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The Bong Hit Heard Around the World
In case you missed it, Olympic badass Michael Phelps got photographed taking bong hits at a party and nothing will ever be the same. Heâs really, really sorry about it and he urges the public to forgive him and stop taking pictures of him at parties. Radley Balko says pretty much everything that there is to say about this, but let me add that if anyone has a problem with Michael Phelps smoking marijuana, you should look in the mirror and think about how badly you suck. I donât care who you are, you will never be as good at anything as Michael Phelps is at swimming. Heâs better than you.For all I care, Michael Phelps can suck gravity bongs out of an Olympic swimming pool on international television with his 14 gold medals around his neck. If youâre waiting for him to sell his trophies for dope money, donât hold your breath. Speaking of which, Michael Phelps can hold his breath longer than you.Update: NORML's hilariously brilliant Russ Belville has this. I want it on a t-shirt.
Medical Marijuana Research Has Taken a New Direction This Century
Paul Armentano and NORML came out last month with a report, "Emerging Clinical Applications For Cannabis & Cannabinoids: A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature, 2000 â 2009," detailing the findings of scientific research on marijuana and its derivatives for treating a wide range of diseases and conditions -- ALS, Alzheimer's and Fibromyalgia, to name just a few. Paul made a significant observation in the foreword to the report: Whereas researchers in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s primarily assessed cannabis' ability to temporarily alleviate various disease symptoms â such as the nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy â scientists today are exploring the potential role of cannabinoids to modify disease. Most of the public has already woken up to the lie that's been told by drug warriors to justify medical prohibition of marijuana, the false claim that it has no medical uses. What may never be fully understood is the opportunities tragically lost, the good that could have been done if promising lines of research had been pursued decades earlier instead of decades later, but for our government's bizarre antagonism against a plant...
Gwinnett County Georgia SWAT Team Blowing It Big Time
Radley Balko covers the second wrong-door raid in two months committed by drug agents in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
The Drug War's Dangerous Distortion of Medical Standards
We haven't reported lately on the issue of under-treatment of pain, so this weekend day seemed like a good time to link to a couple of the sites whose people labor in trenches of the pain struggle every day. First, the war on pain doctors continues, with the latest major battle being that of Wichita-area Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife Linda Schneider. The Schneiders were charged with the deaths of 56 patients by over-prescribing pain medications, but the judge has now limited the case to just four. My guess is that most of these patients passed due to the medical issues that led them to seek treatment, just as one would expect to happen in any medical practice that takes on seriously ill patients; and that a few might have needed the drugs for pain but misused them (as one would also expect to happen sometimes). I haven't examined the case closely enough for that to be more than a guess, but it's an educated guess, as that is usually what is going on in these pain doctor trials. Visit the Pain Relief Network news update page for info. How have things come to this? Big topic, but Dr. Alex DeLuca has a post last week on his "War on Doctors / Pain Crisis" blog, "The Distortion of Medicine and Confusion of Standards," that goes into some of it. A key part of the problem is that while modern pain management textbooks recommend "titration to effect" -- e.g. "gradually increasing the opioid dose until the pain is relieved or until untreatable side effects prevent further dosage increase" -- most doctors just don't do that. And so patients in ongoing, serious pain go without adequate treatment. This makes the typical standard of pain care below medical standards. But it also means that doctors who wrongly believe they shouldn't be relieving a patient's pain are available to testify in trials for the prosecution -- hence the Schneider trial and many others. Even when the defense brings in experts to testify as to what the expert view really is, it creates confusion that can lead to false convictions. This is in fact what happened in the famous William Hurwitz case. DeLuca goes into this in more detail in an interview filmed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, linked to in his post, so check it out. Another physician victim of the pain wars, Dr. William Mangino, recently submitted a Reply Brief in the appeal of his case. He is imprisoned in Pennsylvania, and he wrote the brief himself. It paints a pretty terrible picture of the what the government is doing in these cases. Dr. Mangino sent us a copy, via one of his friends, and we've posted it here.
Meeting to ask residents what can be done to prevent shootings
Seems people are growing weary of the gang war and the related shootings and are holding a weekend meeting to solve it.The one thing I can guarantee you that they won't hear is that the longer drug pr
What Happened to the Drug Czarâs Blog?
