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Europe: Britain to Ban Spice, GBL, BZP
The British Home Office announced Tuesday that it is planning to ban several "legal highs," including "Spice," the club drug GBL, and the stimulant drug BZP. The substances will be added to the British list of controlled substances by year's end, said Home Secretary Alan Johnson. "There is a perception that many of the so called 'legal highs' are harmless, however in some cases people can be ingesting dangerous industrial fluids or smoking chemicals that can be even more harmful than cannabis," said Johnson. "Legal highs are an emerging threat, particularly to young people, and we have a duty to educate them about the dangers." "Spice" is a sort of synthetic cannabinoid which is currently sold legally as a spray to apply to herbal cigarettes. It has already been banned in France and Germany. It will become a Class B drug--in the middle tier of the British classification scheme--like amphetamines or marijuana. GBL (Gamma-butyrolactone) and a similar chemical, which are converted in to the Class C drug GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) in the body and often used as weekend party drugs, will become Class C drugs, the least serious drug classification. So will BZP (Benzylpiperazine) and related piperazines, which are stimulants taken as an alternative to amphetamine. Under Britain's Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971, possession of Class C drugs can earn up to two years in prison, while possession of Class B drugs can earn up to five years. Dealing in either Class B or Class C drugs is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The Home Office has announced an education campaign around these newly classified substances. It is set to start at the beginning of the school year next month.
Europe: Dutch Government to Fund Membership Card Scheme for Maastricht Coffee Shops
In a bid to stop the flow of tens of thousands of Belgian, French, and German marijuana consumers into Dutch border town cannabis coffee shops, the Dutch government announced this week that is investing 150,000 Euros ($213,000) in a pilot membership card program for coffee shop clients in Maastricht. The program was first proposed earlier this year by Maastricht Mayor Gerd Leers. The foreign marijuana consumers have caused various public safety and public nuisance problems, from congested automobile traffic to public urination and attracting street drug dealers. At least two other Limburg province border towns, Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom, have responded to the problem by saying they will close down all their coffee shops. Under the membership card scheme, only card-carrying coffee shop members could purchase cannabis, and purchased would be limited to three or five grams a day. Such a move would presumably deflate the number of "impulse" drug tourists. There are about 700 cannabis coffee shops in Holland. While the Dutch federal government is hostile toward them, it has committed not to act against them before the 2010 elections. That leaves efforts to reduce their numbers or otherwise restrict them in the hands of local officials. The federal government is also spending about $7 million for various local councils to address various problems associated with coffee shops, where users can purchase up to five grams of cannabis without fear of arrest. Ministers want to reduce the number of large coffee shops and reduce the involvement of organized crime. But that latter problem is largely an artifact of Holland's half-baked approach to marijuana. While the Dutch allow the possession and sale of small amounts of cannabis through the coffee shop system, they have made no provision for a regulated supply of cannabis for the coffee shops, leaving it to the black market.
Hey, Check Out These Meaningless Statistics!
From the drug czar's blog: According to a recent national survey, 11 percent of weekend nighttime drivers tested positive for illicit drugs - five times as many as were under the influence of alcohol.It's just perfect nonsense of the exact variety the drug czar's office specializes in. Testing positive for drugs just means the person has drugs in their system (which could have been ingested days or even weeks before getting behind the wheel). By contrast, those who were "under the influence of alcohol" were over the legal limit at the time they were driving. The drug czar is literally comparing people who may have smoked marijuana last week to people who are drunk right now. It's insane. And, as is often the case when drug warriors wildly misinterpret scientific data, the report itself specifically warns against drawing exactly the types of conclusions claimed by the drug czar:The reader is cautioned that drug presence does not necessarily imply impairment. For many drug types, drug presence can be detected long after any impairment that might affect driving has passed. For example, traces of marijuana can be detected in blood samples several weeks after chronic users stop ingestion. Also, whereas the impairment effects for various concentration levels of alcohol is well understood, little evidence is available to link concentrations of other drug types to driver performance.Is that confusing to anyone? It really shouldnât be. But, unfortunately for us all, it is the drug czar's job not to understand or acknowledge basic facts like these. Once one comes to understand that our drug policies are routinely based on complete nonsense, it ceases to be a mystery why we achieve such dismal results.
