Christian Science Monitor not interested in legalization

… or freedom or democracy.

Obama helps nip pot legalization in Latin America. How about in US?

For all the political flak that President Obama is receiving for digital surveillance of Americans, he deserves some praise for protecting Americans on another front. His administration has helped dampen moves by some Latin American leaders to legalize marijuana in the Western Hemisphere. […]

Yet with two states in the US (Washington and Colorado) having legalized recreational use of pot last year, some in Latin America saw an opening to push Mr. Obama to bend.

Fortunately, his secretary of State, John Kerry, did not accommodate such voices at the OAS assembly. “These challenges simply defy any simple, one-shot, Band-Aid” approach, he said. “Drug abuse destroys lives, tears at communities of all of our countries.” Other administration officials have been working for months to squash the region’s legalization efforts. […]

The uncertainties of legalizing pot, let alone the moral arguments against government promoting its use, call for Obama to be vigilant against legalization. He has now done that strongly abroad. He must do much better at home.

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53 Responses to Christian Science Monitor not interested in legalization

  1. claygooding says:

    He has done a good job of spending more tax dollars to the right politicians,,all the problems and reasons for legalization are still in place and will just keep being brought up every time a country’s leaders needs more funding.

  2. allan says:

    Isn’t that special… and oh, so disgusting.

    A few Latin American leaders were more explicit than Mr. Kerry. “We need a policy that is anti-crime and not pro-drug,” said Alva Baptiste, St. Lucia’s foreign minister. And Nicaragua’s OAS envoy, Denis Moncada, said, “Replacing and weakening the public policies and strategies now in use to combat the hemispheric drug problem would end up creating dangerous voids and jeopardize the security and well-being of our citizens.” Many of the region’s drug experts say countries need to focus on rule of law, addiction treatment, and gang suppression.

    Of course any here that remember Kerry’s run for president and his website know he is an expert at ignoring us.

    Methinks and fears there are dark waters ahead.

    • War Vet says:

      But think of all those poor civilians at Halliburton, Xe, KBR, L3 etc who’ll be out of the job if drugs were legalized –if America and her allies’ enemies no longer had drug money to wage a very long war with us. Some of those dark waters you fear must have financial backings. With no illegal drugs, who will we go to war with? How will high ranking investors make their money? How will the Government make you afraid of ‘them’ and thus supply us with a cure at the low cost of a freedom or two? How will America’s military technology soar past the ‘drone’ age without a constantly funded (by drug money) enemy? Drug Prohibition is like a large Wal-Mart: you get anything (residual or direct) out of it.

  3. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Wow, talk about assuming facts not in evidence. Now where do I have to go to see an example of the U.S. government promoting the use of drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco?

    • Matthew Meyer says:

      Yeah, since when is allowing people to choose “promoting”?

    • nonpartisan says:

      Those are the politically correct drugs, comrade. Raise your glass of Victory Gin and light another Cuban. We are winning the war on drugs. Praise Jesus.

  4. Eridani says:

    Well, I mean, this IS is the Christian Science Monitor, which isn’t exactly known for its support for drug legalization. Or scientific veracity. Or general intelligence.

  5. jean valjean says:

    just when you think the media are beginning to get it the csm takes you right back to the 1950s and this sort of total acceptance of what the government tells them. lazy journalism at its worst

  6. claygooding says:

    I think SA politicians have found another “more please” button until they start dropping out of the STC with written notice that cannabis prohibition will not be enforced in their countries,,they have learned to shuffle the deck chairs just as good as the ONDCP.

  7. Servetus says:

    People expect way too much from the Christian Science Monitor, what with it’s founder’s meme still haunting the publication a century later. Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, the parent of the CSM, had a surreal attitude toward drugs, literally.

    Eddy believed healing occurred because matter, and therefore physical illnesses, did not exist. Since illness was immaterial, material medicine would not treat it. She claimed sickness is cured using the power of the mind only.

