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Cheech and Chong vs. Bill O'Reilly: Worst Interview Ever
Boy, O'Reilly really knows how to suck the humor out of a room:Watch the latest business video at FOXBusiness.comThis should never have been allowed to take place. Bill O'Reilly shouldn't be allowed anywhere these guys, or anyone else who's ever been remotely funny at any point in modern history. And if anyone can think of a legal way to make O'Reilly stop saying things like this, please share:O'REILLY: We found out that in San Francisco, which leads the league in marijuana clinics, medical marijuana clinics, a lot of hard-core drug addicts go in there, buy the pot and sell it to kids so they can buy their heroin and meth and everything else.CHONG: Sell it to kids?O'REILLY: Yes.CHONG: Where did you get that information?O'REILLY: We got it from our undercover people.Yeah, right. This is one of those social problems that you'll only hear about on the O'Reilly Factor because it only exists in the twisted mind of Bill O'Reilly.
Drug Czar's Website Still Wrong About AMA's Medical Marijuana Stance
Unfortunately, the DEA isnât the only drug war apparatus that's dragging its heels when it comes to acknowledging the American Medical Association's new position on medical marijuana. The drug czar's website still offers a document entitled "What Every American Should Know About Medical Marijuana," (PDF) which includes this passage:Major public health organizations do not support smoking marijuana as medicine. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology all oppose the smoked form of marijuana as medicine...So, if the drug czar thinks "every American should know" about AMA's position on medical marijuana, will he now inform Americans that the position has changed? Somehow I doubt it, but at the very least, this now-false claim that AMA opposes medical marijuana should be removed immediately.Let me be clear about this too, because I donât want anyone thinking this is just some smug campaign to rub AMA's new position in the face of drug warriors all over the web. This document, "What Every American Should Know About Medical Marijuana," is a dreadful Bush-era hatefest that positively drips with outrageous & out-of-context propaganda points and should have been tossed from the site back in January, along with all the other rancid garbage John Walters left in the fridge at ONDCP. This document even contains the unbelievable Steve Kubby smear, in which Kubby's statements about Marinol saving his life in prison were spun as opposition to medical marijuana (I highly recommend revisiting that one if you donât remember it, because it's so much worse than I can even describe in one sentence). And this isn't some dusty artifact I dug up from the cavernous bowels of ONDCP.gov either, it is currently the #1 search result for "medical marijuana" on the drug czar's website.*Â So please join me in sending the drug czar a note asking that this outdated and offensive document be removed from his site once and for all. Whether it's because the reference to AMA is no longer accurate, or because the rest of the thing in its entirety is just a raging trainwreck of distortion and nastiness, or because the new administration has pledged to respect state medical marijuana laws instead of vilifying doctors and patients, this type of rhetoric has no place in the drug policy debate.Please contact the drug czar today to ask that the document "What Every American Should Know About Medical Marijuana" be permanently removed from ONDCP.gov. Thanks.*Update: Interestingly, the document is now much more difficult to find on the ONDCP website. Last night, it came up #1 in a search for "medical marijuana." Now I can only locate it by using more specific search terms. Hopefully, this signals that it's in the process of being removed, although the PDF is currently still being hosted by ONDCP. Update 2: Our friends at LEAP have created an action alert where you can send a pre-written message to DEA & ONDCP requesting the necessary corrections.
DEA Website STILL Wrong About AMA's Medical Marijuana Stance
Last week's big news that the American Medical Association reversed its position on medical marijuana struck a huge blow to the reefer madness crowd, which has heavily touted the esteemed organization's past position as a primary excuse for prohibiting medical use. Yesterday, the DEA finally revised its website after LEAP and MPP pointed out that AMA was still listed as an opponent of medical marijuana. Rarely, if ever, has the DEA responded so quickly and cooperatively when activists complained about the accuracy of government anti-drug propaganda. But, the job isn't done just yet. It seems the clever folks at DEA took our complaints literally, and only fixed the page we mentioned, rather than making all the necessary corrections.DEA's youth website, JustThinkTwice.com, still contains two separate inaccurate statements about AMA's position on medical marijuana: http://www.justthinktwice.com/factfiction/MarijuanaisMedicine.cfm "The American Medical Association has rejected pleas to endorse marijuana as medicine, and instead has urged that marijuana remain a prohibited, Schedule I drug, at least until more research is done." http://www.justthinktwice.com/stumbleweed/rx_pot_01.htm "The American Medical Association rejected marijuana as medicine." Of course, it's quite likely that similar claims can still be found elsewhere on DEA websites and it's their responsibility to clean up the mess. Hopefully, DEA is more familiar with its own web content than we are, so it shouldnât be too hard to go through there and set everything straight. Let's all do our part to help DEA with the editing process by copying the links above and clicking here (then scroll down) to send them a reminder that more corrections are needed. When it comes to providing the public with accurate and up-to-date information about drugs, the DEA is in desperate need of our asistance, so please take a few moments to lend them a hand.Update: Our friends at LEAP have created an action alert where you can send a pre-written message to DEA & ONDCP requesting the necessary corrections.