Medical Marijuana: First California DEA Arrests Under Obama Took Place Last Week
A massive DEA operation featuring dozens of heavily armed agents and at least four helicopters ended with the arrests of five people in California's Lake County last week. According to California NORML, the arrests are believed to be the first since the Obama administration announced it would not persecute medical marijuana providers in states where it is legal unless they violated both state and federal law. The DEA seized 154 marijuana plants from Upper Lake resident Tom Carter, and arrested him, former UMCC dispensary operator Scott Feil and his wife, Steven Swanson, and Brett Bassignani. Carter is a registered medical marijuana patient and provider, and his wife, Jamie Ceridono, told the Lake County News he was growing for several patients and his grow was legal under state law. The genesis of the bust appears to lie with an alleged May deal between a DEA informant and Bassignani to purchase marijuana. According to documents filed by Carter's federal defenders late last week, the informant claimed to have arranged to buy marijuana from Carter and to have left a voicemail message for Carter to set up the deal. That same informant allegedly made a deal to buy marijuana from Bassignani. In the document, the federal defenders said prosecutors made no claim that Carter ever heard the phone message the informant allegedly called and that they set out no evidence linking Carter and the informant. "All the complaint says is that another individual, Mr. Bassignani, called the informant, claimed he worked for 'Carter Construction,' and arranged a marijuana deal," Carter's defense attorneys wrote. "The deal later took place, and the only other reference to Mr. Carter is the conclusory claim that the informant 'had agreed on the price with Carter.' No context, no specifics, and no other information is provided in the complaint which indicates that Mr. Carter in fact talked to the informant, arranged a marijuana deal, and indicated that he (Carter) was knowingly involved in a marijuana transaction." Moving that the two felony counts of marijuana trafficking against Carter be dismissed, the attorneys added: "This complaint is sadly deficient with regard to whether Mr. Carter has done anything to indicate that he conspired to break the law. It should be dismissed accordingly." It is unclear why Feil and his wife were arrested. They are neighbors of Carter and his wife. Carter and Feil are being held in Oakland, where they are set to have initial detention hearings today and tomorrow. Federal prosecutors have asked that Carter be held pending trial "on the basis of flight risk and danger to the community." Carter is a long-time resident of Upper Lake, prominent construction contractor, and community benefactor. "California already has enough federal marijuana criminals," said CANORML coordinator Dale Gieringer, "It's time for concrete changes in federal law." While the Obama administration has announced it would no go after law-abiding medical marijuana providers, the DEA has conducted at least two raids against providers in San Francisco and Los Angeles, although there have been no arrests in those cases. The administration has not announced any changes in federal laws or regulations around medical marijuana, and Bush appointees continue to serve in the DEA and the US Attorney's Office of Northern California, which is prosecuting the case.
Argentine Supreme Court to Decriminalize Drug Possession Today
The Argentine Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling decriminalizing drug possession for personal use today. The ruling will come in the case of five juveniles arrested with marijuana in the city of Rosario. The case has been under consideration by the high court for almost a year. The Argentine federal government has been reviewing its drug laws with an eye toward abandoning repressive policies toward users and is waiting for this case to be decided to move forward with new legislative proposals. Supreme Court Justice Carlos Fayt told the Buenos Aires Herald that the court had reached a unanimous position on decriminalization, but declined to provide further details. A positive Supreme Court decision on decriminalization would ratify a number of lower court decisions in recent years that have found that the use and possession of drugs without causing harm to others should not be a criminal offense.
First Time
I'm 17 years old and have been in treatment for 3 years. I've been out for two months, and my goal with writing this blog or whatever is just to write whatever's on my mind.
Will Foster Extradited to Oklahoma
Medical marijuana patient Will Foster is en route to prison in Oklahoma after being picked up Friday by Oklahoma law enforcement officials. He had been held at the Sonoma County Jail in Santa Rosa, California, for the past 15 months as he fought bogus marijuana cultivation charges there--he was a registered patient with a legal grow--and, after the California charges were dropped, on a parole violation warrant from the Sooner State. Foster had been arrested and convicted of growing marijuana in Oklahoma and sentenced to 93 years in prison in the 1990s. After that draconian sentence focused national attention on his case, he was eventually resentenced to 20 years in prison. He later won parole and moved to California, where he served three years on parole and was discharged from parole by California authorities. That wasn't good enough for vindictive Oklahoma authorities, who wanted to squeeze more years out of Foster. He refused to sign Oklahoma paperwork requiring him to return there to serve out the remainder of his sentence. He also refused to sign paperback that extended his original service. Oklahoma authorities issued a parole violation warrant, and the governors of both states signed it. Foster had sought to block extradition by filing a writ of habeas corpus--he had won a similar writ against Oklahoma earlier--but that effort failed on Friday, and Oklahoma authorities were there to whisk him away. Foster is scheduled to be held at the Tulsa County Jail before being assigned to a prison in the Oklahoma gulag. Efforts by Foster supporters to secure his release continue and are now focusing on Oklahoma parole authorities and the state governor. For more information about the Foster case, see our Chronicle story here and at Ed Rosenthal's blog here. Drug War Chronicle will continue to follow the Foster case. Look for a feature article next week.
