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Drug Traffickers Plot to Kill Mexico's President
I've had a creeping feeling for a while now that the cartels might try to take things to the next level:MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has captured a drug smuggler believed to have been plotting to assassinate President Felipe Calderon in revenge for the army's crackdown on trafficking, a senior police official said on Monday.Dimas Diaz, a mid-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel in northwestern Mexico, was arrested on Sunday in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan with four other traffickers, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the federal police's anti-drug wing."Government intelligence reports led us to find out the threat was from the Sinaloa cartel, with Dimas Diaz entrusted with the details of a possible attack," he told reporters. [Reuters]The magnitude of all this is quite incredible to behold. We've reached a point where anything is possible in Mexico (anything, that is, except victory in the bloody war on drugs). The prospect of a Presidential assassination is a deeply unnerving reminder that the situation in Mexico could actually become considerably uglier than it already is.I shudder to think what effect such an event would have on the already problematic level of U.S. involvement in Mexico's disastrous war on drugs. Please, let's just stop this now before it literally destroys everything there is to destroy.
Police Will Do Anything to Arrest People for Marijuana, Part II
One of the most pernicious lies in the marijuana debate is that police aren't aggressively working to arrest people for small amounts of pot. They are. Although there are parts of the country where marijuana is a low priority for police, there are also places like New York City, where police have developed finely tuned mechanisms for arresting and convicting as many minor marijuana offenders as humanly possible.What makes New York City's epic war on marijuana so remarkable is not just the staggering number of arrests (more than any other city on earth), but the despicable methods that are used to achieve that result. First, police must work their way around the fact that 1) possession of small amounts of marijuana is decriminalized in New York and 2) the 4th Amendment forbids searching people against their will without evidence of a crime.Basically, the program consists of stopping large numbers of people (primarily young black and Hispanic men) for no reason and then saying this: "We're going to have to search you. If you have anything illegal you should show it to us now. If we find something when we search you, you'll have to spend the night in jail. But if you show us what you have now, maybe we can just give you a ticket. And if itâs nothing but a little weed, maybe we can let you go. So if youâve got anything youâre not supposed to have, take it out and show it now.âWhen police say this, the young people usually take out their small amount of marijuana and hand it over. Their marijuana is now "open to public view." And that â having a bit of pot out and open to be seen â technically makes it a crime, a fingerprintable offense. And for cooperating with the police, the young people are handcuffed and jailed. [Alternet]Amazingly, you're not actually guilty of a crime until you attempt to cooperate with police. It is literally the act of showing them your stash that is a violation of the law and everything they say up until that point is designed to trick you into doing that. As is so often the case, policing in the war on drugs consists of tricking people into breaking the law so that the law can then be enforced. Don't let anybody tell you we're not waging a war on marijuana users in America. That's exactly what we're doing and that's why marijuana policy reform has nothing do with people wanting to get high. This is about justice, human rights, and common sense. To jettison these principles because of marijuana is an act of unfathomable lunacy.
Police Will Do Anything to Arrest People for Marijuana
Opponents of marijuana reform often try to act like it's already no big deal. They say no one really gets in much trouble for it and it's not a top priority for police. It's a pretty desperate and counterintuitive strategy. It's also total bullshit:(AP) â TIGARD, Ore. - The Tigard Police Department has ended a sex-for-marijuana Internet sting because officers posting the online ads posed as promiscuous women, not prostitutes.â¦The officers posting the Craigslist ads posed as women willing to a have casual sexual encounter with men who had marijuana. No cash was involved. When the men showed up for the encounter, they were charged with prostitution and delivery of drugs.Defense attorneys say the program was entrapment.Ya think? I couldn't ask for a better example of police taking advantage of people in order to put them in jail. The whole thing is perverted and I'm not talking about the people who responded to the ad.This story should be posted on every police department bulletin board in the country with "DON'T DO STUFF LIKE THIS" scrawled across the top of the page. Remember before the drug war, when the police officer's job was to prevent bad things from happening to people? Now we've got cops who think the best use of their time (and our money) is to trick people into breaking the law and then ruining their lives. When we talk about ending the drug war, it's not because we want more freedom to take drugs. It's because we want to take away any incentive our police have to do stupid and insane crap like this.
