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Legalizing Marijuana Doesnât Mean We Have to Legalize Horrible Crimes
Calls for legalization in the aftermath of the Michael Phelps media frenzy havenât met with much backlash, probably because the gold-medal winning bong-monger kinda breaks the mold as far as stoner stereotyping goes. So we should be grateful, if anything, for the few anti-drug zealots that are so unhinged, so consumed by reefer madness, that they feel compelled to speak even when doing so serves only to further expose and embarrass their crazy beliefs:The recent incident involving Michael Phelps getting caught smoking pot has caused the age long debate to rear its head again on whether or not we should legalize or at least decriminalize our drug laws. The idea in attacking the drug laws is that people should be free to make their own decisions. The problem with that line of reasoning is that you would never be able to draw the line on establishing any law. Everything would have to be legal, including armed robbery, murder, assault, etc. In essence, it would be anarchy. [Shreveport Times]Ok, I donât think you understand. We want to legalize marijuana, but not murder. Does that make sense? Armed robbery, etc. would still be illegal. No one will ever try to legalize violent crime, so shut up and stop worrying about that. Itâs a shame what marijuana does to some peopleâs brains.
Drug War Logic 101
Pete Guither and Dave Borden already mentioned it, but I just canât get enough of this quote from the Wall Street Journal:"If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence," a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence "because these guys are flailing. We're taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now."So let me get this straight. According to the U.S. government:No violence = drug war is failingIntense violence = drug war is going wellSo when do we win the drug war then? When everyoneâs dead?
Sheriff Lott Gives up on Charging Michael Phelps
Duhâ¦Lott said his investigators couldn't find enough evidence to charge anyone â including Phelps â who attended the party with any crime. [The State]Um yeah, itâs kind of hard to convict a guy of smoking a bong at a party 4 months ago. Thatâs just one of many reasons that literally everyone in the world thought this was a terrible idea. Lottâs press conference was supremely lame, as he played the role of a valiant public servant caught in an epic "damned if you do, damned if you donât" conundrum. As if anybody was going to give him a hard time for failing to launch a massive investigation against a misdemeanor marijuana suspect who couldnât even be legally extradited because the charge was so petty. Anyhow, itâs probably safe to say the Michael Phelps mega-controversy will likely begin fizzling out from here, unless he gets caught free-basing bubble hash on YouTube.
A Failed Drug Strategy Isnât the Only Way DEA Wastes our Money
Looks like someone forgot to tell DEA about the economic crisis:WASHINGTON â The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes.The DEA paid a contractor an additional $5,380 to arrange Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart's trip last Oct. 28-30 with an outside company.The DEA scheduled the trip as the nation was reeling from the worst economic crisis in decades and the national debt was climbing toward $10 trillion. Three weeks later, lawmakers slammed chief executive officers from three automakers for flying to Washington in private jets as Congress debated whether to bail out the auto industry. [McClatchy]Of course, a DEA official assures us that this was all necessitated by a security threat:Brown said the administrator couldn't have taken a commercial flight because she and other officials who were traveling with her were under "specific" threat in Colombia at the time. He wouldn't reveal details about the threat, saying only that it was of a "sensitive law-enforcement nature." He added that the threat prompted him to conclude that "a government aircraft would provide a level of security not available on a commercial aircraft."Makes sense, butâ¦A U.S. official in Colombia, however, said that officials there weren't aware of any threat against Leonhart other than the general insecurity in the country due to the drug trade.Interesting. Seriously, how much longer is going to take the Obama Administration to replace Michele Leonhart? Crap like this is nothing compared to the medical marijuana raids, but it serves as yet another reminder that DEA is a rogue agency that just does whatever it wants all the time.
California Dispensary Prices Getting Better
It appears competition is bringing the price for medical marijuana down. Hopefully the changes in policy by President Obama will increase production so prices will keep going down.
