Following my essay in this week’s Sydney Morning Herald about the need to legalise and regulate all drugs, the paper publishes three letters in response: I agree with Antony Loewenstein (‘‘Legal drugs will make us safer’’, July 8). The fact that drug manufacture and supply is left to criminals does not make sense and is…
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Legalising and regulating all drugs is the solution
My essay appears in this week’s Sydney Morning Herald: The only way to ensure a safer Australian society is to legalise and regulate all drugs. This could save lives, earn huge revenue for the state and diminish the power of criminal gangs that make billions of dollars annually from the production and sale of illicit…
TRT World interview on police raids against Australian media
This week in Australia there were major police raids on the home of a prominent journalist and the public broadcaster, the ABC. It’s a worrying sign and part of a global trend against a free press and sources who provide vital information. I was interviewed by global broadcaster TRT World about the raids:
US radio interview on my forthcoming drug war book
I was recently interviewed by US radio program, By Any Means Necessary, on my upcoming drug war book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, and I gave a good overview of its political and journalistic reporting. My interview starts at 40:00: Listen to “Regrettably the US Army asks ‘How Has Serving…
My forthcoming book: Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs
After 4+ years of global investigation, my new book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, will be released in September in Australia, November in the US and January in the UK. Translated editions will come later. It features my reporting from Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, the Philippines, the US, UK and Australia and…
Deep into the narco war; how Guinea-Bissau fits into the trade
Guinea-Bissau in West Africa is a key cocaine transit country between South America and Europe. I visited for my forthcoming book on the drug war, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs. The new podcast by Washington Post columnist and political scientist, Dr Brian Klass, is called Power Corrupts and one episode…
Stop just talking to ourselves part 854322
Back in 2017, I was commissioned by Germany’s Goethe Institute to write about the dangers of living in filter bubbles and finding ways to escape them. Berkeley University’s Greater Good department teaches and researches ways to build a more compassionate society. One of its fellows, journalist Zaid Jilani, wrote an essay on what happens when…
How Extinction Rebellion gives hope on climate change action
Extinction Rebellion is a grassroots movement demanding radical (and necessary) action on climate change. The group, with activists around the world, is strongly challenging the political inertia around climate change and pushing back against individuals or companies (hello security firm, Pinkertons) aiming to make $ from the crisis (aka disaster capitalists). I was interviewed about…
Christchurch massacre highlights dark ties between Australia and white supremacy
My article in US magazine The Nation: It was an article with no subtlety, only bile. Australian columnist Andrew Bolt, one of the country’s most prominent right-wing voices and a key employee in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, published a column last August with the headline “The Foreign Invasion.” In it, he argued that “immigration is…
Israeli leader Netanyahu isn't the main problem
My article in US outlet Forward: On Wednesday, it was reported that in the midst of a tense election cycle, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed the right-wing Jewish Home Party to join with the Jewish Power Party, which is populated by followers of the racist, banned leader Meir Kahane. So important was this merger…