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Drug Scare: Kids in Florida are Getting High by Sniffing Feces
You can urine test them. You can take away their financial aid for college. But you can't stop the kids from getting high. Some people will try anything, and I don't think arresting them is going to help:Information BulletinNew Drug â JENKEMOn 09/19/07 Cpl. Disarro received and email from a concerned parent regarding a new drug called âJenkemâ. The parent advised their child learned about this drug through various conversations with several students at Palmetto Ridge High. Jenkem originated in Africa and other third world countries by fermenting raw sewage to create a gas which is inhaled to achieve a high. Jenkem is now a popular drug in American Schools. Jenkem is a homemade substance which consists of fecal matter and urine. The fecal matter and urine are placed in a bottle or jar and covered most commonly with a balloon. The container is then placed in a sunny area for several hours or days until fermented. The contents of the container will separate and release a gas, which is captured in the balloon. Inhaling the gas is said to have a euphoric high similar to ingesting cocaine but with strong hallucinations of times past. [Snopes] This doesn't sound like a good idea. But what shall we do about it? You can't pop people for poop possession, or piss-test people for piss sniffing. Should we launch a massive public education campaign warning kids that fermenting their excrement and breathing in the resulting fumes will get them wasted? That could backfire.So I don't know what the solution is. For starters, we should wait to see if this is a real problem or just another hysterical response to a couple gross, though isolated, incidents. If there really is a rising trend of Florida youths sniffing fermented feces, maybe it's just an overreaction to the Miami DEA Chief's recent claim that marijuana will kill you.
Arresting Marijuana Users Sends the Wrong Message to Children
Has anyone ever told you that we must never change our marijuana policy because doing so would send the wrong message to children? I'll bet they have, because this particular argument is as ubiquitous as it is absurd. Just listen to John Edwards at Sunday night's Democratic Presidential Debate explaining why he opposes marijuana decriminalization:Because I think it sends the wrong signal to young people. And I think the president of the United States has a responsibility to ensure that we're sending the right signals to young people. [MSNBC]That is all he said. It is apparently the totality of his position; the most important and compelling argument he can put forth to explain why it is necessary to arrest nearly a million people each year for having marijuana. Are you listening children of America? It is essential that you refrain from using marijuana, because if you do, the government will arrest you and give you a criminal record that will haunt you for the rest of your life. That is why you shouldn't use marijuana.Threatening to arrest and criminalize our children is, rather obviously, the stupidest solution to youth drug abuse ever conceived. It completely contradicts the message that we want them to be healthy and successful in life. The penalties for marijuana (criminal record, loss of college aid, loss of drivers license, loss of public housing, jail time, etc.) are all designed to reduce a person's potential. The contradiction between saying we'll help people with drug problems, only to then injure them with harsh laws, confuses even me. If the whole point is to send a message, then I suppose it matters little whether the punishment fits the crime. Are proponents of the "message to children" model for marijuana policy admitting that we can destroy adult users in order to coerce compliance from children? If so, how badly shall we injure the adult users that we catch?In the end, it all comes down to the question of what the appropriate punishment for marijuana really is. If we are truly comfortable with our marijuana laws, we should have no problem discussing them as part of a comprehensive drug education program for young people. But I have a feeling that if teachers were required to warn high school students about the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty, that law would cease to exist in the very near future.
Drew Carey Cares About Medical Marijuana
You might remember Drew Carey from his hit sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Now he's hosting reason.tv, which has a great new episode about medical marijuana:This program totally confirms my pre-existing belief that we must defend patient access to medical marijuana, and that the spineless bureaucrats who want to take it from them should be tossed into the Potomac.Interestingly, the DEA refused to be interviewed by Drew Carey for the episode. If they are tired of discussing this issue, perhaps they should stop raiding dispensaries and terrorizing patients and caregivers.
