "They are on the forefront of this fight," Dela Rosa told Reuters. "They can identify the drug users and pushers in their barangays. They know everyone." Motorbike-riding assassins Interviews with local police, residents and barangay officials reveal the mechanics of an anti-drugs crusade that the popular Duterte has vowed to wage until next June in the face of global condemnation. Barangay leaders, known as "captains", have been instrumental in drawing up the lists, say police. Maricar Asilo Vivero is the captain of Pinagbuhatan, a Manila barangay with about 145,000 people, and says she is an enthusiastic supporter of Duterte's campaign. "The war on drugs is good," she said. "It lowers crime. It identifies those who want to change." The night before, said Vivero, motorbike-riding assassins killed two men who had been named as pushers on the barangay's watch list. Vivero said she sympathised with the victims' families but didn't feel responsible for the deaths. People weren't included on the watch list with "the objective of killing them, or asking the police or authorities to kill them," she said. "Our objective is to guide them, to direct their lives to the better - not to kill." Asked if people named on the watch list were more likely to get killed, Vivero replied: "No, I don't think so." There were 323 suspected users and dealers on Pinagbuhatan's watch list, according to a computer print-out seen by Reuters. It had been swelled by people who had gone to the barangay office to admit to police they were users, a process known as "surrendering". Often a family affair The origins of the barangay system predate the arrival of Spanish colonisers in the 16th century. In Manila, a barangay can consist of just two densely populated streets; in the countryside, it can sprawl for miles. Each has a barangay captain and six kagawad, or councillors, who are elected in polls often dogged by allegations of corruption. And as with more senior posts in the Philippines, the barangay captaincy often passes between members of the same family. The barangay office sits at the heart of the community and, on any given day, its hallways are clogged with people seeking so-called "clearances." These are certificates, signed by the captain, for people needing to establish residency, set up a business, apply for a job or enroll a child at a local school. Barangay captains routinely attend the weddings, baptisms and funerals of constituents, and even victims of serious crimes will sometimes report to them first rather than the police. "They trust us more and get an immediate response," said Eriberto Guevarra, who for 11 years was captain of Palatiw. His wife Dinah now occupies the position, while Eriberto works at her side as a self-styled "peace and order czar". "Drug personalities" The Barangay Anti-Drug Action Committees (BADACs) play a key role in helping the police identify alleged drug dealers and users in each district. Each BADAC's 6-10 members are chosen by the barangay captain, who also chairs the committee. They might be teachers, church workers, youth leaders or members of other civil society groups. Each BADAC provides the names of what police term "drug personalities", meaning suspected users or dealers, most of them small-time. Police say they then "validate" these names in consultation with national anti-narcotics and intelligence officials. They also add names of their own. First created by the government in 1998, BADACs were meant to convene every month, but for years many did little or existed only on paper. Duterte not only revived the BADACs, he made them the lynchpin of his war on drugs. Duterte pioneered the nationwide campaign in the southern city of Davao, where he was mayor for 22 years. There, barangay leaders and police compiled similar lists that were used by death squads to assassinate hundreds of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals and street children, said Human Rights Watch in a 2009 report. Duterte denied any involvement in the killings. "A grudge and a gun" Officials say the watch lists are not arbitrary hit lists. Metro Manila's list of 11,700 users and dealers has been "validated and revalidated by intelligence", said Kimberley Molitas, police spokeswoman for a region that has seen more than a quarter of the drug-war deaths. Human rights monitors and some officials counter that the process is open to abuse. Lists have included the names of people "who are not even drug users, never mind pushers," said Karen Gomez-Dumpit, a commissioner at the Philippines' Commission on Human Rights. "It's an environment conducive to someone with a grudge and a gun to hunt you down," she said. In one high-profile case, the bullet-riddled body of Mark Culata was found in Cavite, a province south of Manila, on Sept. 9. It bore a placard identifying him as a drug dealer. Culata's mother Eva told local media that her 27-year-old son had nothing to do with drugs and had been heading overseas to start a job. Police told Reuters in a statement that investigators were considering the "illegal drug trade and love triangle" as a possible motive. Four officers involved in the case have been moved to administrative positions pending an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines equivalent of the FBI. Culata's death was raised as a possible extrajudicial killing in a Philippines Senate hearing on October 3. Police told Reuters that watch lists are confidential. But so-called "knock and plead" operations, in which police visit drug suspects at their homes and urge them to mend their ways, means inclusion on a list is often public knowledge. Drug pushers and users are also urged to "surrender" to the police at barangay meetings that are, again, public. Their names are added to the watch list. The process resembles a mass arrest. The so-called "surrenderers" are questioned by police, who ask for details of their dealers and fellow users. This information can be used to identify other drug suspects, police said. The names of surrenderers are later added to a national database so they can be watched even if they move to another barangay. After the questioning, the users are fingerprinted and pose for a mugshot holding a whiteboard bearing their name and that day's date. Raising their right hands, they then swear to stay away from drugs and support "the government and the police in their noble campaign." In the following weeks, said barangay captain Vivero, surrenderers are expected to do community service such as painting walls, unclogging sewers or picking up trash. Intended to change Former barangay leader Eriberto Guevarra said he tried to avert the killing of pedicab driver Celestino. The dead man, Guevarra said, was just a small-time dealer and user, not the "notorious pusher" police dubbed him. "He was endangered because he was on the watch list," he said. Guevarra said he had warned Celestino to stop dealing and using drugs. Three days before his death Celestino had attended a three-hour "drug awareness" seminar run by police and barangay officials. "It was his intention to change," said Guevarra. John Patrick Celestino, 17, one of Celestino's four children, trembled as he recalled the night his father died. The dogs began barking at about 9 p.m. There were armed men at the door who showed John Patrick a photo on a cellphone. "Is this your father?" they demanded. When he said it was, according to John Patrick, the men rushed upstairs and kicked open the door to a small room where Celestino was hiding. John Patrick, who had followed them to the room, said: "The men kept shouting, 'Where's the shabu?' Where's the shabu?'" referring to the local name for crystal methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug widely available in the Philippines. He told them his father was unarmed and begged them not to shoot. But one gunman fired three rounds into the room, and the teenager heard his father gasp with pain. The gunman then ordered John Patrick to flee. As he ran downstairs, he heard five more shots. Police said they found a .22 revolver and three sachets of shabu on Celestino. His wife Zandey, 38, denies this was the case. "My husband had already surrendered, so why did they kill him?" she asked. "Why didn't they give him one more chance?" Sitting around his coffin, relatives told a Reuters reporter of a long-running feud with another family, who they blamed for telling the police that Celestino was a drug dealer. Reuters was unable to independently verify this claim. "Nefarious activities" Celestino was on the watch list as a drug dealer, confirmed chief superintendent Romulo Sapitula, director of the Eastern Police District of Manila. "The information came from the community," he said. "It was given by barangay officials and validated by the police." The "best information" comes from the neighbourhood itself, he added. "Most of the watch lists which came from that place are true and correct." Celestino's surrender as a drug user didn't put him above suspicion, said Sapitula. "There are some on the watch list who surrender but continue their nefarious activities," he said. "They pretend to embrace the programme, but in reality ... they are still doing their old thing. And there are some who surrender as users when they're really pushers." Sapitula confirmed the operation was carried out by seven or eight members of the anti-narcotics police. He rejected the family's claim that drugs were planted on Celestino. An internal investigation, he said, had concluded that the police opened fire in self-defence because Celestino had "opted to shoot it out". Sapitula said family members shouldn't be afraid to file a formal complaint, but only "if they're innocent" and not involved in criminal activities. The Celestinos told Reuters there was little point appealing to the same people who had killed their relative. Zandey said she feared not only for the safety of her children, but for other members of her extended family who, like Celestino, had "surrendered" to authorities. Her older son, Cedric, 19, was so traumatised by the killing that he has stopped talking, she said. "It will be bloody" Some local leaders plead with the police to spare lives. In the Manila slum of Tondo, barangay captain Erick Simbiling said two policemen recently told him they had "scheduled to kill" a local man who was a small-time but persistent drug dealer. "I spoke to the policemen and said, 'Please give him a chance,'" Simbiling said. He then visited the dealer and urged him to surrender to the authorities. The dealer did so, like hundreds of thousands of others nationwide, and then fled the barangay. The barangay captains are under pressure from the president himself. Duterte has vowed to publish a list of a thousand elected officials suspected of drug ties. Prominent among them are captains who have connived with terrorists and drug lords, he told reporters on Sept. 18. But not all barangays have toed the line. Police in central Luzon told Reuters that 31 of the region's 3,100 barangays had not supplied a watch list. Romeo Caramat, police chief of Bulacan province in central Luzon, said these barangay officials were probably either allied to Duterte's political opponents or bankrolled by drug traffickers. "Actually, one of the barangay captains who was uncooperative got killed," said Caramat. The man was shot in early August in San Jose Del Monte city by unidentified assassins on a motorbike, he said. "One barangay chairman runs out of luck!" added Caramat, laughing. He described the man as "a well-known drug pusher and user" who had not included himself on his barangay's watch list. The dead captain, Damaso Santiago, was a drug user, not a dealer, said his younger brother Arman Santiago. "Anyone you ask, they will say he does not peddle drugs. He was just a victim of drug use," said Arman. Police chief Caramat described his province's 17,000 drug dealers and users as "a walking time bomb". For him, the death toll in his province is a measure of the campaign's success. "It will be bloody," he said. "You have a problem with dengue. You think you can solve it without killing mosquitos?" (Reuters)

