The Outlaw Ocean Episode 2: The World's Largest Illegal Fishing Fleet

A Chinese illegal fishing armada at night (Fábio Nascimento, May 2019, Korea)

PUBLISHED OCT 3, 2022 12:59 PM BY IAN URBINA

 

If you look at the taxonomy of crime that plays out offshore, it's both diverse and acute. And yet illegal fishing sits at the top of that hierarchy. A global business estimated at $10 billion in annual sales, and one that is thriving as improved technology has enabled fishing vessels to plunder the oceans with greater efficiency. 

The Thunder thrived in this context. Interpol had issued a Purple Notice on the ship, the equivalent of adding it to a Most Wanted List, a status reserved for only four other ships in the world. The vessel had collected over $76 million from illicit sales in the past decade, more than any other ship, according to agency estimates. 

Banned since 2006 from fishing in the Antarctic, the Thunder had been spotted there repeatedly in recent years. In 2015, there’s where the environmental organization Sea Shepherd found them. Speaking through a translator, Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Bob Barker, warned that the Thunder was banned from fishing in those waters and would be stopped.

It was the beginning of an extraordinary chase and the subject of the second episode of The Outlaw Ocean podcast, from CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times. Listen to it here:

For 110 days and more than 10,000 nautical miles across two seas and three oceans, the Bob Barker and a companion ship, both operated by Sea Shepherd, trailed the trawler, with the three captains close enough to watch one another’s cigarette breaks and on-deck workout routines. In an epic game of cat-and-mouse, the ships maneuvered through an obstacle course of giant ice floes, endured a cyclone-like storm, faced clashes between opposing crews and nearly collided in what became the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel in history.

As chronicled by The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization, whose reporter was on board the Bob Barker, the chase ended with a distress call from the Thunder. “We’re sinking,” the Thunder’s captain pleaded over the radio. The ships operated by Sea Shepherd rescued the crew and tried gathering evidence of its crimes before the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean. 

They took them to the nearest port officials in São Tomé and Príncipe, where the Thunder’s senior crew members were arrested. Three officers were charged with a variety of counts, including pollution, negligence and forgery. But losing the ship—and the evidence that went down with it, including the fish in the hold, onboard computers, various records and fishing equipment—makes prosecution more difficult, Interpol and Sea Shepherd officials acknowledged.

The second episode of The Outlaw Ocean podcast also discussed another notorious case related to illegal fishing that happened on the seas off the coast of North Korea. 

The battered wooden “ghost boats” drift through the Sea of Japan for months, their only cargo the corpses of starved North Korean fishermen whose bodies have been reduced to skeletons. 

For years the grisly phenomenon mystified Japanese police, whose best guess was that climate change pushed the squid population farther from North Korea, driving the country’s desperate fishermen dangerous distances from shore, where they become stranded and die from exposure. 

But an investigation conducted by The Outlaw Ocean Project, based on satellite data, revealed what marine researchers now say is a more likely explanation: China is sending a previously invisible armada of industrial boats to illegally fish in North Korean waters, violently displacing smaller North Korean boats and spearheading a decline in once-abundant squid stocks of more than 70 percent. 

The Chinese vessels—nearly 800 in 2019— were in violation of  U.N. sanctions that forbid foreign fishing in North Korean waters. The sanctions, imposed in 2017 in response to the country’s nuclear tests, were intended to punish North Korea by not allowing it to sell fishing rights in its waters in exchange for valuable foreign currency. 

The episode explores what experts have called the largest known case of illegal fishing perpetrated by a single industrial fleet operating in another nation’s water.

Ian Urbina is the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization based in Washington DC that focuses on environmental and human rights concerns at sea globally.

‘TODAY WE BEGIN TO RIGHT THESE WRONGS’ – US PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN ANNOUNCES HISTORIC CANNABIS REFORMS

Could this be the beginning of the end of the ‘war on drugs’?

by Jay Jackson October 7, 2022

US President Joe Biden has officially announced that all prior federal offences of cannabis possession are to be pardoned, urging state governors and legislators to do the same.

In a significant step towards fulfilling his US presidential election campaign pledge to decriminalise cannabis use, Biden on Thursday pardoned all prior federal offences of simple marijuana possession. 

Whilst currently nobody is in federal prison solely for possession of marijuana as most convictions occur at state level, US officials estimate about 6,500 people with federal convictions for possession of marijuana will benefit.

