The Economist regarding the U.S. decision to object to Bolivia’s amendment regarding coca-leaf-chewing…
Bolivia is considering pulling out of the convention if its modest proposal is struck down.
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ot Letter Writer of the Month – December – Allan Erickson
DrugSense Blog 21 Jan 2011
DrugSense recognizes Allan Erickson of Eugene, Oregon for his three published letters during December, which brings his total published letters that we know of to 152. Allan is a frequent MAP newshawk and writes a blog at http://morningdonut.blogspot.com/
You may read his published letters at:
http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Allan+Erickson
thanks for the hat tip DdC…
To piggy back on DdC’s recognition, congrats, I wish I could be as active with regard to the Cause
For the long term good, I’d rather see us continue to bankrupt ourselves in the near term by fighting bolivia’s reasonable proposal. I hope we spend half a trillion renminbi (let’s not even pretend it’s dollars) fighting it. It will bankrupt us that much quicker. Once washington is out of the picture, the world will be free to end prohibition and we’ll return to a state of normalcy and sanity. Mexico will legalize drugs, the rest of south america will soon follow, and then drugs will become legal, safe, cheap, and plentiful overnight… and governments will all have new sources of income and the amount of corruption will drop worldwide by 95% or more. But America has to go first, I’m sad to say. Nothing makes me sadder, but this country is just a bunch of wasteful cronyism with an economy run entirely on conflicts of interst. A conflictocracy. Let’s just end it sooner rather than later. So spend a trillion we don’t have to prevent south american farmers from putting leaves in their mouths. Sounds brilliant, it will save oh so many precious children.
Oh please, dear lord, let Bolivia pull out. It would draw massive attention to the drug warriors’ lack of reasoning capacity.
Interesting that every single letter in response to the Economist article attacked the wod…
Well done Allan!
Should we legalize all drugs?
As it has been the case since the engineering of the so-called War on Drugs (WoD) policies, the horse is always put before the cart. We may want and hope that Bolivia, and any other drug producing country for that matter, can effect a real and lasting change in the current approach and policies around the, equally misleading, drug problem. There are plenty of influential people (politicians, journalists, policy makers, etc.) in Latin American countries who recognise that the WoD is irrational and has brought all sorts of disastrous consequences to their countries. The problem is that real politics dictates that they cannot be expressed openly and forcefully, let alone try to repeal the WoD policies and practices. It is not a coincidence that several former Latin American presidents have been making some noise, but as it happens, they have miraculously changed their minds…once they have vacated their powerful seats. The sad true is that the power, literally and metaphorically speaking, to effect real change on the prohibitionist policies does not resides on drug producing countries, like Bolivia, but on drug consuming countries, especially the biggest consumer of all by a long, long distance: the USA.
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
As an addendum to my previous post, we need to think that it is the violent, vicious and frankly speaking, criminal attitude of the USA which prevents any progress in tackling the so-called Drug Problem. While other countries, both drug producing and drug consuming countries, are searching for alternative approaches on how to face the consequences of the demand for drugs, the USA refuses to consider them at all. Instead, it tries to bully the said countries and try to discredit those alternatives at every opportunity. I would like to underscore the fact, one more time, that the only way we can make any difference is by putting pressure on the US government to end its stance on drugs. Let’s carefully research what legal venues are open to us to force the hand of the US government on this issue.
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
Good job Allan!
US: Your Interview with the President
Yahoo / 1,20,2011
On Tuesday January 25 at 9 p.m. ET, President Obama will deliver his 2011 State of the Union Address, which will be streamed live right here. You can submit your questions for the President for an exclusive YouTube Interview that will take place just two days later, on January 27.
What would you like to ask the President about the most important issues our country faces? You have until Wednesday January 25 at midnight ET to submit your question.
http://www.youtube.com/worldview
He will probably refuse to allow the question but he can’t hide the fact that it is the #1 question,,,,again.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/149489/what_are_the_u.s.%27s_real_motives_for_launching_a_drug_war_in_mexico
Good to hear you’re still making dents, Allan. We all appreciate your efforts.
For some here who don’t know, all it takes to drop out of the convention is a letter of intent. Six months later, you’re officially OUT! EZ!
ezryn,
The point is not how quickly you can drop out of the convention; it is what is the price a country is willing and able to pay for “rejecting the will of the International Community”. I’m sure you are aware of the price the US is prepared to impose on them; it has done it before, and it will continue doing it, with total disregard for international law. It is a dangerous game. Better still, it is not a game, too much is a stake to think that you can engage in this sort of shenanigans. It is up to the citizens of the USA to put an end to the so-called War on Drugs. So, let’s go out and twist the US government arm.
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
I have to agree , let them pull out. Maybe others will follow.
…then again, I also have to agree with BruceM. The only way to permenatly end this is for the feds to run out of money/power. Sad to say yes but, true. The only way to end all kinds of bullshit around the world , let alone right here, is for our government to fall. Absolute power corrupts absolutely…everything.