    Ulterior economic and power mongering motives aside, the average prohibitionist may not have any greater understanding of drugs effects than Crazy Mary did. Many of these unfortunate creatures are still likely to be found hovering at the core of drug enforcement, like some ancient species once thought extinct.

  8. kaptinemo says:

    Amazing how some rag like the CSM is all for nullifying the democratically expressed will of the people of WA and CO (and anywhere else, for that matter)…while so blithely forgetting that their right to print their dreck will also be placed on the chopping block, should that happen.

    But, no matter. Just as in macrocosm the generational shift is spelling the dooms of drug prohibition, in microcosm it is hastening ever faster the eventual extinction of the Christian Science faith.

    It will face the same inevitable irrelevancy as the Temperance League does today, and for the same reasons; there’s only so much irrationality a young person will swallow, nowadays…

    • primus says:

      In my city, several years ago, the Christian science reading room was put up for sale, and sold. I asked one of the (very ancient) parishioners why? They said their average age was about 88 and they had no new members for about 20 years and there were only a very few, very old members left. The writing was on the wall, and they were facing facts; their ‘religion’ is seen as increasingly irrelevant by a much better educated and sophisticated public. The same forces which ended their little congregation also work in favour of ending prohibition–ageing and education. So many can’t read the writing on the wall. The letters to the editor which we submit might, just might open a closed mind here and there, which is why we are winning. Keep up the good work. By the time I die, I want to breathe free air. Losing patience.

  9. Nunavut Tripper says:

    I’m disappointed they don’t allow comments.
    I thought CSM usually did.

  10. allan says:

    oh hell, don’t waste your time on the CSM, go read LEAP’s Peter Christ interview in Vice Magazine:

    3,500 COPS WHO WANT ALL DRUGS TO BE LEGAL
    By Roc Morin

    That’s the shit there mates.

    • B. Snow says:

      Wow!
      That’s amazingly, outstandingly, head-exploding-ly ironic = to be specific the part with him explaining the origins of LEAP:

      “The idea for LEAP was based on a little group called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. I remember back in the early 70’s watching those people speak in front of an audience. Whether that audience agreed with their conclusion about the war or not, nobody had the audacity to look at them and say, ‘You don’t understand the problem.’…

      See: John Kerry = *insert video clip* of him throwing his medals [or “his ribbons” and the medals of some other person(s) at their request = IF you believe that bit of ‘distinction’ circa 2004] he got serving in Vietnam over the fence at the Capitol Building.

      I can’t believe that SOB has the nerve to pull this sorta shit right outta the gate – he’s been the Secretary of State for how long? Really???
      And, Now he’s down there in South America – basically writing checks? OR rather = threatening to stop writing them – I suppose…

      Oh and also amazing was the rest of the paragraph I quoted above: (spacing and emphasis – mine for ‘readability’ = clarity/effect)

      Back before LEAP, if you were going to have a debate about drug policy, at one podium would be the nun, the judge, or the cop, and at the other podium would be the crazy hippy who’d be saying, ‘Hey man, drugs are cool!’

      — It’s not hard to figure out where that debate is going to go. —

      Let me give you a little example of how LEAP has changed that debate.
      If you want to put the current Drug Czar, a guy by the name of Kerlikowske, a former chief of police of Seattle, Washington at one podium… You know who we’re going to put on the other podium? A guy by the name of Norm Stanford, another former chief of police of Seattle, Washington.
      So, now it isn’t who are you going to believe, the hippy or the cop, but which police chief of Seattle, Washington are you going to believe?”

      skipping down a tiny bit is more of the truly ironic part – the connection that really ‘struck me’ so to speak… (aka my contribution to the conversation – or whatever this is)

      “So how does all of this play at the Rotary Clubs?” I asked. “What’s your conversion rate like?”

      “My very first week, I signed up 10 percent of the audience,” he answered. “The next week I signed up 25% and it’s been about the same ever since.”

      “What changed?”

