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The fact is that people can be charged with an "intent to distribute" quite easily. It happens all the time. It can happen because of the amount of drugs found, and/or because a person has a certain amount of cash or drug containers on their person. It can happen because someone "snitches" to get out of trouble -- especially to avoid jail or prison time. It can happen someone who doesn't use drugs does a favor for a friend, cash in hand. |
It can happen if you get arrested and can't or won't "roll" on other people. That's when law enforcement and prosecutors can decide that you're a "seller," and prosecute accordingly. (On the federal level, "conspiracy" charges intended for large-scale drug traffickers are handed out, with alarming frequency, to people who can't or won't cooperate with demand for "snitching," or participation in a sting operation.) |
This is a different era now, of course, than the one that I grew up in living in Los Angeles, but the realities relating to drug use and sales are still largely the same. In July, an international survey published jointly by the Harvard Medical School and the University of New South Wales revealed that the United States still had the highest levels of cocaine and cannabis use in the world. According to the study, younger adults and people with higher incomes were indeed more likely than older adults to have used more kinds of illicit drugs. In total, over 16% of Americans surveyed had used cocaine in their lifetimes, and nearly half (42.4%) had used marijuana. |
According to the authors of that report, drug use does not appear to be simply related to drug policy, since countries with more stringent policies towards illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies." Taking the far less stringent Netherlands as a prime example, less than two percent of people in that country had tried cocaine, while just under 20% reported trying cannabis -- in a country where marijuana is available for purchase inside well-advertised and regulated "coffee shops." |
There, in the Netherlands, the "sellers" are taxed and accountable for how they run their businesses (including the quality of what they sell). |
Here, that's not possible. |
As such, it is not unusual for people who use illicit drugs, whether recreationally, medicinally, or abusively, to sell them, as well. |
These are certainly realities that many of American teens can still attest to, whether they live in Los Angeles or not. Whether I'm interviewing teenage girls in juvenile detention or talking with kids at a bus stop, or just chatting with my youngest, teenage sister in Seattle, I hear the same kinds of stories repeatedly. |
Drug users and sellers are quite often one and the same, because they're existing (partially or completely) in an underground, illegal economy. |
When the opponents of Proposition 5 try furiously to draw that distinction so as to strike fear into the hearts of voters, they resort to the kind of imagery that tells us that we're dealing with the scary monsters in our midst. We should know, by now, that there's nothing new about propaganda or fear-mongering in politics. But when it comes to crime, punishment, and drugs, the recent blast of sloganeering has taken another sickeningly familiar and excessive turn. |
This time, the stakes are even higher than the average voter may realize. The very intent of the opposition movement to Proposition 5 is to derail what could be the most significant piece of sentencing reform legislation in modern American history. |
You might expect to hear that from people in the drug policy reform movement, but consider listening to the words of the former warden of San Quentin (with two decades of service), and former director of the CDCR, Jeanne Woodford. |
In a conversation we had the other night, this is what she told me: "I'm tired of not being able to have a real conversation with people when it comes to criminal justice. That's why I support Proposition 5. We have to be grown up enough to work with it, to change with it, to learn from what happens in the process of implementing it." |
"That, she added, "is what we did with the U.S. Constitution." |
But that's not how the forces rising up against Prop. 5 see it. The San Diego District Attorney even tried to get the California Supreme Court to get it wiped off the ballot on constitutional grounds. |
Because people, she somehow reasoned, couldn't make these kinds of changes to state policies. |
This is how Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, the Deputy State Director of Drug Policy Alliance/South California, sums up the key message of the opposition campaign: "Be afraid. Be very afraid." |
In actuality, I'll tell you what we need to be afraid of: Propositions 6 and 9. The people behind the opposition to Proposition 5 are nearly identical to the people who back Prop. 6 and 9, but with those two propositions, they get a little bit more specific about who they're trying to lock (and keep locked) up:Old, sick prisoners, male and female alike. People who deserve to have parole reviews, but who won't be given that chance (if Prop. 9 passes). And where Prop. 6 is concerned? It's all there in black-and-white. Those"illegal aliens" and gang members. |
Read: young men and women who are likely to be school drop-outs and have spent time in juvenile detention. Especially young men of color. People who congregate in groups of 3 or more, with "criminal" activity of some kind to cement the label they may or may not agree with. |
Right now, Latinos are the largest ethnic group in men's prisons in California, followed by African Americans. |
The fear-mongering around who and what these boys and men are -- and where they've come from -- is what Proposition 6, in particular, is all about. |
The 'other.' |