Allan, nice. Good work, you’re burnin’ them pencils up. I wish I had the time to write as much. In my new “position” (stay at home Dad to a two year old son), I’m finding I have very little time at the keyboard. And when I do have a minute, it’s just enough time for a ‘drive-by’ post somewhere. I’ve really got to sit down and write up some boiler plate like Duncan and Malcolm, but even that has been hard.
Allan, chip, chip, chip.
And has anybody else noticed that the tone of the ONDCP and the DEA has become both more defensive and more apologetic? Is it just me or do they seem to be afraid of us, all of a sudden? Just thinking of the way they identified Ed Rosenfeld and the Marijuana Policy Project as their biggest enemies in that position paper.
I don’t want to sound preachy, but to BruceM and others that think the U.S. has got to collapse before anything changes: you don’t realize what that means. In terms of world-wide economic impact, we’re the biggest consumer by a long shot still, so the world’s entire economy is screwed…. As for the chaos of a country in the throes of an internal revolt, or an external collapse,… well, Nicaragua was both in 1979. And I was there. You have no idea what you’re asking for.
I have a son who I’m not giving up to their wars, and I sure don’t want him to have to live through the collapse of another country. Kid has already been a refugee once and he’s only two effin’ years old. No. That’s not an option, and for reasons of basic humanity it can’t be.
I agree that it is the last thing we really want to see but I also have,as mentioned before,at least mapped out a survival site and made arrangements for transporting too it,because of the unfathomable lengths that greed will play in the destruction of the US economy.
You have to know that these industries and industrialists running this country are going to do what ever it takes to continue making their money and until there are no more consumers with any money left,they will ride this horse into the ground.
Wow, if that ever gets around you’d think it would take the winds out of the prohibitionists sails. That ‘higher authority’ argument has been working for centuries for a lot more issues than getting high. For example:
That’s much easier than mentioning that you hate tobacco smoke with a passion and having to put your foot down. Wifey can use it too with her friends!
Gart, of course you’re right. We have to focus on pressuring the U.S. (and we have been). And yes, there can be significant costs involved in smaller countries defying the U.S. war on drugs.
And yet…
Due to its economic collapse, the U.S. has a much tougher time threatening economic sanctions, and it’s also losing a lot of its moral respect internationally, so the time for defiance is right.
The states are applying pressure through passing medical marijuana laws (and soon, recreational marijuana laws) in defiance of U.S. drug war absolutism, and now it’s time for some pesky little countries to undermine the international efforts. Just as we know that we can’t accomplish marijuana reforms top-down given the federal government’s entrenched love of drug war power, we need to chip away from the outside internationally as well.
Morales has already defied the U.S. once in 2008 when he ejected the DEA from Bolivia for spying. The people of Bolivia want coca. They could see Morales pulling out of the convention as a courageous act in support of the people and that could make up for what the U.S. would do to them financially. Especially if Morales openly, to the international community, made a big show of fighting cocaine trafficking.
I once thought the European Union would be the first to start dismantling the international suicide pact, but with the UK being run by the Daily Mail, that’s a tough proposition. It may instead be Latin America that creates cracks in the facade.
Bolivia knows– “Things go Better with Coke!”.
Rock ON, Allen! Good On Ya!
D’oh- Allan!
I’ve actually quit using boilerplate though you will find many frequent themes in my posts repeated over and over, but that’s because the prohibitionists proffer the same nonsense over and over. Malcolm goes for quantity, and I’m going for a more personalized quality. I do think both have their place and my knowing that Malcolm is at least going to keep the thoughts in front of as many as possible enables me to do my thing. There are only so many hours in a day and there’s no way to personalize a response to every idiot prohibitionist that gets his stupidity posted.
Man this “Soda head” thing today is really depressing. Christ I never would have thought I was going to see anyone denigrating LSD again. C’mon people, the people that like to get high got bored with LSD over a decade ago. Like I asked over there, was there even one criminal case of LSD possession filed in the US in 2010? If so, were there more than 10?
Duncan, Soda Head? Huh?
check malcolm’s link dc
and grats to allen and thanks Ddc for pointing it out. thanks again to Pete for allowing us all a forum.
Keep up the good work!
sorry Allan not allen
Duncan I did a little search to try tofind out what you were talking about (I was unsuccessful), and I came across this….You guys have got to see this, archival footage of a 1950’s housewife tripping on LSD:
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/45273/watch-a-1950s-housewife-take-lsd/
Spam filter issues?
Yep. I found it and rescued it (just the first one, and I deleted the re-tries). Sometimes that happens — could be the site that you linked to being a questionable one to the filter? Don’t know. Best thing when that happens is to let me know and I can rescue it before flushing them.
I’ll bet you guys didn’t know that a big fan of LSD in the 1950s was none other than the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W. He hung out with Aldous Huxley and thought it well worth exploring as a cure or therapy for alcoholism. Now he was taking it about 10 micrograms at a time when people who trip go for ~250, so I doubt he was doing much hallucinating.
LSD does undeservedly get such a really bad reputation. So far it’s the only MAD I’ve encountered that people leave behind because they find it boring. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable for a while, boring in the way your all time favorite motion picture becomes boring after you’ve watched it 5 times in the last month.