Biden’s pardons will be issued through an administration process overseen by the Justice Department, a senior administration official said. Those eligible for the pardons would receive a certificate showing they had been officially forgiven for their crime.

The move will be nothing short of transformative for the lives of people currently living with these convictions, given the extremely detrimental impact a criminal record has on job prospects, housing, travel and a number of other life opportunities. It will also have an outsized impact on the lives of people of colour, given their disproportionate rate of conviction for drug possession offences.

Cannabis is already legal recreationally in 19 states and Washington DC, whilst medical use is legal in 37 states and three US territories. However, confusingly, weed remains illegal at the federal level, even in states where it can be legally bought and used, meaning people there could still be convicted for possession in certain circumstances. 

In late 2020, the House passed a measure that would decriminalise marijuana at the federal level, though it wasn’t taken up in the then Republican-controlled Senate. More recently, the senate (now in Democrat hands) has passed similar legislation, but the House has yet to vote on it.

President Biden is not the first US president to pardon those convicted of cannabis offences. At the end of his presidency, Donald Trump pardoned 12 people, including some who had been jailed for life under the three-strikes rule created by Biden’s infamous 1994 crime bill that significantly toughened sanctions for drug offences and created a huge racial disparity in the US criminal justice system. 

In his long career in the US Senate, Biden, who over the years expressed strong opposition to legalising cannabis, was an architect or supporter of tough-on-crime legislation, including the creation of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, also known as the “drug czar,” and establishing mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana. 

In addition to the pardons, Biden has asked Health & Human Services Secretary, Xavier Beccera and Attorney General Merrick Garland to review the schedule of cannabis under federal law – it is currently classified at the same level as Heroin and above fentanyl.

In a series of tweets, the President said ‘no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana.’

According to CNN, ‘The President and a small circle of White House aides had been wrangling for weeks over the changes, complicated both by Biden’s own personal scepticism about decriminalisation and not wanting to dictate changes to the Justice Department.’

The timing of the announcement is not random or coincidental. White House aides have been watching the calendar with the upcoming midterms in mind, hoping that the changes long sought by criminal justice advocates will help build enthusiasm among Black voters, younger voters and a wider array of core Democratic voters. 

With the backlash against the Roe vs Wade Supreme court ruling and now this progressive cannabis reform, it is clear Biden is intent on campaigning on issues of social justice. 

The move should be viewed in the context of a US initiated and led ‘war on drugs’ that has caused untold misery and damage across the globe, and President Biden’s significant individual role in creating the racial disparities he is now seeking to overturn. 

But make no mistake, this is a monumental step towards enacting social justice in drug policies. Whilst similar pardons have been enacted elsewhere, the symbolism of it being done in the US means that a precedent has now been set that will be hard for other countries to ignore when they inevitably join the growing number of nations enacting progressive cannabis reforms around the world. 

You can read the full statement from the White House here.

https://volteface.me/

EBONY EDITORIAL

OP-ED: PRESIDENT BIDEN'S PARDON OF THOSE IMPRISONED FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION IS WILDLY OVERDUE
Image: Hiob/Getty Images

By Savannah Taylor | October 6, 2022

Since the beginning of his tenure in office, Joe Biden has been questioned for his ability to uphold the promises and solutions he vowed to make once elected—rightfully so, as it is import to hold our elected officials accountable at all times. After it was announced that he would be providing much-needed student loan relief to debt-ridden college graduates, his favorability began to look more optimistic in the eyes of those disadvantaged. Today, President Biden announced that he would be pardoning all those who have been convicted of marijuana possession under federal law. In addition to this, Biden is also aiming to loosen the classification restrictions of marijuana, which could potentially lead to full legalization.

This is major. This is an effect of the longstanding work done by activists in the struggle for total prison reform.

What is most significant about Biden's words is that he fused together the divide that alleged that white individuals consume weed at a lower rate than Black and Brown communities, which is simply not true. We know that, the streets know that and the government knows that. Although weed is now legal in many states across the U.S., decriminalization of marijuana in tandem with legalization has always been the ultimate goal.

There is a vast and distinctive correlation to the way in which the criminaliziation of drugs has been aimed toward people of color in the United States. For over fifty years, the fallout from President Ronald Reagan's anti-drug policy, known as the War on Drugs, has significantly and tremendously impacted Black and Brown communities. This policy has been a dogwhistle for the subjugation of Black and Brown people and has inherently altered the construction of both of these communities. While we can take a moment to find joy in this win, it cannot be overlooked that Biden is righting wrong in a way that has been way overdue.

