President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has been waging a blood-drenched campaign\u00a0against illegal drugs that many human rights advocates say has reached the point of crimes against humanity.\u00a0It only rarely makes headlines here in the U.S., but the situation is currently set to escalate yet further.<\/p>\n
Following last month\u2019s\u00a0midterm elections<\/a>\u00a0in the Philippines, Duterte\u2019s ruling bloc now has a\u00a0supermajority<\/a>\u00a0in the country\u2019s Senate, which means the opposition stands practically no chance of blocking the extraordinary powers he is seeking to pursue his \u201cdrug war.\u201d\u00a0Among the winners is Duterte\u2019s former National Police chief, Ronald della Rosa,\u00a0who until stepping down to run for the Senate was at the helm the ultra-murderous drug crackdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n This almost certainly means the long-sought medical marijuana law in the Philippines is now dead. The measure\u00a0passed the Philippines\u2019 House of Representatives<\/a>\u00a0in January, but now stands little chance in the Senate. Duterte himself has flip-flopped on the issue \u2014 even saying in December that used cannabis himself to stay awake, but shortly later backpedaling, saying he was \u201cjoking<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0 More disturbingly, Duterte\u2019s supermajority may allow him to push through his proposed constitutional changes, giving him\u00a0sweeping powers<\/a>\u00a0to execute his \u201cdrug war,\u201d rule by decree, and stay in power indefinitely. All too tellingly, in Duterte\u2019s draft constitution there is\u00a0no longer any mention<\/a>\u00a0that the Philippine government \u201cguarantees full respect for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n And ominously, the Philippines formally\u00a0withdrew<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0International Criminal Court<\/a>\u00a0in March, becoming the second country to do so (after Burundi). Duterte had threatened to leave the ICC if it launched a case against him. And the court had indeed recently\u00a0opened a preliminary investigation<\/a>\u00a0into accusations that Duterte\u2019s security forces have committed mass murder and crimes against humanity in the context of his war on drugs.<\/p>\n Amid all this, it won at least a brief flurry of stateside news coverage when it turned out that a young U.S. citizen has been swept up in Duterte\u2019s crackdown, imprisoned and under threat to his life over a cannabis charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n The case of Orion Alfonso Hamre Tamayo, 26, of Madison, Wisconsin, was profiled by\u00a0NBC<\/a>\u00a0on May 31. He had been arrested the previous week, after going to a Manila area customs office to pick up a parcel addressed to him by a sender he says he didn\u2019t know. The parcel turned out to contain 30 vials of liquid THC.<\/p>\n Tamayo, a dual U.S.-Philippine citizen, has been charged with drug smuggling and faces the prospect of a long prison term, on top of what is typically years behind bars waiting for a trial. His mother, Davina Stewart, told NBC she is convinced her \u201chappy-go-lucky\u201d and \u201cvery soft-hearted\u201d son is innocent. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is absolutely soul-crushing and heart-shattering,\u201d Stewart told NBC News from her home in Minnesota. \u201cI believe his life is in danger,\u201d she added. \u201cThis has been a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart said she has spoken to her son by phone since his arrest, and he is being held in a cell at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA<\/a>) headquarters in Quezon City. Tamayo, who had never had a run-in with the law before, moved to the Philippines at the age of 18 to attend college. Enchanted by the country\u2019s culture, he decided to stay after completing his studies.<\/p>\n Tamayo\u2019s case certainly demands attention. But he is one among many thousands of anonymous Filipinos who\u2019ve been caught up in Duterte\u2019s anti-drug sweeps. It was\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0in March that since Duterte took office, the National Police and the PDEA have arrested 170,689 drug suspects \u2014 again, overwhelmingly, personal users and street-level dealers. The number is doubtless higher now.<\/p>\n On the subject of Filipino culture, another target of Duterte\u2019s anti-drug wrath is now a local music star. The\u00a0Philippine Star<\/a>\u00a0newspaper reports that the PDEA is seeking to ban a song by young Filipino rapper Shanti Dope. PDEA director general\u00a0Aaron Aquino\u00a0released a statement May 23 claiming that the lyrics of Shanti\u2019s new song, \u201cAmatz<\/a>,\u201d promote the use of cannabis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt appears that the singer was referring to the high effect of marijuana, being in its natural\/organic state and not altered by any chemical compound,\u201d Aquino said in the statement, issued after the song made its debut on the popular TV show \u201cASAP<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe strongly oppose the promotion of musical pieces or songs that encourage the recreational use of drugs like marijuana and shabu. It is contrary to our fight against illegal drugs,\u201d said the PDEA chief.\u00a0\u201cShabu\u201d\u00a0is Filipino slang for methamphetamine, so bringing it up appears to be more of the disingenuous conflation of cannabis with actually dangerous drugs.<\/p>\n Shanti Dope\u2019s label,\u00a0Universal Records, issued a statement from Shanti\u2019s collaborator on the song, another local hip-hop star named\u00a0Klumcee<\/a>. \u201cThe song Amatz\u2019s message is about having a natural high \u2014 being one with nature, and an awareness about our environment in society, which is bombarded by synthetics and chemicals,\u201d he said. \u201cWe made a conscious effort to make it sound like a banger so that a lot of people would enjoy and feel the vibe and message behind the song.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether or not \u201cAmatz\u201d is explicitly about cannabis, there is a whiff of political retribution to the PDEA\u2019s move. Some of Shanti Dope\u2019s other songs, particularly \u201cNorem<\/a>,\u201d are named as explicitly critical of Duterte\u2019s anti-drug campaign.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you consider a country\u2019s cannabis policy before traveling there?<\/p>\n The post U.S. Citizen Caught in Anti-Drug Sweeps in the Philippines<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has been waging a blood-drenched campaign\u00a0against illegal drugs that many human rights advocates say has reached the point of crimes against humanity.\u00a0It only rarely makes headlines here in the U.S., but the situation is currently set to escalate yet further. Following last month\u2019s\u00a0midterm elections\u00a0inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,10239,4099,10240,10241,731,81,1356],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35996,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35995\/revisions\/35996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Human Rights Watch lectured<\/a>\u00a0him that it is no laughing matter, with 12,000 killed by his National Police and unaccountable paramilitary forces since he took office in June 2016. Others have put the death toll\u00a0as high as 20,000<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 with small-time users and dealers comprising the majority of those casualties.<\/p>\nJailed Wisconsin Youth Wins Headlines<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Duterte\u2019s Next Crusade: Censoring Rap Music?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: U.S. Citizen Caught in Anti-Drug Sweeps in the Philippines<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"