DC, here’s that SodaHead link again.
Tip; flushing cookies is not ethical ;>)
@ Daniel Williams (ot)…
What’s up w/ Bob Barr? Now he’s assisting Haiti’s exiled (formerly apparently) Baby Doc Duvalier? I wonder about that man…
Something strange, you guys – the “your interview with the President” is being rigged, it seems – most marijuana/cannabis legalization questions have many many “No” votes. Who is doing this? All the DEA types with nothing better to do with their time on our dime?
Check it out. I think they’re trying to get the question off the list. Fucking fascist fucks. Boy I’d like to see every one of them have to get a real job, you know, where they have to do something useful.
And here’s the message if you search the questions for “cannabis”: “This submission has been removed because people believe it is inappropriate.”
If you search for “marijuana”: only two questions show up, despite many many being in existence.
This is a rigged PR exercise. Obama is a Manchurian candidate – Godlman Sachs has his nuts in their vault.
Of course it’s rigged, Divadab. Did you really think he wants to answer your questions, or the questions he has prepared for him, even now? They live in terror of answering real questions. They think even allowing the questions that were asked the last two times to be made public was a mistake (let alone the ones he answered on the TV machine). That’s why they’re not even allowing that one now, it makes him look bad.
Obama’s a piece of shit. I can’t believe I voted for him.
Goddammit malcolm, tonight I feel so forlorn and it’s all because you posted that link. Thanks a lot chum.
I am kidding about any animus from me toward you but not about feeling figuratively mule kicked in the head. Is Soda Head some kind of right wing reactionary idiot mecca? I should know better than to walk into a loaded opinion poll. Normally as a rule I click away if a poll doesn’t offer any reasonable options. Wow, do I think that sales reps from the heroin factory should be allowed to set up display booths in the lobby of the local elementary schools to hand out free samples to cultivate new customers or do I think we should keep it illegal? Sheesh. Like I’m going to vote to fuck the kiddies over. Frankly both choices are stupidity in the extreme. Some guy over there even posted links to opinion pieces posted on the DEA website as “credible source” to counter one of my arguments.
OK, I admit it, I don’t have a great understanding of the Boxer Rebellion and I suppose I should look into that. It’s one of the more popular proffers of why prohibition is a good idea. I never saw much point to it because we have a significant working model in the 19th century US, the history was obviously written by those with an agenda, and proof of their historical accounts being embellished or completely dummied up are probably written not only in a foreign language but in a foreign alphabet as well. Hell, are Chinese hieroglyphics even an actual alphabet? Regardless, it’s all Greek to me.
Ah well non illegitimati carborundum est or whatever that pseudo-latin phrase is.
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Alan, I’ve come to believe that the Libertarian candidate for President is about selling books and getting hired to give speeches. Well maybe that’s not the only way to make money by keeping your name in front of the public:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/07/07/20100707joe-arpaio-hires-bob-barr.html
DC don’t feel too bad. I only didn’t vote for him because Maryland is a true blue state and McCain had no chance of winning its electoral college votes. The man is a friggin’ genius I’ve got to hand him that. I think he’s going to manage to close down every working dispensary in every medical cannabis State, before election day 2012, without so much as a wisp of anyone but a few cynical shitheads like myself being mad at him. When I say “close down” I mean the dispensaries are going to do so voluntarily. Now isn’t it reasonable to presume that nobody would get mad if he busted a few for income tax evasion? Subsequently the rest decide to close their doors? The plan is so simple it’s amazing that George W didn’t think of it himself.
The “non-profit” thing is irrelevant. Back in the early 90s when I was with DC NORML we set up a t-shirts and bumper stickers trade because potheads are such fucking cheapskates. Non-profits engaging in commercial activities outside their ‘core’ mission are taxed on those activities. We never made enough to be taxed but we had to fill out the forms, and had we crossed the threshold which was $2500 IIRC we would have had taxes due as selling “Thank You For Pot Smoking” bumper stickers just didn’t fit the criteria for a non profit activity. There’s no way that direct sales of cannabis can be construed as a legitimate not for profit activity.
Unless the IRS exempts them, section 280E is going to kill them. 40% off the top calculated on gross revenue is not conducive to staying in business. Like magic, the dispensaries fold up, and the general public already of the mind that the dispensaries are fronts for criminal activities simply think a few tax cheats got caught and the rest got scared. Especially since they already said they were going to leave them alone for selling medicine. Fucking genius, as disgusted with the man as I am, he’s a fucking genius. Gosh, if he would only use his god given talent for good instead of evil…
The really stupid thing about section 280E is that there are people who participate in illegal profit making activities that would actually pay the taxes due if they weren’t confiscatory. You don’t need to believe me, just check why Congress passed 280E. They were pissed off because a drug dealer’s prosecution for Federal tax evasion failed. It failed because he actually paid his taxes when they were due. Innocence is almost always a great defense.
http://www.northernsun.com/images/imagelarge/Thanks-You-For-Pot-Smoking-Sticker-(5903).jpg
umm, divadab I’m lost, I don’t recall having an interview with the President?? Whatchoo talkin’ about Willis?