Thousands upon thousands of people have been wrongfully and nonsensically imprisoned for decades for nonviolent offenses, specifically for the possession of marijuana. As a result, their humanity, their families and the their God-given rights have been stripped away in the name of this racist institution. Should they ever be released, there is no remedy for the psychological and societal toll that such an ordeal places upon them. How can we continue to claim the title of "land of the free" while simultaneously causing irreversible harm to our citizens in the same breath?

Aside from the tremendous amount of funds that can be reallocated toward more responsive, effective and inclusive community safety initiatives or other issues in the U.S., the legalization and decriminalization of weed can also significantly lower the direct devastation of trafficking and violence in our communities at large.

It is without question that many outside the Black and Brown community will benefit from this action as well. However, this historic pardon is a reminder that if one of us—namely Black and Brown folks—are free, then we all get free. There is an immense amount of healing that needs to be done.

Though this may appear as a step toward an end, we are still simply at the beginning. There is still a great deal of work to be done to end unfair practices in the criminal justice system that are racially biased. We have a lot more of our brethren who need to be freed that we cannot forget.

A VIPER IS BOTH A JOINT, DOOBIE, BLUNT, ETC. 

AS WELL AS A MARIJUANA SMOKER

Media Matters

Fox trots out same climate denial narrative for every major hurricane that hits the US

After Ian hit Florida, Fox insisted there’s no link between hurricanes and climate change, recycling the same talking points and guests it’s used for every major hurricane in the last six years

Special PROGRAMSCLIMATE & ENERGY
WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD
PUBLISHED 10/06/22 

As Hurricane Ian pummeled Florida and the Carolinas, Fox News was busy dismissing, mocking, or outright denying climate change’s impact on hurricanes. This was not surprising, given the network’s long and sordid history of climate denial.

Also not surprising were the talking points that Fox used to downplay the link between climate change and worsening hurricanes, because the network has used the same ones for every major hurricane in the past six years: singularly focus on the idea that the frequency and intensity of hurricanes are decreasing or unchanged. In reality, hurricane impacts such as rainfall, storm surge, and rapid intensification are all made demonstrably worse by climate change. These impacts have been destructive both in general — rainfall and storm surge make up the vast majority of hurricane deaths — and in Hurricane Ian’s case.

In addition to trotting out the same old talking points year after year, Fox has assembled a cabal of go-to “experts” to push climate change denial. Their commentary on Hurricane Ian has been no different.
Fox continues to ignore science and dismiss climate change’s impact on hurricanes

As part of their Hurricane Ian coverage, Fox News and Fox Business aired numerous segments downplaying climate change’s link to hurricanes by claiming they have decreased in frequency. This is misguided because it's not the number of storms that form that is the problem — it is their destructive capabilites. Fox's frequency narrative also often includes the non sequitur that hurricanes have always happened throughout history, and the network is lying that the intensity of hurricanes hasn’t increased.

While discussing Ian’s impact on the October 3 edition of Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria, co-host Dagen McDowell stated, “The talking heads of left-wing media repeatedly talked about climate change and these storms are worse and Michael Shellenberger pointed out over the last week the mainstream news media claimed that hurricanes are becoming more frequent and intense — and they are not. Period.”

The September 30 edition of Fox Business’ WSJ at Large attempted to mislead viewers by focusing on the frequency talking point. Host James Freeman cited a passage from the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that discusses past hurricane activity, stating, “There is still no consensus on the relative magnitude of human and natural influences on past changes in Atlantic hurricane activity.” He also cited a contrarian political science professor, stating, “Observed land-falling hurricane frequency nor intensity shows significant trends.” Not mentioned in Freeman’s monologue however, was the text further down in the IPCC report that absolutely confirms the growing intensity of hurricanes in a warming world, as it mentions a warming world will mean more intense storms.

