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Personal Marijuana Use

USA Swimming Deserves Condemnation for Suspending Michael Phelps

Amidst the massive backlash against Kellogg’s for dropping Michael Phelps, we’ve neglected to target USA Swimming, which suspended him even though they didn’t 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!

Crazed Sheriff Arrests 8 in Phelps Bong Investigation

There is just no limit to the stupidity that ensues when drug warriors develop a craving for attention:

The Richland County Sheriff's Department has been taking a lot of heat from people in this country and all over the world.

They want to know why Sheriff Leon Lott is going after Michael Phelps.
…
Lott says the picture indicated a law was being broken in his jurisdiction. He said he couldn't ignore the violation just because Phelps is rich and famous.

We've now learned that since investigators began trying to build a case, they've made eight arrests: seven for drug possession and one for distribution. These are arrests that resulted as the sheriff's department served search warrants.

We've also learned that the department has located and confiscated that bong. [WISTV.com]

Could there ever be a better example of the pettiness and triviality that characterizes the enforcement of our drug laws? Anyone watching this (which now includes a respectable segment of earth’s population), can plainly observe the amazing lameness that the war on drugs has instilled in our public servants.

What could possibly be said in defense of launching an entire police operation for the sole purpose of busting one guy for taking a bong hit at a party?

Lott says the picture indicated a law was being broken in his jurisdiction. He said he couldn't ignore the violation just because Phelps is rich and famous.

Who does he think he’s kidding? Everyone knows this would never be happening if Phelps wasn’t rich and famous. At the risk of giving Sheriff Lott too much credit, I highly doubt this is standard procedure when he finds out someone smoked pot at a party months ago. He’s either completely full of crap about his motivations for targeting Phelps, or he’s truly the biggest drug war jackass in the long and terrible history of the species.

Regardless, it has become perfectly clear that Sheriff Lott won’t stop until he puts the world’s greatest athlete in handcuffs for smoking a bong at a party. With the whole world watching, this crazy cop is prepared to create one of the ugliest, dumbest spectacles in the history of our country’s infinitely embarrassing war on drugs. Perhaps we shouldn’t fault the man for being ambitious.

Michael Phelps Faces Possible Prosecution for Bong Hit

I swear, if you give these drug war idiots enough rope…

Authorities will file criminal charges if the investigation determines that they are warranted, a spokesman said Tuesday.

"If someone breaks the law in Richland County, we have an obligation as law enforcement to investigate and to bring charges," Sheriff Leon Lott said in a statement.

"The Richland County Sheriff's Department is making an effort to determine if Mr. Phelps broke the law. If he did, he will be charged in the same manner as anyone else. The sheriff has a responsibility to be fair, to enforce the law and to not turn a blind eye because someone is a celebrity." [CNN]

Yeah, right. Because I’m so sure that if a picture of some random dude taking a bong hit showed up on the sheriff’s desk, he’d put his best detectives on the case immediately. The rank stupidity of this was summed up nicely by Whoopi Goldberg of all people:

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is turning Michael Phelps into her own personal crusade: This morning on The View, she started hammering away at the alleged-bong-hitting Olympic star for his "illegal action," saying his example "takes the wind out of any mom trying to teach her children" good values.

"If he wasn't  Michael Phelps, wouldn't he be in jail?" she added.
"No," said Whoopi Goldberg, "because [if he wasn't Phelps], his picture wouldn't have been in the newspapers!"

As if the ritualistic public shaming of Michael Phelps weren’t sufficiently and self-evidently brainless to begin with, we must now watch in complete bewilderment as law-enforcement willfully exposes its arbitrary application of our drug laws. Putting aside my sympathy for Phelps, it’s more than a little delightful to observe such a public exhibit in the frivolity of marijuana enforcement.

They can’t prove anything and they know it, thus this is really just another pitifully ill-conceived attention grab by a frustrated sheriff who can’t stand not being at the center of a story unfolding in his backyard. Seldom has the war on drugs produced a more ironic moment than when the healthiest person on the planet is targeted for taking one bong hit.

