Saving Innocence/VOXXI News: Human Trafficking in the United States, more prevalent than you think

Please take a moment to read this very important article and watch this video about human trafficking. 

Now more than ever, we have a chance to protect our young women and young men, and also our young adults, who experience this youth and life destroying devastation.  Human trafficking affects all of us and we have to start opening our eyes and realize there is something each one of us can do to stop human trafficking.  We must encourage victims to stop the terrifying silence and create a safe place for them to escape to, so they can heal from the cruel and heartless abuses they have suffered. 

Alexandra D. Datig, Survivor



By Teresita Chavez Pedrosa/Hispanic National Bar Association

“Latinas, African-Americans and indigenous women are disproportionately affected by human trafficking,” Norma Ramos, Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) a non-profit organization dedicated to abolishing modern day slavery, told those attending the Hispanic National Bar Association’s 2nd Annual Human Trafficking Conference at the University of Miami last Friday. While there are 15,000 to 18,000 people trafficked in the United States each year, Ramos stated, the “overwhelming majority” are the country’s own citizens.

“The worse thing about the movie Taken,” said Miami Springs Councilman Dan Espino, referring to the 2008 film starring Liam Neeson in which his on-screen daughter is abducted in France “is that it created the impression that human trafficking is something that happens over there.” The truth is that Miami is third in the nation in the human trafficking, behind New York and California.

“Everything that makes South Florida a great place to live,” said U.S. Prosecutor Barbara Martinez referencing diversity, the weather, its geographical position as a gateway to other nations, “makes it easier for traffickers to hide.” Martinez, who has worked with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Justice to secure various human trafficking convictions, discussed a case involving Mexican nationals. The women had to service 30 to 40 “clients” per day, for $20 each. They had no days off. Every week or so, they were transferred to a new location in Florida. “We don’t always report these cases to the media, in order to protect our victim-based approach” added Martinez.

Victim-based view of prostitution

“Prostitution is the oldest oppression,” said Ramos, who believes that calling prostitution a profession implies that its existence is inevitable. Panelists agreed that the incidence of prostitution was exacerbated by poverty, but was caused by factors that include gender-based inequalities and vulnerabilities. According to Martinez “people are vulnerable for different reasons.” Foster children are vulnerable. She has also seen cases where affluent and educated girls have sneaked out of their homes while their parents slept and lured into prostitution by a boyfriend.

Some women, including college co-eds, are made to believe that prostitution is a glamorous form of earning extra cash. Although expressly forbidding communications regarding cash in exchange for sex on their sites, sugar daddy web-based dating services are gaining visibility among university students. Catherine A. Mackinnon, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, Special Gender Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (The Hague) and “the Malcolm X of the Women’s Movement” according to Ramos, reported having had students who turned to prostitution while in school. “None of them are alive today,” MacKinnon admitted. Ramos challenged: “Do we really want to live in a country where prostitution is seen as a form of financial aid?”

A person prostituted through force, fraud or coercion, is a victim under federal law. “Victimizing her (under the law) raises her status,” said MacKinnon, while “criminalizing him lowers his privilege.” The law is broad enough to prohibit the non-physical versions of force, fraud and coercion, such as mental manipulation. Minors are considered victims even in the absence of force, fraud and coercion. Actual physical transfer of the victim is not necessary to meet the federal law’s definition of human trafficking.

U.S. federal law also provides protection and services to victims of human trafficking. These may include migratory relief for otherwise undocumented victims. Community-based groups facilitate food, shelter and other services to victims. According to Protection Consular Luz Elena Lopez Rodea, the Mexican government, through its consulate offices, has an array of services available to trafficked Mexican nationals. These include help with legal representation.

Like with the racketeering laws that once helped the government reach and prosecute the heads of major crime families, the human trafficking federal laws target the enterprise. “The bodies and lives of these women are appropriated for them to be exploited by organized crime,” said Ramos, who distinguished these pimps from free speech groups who in some capacity actually defend women.

“We should all be offended,” said Espino, acknowledging all the opportunities that his Cuban parents, and him as a first-generation American, have enjoyed as a result of hard work and study. “These (human) traffickers have turned the land of freedom and opportunity into one of oppression and torture.”

