Bangladesh: The Police's Dirty War on Drug Yaba (France 24)

[BK38]

This is a short little piece on the corrupt practices of law enforcement in Bangladesh and the extra-judicial killings we see as a result. I can't help but feel death squads in S. America, the Philippines and other parts of the world could be avoided if we had a sensible, social and health-oriented policy towards drugs globally:

 

[Vastness]

Holy fuck that's tragic. "Mobile justice", yeah right, travelling circus more like. I'll admit I'm only about 3 minutes into that video but paused it to write this comment... expected it to be but was still surprised by how bad it was.

For sure, a sensible global drugs policy would be the solution to almost every measure of drug related harm anyone could think of, but sense and reason are so far beyond the horizon of thinking when it comes to drug policy in so much of the world right now.

Tragically it seems the most insane approaches to drug regulation are no longer coming from the superpowers who originally promoted this kind of lunacy for their own benefit (ie, America and it's long history of amoral meddling in the affairs of it's economically weaker neighbours - we all know how well that turned out of course), but from the less developed world where societies with absolutely nothing to gain from the drug war have all but internalised the arbitrary moralising originally propagated by Western prohibitionists... unlike in the beginning where reason played some part behind the scenes in furthering the objectives of the emerging superpowers of the day, even if these objectives in reality were far different to those that were publicly advertised - in the present day, sense and reason have truly left the stage.

 

[BK38]

Holy fuck that's tragic. "Mobile justice", yeah right, travelling circus more like. I'll admit I'm only about 3 minutes into that video but paused it to write this comment... expected it to be but was still surprised by how bad it was.

For sure, a sensible global drugs policy would be the solution to almost every measure of drug related harm anyone could think of, but sense and reason are so far beyond the horizon of thinking when it comes to drug policy in so much of the world right now.

Tragically it seems the most insane approaches to drug regulation are no longer coming from the superpowers who originally promoted this kind of lunacy for their own benefit (ie, America and it's long history of amoral meddling in the affairs of it's economically weaker neighbours - we all know how well that turned out of course), but from the less developed world where societies with absolutely nothing to gain from the drug war have all but internalised the arbitrary moralising originally propagated by Western prohibitionists... unlike in the beginning where reason played some part behind the scenes in furthering the objectives of the emerging superpowers of the day, even if these objectives in reality were far different to those that were publicly advertised - in the present day, sense and reason have truly left the stage.

I would argue that the governments in those less developed countries have realized that the "Drug War" is a great way to get rid of politically undesirable elements of society, much like the West did in S. America with Escobar and the Los Pepes death squads. It has never been about the drugs. It has always been a tool for political gain and also for transferring money to the military, law enforcement and prison industrial complex in my view. We have known this since the days of Iran-Contra and even prohibition.

 

[Vastness]

Hm yeah, you're probably right. I guess it's naive or wishful thinking to think that the current violence and injustice is anything but calculated. The impact prohibitionist propaganda has had on the perception of drugs and drug related issues in the popular consciousness surely makes things easier nowadays though... I mean, the work there has already been done. Drugs are bad, mmkay, and so is everyone who does them.

This idea is so pervasive it's become unconscious. I believe the main narrator seemed to be well intentioned and was not trying to hide the injustice in any way - but I remember him saying something like "yaba, a form of methamphetamine that has devastated the region..." - really? THAT'S what's devastated the region, not the myriad of other social problems that preceded it?

I'll admit - I don't know much, if anything, about the history of Bangladesh - but it seems self-evident that for such a situation as the one depicted to even arise, there are already some problems, for sure.

 

[BK38]

Hm yeah, you're probably right. I guess it's naive or wishful thinking to think that the current violence and injustice is anything but calculated. The impact prohibitionist propaganda has had on the perception of drugs and drug related issues in the popular consciousness surely makes things easier nowadays though... I mean, the work there has already been done. Drugs are bad, mmkay, and so is everyone who does them.

This idea is so pervasive it's become unconscious. I believe the main narrator seemed to be well intentioned and was not trying to hide the injustice in any way - but I remember him saying something like "yaba, a form of methamphetamine that has devastated the region..." - really? THAT'S what's devastated the region, not the myriad of other social problems that preceded it?

I'll admit - I don't know much, if anything, about the history of Bangladesh - but it seems self-evident that for such a situation as the one depicted to even arise, there are already some problems, for sure.

Yes, I agree that a lot of drug abuse and the truly devastating effects of it are a result of social problems; poverty, alienation, lack of education, lack of health care, truly hard-labour jobs etc. Yaba is a fucked up drug (I've done it; it's essentially low grade methamphetamine mixed with caffeine in these little tablets, mostly used by laborers and sex workers etc; the most marginalized people in other words). It is cheap and strong and a symptom of these social ills and the drug war itself.