I was delighted to notice this evening that the drug czarâs blog, Pushingback.com seems to have removed every post written prior to Obamaâs inauguration. What was formerly one of the webâs greatest collections of unhinged drug war propaganda now houses only 3 posts. Itâs an epic massacre of wretched crap that should never have been written in the first place.Classic embarrassments such as the fake map of San Francisco, the crazy 'burrito taster' poster, and the time they lied about their web traffic are gone forever, along with every other annoying artifact of former drug czar John Waltersâs tragic flirtations with new media. Iâm sure itâs all archived somewhere, but itâs probably best left to rot unless youâre making a documentary called Worst Drug Czar Ever. The archives of Pushingback.com are basically a map of everything ONDCP has been up to for the last couple years. It was the single best source for following the drug czarâs speeches, photo-ops, programs and propaganda. Suddenly, all of John Walters horrible accomplishments are erased and the bloggers whoâve been picking away at him for years are left with a bunch of dead links. The big question is how this came about. Iâd really love to know whose executive decision it was to take out John Waltersâs garbage. I spot-checked a couple other government blogs and found Bush administration posts still available, even on divisive topics such as foreign policy. For now, it looks like the purge at Pushingback.com isnât just a matter of out with the old, in with the new. If someone in the new administration thinks we donât need this crap anymore, theyâre damn right.
Cannabis Strategy: Stop funding Democrats until they listen and act on drug reform!
It was all over the news: on January 22, the DEA raided a California Medical Cannabis Clinic in Lake Tahoe, and two medical cannabis grow houses in Colorado.
How Not to Legalize Marijuana
Via reason, Iâd like to introduce you to Antoine Blalock, who may be the worst activist in the history of drug policy reform:Blalock drove to the Seventh District Police Station on Alabama Avenue S.E. in Washington, D.C., in May 2007. He pulled a handgun from the trunk and started firing, shooting in the air outside the station. Five shots. He shouted, according to court records, "The police should leave us alone and let us sell our weed!"Blalock complied with demands to drop his gun -- and he did not stop there. He dropped his pants, standing naked before officers wrapped him up in a towel. [Law.com]Dude, youâre not helping. Although I suppose if Antoine Blalock starts a blog, I might check it out.
The truth about "addiction"
I have limited time, but will expound on this later, and clean it up.
Obama Appoints Temporary Drug Czar
Amidst the inauguration fanfare, we failed to notice that Obama immediately appointed ONDCPâs general counsel Ed Jurith to serve as acting director, i.e. drug czar. You can read Jurithâs bio here and my thoughts on him here.This is interesting because itâs a definite improvement over Bushâs last minute appointment of Patrick Ward, another ONDCP insider, to run the office upon John Waltersâs departure. Jurith is hardly a friend of reform on any issue Iâm aware of, but his background is in law, while Ward has been directly and heavily involved in interdiction programs.With Jurith being the preferable choice, Iâm wondering if Obama actually did this for the right reasons as he looks for a permanent candidate to fill the position. Thatâs impossible to say, but itâs a small step in the right direction. Letâs hope for a bigger one soon.
Mexican Drug Cartels Dissolve Corpses in Vats of Acid
Lately, the drug war is sounding less and less like an actual government policy and more like a distopian future from a science fiction movie:As the nation's drug war rages on, with its weekly tallies of headless torsos, it is getting harder to produce a shock wave in the Mexican media. But the gruesome recipes of "The Stewmaker" have gripped public attention here, as authorities describe how a "disposal expert" working for a Tijuana drug cartel boss allegedly got rid of hundreds of bodies by dissolving the corpses in vats of caustic liquid. [Washington Post]They call him "The Stewmaker" and his henchmen attacked the police station with machine guns after he was captured. Does any of this sound like the story of a drug policy that works? How much more of this unfathomable gory mayhem do we feel like putting up with? Weâve crossed the line into some seriously dark territory here and itâs way past time something is done about it, something completely different from everything weâve tried before.
Letter to Barack Obama
This is the letter I've just mailed to our new president. As I've said before, I'm just one little voice, and each person reading this is just one little voice.
