Quick Takes

“bullet” Christopher sent me this AP story: College towns lead in marijuana use (talk about headlines stating the obvious). The interesting point — Christopher notes that if the numbers are true in the article, then 17.5 million Americans smoked pot in the last 30 days. This isn’t lifetime use – this is current use.
If we locked all those people up, that would be the equivalent of arresting the entire population of my state of Illinois (including Chicago). Oh, and you’d have to throw neighboring Wisconsin in the clink as well. Talk about a futile war.
One additional note in that article. After mentioning that 12.2 percent of Boston residents reported using marijuana in the past 30 days, John Auerbach, executive director of the public health commission for the city of Boston, is quoted as saying “…we’re not surprised that substance abuse is a serious issue in the Boston area.” [emphasis added] There is a difference between “use” and “abuse” and it upsets me that our public officials (and the media) have continually blurred that line to the disservice of public health and public discourse. Part of this has been the promotion, on the part of the ONDCP, that any use of an illegal substance constitutes abuse. Wrong.
“bullet” Nice piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer by local resident Don Parcell Drug war looks more like Prohibition. It’s so great seeing people come to that realization.
“bullet” Several people have sent the article by George Will This War is Worth Fighting. (Note, it’s been published all over the country with a variety of headlines.) It’s an incoherent article, with some good facts and more propaganda from Walters, and ultimately Will doesn’t really seem to even know if he has a point.
“bullet” TalkLeft has an update on Renee Boje, a medical marijuana war refugee living in Canada. She has, unfortunately, been ordered extradited to the United States. Her alleged co-conspirator Peter McWilliams died awaiting federal trial — choked to death on his own vomit when prosecutors refused to allow him medical marijuana to control his nausea. Let’s hope that Canada listens to Renee’s appeal of this horrible decision.