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Police need to be sensitized
An out reach worker carrying syringe and needles was arrested in north chennai for carrying needles and syringes. Although the outreach staff pleaded to the police personnel that he is just doing his job as an out reach worker. The police did not understand what he was doing and was surprised that the government was allowing the NON PROFITS to distribute Needles and Syringes. It took 5 hours to get the outreach worker from the police station. What is surprising is although its been a long time after finding that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading through Infected needles in india. How did the police did not know that there are services going on for the drug users. One drug user confessed that he was just using drugs. However the local Drug enforcement agency accused him of selling drugs and convicted him for years. Will this change just by doing advocacy. I think instead of reforming people who are using drugs , they can reform the drug laws. which can in turn reform him. >VOICE OF DRUG USER,
Even if We Succeed, The Drug Warriors Will Take All the Credit
Via Transform, UN Drug Czar Antonio-Maria Costa appears to be coming to grips with the inevitable consequences of the international drug war: "The first unintended consequence is a huge criminal black market that thrives in order to get prohibited substances from producers to consumers, whether driven by a 'supply pushâ or a 'demand pull', the financial incentives to enter this market are enormous. There is no shortage of criminals competing to claw out a share of a market in which hundred fold increases in price from production to retail are not uncommon." (p.10)"The second unintended consequence is what one night call policy displacement. Public health, which is clearly the first principle of drug controlâ¦was displaced into the background." (p.10)"The third unintended consequence is geographical displacement. lt is often called the balloon effect because squeezing (by tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely an increase)in another placeâ¦" (p.10)"A system appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they may be motivated to want it." (p.11) "The concept of harm reduction is often made into an unnecessarily controversial issue as if there were a contradiction between (i) prevention and treatment on one hand and (ii) reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the other hand. This is a false dichotomy. These policies are complementary." (p.18)"It stands to reason, then, that drug control, and the implementation of the drug Conventions, must proceed with due regard to health and human rights." (p.19)Obviously, there are many good things to be said about all of this. One could never expect such candor from American drug warriors, thus Costa has taken a bold step towards a more honest and accountable drug policy discussion. Yet it was this same man who recently disparaged the attendees of the 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference as "lunatics" who were "obviously on drugs." How then can one reconcile the above quotes from Costa with his vicious mischaracterization of the very people who've been saying those things for decades? He's literally mumbling our talking points out of one side of his mouth while hurling reckless insults at us from the other. He says things like "There is indeed a spirit of reform in the air," only to then bash the majority of reformers as crazy, drug-charged ideologues with nothing to contribute. So, as the self-evident truth of our beliefs becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, don't expect the drug war leaders to thank us for our tireless efforts to bring such matters to light. We will always be elbowed to the side, even as our words and ideas work their way into the minds and out of the mouths of those we've lobbied for so long. On that glorious day when the wall comes crashing down, they will just pat one another on the back and behave as though this had been the plan from day one.That is the future of drug policy reform. There will be no glory for the brave men and women that dedicated their minds and bodies to this, but it doesn't matter because that's never what it was about. The reward we seek is a healthier nation, a better world, the warm embrace of the freedom and justice we've been promised but have yet to behold. One needn't be insane or on drugs to dream of such things.