Increasing Violence in Mexico is Not a Sign of Progress in the Drug War
Peter Guither routinely dissects drug war illogic in the public discourse over at the Drug WarRant blog. Last week he highlighted some illustratively blind comments in the Wall Street Journal by an unnamed senior US official who actually argued that increased violence in Mexico is a sign of progress in the drug war: U.S. law-enforcement officials -- as well as some of their counterparts in Mexico -- say the explosion in violence indicates progress in the war on drugs as organizations under pressure are clashing. "If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence," a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence "because these guys are flailing. We're taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now." The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb followed up: The cops wanted a new metric by which to judge their success -- one that would not penalize them for an increased murder rate that necessarily follows from doing their job, i.e. eliminating a major drug trafficker. Pete pointed out that Goldfarb and the official are "confusing success in an action with success in policy." Sure, we can take out any given drug trafficking organization if we try hard enough, but if the result is that different traffickers supply the same amount of drugs to people, while tearing the country apart at greater and greater levels with their fighting, it's poor strategy. And since people are dying in the Mexican drug wars at a rapid pace -- 8,000 have been killed in the past two years since President Calderón ratcheted things up by sending in the military -- I'd say yes, we absolutely should stop it, ASAP. If we're going to be at all logical about things, that is.
Initiate recalls of all members of congress (except Ron Paul)
How can congress get away with all this unconstitutional legislation with impunity?
11 shootings in just over a week
Of course everyone has their opinion and the public want everybody fired,longer jail terms,more prisons etc.The most worrying thing in all of this is our new police chief.I was dumbfounded to see him
So take that.
If that bong had a tony the tiger logo on it, wouldn't that be a breach of contract? And, the message this whole smear campaign is sending, is "na na, see how petty we can be".
Tips to Stop Drug Abuse
Here are some simple tips for you to stop drug abuse. The first step to stop drug abuse is to know why people start to use drugs.
Police are Trying Very Hard to Bust Michael Phelps for Smoking a Bong
Yesterday, we learned that eight people have been arrested in the aftermath of the Michael Phelps bong photo and the infamous bong itself has been captured and taken into custody. As new details emerge, itâs becoming increasingly clear that there really is a serious campaign underway to prosecute Michael Phelps:The effort to prosecute Phelps on what would be at most a minor drug charge seem extreme compared to similar cases, lawyers said, and have led some to question whether the sheriff is being overzealous because he's dealing with a celebrity.â¦The investigators appear to be trying to build a case against Phelps from others â a tactic normally used to bring down drug dealers with a large amounts of cocaine or methamphetamine, not someone who smoked marijuana five months ago, said Chip Price, a Greenville attorney who has dealt with drug cases for 33 years. [AP]Thereâs not much left to say about this that I havenât said already, so Iâll say it again: Sheriff Leon Lott and his henchmen are unhinged drug war lunatics wielding their unchecked powers as arbitrarily and embarrassingly as humanly possible.To my knowledge, next to no one on the planet supports this ridiculous crusade. So I can only hope that this very visible example of vindictive marijuana enforcement serves to focus public attention on the often pathetic behavior of our supposedly heroic drug war soldiers. Just look at them. Look at what they are doing. And remember that this episode is hardly the first or only time the drug warriors have allowed childish and obsessive pursuits to triumph over the public interest.If they think destroying Michael Phelps is a good idea, imagine all the other wretched crap theyâve done that you donât even know about.
USA Swimming Deserves Condemnation for Suspending Michael Phelps
Amidst the massive backlash against Kelloggâs for dropping Michael Phelps, weâve neglected to target USA Swimming, which suspended him even though they didnât have to. Their petty moralizing is entirely uncalled for and warrants a response.On that note, our friends at SAFER have created a form to contact USA Swimming and share your concerns. It only takes a second. Thanks!
