As the call for legalization continues to reverberate louder than ever before, the hired soldiers in the war on drugs are seeking to defend their livelihood with arguments of unprecedented desperation and incoherence:
Legalization is not the solution, [statewide CAMP Commander Michael] Johnson said, given that most of the pot is being grown illegally on public parkland by foreign citizens who cannot be taxed. [San Francisco Chronicle]
You won't have to tax them because they'll be out of business. No one's going to buy some crappy weed that's grown illegally and destructively in our national forests if there's an alternative. The instant you allow California's legions of skilled and socially conscious marijuana growers to operate in a regulated and legitimate environment, everything ugly and uncontrollable about the state's marijuana industry will change overnight.
Just watch how he proves my point:
"I've been doing this for five years, and there just seems to be more and more of it everywhere," Johnson said. "We don't even bother with medicinal grows. What we're concerned about is the destruction of the habitat."See how he admits that the "medicinal grows" are not what's causing the problem? That's because they're legal and regulated. It really isnât any more complicated than that.
This is a striking departure from what Kerlikowske told me in an interview in May.
Because of the restrictive terms the Vice Presidentâs office imposed on our interview, Iâm not at liberty to quote the drug czar directly.
But when I asked Kerlikowske for an example of how he hoped to bring sound science back to Office of National Drug Control Policy, he told me that science would answer whether smoked marijuana has any medical benefit.
Thatâs a question that science answers, he told me, not ideology.
There are now sustained calls in Mexico for a change in tactics, even from allies within Calderón's political party, who say the deployment of 45,000 soldiers to fight the cartels is a flawed plan that relies too heavily on the blunt force of the military to stem soaring violence and lawlessness. [Washington Post]
U.S. officials said they now believe Mexico faces a longer and bloodier campaign than anticipated and is likely to require more American aid.
U.S. and Mexican government officials say the military strategy, while difficult, is working.
"This battle is a full frontal assault," Monte Alejandro Rubido, Calderon's senior adviser on drug policy on Mexico's National Security Council, said in an interview. "There are no alternatives."
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEÂ Â Â
JULY 28, 2009
Critics Call California Efforts to 'Eradicate' Marijuana Costly, Futile
Reformers Say Time to Tax, Regulate Marijuana Is Now
CONTACT: Aaron Smith, MPP California policy director â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦ 707-575-9870
                  Dan Bernath, MPP assistant director of communications â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦â¦ 202-462-5747 ext. *2030
SANTA ROSA, Calif. â Law enforcement efforts to "eradicate" outdoor marijuana growing operations currently underway in California fail to make any impact on the availability or price of marijuana in the state, officials at the Marijuana Policy Project charged today.
    The annual Campaign Against Marijuana Growing, or CAMP, has produced increasingly gaudy results in terms of numbers of plants destroyed by law enforcement each summer â for example, police recently reported that they had seized $1.26 billion worth of marijuana from illegal farms in Fresno County. But critics argue that the sheer volume of marijuana illegally grown, often in public parks, makes it impossible to identify and destroy enough marijuana to reduce the available supply or hinder drug cartels' profits in any way.
    "Law enforcement officers point to a 2,000 percent increase in plants seized in the past decade and hold that as a sign of success," said Aaron Smith, MPP's California policy director. "But these efforts have had no effect on the widespread prevalence of marijuana in our society. Just like the days of alcohol Prohibition, we have ceded control of a popular product to criminals â making them rich in the process."
    Although eradication programs rarely receive much public scrutiny, the Department of Justice acknowledged in its 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment that such operations do little more than drive growers to indoor sites, often in residential neighborhoods.
    "At a time when California is facing drastic budget cuts, it's beyond irresponsible to continue this costly and ineffective policy," Smith said. "The only way to get these illegal grows out of our parks and neighborhoods is by ending marijuana prohibition and regulating the drug's production. After all, you don't see wine producers sneaking into forests and setting up covert vineyards."
    With more than 27,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.