Ryan Frederick Trial Goes to the Jury

We should be seeing a verdict soon in the case 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.

The jury failed to return a verdict on Tuesday and will continue deliberating Wednesday. Having followed the case closely, I’m pretty worked up about it and I’ll be glued to the computer until this gets resolved. A guilty verdict would not only send an innocent man to prison, but would provide a symbolic victory for the worst aspects of drug war policing, those that created this tragedy in the first place.

Beyond all that, the trial itself has been a grand injustice, really just a classic railroading that brought out the worst of the worst as far as drug war prosecutorial tactics are concerned. Ryan Frederick is simply not the man the prosecution made him out to be, not on any level whatsoever. In one familiar example, prosecutor Paul Ebert used testimony from a "marijuana expert" to grossly exaggerate the capacity of Frederick’s personal marijuana garden:

Meinhart says 1 plant produces 1 pound of salable marijuana. 1 pound is 16 ounces, and at $400.00 per ounce is $6400.00 times 10 plants is $64000.00. [Tidewater Liberty]

Yet, as Radley Balko points out, Frederick had a not-so-great job getting up at 4 a.m. to deliver sodas. He didn’t have $64,000. Police only found 12 grams of marijuana in the raid. All of this is just pure garbage, the same bogus story recycled over and over again in every marijuana trial. But it’s particularly insidious in this case, since the goal is not only to convict Frederick of a marijuana offense, but to destroy his image before the jury and nail him on a false murder charge.

Please join me in keeping your fingers crossed that Frederick will be set free.

Support for Marijuana Legalization is Growing in America

A new CBS/NYT poll finds that 41% of Americans agree that marijuana use should be legalized. While legalization still fails to garner majority support, it’s clear that we’re headed in the right direction. Notice that only 27% supported legalization in 1979:

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA
Like 30 years ago, a majority of Americans do not think the use of marijuana should be made legal, but the percentage that thinks it should be has grown. Now, 41% of Americans support legalizing marijuana use, compared to just 27% who felt that way in 1979.

SHOULD MARIJUANA USE BE LEGALIZED?

CBS/NYT CBS/NYT
Now /1979
Yes 41% 27%
No  52% 69%

There is a huge generation gap on this issue. More adults under 45 (49%) approve of legalizing marijuana use than oppose (45%), while just 31% of adults over age 45 approve of it; six in 10 are opposed.  


The generation gap is particularly encouraging, confirming a popular theory among reformers that if we simply wait not-so-patiently, we’ll eventually win when our opposition literally drops dead.

These numbers reveal that we’re well within striking distance of achieving majority support for legalization. Moreover, we’re comfortably within the range in which meaningful reform to our marijuana laws will produce significant and vocal approval from the public. If there was ever a time when our political climate was fatally non-receptive to this idea, we have moved beyond that.

Keep in mind that the 41% result was arrived at without any particular political context. That’s just the number of people who generally walk around believing that marijuana should be legal. It’s possible to build that number significantly when the question is framed around an actual policy proposal, such as in Massachusetts where 65% of voters supported decriminalization. Because our arguments are strong, we benefit from the debate.

Legalization initiatives were unsuccessful in Nevada and Colorado in 2004, but I’d like to think that in the current change-focused political climate, it’s quite possible that similar measures would be victorious. For one thing, the departure of drug czar John Walters means we’re unlikely to face the same vicious opposition we’ve become accustomed to, as I simply do not envision Obama’s White House undertaking a regional propaganda scare-tour the next time we try something big.

The fact is that we’re moving in exactly the right direction, though not nearly as fast as any of us would prefer. We must be patient, so long as our patience doesn’t take the form of inaction. We’re entering a period of remarkable political opportunity for our cause.

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. He’s 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 don’t care who you are, you will never be as good at anything as Michael Phelps is at swimming. He’s 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 you’re waiting for him to sell his trophies for dope money, don’t 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.

How Not to Legalize Marijuana

Via reason, I’d 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, you’re not helping. Although I suppose if Antoine Blalock starts a blog, I might check it out.
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