F.D.A. to Place New Limits on Prescriptions of Narcotics
F.D.A. to Place New Limits on Prescriptions of Narcotics By GARDINER HARRIS Published: February 9, 2009 WASHINGTON â "Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24
Cops in South Carolina want to arrest Michael Phelps for smoling marijuana
What cops in South Carolina are doing to Michael Phelps is just wrong, it's called vindictive prosecution.
Threatdown
No,not Stephen Colbert,B.C.Premier Gordon(Gordo)Campbell.He took the 6 shootings and 4 deaths in a single week and did the same thing every politician has done since the inception of the gang life sty
There are so Many People in Jail, They Literally Donât fit
The criminal justice system in California is rapidly approaching a breaking point:SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California must release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding.The judges said no other solution will improve conditions so poor that inmates die regularly of suicides or lack of proper care.â¦"There are simply too many prisoners for the existing capacity," they wrote. "Evidence offered at trial was overwhelmingly to the effect that overcrowding is the primary cause of the unconstitutional conditions that have been found to exist in the California prisons." [AP]Passing harsh laws, capturing offenders and convicting people of crimes is the easy part. What a lot of people donât get is that the process doesnât end there. You have to actually do something with the people youâve decided to remove from society. Keeping massive populations behind bars for years at a time is phenomenally expensive, even if you do an appallingly poor job of it.Itâs utterly disgusting that our drug laws condemn these people to a living hell, all because drugs are supposedly bad for your physical and emotional health. The treatment of our prisoners is disgraceful and the legions of prison-state profiteers who lobby for more jails and tougher laws seldom receive the recognition they deserve in the hierarchy of scum-sucking subspecies destroying our society.The prison industry will not stop. These people have already created an unbelievable mess and they will fight for more laws and funding no matter how much worse it gets. When human beings start getting sick and dying in our jails, someone outside the criminal justice industry has to intervene, otherwise nothing will be done about it. It shouldnât even be necessary for judges to compel better prison conditions, but of course it is.Fortunately, the one inevitable boundary that exists here is the fact that there is simply nothing left to spend on keeping more people in prison. The incarceration industry canât print its own money. Itâs a shame that we couldnât stall the escalation of our massive prison population with appeals to logic and compassion, but if it takes bankruptcy to abate this then so be it.
The Truth about Drug Dealers, Prison, Marijuana, and Kids
This is the Truth about Drug Dealers, Prison, Marijuana, and Kids I learned over the years. Drug Dealers
Has Obama Made a Good Choice for Drug Czar?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will likely be Obamaâs nominee for director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, commonly referred to as the drug czar. It appears that we may soon be faced with the most promising drug czar ever to occupy the position.To be clear, Kerlikowske is not a friend of drug policy reform to any extent Iâm aware of. What matters here is that I see no evidence that he is a vicious drug warrior of the sort commonly associated with the drug czar post. Given that ONDCP is mandated to oppose reform efforts and has typically embraced that role, a less confrontational and reefer madness-driven drug czar is really the best case scenario from a drug policy reform perspective.Under Kerlikowske, Seattle has been a model for sensible marijuana policy, including the famous Seattle Hempfest at which the Seattle Police Department performs a public safety role while declining to make marijuana arrests. Following the passage of a 2004 lowest priority initiative, the cityâs already-low rate of marijuana prosecutions fell even further, suggesting that Kerlikowske was responsive to the will of voters. In that sense, he offers a dramatic departure from ONDCPâs shameful history of undermining state medical marijuana laws and inserting itself into state politics for the purpose of thwarting reform efforts. In an office typically run by military officials and political hacks, Kerlikowske would bring expertise in community policing and public relations. As drug czar, I have no doubt that Gil Kerlikowske would oppose drug legalization and serve as our primary opponent on many issues. Nevertheless, at first glance, my gut instinct is that after several drug czars from hell, a guy from Seattle doesnât sound so bad.Update: I'd be remiss not to mention that Kerlikowske's immediate predecessor was Norm Stamper.