In Duterte's war on drugs, local residents help draw up hit lists

The Philippines is not leaving the United Nations, the foreign minister said on Monday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to quit the body after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs. 
 
Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Duterte&#39;s statement &quot;is a statement expressing profound disappointment and frustration&quot;. 
 
&quot;We are committed to the U.N. despite our numerous frustrations with this international agency,&quot; Yasay told a news conference. 
 
(Reuters)

The statement came after President Rodrigo Duterte had threatened to quit the body

The Philippines is not leaving the United Nations, the foreign minister said on Monday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to quit the body after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs. Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Duterte's statement "is a statement expressing profound disappointment and frustration". "We are committed to the U.N. despite our numerous frustrations with this international agency," Yasay told a news conference. (Reuters)

Philippines not leaving United Nations: Foreign minister

The US government on Thursday will allow&nbsp;more research into marijuana but has rejected requests to loosen the&nbsp;classification of the substance as a dangerous drug with no medical&nbsp;use, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. 
 
The decision, to be announced by the Drug Enforcement&nbsp;Administration, is an answer to a 2011 petition filed by two former&nbsp;state governors who asked federal agencies to re-classify marijuana&nbsp;as a drug with accepted medical uses, said two people who asked not&nbsp;to be identified. 
 
The Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment and the&nbsp;Food and Drug Administration did not immediately respond. But the&nbsp;DEA in an e-mail sent by its public affairs division to stakeholders&nbsp;on Wednesday said the agency would be making &quot;important&nbsp;announcements regarding marijuana related topics&quot; on Thursday. 
 
For decades, marijuana has been classified as a &lsquo;Schedule I&rsquo; drug&nbsp;with &quot;no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for 
abuse,&quot; on par with heroin. 
 
(Reuters)

The government will however allow further research into the drug

The US government on Thursday will allow more research into marijuana but has rejected requests to loosen the classification of the substance as a dangerous drug with no medical use, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The decision, to be announced by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is an answer to a 2011 petition filed by two former state governors who asked federal agencies to re-classify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses, said two people who asked not to be identified. The Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment and the Food and Drug Administration did not immediately respond. But the DEA in an e-mail sent by its public affairs division to stakeholders on Wednesday said the agency would be making "important announcements regarding marijuana related topics" on Thursday. For decades, marijuana has been classified as a ‘Schedule I’ drug with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," on par with heroin. (Reuters)

US to research more on Marijuana, rejects re-classification

Pakistan&#39;s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) today arrested 12 employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for allegedly trying to smuggle six kilograms of heroin worth over 60 million rupees. 
 
A PIA flight PK-203 was ready to leave for Dubai yesterday from the airport here when the ANF staff got it vacated on information that a huge quantity of heroin had been concealed in the aircraft, officials said. 
 
After a thorough search of a couple of hours, the ANF team seized six kilograms of heroin, which is worth over Rs 60 million, from the toilet of the aircraft, they said. 
 
According to officials, ANF arrested at least 12 PIA employees today and launched a thorough probe into the matter.&nbsp;PIA spokesman Daniyal Gilani confirmed the arrests saying some PIA employees have been taken into custody in connection with a failed bid to smuggle heroin to Dubai from Lahore. 
 
After investigation, if these employees are found guilty, strict action will be taken against them, he said. 
 
During the last few years, there has been a rapid rise in the number of cases in which the PIA employees were caught red-handed while smuggling different items like drugs, cigarettes, mobile phones, illegal passports and laundered money abroad. 
 
In some cases, the PIA employees were caught at Pakistani airports and in others they were intercepted and arrested in other countries, mostly in the European destinations. 
 
(PTI)

After searching the plane for two hours, police seized six kilograms of heroin, worth over Rs 60 million, from the aircraft's toilet

Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) today arrested 12 employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for allegedly trying to smuggle six kilograms of heroin worth over 60 million rupees. A PIA flight PK-203 was ready to leave for Dubai yesterday from the airport here when the ANF staff got it vacated on information that a huge quantity of heroin had been concealed in the aircraft, officials said. After a thorough search of a couple of hours, the ANF team seized six kilograms of heroin, which is worth over Rs 60 million, from the toilet of the aircraft, they said. According to officials, ANF arrested at least 12 PIA employees today and launched a thorough probe into the matter. PIA spokesman Daniyal Gilani confirmed the arrests saying some PIA employees have been taken into custody in connection with a failed bid to smuggle heroin to Dubai from Lahore. After investigation, if these employees are found guilty, strict action will be taken against them, he said. During the last few years, there has been a rapid rise in the number of cases in which the PIA employees were caught red-handed while smuggling different items like drugs, cigarettes, mobile phones, illegal passports and laundered money abroad. In some cases, the PIA employees were caught at Pakistani airports and in others they were intercepted and arrested in other countries, mostly in the European destinations. (PTI)

12 Pakistan International Airlines employees arrested for smuggling heroin

Mario Dimaculangan shares a toilet with 130 other inmates in one of the Philippines&#39; most overcrowded jails, and conditions are getting worse as police wage an unprecedented war on crime.&nbsp; 
 
Security forces have killed hundreds of people and detained thousands more in just one month as they have followed the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said the top priority at the start of his six-year term is to eliminate drugs in society.&nbsp; 
 
Those detained appear doomed for lengthy stints in an underfunded and overwhelmed penal system, like in the Quezon City Jail where Dimaculangan&nbsp;(name changed)&nbsp;has wallowed for 14 years while his trial over murder and robbery charges have dragged on.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Many go crazy. They cannot think straight. It&#39;s so crowded. Just the slightest of movements and you bump into something or someone,&quot; Dimaculangan said in one of the jail&#39;s packed hallways that reeked of sweat.&nbsp; 
 
