Entries in drugs (4)

Friday
Dec182009

Intelligence Squared US Debate - America is to blame for Mexico’s drug war

 

Intelligence Squared (US edition) hosted a debate (on December 1 2009) on the motion:

America is to blame for Mexico’s drug war


MODERATOR: John Donvan is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline. He has served as ABC White House Correspondent, along with posting in Moscow, London, Jerusalem and Amman.

FOR THE MOTION:  Andrés Martinez directs the New America Foundation’s Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program. He was the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times from 2004-2007, and presided over the newspaper’s op-ed page and Sunday opinion section.

FOR THE MOTION: Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer and director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Miron holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T.

FOR THE MOTION: Fareed Zakaria was named editor of Newsweek International in October 2000, overseeing all Newsweek’s editions abroad. The magazine has an audience of over 24 million worldwide. He also writes a regular column for Newsweek, which appears in Newsweek International and the Washington Post.

AGAINST THE MOTION:  Asa Hutchinson has been elected three times to the United States Congress and has been confirmed by the United States Senate both as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration and as the nation’s first undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security after the 9-11 attacks.

AGAINST THE MOTION: Chris W. Cox is the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association of America. Cox oversees seven ILA divisions: Federal Affairs, State & Local Government Affairs, Public Relations, Grassroots, Finance and Administration, Research & Information, Conservation, Wildlife & Natural Resources; as well as the Office of Legislative Counsel.

AGAINST THE MOTION: Jorge Castañeda was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003. Castañeda is a renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer, with an interest in Mexican and Latin American politics, comparative politics and US-Mexican and U.S.-Latin American relations.

 

Transcript:

 

 

Meta-note on permission, access and economics of media such as posted here:

The video is publicly available and so is the transcript, hence this post. I’m a big fan of these debates, and I will likely become a paying “subscriber” — the problem is that I won’t be able to share anything I get access to as paying member. What a dilemma! This does raise the question: whether a “blog use permit” could exist for per-post use of generally unavailable media? It’s just a thought — a way to make money, but not “everything is free” and not “content for paying subscribers only.” I’d be happy to throw IQ² some cash for the priviledge of sharing content I find particularly compelling.

Impl. note: Using “access here only” video and document embeds, with a key generated by the content provider, sent after the one-shot payment has been received.

iq2-us-transcript-Mexico-Drug-War-120109 (.pdf media enclosure)

Thursday
Dec102009

Cocaine Mafia - Vanguard (CurrentTV, Hulu)

Cocaine Mafia: CurrentTV episode link Hulu episode link

 

Correspondent Christof Putzel travels to southern Italy to investigate how Europe’s growing appetite for cocaine is funding the growth of West African crime syndicates.

 


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Wikipedia: Camorra

The Camorra is a mafia-like criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It finances itself through drug trafficking, extortion, protection and racketeering and its activities have led to high levels of murder in the areas in which it operates. It is the oldest criminal organization in Italy.[citation needed]

In recent years, various Camorra clans have been forming alliances with Nigerian drug gangs and the Albanian Mafia, even going so far as to intermarry. For instance, Augusto La Torre, the former La Torre clan boss who became a pentito, is married to an Albanian woman. It should also be noted that the first foreign pentito, a Tunisian, admitted to being involved with the feared Casalesi clan of Casal di Principe. The first town that the Camorra gave over to be completely governed by a foreign clan was Castel Volturno, which was given to the Rapaces, clans from Lagos and Benin City in Nigeria. This allowed them to traffic cocaine and prostitutes before sending them across the whole of Europe.[12]

Saturday
Nov212009

Prison Contraband (Vanguard, CurrentTV)

Vanguard Journalism | CurrentTV

Episode link


Prison Contraband (Vanguard, CurrentTV) - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Contributor Janet Choi goes inside a California state prison to investigate contraband smuggled inside the cells, and how cellphones are the new security threat.

Prison Contraband (Vanguard, CurrentTV)

Thursday
Oct082009

Oxycontin Express - Vanguard 3.1 (CurrentTV, Hulu)

UPDATE: Added the CurrentTV video embed - Hulu content is restricted to the U.S., and CurrentTV is not as far as I’m aware.

 

Vanguard airs on CurrentTV on Wednesdays at 10/9c

 

Season 3 episode 1 (released on Hulu today) is a shocking expose on South Florida, esp Broward County. The top 50 U. S. Oxycontin prescribers are all in Broward County. Doctors in Florida prescribe Oxycontin at 5 times the national average — and you can have on-site pharmacies where you get the prescription and the pills in one easy visit. Cash only.

Vanguard: The Oxycontin Express - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

 

 

Correspondent Mariana van Zeller reports from South Florida, the epicenter of the prescription drug abuse epidemic in America. She follows America’s largest pill pipeline from the Sunshine State to Appalachia, where OxyContin is in high demand.

Rebecca Harper (Hulu) posted on Oct 8 2009, 10:11:53
Check out our interview with Mariana van Zeller, who reports on prescription pill abuse in “The OxyContin Express” in the Hulu Blog: http://blog.hulu.com/2009/10/08/first-look-vanguards-oxycontin-express/
Although Season 3 of Current TV’s in-depth reporting series Vanguard doesn’t get started on television until next Wednesday at 10 p.m. EDT/9 p.m. CDT, Hulu is bringing you the full season premiere a few days early. “The OxyContin Express” is an in-depth look at prescription drug abuse and the pill mills of Southern Florida, where lax prescription regulations provide easy access to addictive medications such as oxycodone for people all over the U.S.

mariana van zeller