Cowards: Democratic Front-Runners Reject Marijuana Law Reform
Critics of marijuana policy reform are fond of dismissing the idea as a liberal fantasy. Unfortunately, last night's Democratic Presidential Debate revealed that the party's so-called leaders would still rather play politics than stand up for the 800,000+ Americans that are needlessly arrested each year for the world's pettiest crime:Tim Russert: Senator Dodd, you went on the Bill Maher show last month and said that you were for decriminalizing marijuana. Is there anyone here who disagrees with Senator Dodd in decriminalizing marijuana? [MSNBC]Clinton, Obama, Richardson, Biden, and Edwards all raised their hands. Only Dennis Kucinich stood with Senator Dodd on this important question. John Edwards was quick on the draw, pulling out the oldest pro-drug war line in the book:Russert: Senator Edwards, why?Edwards: Because I think it sends the wrong signal to young people. And I think the president of the United States has a responsibility to ensure that we're sending the right signals to young people.Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to the brain-dead world of mainstream drug war politics. It is a peculiar place where we ruin real lives in order to send fake messages. It is a vacant echo chamber in which those speaking the truth are singled out for ridicule, attention seekers spew tiresome incoherencies, and the rest cower embarrassed behind their podiums praying never again to be asked such a horrible thing.Shameful and cowardly as their responses may be, the democratic front-runners were clearly sidelined by Russert's cheap hackery. Drug policy is so much more than a yes or no question, and this drive-by shooting approach to the marijuana debate trivializes the issue and obscures any diversity of opinion. I am saddened, but not at all surprised, that this question provoked this response when asked this way.If we've learned anything from the brutal war that's been waged in our names for far too long, it is that many of our leaders would sooner allow it to continue for decades than speak one word of the truth that stands naked before us all. With that in mind, I'm asking all of you to do something. Find out when the candidates are speaking in your area and attend the events. Bring friends. Bring a video camera. Dress well and arrive early. Sit where you can be seen and raise your hand high just a moment before they open the floor to questions. Ask whatever you like. Maybe something like this:Senator/Governor/Congressman _______,Over 800,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana this year. Some went to jail. Others lost their jobs, lost custody of their children, lost their driver's licenses, lost public housing, lost financial aid for college, the list goes on. Many people think these punishments are more damaging than the drug itself.What do you think the punishment should be for someone who uses marijuana?It is one thing to say you don't support marijuana decrim. It is quite another to describe how specifically you would go about destroying the lives of the millions of Americans who enjoy marijuana. Let's find out where they really stand on this issue.
Bill O'Reilly Doesn't Want You to Get High
Our friends at reason have a new video site that we're told will be featuring lots of drug policy content in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, they're featuring this classic duel between Bill O'Reilly and Saying Yes author Jacob Sullum:Predictably, O'Reilly shouts at him and even calls him a "pinhead," but Sullum holds his own. What fun.It is just unbelievable that we must even debate the concept that drugs can often be helpful and good. Of course they can. Only an idiot would suggest otherwise and, obviously, Bill O'Reilly is exactly that type of idiot.
What Motivates the Leaders of the Drug War?