Southpark: 11 Years of Exposing Drug War Fallacies
Editor's Note: Amanda B. Shaffer is an intern at StoptheDrugWar.org. Her bio is in our "staff" section at http://stopthedrugwar.org/about/staff As Scott yesterday blogged, this past Wednesday Comedy Central aired an episode about children getting high off of cat urine resulting in the banning of cats in Southpark. The DEA gets called in to enforce the ban. At the end of the episode, Gerald (the man who leads a fight to prohibit cats) gets high himself off of cat urine. After being caught, he publicly states cats should once again be legal because âCats arenât the problem, we are the problem.â The cat urine episode is based, in part, on reports that surfaced a few months ago about kids saving human feces, fermenting it, and then inhaling the gasses to get high. The show referred to the squirting of cat urine in oneâs face as âcheesing,â likely a send-up of a hybrid drug that involves mixing heroin with over-the-counter cold tablets such as Tylenol PM. The mixture is snorted rather than injected like pure heroin. The message here is that some kids will get high. If illegal drugs are inaccessible, curious youths will find other ways to alter their consciousness. Clearly outlawing cats is just as absurd as outlawing human feces. However, this is not the first Southpark episode to deal with drugs, and I doubt it will be the last. The first episode concerning drugs was in season 4 entitled âTimmy 2000.â The episode discussed the overprescribing of prescription drugs to children, specifically Ritalin. In 2000, the overprescribing of Ritalin (a drug used for ADD) became a nation-wide concern. Southpark broached the subject by showing how dull all of the kids became when they took it, eventually landing them at a Phil Collins concert. A remedy made by Chef removed the Ritalin from their systems, and the children then realized that they openly chose to go an extremely lame concert. A few episodes feature the character Towelie. Towelie is an engineered smart towel that appears whenever the boysâ conversation involves water. Towelie is known for always wanting to get high. But every time he does he runs into some sort of trouble. Mostly he forgets what he is doing or comes up with a bad idea. It seems to me that Stone and Parker use the Towelie character to illustrate that marijuana isnât harmful; it just can make one forgetful sometimes and possibly leave one unable to decipher good ideas from the bad ones. 2004: the year steroid controversy engulfed the sports world and Southparkâs âUp and Down Steroidâ aired. The episode depicted the dangers of using steroids when Jimmy turns to them to win top athlete in the Special Olympics. In the end Jimmy wins the honor of top athlete, breaking many Special Olympic records along the way, but also hurting the ones he loves. Eventually, guilt overcomes him, and Jimmy returns the medal presented to him by baseball superstars (and notorious steroid users) Mark McGuire, Jason Giambi, and Barry Bonds. He follows with a speech, stating that âTaking steroids is like pretending to be handicapped at the Special Olympics because you are taking all of the fairness out of the game.â Once again Parker and Stone brilliantly brought to light a serious and adverse issue.During the same season, Southpark aired the episode âQuest for Ratings,â which depicted the dangers of cough medication (at least those containing dextromethorphan). Misinformed, some of the students drink cough syrup in order to come up with creative ideas to boost ratings for the Southpark Elementaryâs News Show. After waking up with a hangover and without any ideas, the boys realize the dangers of cough medicine and agree to report on the use going on in school. They learned that getting high doesnât necessarily aid in the creation of masterpieces; it isnât until they are sober that the clever idea is thought up. I am ecstatic that a popular television show continues to cleverly address drug issues. The show is truthful and is able to attract a large audience, and at the end of the episodes one of the children usually makes a speech about what was learned from all the crazy antics.Kudos to Southpark for standing above the crowd.
Doctors call in media,cocaine can kill you
The doctor did mention in an aside that this was only in certain cases.I'm willing to bet there is a better chance of being struck by lightening but the patient involved did have a cardiac arrest at 3
South Park Takes on Drug Prohibition
Everyone's talking about the new episode of South Park, which can viewed here. As usual, the show is way over the top, but the social commentary is sharp and on target. I'm not always a big fan, but I quite enjoyed this and you'll see why.I won't spoil it here, but have at it in the comment section if anyone's interested.
Winning 'Em Over One at a Time
This weekend I attended the SSDP SE regional conference at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. On Sunday, about a dozen of us piled into a pancake house (they're 3 to a block down there) and perhaps we stuck out a bit because an older gentleman, mid 60's and conservative-looking, approached our group. He says something like:Excuse me. I couldn't help but wonderâ¦I always take interest in groups of people. If you don't mind my asking, what brings you folks together?Maybe it was our mixed ages or the obvious absence of church clothes. He probably eats there every Sunday afternoon. Anyway, we all pause collectively, glancing at each other knowingly. Finally, Lennice Werth of Virginians Against Drug Violence breaks the silence, exclaiming, "Oh, you're gonna love this!"Lennice and Michael Krawitz give the nice man a quick crash course in drug policy reform and he quickly expresses his support. Doug McVay presents him with a copy of Drug War Facts and the man returns to his frustrated wife, who clearly wishes he wouldn't talk to so many strangers. What fun.I wish our politicians knew how easy it is to have a sensible conversation about drug policy.