      “We have these little gold lapel-pin badges that say LEAP on them. They cost us about a nickel apiece. I didn’t have ‘em the first week. The second week, I could say, ‘And if you sign up today, you’ll get one of these little gold lapel-pin badges.’ They like the sparkly stuff…”

      And, you should read the rest of the article about “So what reasons do the skeptical 75% give for continuing the war?” It would be kinda wrong (IMHO) to ‘quote’ anymore of it here.

      *Insert ‘Blazing Saddles’ joke about “we don’t need no stinking badges” here…*

      • B. Snow says:

        TLDR version = Apparently we do (in fact) NEED the stinking badges!

        I’d like to officially coin the phrase “Nickel Badges”…

        Sorry, It had to be done. If they make a 15% difference razing the conversion rate from 10% to 25% we could more appropriately call them “Quarter Badges” but that would be confusing, and possibly cause other problems… and not just with people’s auto-correcting spell-checkers.

        • primus says:

          Raising. Razing is to mow down, as in razor.

        • claygooding says:

          Also,,if you called them “quarter” badges the temptation for prohibs to call them 2 bit whores would be overwhelming for those no brainers,,,and looking at Feldman’s eyes tells me that the prohib might win the debate because he resorted to violence but the win wouldn’t make your face feel any better.

        • B. Snow says:

          Yeah, I saw that. Just, not soon enough to edit & fix it before the 5-minute timer ran out. It never quite looks the same in the little preview box bellow the post comment box.
          I also tend miss stuff because I’ve read & re-read it many times while editing it. And at times I just don’t see some typos or grammatical errors – particularly homonyms (homographs & homophones), I was raised as a bit of a grammar-fascist, but…

          Oh, okay = ICWYDT, I don’t have/use auto-correcting (no smartphone) but the “Rise of the In-Browser spellchecker” has put a dent in my ability to consistently spell things correctly the first time around, and my grammar in general. My, not being a great touch-typer doesn’t help either.

          FWIW, spending time commenting on various sites like this and others – plus some time spent typing in the dark has helped improve it in recent years.
          Although, Tweeting and the IM’ing that came before, and the ‘acronyms for every common phrase’, are all guilty of killing grammar in general.
          But, if people can reasonably understand each other it doesn’t really matter all that much if they’re type “there, they’re, their OR theirs, there’s, theirs’, they’res, thyrz, “deres” etc.

          If people are communicating in a reasonably effective manner its not the end of society or civilization. *Note* = Unless you’re from France or Quebec = they DO _tend_ to see/treat these changes in language/grammar as the precursor to Armageddon.

      • claygooding says:

        I was a member of Viet Nam Vets Against the War,,I signed up in DC at the march on the Whitehouse that scared the shit out of Nixon,,,as with Stroup getting the drug czar high on cocaine at the Whitehouse I look back at the reaction it caused and it seems the march did more damage than good.
        And I have my “nickel “badge.

      • Matthew Meyer says:

        Norm Stamper, isn’t it?

      • Windy says:

        “If you want to put the current Drug Czar, a guy by the name of Kerlikowske, a former chief of police of Seattle, Washington at one podium… You know who we’re going to put on the other podium? A guy by the name of Norm Stanford, another former chief of police of Seattle, Washington.”

        That statement, would have come off more effectively if someone (author, editor, fact checker) hadn’t missed this error: Norm STAMPER, not Stanford. (I’m sure Mr. Christ wouldn’t have made that error.)

        • allan says:

          …aaah, that’s what Matt meant… I read right by it because I’ve been waiting since for-ev-eRrr for someone to wave that oh so obvious flag.

          I mean really, where’s the debate? Why does Gil get to hide behind the castle walls? We pay his sorry ass, he needs to answer some tough questions.

          Speaking of questions, when is a reporter with some intestinal fortitude gonna ask the Prez this question:

          “Mr President, in light of your historic (and some say record setting enthusiastic) marijuana smoking having not affected your professional career path, have you considered where you might be today had you been arrested for pot possession as a teenager?”

