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Why Are Democrats Barking About Rush Limbaugh's Drug Use?
National Review Online has a good point here. Obama's past drug use was rightfully declared off-limits during the campaign. Everyone on the left seemed to agree that was appropriate, so bludgeoning Limbaugh over his own drug use is lame.You could make a decent argument that Limbaugh's behavior was more shocking (in light of this wildly hypocritical statement, for example), but that's really beside the point. The fact that past drug use is no longer a landmine on the campaign trail is an encouraging signal that our political culture has matured beyond the finger-wagging of the past. If we want it to stay that way, then there must be a bi-partisan truce when it comes to trashing someone's character for using drugs. If you're actually discussing drug policy, that might be different, but just blatantly citing past drug use as evidence that someone's an asshole is not cool. This isn't about Rush Limbaugh, it's about moving beyond the "I didn't inhale" era so that we can have public discussions of drugs and drug policy that arenât politicized and perverted to the point of absurdity.
Drug Policy Reform Video and Poster Contest Winners Announced
Our friends at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union have announced the winners of their drug policy video and poster contests, in preparation for next weeks UN international drug summit in Vienna. Click on the images below to check them out.
i just want to subscribe for emails
but apparently i need to make an account too! so this is my account! here is my post.
Contemplating Marijuana Legalization
guest column by Dr. Douglas Young, Prof. of Pol. Sci. & History at Gainesville College, Gainesville, GA The news of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking pot should re-energize the marijuana legalization debate because America should be a free marketplace of ideas where ALL perspectives joust. Yet to even consider legalization is often unacceptable in polite company. But, because all public policy should be rationally debated, let's at least look at some legalization arguments. I wish no one used any recreational drug (and I avoid them all). But if we must outlaw everything potentially dangerous, then we need a federal 30 mph speed limit and a ban on fatty foods greasing the obesity epidemic killing over 300,000 Americans annually (CBS News). Somehow we survived legal marijuana until 1937. It actually helped finance our revolution, clothe the Continental Army, and provide the paper for our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Washington and Jefferson grew it, and the latter even risked smuggling it out of Europe. In fact, before 1870, hemp oil ranked second only to whale oil in creating light around the world. During World War II, the feds pushed hemp production to make rope for the war effort. Dope got banned because federal cops wanted to keep their jobs (alcohol prohibition was repealed in 1933), cotton farmers wanted to end hemp competition, and whites linked pot to Mexican immigrants and black jazz musicians. Louis Armstrong never performed without it, and a later user, Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, still calls joints "herbal jazz cigarettes." But Caucasians feared white girls would "go crazy" on dope and become intimate with minority males. So, to avert "Reefer Madness," the weed got outlawed instead of the cancer sticks, liver poison, and "Mother's Little Helper" pills preferred by the ruling class. Today over 12 percent of federal and state inmates are doing time for pot, costing taxpayers over $1 billion annually (In These Times). A record 872,000 Americans were arrested for it in 2007 alone -- 89 percent just for possession (the FBI). In fact, an attorney on "The O'Reilly Factor" revealed a few years back that there were more lifers in California prisons for pot than for murder, rape, and kidnapping combined. So pot-smokers get locked up with and brutalized by our most violent felons. How's that for "rehabilitation"? Then their criminal records deny them student loans, good jobs, and even voting rights. Does our abuse of drug-users resemble how we used to mistreat the mentally ill? The medical evidence shows drug addicts are unwisely self-medicating a dopamine deficiency in the brain. They need treatment, not an 8 x 10 cell. How do you think future generations will judge us? William F. Buckley, Jr. noted that 400,000 police can't go after violent crimes and theft due to the endless "War on Drugs." There's also epidemic vice squad corruption with drugs since their price is so inflated precisely because they're illegal. Psst: The folks most against legalization -- are drug dealers! Why not tax our biggest cash crop and let cops chase violent felons? Doesn't prohibition fuel the forbidden fruit syndrome? The 1920s' alcohol ban criminalized a huge percentage of decent Americans, created organized crime in the US, and corrupted thousands of police and officials (even President Warren Harding and Chief Justice William Taft secretly drank). Though none is healthy, is pot remotely as bad as alcohol or cigarettes? CBS News reported that half of US hospital beds are filled by folks with alcohol-related problems, and we have 110,000 alcohol-lubricated deaths every year. Also, the Justice Department admits that alcohol was the only drug found in 36 percent of all convicted criminals and is a factor in over 40 percent of murders. Cigarettes are as addictive as heroin (former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop), do far more bodily harm than any opiate (addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky), and kill 430,000 Americans a year (CDC). My hygienist says they can even cause teeth to fall out in your thirties. Though pot is psychologically addictive for some, no one ever overdosed, got cancer, or died from marijuana. Nor do people get violent on it (as Bill Maher says, "Forgetting to kill your wife on pot, okay"). Also, studies show most pot-smokers do not graduate to harder illegal drugs. Legalization doesn't mean more pot smoking. In Holland, where marijuana is tolerated, just 12 percent of Dutch aged 15-24 said they used pot in 2005. But, in nearby France, where it's illegal, 24 percent of French youths admitted smoking it that year. And, in the U.S., almost 28 percent of Americans 18-25 said they used marijuana in 2004-5. Yet, with effective health classes and ad campaigns, U.S. tobacco and alcohol consumption have gone way down in recent years. Better education can lower pot use as well. Though 12 states have passed referenda liberalizing marijuana laws, the feds keep vetoing our constitutional democratic states' rights. Ultimately, either we're for less government or we're not. Is it really state business what consenting adults do in their own home? Must we have a national nanny state with Big Brother jailing citizens for a weed? And wouldn't our libertarian Founding Fathers be appalled at this gross encroachment on our privacy rights? Let's at least debate returning to our roots and finally standing up for freedom for a change. Exactly why not?