Prison riot and death will be blamed on drugs
As I write this Mountain prison in Agassiz is locked down.On Saturday nite at 9:45 the inmates started an uprising that broke glass everywhere and eventually sent 12 prison inmates to hospital,allege
Marc Emery deal nixed by Harper Conservative government
Since the announced 10 year sentence with 5 to be done in a Canadian Prison.There have been rumors that the deal was in trouble.There was no mention of where the hold up originated or exactly what the
South Park takes a shot at the drug war
In a show that takes on just about everything the elite hold sacred,South Park has once again taken aim at the drug war.The show is called all about boobs but the story line is pure drug war .Kids getting high on cat urine leads to the DEA seizing all the cats.It's posted on DIGG and I found it on the FOX's homepage.It's hilarious and if you like South Park you'll love this one.
Sky train attacker a 'gentle soul'.
So read the headline in one of Vancouver's daily freebies.The article goes on to tell of a man's fall into addiction and violent robbery and the damage he's done.The crown is asking for a sentence of 10 years.The man did hit several women over the head with an iron pipe.At this point he has to be punished.The defense is asking for 6 years which is still a big chunk out of someone's life.The man's wife tells of a wonderful husband and father that loses his job through government policy betrayals and a failure to be retrained with any success.He then becomes depressed and self medicates with crack cocaine.Only in the era of prohibition could such a tragic miscalculation happen.The criminal nature of the control of drugs under prohibition assures that people like this guy can obtain any and every drug known to man.The people selling these drugs have no pride in their work or care for the well being of their clients.They offer the most addictive drug with the shortest period of intoxication.Why not?
In the Future, the Drug War Will be Fought by Robots
Most people at my office just roll their eyes when I explain that the drug war will soon be carried out by high-tech robots, but I'm right and they're naïve. Both sides are employing the latest technology to gain an upper hand in this never-ending struggle, thus it's just a matter of time until robots get involved. Case in point: Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.â¦"Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," said police department spokesman Juan Villalba. [Reuters]Yeah, right. When law-enforcement requests sophisticated technology and promises to use it only in an emergency, you can bet they'll soon be expanding their definition of "emergency." It's just a matter of time until our borders are swarming with these:The CIA acknowledges that it developed a dragonfly-sized UAV known as the "Insectohopter" for laser-guided spy operations as long ago as the 1970s.Imagine swatting a wasp, only to receive a bill for 150K from the Dept. of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the drug traffickers are setting the pace, unveiling a series of cool high-tech gadgetry. And this is just the stuff we know about: Police in Mexico have come across a new weapon being used by the country's drug cartels - a James Bond-style vehicle complete with gadgets designed to deter arrest.â¦Inside was a smoke machine and a device to spray spikes onto the road behind - the purpose to make a getaway easier and stop the car from being followed. [BBC]They've also got semi-submersible drug trafficking vessels, which are difficult to detect on radar. There's even a rumor circulating that some of these semi-subs are actually robots. I bet it's true:In some instances, the semi-subs are towed behind other vessels and are scuttled if they are detected, Allen said. Authorities are investigating reports that some semi-subs are unmanned and are operated remotely, he said. [CNN]In the long run, it is just intuitive that drug traffickers will outsource as many of their tasks as possible to high-tech robots. Though costly, robots are difficult to kill and immune to lengthy drug sentences. They can be wired to self-destruct when captured, although it stands to reason that captures will be infrequent if the robots possess proper defenses.If it isn't happening already, the use of robots to transport drugs by air and sea will commence in the short term. As robot technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, expect them be employed in manufacturing and retail distribution as well. They've already got a robot selling medical marijuana in California, although I suspect it was not designed to withstand attacks by drug enforcement agents.Obviously, there will be police robots as well and we can be reasonably sure they'll be outfitted with these horrible devices, which use ultraviolet lasers to detect drug residue. Hippies will have to clean up after themselves, as these roving narcbots will stop at nothing. If you're paranoid now, I'd like to know what you'll say when a robot approaches you and asks for consent to search.If this sounds like a joke to you, you might not understand the limitless absurdity of the war on drugs. Every day, our drug war leaders get more pissed and propose newer and crazier ideas. There is no amount of our tax dollars they won't waste and no ridiculous scheme they won't try. So if my predictions don't come true, it won't be because robots are expensive or impractical. It will be because enough of us finally came to our senses and ended this ever-escalating war before these terrible robots could be built.