There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800, and they engage in a relentless contest for space. Men take turns to sleep on the cracked cement floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, underneath beds and hammocks made out of old blankets. Even then, bodies are packed like sardines in a can, with inmates unable to fully stretch out. When it rains, the conditions are even worse as inmates cannot sleep on the basketball court, which is surrounded by the cells in decaying concrete buildings up to four storeys high.&nbsp; 
 
The cash-strapped national government has a daily budget of just 50 pesos ($1.10) for food and five pesos (11 cents) for medicine per inmate, although with the bulk buying of supplies, Quezon City Jail detainees have a sustainable diet of soup, vegetables and meat.&nbsp; 
 
Pails of water are used to flush the scarce toilets, with the stench compounded by the rotting garbage in a nearby canal.&nbsp; 
 
Unthinkable conditions&nbsp; 
 
The jail&#39;s management does what it can to make life bearable, such as running dance competitions and other rehabilitation activities. Inmates also say there have been improvements in recent years, particularly with the food and more rehabilitation programmes.&nbsp; 
 
But Raymund Narag, a criminal justice scholar at the Southern Illinois University in the United States, said such conditions were unthinkable in Western nations. &quot;If this happened in America, there would be a riot every day. Courts would declare these jails unfit for human habitation,&quot; Narag said.&nbsp; 
 
The Philippine penal system is the third most congested in the world, according to the University of London&#39;s Institute for Criminal Policy Research. Jails nationwide have nearly five times more inmates than they were built for, according to government data. And the situation is set to get much worse, very quickly.&nbsp; 
 
Under Duterte&#39;s crime war, police have reported arresting more than 4,300 people for drug-related crimes since he took office on June 30. Duterte has repeatedly urged his law enforcers to do more, calling on them to triple their efforts to eradicate the drug menace that he says is threatening to turn the Philippines into a narco-state.&nbsp; 
 
The population of Quezon City Jail, which houses inmates in a northern district of the Philippine capital who are on trial but not yet convicted, has grown by 300 since Duterte won May elections.&nbsp; 
 
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said government was preparing locations for new prisons while courts have been ordered to prioritise the expected deluge of drug cases.&nbsp; 
 
But Duterte has said little about far-reaching reforms needed to fix the systemic problem of overcrowding. &quot;If there are no new jails, no budget increases, no additional courts and prosecutors, the system will explode. That will be a humanitarian crisis,&quot; said Narag, the scholar who speaks from harrowing personal experience.&nbsp; 
 
Justice delayed&nbsp; 
 
Narag, 41, was locked up in Quezon City Jail in 1995 as a 20-year-old after being accused of killing a student from a rival college fraternity. It took seven years for a court to acquit him, which is about the average length of a trial in the Philippines and one of the main drivers of the overcrowding problem. Dimaculangan is the longest-serving inmate in Quezon City Jail, after being charged with killing a politician&#39;s relative in 2001.&nbsp; 
 
Dimaculangan insists he has a &quot;clear conscience&quot; but cannot get a chance to prove his innocence in court, averaging just one trial hearing a year in a chaotic judicial system notorious for its lack of judges, publicly funded lawyers and court rooms.&nbsp; 
 
Dimaculangan said his spirits used to rise when he was informed of a date for a court hearing, but he had been disappointed too many times with cancellations or postponements. &quot;Now when they say I have a hearing, I don&#39;t care anymore,&quot; he said.&nbsp; 
 
With no hopes of freedom, Dimaculangan said he had turned to his Catholic faith and values. &quot;My purpose is to help my fellow detainees,&quot; he said.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;God did not send me here because I am a thief. There are many thieves out there but how come they are not in jail?&quot;&nbsp; 
 
(AFP) 
&nbsp;

After President Duterte's crackdown on drugs, security forces have detained thousands in just one month

Mario Dimaculangan shares a toilet with 130 other inmates in one of the Philippines' most overcrowded jails, and conditions are getting worse as police wage an unprecedented war on crime. Security forces have killed hundreds of people and detained thousands more in just one month as they have followed the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said the top priority at the start of his six-year term is to eliminate drugs in society. Those detained appear doomed for lengthy stints in an underfunded and overwhelmed penal system, like in the Quezon City Jail where Dimaculangan (name changed) has wallowed for 14 years while his trial over murder and robbery charges have dragged on. "Many go crazy. They cannot think straight. It's so crowded. Just the slightest of movements and you bump into something or someone," Dimaculangan said in one of the jail's packed hallways that reeked of sweat. There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800, and they engage in a relentless contest for space. Men take turns to sleep on the cracked cement floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, underneath beds and hammocks made out of old blankets. Even then, bodies are packed like sardines in a can, with inmates unable to fully stretch out. When it rains, the conditions are even worse as inmates cannot sleep on the basketball court, which is surrounded by the cells in decaying concrete buildings up to four storeys high. The cash-strapped national government has a daily budget of just 50 pesos ($1.10) for food and five pesos (11 cents) for medicine per inmate, although with the bulk buying of supplies, Quezon City Jail detainees have a sustainable diet of soup, vegetables and meat. Pails of water are used to flush the scarce toilets, with the stench compounded by the rotting garbage in a nearby canal. Unthinkable conditions The jail's management does what it can to make life bearable, such as running dance competitions and other rehabilitation activities. Inmates also say there have been improvements in recent years, particularly with the food and more rehabilitation programmes. But Raymund Narag, a criminal justice scholar at the Southern Illinois University in the United States, said such conditions were unthinkable in Western nations. "If this happened in America, there would be a riot every day. Courts would declare these jails unfit for human habitation," Narag said. The Philippine penal system is the third most congested in the world, according to the University of London's Institute for Criminal Policy Research. Jails nationwide have nearly five times more inmates than they were built for, according to government data. And the situation is set to get much worse, very quickly. Under Duterte's crime war, police have reported arresting more than 4,300 people for drug-related crimes since he took office on June 30. Duterte has repeatedly urged his law enforcers to do more, calling on them to triple their efforts to eradicate the drug menace that he says is threatening to turn the Philippines into a narco-state. The population of Quezon City Jail, which houses inmates in a northern district of the Philippine capital who are on trial but not yet convicted, has grown by 300 since Duterte won May elections. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said government was preparing locations for new prisons while courts have been ordered to prioritise the expected deluge of drug cases. But Duterte has said little about far-reaching reforms needed to fix the systemic problem of overcrowding. "If there are no new jails, no budget increases, no additional courts and prosecutors, the system will explode. That will be a humanitarian crisis," said Narag, the scholar who speaks from harrowing personal experience. Justice delayed Narag, 41, was locked up in Quezon City Jail in 1995 as a 20-year-old after being accused of killing a student from a rival college fraternity. It took seven years for a court to acquit him, which is about the average length of a trial in the Philippines and one of the main drivers of the overcrowding problem. Dimaculangan is the longest-serving inmate in Quezon City Jail, after being charged with killing a politician's relative in 2001. Dimaculangan insists he has a "clear conscience" but cannot get a chance to prove his innocence in court, averaging just one trial hearing a year in a chaotic judicial system notorious for its lack of judges, publicly funded lawyers and court rooms. Dimaculangan said his spirits used to rise when he was informed of a date for a court hearing, but he had been disappointed too many times with cancellations or postponements. "Now when they say I have a hearing, I don't care anymore," he said. With no hopes of freedom, Dimaculangan said he had turned to his Catholic faith and values. "My purpose is to help my fellow detainees," he said. "God did not send me here because I am a thief. There are many thieves out there but how come they are not in jail?" (AFP)

1 toilet for 130 inmates: A harrowing tale of Philippine's overcrowded jails

The newly convened Philippine Congress heard a proposal today to re-impose the death penalty for &#39;heinous crimes&#39;, giving priority to President Rodrigo Duterte&#39;s push for capital punishment in its first legislative session. 
 