ABC News Says Marijuana Makes People Miserable
ABC News has one of those classic pot propaganda pieces that relies on anecdotal accounts to sound the alarm about marijuana addiction. We learn the sad stories of a couple people who smoked way too much pot for way too long and ended up unhappy. Meanwhile, buried within all of this is the one relevant statistic that puts it all in perspective:About 40 percent of all Americans aged 12 and older -- about 94 million -- have tried marijuana at least once, according to a 2003 survey by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Of those, about 3.6 million were daily users.Overwhelmingly, people who try marijuana don't get "addicted" to it. They also don't go on to try harder drugs. They donât get lung cancer, or psychosis, or any of the other horrible outcomes that are so commonly and shamelessly associated with America's most popular illegal drug. Yet according to ABC News, marijuana is dangerously addictive, and worse still, it's the legalization movement's fault that people don't know how bad it is:Since the 1970s, when marijuana was the symbol of political protest, the risks of marijuana dependency have been clouded by the legalization debate and long-held beliefs that the illicit drug is harmless.Nonsense. The reason so many people think marijuana is safe is because they've tried it and it was safe. Update: If you'd like to read some more about this ABC News story and why it's bad, then this post is for you.
Police and Clergy Speak Out Against the Drug War
new video from Common Sense for Drug Policy:
WHAT ARE WE DOING PEOPLE?
Just Chiming in, I Thought Prohibition was supposed to save us from ourselves? To protect us in some way?
Federal Prosecutor Drops Medical Marijuana Charges
Some interesting news from New Mexico:On June 30, 2009 in the Federal District Court of New Mexico, Assistant US Attorney John Anderson agreed, on the record, to Honor the Medical Marijuana Recommendation of Charles Smith of Shasta Lake, California. Federal District Court Magistrate Judge Lorenzo Garcia further agreed to accept the Stateâs proposed recommendation of a Conditional Discharge upon provision of Mr. Smithâs Medical Marijuana Recommendation to the US Attorneyâs office. This historic moment occurred during the federal Governmentâs prosecution of cases related to the Annual Rainbow Gathering that occurs in different states around the country and involves a large Federal Law Enforcement presence.â¦This is the first time in modern history, in which it is known that the US Attorney and the Federal District Court agreed to accept medical marijuana recommendations and licenses in order to dismiss marijuana possession charges. And the universe didnât collapse. Not only that, the story has gotten no press whatsoever. Often, when the government refrains from doing something cruel to someone, there isn't much of a news story left to report. This just goes to show how silly it is to assume that there's a political imperative requiring us to continue aggressively enforcing bad drug laws. There isnât. See how easy it is to just leave patients alone? Next time, try not arresting them in the first place.
A Deadly Addiction You Never Saw Coming
BBC News reports on the death of a Chinese teen who was beaten to death in a rehab center for internet addicts. Apparently, addiction to the internet is a major concern in China:China is increasingly taking action against what it sees as a pandemic of web addiction.Some estimates suggest up to 10% of the country's 100 million teenage web users could be addicted, and a growing number of rehabilitation services exist.However, there is little consensus on how to treat the addiction. In July, China's Ministry of Health formally banned the use of electroshock therapy as a treatment option.Well, that's good. Yeah, giving shock treatment to 10 million youth who spend too much time online definitely sounds kind of insane. Really, the whole idea of widespread internet addiction sounds pretty ridiculous and I'm inclined to assume it has more to do with a cultural paranoia about computers than an actual epidemic of compulsive web surfers.But as crazy as all this sounds, it's really not all that different from the way our government deals with marijuana users.
Marijuana is Safer Than Viagra
Is there anything it canât do?A fifty-five year old man has confessed to using marijuana in order to sexually please his wife.Bal Birju was charged with possession of thirty grammes of marijuana.In court he said he preferred to use the marijuana rather than the popular Viagra which can be dangerous. [i995fm]Makes sense to me. Unfortunately, we're reminded once again of the one indisputable risk associated with using marijuana: they'll put you in jail for it.