"The unholy and powerful alliance opposed to reform in California's gulag of a prison system is deploying tried, true and tragic methods in its campaign: fear and racism backed by big money. Throughout the history of the Golden State, appeals to these basest instincts have been used to keep down black, Latino and Asian "minorities." It's no coincidence that, for example, the No On 5 people are stirring up some of the same racist imagery, the same kinds of fears we've seen in the long line of racial history that runs from Jim Crow, to the Zoot Suit riots and Proposition 187," as journalist Roberto Lovato wrote in response to an e-mail I sent to him the other night. "The tragedy is that these appeals work not just with the aging white minorities who are the majority of voters; they also work with some Blacks, Latinos and Asians." |
Especially where gangs are concerned. |
If we understand drug users and abusers very poorly as a society, we understand gang members even more poorly. |
And in the minds of the people behind these campaigns, they are a part of the same thing: people to be eradicated. And if we can't destroy them, let's cage them for as long as we can. |
I've experienced a different slice of life, and I have to speak my mind about what it is that I've really seen, with my own eyes. |
Gangs, too, were (and are) a reality of life in L.A. County -- and across the U.S., sometimes with attendant drug use and sales. The gang members I knew had sometimes been born into them, but most had joined later on, when their home lives had grown too dysfunctional, chaotic, and/or violent. Mostly, as I quickly learned by just listening to people talk about their lives, it was about belonging somewhere, about being protected and respected. Sometimes, it was also about making a living in the underground economy, where upward mobility was possible for a brown-skinned and/or low-income person from a neighborhood where cop cars and "ghetto birds" (police helicopters) were a constant part of the landscape. There were the "old-school" gangsters (the term applied to youth and adults alike) who stuck to strict codes of conduct, dress, and respect. They, in turn, tended to look down on the gang-members whose codes of conduct weren't up to the same standards, especially once they had started to mess with crack cocaine. Indeed, the level of violence that spilled out into the school hallways and streets in the 1980s had nearly everything to do with the crack cocaine and automatic weapons that had suddenly, almost magically, flooded the streets of L.A. like a toxic, infectious disease. |
It would be many years before would begin to uncover the how's and why's of that particular phenomenon, in a shocking San Jose Mercury News investigative series entitled The Dark Alliance. And it would be many more years before that reporter's suicide, a tragedy attributable, in part, to the journalistic witch hunt Webb endured after the newspaper series came out at the hands of the government and his "colleagues" in the field, who doused his series with propagandistic attacks on Webb's research, integrity, and character. The thing is that Webb was right about just about everything he uncovered. |
But American drug war history is still being spun by the "victors." And that needs to stop. |
In 1941, George Orwell wrote something that has stuck with me: "The writers who have come up since 1930 have been living in a world in which not only one's life but one's whole scheme of values is constantly menaced. In such circumstances detachment is not possible. You cannot take a purely aesthetic interest in a disease you are dying from; you cannot feel dispassionately about a man who is about to cut your throat." |
Here's my call, then, to all you California voters, in a way I've never said it before: Don't let power-drunk fear mongers cut your collective throat. Make sure you make an informed vote on Proposition 5, 6 and 9. |
Thanks to Britt Madsen for her research assistance. |
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The Visitor - Matias Aguayo |
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Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics |
User Score |
No user score yet- Awaiting 3 more ratings |
Summary: The third full-length solo release for the South American dance producer/artist includes contributions from Philipp Gorbachev, Ana Helder, Daniel Maloso, Alejandro Paz, Juliana Gattas, A'rea Negrot, Liset Alea and Jorge Gonz lez. |
Record Label: Cómeme |
Genre(s): Electronic, Techno, Club/Dance, Experimental Techno, Left-Field House |
Name Credit |
Matias Aguayo Primary Artist |
Matias Aguayo Producer |
Scott Monteith Producer |
Product ban? Samsung won't be sweating it |
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Published: Friday, 9 Aug 2013 | 1:14 AM ET |
By: | Assistant Producer, CNBC Asia-Pacific |
Bloomberg | Getty Images |
A victory for Apple at Friday's International Trade Commission ruling is likely to have little impact on Samsung Electronics' market share and stock performance, according to industry experts. |
The commission is set to decide whether some Samsung products should be banned in the U.S and comes a week after President Obama vetoed a product ban on certain Apple devices. |
Still, analysts believe that the outcome will have little bearing in the marketplace given Samsung's robust performance during the last quarter. |
The South Korean giant dethroned Apple in handset profits during the second-quarter, posting $5.2 billion in operating profit compared to Apple's $4.6 billion. Furthermore, Samsung notched 33.1 percent in global market share in the quarter while Apple's share declined to 13.6 percent, which is a three-year low according to a report by Strategy Analytics. |
Samsung shouldn't sweat ITC ruling: Pro |
Edward Snyder, Co-Founder & Managing Director at Charter Equity Research thinks the South Korean giant is already winning the handset war and sees no cause for concern about the ITC decision. |