The World's Smallest Marijuana Joint
Police donât just get the facts wrong about the dangers of marijuana and the impact of commonsense reforms like decriminalization. Frequently, theyâre wrong about marijuana itself, making wild claims about the street value of the latest bust or exaggerating plant yields to make small growers sound like major traffickers. If you think youâve heard it all, hereâs a cop from Massachusetts who says an ounce equals 200-300 joints:According to Lt. Danny Maguire of the Weston Police Department, "The biggest challenge we have is to convince people that, just because the law has changed, marijuana has not become 'legal,' and that the problem of drug addiction is still just as severe as always. There is also the danger that people will think itâs actually OK, under the new law, to smoke a joint or two and get behind the wheel of a car."â¦One ounce of marijuana is the equivalent of 200 to 300 joints, according to Maguire.This is just shockingly crazy and wrong. Researchers have estimated the average size of a joint between 0.4 and 0.9 grams, which would equal 30-70 joints per ounce. If you roll more than 70 joints from an ounce, theyâll be empty toothpick-sized joints with more paper than pot. They wonât even work and no matter who you are, Iâm sure you know someone who can assure that this is true.Claiming that you can roll up to 300 joints from an ounce is a total lie. Itâs hilarious to anyone whoâs ever smoked or even seen a joint. Itâs like claiming a bag of skittles will serve 300 people, when thereâs actually only 70 Skittles in the bag and most people donât find an individual Skittle very satisfying anyhow.So what the hell is this guy talking about? Heâs angry that voters in Massachusetts decriminalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, and heâs trying to pretend thatâs a huge amount of pot. It isnât. His lie, on the other hand, is enormous.
Norm Stamper is Awesome
Here's another old LEAP video that's been making the rounds this week:
Matt Fogg is Awesome
Back in April, the Metropolitan Police Dept. here in D.C. announced plans to go door-to-door asking to search homes in high-crime neighborhoods. Flex Your Rights joined with several local groups to oppose the measure and we shot this great video of Matt Fogg from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaking at a community meeting.I post it now because it randomly popped up at The Agitator and DrugWarRant last week and I realized Iâd never shared this here. Matt Fogg is wildly entertaining and gets me riled up every time I run into him.MPD cancelled the home-search program due to public opposition, proving that events like this can really make a difference.
Ryan Frederick Trial
Radley Balko has been covering the trial of Ryan Frederick, the Virginia man who was charged with murder for killing a police officer who he mistook for a burglar during a questionable drug raid. Iâve been doing my best to report new developments, but itâs an insanely complicated situation and I just donât have time to cover it adequately. I recommend Radleyâs excellent blog The Agitator to those of you who are following the case closely.
Save 440,000 lives each year â with Cannabis. It's high time.
How? We can do it through the use of some innovative social technology: Mandate a compulsory substitution of cannabis for tobacco in all manufactured tobacco products.
Video: Drug Tourism in the Netherlands -- Is It Really Only the Problem of the Dutch?
The latest video from our friends at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
Video: SSDP and LEAP Talk Drug Legalization at El Paso City Council
Nubia Legarda is a Students for Sensible Drug Policy activist from El Paso. Legarda hasn't visited her family in neighboring Ciudad Juárez for months because of the drug trade violence ravaging many of Mexico's cities -- her reason for joining SSDP last year. Texan Terry Nelson is a 30-year law enforcement veteran who worked for the US Border Patrol, the US Customs Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. He is now a leading spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
CNBCâs Marijuana, Inc: Propaganda, Pot Porn, or Both?
They might as well have displayed a link to ONDCP.gov across the screen for an hour. CNBC's Marijuana, Inc. couldnât have been more sensationalist if John Walters wrote the screenplay and Bill OâReilly did the interviews. Iâm serious, it was that bad. Of course, itâs impossible to know how the casual observer may interpret a propaganda trainwreck such as this, but for me it crossed the threshold of absurdity to the point of almost becoming useful. If one factual concept emerged unscathed from this, it is that there is simply nothing you can do to stop the marijuana economy. Marijuana, Inc. painted California as a veritable narco-state, thrown into anarchy by liberal values and unscrupulous profiteers. If thereâs a lesson in there other than the fact that our marijuana laws are a disaster, I must have missed it.The great irony of this is that, whether they like it or not, CNBC is selling their product to the same exact market. Who do they think watches this stuff? Just turn off the sound and youâve got sixty minutes of first-rate pot porno to accompany the musical selection of your choice. They used blatant pot porn to promote it, so they know exactly what theyâre doing. Something is seriously out of balance when CNBC puts out an obnoxious propaganda program, while simultaneously hosting an online poll that favors decriminalization at 97%. They even felt compelled to put this disclaimer on their comment section:**As of this posting, CNBC has only received comments favoring decriminalization of marijuana.Marijuana sells in the media for the same exact reason it sells in the street. The only difference is the media still feels the need to cut their marijuana merchandise with some nasty shit. If the mainstream media wants to sell us pot, thatâs fine. But give it to us straight.