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Looking at Louisiana's Heroin Lifers
During the research I did for Friday's feature article on the prisoners doing "Katrina time", two of the of the people I talked to implored to look into the plight of another set of victims of the Louisiana criminal justice system: the "heroin lifers."
An Utter Fantasy
I wrote this for the foks in my church, about what it could be like if our religion was permitted to evangelize like other religions through the RFRA. I thought you might like it too. Our church has a web site: http://zzco.org
Introducing Myself
My name is Pamela Watson. I am an Australian anthropologist and pharmacist. I am interested in drugs through time and space, not just specific contemporary issues. Some of my publications include:
Trackback?
I tried this both ways. I put in the URL of my blog entry where I did the textual critique of the article sent by Dana, and I tracked back from a new post at my blog to the entry I just posted here.
Schizophrenia and Cannabis
I got an email from Dana Beal recently that asked us to review an article published in the UK Guardian/Observer that stated that scientists had 'proved' that pot causes schizophrenia. I did a textual critique of the article, which is available at my personal blog. If you are on the WMM list, I hope you will see it in your next email update. http://writch.com/blog/?postid=151 But that isn't the point of this post. The point is that there is another undercurrent in the big question of the cause of schizophrenia which appears to be a valid approach.
The Potradictions of Life in Amsterdam...
The Potradictions of Life in Amsterdam Not many people realize that marijuana was never legalized in Holland, it is just permitted, and even then only in certain places... Here I am in lovely Vondel Park in Amsterdam. Its a sun-shiny, blue sky day. I get nervous around a lot of people sometimes. There are a lot of people here today.
Baking and Entering
Delightfully smug sex columnist Dan Savage got stoned and walked into Seattleâs City Hall with a fake gun and bag full of pot cookies. For all the right reasons. It all started when Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels proposed a wildly impractical ordinance which would hold nightclub owners responsible for any drug possession on their premises:
Jacob Sullum on the Hurwitz Case
Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine has opined once again on the Hurwitz pain case in The Accidental Drug Trafficker: A repudiation of prosecutions that treat doctorsâ errors in judgment as felonies. If you haven't already, check out our news feature on this story .
Dammit Bobby, You're a Prosecutor Not a Scientist!
For a quick laugh check out âReport Shows Marijuana Users Growing Olderâ from the Salem News in Ohio. (Update:Â now removed, hopefully for the reasons listed below. Full article appears in the comments section of this post).
In Brazil.
Here I am. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We need to change our drug forbition law. Too. That DRY LAW produces violence and deaths. If you come to Rio de Janeiro, call me: Phone : 55-21-9255-3145
Hello Everyone!
First time at this. I hope I did it all right. Glad to see the Drug Reform movement getting empowered and organized. I will be checking this site regularly. I am an HIV Positive man in Oregon who is registered with the state for Medical use. With minimal state "coverage" I feel blessed to be able to have what I need to help me have a quality of life that has allowed me to be relatively healthy for almost 18 years!! If we continue organizing and educating people, I am confident we will prevail in ending prohibition of all kinds.
Doing "Katrina Time"
It has been a scandal festering for a year now. Thousands of people being held in the Orleans Parish Prison and other facilities when Hurricana Katrina hit a year ago today are still behind bars. They have never seen a judge or had a hearing. They just sit. While the rest of the local criminal justice apparatus is up and running, the courts remain a mess and most of the public defenders are gone.
From Colombia
Dear sirs I am so pleased to see that somebody is doing a proper figth against drug traffic. Please write it in spanish to improve our participation in Latin America I am sure many people will join you.
Nice work DRCNet
I like the new site. Keep up the great work. I am going to make StoptheDrugWar.org my first stop when I log on each day. Best, Clyde
Gilberto Gil is Still Making Beautiful Music -- This Time About Drug Legalization
Music lovers have long appreciated Brazilian composer and musician Gilberto Gil's enormous talent and his contributions to bossa nova, tropicalismo, and other uniquely Brazilian music forms. Of course, Gil was never just a musician; he and Caetano Veloso, another giant of Brazilian music, were imprisoned by the military dictatorship in 1969 for "anti-government activities," and the pair went to exile in London and the US after they were released.
My mind is made up
When I first became aware of the drug war, I was a spirited anti-racism activist living in the Deep South. I chiefly saw drug prohibition as a war against people of color and wanted the crusade to end. I didn't yet know about the suffering of debilitated cannabis users, the widespread and avoidable risks to public health caused by abstinence-only policies, and the fierce linkage between the artificially inflated street prices of illegals and the subsequent emergence of crack and meth as a means to cut corners and cost. There was a time when I simply hoped that, in the spirit of bi-partisan unity and brotherly love, lawmakers would rewrite the prohibition rulebook in order to make the war "more equal."
A failed Drug War
Addiction is a medical condition best treated by doctors; not the police or criminal justice system⦠109th U.S. Congress Office of National Drug Control Policy Does anybody in this country have any common sense when it comes to this issue? These are not Rambling Rantings of Rhetoric but an essay on the Reality of Regulation for Revenue; just as The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, as well as Australia and Canada are now realizing and recognizing the full ramifications of the failure of prohibition.
Terrorism<war on drugs>
The U.S. Army Manual defines "terrorism" as "The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature." By its own definition, therefore, the U.S.