If Obama Supports Medical Marijuana, What About Hemp?
On the heels of Obama's hugely popular decision to end the DEA's raids on medical marijuana providers, it's worth looking into some of the other absurd federal drug policies that interfere with states rights and common sense.Hemp cultivation isnât technically illegal in the U.S., but you need a special permit from the DEA, and if you ask for one they'll call you a hippie and tell you to go f@#k yourself. Seriously, try it. I applied last year and this is the response I got:Dear Mr. Morgan,We have finished processing your application to "grow hemp so I can make cool snacks and rope and stuff." We regret to inform you that you are a hippie and you can go screw yourself.Yours cruelly, Michele Leonhart,Acting AdministratorDrug Enforcement AdministrationP.S. Your blog sucks and if you put this letter in your blog, we'll burn down the Chipotle next to your office.That about sums it up. Honestly, I donât even get why this is an issue. Hemp isnât drugs. Why DEA gives a damn if people want to cultivate hemp is completely beyond me. Near as I can tell, they're relying exclusively on the argument that people will surreptitiously grow marijuana in their hemp fields, which is preposterous because you can't do that. Hemp will cross-pollinate and destroy any commercial marijuana in its vicinity. It's the anti-pot. Thus, I tend to assume that DEA's animosity towards hemp is merely a symptom of the broader culture war surrounding marijuana in general. They'll concede nothing to the reform community, even when their intransigence requires them to obstruct legitimate economic activity based on flimsy reasoning. Of course, now that we have a president with the guts to tell DEA when they're out of line, there's simply no reason this issue canât move forward. Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia have all passed laws authorizing hemp cultivation and eagerly await the federal go-ahead. Efforts to legalize hemp are also underway in Minnesota and in California, where a hemp bill died on the governor's desk (Schwarzenegger cited conflict with federal law as his reason for rejecting the legislation).Hemp won't save our economy, but it can provide income for many good, hardworking people. We lead the industrialized world in the importation of hemp and it would make a great deal of sense to start producing it ourselves.
Final count for3/4/'09 6
I wake up this morning and the shooting count is 6.The police still don't get it and the public is all over the place.Everybody is a vigilante in waiting and everyone knows the answer ,which is,of cou
DrugAddiction- Destroy Your Life
Most governments have designed legislation to criminalise certain types of drug use.
First arrest!
The joint police braintrust(naw,it's too easy)known as IHit has made it's first arrest in the gang warfare that's gone on unabated for several years now with no arrests.After Canadian PM,Stephen Harpe
Field Tests for Identifying Drugs Are Proven Wildly Inaccurate
This is simply jawdropping:The results of the study are available in the MPP-funded report False Positives Equal False Justice. This research has quite far-reaching implications when you consider the massive number of drug arrests performed each year based on the results of these inaccurate field tests. With nearly a million marijuana arrests in the U.S. every year, the number of people convicted of marijuana possession who never actually had marijuana is certainly much larger than zero. I'd also like to know what other countries use these tests and what procedures exist to confirm the results before suspects are charged and sentenced.It's a powerfully disturbing development and yet another reminder that nothing in the war on drugs is what it seems. When you pull back the curtain, every stage in the drug prohibition process is exposed as utterly fraudulent and perverted. Literally nothing that happens in the war on drugs is reliably correct. I wouldn't have though it possibleâ¦but if we can't even trust police to accurately identify the drugs they're arresting people for, the drug war is somehow even more shockingly stupid and unfair than I thought.