"Marijuana Is Safer" authors Tvert and Armentano appear at Oaksterdam University
The student union at Oaksterdam University in downtown Oakland was buzzing yesterday afternoon as several dozen people gathered together with Marijuana is Safer authors Paul Armentano of NORML and Mason Tvert of SAFER to celebrate the brand new book's release. (Co-author Steve Fox of MPP was on the East Coast. The book also boasts a foreword by Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle.) After an hour or so of schmoozing, book selling, and signing, Armentano and Tvert were joined by Oaksterdam's Greg Grimala for an informal discussion about the book, whose thesis--that marijuana is safer than alcohol--is an outgrowth of work originally done by Tvert as he organized college campuses around the issue of inequality in punishments for students got smoking pot as opposing to underage drinking. Armentano, who has been keeping a keen eye on marijuana research for years, supplies much of the hard science. "The fact that we're even having this discussion is a measure of marijuana's relative harmlessness," Tvert pointed out, adding that he thought the alcohol vs. marijuana comparison was an excellent tactic. "Parents can understand alcohol, and we can make the comparison between it and marijuana. Within that framework, you get them to start thinking about marijuana the same way they think of alcohol. The discussion of alcohol provides a reference point, and that will only further the debate." Tvert will be hitting the road to promote the book in coming weeks. Armentano said yesterday the book was shipping to bookstores in the East now and would be showing up on the West Coast soon. He also said he had directed that a review copy be sent to StoptheDrugWar.org, so look for a book review here next week. (The Chronicle is on vacation this week.) Tvert, Armentano, Grimala
Marijuana used for methadone withdrawal in Vancouver program
A new program based in Vancouver,B.C.
Colbert vs. Zero Tolerance Drug Policies
Nailed 'Em - War on Birth Controlwww.colbertnation.comColbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTasers
Former Surgeon General Says Legalize Marijuana
Dr. Jocelyn Elders ignited a firestorm when she proposed studying the merits of drug legalization while serving as Surgeon General under President Clinton. It was a bold move back then and she's still eager to speak out in favor of reform:Youâre also a vocal proponent of medical marijuana. Why?I have been speaking out about it for a long time. Iâm a member of the board of advisors of a medical marijuana group. To me, itâs not nearly as toxic for our bodies as tobacco or alcohol. It should be legalized. As far as we know, it doesnât cause lung cancer, it doesnât cause people to go out and drive drunk and commit crimes. If it helps reduce the nausea and vomiting and reduce leg cramps, make patients feel better, whatâs wrong with that? We should make it available to people who need it. I feel if people want marijuana, they could get a prescription. Then we can tax it and know who is getting it. I donât think it is a drug that is doing harm to this country. By arresting people, putting them in jail for crimes related to marijuana, weâre spending millions on drug enforcement and it causes more problems. Young people are convicted of a crime, they canât get money to go to school, we have over 2 million prisoners and many related to drug useâit is a vicious cycle and one we created. [New America Media]She gets it. In fact, she got it a long time ago.
Amsterdam vs. Bill O'Reilly
O'Reilly said a couple pretty nasty things about the Dutch recently, prompting this delightful response from some genius on YouTube:Now O'Reilly responds to the response, and check how he addresses the question of why rates of marijuana use are lower in the Netherlands than the U.S.:Why have so many more people in the USA, where marijuana is illegal, tried it? 40% of people in the USA compared to 22.6%...OREILLY (interrupting): The way they use statistics in the Netherlands is different, plus it's a much smaller country.Huh? The guy just lies so reflexively, it's astonishing. Of course, by denying the validity of the statistics, he tacitly acknowledges that they would be significant if they were true. Well, they are true, Bill, which means all your paranoid fulminations about the horrors of legalization are nonsense. I just hope he's right that the U.S. is on course to implement Dutch-style drug policies.
