February 1, 2024
North American Drug War
1 Cartels made significant donations to Mexican President
2 Oregon declares state of emergency over fentanyl
3 Non-opioid painkiller demonstrates promising preliminary results
4 Social media CEOs grilled by Congress over child safety
5 OPINION 50 years and 10 Presidents have taught us we can’t ignore the Middle East
2/1/2013 “House of Cards,” Netflix’s first original series, starts streaming
see ad astra on x @greg_loving
1 Cartels made significant donations to Mexican President
Years before Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected as Mexico’s leader in 2018, U.S. drug-enforcement agents uncovered what they believed was substantial evidence that major cocaine traffickers had funneled some $2 million to his first presidential campaign. According to more than a dozen interviews with U.S. and Mexican officials and government documents reviewed by ProPublica, the money was provided to campaign aides in 2006 in return for a promise that a López Obrador administration would facilitate the traffickers’ criminal operations.
The allegation that representatives of Mexico’s future president negotiated with notorious criminals has continued to reverberate among U.S. law-enforcement and foreign policy officials, who have long been skeptical of López Obrador’s commitment to take on drug traffickers.
“The corruption is so much a part of the fabric of drug trafficking in Mexico that there’s no way you can pursue the drug traffickers without going after the politicians and the military and police officials who support them,” Raymond Donovan, who recently retired as the Drug Enforcement Administration’s operations chief, said in an interview.
Since taking office in December 2018, López Obrador has led a striking retreat in the drug fight. His approach, which he summarized in the campaign slogan “Hugs, not bullets,” has concentrated on social programs to attack the sources of criminality, rather than confrontation with the criminals. Yet with police and military forces generally avoiding confrontation with the biggest drug gangs, those mafias have extended their influence across Mexico. By some estimates, criminal gangs dominate more than a quarter of the national territory — operating openly, imposing their will on local governments and often forcing the state and federal authorities to keep their distance. The violence has hovered near historic levels, while the gangs’ extortion rackets and other criminal enterprises have metastasized into every layer of the economy.
Pro Publica
https://www.propublica.org/article/mexico-amlo-lopez-obrador-campaign-drug-cartels
Ed. Note: see North American Drug War https://adastraperaspera.substack.com/p/the-north-american-drug-war
2 Oregon declares state of emergency over fentanyl
Oregon leaders on Tuesday declared a 90-day state of emergency in central Portland as part of a broad effort to tackle the effects of fentanyl on the streets of the state’s largest city. Portland used to be known as one of the most desirable places to live in the United States. But in recent years, the city has been struggling with widespread fentanyl use on its streets, which has led to an increase in homeless encampments and crime.
Several key retailers, such as REI, have closed stores in Portland, while hundreds of people continue to die from fentanyl overdoses every year, often in tents or on sidewalks.
NYT
3 Non-opioid painkiller demonstrates promising preliminary results
Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston announced Tuesday that it had developed an experimental drug that relieves moderate to severe pain, blocking pain signals before they can get to the brain. It works only on peripheral nerves — those outside the brain and the spinal cord — making it unlike opioids. Vertex says its new drug is expected to avoid opioids’ potential to lead to addiction.
The opioid crisis, one of the gravest public health concerns in the United States, began more than two decades ago and included people who started out taking the drugs for pain but became addicted. As states tightened regulation of prescription opioids, many turned to illegal street drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Though doctors are more cautious about prescribing opioids now, many still do so because there are few alternatives.
NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/health/vertex-pain-medicine-non-opioid.html
4 Social media CEOs grilled by Congress over child safety
CEOs from Meta, TikTok, X and other companies have been grilled by United States lawmakers over the dangers that children and teens face using the social media platforms. On Wednesday, the executives testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee amid a torrent of anger from parents and lawmakers that companies are not doing enough to thwart online dangers for children, such as blocking sexual predators and preventing teen suicide.
“Mr Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, referring to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. “You have a product that’s killing people.” Zuckerberg testified along with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Discord CEO Jason Citron.
Al Jazeera
5 OPINION 50 years and 10 Presidents have taught us we can’t ignore the Middle East
Many Americans find our involvement in the Middle East both frustrating and confusing. It is frustrating because peace and stability seem impossible and because American efforts to promote democracy or otherwise pursue a values-based agenda in the region produce nothing but disappointment. It is confusing because many Americans simply don’t understand why our country keeps investing so heavily in a faraway place when we face many urgent problems at home and in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, 10 successive American presidents repeatedly learned, often to their chagrin, that the Middle East can’t be ignored. In 1973, Richard Nixon faced an oil embargo and the rise of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Gerald Ford’s short presidency was overshadowed by inflation driven in large part by high oil prices. The seizure of the U.S. Embassy and dozens of hostages during the Iranian revolution gutted Jimmy Carter’s hopes for re-election. Between the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 American military personnel and the Iran-Contra scandal, the Middle East gave Ronald Reagan the worst moments of his presidency. George H.W. Bush fought the Gulf War. “I am a failure and you have made me one,” Bill Clinton told Yasser Arafat after the Palestinian leader rejected Mr. Clinton’s proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Middle East continued to haunt American presidents during the 21st century. The Iraq war defined the presidency of George W. Bush. Barack Obama desperately wanted to avoid Middle East entanglements but found himself bombing Libya and fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq even as the battle over the Iranian nuclear deal loomed over his second term. The Abraham Accords and his struggle with Iran helped define President Trump’s foreign policy, and now Mr. Biden, much against his wishes, faces the possibility of American involvement in a regional war.
Five decades of often painful experience should teach Americans that we can neither “fix” the Middle East nor ignore it. We are not going to turn Middle Eastern countries into a collection of peaceful democracies. We aren’t going to eliminate the ethnic, social and religious conflicts that keep the region on edge. And we aren’t going to be able simply to walk away.
WSJ, Walter Russell Mead
2/1/2013 “House of Cards,” Netflix’s first original series, starts streaming
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