It just gets worse
There's been a story in the news lately about a fellow that's missing.They keep showing this photo of a body builder with major tattoos and I'm thinking this guy's either a dealer or a rip off type.To
Netherlands Rated More Stable and Prosperous Than U.S.
A new global study ranks the Netherlands 9th in the world in stability and prosperity. The U.S. follows at a distant 22nd. I'll give you one guess where I'm going with this. Ok, times up. If you said, "Scott will argue that superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy won't destroy society," you win a cookie.Indeed, superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy wonât destroy society, and there are no complications which ought to prevent anyone from understanding this. A bunch of white Europeans have been prancing around for decades allowing one another to sell and smoke marijuana openly, culminating in their designation as the 9th best nation in the world. Not to mention their progressive policies on psychedelic mushrooms, safe injection sites, drug sentencing, and criminal justice spending, none of which have produced outcomes resembling those we've been told to expect should we abandon our obscenely harsh approach to these matters here in the U.S. The numbers speak for themselves.If you ask a drug warrior about this, they will change the subject, but it is just a fact that you can allow adults to manufacture, distribute, and consume marijuana and everything will be fine.
Poisoning the Drug Policy Debate in 8 Simple Steps
One of the primary facts worth knowing about the modern drug war debate is that it has been contaminated for decades. Anyone endeavoring to advance this conversation must navigate a dense fog of false dichotomies, red herrings, racist demagoguery, and McCarthian fear-mongering that serves to amplify the absurd while obscuring even the most simple truths.While discussing this matter yesterday with NORML's Paul Armentano, I learned of a marvelous ancient document which sets forth in basic terms the fundamental strategies that have long been employed to destroy the drug war debate. "Themes in Chemical Prohibition" by William L. White was published in 1979 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is easily the most insightful material ever produced by that agency:THE PROHIBITIONIST THEMES A review of chemical prohibitionist literature reveals eight themes which appear to emerge from the tactics of most such movements. The tactics utilized to produce these themes are as follows: 1. The drug is associated with a hated subgroup of the society or a foreign enemy.2. The drug is identified as solely responsible for many problems in the culture, i.e., crime, violence, and insanity.3. The survival of the culture is pictured as being dependent on the prohibition of the drug.4. The concept of "controlled" usage is destroyed and replaced by a "domino theory" of chemical progression.5. The drug is associated with the corruption of young children, particularly their sexual corruption.6. Both the user and supplier of the drug are defined as fiends, always in search of new victims; usage of the drug is considered "contagious."7. Policy options are presented as total prohibition or total access.8. Anyone questioning any of the above assumptions is bitterly attacked and characterized as part of the problem that needs to be eliminated.After almost 30 years, this remains a complete inventory of the instruments one can expect to find in any prohibitionist's tool belt. It reads like the Bill of Rights of drug prohibitionist rhetoric, a universal guide that could well be found folded up within the coat pockets of drug war generals from Washington, D.C. to Vienna. Only through strict adherence to these principles is it possible to effectively defend a drug war that destroys all which it claims to defend. Only under these rules could the continuation of costly and catastrophic public policies be considered politically viable, while even partial reforms bear a burden of presumed political suicide. Only in this climate of perpetual hysteria can our leaders be intimidated and stripped of their will to lead, forced instead by perceived orthodoxy to reluctantly, yet willfully, march us further into the drug war abyss.This post isn't about how to end the drug war. I donât quite claim to know that, although I've got a few ideas. Rather, this is an introduction, for anyone who may need it, to the rules of mainstream drug policy debate. We must know each of these rules by heart, because it is our duty to break them at any and every opportunity.
1/3 of People Admitted to Marijuana Treatment Hadn't Been Smoking Marijuana!
