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Saturday 16 September 2006 In 1971 the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp Scott number 1438 titled PREVENT DRUG ABUSE; but as Post Master General Winton M. Blount stated at the First Day of Issue ceremony “The stamp is not, in fact, a commemorative stamp at all. It is rather, a warning, a plea for help and a call to the American people to take every step to lift up those who have fallen under the use of drugs.” At that time marijuana had been illegal (Prohibition) for thirty-four years. Since then what has occurred? Well marijuana has become more expensive and its cousin hemp has begun entry into the commerce despite efforts by the DEA to stop it. In the 1980’s we have had a cocaine ‘crack’ epidemic. In the 1990’s an epidemic of ECSTASY at the dance club “RAVES” that our youth are drawn to. Now we are experiencing a METH crisis with its main root resulting in an ID theft crisis. Heroin is cheaper and more readily available. Cocaine appears in abundance, too. In these last thirty-four years our country has spent over $400,000,000,000.00 for these results. The drug criminal cartel is more violent and in 1999 made over $1,000,000,000,000.00 with profits exceeding the GDP of most U.N. member nations.

As I sit here indulging in marijuana before I start my day, I consider the loss of privilages in life I would have if I were to get caught by the wrong people. I'm not hurting anyone, and I'm even really a nice person.

How are you doing now that it is September 16th?

Once again there will be another ballot issue on marijuana in Nevada. As readers know, I have consistently been an outspoken critic of the drug war and so it should come as no surprise that I support this ballot measure.

What sort of criminal offender merits the special distinction of being placed on a public registry? Only the most dangerous, or is it the most demonized? Registries of sex offenders began appearing a few years ago as part of the hysterical response to not an increase in sex crimes, but an increase in publicity about them, driven in part by information technologies that allow the whole country to almost instantaneously watch the latest local outrage with fascinated horror.