Weekly: This Week in History
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
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Chronicle
Chronicle
Feature: Historic Hearing on Marijuana Legalization in the California Legislature
For the first time in nearly a century, the California legislature took up marijuana legalization on this week. A Wednesday hearing on a legalization bill previewed the battle lines and arguments that lie ahead.
Chronicle
Latin America: Marijuana Legalization Fares Poorly in Chile Poll
If you are trying to figure out which Latin American country will be the first to legalize marijuana, you can probably eliminate Chile. Support for legalization there is in the teens -- and declining.
Chronicle
Medical Marijuana: Colorado Court of Appeals Rules Caregivers Must Do More Than Just Grow Pot
Medical marijuana caregivers must actually know the patients for whom they are growing pot, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled. The opinion, if upheld on appeal, could put a crimp in the state's fast-growing medical marijuana industry.
Chronicle
Drug War Chronicle Book Review: "Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juarez," by Howard Campbell (2009, University of Texas Press, 310 pp., $24.95 PB)
If you're interested in the border or Mexico's drug war or drug culture or drug economy, or in drug law enforcement, we've got a book you need to read. University of Texas-El Paso sociologist and anthropologist Howard Campbell provides a vivid, rich, and nuanced portrayal of drugs and the drug war in El Paso-Juarez that couldn't be more timely.
Chronicle
Editorial: How Much Does It Cost to Build an Air-Conditioned Drug Smuggling Tunnel?
Every now and then authorities discover an electrified, air-conditioned tunnel underneath our border with Mexico or Canada, presumably built for drug smuggling. How many such tunnels go undiscovered? And does it take more than one successful smuggling operation to pay for a tunnel's construction?
Blog
Marijuana Debate! Former Judge vs. Several Complete Idiots
The debate over legalization is heating up in California, and from the looks of things, the two sides arenât even speaking the same language. Here's Judge James Gray speaking from experience about the advantages of regulating marijuana:
And here's the best response the opposition could put together:
Stay tuned, folks. There will be plenty more stupid crap where that came from, I assure you. But if those tired old clichés were worth anything anymore, legalization wouldnât be on the tip of every tongue in California and beyond.
This conversation is an inherent victory for us, while our opposition's response is just another embarrassment for them.
Blog
Efforts to Stop Drugs at the Border Have Become a Joke
You know that border fence we've spent billions of dollars building? Yeah, it's not really helping so much:
Unfortunately, our brave drug soldiers are convinced that expensive and futile interdiction efforts are better than nothing:
They're literally insisting that society will collapse if they don't keep doing this. It's awfully silly when you consider that almost all the drugs are already getting through anyway. If that stuff were going to destroy our society, it would have happened already.
But don't bother trying to explain that to the drug warriors, because they're too busy thinking of new ways to waste money in an attempt to "win" something:
The fact that our approach to substance abuse has evolved into a "war of technology" is just ridiculous. We'll never get anywhere with this nonsense no matter how many times we double down on our investment. It's plainly absurd to suggest that we can outspend our opponents when the game makes them obscenely rich while costing us billions.
It's like arguing that the secret to winning with scratch-off tickets is to constantly buy more and more of them.
SAN MIGUEL, Ariz. â A pickup truck in Mexico pulls up to the 5-foot vehicle barriers that make up part of the multibillion-dollar border fence. A retractable ramp is extended from the truck, forming a bridge up and over the barriers.
Then, a second pickup â this one loaded with a ton of marijuana â rolls over the bridge and into the U.S.
With gadgetry such as custom-built ramps as well as ultralight planes, false doors and good old-fashioned duct tape, smugglers have demonstrated unbounded creativity when it comes to sneaking drugs across the Mexican border. And the U.S. government acknowledges there is only so much it can do to stop the flow. [AP]
Unfortunately, our brave drug soldiers are convinced that expensive and futile interdiction efforts are better than nothing:
"We have to keep it at a manageable level so society can continue to operate," said Elizabeth Kempshall, agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's office in Arizona.
They're literally insisting that society will collapse if they don't keep doing this. It's awfully silly when you consider that almost all the drugs are already getting through anyway. If that stuff were going to destroy our society, it would have happened already.
But don't bother trying to explain that to the drug warriors, because they're too busy thinking of new ways to waste money in an attempt to "win" something:
"This is a war of technology, and I believe that the only way we are going to win it is if our technology is better than theirs," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
The fact that our approach to substance abuse has evolved into a "war of technology" is just ridiculous. We'll never get anywhere with this nonsense no matter how many times we double down on our investment. It's plainly absurd to suggest that we can outspend our opponents when the game makes them obscenely rich while costing us billions.
It's like arguing that the secret to winning with scratch-off tickets is to constantly buy more and more of them.
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Blog
It's Not Just Marijuana. DEA is at War With Other Medicines Too.
The Washington Post has a disturbing piece that ought to broaden recent discussion of the conflict between the drug war and legitimate medical treatments. The DEA is taking legal medicines away from elderly people who need them:
Our efforts to control the lives of people who take drugs for fun have led us to destroy the lives of people who take drugs for serious medical conditions. The harsh reality here is that the best medicines often become popular with people they weren't intended for. That's going to happen no matter what you do. But if every effective pain reliever is overly restricted, then the medicine's primary purpose of relieving pain can never be achieved.