Advocates for harsh marijuana laws can be counted on to infuse their rhetoric with incessant declarations that marijuana is highly addictive. Rarely, if ever, could one expose oneself to such discussion without being told something like this:Decriminalizing marijuana â the drug which sends the most of America's youth into substance abuse treatment and recovery â is a dangerous first step towards complete drug legalization. In fact, marijuana sends the highest percentage of New Hampshire residents into drug treatment than any other illicit drug.â¦I strongly urge responsible leaders in New Hampshire to stop any effort to decriminalize or legalize the highly addictive drug marijuana."These words belong to the Deputy Drug Czar and they are less than a week old, thus they represent what his office currently believes to be the strongest and most important argument for marijuana prohibition: that the drug is highly addictive.As Paul Armentano at NORML points out, however, the government's own data on marijuana dependency shows that a plurality of people entering treatment for marijuana hadn't smoked it in a month or more. Isn't that just amazing? I mean, wow. 36% of people entering treatment for pot addiction had already kicked the habit on their own. Highly-addictive my ash.But how could this be? The answer can be found on this page, which shows that 58% of people entering marijuana treatment were referred by the criminal justice system. They didn't ask for help, rather they were found in possession of marijuana, which led a judge to issue a diagnosis of "marijuana addiction" and order them to get help for that.When more than half the sample consists of people who were forced into treatment, it should come as no surprise that so many of them haven't actually been smoking marijuana. Some may never have been marijuana users to begin with and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. More commonly, I suspect, a large number of marijuana arrestees simply quit after getting busted, either voluntarily or because their lawyers recommended it, pretrial drug screenings, etc. Since marijuana isn't actually very addictive to begin with, this is easy to do.And yet we continue to waste limited government resources investigating, arresting, adjudicating, and treating these people for an addiction they never actually had. In sum, the Drug Czar's best evidence of marijuana addiction comes from the fact that the government categorizes people as marijuana addicts if they're found sitting near a bag of marijuana. The instant we stop calculating it that way, the evidence ceases to exist and the drug warriors' favorite and best argument against marijuana reform is, wellâ¦cashed.
A False and Embarrassing Press Release from the Deputy Drug Czar
For your amusement, I've posted the full text of a press release the Drug Czar's office sent out last week in opposition to a marijuana decriminalization bill in New Hampshire. I disagree with it, of course, but that is not why I've posted it. I share this because it is so filled with factual and grammatical errors that I'm told NH legislators have been forwarding it around and laughing at it. (sorry, no link) Press ReleaseWednesday, March 19, 2008STATEMENT FROM DEPUTY "DRUG CZAR" SCOTT M. BURNS ON MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION EFFORTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE(Washington, D.C.) â Today, Scott M. Burns, Deputy Director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), made the following statement regarding marijuana decriminalization legislation, which is currently being debated in New Hampshire."Decriminalizing the illegal and highly addictive drug â marijuana â sends the wrong message to New Hampshire's youth, students, parents, public health officials, and the law-enforcement community."The supporters of decriminalizing marijuana are fooling themselves if they believe the manufacturing, possession, and/or distribution of 1.25 ounces or â over 90 marijuana joints â is good public policy."Decriminalizing marijuana â the drug which sends the most of America's youth into substance abuse treatment and recovery â is a dangerous first step towards complete drug legalization. In fact, marijuana sends the highest percentage of New Hampshire residents into drug treatment than any other illicit drug."The last thing New Hampshire need is more drugs, drug users, and drug dealers on their streets and communities â further straining limited law enforcement manpower and resources.I strongly urge responsible leaders in New Hampshire to stop any effort to decriminalize or legalize the highly addictive drug marijuana."To learn more about the dangers of marijuana use, please visit:http://www.ondcp.gov/drugfact/marijuana Not a word of this is true, of course, but the highlight is the 3rd paragraph in which Burns reveals utter confusion about what the bill even says. The proposed law decriminalizes possession of up to 0.25 ounces of marijuana. It does not decriminalize up to 1.25 ounces and it applies only to possession, not manufacture or sales. Burns is either lying, or he is just dramatically and embarrassingly wrong. Furthermore, 1.25 ounces isn't 90 joints anyway. An average joint is a gram, so 1.25 ounces is 35 joints, give or take. Since the bill in question decriminalizes only 0.25 ounces, however, we're really talking about just 7 joints. Nothing could be more typical of our friends at the Drug Czar's office than to claim that 7 joints = 90 joints. Finally, we learn that marijuana must remain illegal because so many people in New Hampshire are in treatment for it. This isn't a lie necessarily, but it is pretty funny. How many of those people were forced into treatment following a marijuana arrest that wouldnât have happened under the proposed law? We are arresting people for marijuana, forcing them into treatment, then citing those stats as evidence that marijuana is addictive and that we should be allowed to arrest people for having it. That is how stupid the modern marijuana debate has become. Fact and fiction aside, the whole thing is just ugly to read. Its grammar and sentence structure are reminiscent of the incoherent anti-drug rants one might find on this blog after a big link draws hostile attention. Could they be written by the same person? "In fact, marijuana sends the highest percentage of New Hampshire residents into drug treatment than any other illicit drug.""The last thing New Hampshire need is more drugs, drug users, and drug dealers on their streets and communities â further straining limited law enforcement manpower and resources." It's usually best not to get too caught up in correcting the grammar of one's opposition, and in most cases I'd consider that an indulgent and childish distraction from the real matters at hand. In this case, though, I think the high-schoolish tone in which the Deputy Drug Czar addresses politicians and the press is just lazy and disrespectful. Factual errors and bad writing are ubiquitous in any political debate, but when it arrives on White House letterhead, questions about basic competence merge with the broader ideological conflict.