Media Hypocrisy in the Marijuana Debate
Russ Belville shares the fascinating story of some "higher ups" at CBS pulling the plug on a NORML radio show that was about to go on the air. The whole thing is magnificently absurd considering that CBS owns Showtime, home of the hit series Weeds. If CBS has a problem with marijuana, then they really shouldnât be out there making money by sensationalizing it. Boy, it would really suck for CBS if word got out among Weeds viewers that the show's corporate owners have some kind of problem with debating marijuana laws.
Marijuana is Safer Than Water
I sometimes wonder if we rely too heavily on the argument that marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco. People who don't know anything about marijuana (which comprise a substantial portion of our opposition) may have a hard time understanding what we mean by that. Moreover, it's tricky to compare the totality of harm produced by those drugs vs. marijuana because our opponents obscure the analysis by blaming the harms of alcohol and tobacco on their legality.Inevitably, the argument that marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco suffers by virtue of the fact that those drugs are pretty dangerous. Being safer than them doesnât mean it's safe. So for a while now, I've been trying to think of something else to compare it to and I think Pete Guither nails it in this post.
BMW and Mercedes Use Hemp in Their Cars
Remind me why hemp is illegal to grow in the U.S.:â¦if you drive a BMW or a Mercedes Benz, or wear Armani jeans or Patagonia shirts, you could be consuming hemp.Its fiber turns up in car door panels, insulation and clothing. Its seeds make tasty granola and frozen desserts, its oil expensive cosmetics and ecologically friendly soap.If you use these products, you wonât be jailed for possession. But would-be hemp farmersâ fear of arrest is what keeps the U.S. importing the stuff instead of growing its own. [Bloomberg]I don't write about hemp often, mainly because it's not actually a drug, but it bears repeating that the only reason hemp cultivation is illegal is because a bunch of paranoid drug warriors are utterly terrified of it. As stupid as the arguments against legalizing marijuana are, the case against hemp is even more mindless and pathetic. Just pause for a moment and think about the fact that the DEA banned a substance used to make door panels for luxury cars, simply because it's related to marijuana. That level of marijuana hysteria probably wouldnât be possible in the current political climate, but we're stuck with it until Congress admits this is ridiculous. And I guarantee you that if Congress attempts to legalize hemp cultivation in the U.S., there will actually be people who freak out about it and try to argue that hemp somehow endangers America's youth.
The Constitution, America's Conscience!
The SPIRIT of 1776 was the HOLY SPIRIT and is our TRUE NORTH! The American dream is, "for the power of love to overcome the love of power." We will overcome!
The Need for Prescription Drug Harm-Reduction
Today I had the second appointment with my psychiatrist. In ten minutes, I was prescribed a 5 month supply of the stimulant medication Adderall.
Want to Prevent Marijuana Growing on Public Land? Legalize it
The widespread destruction of our national forests caused by illicit marijuana cultivation is becoming a bigger story every summer. The problem just keeps getting worse and it seems that Mexican cartels arenât the only ones cashing in on it:Forest Service law enforcement staff was doubled from 14 to 28 agents in California between 2007 and 2008, said spokesman John Heil, resulting in the eradication of 3.1 million marijuana plants in the last fiscal year.Congress is responding too, with a recent $3 million supplemental appropriation secured by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that allowed the Park Service to add 25 new law enforcement officers to its Pacific Region parksâ¦[New York Times]The more marijuana gets planted, the more jobs are created for people to cut down the plants, which causes still more marijuana to get planted. The harder you try to put a stop to this, the worse the damage gets. The cops doing this work wonât hesitate to tell you that there's more of it every year. We haven't even scratched the surface of how bad it's going to get:"As more pressure happens in California, they're going to start looking at Oregon, Nevada and Idaho," said Krogen, of the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew. "Then they'll start looking at the Southeast too, closer to distribution."Does anyone really believe that law enforcement is going to solve this problem? I'm sure going on treasure hunts in the woods is a popular assignment, but I have a hard time believing that these guys actually think they're accomplishing anything. The bottom line is that legalization is absolutely the only option that exists for controlling where, how, and by whom marijuana is grown. I hope it won't require the permanent destruction of precious natural resources across the country to illustrate that fact. It never ceases to amaze me that all of this is happening because the government wonât let people grow their own marijuana.