Perhaps the worst examples came from Fox News’ most-watched prime-time shows. On the September 29 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, host Tucker Carlson focused on hurricane frequency and downplayed the intensity argument, falsely claiming that “there’s no science behind these claims.” On the September 28 edition of Hannity, host Sean Hannity touched upon the frequency argument by stating, “During hurricane season, you usually have hurricanes, like we did a hundred years ago.” Later that night on The Ingraham Angle, climate contrarian guest Michael Shellenberger stated that hurricanes are “not intensifying right now, so any perception that hurricanes are more intense is just a perception fed by that relentless alarmist media.”
Fox has been wrongly focused on these talking points for years now

Hurricanes Ida (2021), Dorian (2019), Florence (2018), Irma (2017) and Harvey (2017) were immensely powerful and costly storms, and they, like Ian, had the fingerprints of climate change. Fox ignored or downplayed these climate links while discussing those storms, and instead focused on the idea of frequency and intensity.

While discussing Hurricane Ida on the September 7, 2021, edition of The Ingraham Angle, Shellenberger said that the frequency of hurricanes is decreasing and that there is “no significant increase” in intensity — a baldfaced lie. On the September 8, 2021, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, longtime climate denier guest Joe Bastardi downplayed intensity by stating that other bad storms happened in the 1950s and 1930s.

While discussing Hurricane Dorian on the September 2, 2019, edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum, climate denier Roy Spencer was brought on to downplay climate change’s impact on hurricanes. Spencer stated that there is “no long term trend in either their intensity or in the number of major hurricanes … that have hit Florida.” On the September 4, 2019, edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt brought up the metric of frequency to downplay climate change’s link to hurricanes, stating, “Hurricanes have been happening since the beginning of the atmosphere.” Later on September 4, 2019, host Jesse Watters went on The Story with Martha MacCallum to claim that “there's no correlation between temperature and hurricanes and there's no trend over the last hundred years about intensity or ferociousness or numbers.”

The previous year, both Bastardi and Spencer were on Fox making the same points about Hurricane Florence. On the September 14, 2018, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Spencer talked about the declining frequency of U.S. hurricanes, claiming there’s too much “natural variability” to determine what influence human actions have had on hurricanes. Later that night on Hannity, Bastardi stated, “The amount of hurricanes [in] the last 50 years, from Florida to New England, is 37% of what it was the previous 50 years, so if there’s climate change going on, it's actually decreasing the amount of major hits.”

Discussing Hurricane Harvey on the August 25, 2017, edition of The Five, Watters invoked frequency to downplay climate change’s impact on hurricanes, stating, “Hurricanes have been happening since the beginning of time. …These things just happen. It’s called the weather.” Discussing Hurricane Irma on the September 11, 2017, edition of The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld also brought up frequency, stating that “landfalling U.S. hurricanes, they’ve been decreasing over the last 140 years.” Finally, Spencer invoked the frequency and intensity of hurricanes hitting Florida on the September 13, 2017, edition of Fox & Friends.

Throughout the years, as Fox has beat the drum of its denialist hurricane programming, the science surrounding climate change’s impacts on hurricanes has only strengthened.
Fox’s hurricane “experts” are always the same

Three names stick out in Fox’s rotation of climate deniers: Joe Bastardi, Roy Spencer, and Michael Shellenberger. All three have either denied or downplayed the impact of climate change on hurricanes, and none are credible within the climate science community.

Bastardi has been a fixture of Fox’s hurricane coverage since at least 2011. At the time, Media Matters wrote that Bastardi “has made inaccurate claims about climate science on multiple occasions and is not seen by experts as a credible source of climate information.” Since then, he has continued making inaccurate claims about climate change’s impact on hurricanes and is still not viewed as a credible source within the climate science community. Indeed, he is a weather forecaster and has no climate science background.

While Spencer is the only guest on this list with a background in atmospheric science, his views on climate change fall outside the overwhelming scientific consensus on the issue. Skeptical Science notes that Spencer believes that “global warming is mostly due to natural internal variability, and that the climate system is unresponsive to humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions.” The blog finds roughly 20 instances of his false claims on climate change. Additionally, he is affiliated with The Heartland Institute, a climate-denying conservative think tank that has received a significant amount of money from the fossil fuel industry.

Although Spencer has not appeared on Fox since 2019, taking his place has been Shellenberger, a virulently anti-renewable and pro-fossil fuel activist who has zero background in climate science. Shellenberger has become a mainstay on Fox in recent years, as he claims that climate change is real but not that big of a problem.
Despite what Fox’s grifters say, climate change is affecting hurricanes

While it’s true that the impact of an increasingly warming world on the frequency of these cyclonic storms is still uncertain, the storms that do form have a greater likelihood of becoming more intense. This is confirmed by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the most recent IPCC report, and numerous other peer-reviewed scientific papers.