The drug war has gone blind even to the most basic functions that drugs are supposed to serve in our society. As efforts to prevent diversion and recreational use continue their inevitable failure, we face a very real threat that desperate drug war bureaucrats will legislate many of our best medicines out of existence.
Heightened efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration to crack down on narcotics abuse are producing a troubling side effect by denying some hospice and elderly patients needed pain medication, according to two Senate Democrats and a coalition of pharmacists and geriatric experts.
â¦
Terence McCormally, a doctor who cares for patients in nursing homes in Northern Virginia, said the tug of war reflects "the tension between the war on drugs and the war on pain."
"For the doctor and the nurse, it's a nuisance," he said, "but for the patient it is needless suffering."
Our efforts to control the lives of people who take drugs for fun have led us to destroy the lives of people who take drugs for serious medical conditions. The harsh reality here is that the best medicines often become popular with people they weren't intended for. That's going to happen no matter what you do. But if every effective pain reliever is overly restricted, then the medicine's primary purpose of relieving pain can never be achieved.
The drug war has gone blind even to the most basic functions that drugs are supposed to serve in our society. As efforts to prevent diversion and recreational use continue their inevitable failure, we face a very real threat that desperate drug war bureaucrats will legislate many of our best medicines out of existence.
Blog
A Historic Hearing on Marijuana Legalization in Sacramento Today
Wednesday was a historic day at the California state capitol. For the first time since the state banned marijuana in 1913, marijuana legalization was the topic of a hearing in the state legislature. The hearing was organized by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), head of the Assembly's Public Safety Committee, to discuss his marijuana legalization bill, AB 390.
For three hours, proponents and opponents of reform clashed before an overflowing hearing room--the hearing was so popular capitol employees had to add a monitor in the hallway for those who couldn't get into the session. Both supporters and foes of legalization were well represented, and they mostly followed their predictable scripts. To this observer, law enforcement's dire warnings and objections sounded increasingly threadbare and shopworn and the arguments of legalizers especially compelling, but then, I agree with the legalizers.
I think what is important about Wednesday's hearing is not so much what was said--we've heard it all before, on both sides--as where it was said and in what context. Just a few days ago, they were talking legalization at the statehouse in Boston; now, they're doing it at the statehouse in Sacramento. Nobody expects the California bill to pass this year, but the fact that legalization is finally getting a serious hearing is a sign of progress.
I'll be reporting on the hearing and the preceding press conference in more detail later this week for the Drug War Chronicle. Check out the article on Friday.
Blog
A Marijuana Blog That's the Opposite of All the Others
A very unique new marijuana blog is just starting to get noticed on the web and I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to check it out in case it disappears (which I predict could take place soon, unfortunately). It's called Marijuana in the News and there is seriously nothing else like it anywhere on the web.
What makes Marijuana in the News so special? The author bitterly detests marijuana. The whole thing is a rambling hatefest against reform, literally the precise opposite of what you'll find here. I predict it will become semi-popular, but only among marijuana reform activists who take sadistic pleasure in pissing themselves off.
So go pay 'em a visit, enjoy yourself, and feel free to drop the author a friendly note in the comment section, cause it's looking pretty lonely in there. Be nice though, because reform is all about making the world a happier place where people hug and hold hands instead of arguing on the internet. Love thy neighbor, I say, even if thy neighbor wants to arrest people with AIDS.
In The Trenches
Medical marijuana override falls short in New Hampshire
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Marijuana Policy Project Alert | October 28, 2009 | |||||
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Dear friends: Today, the New Hampshire legislature came just shy of voting to override Gov. John Lynch (D)'s veto of the state's proposed medical marijuana law. Two-thirds of the votes were needed. Although we cleared the House with 67.6% of the vote (240-115), it lost in the Senate, 14-10. The bill had passed the legislature in June, by 232-108 in the House and 14-10 in the Senate. But on July 10, Gov. Lynch vetoed the bill, after refusing to meet with 15 patients and after failing to give input to the legislative conference committee, which amended the bill to address each of the eight concerns he had voiced in April. To override the veto and pass the bill into law, we needed supportive votes from two-thirds of voting members of the House and 16 votes in the Senate. Coming so close to victory makes losing more painful. Yet the support of MPPâs 29,000 dues-paying members allowed us to wage a fierce fight: We retained a top lobbying firm in the state and funded an outstanding organizer, Matt Simon, who leads the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy. We also ran tens of thousands of dollars of TV, radio, and print ads featuring patients who were counting on the governor and legislature to do the right thing and generated hundreds of e-mails, calls, and faxes and postcards to the governor and key legislators. But the bill faced strong opposition from the state's attorney general and chiefs of police. However, weâre determined to see New Hampshire medical marijuana patients protected from arrest and jail. 71% of New Hampshire voters support allowing seriously and terminally ill patients to use and grow medical marijuana for personal use if their doctors recommend it, according to a 2008 Mason-Dixon poll. Would you help us come back even stronger? Please donât let the New Hampshire patients who spoke out publicly in support of this bill be ignored. Donate what you can today. Need one more reason? Do it for the memory of Scott Turner, a New Hampshire medical marijuana patient and activist who died August 4 after a long and painful battle with degenerative joint disease and degenerative disc disease. Together, we're going to win this fight. Thank you,
Rob Kampia P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled. Â |
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We are required by federal law to tell you that any donations you make to MPP may be used for political purposes, such as supporting or opposing candidates for federal office. | ||||||
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