SWAT Raids on Innocent People are Bad
The Baltimore Sun reports on Cheye Calvo's attempt to bring transparency to the use of paramilitary drug raids in Maryland. Unsurprisingly, the law-enforcement community is not interested in having their activities monitored:However, the executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association says reporting requirements for SWAT teams should emanate from the law enforcement community, not legislators."Our data shows that when SWAT teams are deployed, the violence goes down," said John Gnagey, who was a SWAT team member for 26 years in the Champaign, Ill., police department.I'd love to know what data he's referring to, because that just strikes me as false on its face. SWAT raids are inherently violent. The violence at Cheye Calvo's house wasn't reduced when the SWAT team showed up and started shooting his dogs repeatedly. Of course, the SWAT director thinks the legislature should just butt out and let police decide which reporting requirements are appropriate. Did you hear that Maryland legislators? The SWAT team doesnât want you nosing around in their business. Police are fond of pointing out that if you arenât doing anything wrong, you donât have anything to worry about. Perhaps it's about time someone spat that line right back at them.
How Come the Dutch Smoke Less Marijuana Than Americans?
You don't have to look very hard to find drug war zealots insisting vociferously that Dutch drug policy is a raging trainwreck. But the truth is that rates of marijuana use in the Netherlands are far lower than ours, despite the fact that they sell awesome pot over the counter seven days a week to anyone over 18. That's why Dr. Fredrick Polak, a Dutch psychiatrist and drug policy reformer, has spent years trying to get U.N. Drug Czar Antonio Maria Costa to acknowledge and address the success of Dutch marijuana policy. He's asked Costa about this on 4 separate occasions so far and each time the U.N. drug czar changed the subject. Here's an awesome video of Dr. Polak causing Costa to go a little nuts (seriously watch it, it rocks). Anyway, Dr. Polak has teamed up with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union on a campaign to continue confronting Costa until he actually gives an intelligent response (or admits he doesnât have one). They're asking for our help and they've made a cool new site where everyone can participate. Check it out.
California DMV Agrees to Let Medical Marijuana Patients Drive
Everywhere you look, the irrational persecution of medical marijuana patients is going out of style:Oakland, CA -- The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issued a new policy yesterday with regard to how it treats qualified medical marijuana patients. The DMV Driver Safety Procedure Manual was revised to include reference to medical marijuana, stating that "use of medicinal marijuana approved by a physician should be handled in the same manner as any other prescription medication which may affect safe driving." [Americans for Safe Access]The policy change stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Americans for Safe Access on behalf of a patient who lost her license despite decades of perfect driving. ASA notes that several counties in California have been designating patients as "drug abusers" solely due to their medical use of marijuana. The mind-bending stupidity of all this is staggering when you consider the plethora of popular perfectly-legal pharmaceuticals that won't affect your driving privileges despite turning you into a slobbering zombie for 8 hours. Fortunately, the idiots who've been playing doctor/cop at California's DMV can look forward to a shiny new memo telling them to cut the crap.
Introduction
My name is John Daniel. I don't believe prohibition of Marijuana works any more than prohibition of alcohol worked. It was a policy with its genesis in racism and a waste of time and money.
Mexican President Surprised to Learn That the Drug War is Super Violent
Does Felipe Calderon even know what he's doing?MEXICO CITY (AFP) â President Felipe Calderon Friday acknowledged the country's drug war is bloodier and tougher than he thought when he first took office in 2006, but vowed to eradicate the "cancer" that is consuming Mexico. Really? That's odd because this has gone exactly as I expected and I havenât been to Mexico in 20 years. He's the president. Why is he struggling to understand the basic dimensions of his own drug war?If he admits that he didn't know it would get this bad, one wonders what else he doesnât know. There were 6,000 people killed in Mexico's drug war last year alone and things appear to be getting worse, not better. Even Calderon's updated assessment may be proven horribly naïve.  How much longer can the leaders of the drug war continue feigning surprise when their policies fail?
Man Uses Fake Money to Buy Fake Drugs
Via DrugWarRant:ERWIN, Tenn. -- A man was been arrested after police said he used counterfeit money to purchase fake OxyContin pills from an undercover officer.Unicoi County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 21-year-old man on Tuesday and charged him with criminal conspiracy with schedule II drugs, forgery and criminal simulation. [Pantagraph.com]It's almost funny, except the part where this poor bastard goes to jail for some drugs that never even existed.
