Open Thread

“bullet” Ending the War on Drugs: The Moment is Now by Arianna Huffington.

I understand that drugs continue to be a political hot potato, fueled by what the Latin American presidents described as “prejudices and fears that sometimes bear little relation to reality.” And I can easily picture some on the president’s team advising him to keep the issue on the backburner lest it turn into his “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
But the cost of the drug war — both human and financial — is far too high to allow politics to dictate the administration’s actions. Indeed, with all the budget cutting going on, how can anyone justify spending tens of billions of dollars a year on an unwinnable war against our own people?
Change won’t be easy. The prison-industrial complex has a deeply vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Which is why we need to keep the pressure on the president and his team to follow through on their drug policy promises.

“bullet” Surprise, Surprise, John Walters Lies
“bullet” Does Legalized Marijuana Mean Legalized Heroin and Crack? by Bruce Mirken at Opposing Views.
“bullet” The Council on Hemispheric Affairs has a two-part series on legalizing drugs in Colombia. Part 1. Part 2.
“bullet” Santa Monica Mirror has a really stupid piece by Steve Stajich: Five Reasons We Won‰t Be Legalizing Pot. This may be the five most moronic reasons I’ve heard to date.

‹Hello, Governor? Please explain how legalizing marijuana will reduce teen pregnancy. (PAUSE) Our lines our open. (PAUSE) Governor, please call with that answer. (PAUSE) Again that phone numberአApparently the Spliff-inator has looked at the stats regarding teen sexual behavior and teen pregnancy and concluded, ‹What‰s needed here is more access to marijuana.Š Will Bristol Palin bring her baby to Sacramento and explain how life might have been different if only she‰d been too (legally) stoned to have sex?

“bullet” DEA Agent Indicted for Framing 17 Innocent People. This gets really bad. It’s not just the criminal cop, it’s the complicity of the entire system….

40. Defendant DEA Special Agent Lee Lucas had a well-known record of manufacturing evidence to charge and prosecute persons for crimes with which they could not otherwise be charged or prosecuted. As a result of this history, in 2001 an FBI task force began investigating Lucas and others for making false reports and obstruction of justice. During the course of this investigation, members of the FBI task force met on August 21, 2003, with the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Greg White in order to discuss whether the U.S. Attorney‰s office should continue to prosecute any cases investigated by Agent Lucas. Present at that meeting were several DEA supervisors. During the meeting, U.S. Attorney White referred to Lucas as a ‹rogue agent,Š and as a result of the information provided by the FBI task force during this meeting, U.S. Attorney White issued an order directing that no criminal charges based on an investigation conducted by Agent Lucas be indicted or prosecuted unless the allegations could be corroborated by at least one other witness. The matters discussed at this meeting were documented by both the FBI and DEA, and the documentation was distributed through the chain of command at the DEA, including but not limited to the Defendant DEA supervisors listed in this Complaint, all of whom were familiar with the particulars of the FBI investigation prior to Agent Lucas‰ involvement in ‹Operation Turnaround.Š
41. Despite U.S. Attorney‰s White‰s 2003 order, the DEA assigned Lucas to the Mansfield area for the purpose of overseeing ‹Operation Turnaround.Š Agent Lucas began leading the activity conducted in connection with ‹Operation TurnaroundŠ beginning in the summer of 2005, and continuing at al times throughout the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Plaintiff ….

“bullet” DrugSense Weekly
“bullet” “drcnet”