The intensity issue is not just limited to labels like Category 4 or 5 storms. The amount of rainfall and storm surge brought on by hurricanes, as well as their ability to rapidly intensify in a short period of time, have also been made worse by climate change.

Both the GFDL and the recent IPCC report confirm a projected increase in rainfall rates during hurricanes. And these are not just future projections — more recent attribution studies found that the amount of rain dumped by Ian was more than 10% greater due to climate change. Meanwhile, sea-level rise, another well-established and severe impact of climate change, has also exacerbated the height of storm surge during hurricanes. A recent study confirms that “we can expect hurricanes to produce larger storm surge magnitudes in concentrated areas.”

Finally, the ability of storms to rapidly intensify in a short period of time — making them more destructive at impact — has also been influenced by climate change. Vox did a good job summarizing the science, stating, “There were about 25 percent more rapidly intensifying storms in the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Pacific in the last 10 years compared to 40 years ago. Some past scientific studies have also shown that hurricanes are intensifying more rapidly in parts of the Atlantic in recent years.”

Hurricane Ian’s record rainfall in Florida was a 1-in-1,000-year event, and its destructive flooding was a 1-in-500-year event. In less than half a day, Ian quickly jumped from a Category 3 storm to a nearly Category 5 storm. These are the fingerprints of climate change. Also worth noting is that warmer than usual waters in the Gulf of Mexico helped Ian become so powerful. Ninety percent of the excess heat from climate change has been absorbed by the world’s oceans in the past 50 years.

Ian came on the heels of a summer of climate-fueled and costly extreme weather around the globe, driving home among the public what the scientific community has known for decades: Climate change is dire, and it’s here. Much to the detriment of its viewers in Florida and elsewhere, Fox deliberately, consistently, and emphatically ignores and downplays this reality.

2 Russians seek asylum in U.S. after reaching remote Alaska island

By Becky Bohrer The Associated Press
Posted October 6, 2022 6:50 pm

Two Russians who said they fled the country to avoid military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after landing in a small boat on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Sea, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office said Thursday.

Karina Borger, a Murkowski spokesperson, by email said the office has been in communication with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection and that “the Russian nationals reported that they fled one of the coastal communities on the east coast of Russia to avoid compulsory military service.”

Thousands of Russian men have fled since President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine. While Putin said the move was aimed at calling up about 300,000 men with past military service, many Russians fear it will be broader.

Spokespersons with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection referred a reporter’s questions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security public affairs office, which provided little information Thursday. The office, in a statement, said the people “were transported to Anchorage for inspection, which includes a screening and vetting process, and then subsequently processed in accordance with applicable U.S. immigration laws under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

View image in full screen

A pair of Russians have turned up on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Sea, reportedly fleeing compulsory military service. (AP Graphic)

The agency said the two Russians arrived Tuesday on a small boat. It did not provide details on where they came from, their journey or the asylum request. It was not immediately clear what kind of boat they were on.

Alaska’s senators, Republicans Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, on Thursday said the two Russians landed at a beach near the town of Gambell, an isolated Alaska Native community of about 600 people on St. Lawrence Island. Sullivan said he was alerted to the matter by a “senior community leader from the Bering Strait region” on Tuesday morning.

Gambell is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the western Alaska hub community of Nome and about 36 miles (58 kilometers) from the Chukotka Peninsula, Siberia, according to a community profile on a state website. The remote, 100-mile (161-kilometer) long island, which includes Savoonga, a community of about 800 people, receives flight services from a regional air carrier. Residents rely heavily on a subsistence way of life, harvesting from the sea fish, whales and other marine life.

A person who responded to an email address listed for Gambell directed questions to federal authorities.

Sullivan, in a statement, said he has encouraged federal authorities to have a plan in place in case “more Russians flee to Bering Strait communities in Alaska.”

“This incident makes two things clear: First, the Russian people don’t want to fight Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” Sullivan said. “Second, given Alaska’s proximity to Russia, our state has a 

Murkowski said the situation underscored “the need for a stronger security posture in America’s Arctic.”

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday, as initial details of the situation were emerging, said he did not expect a continual stream or “flotilla” of people traversing the same route. He also warned that travel in the region could be dangerous as a fall storm packing strong winds was expected.

It is unusual for someone to take this route to try to get into the U.S.