The death penalty bill was received the same day Duterte took office on June 30, and it cites illicit sales and use of drugs as the root cause of &quot;the most perverse and atrocious crimes&quot;. 
 
Introduced by two lawmakers, including a house speaker allied with Duterte, the bill cites the need for a war on crime and argues that existing laws were not a deterrent and had &quot;emasculated&quot; the criminal justice system. 
 
The death penalty was repealed in 2006 following pressure from church groups. 
 
The bill comes as Duterte&#39;s war on crime is in full swing, with at least 200 people killed in the past month, according to police, who say many of the deaths are the work of vigilantes. 
 
Other estimates of the body count are far higher and human rights groups are outraged. 
 
Duterte&#39;s vow to wipe out crime and drugs by the end of the year resonated among millions of locals when he campaigned for election on threats to kill drug dealers who refused to surrender and dump their bodies in Manila Bay. 
 
He will not get everything his way, however, with the bill calling for lethal injection as a method of administering the punishment. Duterte had called for death by hanging, which he described graphically during speeches. 
 
(Reuters)

Philippine Congress discusses death penalty bill that cites illicit sales and use of drugs as the root cause of most atrocious crimes

The newly convened Philippine Congress heard a proposal today to re-impose the death penalty for 'heinous crimes', giving priority to President Rodrigo Duterte's push for capital punishment in its first legislative session. The death penalty bill was received the same day Duterte took office on June 30, and it cites illicit sales and use of drugs as the root cause of "the most perverse and atrocious crimes". Introduced by two lawmakers, including a house speaker allied with Duterte, the bill cites the need for a war on crime and argues that existing laws were not a deterrent and had "emasculated" the criminal justice system. The death penalty was repealed in 2006 following pressure from church groups. The bill comes as Duterte's war on crime is in full swing, with at least 200 people killed in the past month, according to police, who say many of the deaths are the work of vigilantes. Other estimates of the body count are far higher and human rights groups are outraged. Duterte's vow to wipe out crime and drugs by the end of the year resonated among millions of locals when he campaigned for election on threats to kill drug dealers who refused to surrender and dump their bodies in Manila Bay. He will not get everything his way, however, with the bill calling for lethal injection as a method of administering the punishment. Duterte had called for death by hanging, which he described graphically during speeches. (Reuters)

Philippine President Duterte pushes for re-imposition of death penalty in first legislative reform

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has been heavily criticised for its handling of information relating to a doctor who was allegedly supplying athletes with banned substances. 
 
The agency, a national organisation committed to drug-free sport, commissioned an independent review after claims aired in the Sunday Times that Dr Mark Bonar had provided more than 150 elite athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. 
 
Amateur cyclist Dan Stevens turned whistleblower in the hope of reducing his suspension after he was banned for two years for breaching anti-doping rules in 2014. 
 
But the review&#39;s report censured UKAD for failing to pursue claims against Bonar and for not contacting his professional body, the General Medical Council. 
 
While praising UKAD staff for their &quot;transparency&quot; and commitment to clean sport, the report was scathing about certain parts of the investigation into Bonar. 
 
&quot;It is difficult to understand why no contact was made with the GMC when that course of action was suggested on at least seven occasions either by members of UKAD, the athlete (Stevens) and his legal representatives,&quot; said the review&#39;s chairman, former Merseyside assistant chief constable Andy Ward. 
 
He added that &quot;as a minimum standard of investigation, a simple check&quot; with the GMC should have been made to find out if it, as Bonar`s regulatory body, had any information that could &quot;support or negate&quot; Stevens claims. 
 
UKAD was also criticised for not giving Stevens a more lenient sentence after his cooperation, with Ward highlighting the &quot;confusion and lack of clarity&quot; as to how the agency deals with dopers seeking to reduce their sanction in return for &quot;substantial assistance&quot;. 
 
He described UKAD&#39;s dismissal of Stevens request for a lesser punishment as &quot;harsh&quot; and &quot;subjective&quot;. 
 
That dismissal prompted Stevens to take his story to the Sunday Times, which then filmed the London-based Bonar claiming he had supplied prohibited drugs to more than 150 top-level athletes. 
&nbsp; 
Those claims, which were published by the newspaper in April, have now been investigated by UKAD, and the agency did eventually share its findings with the GMC. Bonar has since denied any wrongdoing. 
 
&quot;It is clear that opportunities to gather intelligence, secure evidence and investigate Bonar have been missed,&quot; Ward concluded. 
 
(AFP)

A review set up by the agency has censured it for failing to pursue claims that a doctor supplied drugs to more than 150 athletes

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has been heavily criticised for its handling of information relating to a doctor who was allegedly supplying athletes with banned substances. The agency, a national organisation committed to drug-free sport, commissioned an independent review after claims aired in the Sunday Times that Dr Mark Bonar had provided more than 150 elite athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. Amateur cyclist Dan Stevens turned whistleblower in the hope of reducing his suspension after he was banned for two years for breaching anti-doping rules in 2014. But the review's report censured UKAD for failing to pursue claims against Bonar and for not contacting his professional body, the General Medical Council. While praising UKAD staff for their "transparency" and commitment to clean sport, the report was scathing about certain parts of the investigation into Bonar. "It is difficult to understand why no contact was made with the GMC when that course of action was suggested on at least seven occasions either by members of UKAD, the athlete (Stevens) and his legal representatives," said the review's chairman, former Merseyside assistant chief constable Andy Ward. He added that "as a minimum standard of investigation, a simple check" with the GMC should have been made to find out if it, as Bonar`s regulatory body, had any information that could "support or negate" Stevens claims. UKAD was also criticised for not giving Stevens a more lenient sentence after his cooperation, with Ward highlighting the "confusion and lack of clarity" as to how the agency deals with dopers seeking to reduce their sanction in return for "substantial assistance". He described UKAD's dismissal of Stevens request for a lesser punishment as "harsh" and "subjective". That dismissal prompted Stevens to take his story to the Sunday Times, which then filmed the London-based Bonar claiming he had supplied prohibited drugs to more than 150 top-level athletes. Those claims, which were published by the newspaper in April, have now been investigated by UKAD, and the agency did eventually share its findings with the GMC. Bonar has since denied any wrongdoing. "It is clear that opportunities to gather intelligence, secure evidence and investigate Bonar have been missed," Ward concluded. (AFP)

UK Anti-Doping criticised for handling of doping claims

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) urged the Kenyan government to act &quot;quickly in the interest of protecting clean sport&quot; after the athletics powerhouse found itself caught in the eye of a fresh doping storm. 
 
A new investigation by German television channel ARD and Britain&#39;s Sunday Times newspaper alleged on Saturday that doping is rife at the elite training centre in Iten. 
 
Previous joint research by ARD and the British newspaper led to the banning of the Russian athletics team from the Olympic Games for state-sponsored doping. 
 
Over the past three years, around 40 Kenyan athletes have failed doping tests, shredding their reputation for probity and laying bare the reality behind their reputation as the most dominant middle-to-long distance running nation in the world.&nbsp; 
 
The allegations are a major blow as they follow only weeks after Kenyan lawmakers passed a law, having been threatened with a similar sanction as the Russians by WADA - making it a criminal act to either dope or to supply such products. 
 
The documentary, largely filmed with a hidden camera, says it successfully infiltrated a team, posing as an athlete, in the training centre, a favoured spot for distance runners, both Kenyan and European, as it is at high altitude - 2,400 metres above sea level. 
 