Following this week's departure of DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, Pete Guither explores the motivations of the shot-callers in America's brutal war on drugs. Are they serious? Cynical? Smart? Stupid? Insane? Who would want to put their name on something so grotesque, only to walk about each day insisting that it is gorgeous? Years ago, I interned for Eric Sterling at CJPF and asked him what motivates the proud champions of this great disaster. Eric used to write federal drug laws, and while he did so as an observer rather than a drug warrior, he's been closer to the belly of the beast than most. I don't remember everything he said, but the point that stuck with me was that, as a nation, we've invested so much in the name of destroying drugs. To wake up and acknowledge this colossal error is to trivialize the incalculable sacrifices we've already made. For all the lies told and lives lost, those responsible have a powerful incentive to maintain that victory awaits atop the hill. This is necessary so they may sleep at night, and also to placate the many Americans who still willfully sacrifice their tax dollars to the war and their neighbors to the gulag.The actual depth of their convictions notwithstanding, the mighty drug war architects surely feel the pressure of widespread and growing intellectual skepticism that now surrounds them at every turn. For this reason, one can never overstate the extent to which prohibitionist political posturing is now shaped literally by a desire to refute and antagonize their opposition. The more outrageous their positions become, the more evident this is. That is why, when discussing simple commonsense issues like medical marijuana and hemp, the drug warriors are quick to dismiss their critics as instruments and/or representatives of the "pro-drug lobby." They are driven, at least in part, by pure animosity towards us; a deep-seated compulsion to reject our philosophy. They believe that associating an idea to our movement is inherently derogatory to that idea, thus they brand as "pro-drug" anyone who opposes them, despite the failure of that label to even vaguely describe our agenda. It is enough to make one wonder what sorts of bizarre things they could be cajoled into saying simply by proposing the opposite.As Pete stresses, we cannot claim to know what goes on between the ears of the bold and brave bureaucrats that give drug war orders from behind their desks in D.C. We can only guess what they are thinking. But the consequences of the choices they make are very real and very hideous to behold.
Round Pegs In Round Holes
Suppose you have a machine that depends for its proper operation on wooden pegs in wooden holes. Say that it has been traditional, if wooden pegs were not available, that brass pegs were an accepted substitute. Now suppose the government outlawed the use of brass pegs and decreed that if you didn't have wooden pegs only gold pegs were acceptable. Would that be right?
Blogging is More Addictive Than Marijuana
A commenter on my last post has conducted some amateur research and has troubling news for us about marijuana addiction:Dude, something is wrong with you. You say that is isn't addictive, but it is. I know someone who smoked. They couldn't do their school work, they didn't care about anything and all they wanted to do is smoke. At fist it was a couple times a week, then 6 months later it was 3 times a day. If that isn't addictive then i would like to know what is.Well, I'll tell you: blogging.When I first started blogging and reading blogs, it was just a casual thing. Maybe I'd read DrugWarRant or The Agitator during lunch. I'd do a 4th Amendment post from time to time on the Flex Your Rights blog. The next thing I knew, I was posting every night. I helped launch The Speakeasy and became its editor, just so I could blog more. I was scanning 6-10 other blogs a day for ideas. My craving for new material was so insatiable I set up Google News alerts to get the jump on the latest drug war atrocities and blog them. Then came the traffic. It began with a trickle, but as more readers started to arrive, I was overcome with a voracious compulsion to spread my infectious bloglust to the masses. Now it takes a massive Digg hit to get me off.I could go on like this, but anyone who doesn't yet get my point probably never will. I am so very tired of hearing that marijuana must be addictive because some people really like it. The only difference between marijuana use and scores of other activities is that the government will mess up your life for doing it and then claim they were helping you avoid having your life messed up. And as for the blogging, I can quit anytime I want. I just choose to continue.
This Man Receives 300 Marijuana Joints a Month From the Federal Government
Everyone knows the U.S. government hates medical marijuana. Still, most people understand that, illegal or not, marijuana is a very beneficial treatment for patients with certain conditions. But few people are aware that the federal government actually supplies marijuana to a small group of patients, while still claiming that it isn't medicine. These patients receive 300 joints every 25 days and cannot be arrested for possession anywhere in the country. This video from last week's NORML Conference features Irv Rosenfeld explaining why the government grows marijuana for him:Needless to say, words can scarcely describe the hypocrisy of growing marijuana for a select few, while arresting patients and caregivers for the same behavior. I've explained previously how the government knows perfectly well that marijuana is medicine, but if there's one single argument that illustrates this fact, it is that the government actually grows and distributes medical marijuana. And while we're on this topic, it might interest some folks to know that the government's marijuana is terribly bad. Contrary to the popular urban myth, government pot has very low potency and it's full of seeds and stems. So don't be jealous of Irv Rosenfeld. He may receive huge amounts of free government-grown marijuana that he can smoke wherever he wants. But he also has painful bone tumors, and his free weed sucks.