New England Pushes for Marijuana Decrim.
Over the recent months I have had the pleasure of observing the work that folks have been doing in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in regards to Marijuana Decriminalization. New Hampshire's HB 1623 that would decriminalize marijuana up to a quarter of an ounce was not "Supposed" to pass the house. Thankfully the legislators of the Granite State where professing dismay to the idea of students losing their financial aid for mistake.
Simple Farmers Bearing Brunt of Afghan Drug War
EDITOR'S NOTE: Kalif Mathieu is an intern at StoptheDrugWar.org. His bio is in our "staff" section at http://stopthedrugwar.org/about/staff It was reported by the Associated Press on March 24 that 100 Afghan drug police were killed in the line of duty in 2007. One hundred deaths, not even counting civilians, simply to claim 13 provinces out of the country's 34 as poppy-free, seems like a brutal waste. And the war isn't truly even being fought against drugs, or even against a logical enemy of the state like the Taliban. This war is being fought against simple farmers, mostly in the remote and unruly provinces that don't have strong state presence. Farmers are thereby forced to pay taxes totaling in the tens of millions to non-governmental entities like the Taliban, essentially for "safe passage" in these lawless areas. This cost makes it a necessity, not merely an option, to secure the profits of growing opium. According to the World Bank: "[T]he cultivation of opium poppy started in the late 1970s -- with gross income per hectare yields 12 to 30 times higher than the country's staple, wheat." Given those numbers, it's easy to see why farmers living on the edge in a lawless province paying taxes to people like the Taliban would use opium growing to give themselves a little breathing room. It isn't that these farmers ideologically support opium or heroin use, or support the Taliban, quite the contrary. From the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's John Dixon of the Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Service in 2004: "Opium is not a crop of choice for most Afghan farmers. There are just no attractive alternatives at present that can give them a return anywhere near the return opium gives." So why is it that the focus of all of this on eliminating the growth of poppies instead of increasing central government jurisdiction, thereby increasing general security? Even after clearing these 13 provinces of opium, farmers have started planting marijuana instead, according to the AP, and so the struggle continues. Stop wasting time and money and lives burning fields of cropland and start working on protecting these farmers from Taliban extortion! This would seem a much more positive plan of action than destroying their livelihoods and committing them to poverty. The process would also reduce Taliban funding since they would have fewer and fewer farmers to exploit. That may sound optimistic, but at least aiming for the goal of security is a little more helpful to the people and realistic to work toward than trying to eliminate the drug trade in a place like Afghanistan. The government of Afghanistan doesn't even agree 100% with the United State's approach to the situation: in late 2007 the US was pushing to spray opium fields with pesticides from the air, but the Afghanis wouldn't allow it.
Taking it to Court (Again) - Request for Review/Revisement of Motion
I'm doing OK pro per. So far I've filed a motion do dismiss (demurrer) and was rewarded with a reply from the prosecution stating that the Necessary and Proper clause supersedes the 5th amendment.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA - - NOT A DRUG!!! STOP THE PERSECUTION!!!
Texas and other "no-tolerance" states are taking advantage of people with medical problems who, for whatever reason, do NOT believe in taking man made medication, cannot take man made medication, etc. This problem goes further than this one case. But we feel that if we can make a point with this petition, maybe we can make a difference for really good people out there, that are persecuted because of a difference of opinion.