Every Year is a Record Year for Marijuana Eradication
Each August, like clockwork, you can expect to see announcements like this one about the success of this year's marijuana eradication efforts:According to the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, a multiagency task force managed by the stateâs Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, this year is already one for the record books. In more than 425 raids since late June, some 3.4 million plants have been seized, up from 2.9 million all of last year. And, officials note, they still have roughly a month and a half before the campaign expires with the end of harvest season. [NYT]So, if more marijuana is seized each year, what does that mean? It means there's more marijuana every year. The harder you try to stop people from growing marijuana in the forest, the more marijuana they will plant. It's a very simple and predictable routine, such that one could easily republish last year's news coverage of this same phenomenon without changing a word and no one would know the difference. The only variable in this equation is the finite acreage of our forests, which will eventually be destroyed under a policy that serves to increase rather than eliminate the practice of illicit outdoor marijuana cultivation. Actually, come to think of it, there's a second variable here: our marijuana laws. If we changed them to allow personal marijuana growing on private property, then nobody would grow pot in virtually inaccessible patches of fragile wilderness. How many more harvest season eradication records will be set before that reality begins to sink in?
Cato Unbound Looks at the Mexican Drug War
Cato Unbound has a series of essays debating what to do about the situation in Mexico. I haven't had time to dig through it, but previous drug policy discussions at Cato Unbound have been very interesting, so I recommend checking it out. Pete Guither has some reactions here.
Mexico's new drug laws
Supposedly, as part of a plan to reduce small-time drug sales, the Mexican government has decriminalized the possession of what they consider appropriate for personal use.
Trust is not one of the things an undercover cop has a lot of
I spent 12 years working undercover drugs, in the beginning we were told this was a war, and the enemy was drugs.
If you have chronic pain, you're male, and take opioids. Please read this.
If you use opioids for chronic pain, have you doctor test your Testosterone levels. I've found that opioids deplete Testosterone levels.
Imitation is the sincerist form of flattery
"...I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." - George Wallace, Governor of Alabama; 1963 "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," - Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy; 2009
"Marijuana Is Safer" Book Bomb Set for Tomorrow
"Marijuana is Safer," the brand spanking new book by NORML's Paul Armentano, MPP's Steve Fox, and SAFER's Mason Tvert (who came up with the whole "marijuana is safer than alcohol" trope) is set for book bomb tomorrow. The idea behind a book bomb is to get large numbers of people to buy a book on a designated day, thereby driving it up the best-seller lists on Amazon. If enough people buy "Marijuana is Safer" tomorrow, we could drive it to #1 on Amazon and generate even more publicity for the book--and the message it sends. While we will no doubt offer the book as a premium at some point in the near future, I want to encourage people to participate in tomorrow's book bomb to help get the word out. You can find out more at marijuana book bomb. I'll be reviewing "Marijuana is Safer" for the Chronicle this week, but don't wait for the review. If you've been thinking about buying the book, tomorrow is the day to do it.
Blogging?
My apologies for the total lack of content in the blog this week. I'm up in Baltimore shooting the upcoming Flex Your Rights film 10 Rules for Dealing With Police, which has kept me up day and night for several days now. We've shot a bunch of fantastic content and we're hoping to have everything wrapped up this week, so I should be back in action here soon (notwithstanding a much needed vacation I might take for a couple days next week). In the meantime, there's plenty to read here, here and here.
Purple Clouds
Purple Clouds in the sky take your consciousness so very high Over the feindish Master Eye Capturing all, truth justified Purple Clouds Illigalized Decriminalized Unjustified Lies!