The documentary shows images of boxes of the endurance-boosting drug EPO on the inside of the training centre and used syringes dumped in a bin. 
 
EPO is shown to be widely available in the pharmacies around the centre whilst two doctors are only too willing to propose supplying the journalist posing as an athlete with doping products. 
&nbsp; 
One of the two doctors claims to have supplied to &quot;more than 50 athletes, including three British runners, based on his guarantee he could dramatically improve their performances in &quot;three months&quot;. 
 
&quot;Even if the athletes are subjected to doping tests they will find nothing,&quot; says the doctor. 
 
&quot;That is what the top level athletes take.&quot; 
 
The same doctor, according to ARD, when approached again retracted his claims and said he had nothing to do with doping and to have made up supplying the products. 
 
However, both he and the other doctor featured have since been arrested by Kenyan police, according to ARD. 
 
A man said to be the coach of an Olympic champion, appearing with his face hidden, confirms the claims made in the documentary. 
&quot;The great majority of the athletes who appear out of nowhere are doped,&quot; he says. 
 
The chief executive of UK Anti-Doping, Nicole Sapstead, said the report was &quot;of grave concern and of significant interest&quot;, adding they were investigating. 
 
&quot;I can confirm that this evidence is being treated with the utmost importance and urgency, and two UKAD staff are currently in Kenya pursuing a number of lines of enquiry,&quot; she said in a statement. 
 
Newly-installed WADA director-general Olivier Niggli, in a statement issued from the organisation&#39;s Montreal headquarters, said he had &quot;full confidence &quot; in UKAD. 
 
He added: &quot;This article is one in a series of reports questioning Kenya`s ability to effectively address doping; and, suggesting that there exists a culture of doping in the country. 
 
&quot;At the very least, this is an indication that the Kenyan government must quickly put the necessary human resources behind Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) in the interest of protecting clean sport.&quot; 
 
Earlier, ADAK head Japhter Rugut told ARD: &quot;We can see that we have a lot of problems at grassroots level and we will work with the police so as to weed out all those implicated in these criminal activities, both sports people and doctors, who will have to answer for their actions. 
 
&quot;We want to go to Rio with a clean team.&quot; 
 
(AFP)

A documentary by German TV and British newspaper showed boxes of endurance-boosting drug EPO and syringes inside the training centre at Iten

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) urged the Kenyan government to act "quickly in the interest of protecting clean sport" after the athletics powerhouse found itself caught in the eye of a fresh doping storm. A new investigation by German television channel ARD and Britain's Sunday Times newspaper alleged on Saturday that doping is rife at the elite training centre in Iten. Previous joint research by ARD and the British newspaper led to the banning of the Russian athletics team from the Olympic Games for state-sponsored doping. Over the past three years, around 40 Kenyan athletes have failed doping tests, shredding their reputation for probity and laying bare the reality behind their reputation as the most dominant middle-to-long distance running nation in the world. The allegations are a major blow as they follow only weeks after Kenyan lawmakers passed a law, having been threatened with a similar sanction as the Russians by WADA - making it a criminal act to either dope or to supply such products. The documentary, largely filmed with a hidden camera, says it successfully infiltrated a team, posing as an athlete, in the training centre, a favoured spot for distance runners, both Kenyan and European, as it is at high altitude - 2,400 metres above sea level. The documentary shows images of boxes of the endurance-boosting drug EPO on the inside of the training centre and used syringes dumped in a bin. EPO is shown to be widely available in the pharmacies around the centre whilst two doctors are only too willing to propose supplying the journalist posing as an athlete with doping products. One of the two doctors claims to have supplied to "more than 50 athletes, including three British runners, based on his guarantee he could dramatically improve their performances in "three months". "Even if the athletes are subjected to doping tests they will find nothing," says the doctor. "That is what the top level athletes take." The same doctor, according to ARD, when approached again retracted his claims and said he had nothing to do with doping and to have made up supplying the products. However, both he and the other doctor featured have since been arrested by Kenyan police, according to ARD. A man said to be the coach of an Olympic champion, appearing with his face hidden, confirms the claims made in the documentary. "The great majority of the athletes who appear out of nowhere are doped," he says. The chief executive of UK Anti-Doping, Nicole Sapstead, said the report was "of grave concern and of significant interest", adding they were investigating. "I can confirm that this evidence is being treated with the utmost importance and urgency, and two UKAD staff are currently in Kenya pursuing a number of lines of enquiry," she said in a statement. Newly-installed WADA director-general Olivier Niggli, in a statement issued from the organisation's Montreal headquarters, said he had "full confidence " in UKAD. He added: "This article is one in a series of reports questioning Kenya`s ability to effectively address doping; and, suggesting that there exists a culture of doping in the country. "At the very least, this is an indication that the Kenyan government must quickly put the necessary human resources behind Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) in the interest of protecting clean sport." Earlier, ADAK head Japhter Rugut told ARD: "We can see that we have a lot of problems at grassroots level and we will work with the police so as to weed out all those implicated in these criminal activities, both sports people and doctors, who will have to answer for their actions. "We want to go to Rio with a clean team." (AFP)

World agency calls for 'quick action' after another Kenya doping scandal

Philippine police have killed 10 people with suspected links to drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, authorities said Saturday, in a brutal start to his controversial war on crime. 
 
Duterte was sworn into office on Thursday after a landslide win built largely on a pledge to kill thousands of suspected criminals in a relentless law-and-order crackdown he said was needed to stop the Philippines becoming a narco-state. 
 
Police in Bulacan province neighbouring Manila said they launched an anti-drug trafficking blitz on Thursday, the day Duterte took office, that claimed nine lives. 
 
&quot;We are just following the marching orders of our new chief of the Philippine National Police,&quot; Bulacan police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Linel Solomon said. 
 
She said the nine died in seven encounters, insisting police were forced to kill them because the suspects fought back. 
 
Another drug suspect was also shot dead after he used a gun during a raid on his home in the central city of Dumaguete on Friday, local police desk officer Mark Tikling told AFP. 
 
With Duterte encouraging them, police had already killed dozens of suspected criminals between his election victory and being sworn into office. 
 
Duterte, who has been accused of links to vigilante death squads that killed more than 1,000 people during his nearly two decades as mayor of southern Davao city, insisted during his inauguration speech that he would not break the law during his war on crime. 
 
But in a series of speeches afterwards he urged communist rebels and ordinary citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. 
He also promised to use his presidential powers to protect police who faced legal charges for mass killings. 
 
&quot;If in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, then I will protect you,&quot; he said in a speech to install the country&#39;s new chief of police, Ronald Dela Rosa. 
 
Dela Rosa also warned on Friday that police officers linked to drug trafficking to surrender by Sunday or be killed. 
 
Spokesmen for the new president could not be contacted for comment on the new killings. 
 
Wilnor Papa, the local coordinator for human rights group Amnesty International, warned Duterte was inciting extrajudicial killings. 
 
&quot;When you have the highest ranking person, the president, saying this is the way he wants it to happen, you are emboldening the members of law enforcement to go beyond what the law requires,&quot; he told AFP. 
 
&quot;It is not sustainable, it will create more problems.&quot; 
 
Papa warned there would be an &quot;erosion of due process&quot;, with ordinary people using violence to solve disputes. 
 
In a sign of possible vigilante activity, a bullet-riddled body was found in a Manila slum on Friday with a sign on it that read: &quot;I am a Chinese drug lord&quot;. 
 