Drug Czar Opposes Effort to Reduce Drug Overdoses
The Office of National Drug Control Policy hates harm reduction. It's strange because they're supposed to be helping people with drug problems and yet all they ever do is defend the government's authority to punish and injure these very people. Not only that, but they actually go out of their way to oppose programs that prioritize saving lives over making drug arrests.Predictably, therefore, ONDCP was quick to attack an effort to reduce drug overdoses in San Francisco by opening a safe injection site. As usual, their arguments aren't even related to the topic at hand:Proposed "Safe-Injection" Site in San Francisco Ignores Proven Solutions to Treating Drug AddictsDrug treatment works. How do we know? Today, there are millions of millions of Americans successfully recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. These courageous Americans are living proof that effective drug treatment can save lives and reduce our national drug problem.That's why it's so troubling to see thisâ¦It shouldn't even be necessary to point out that the effectiveness of drug treatment has nothing to do with safe injection. The idea here is to keep at-risk users alive long enough to get them into treatment. These programs create a vital point of contact for connecting users to medical professionals and treatment options. ONDCP's childish protestations simply overflow with unintended irony:Indeed, no one proposes aiding and sustaining an alcoholic by providing a supervised site for alcohol use.Um, what? These supervised sites are called "bars," and no one ever gets alcohol poisoning at them. Alcohol poisoning is the hallmark of unsupervised parties where inexperienced underage drinkers consume surreptitiously. The circumstances under which drugs â be they alcohol or heroin â are consumed has everything to do with the relative safety of the user. What a simple concept that is.But, as is often the case in the debate with ONDCP, the question is not what they understand, but rather what they really care about. To the Drug Czar, harm reduction is an "approach that accepts defeat." ONDCP only cares about reducing drug use. If drugs are used, then they feel "defeated," regardless of whether lives are saved. For everyone else, "defeat" isn't defined solely by the frequency with which hits of dope are jacked into the veins of some bright-eyed youngster. Defeat is when that person's life is turned upside down, when they get sick, when they share a needle, when their lifeless body is found crumpled and cold on a park bench.Preventing these things is the goal of the harm reduction community. It is an achievable goal, and those who stand in the way become apologists for disease, decay, and death.
Jerry Brown: Look at what you said, and what you have done
Jerry Brown once said in a radio show: http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/97-04%20APR/jbdrugwar.html The war on drugs is really no war at all-it's a business! It's a practice of the government, of the institutions that have grown up around it. I'm talking about the hardware-the helicopters, the weapons, the radar, the surveillance...
DEA Director Resigns, Says She Had an Awesome Time
DEA Administrator Karen Tandy announced her resignation today, marking her 4-year tenure with another trademark Tandyism:"It just doesn't get any better than this," Tandy said in a statement about her time at DEA. [Washington Post]Well, at least somebody had a good time. Now Tandy is moving into the telecom industry:Tandy told employees she was leaving to take a job as a senior vice president of Motorola, DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said. Motorola is a leading sponsor of a DEA traveling museum exhibit about global drug trafficking and terrorismâ¦Did you guys hear that? Motorola is a major private funder of insidious drug war propaganda and decorates its highest offices with exhausted anti-drug soldiers. Let's all make a mental note of how socially conscious this company is.In the meantime, I would encourage the Bush administration to takes its sweet time finding exactly the right replacement for her. Formerly a DOJ prosecutor, Tandy rose to fame by successfully taking down menace-to-society Tommy Chong for selling water bongs. She was appointed to DEA's top office forthwith.In light of the Bush administration's already notorious difficulties filling the vacant directorships of various federal agencies, let me offer a couple possible replacements:Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan is a hardcore drug war legal genius who fought for 5 years to get Ed Rosenthal a one-day sentence for supplying marijuana to sick people. Bevan is so aggressive that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had to throw out some charges and accuse him of malicious prosecution.Better yet, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty prosecuted the totally-innocent pain management doctor William Hurwitz and was subsequently forced to resign in the U.S. Attorney firings scandal. If you need the law mutilated for political ends, this guy is a total pro. Ultimately, finding qualified applicants to head the DEA shouldn't be too hard considering how famously delightful it is to work there.