"When you step back and look at the big picture, the answer is already pretty clear that Samsung is winning this fight so why should South Korea start a bigger brawl when they are already homegrown favorites winning the war?" said Edward Snyder, co-Founder and managing director at Charter Equity Research on CNBC Asia's "Squawk Box." |
"This is more of a headline story in a political debate than it is about economics," he added. |
Snyder used the case of the 2008 patent battle between American semiconductor giants Broadcom and Qualcomm to show why an Apple victory at the ITC would not dent Samsung's share price. |
(Read more: An 'emerging' threatto Samsung, and it's not Apple) |
"The ITC put an injunction on Qualcomm in certain parts of the U.S. and in addition, they had to a pay $1 billion fine to Broadcom, but it had no impact on Qualcomm's stock price." |
"Investors look at growth in revenue earnings and market share, that's what determines the stock price. You can have one-time charges but if they're one-time, it's not an on-going issue so it doesn't really affect the stock," he said. |
Apple vs. Samsung spats have no market impact: Pro |
Manoj Menon, partner and managing director at Frost and Sullivan, tells CNBC that fights between Apple and Samsung have had no material impact on the market position of either of these companies. |
Fitch Ratings agreed, saying that a decline in Samsung's competitiveness or a significant loss in its market share is more likely to have a negative impact than a product ban. |
(Read more: Samsung attempts to reinvent itself through disruption) |
In a further measure of support, S&P ratings agency raised Samsung's long-term credit rating by a notch to 'A-plus' on Thursday, saying the firm's financial performance would be solid for the next two years. |
Fitch went on to add that the Obama administration's decision to overturn a ban on importing certain Apple products, including the iPhone 4 and iPad mini, will not hurt Samsung. |
(Read more: How Obama's veto of iPhone ban will change tech wars) |
The iPhone 4 and iPad mini are older models that would not directly compete against Samsung's flagship devices such as the new Galaxy Tab 3, released just last week. |
"Given the lengthy legal process, only outdated models have been the subject of trials, and thus, the potential impact on Samsung's cash flow is very limited," Fitch said. |
By CNBC.com's Nyshka Chandran. Follow her on Twitter @NyshkaCNBC |
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Frog flies through air during Va. spacecraft launch |
A frog may have croaked after it was blasted into the air when a spacecraft launched at Virginia's Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport last week. |
Thursday - 09/12/2013, 11:00am EDT |
Tags: frog, Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, LADEE, NASA |
Can NASA solve decades-old moon mystery? |
NASA's next mission to the moon might solve a puzzle from the Apollo flights of the 1960s and 1970s -- if all goes well. |
Saturday - 09/07/2013, 01:50am EDT |
Tags: NASA, LADEE, moon, lunar, twilight rays, greg redfern, watch, launch, Virginia |
Review by alxbly |
"Don't rent this, buy it." |
Firstly, this is a review of the PAL version of NFS HP2, not NTSC. I was unsure of whether to buy this game or not but you simply won't unlock everything by just renting it. The amount of cars and tracks to unlock should keep you coming back for a long time to come, certainly longer than Gamecube's only other decent car racer, Burnout. |
The key to getting the most out of this game is not giving up on it straight away. First impressions are that the game is slow and the cars handle badly, but after the third or fourth race when you unlock new cars you'll notice a difference in speed and handling. |
And the speed and handling that you want is what you'll get once you unlock the first Ferrari. You should be able to do this in about and hour and after that you won't look back. The race menu is split into championship, hot pusuit, single race and quick race. |
Quick race decides the car, the course and whether you'll be fighting off cops or just the opposition. Hot pursuit sees you evading the police, sometimes with competition to beat as well. Championship is where you can race against the opposition for points, which you use to unlock cars and tracks. |
The most annoying thing about this game is how good it could have been. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad game, in fact, it's actually a rather good game. But it could have been great. It's let down by one thing, and that's the fact that it's badly ported. The frame rate can slow down when there's a lot going on and this can cause the game to get quite jittery at times, but luckily this only happens rarely. You'll notice other glitches in the scenery too, but nothing that is unforgivable. |
The levels are nicely set out, pleasing to the eye and hardly ever sparse. The cars are very detailed, and crush nicely after a bad smash. Music is listenable and goes well with the game, and although the rock music is forgettable, it's not too cheesy or annoying. |
The gameplay is good once you get past the bog standard cars, and when you see what cars you are able to unlock you'll be happy to spend hours, and possibly days playing so you can open up one of your favorites. The wealth of options and different playing modes means the game is customisable to suit most tastes, just remeber to switch off the rear view camera to help with frame rates. |
The multiplayer seems slow and is probably best avoided, but then you wouldn't want you mates crashing your new cars anyway, would you? |
So, to sum up. |
Graphics 8 out of 10. |
Gameplay 8 out of 10. |
Music 7 out of 10. |
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