(AFP)

Duterte urged citizens to kill suspected drug addicts and promised to protect police from legal charges that may result from mass killings

Philippine police have killed 10 people with suspected links to drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, authorities said Saturday, in a brutal start to his controversial war on crime. Duterte was sworn into office on Thursday after a landslide win built largely on a pledge to kill thousands of suspected criminals in a relentless law-and-order crackdown he said was needed to stop the Philippines becoming a narco-state. Police in Bulacan province neighbouring Manila said they launched an anti-drug trafficking blitz on Thursday, the day Duterte took office, that claimed nine lives. "We are just following the marching orders of our new chief of the Philippine National Police," Bulacan police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Linel Solomon said. She said the nine died in seven encounters, insisting police were forced to kill them because the suspects fought back. Another drug suspect was also shot dead after he used a gun during a raid on his home in the central city of Dumaguete on Friday, local police desk officer Mark Tikling told AFP. With Duterte encouraging them, police had already killed dozens of suspected criminals between his election victory and being sworn into office. Duterte, who has been accused of links to vigilante death squads that killed more than 1,000 people during his nearly two decades as mayor of southern Davao city, insisted during his inauguration speech that he would not break the law during his war on crime. But in a series of speeches afterwards he urged communist rebels and ordinary citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. He also promised to use his presidential powers to protect police who faced legal charges for mass killings. "If in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, then I will protect you," he said in a speech to install the country's new chief of police, Ronald Dela Rosa. Dela Rosa also warned on Friday that police officers linked to drug trafficking to surrender by Sunday or be killed. Spokesmen for the new president could not be contacted for comment on the new killings. Wilnor Papa, the local coordinator for human rights group Amnesty International, warned Duterte was inciting extrajudicial killings. "When you have the highest ranking person, the president, saying this is the way he wants it to happen, you are emboldening the members of law enforcement to go beyond what the law requires," he told AFP. "It is not sustainable, it will create more problems." Papa warned there would be an "erosion of due process", with ordinary people using violence to solve disputes. In a sign of possible vigilante activity, a bullet-riddled body was found in a Manila slum on Friday with a sign on it that read: "I am a Chinese drug lord". (AFP)

Philippine police kill 10 with suspected drug links under new President

Two things catch the eye in the office of Joselito Esquivel, a police colonel enforcing a national crackdown on drugs in the Philippines&#39; most crime-ridden district: a pair of boxing gloves in a display cabinet and an M4 assault rifle lying beside him. 
 
&quot;It&#39;s all-out war,&quot; the Quezon City officer says of a spike in killings of suspected drug dealers by police across the country since last month&#39;s election of Rodrigo Duterte, a tough-talking city mayor, as the country&#39;s President. &quot;Duterte has already given the impetus for this massive operation.&quot; 
 
Duterte has vowed to wipe out drug crime within six months, but, according to Chito Gascon, head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the aggressive rhetoric behind his promises has already instilled a sense of impunity among the police. 
 
&quot;Basically, you have Mr Duterte saying: &#39;It&#39;s okay, I&#39;ve got your back&#39;,&quot; said Gascon. 
 
On average, at least one person has been shot dead by police or anonymous vigilantes every day since the May 9 election that swept Duterte to power, an escalation from the first four months of the year when the rate was about two a week. 
 
Handwritten warning signs have been left on some corpses. 
 
Duterte, who will be inaugurated on Thursday for a six-year term, has cheered the police on: after a druglord was killed in a northern province recently, he travelled there to congratulate them and hand over a reward worth about $6,000. 
 
Critics, including leaders of the influential Roman Catholic Church and human rights advocates, fear a spiral of violence could lie ahead for the Philippines if vigilantism and summary executions become an accepted norm after Duterte takes office. 
 
&quot;My concern is that instead of law and order, what we will see is lawlessness and fear,&quot; said Gascon. &quot;What will result is an increase in the body-bag count.&quot; 
 
On Monday, Duterte branded as &quot;stupid&quot; human rights groups and lawmakers who have complained about his draconian plans to crush crime and re-introduce the death penalty. 
 
&quot;When you kill someone, rape, you should die,&quot; he told his last public meeting as mayor of Davao City, where death squads have killed hundreds of drug-pushers, petty criminals and even streetchildren since 1998, according to rights groups. 
 
Duterte denies any involvement in the vigilante killings. 
 
A political outsider whose coarse defiance of the traditional ruling class has drawn comparisons with Donald Trump, Duterte has even figured in commentaries on Britain&#39;s vote to leave the European Union as an example of a global trend towards populism triumphing over the establishment. 
 
Police covering their tracks 
 
Duterte&#39;s pick to be the country&#39;s police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, concedes that some recent killings may have been carried out by officers involved in the drugs business who were covering their tracks so that the new President does not go after them. 
 
&quot;That could be true,&quot; he told Reuters. &quot;Some police officers are shifting from drug protectors to drug punishers.&quot; 
 
But dela Rosa added that so much work towards wiping out drug crime has been accomplished recently that his job will be easy when he takes over at the end of this week. 
 
Railing against critics, he said most of the victims in the recent wave of killings were shot by police in self-defence. 
 
&quot;I have no problem how many people die in legitimate police operations, the police have a right to defend themselves,&quot; he said. &quot;We are police officers, we are not hard killers.&quot; 
 
Only two of the roughly 60 recent killings took place in Quezon City, a crowded and gritty part of sprawling Metro Manila that has the country&#39;s highest crime rate. Most were in areas outside the capital that are less intensively policed. 
 
Esquivel, the officer in Quezon City, said his force has also adopted a softer tack by inviting drug peddlers and addicts to surrender and go into rehabilitation. Just last week, over 1,000 gave themselves up there, he said. 
 
Despite that gentler approach, police in the Philippines are open about their readiness to use guns. 
 
Outside Esquivel&#39;s headquarters there is a police firing range and a banner cheerily announces a monthly &quot;shoot fest&quot;, a contest for officers where sometimes winners receive a gun. 
 
According to data from the University of Sydney, the number of guns in the Philippines is a small fraction of the total in the United States, but Filipinos seem much more inclined to use them. 
 
Gun deaths per 100,000 people in the United States was at 10.54 in 2014, but the Philippines rate of 7.2 in 2008, the last year for which figures were available, was not far behind. 
 
Narco-state 
 
Duterte has predicted that if the tide of drug addiction in the Philippines is not pushed back, it will become a narco-state. 
 
In 2012, the United Nations said the Philippines had the highest rate of methamphetamine use in East Asia, and according to a US state department report, 2.1 per cent of Flipinos aged 16 to 64 use the drug, which is known locally as &quot;shabu&quot;. 
 
There appears to be support in the Philippines for Duterte&#39;s uncompromising line on criminals. 
 
When a suspected rapist was killed in custody recently, the CHR raised concerns, but they were lost amid an outpouring of sympathy for the police on social and mainstream media. 
 
Still many people across the country are feeling anxious. 
 
&quot;There is a sense of fear because what was done to the hardened drug couriers, users and manufacturers could be done to you,&quot; said Winston Boston, a 49-year-old financial adviser in Manila. &quot;Anyone could just be accosted.&quot; 
 
(Reuters)

The new President has already delivered the impetus for a massive operation to crack down on suspected druglords.