U.S. authorities in August stopped Russians without legal status 42 times who tried to enter the U.S. from Canada. That was up from 15 times in July and nine times in August 2021.

Russians more commonly try to enter the U.S. through Mexico, which does not require visas. Russians typically fly from Moscow to Cancun or Mexico City, entering Mexico as tourists before getting a connecting a flight to the U.S. border. Earlier this year, U.S. authorities contended with a spate of Russians who hoped to claim asylum if they reached an inspection booth at an official crossing.

Some trace the spike to before Russia invaded Ukraine, attributing it to the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last year.

Associated Press reporters Manuel Valdes in Seattle and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

NEW PM LIZ TRUSS BLOCKS BERMUDA CANNNABIS REFORMS

by Jay Jackson 

September 6, 2022

Cannabis is rapidly becoming a foriegn policy issue for the UK government, as crown dependencies and British Overseas Territories attempt to move away from the UK’s failed experiment at cannabis prohibition – towards legalised, controlled, regulated systems. 

Under the cover of the appointment of a new Prime Minister yesterday, the UK government quietly announced a long-awaited decision on the permittance of the production, cultivation and sale of cannabis in the Caribbean British Overseas Territory of Bermuda.

Following on from our article on the crown dependencies and cannabis reform, it has been announced today that Rena Lalgie, UK Government appointed Governor of Bermuda, has been instructed to refuse assent to the Cannabis Licensing Bill, despite having previously received assent to the legislation in May. 

The Governor announced that she had been told to do so by the Foreign Secretary, a position previously held by now Prime Minister, Liz Truss. 

Ms Lalgie stated that: “The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs concluded that the bill, as currently drafted, is not consistent with obligations held by the UK and Bermuda under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.”

In Bermuda, cannabis is currently legal for medical use and decriminalised for recreational use, providing an individual is in possession of no more than seven grams of the substance. 

However, the proposed legislation would have provided a regulatory framework for the production and supply of the drug via the distribution of licences. This was aimed to allow individuals to possess higher amounts, and expanded to include the growing, harvesting, and selling of cannabis. 

Subsequently, the blocking of this legislation has further prevented the growth and expansion of the global cannabis industry. 

Regarding the instruction to refuse assent, the Governor stated: “Disappointing, but not surprising, given the confines of our constitutional relationship with the UK government and their archaic interpretation of the narcotic conventions.”

“The people of Bermuda have democratically expressed their desire for a regulated cannabis licensing regime, following the strong endorsement at the ballot box and an extensive public consultation process.”

“The Government of Bermuda intends to continue to advance this initiative, within the full scope of its constitutional powers, in keeping with our 2020 general election platform commitment.”

The Government of Bermuda has yet to respond to this news. However, in 2021 Premier David Burt stated that: “If Her Majesty’s representative in Bermuda does not give assent to something that has been passed lawfully and legally under this local government, this will destroy the relationship we had with the United Kingdom.”

It follows that cannabis is now a key sticking point in relations between Bermuda and the UK, with the new government backtracking on previous promises and Bermuda adamant that they will continue to push for the new legislation. It will be interesting to see what this means for drug policy in the other crown dependencies, and opens up questions regarding cannabis becoming a foriegn policy issue for the incoming UK government under former Foriegn Secretary Liz Truss.

Whilst recreational cannabis markets are technically illegal under the obligations of International Law resulting from the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, many countries including the USA, Uruguay and Canada have successfully established alternatives to prohibition.

The UK’s international treaty obligations are an excuse, not a reason, for blocking the proposed reforms – with stigma towards cannabis and people who use it, and a desire to look ‘tough’ on drugs more likely behind the UK government’s refusal to allow these progressive reforms. 

https://volteface.me/

 

CHANGING DRUG-USE BY CHANGING THE LAW: NEW ZEALAND IN FOCUS

NZ is leading the way in implementing drug-testing services...

by Samantha Mythen October 6, 2022

For those gearing up for summer festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, the key advice is to check your drugs.

Late last year, New Zealand adopted world-first legislation allowing drug checking to occur legally onsite at music festivals. 

Festival organisers are now no longer at risk of prosecution under section 12 of the Misuse of Drugs Act if they choose to have a drug checking organisation at their event.

Drug checking service Know Your Stuff, the organisation primarily behind the campaign for the law change, worked to full capacity at every event they attended over New Years.