  11. DonDig says:

    CSM will always present huge distortions as far as drugs are concerned because one of their overriding principles is that they don’t believe in drugs (as medicine or for any other purpose: ‘the body is completely capable of healing itself without drugs of any kind, and drugs should not be taken’).
    So I think it’s a logical assumption that the freedom/civil liberty we all favor is completely lost on them, because prohibition (of every drug) is a huge part of their moral code.
    They are not presenting news in this regard, (and indeed I think this piece was labeled as opinion), but they should publish a disclaimer somewhere, (or maybe they do, I don’t know), because they are coming from a different place than almost everyone in the world who is not one of their adherents.
    There is no reason for any one of us to ever look to the CSM for sanity in this regard. It ain’t gonna be there.

  12. DdC says:

    Marc Emery in Solitary Confinement in US Prison

    ‘Sesame Street’ now has a show for kids with parents in prison

    During the 1920s and early 1930s, major publications like Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Saturday Evening Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor hailed Mussolini as the man who rescued Italy from anarchy and radicalism.
    From Whom Did the Fascists Get Support?

  13. ezrydn says:

    Why’s Kerry doing Kerlie’s job for him?

    • B. Snow says:

      Yeah, I thought the Secretary of State was supposed to be ‘non-political’ per the Hatch Act – I suppose this is ‘Foreign Policy’ so Kerry pushes the official “ONDCP Strategy” and that gives him a pass?

      Not that many of the Republicans would oppose the status quo = Unless they knew how much tax-payer money we spend on it… And if Pres. Obama puts his name on it they’re required to push back no matter if it was previously their own party-policy stance.

      Sadly, I doubt they’d fall for any Reverse-psychology based legislation on this… Except for Rand Paul, and wait that might actually work, We tell’em: “Barry is all for spending an extra $50 Billion on the ONDCP in 2014” and the damn Drug War could be over before the end of the week!

      (Convincing them this is actually true would be the tricky bit.)
      Seriously though = for ‘right now’, having Leahy, Cohen, Polis, and whoever they can bring along is probably the smarter way to go.

  14. Gloria says:

    This War On Drugs is truly a crime against humanity. Only the criminal elite benefit. Do you want to see what one small issue with this outrageously stupid government action is causing? Click here:

    http://oneoldvet.com/?p=44788#comment-5105

    but only if you have a strong stomach. Things like this are happening every DAY!!

    And after you watch that go here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/for_the_first_time_in_history/?vc Sign this petition to help end the War On Drugs.

    This ‘war’ has developed into a war on humanity. When people truly wake up to the FACTS then we can begin to end this farce.

    As ‘Christians’ what price do you place on human life really? Torture, murder, families destroyed, thousands and thousands of innocents sacrificed……..

    • claygooding says:

      Thanks Gloria,,welcome to the couch,,the home of the petition signingest couch taters on earth.

    • Windy says:

      Gloria, this war has ALWAYS been a war on humanity, right from the very beginning.

  15. claygooding says:

    I only got “high” smoking marijuana one time in my life,,the rest was maintenance.

  16. allan says:

    from the gosh-I’m-shocked file (and a really good read):

    Police Corruption: Abusive Underside of Drug War’s Iceberg
    http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1794

  17. Little Dickie Darkleson says:

    A poem, by Little Dickie Darkleson

    An online advocate am I
    Against the drug war I try to fight,
    I try and try,
    With all my might..to make a comment early.

    My alerts are tuned, my computer chimes,
    but before I can scribble any lines…
    Malcolm was there.

    The magic top three-
    first comments in the thick,
    in those undecided minds, will stick
    of this I’m sure, so on my tour, I leave the rest for dead.

    Yet in my head, I know I’m late.
    It always seems to be my fate..
    Number one is not to be,
    I usually come in at two or three, because
    Malcolm was there.

    I don’t know why I keep this up.
    It isn’t even fair.
    No matter how you parse it, the
    logic isn’t there.
    But Malcolm was.

  18. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    I noticed that the CSM stopped allowing comments a few weeks back. My inner narcissist tells me that it was because the CSM always got slaughtered in the comments column when they tried to promote the idiocy of prohibition.