Two things catch the eye in the office of Joselito Esquivel, a police colonel enforcing a national crackdown on drugs in the Philippines' most crime-ridden district: a pair of boxing gloves in a display cabinet and an M4 assault rifle lying beside him. "It's all-out war," the Quezon City officer says of a spike in killings of suspected drug dealers by police across the country since last month's election of Rodrigo Duterte, a tough-talking city mayor, as the country's President. "Duterte has already given the impetus for this massive operation." Duterte has vowed to wipe out drug crime within six months, but, according to Chito Gascon, head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the aggressive rhetoric behind his promises has already instilled a sense of impunity among the police. "Basically, you have Mr Duterte saying: 'It's okay, I've got your back'," said Gascon. On average, at least one person has been shot dead by police or anonymous vigilantes every day since the May 9 election that swept Duterte to power, an escalation from the first four months of the year when the rate was about two a week. Handwritten warning signs have been left on some corpses. Duterte, who will be inaugurated on Thursday for a six-year term, has cheered the police on: after a druglord was killed in a northern province recently, he travelled there to congratulate them and hand over a reward worth about $6,000. Critics, including leaders of the influential Roman Catholic Church and human rights advocates, fear a spiral of violence could lie ahead for the Philippines if vigilantism and summary executions become an accepted norm after Duterte takes office. "My concern is that instead of law and order, what we will see is lawlessness and fear," said Gascon. "What will result is an increase in the body-bag count." On Monday, Duterte branded as "stupid" human rights groups and lawmakers who have complained about his draconian plans to crush crime and re-introduce the death penalty. "When you kill someone, rape, you should die," he told his last public meeting as mayor of Davao City, where death squads have killed hundreds of drug-pushers, petty criminals and even streetchildren since 1998, according to rights groups. Duterte denies any involvement in the vigilante killings. A political outsider whose coarse defiance of the traditional ruling class has drawn comparisons with Donald Trump, Duterte has even figured in commentaries on Britain's vote to leave the European Union as an example of a global trend towards populism triumphing over the establishment. Police covering their tracks Duterte's pick to be the country's police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, concedes that some recent killings may have been carried out by officers involved in the drugs business who were covering their tracks so that the new President does not go after them. "That could be true," he told Reuters. "Some police officers are shifting from drug protectors to drug punishers." But dela Rosa added that so much work towards wiping out drug crime has been accomplished recently that his job will be easy when he takes over at the end of this week. Railing against critics, he said most of the victims in the recent wave of killings were shot by police in self-defence. "I have no problem how many people die in legitimate police operations, the police have a right to defend themselves," he said. "We are police officers, we are not hard killers." Only two of the roughly 60 recent killings took place in Quezon City, a crowded and gritty part of sprawling Metro Manila that has the country's highest crime rate. Most were in areas outside the capital that are less intensively policed. Esquivel, the officer in Quezon City, said his force has also adopted a softer tack by inviting drug peddlers and addicts to surrender and go into rehabilitation. Just last week, over 1,000 gave themselves up there, he said. Despite that gentler approach, police in the Philippines are open about their readiness to use guns. Outside Esquivel's headquarters there is a police firing range and a banner cheerily announces a monthly "shoot fest", a contest for officers where sometimes winners receive a gun. According to data from the University of Sydney, the number of guns in the Philippines is a small fraction of the total in the United States, but Filipinos seem much more inclined to use them. Gun deaths per 100,000 people in the United States was at 10.54 in 2014, but the Philippines rate of 7.2 in 2008, the last year for which figures were available, was not far behind. Narco-state Duterte has predicted that if the tide of drug addiction in the Philippines is not pushed back, it will become a narco-state. In 2012, the United Nations said the Philippines had the highest rate of methamphetamine use in East Asia, and according to a US state department report, 2.1 per cent of Flipinos aged 16 to 64 use the drug, which is known locally as "shabu". There appears to be support in the Philippines for Duterte's uncompromising line on criminals. When a suspected rapist was killed in custody recently, the CHR raised concerns, but they were lost amid an outpouring of sympathy for the police on social and mainstream media. Still many people across the country are feeling anxious. "There is a sense of fear because what was done to the hardened drug couriers, users and manufacturers could be done to you," said Winston Boston, a 49-year-old financial adviser in Manila. "Anyone could just be accosted." (Reuters)

As Duterte takes over in Philippines, police killings stir fear

&nbsp;Arizona&nbsp;has run out of execution drugs, including a sedative implicated in botched lethal injections, according to a filing on Friday in a court case challenging the US&nbsp;state&#39;s execution methods.

The&nbsp;Arizona department of corrections&#39; supply of midazolam, a sedative, expired on May 31 and it has not been able to replace it, state lawyers said in the filing in Phoenix&#39;s US&nbsp;District Court.

&quot;What is more, the Department&#39;s source of midazolam has vanished under pressure from death penalty opponents,&quot; the court document said.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of seven death-row inmates who allege that&nbsp;Arizona&#39;s use of midazolam and two other drugs violate the US&nbsp;Constitution&#39;s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Since midazolam was at the heart of the lawsuit, the filing asked the judge hearing the case, Neil Wake, to decide whether the suit was moot.

The document said the Department of Corrections also lacked the execution drugs pentobarbital and sodium thiopental.

Arizona&nbsp;has not carried out an execution since the July 2014 execution of Joseph Wood. He was administered 14 times the allowed doses of midazolam and a narcotic, hydromorphone, and took almost two hours to die.

Midazolam, a relative of Valium, has also been cited in a troubled 2014 execution in Oklahoma. It was at the center of a US&nbsp;Supreme Court decision last year where the court upheld its use in Oklahoma.

After the high court&#39;s ruling,&nbsp;Arizona&nbsp;switched to a three-step protocol of midazolam, a paralytic drug and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

The protocol was the same as that decided in the Supreme Court case, and state lawyers have argued that midazolam thus was acceptable for use in&nbsp;Arizona.

But Wake has ruled that Supreme Court decisions in the Oklahoma case and another involving midazolam were based only on the facts specific to them.

Drug company Pfizer Inc said last month it had banned the sale of execution drugs, including midazolam. The move cut off the last major US&nbsp;source for drugs in the deadly mixes.

The number of inmates executed in the United State has plummeted since the 1990s, with 14 executions so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 
 
(Reuters)

State's department of corrections' supply of the sedative midazolam expired on May 31 and it has not been able to replace it

Arizona has run out of execution drugs, including a sedative implicated in botched lethal injections, according to a filing on Friday in a court case challenging the US state's execution methods. The Arizona department of corrections' supply of midazolam, a sedative, expired on May 31 and it has not been able to replace it, state lawyers said in the filing in Phoenix's US District Court. "What is more, the Department's source of midazolam has vanished under pressure from death penalty opponents," the court document said. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of seven death-row inmates who allege that Arizona's use of midazolam and two other drugs violate the US Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Since midazolam was at the heart of the lawsuit, the filing asked the judge hearing the case, Neil Wake, to decide whether the suit was moot. The document said the Department of Corrections also lacked the execution drugs pentobarbital and sodium thiopental. Arizona has not carried out an execution since the July 2014 execution of Joseph Wood. He was administered 14 times the allowed doses of midazolam and a narcotic, hydromorphone, and took almost two hours to die. Midazolam, a relative of Valium, has also been cited in a troubled 2014 execution in Oklahoma. It was at the center of a US Supreme Court decision last year where the court upheld its use in Oklahoma. After the high court's ruling, Arizona switched to a three-step protocol of midazolam, a paralytic drug and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. The protocol was the same as that decided in the Supreme Court case, and state lawyers have argued that midazolam thus was acceptable for use in Arizona. But Wake has ruled that Supreme Court decisions in the Oklahoma case and another involving midazolam were based only on the facts specific to them. Drug company Pfizer Inc said last month it had banned the sale of execution drugs, including midazolam. The move cut off the last major US source for drugs in the deadly mixes. The number of inmates executed in the United State has plummeted since the 1990s, with 14 executions so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (Reuters)

Arizona says it has run out of drugs for executions

A heroin &quot;epidemic&quot; is gripping the United States, where cheap supply has helped push the number of users to a 20-year high, increasing drug-related deaths, the United Nations said today. 
 
According to the U.N.&#39;s World Drug Report 2016, the number of heroin users in the United States reached around one million in 2014, almost three times as many as in 2003. Heroin-related deaths there have increased five-fold since 2000. 
 