DEA Chief Resigns After Years Of Failure- Start the Motorola Boycott
Fellow Texas Tech alum Karen Tandy has resigned from the DEA after 4 years of complete and utter failure. She will join Motorola as their public policy vice president. Amazing coincidence!Motorola is also the chief sponsor of the DEA museum. I will never buy another Motorola product.
Vancouver Province newspaper posts editorial asking for ;"locking up chronic drug offenders and forcing them into treatment or indefinite jail time.
An editorial writer in Vancouvers second most read newspaper wrote suggesting that chronic drug offenders steal something like,750,000 dollars daily.They must have big shopping carts.The writer goes o
New Study: Marijuana Might Cure Brain Tumors
One of the great ironies in the debate over marijuana's medical applications is that the drug may prove to be vastly more useful than many marijuana activists even realize. As the U.S. government continues to block medical marijuana research, scientists around the world are discovering new and exciting possibilities:Investigators at Bar-Ilan University in Israel report that the administration of THC significantly affects the viability of GBM cells. Glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of glioma (brain cancer), strikes some 7,000 Americans annually, and generally results in death within one to two years following diagnosis."THC [is] an essential mediator of cannabinoid antitumoral action," investigators concluded. [NORML]Or, in layman's terms, THC might stop tumors from killing people. Isn't that great? Now all we have to do is legalize it so people can cure their brains without fear of being raided by the DEA.As evidence of marijuana's potential value in treating various cancers continues to grow, it becomes increasingly vital that we silence marijuana opponents who seek to prevent such discoveries from being made. The more helpful the drug turns out to be, the more deadly and foolish becomes the conspiracy to destroy its reputation and punish its users.Is it really so difficult to conceive of the possibility that this plant, like so many others, exists for a good reason?
Someone Tell the Drug Czar That Hemp Isn't a Drug
The brave drug warriors at ONDCP need so much help. They are just as confused as can be about so many things, but they wear industrial strength earplugs and never go on the internet except to periodically blog about how confused they are. It would be funny if they weren't destroying America.So anyone who still thinks these people are serious should visit the Drug Czar's blog right away and read his recent post, "Terminated! Gov. Schwarzenegger Vetoes Pro-Drug Hemp Bill." It is downright delusional; a perfect encapsulation of the thinly-veiled psychosis that festers beneath the skin of the powerful Drug War Experts in Washington D.C.While drug legalization groups extol hemp as some kind of miracle-plant, many Americans arenât getting the full story. Industrial hemp and marijuana are not just "related" â they come from the same cannabis sativa plant.The real agenda of hemp enthusiasts is to legalize smoked marijuana and it is no coincidence that legalizing hemp would complicate efforts to curb the production and use of smoked marijuana by young people.Now, I could explain that hemp actually is a useful plant. I could propose that a hemp bill can't be "pro-drug" because hemp isn't a drug. I could point out that the farmers who want to grow it don't care about marijuana legalization. I could argue that Americans already know it's a type of marijuana. And I could even prove that you can't grow commercial marijuana anywhere near it due to cross-pollination.But that would be pointless, because the Drug Czar doesn't care about these things. All he cares about is that marijuana legalization advocates sometimes participate in criticizing U.S. hemp policy, and if those people want hemp, he will burn to the ground every damned stalk until they pry the flamethrower from his shriveled dead hands.In fact, as a marijuana legalization advocate, I should maybe shut up about this, lest I fuel the Drug Czar's deranged fantasy that people who want to make pants and granola bars are actually part of a diabolical conspiracy to turn California into the world's biggest rehab clinic.
A LITTLE MUSIC, MAESTRO!