Confused Cop Worries That Medical Marijuana Could be Laced With PCP
Legal medical marijuana has been around for more than a decade now, but that certainly hasn't stopped bitter law-enforcement spokespeople from conjuring horrific doomsday fantasies about it. Police in Rhode Island are still struggling to understand the issue, it seems:State police Lt. Col. Steven G. OâDonnell said there is nothing prohibiting caregivers from lacing their marijuana with phencyclidine (PCP) or other powerful drugs. [Providence Journal]No, no, no, you misunderstand, sir. It's medical marijuana that's legal in Rhode Island, not PCP. Got it? Medical m-a-r-i-j-u-a-n-a. You can still arrest people for PCP. I doubt this will be an issue though, because for some reason, medical marijuana laws don't seem to result in increased use of PCP. It's awesome.But O'Donnell still doesn't get it. There's something bothering him about marijuana policy, but he can't quite figure out what it is:"Itâs very unregulated," he said. "It makes no sense to us. We regulate hamburger and food, but we do not regulate medical marijuana. There are no checks and balances."Here, lets try that line again, but this time without the word "medical." I think we're onto something here. If we could all just agree that marijuana â medical and otherwise â needs to be monitored for quality and sold by licensed professionals, maybe we can finally put this whole mess behind us.
Drug Czar Admits He Was Wrong About Medical Marijuana
Last month, Obama's drug czar raised eyebrows by claiming that "marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit."Â Though not an unusual remark for a drug czar to make, the comment came as a surprise given the new administration's stated policy of respecting state medical marijuana laws.Well, it looks like someone in the administration had a little talk with the drug czar, because he's already backtracking:Asked if he regretted what he said, Kerlikowske said, "Sometimes you make a mistake and you work very hard to correct it. That happens. I should've clearly said 'smoked' marijuana and then gone on to say that this is clearly a question that should be answered by the medical community." [KOMO News]Of course, this is still utter nonsense given the abundance of scientific evidence that medical marijuana works. But it's remarkable to hear the drug czar acknowledge making "a mistake." As false and obnoxious as his corrected statement may be, it's nice to know that the word "mistake" is in his vocabulary.
What Will the Cartels Do After Drugs Are Legal?
Opponents of legalizing drugs often argue that you canât really eliminate the cartels because they'll just move on to other crimes. Here's the drug czar's version of that argument:"Some think legalization will reduce the violence," Kerlikowske said. "It will not. If drugs were to become legal, I doubt very seriously that (the criminals) would take up jobs at Microsoft or Intel. Criminals are not going to change." [El Paso Times]It's an interesting debate in light of today's news that Mexican drug cartels have been tapping into oil pipelines, stealing astronomical amounts of oil, and then selling it to corrupt American businessmen. It's easy enough to assume that many of these diabolical criminal masterminds will look for ways to stay in business even if we take away their drug profits through legalization and regulation. There's some truth to this and it's pretty creepy to think about what these horrible thugs will do when their primary funding source suddenly vanishes. But that's not an argument against legalization.Making drugs illegal is what created these maniacs in the first place. Selling drugs is what made them greedy and evil. It's how they learned to launder money. It's how they paid for their weapons and armies. It's where they got the capital to fund other criminal enterprises like stealing oil from the Mexican government. All their power comes from selling drugs, and anyone who supports the drug war shares responsibility for what the cartels do next.Maybe legalization won't crush them overnight, but it will close down the massive criminal college that the drug war has become. It will stop future generations of potential super-criminals from ever becoming indoctrinated into a life of crime, because there will be far fewer jobs in the crime industry. In the meantime, those criminals that remain won't have any more drug money to line the pockets of public servants and pervert justice at every turn. They can attempt other criminal endeavors, but it will never be the same because selling drugs is the easiest most-profitable crime on the planet and it can never be replaced. More than a few drug war idiots have suggested that the drug lords will simply switch to human trafficking, as though you could just start selling slaves to the people who used to buy marijuana and cocaine. One could write a very long book about how stupid that is, but it wouldnât make a bit of difference.What would really happen to the cartels if drugs were legal? There's only one way to find out.
The Drug Cartels Have Their Own (Stolen) Oil Company
I thought I'd heard it all, but the latest news from Mexico is so ridiculously over-the-top, I was genuinely shocked:MEXICO CITY â U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border, the U.S. Justice Department told The Associated Press â illegal operations now led by Mexican drug cartels expanding their reach.Criminals â mostly drug gangs â tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year, the Mexican oil monopoly said. At least one U.S. oil executive has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in such a deal. [AP]What the hell is going on here!? It's been clear for a while now that these people should never be underestimated, but this seriously sounds more like the plot of a James Bond movie than something that could be pulled off in real life. Once again, the situation in Mexico has managed to reach new heights of out-of-control absurdity and it seems to be doing so with increased frequency as of late.Does anyone honestly believe that pouring more money and lives down the drug war drain is the solution to this?