Mexico’s new war on kidnappers
From the numerous reports of beheadings and execution-style murders, to the 40,000 soldiers deployed in 2006 to reduce the power of drug cartels, Mexico’s war on drugs has grabbed international...
View ArticleNot so much a whodunit as a WTF
Anyone else think the Star‘s buried revelation about Rahim Jaffer’s criminal case only makes things more confusing? A rookie Ontario Provincial Police officer failed to follow proper procedures during...
View ArticleJaffer & Guergis: a power couple, unplugged
Photograph by Andrew Wallace/Toronto Star Wearing a navy pinstripe suit, a blue check shirt, and a vibrant yellow and lime-green striped tie, Rahim Jaffer cut a dapper figure in a courtroom in...
View ArticleA colour-blind man looks at Green and orange
I’ve been catching up with the various party platforms, and doing my best to use one of the pet heuristics I developed in my columnist days: looking for the most positive thing I could possibly say...
View ArticleGood news, bad news: June 2-9, 2011
Good News Wrongfully convicted in her son's death, Tammy Marquardt is freed. (Lucas Leniuk/Toronto Star) Boots on the ground Canada’s combat tour in Afghanistan is entering its final few weeks, but the...
View ArticleThe end of the war on drugs
Rob Silver wonders if the Liberals might have an opportunity to do something bold on drug policy. When Bob Rae said Tuesday, in a clear statement of the obvious, that the “war on drugs has failed,” he...
View ArticleR. v. The Doobie Brethren
Smokers High Life/Flickr From the Postmedia wire, today: Christopher Bennett, who claimed that he should be allowed to smoke up to seven grams of marijuana—about 35 joints—every day for religious...
View ArticleThe ecstasy and the agony
Curtis Gregory Perry/Flickr In recent weeks, it seems, adulterated ecstasy (MDMA) has left Alberta and B.C. with a sizable heap of young corpses. A tragedy has thus come home to roost in the West:...
View ArticleIs the war on drugs over?
Marco Ugarte/AP The Obama administration has been criticized in the past for not paying enough attention to Latin America. That’s changed abruptly in recent weeks, with senior officials rushing to head...
View ArticleIf only the War on Drugs was somehow more successful
With some Latin American leaders looking at an end to the War on Drugs, Stephen Harper departs the latest Summit of the Americas with an acknowledgement that some kind of change might be in order....
View ArticleIn conversation: Oliver Stone
AFP/Getty Images Oliver Stone, the Oscar-winning director of Platoon, Wall Street, JFK and Nixon, tackles the drug war in Savages, a thriller based on Don Winslow’s bestseller about a Mexican drug...
View ArticleYoung users can find a quick fix despite policing, study reveals
Jeremy Nuttall, The Canadian Press VANCOUVER – A study called “surprising” by one of its lead researchers has found hard drugs are just 10 minutes away for Vancouver’s young users. The study conducted...
View ArticleConrad Black on his strategic history of the U.S.
Photograph by Christopher Wahl Conrad Black— British peer and American felon, former newspaper baron and current newspaper columnist—is also the author of two erudite and distinguished biographies of...
View ArticleWhy it’s time to legalize marijuana
Andrew Hetherington/Redux Sometime this year, if it hasn’t happened already, the millionth Canadian will be arrested for marijuana possession, Dana Larsen estimates. The indefatigable B.C.-based...
View Article15-year Vancouver study says harm reduction more effective than war on drugs
VANCOUVER – Harm reduction — not a war on drugs — has reduced illicit drug use and improved public safety in what was once Ground Zero for an HIV and overdose epidemic that cost many lives, says a...
View ArticleThe doomed, century-old war on drugs: Book review
CHASING THE SCREAM: THE FIRST AND LAST DAYS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS Johann Hari The Glasgow-born Hari is a superb writer and a dodgy journalist. Having reached great heights at a young age—winner of the...
View ArticleBarack Obama’s doomed new war against drugs
(Goran Tomasevic/Reuters) When Amy Oljey was 24 years old, she was living with her parents in Easton, Mass., and studying to become a medical assistant. Her life was normal, for a suburban...
View ArticleTo win the fight against AIDS, we must end the war on drugs
A man is arrested for drug use on a street in the South Bronx on June 7, 2017 in New York City. Like Staten Island, parts of the Bronx are experiencing an epidemic in drug use, especially heroin and...
View ArticleThe next step for Canada: decriminalize hard drugs
Canadians took a big step toward a less stupid society on Wednesday when we ended marijuana prohibition, which may allow us to now turn our minds to a more difficult but important challenge:...
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