Nice People Take Drugs
In June we highlighted a bus advertising campaign, "Nice People Take Drugs," conducted by the British drug reform advocacy group Release. Some of the nice people from Release attended the big drug policy conference in Albuquerque last week, and they were nice enough to give us one of their new "Nice People Take Drugs" decks of playing cards, featuring politicians from the US, UK and elsewhere and the quotes they've given about their past drug use. (Whether all of the featured politicians are nice people is a subjective question, of course.) The front of the cards feature the organization's web site and a toll-free helpline, hard to see in the picture (0845 4500 215 if you're in Britain and need the help). Albuquerque's "British Invasion" also featured the Transform Drug Policy Foundation's new publication, After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation. Check Drug War Chronicle later this week for a conference report highlighting this and more. Here's a sampling of the Release cards: Last but not least, for now, a picture I snapped during the conference's closing plenary, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson delivering the keynote:
A burger with bullets
Last night I was sitting at my computer playing a little on line poker when I thought I heard three rapid shots.After about 10 minutes the police arrived with lights but no sirens and were met with th
Colorado Announces Plan to Tax Medical Marijuana
The wave of sanity rolls on:In an opinion that could generate more revenue for cash-strapped governments and give additional legitimacy to a fledgling industry, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said Monday that the state can collect sales tax on medical marijuana."Medical marijuana is tangible property that is generally subject to state sales tax," Suthers, a Republican, wrote in response to a query from Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat.The opinion also said medical-marijuana dispensaries must obtain retail-sales licenses from the state to do business. [Denver Post]It sucks that it took an economic crisis to advance the idea that it makes more sense to generate revenue from the marijuana economy than waste billions trying in vain to destroy it. Of course, we'd have gladly paid the government millions many years ago to stop arresting patients.
As Long as the Drug War Continues, So Will the Corruption
Stories like this one about the endemic drug war corruption gripping Mexican law enforcement are a dime a dozen. But I don't get bored reading them, because there's always a new and compelling example of what a mess all of this is:Reporting from San Luis Potosi, Mexico -Â The lie-detector team brought in by Mexico's top cop was supposed to help clean up the country's long-troubled police. There was just one problem: Most of its members themselves didn't pass, and a supervisor was rigging results to make sure others did. [LA Times]Yeah, it's awfully hard to purge corruption when the people in charge of investigating it are corrupt themselves. It's insane to spend a billion dollars trying to fix Mexican law enforcement, when the cartels can just spend more to make sure it stays broken.
Will Foster is Almost Free. You Can Help Open That Prison Door By Acting Now
The Drug War Chronicle has written several times about the trials and tribulations of medical marijuana patient Will Foster, who is currently sitting in once again in an Oklahoma prison, jerked back from the new life he had made in California by a vindictive and corner-cutting Oklahoma parole bureaucracy. But while Foster certainly appears to have been the victim of vengeful parole department employees, who charged him with ficticious parole violations--causing him to be locked up in a California jail for 16 months before being extradited back to Oklahoma--the parole board itself has done the right thing. In a hearing last week, the board rejected the charges against Foster and recommended he be released. But there's one more step. Under Oklahoma law, the governor signs off on all parole board decisions. This is where you can help. There is still time to write or call the governor to encourage him to follow the parole system's recommendation and FREE WILL FOSTER. Please ask that Will be given time served and set free to return to his family in California. Please call Gov. Brad Henry's office at 405-521-2342 Or fax a letter to 405-521-3353. Make sure you identify Will as Will Foster, #25271. The argument is simple: Will Foster is a non-violent offender who has served enough time and plans to leave the state to settle in California. Keeping him in prison or on parole in Oklahoma serves neither justice nor public safety and is not worth Oklahoma taxpayers' money. Read the link above to get informed before you call or write if you need to. Be polite and to the point. Will Foster, who never did anything to anybody, has been in the clutches of Oklahoma justice for 15 years for growing some plants to ease his pains. He's almost free. You can help open that prison door. Do it.