YOU Nâ ME Fill the kidsâ heads full of factoids Fill the kidsâ heads full of pills Keep âem moving, keep âem busy Never give âem time to breathe Teach obedience from the get-go Wonder why they go insane
THE NOOSE TIGHTENS
If one example epitomizes creeping fascism in America, it is the recent Florida incident in which John Kerry did nothing while police tasered and arrested a student who asked him a rambling question about why Kerry had not contested the 2004 election and why nobody had moved to impeach Bush. Did Kafka write the script for this? Andrew Meyer had a non-soundbite question. He was trying to lay out enough background so that his question made sense, and had in fact gotten to his point, when University of Florida police moved in, manhandled him to the back of the room, put him on the floor and tasered him, while Kerry droned on, making jokes about the incident( âIâm afraid heâs not able to come up here and swear me in as President.â) and everybody in the room just sat and watched. Later, Kerry claimed he was not aware that Meyer was being tasered. Hey, the guy was screaming âDonât taser me!â I guess this kind of answered his question about why Kerry didnât contest the election. All thatâs necessary for evil to triumph, they say, is for good people to do nothing.
Two Tiered Medicine
I discuss the two tiered medical system we have in the USA. The well off get Drs. Prescriptions. The poor go to jail. Class War and Treatment vs Recreation
Digg and Reddit Users Want to Legalize Marijuana
The rise of news aggregator websites like Digg and Reddit has become a surprisingly helpful asset to online activism for drug policy reform. These sites allow participants to submit links with their own description, at which point other users vote to determine which stories make it to the coveted main page. Digg, for example, directs so much traffic from its front page that users have coined the term "digg effect" to describe the inevitable server crash that occurs when Digg links a site with insufficient bandwidth.StoptheDrugWar.org first experienced "the digg effect" in August with the "Marijuana Dealers Offer Schwarzenegger One Billion Dollars" story. Once linked at Digg, the blog post and accompanying press release generated over 100,000 hits, crashing our server repeatedly for over 12 straight hours. It was a bittersweet triumph since few visitors were actually able to view the content due to website malfunctions (and we couldn't receive donations!). Nonetheless, the message about marijuana policy reform was clearly resonating with a massive new audience.Between Digg and Reddit, we've now had several stories take off, pulling in unusually high traffic and pushing the drug policy debate beyond the self-selected audience of seasoned reform activists. The rising tide has lifted other boats as well, generating massive attention to Pete Guither's "Why is Marijuana Illegal?" and SSDP's "End the Drug War Draft!" Just last week, a front page Digg hit left Mitt Romney's presidential campaign reeling when video of his rude treatment of a medical marijuana patient went viral.Perhaps it's not so surprising that the new era of user-generated content and internet video would favor ideas that have for too long been relegated to the fringe by the mainstream press. We're witnessing the burial of the antiquated notion that only anti-drug scare stories will sell, and it's long overdue to say the least. The stigma of the "legalization" label, along with the brute force of the law itself, has silenced so many would-be drug war critics, yet the anonymous and democratized realm of online political debate now rages without regard to the philosophical prejudices of the past.Of course, winning the vote in an artificial internet democracy isn't going to end the war on drugs. But it certainly proves the demand for balance in the drug war debate. As the mainstream media continues to struggle with even the most basic realities about drugs and the terrible war on their users, the truth has to find a home somewhere. Update: To my great surprise, this post has made it to the front page of Digg. Imagine that. You can vote for it here. What fun.Update II: There's 300+ comments on this post over at Digg. I haven't finished reading them, but here's my favorite so far:Look, from someone who has never smoked anything in their life, I'm fine with legalization, but please don't act like assholes with it like everyone in my damn school does. All they do is brag about it, and its funny because I tell my friends I'd do it if it was legal and they say they would stop doing it if it was. The "stoner" stereotype is a complete product of the drug's illegality, it's true. If we're sick of rebellious potheads, let us take the wind out of their sails by changing the one law they have the nerve to break, thereby turning them into law-abiding dorks.