Tag Archives: war-on-drugs

It has been more than four years since a pair of elite special operations soldiers were found murdered in the woods on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and no one has been convicted of the crime. Master Sgt. William “Billy” Lavigne II, an active-duty Delta Force operator, and Chief Warrant Officer …

T he difference between coca leaves and cocaine, a Peruvian friend once quipped, is the difference between traveling by mule and jet plane. A clever line, but one that misses an essential point. The effects of the leaves and the drug are not comparable. To equate coca with the raw …

When Craig Finn wants to make an L.A. album, he doesn’t mess around. He might be best known as the Minnesota-via-Brooklyn frontman of the Hold Steady, a punk bar-band wordsmith specializing in down-and-out tales with a Midwest flavor. But on his great new Always Been, he takes inspiration from Southern …

To quote the Smiths, fame fame fatale fame, it can play hideous tricks on the brain. That’s what’s happening in the album-opening title track from People Watching, the third LP by U.K. pop-rock star Sam Fender. “I people watch on the way back home/Envious of the glimmer of hope/Gives me …

What has rainbow grilled cheese platters, giant dancing bear cutouts, and Woody Harrelson wearing a tie dye tie? The MusiCares’ annual Persons of the Year Charity Gala, where the Grateful Dead are the 2025 honorees (with some “Friend of the Devil” food cake to celebrate.) “It’s an incredible honor and …

Unreleased recordings by R.E.M., MJ Lenderman, the War on Drugs, Feist, Waxahatchee, and more than 100 other artists make up a newly released benefit compilation, Cardinals at the Window. Proceeds from the megacomp, available on Bandcamp, will help provide aid to victims of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. Other …

J ust before dawn on Sept. 24, 2007, a red, white, and blue Gulfstream II fell from the sky over the Yucatán Peninsula. The private jet had taken off without passengers from Rio Negro, Colombia, for Cancún, Mexico, more than 1,200 miles north, but crossed radar as a suspicious flight, …

Can a drug cartel do good? It’s an especially subversive question in North America, where the word “cartel” evokes boundless cruelty. But the Americas hold no monopoly on narco-trafficking supergroups. In fact, the world’s mightiest cartel is entrenched in Southeast Asia’s highlands. This secretive organization, known as the United Wa …

O n a rainy day toward the end of September, a longtime underground marijuana grower we’ll call Shawn coasted up I-86 from the Hudson Valley to Rochester to meet with a legal farmer. The farmer hadn’t been able to sell his harvest for over a year, despite owning a fully …

PORTLAND, Ore. — On a bleak block of Portland’s historic Chinatown, where dozens of people experiencing homelessness have pitched tents draped with plastic tarps, evidence of drug use litters the sidewalk. Among discarded cigarette butts lie squares of tin-foil, indented in the middle, with distinctive scorch marks, used to smoke …