Marijuana is Practically Legal (But Only For Aging White People Who Live in the Suburbs)
Washington Post has a light-hearted story, Boomers see views relaxing on marijuana, that looks at marijuana use among suburban adults in the D.C. area. The gist is that lots of yuppie-types have been having a blast for many years, but it just recently became ok to talk about it, thanks to the evolution of cultural attitudes about marijuana. Obviously, it's awesome to see the media finally picking up on how normal and boring most marijuana users are. Replacing the old stereotypes is a necessary step towards reform, and few would argue that D.C.'s affluent suburbs need to be purged of professionals who puff in private. So this reaction from local law-enforcement is as predictable as it is revealing:Most Washington area police departments enforce the laws that make marijuana illegal, officials said. A Montgomery County police spokesman would not comment other than to say that the department has seen no spike in marijuana use by older residents and is not targeting those users.I suppose we can't let old white people become collateral damage in our crusade to arrest entire generations of young black and Hispanic men for smoking pot? Our laws against marijuana owe their origins to the most vicious and transparent racism, and today, the drug war delivers on its hateful promise in the form of gratuitous disparities at every stage of the criminal justice system. How remarkable it is to find police literally admitting that their great war doesn't target the most privileged among us. I wonder, how freely did the words flow from the police spokesman's mouth as he unintentionally confirmed the vast disparity that defines and sustains the war on marijuana? It's powerfully ironic that, in an attempt to say as little as possible, the officer ended up epitomizing the pure injustice that has long characterized the enforcement of our marijuana laws.
If You Care About Ending the Drug War, Watch This
For the many of you who weren't able to attend the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, here's Ethan Nadelmann's opening speech:Wow.
The American Way; Self-Government, Self-Medication!!
President Obama has won the Nobel Prize for Peace on promises of de-nuclearization.
Off to Albuquerque
The 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference kicks off tomorrow evening, which means we'll be in Albuquerque for the rest of the week. It also means I probably won't be posting for a few days, because my fingers will be caked with enchilada sauce (and if anyone knows where to get good Mexican food in Albuquerque, please hook me up in comments). If you're going to the conference, please keep an eye out for me and say hi. I always enjoy meeting readers, so feel free to get all up in my business. The best place to find me is at the premiere of the new Flex Your Rights film 10 Rules For Dealing With Police, which I co-wrote and canât wait to unveil. It's going down on Thursday at 8:45pm. It's so cool, you should really just get in the car right now and start driving to New Mexico.Anyway, the blog should back in action next week. If anything huge happens in the meantime, I'm sure Pete Guither will be all over it.
American Medical Association Ends Opposition to Medical Marijuana
Enemies of medical marijuana have almost completely run out of talking points, and now they just lost one of their favorite remaining arguments:HOUSTON --- The American Medical Association (AMA) voted today to reverse its long-held position that marijuana be retained as a Schedule I substance with no medical value. The AMA adopted a report drafted by the AMA Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH) entitled, "Use of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes," which affirmed the therapeutic benefits of marijuana and called for further research. [Opposing Views]I wonder how long it will take for the DEA to correct their website.
Everyone Loves Marijuana Prohibition (Except the 44% Who Don't)
The CBS debate between Judge James Gray and David Evans continues today, and you are going to absolutely love it (if your idea of a good time is listening to a judge explain why the drug war doesnât work, while a frustrated drug warrior sputters redundantly).I think my favorite part is an attempt by Evans to explain all the reasons why you canât compare alcohol prohibition with drug prohibition. This one topped his list:(1) During prohibition the government sought to restrict the consumption of alcohol although lacking the consensus of the nation. Even during Prohibition most people had experience with and accepted alcohol. That is not the same today for illicit drugs. Prohibition went against the national consensus whereas the current drug policies do not.Apparently, David Evans hasnât checked out the comment section yet. Incredibly, he appears not to even understand why he was invited to participate in a marijuana legalization debate in the first place. Literally, the whole point of this dialogue is to indulge the raging debate over marijuana policy that now grips the nation. If there were a "national consensus" in favor of marijuana prohibition, you wouldn't have spent the last two days on the CBS website arguing against legalization.