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The following ACTION has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES by Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER). At a press conference in California last week, President Obama's new drug czar claimed, "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit." Meanwhile, President Obama was at the White House, trying to defuse the situation surrounding the controversial and highly publicized arrest of his friend, Harvard Professor Henry Lewis Gates, by inviting him and the arresting officer to the White House for a beer. Yes, that's right. Just after President Obama's top drug policy official declared marijuana "dangerous," the President himself was touting the calming and beneficial effect of consuming alcohol, a substance that is far more dangerous than marijuana that -- unlike marijuana -- actually contributes to violent and aggressive behavior. CLICK HERE to TAKE ACTION and send a quick message to President Obama, letting him know you are appalled by the anti-marijuana, pro-alcohol message his administration is sending to Americans of all ages, and urging him to offer Professor Gates and the arresting officer a safer alternative to alcohol at their White House meeting. Then forward this alert to anyone you know who might be interested in doing so, as well. (This action is also available at http://tinyurl.com/mjvtma) The following BOOK has been rated "IMPORTANT" by several prominent individuals and organizations: As a SAFER supporter, you probably detect the absurdity and irony of the situation with Obama mentioned above. Yet much of the media has failed to pick up on it, and many Americans are still oblivious to the fact that marijuana is far safer than alcohol both for the user and for society. Our efforts to change all that and spread the truth about marijuana are about to get a major boost. Next week, SAFER will launch Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?, the highly acclaimed new book that promises to change the way people think -- and talk -- about marijuana. The book is co-authored by leaders of three of the most effective organizations working to reform marijuana laws -- SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert, MPP Director of State Initiatives (and SAFER Co-founder) Steve Fox, and NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano -- and it features a foreword by former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper. It has received advance praise from a variety of prominent individuals, and it is already beginning to cause a stir in the media -- check out the recent Reuters newswire column, "Driven to drink by marijuana laws?" Marijuana Is Safer is already shooting up the Amazon.com rankings, and SAFER will be doing a whole lot to promote it over the next couple months. We hope you will help us spread the word and make this important book -- and the truth it contains -- a wildly popular best-seller read by millions across the nation. You can do so now by forwarding this e-mail to anyone you think might be interested -- or by simply posting the book's URL (www.MarijuanaIsSafer.com) to your Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace page -- otherwise we will be in touch again soon to let you know of other ways you can help. Get an advanced copy and help us celebrate! Marijuana Is Safer will premiere next week on Tuesday, August 4, at the Oaksterdam University Student Union in Oakland, California. Along with OU, the event is being co-hosted by SAFER, NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), and co-authors Mason Tvert and Paul Armentano will be at the event to discuss the book and sign the first copies to be made available to the public. The book will then be made available to the crowd of 200,000+ at the world's largest pro-marijuana rally and festival, Seattle Hempfest, from August 15-16. Rounding out August will be SAFER's Launch Party on Sunday, August 23rd, in Denver, Colorado -- ground zero of the "Marijuana Is Safer" movement. Check out our initial tour schedule below and be sure to check back to http://www.MarijuanaIsSafer.com for more event dates and information.
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Our traditional justice system has been inadequate to the task of breaking the cycle of substance abuse and crime. Four out of every five offenses are committed by someone with a drug or alcohol problem; and we just keep locking them up!
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Given the abysmal outcomes of incarceration on addictive behavior, there's absolutely no justification for state governments to continue to waste tax dollars feeding a situation where generational recidivism is becoming the norm and parents, children and grandparents may find themselves locked up together.
Whyâ¦is the Obama administration proposing to spend an even higher percentage of its anti-drug resources on law enforcement than the administration of George W. Bush?
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Mr. Kerlikowske has said, "It is only through a balanced approach - combining tough but fair enforcement with robust prevention and treatment - that we will be successful in stemming both demand and supply of illegal drugs." Yet, in the 2010 budget, there is a 3.3 percent reduction in treatment and prevention initiatives since 2008, exacerbating the bias toward enforcement, which now represents 65.6 percent of the budget, even higher than the last administration's 62.3 percent.