Protecting children from human trafficking

“The average age when girls enter prostitution is 13—maybe 12,” said Ramos. Making another argument for why prostituted women should be treated with the same compassion extended to children, MacKinnon explained that the prostituted child and adult do not represent two different peoples. “You are talking about the same group of people at two different points in time. In order to help one group you have to help the other,” MacKinnon added.

Ramos believes that those who would only help children should remember that generally, “it is women who protect children.”

Gail Dines, Professor of Sociology and Women Studies at Wheetlock College, author of the newly-released book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, and co-founder of StopPornCulture.org argued that it is crucial that children be shielded from the effects of pornography. “I never thought I would say this, but Playboy and Hustler were the good old days of pornography,” said Dines. “Free porn is the worst thing that has happened to the internet.”

Dines argued that the porn industry has taken a page out of the tobacco playbook by making themselves available to young and impressionable “clients” whose “template” they can shape. Shocking images of women gagging and vomiting while mascara-tinged tears run down their face, are accompanied by challenges to a boy’s masculinity meant to keep him watching. “Are you man enough?” ask some websites.

“I do not believe boys go to porn as women haters, but they do come away as such,” said Dines. “Most boys look at pornography with an erection and don’t think of the horror behind it.”

“We support this education because combating human trafficking is one of our top priorities,” said U.S. Prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo A. Ferrer, who wants the community to understand that human trafficking is real and that “those who commit these crimes will be brought to justice.”

A federal task force will be working with Miami-Dade schools to develop an educational curriculum on this topic. This summer, Dines will have a slide show available for parents and educators on her website StopPornCulture.org. “Some younger defendants are shocked to learn that (human trafficking) is a crime,” said Martinez.

“We have to start uprooting these things out,” said Espino. “Human trafficking is not something that only Liam Neeson can take care of.

Source:  www.voxxi.com

Source:  Saving Innocence

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HomeTesting Blog:  "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) have made their stand clear on recreational marijuana initiatives that were approved in Washington and Colorado.

In a statement, SAMHSA said “there have been no changes to the panel of drugs being tested under the federal Drug-Free Workplace Program (DFWP).” That means, federal employees will continue to undergo marijuana test at the established cut off levels in the Mandatory Guidelines.

DOT, in its Dec. 3 notice, states the ballot initiatives “will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program.” The agency will continue to require drug testing applicants and employees in safety-sensitive positions, such as pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft maintenance personnel, transit fire‐armed security personnel, ship captains, and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others.

“We also firmly reiterate that an MRO will not verify a drug test negative based upon information that a physician recommended that the employee use “medical marijuana” when states have passed “medical marijuana” initiatives,” DOT said in its recreational marijuana notice. “It is important to note that marijuana remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It remains unacceptable for any safety‐sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.”

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Colorado residents are holding their breath for President Obama's announcement regarding recently passed measures legalizing marijuana.  Whatever the decision is, it is sure not to end the debate about marijuana, especially since some Colorado counties are banning marijuana operations already. And marijuana use and sales remain illegal under federal law.  Sadly, this debate has been mainly confined to two very simplistic notions of policy: incarceration and legalization. These words have dominated the marijuana policy discussion over the past decade.  And they are both wrong.  They represent a false dichotomy that overlooks more complex and promising solutions in favor of simplistic and risky ones.

Though touted by legalization advocates as a cure to ailing state budgets and a crippling of drug cartels, it is clear that marijuana is good for neither. Legal alcohol and tobacco provide examples: For every dollar the government brings in from taxation, it spends $10 on social costs.
We know that the costs of today's highly potent marijuana include 400,000 emergency room visits, increased incidence of mental illness, car crashes, and learning problems for kids. These costs will only increase as more people use easily obtainable, heavily promoted, cheap marijuana in such a permissive environment. And we are confident marijuana will be promoted widely. Already, talk of creating the Starbucks equivalent of marijuana and pop-star promotion of the drug has begun.

But we also know one more segment of private industry might be interested in cashing in: big tobacco. A consultant's report to Brown and Williamson uncovered in court read: "The use of marijuana ... has important implications for the tobacco industry in terms of an alternative product line. [We] have the land to grow it, the machines to roll it and package it, the distribution to market it." Big tobacco lied to America for 80 years about the dangers of smoking. They deliberately targeted kids. Why would we think it would be any different for marijuana?