Former Drug Warrior Now Lives With his Parents
The power shift in Washington isnât looking favorably on the folks who ran Bush's drug war. Oh, the irony:Justin Rand, 24, formerly a "confidential assistant" in the White House's drug policy office, exited right before the election to work on John McCain's campaign -- so, he hoped, he could remain at the White House. After McCain's loss, Rand could no longer stay in Washington because, among other reasons, he couldn't find a job. He has since moved in with his parents in Jacksonville, Fla. [Washington Post]So basically, this guy got hooked on anti-drug propaganda and let it take over his whole life. He was doing it five days a week and surrounding himself with some of the best-known suppliers. Now he's unemployed and lives with his folks. Parents, please don't let your kids end up like Justin. There are some warning signs that your loved one may be addicted to the drug war, such as lying about drug use statistics and hanging out with sketchy people like David Murray.They'll usually try to rationalize the behavior ("I'm just doing my job"), but the truth is that supporting the drug war is associated with impaired judgment and prolonged exposure can turn you into an insufferable jerktard.
Medical Marijuana Raids are Officially Over
In a press conference intended to celebrate a series of DEA raids on Mexican cartels operating in the U.S., Attorney General Eric Holder was asked about the medical marijuana raids. He said this:What's particularly delightful about this is that DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart was standing right next to him. It would have been nice if the cameras had turned to capture Leonhart's expression as her new boss announced the termination of the vicious campaign for which she bears great responsibility.Although we've known this was coming for some time now, it's particularly gratifying to watch the Attorney General's mouth form the words we've waited 10 years to hear. So many have sacrificed so much to get us to this point. There were so many times when this fight looked hopeless to everyone but us, which is worth keeping in mind the next time someone tells us we're asking for too much.As a decade of bad policy is brushed aside with scarcely a whimper, it's becoming clear how fictitious and contrived this debate has been from the beginning. One can scarcely overstate how ridiculously unfounded the fears of our political culture have proven to be. It's amazing to think that our government remained invested in this preposterous crusade for so long not because our leaders necessarily believed in it, but often because they simply lacked the courage to consider a change of course.As sad as that sounds, there's a lesson here in that the best arguments for reform will often have more to do with politics than policy.
NJ Senate President Embarrasses Himself With Bad Pot Joke
The New Jersey Senate passed a medical marijuana bill on Monday, prompting State Senate President Richard J. Codey to utter one of the worst pot jokes I've ever heard:Dude, you're not Jay Leno. Sadly, it's hard to imagine what threshold must be crossed before sick and dying patients can receive protection under the law without having to endure the completely banal, sophomoric comedy stylings of some of America's least funny people. Too many public officials, news anchors, and journalists still think pot jokes are a free ride to funnytown, and we'll usually give them a pass on it, even as they unleash one sorry groaner after another. But the line ought to be drawn on the senate floor, when seriously ill patients are in the room. That is just basic professional courtesy. Fortunately, FOX at least picked up the story and acknowledged the controversy that this type of childish behavior provokes. Hopefully, we are moving towards a point when legitimate medical marijuana patients are left alone, not only by police, but by bad amateur comedians in all sectors of public service.
Colombia Threatens Obama With Cocaine Crisis if he Doesn't Give Them Money
Dear President Obama,Please give us lots of money or we will bury you in cocaine.Yours truly,Colombia BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia is confident Washington will keep providing multimillion-dollar aid to fight the drug trade in the Andean nation because any cuts would mean more cocaine reaches U.S. cities, the defense minister said on Saturday. This is what's called an empty threat (although you could also call it extortion). I mean really, how much more cocaine could they possibly produce? Eradication doesnât work, so nothing bad will happen if we stop doing it. How can you argue about results like this:Critics say Plan Colombia has failed to stop the spread of coca cultivation in recent years and point to steady cocaine output in the world's No. 1 producer of the drug.According to U.N. figures, Colombian coca crops covered some 244,600 acres at the end of 2007 -- 27 percent more than the previous year.But Santos said he expected the strategy to be maintained because it was backed by both Democrats and Republicans. He called it "the most successful bipartisan U.S. foreign policy of recent times."â¦If by successful you mean that people keeping funding it. It's hard to imagine how much worse this program would have to perform before its benefactors became embarrassed by it. I swear, Colombian cocaine production could increase tenfold in a year and these guys would look you right in the eye and tell you Plan Colombia has never worked better.This is nuts and Obama has zero excuses for even thinking about funding this crap. It is the definition of a failed policy and we are in the midst of an unfathomable economic crisis. There has never been a better time to tell our friends in Colombia that this game of make-believe is over.