    Still the CSM articles reminds me that there’s no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell the name right. It may sound strange but my opinion is that Bill O’Reilly has made substantial contributions to the cause of ending prohibition. Not because he supports repeal, but because he gives a lot of face time to cannabis law advocates. I don’t care about the hysterical rhetoric the enemies of freedom regurgitate. If presented the truth people will eventually come to share our point of view.

    **************************************************

    It’s nice to see organized efforts to re-legalize in new places: Brazilians march for ‘legalizing marijuana’

  19. Servetus says:

    The NSA spy agency has a mandate to pursue drug merchants. Such news is no big surprise when considering the role drug politics plays in world affairs, but it’s still disturbing given the latest revelations of the government intelligence apparatus currently spying on ordinary American citizens and others.

    http://tinyurl.com/lqp37zs

    In the event that citizens or public servants want to inform on their government for civil rights violations, or something else likely to piss off the government, such as revelations of massive corruption within the DEA or ONDCP, whistleblower laws aren’t sufficient protection. As Digby at Wired notes:

    We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell’s 1984 as an operations manual.

    Digby offers practical solutions for the anonymous transfer of private information at:

    http://tinyurl.com/a9xdwyu

  20. I stopped reading the CSM when I realized that they had started refusing to publish any comments from me.

    The conclusion that I had come to was that CSM had crossed the line from reporting news to creating news. They have no interest it reporting the public’s sentiments.

    This newspaper sadly, when it comes to marijuana, is nothing more than a propaganda machine.

  21. How a Doctor Came to Believe in Medical Marijuana
    http://tinyurl.com/koszbwr

    “… it’s been horrifying to watch the federal government shutter businesses and jail the innocent, to see local law enforcement get away with bullying and incarcerating people and wrecking their lives.”

    “I didn’t want to have to speak out. I’ve accomplished too much in my life to be thought of solely as “the pot doctor.” But as I read stories of people who are prosecuted for using a substance I know can be beneficial, I remember the lovely young man whom the justice system had wronged so badly. And I cannot be silent. It’s wrong that our youth are thrown in prison and labeled as felons. I have to stand up and demand that we repeal marijuana-prohibition laws. At long last and practically against my will, I am doing the right thing.”

    “Now the only question is, President Obama, will you do the same?”

    I can’t understand a newspaper like CSN who would condone marginalization and incarceration, and even prescribe the stigma associated with the prohibition of marijuana. Hiding and censoring public comments does not make for any honesty or truthfulness.

  22. strayan says:

    Hey look, a deadly clandestine drug lab kills two and hospitalises two more:

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/17539486/one-dead-three-critical-after-drinking-home-brew/

  23. A bit OT. Did anyone see the real drug czar? It’s not Kerli.

    http://tinyurl.com/m2bql95

  24. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Why doesn’t anyone get bent out of shape when lawmakers decide to pass a blatantly on its face unconstitutional law? So blatantly unconstitutional that State regulators just plain refuse to enforce it? Or even more extreme the State files in Court to have the law struck down after that refusal? Is it too fracking much to ask that lawmakers at least give lip service to the State and Federal Constitutions?

    Colorado asks judge to strike down marijuana magazine restrictions

    So where the heck is “the LAW is the LAW (blah, blah, blah)” crowd when authorities decide to break the law and violate their Oath? Up in the peanut gallery cheering that lawbreaking like the hypocritical partisan hacks that they are is where.

  25. darkcycle says:

    Marc Emory has been released from solitary confinement. per Jodie on FB.

  26. Servetus says:

    Bad boys…whatcha gonna do?

    A leaked internal document obtained by CBS News said staff protecting ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regularly solicited sex workers.

    The report also alleges a drug ring may have provided narcotics to state department contractors in Iraq.

    But it is suggested the department may have tried to cover up the misconduct.

    …CNN also reports that the inspector general found an attempt to investigate claims, that a drug ring near the US embassy in Baghdad was supplying illegal substances to state department security contractors, was stopped.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22864147

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