That we are uneasy about legalization should not be construed as acceptance of the status quo. Though people are not imprisoned for using small amounts of marijuana, people still get arrested for possessing the drug, resulting in a blemish on their records. They have a hard time getting a job or accessing social benefits — and this can incentivize reintroduction into the illicit economy. The answer is not to simply legalize; we must instead offer health interventions and other assistance to those who are caught with the drug, based on their particular situation.

Finally, studies show that the average "medical" marijuana user is a 32-year-old with no life-threatening illness. Less than 5 percent have cancer, HIV or a terminal illness. But that doesn't mean components of marijuana are not medicine. There are ways to deliver its medicinal potential without compromising public health. A pill containing marijuana's most active ingredient is available at pharmacies. We need more research into marijuana's other components, since many have begun to show promise.  (One such medicine, an oral spray that does not get you high, is available in 22 countries already.) And until such research produces those medicines, we could also enroll the seriously ill into a research program giving them responsible access to non-inhaled components of marijuana. Just like we don't smoke opium to reap the benefits of morphine, however, we need not smoke marijuana to get its therapeutic properties.

So if neither legalization nor prohibition, then what? Science-based drug education for parents and kids needs to become a top national priority. Community coalitions that engage in multiple community sectors, and drug courts that leverage the criminal justice system with treatment must be brought to scale. Strategies that implement job and stable housing programs should also be more widespread.

While "lock 'em up" or "legalize" may both fit neatly on a bumper sticker, they are not thoughtful ways to implement drug policy.

As cities and towns ban retail sales on their own in Colorado, we should not think full legalization is a foregone conclusion here. It is not too late to have a responsible conversation about marijuana.

Source:  www.denverpost.com

Patrick J. Kennedy is a former Rhode Island congressman and Kevin A. Sabet is a former senior drug policy adviser in the Obama administration. Both are founders of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana).

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U.S. Drug Czar Addresses White House Petitioners about Marijuana Legalization

I really like Director Kerlikowske.  He has recognized people in recovery as part of the National Drug Control Strategy and I think he has been an effective and honestly outspoken leader regarding his opposition to the legalization of marijuana.  

In his official response to various petitions, he has had no choice but to give a fragmented response from the Obama Administration, because our President cannot or will not speak to the American people as a leader on this issue,  an issue he wanted to highlight during his presidency.  By now, the President knows that a good politician always waits for his entry point on a widely important issue.  I'm afraid the President has missed that entry point. 

Sadly, Director Kerlikowske only has casual comments the President made to Barbara Walters to refer to as a response, which is not an official response.  I feel for our Drug Czar.  He is trying so hard to do the right thing for America.

Bellow is Director Kerlikowske's official response to White House petitioners: 

"Thank you for participating in We the People and speaking out on the legalization of marijuana. Coming out of the recent election, it is clear that we're in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana. 

At President Obama's request, the Justice Department is reviewing the legalization initiatives passed in Colorado and Washington, given differences between state and federal law. In the meantime, please see a recent interview with Barbara Walters in which President Obama addressed the legalization of marijuana.

Barbara Walters:

Do you think that marijuana should be legalized?

President Obama:  

Well, I wouldn't go that far.  But what I think is that, at this point, Washington and Colorado, you've seen the voters speak on this issue.  And as it is, the federal government has a lot to do when it comes to criminal prosecutions.  It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that's legal.

…this is a tough problem because Congress has not yet changed the law.  I head up the executive branch; we're supposed to be carrying out laws.  And so what we're going to need to have is a conversation about how do you reconcile a federal law that still says marijuana is a federal offense and state laws that say that it's legal.

When you're talking about drug kingpins, folks involved with violence, people are who are peddling hard drugs to our kids in our neighborhoods that are devastated, there is no doubt that we need to go after those folks hard… it makes sense for us to look at how we can make sure that our kids are discouraged from using drugs and engaging in substance abuse generally.  There is more work we can do on the public health side and the treatment side.

Gil Kerlikowske is Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

Source:  www.whitehouse.gov