Know Your Stuff Deputy and Operations Manager Dr Jez Weston said the organisation has proved drug checking works in the New Zealand context.

He said the law previously used to push festival organisers away from acknowledging the reality of drug use at events.

But now, commercial festivals are happy to take a stronger approach to protecting the welfare of everyone attending their events. 

“That means more than drug checking. It’s chill-out spaces, psychadelic first-aid, consent and sexual health services, and medical services being forewarned of what drugs are at an event,” he said.

The law change has been a catalyst for more transparent and open conversations about drug use.

Drug checking at festivals also provides an early warning system for what drugs are circulating the country, allowing Know Your Stuff to reduce harm from day one.

This year, New Zealand has seen nitazenes, new cathinones, new synthetic cannabinoids and fentanyl arriving into the country.

“Because we know what’s here, we can better prepare for that, for example making fentanyl testing strips available so people can do their own testing, alongside massively increasing the amount of naloxone so if someone does overdose on opioids then they can be treated right away,” Weston said.

With more people becoming aware of what riskier drugs are out there, suppliers themselves are pulling them from the market. 

The biggest issue Know Your Stuff now faces is meeting the vast demand for its services.

“This is a good problem to have,” said Weston.

New Zealand’s Green Party Drug Reform spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick believes drug checking services should be available to whoever needs them wherever they’re needed.

“It’s ludicrous to pretend drug consumption only happens at music festivals and not also bars, clubs and weekend parties,” she said.

“Those on the front line are the first to admit gatekeeping their services to only ticketed, expensive events limits harm reduction. Everyone who needs these services should have access.”

Swarbrick is a loud advocate for completely overhauling New Zealand’s Misuse of Drugs Act. 

She said a law that actually achieves its stated aims is needed, rather than one that just sweeps problems under a rug. 

England’s summer festival season has now come to a close, after a summer that saw yet another tragic death at Leeds Festival. 

The musical calendar in the UK is every year jam packed with artists from around the country and abroad making the most of the masses, even more so since 2020 with swathes of people who have been craving a boogie since the end of coronavirus restrictions.

With the desire to let loose and dance comes the desire to consume alcohol and other illegal substances.

England’s premier drug checking service, The Loop, was at eight UK-based festivals this summer with its pop-up labs.

Loop co-founder Professor Fiona Measham said at its peak service in 2018, the organisartion’s drug checking service was available to over a quarter of a million festival-goers.

“At peak service, we tested more than 500 samples a day and delivered face-to-face healthcare consultations by health professionals to 400 people a day,” she said.

“So the scale is much bigger in the UK than NZ.”

The Loop now has a Home Office Licence to work in Bristol.

Weston said The Loop is proving drug checking works in the UK context.

“So now it’s really about finding the politicians who will look clearly at the evidence and who want to keep people safe, rather than just scoring political points by moralistic grand-standing,” he said.

Measham said the New Zealand legislation is primarily positive. However, from her researcher background, she has pondered whether it is necessary or helpful to have government scrutiny on drug checking.

“In Europe, drug checking has been operating successfully in many countries for decades and aside from the Netherlands and now the UK, it has been largely independent of government influence,” she said.

“After all, playing devil’s advocate, we don’t have legislation to facilitate dental check-ups so why introduce it for drug checking?!”

Swarbrick said however, by legalising drug checking services, festival organisers and service providers such as Know Your Stuff are no longer putting themselves at legal risk for providing the lifesaving services.

For people who use drugs, visiting a drug checking clinic or pop-up lab is often the first time they can have an open conversation about drugs without being judged ot told not to take them.

Weston said this connects people with information and support they would not otherwise access.

“Our clients are reporting long-term changes in their approach to drug use towards harm reduction approaches and practices, so this isn’t just about helping people at events, it’s about improving the overall knowledge and awareness of safer drug practices,” he said.

This is something The Loop also agrees with.

Weston said there are no longer any excuses for not changing drug laws. 

“Drug checking works to reduce the harm from drugs. Existing drug law prevents or hinders drug checking and creates harm,” he said.

“There’s a simple question that should be put to anyone defending current drug laws: “how many more people do you want to die before you change the law?

Samantha Mythen is currently adventuring around the world, writing stories and making mistakes she hopes to one day look back on and laugh about.  She is extremely passionate about ensuring safe drug use education is available to everyone. Tweets@SamanthaMythen

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