David Evans nearly sent me over the edge
This is my response as written on cbsnews.com to Part 2 of the "discussion" between Judge James Gray and David Evans of the Drug-Free America Foundation. When I read the first part yesterday I was bothered by Evans but it was typical prohibitionist rhetoric. Today he made me irate. _______________________________________________ I had to take a few moments to calm down otherwise I might have said something that could have caused me some serious trouble. Evans said that Gray called him a racist. Gray never implied or said that Evans was a racist. He did state the undeniable fact that war on "some" drugs treats the races unequally. This statement from Evans shows he is either delusional or racist. I hope it is the former. "Prohibition did not cause an increase in the overall crime rate but there was an increase in the homicide rate. However, the increase in homicides occurred mainly in the African-American community, and African-Americans at that time were not the people responsible for trafficking in alcohol."
The Debate Rages On (And We're Winning it)
CBS is hosting an excellent point-counterpoint discussion about legalizing marijuana, featuring Judge James Gray of LEAP and David Evans of the Drug Free America Foundation. You rarely get to see the debate unfold in this much detail, so it's a very illuminating dialogue, even though Evans has thus far failed to actually address Gray's main arguments. Judge Gray just laid down the law in his last entry, so we'll find out tomorrow if Evans has anything left. On a side note, my attention was immediately drawn to the pictures of Gray and Evans that appear at the top of the page. Judge Gray appears in full color, while Evans is in black & white. This struck me as the perfect metaphor for the debate that follows.
Medical Use... why are we stuck like this?
Hello. My name is Anthony. I am an epileptic. My doctors have been trying to help me for a while now, switching from prescription to prescription, different doctor to a different specialist....
Marijuana Legalization Confusion in Connecticut
Drug policy reformers did a double-take today when the following "Budget Suggestions" were discovered on the website of Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell:January 9, 2009: Decriminalize marijuana â allow for medicinal purposes and collect taxes on it purchase. Create a tax stamp for these packages â anyone caught with a bag of marijuana without the stamp should face harsher penalties than someone caught with a bag with a stamp.February 3, 2009: Legalize marijuana and have the Department of Agriculture grow it for sale in 1 ounce bags -- sell it over the Internet.March 2, 2009: Increase revenue by legalizing marijuana and administering its sale and tax to be sold in pharmacies as well as in liquor stores. Apply law enforcement standards currently used for alcohol. This would save money in not having to chase drug dealers and generate huge revenues.This is surprising stuff to see on the site of a governor who'd vetoed medical marijuana legislation. And, unfortunately, it was too good to be true. It turns out these ideas came from unnamed current or former state employees as part of a program called the Innovative Ideas Initiative. They're not endorsed by the Governor's Office, although a much better job could have been done to explain the source of the proposals when posting them under a picture of Gov. Rell. It wasn't until reporters started calling her office today asking about marijuana legalization that the whole story emerged.So I suppose you could argue that there's not much of a story here, but I do find it amusing to see the debate over marijuana legalization popping up where you least expect it.
Is There Something "Liberal" About Improving Our Drug Policy?
Pete Guither caught this strange quote from deputy drug czar Tom McClellan in an AP story about expanding drug treatment:McLellan, insisting heâs not "a wild-eyed liberal," said expanding treatment wouldnât negate the war on drugs."Law enforcement is necessary, but itâs not sufficient," he said. It's just a stupid and completely unnecessary attempt to label anyone with concerns about our heavy-handed drug policy. The whole concept that only liberals care about this is pathetically simple-minded and dishonest, as anyone who's been watching FOX News lately could tell you. By McClellan's strained logic, his own boss, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, would also be a "wild-eyed liberal" for criticizing the idea of fighting a "war on drugs." Anyone endeavoring to define the political identity of the drug reform movement is wasting their breath. The idea that our drug policy sucks is far too widespread to be contained within any vague political parameters and I'm quite sure Tom McClellan knows that, even if he conveniently pretends not to.