&quot;There is really a huge epidemic (of) heroin in the U.S.,&quot; said Angela Me, the chief researcher for the report which released today. 
 
&quot;It is the highest definitely in the last 20 years,&quot; Me said, adding that the trend was continuing. 
 
The rise could be linked to U.S. legislation introduced in recent years which makes it harder to abuse prescription opioids such as oxicodone, a powerful painkiller that can have similar effects to heroin, Me said. 
 
The law meant the texture of the pills was changed to make it more difficult to crush them and inject them into the blood stream, Me said. 
 
&quot;This has caused a partial shift from the misuse of these prescription opioids to heroin.&quot; 
 
Another reason for the increase in the use of heroin, which in the United States mainly comes from Mexico and Colombia, is greater supply that has depressed prices in recent years, Me said. 
 
The United States has also seen a spike in deaths related to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more so than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
 
Fentanyl has been named as the drug that killed pop singer Prince this year. 
 
At least 207,000 deaths globally were drug-related in 2014, with heroin use and overdose-related deaths increasing sharply also over the last two years, according to the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 
 
&quot;Heroin continues to be the drug that kills the most people and this resurgence must be addressed urgently,&quot; Yury Fedotov, the executive director of the UNODC, said. 
 
U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this year asked Congress for $1.1 billion in new funding over two years to expand treatment for users of heroin and prescription painkillers. 
 
(Reuters)

At least 207,000 deaths globally were drug-related in 2014, with heroin use and overdose-related deaths increased in last two years

A heroin "epidemic" is gripping the United States, where cheap supply has helped push the number of users to a 20-year high, increasing drug-related deaths, the United Nations said today. According to the U.N.'s World Drug Report 2016, the number of heroin users in the United States reached around one million in 2014, almost three times as many as in 2003. Heroin-related deaths there have increased five-fold since 2000. "There is really a huge epidemic (of) heroin in the U.S.," said Angela Me, the chief researcher for the report which released today. "It is the highest definitely in the last 20 years," Me said, adding that the trend was continuing. The rise could be linked to U.S. legislation introduced in recent years which makes it harder to abuse prescription opioids such as oxicodone, a powerful painkiller that can have similar effects to heroin, Me said. The law meant the texture of the pills was changed to make it more difficult to crush them and inject them into the blood stream, Me said. "This has caused a partial shift from the misuse of these prescription opioids to heroin." Another reason for the increase in the use of heroin, which in the United States mainly comes from Mexico and Colombia, is greater supply that has depressed prices in recent years, Me said. The United States has also seen a spike in deaths related to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more so than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fentanyl has been named as the drug that killed pop singer Prince this year. At least 207,000 deaths globally were drug-related in 2014, with heroin use and overdose-related deaths increasing sharply also over the last two years, according to the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "Heroin continues to be the drug that kills the most people and this resurgence must be addressed urgently," Yury Fedotov, the executive director of the UNODC, said. U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this year asked Congress for $1.1 billion in new funding over two years to expand treatment for users of heroin and prescription painkillers. (Reuters)

Heroin use at 20-year high in U.S. drug "epidemic", U.N. says

Philippine police killed 11 suspected drug dealers during operations at the weekend, police said today, adding to a surge of drugs-related killings since Rodrigo Duterte swept an election last month on promises to wipe out crime. 
 
Duterte&#39;s single-issue campaign of tackling illegal drugs and other crime within six months, and his staunch advocacy of extrajudicial killings, struck a chord with Filipino voters. However, rights groups have rebuked him over concerns that, as President, he would live up to his nickname of &quot;The Punisher&quot;. 
 
More than 40 drug suspects have been killed since Duterte&#39;s May 9 election victory compared to the 39 deaths recorded in the four months before it, said national police spokesman Wilben Mayor. 
 
Duterte takes office on June 30 and has repeatedly reassured police they would have his full support if they killed criminals who resisted with violence. He has also warned that police found to be involved in the drug trade would suffer the same fate. 
 
Speculation has been rife in Manila that some of the police involved in the drugs business were clearing the decks before Duterte takes office by eliminating criminals who could implicate them. 
 
However, incoming national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said drug peddlers were killed in legitimate operations. 
 
&quot;I would know if these people were killed in rub-outs,&quot; he said in a radio interview. 
 
Philippines media reported today that drug dealers were killed when they resisted arrest during operations in Manila, Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal, Bohol, and Cebu at the weekend. 
 
Police said many of those killed in the raids and undercover stings had chosen not to go quietly. 
 
&quot;Our undercover agents killed two known drug peddlers in sting operations,&quot; Adriano Enong, police chief in Rizal province just to the east of Manila, told reporters. 
 
&quot;There was a shootout between undercover police officers and drug peddlers when the men sensed they had sold 500 Pesos ($10.80) worth of drugs to policemen,&quot; he said. 
 
Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle gave special prayers on Sunday urging incoming state officials to avoid a culture of death and reprisal. The prayers will be read each day before the new government takes office in the deeply religious, predominantly Catholic Philippines. 
 
Catholic bishops have been disturbed by statements attributed to Duterte warning of killings, and by his plan to seek the return of the death penalty by hanging. 
 
Duterte has also said some journalists were killed because they were corrupt. 
 
In southern Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for more than 20 years, rights groups documented a total of 1,400 unsolved murders from 1998, most of them petty criminals and street-level drug peddlers. Duterte denies any involvement. 
(Reuters)

More than 40 drug suspects have been killed since Rodrigo Duterte swept the presidential election last month

Philippine police killed 11 suspected drug dealers during operations at the weekend, police said today, adding to a surge of drugs-related killings since Rodrigo Duterte swept an election last month on promises to wipe out crime. Duterte's single-issue campaign of tackling illegal drugs and other crime within six months, and his staunch advocacy of extrajudicial killings, struck a chord with Filipino voters. However, rights groups have rebuked him over concerns that, as President, he would live up to his nickname of "The Punisher". More than 40 drug suspects have been killed since Duterte's May 9 election victory compared to the 39 deaths recorded in the four months before it, said national police spokesman Wilben Mayor. Duterte takes office on June 30 and has repeatedly reassured police they would have his full support if they killed criminals who resisted with violence. He has also warned that police found to be involved in the drug trade would suffer the same fate. Speculation has been rife in Manila that some of the police involved in the drugs business were clearing the decks before Duterte takes office by eliminating criminals who could implicate them. However, incoming national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said drug peddlers were killed in legitimate operations. "I would know if these people were killed in rub-outs," he said in a radio interview. Philippines media reported today that drug dealers were killed when they resisted arrest during operations in Manila, Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal, Bohol, and Cebu at the weekend. Police said many of those killed in the raids and undercover stings had chosen not to go quietly. "Our undercover agents killed two known drug peddlers in sting operations," Adriano Enong, police chief in Rizal province just to the east of Manila, told reporters. "There was a shootout between undercover police officers and drug peddlers when the men sensed they had sold 500 Pesos ($10.80) worth of drugs to policemen," he said. Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle gave special prayers on Sunday urging incoming state officials to avoid a culture of death and reprisal. The prayers will be read each day before the new government takes office in the deeply religious, predominantly Catholic Philippines. Catholic bishops have been disturbed by statements attributed to Duterte warning of killings, and by his plan to seek the return of the death penalty by hanging. Duterte has also said some journalists were killed because they were corrupt. In southern Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for more than 20 years, rights groups documented a total of 1,400 unsolved murders from 1998, most of them petty criminals and street-level drug peddlers. Duterte denies any involvement. (Reuters)

Philippine police kill 11 suspected drug dealers

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