Odds and Ends

“Spring Awakening” is up and running (through Oct 5) and consuming most of my time, so little posting here. But you guys in comments have been doing an amazing job keeping it going.

On October 6, I will be giving a major presentation:

“Drug Wars Assault on Justice – a talk with Pete Guither”

Sunday, October 6 at 4:00 pm
Hanson Student Center
Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, IL

Sponsored by:
Bloomington-Normal Coalition for Peace and Justice
Common Action Free School
Amnesty International Chapter IWU
Center for Engaged Citizenship IWU
Center for Human Rights and Social Justice IWU
Political Science Department IWU

I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been sketching out a fairly long list of the ways the drug war damages justice, with specific examples. Feel free to make suggestions in comments.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

30 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. strayan says:

    Lack of access to cheap and effective opioid based pain relief

    The Inadequate Treatment of Pain: Collateral Damage from the War on Drug

    The 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, implemented by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), is still the legal foundation for international control of both licit and illicit narcotic drugs, and involves a binding system of “annual estimates” (i.e., quotas) on the amount of controlled narcotics that countries can acquire.
    In practice the Single Convention and the INCB’s prohibition mandate greatly outstrips its access mandate.
    The INCB has frequently approved quotas of controlled narcotics grossly insufficient for the epidemiological prevalence of clinical pain, thus leaving millions of patients legally prohibited from accessing palliation such as morphine.
    Given the INCB’s decades-long failure to administer the supply of controlled narcotics in accordance with clinical need, we propose that all legal responsibility for licit narcotics for medical and scientific purposes be shifted to the World Health Organization.

  2. claygooding says:

    I saw an article in a Kansas college where a LEAP member was having to advertise for someone to take the prohibition side of a debate,,no takers had volunteered yet.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Why didn’t he just give Kev-Kev a call? If the problem is just logistics they could give “Dr.” Sabet a live video feed.

      Well you know, after further reflection I’d imagine that piping in “Dr” Sabet on video is the safest method for all concerned. Do you know how many people get a sudden urge to wring his scrawny little pencil neck every day of the week? Well, neither do I, but it’s a lot. Almost no one will act on their primitive urges but it only takes the right word going into the wrong ear and before you know it some poor schlep is doing a prison term for first degree manslaughter for nothing more than being in the same room as “Dr.” Sabet and deciding to take out the trash. Well don’t lose hope, there’s always jury nullification.

      Dammit, I really do detest when I’m waxing wishful.

  3. Servetus says:

    Imagine* Drug Peace

    Imagine there’s no drug war
    It’s easy if you try
    No busts to bug us
    Above us smoky sky
    Imagine all the people
    Living for today…

    Imagine there’s no drug cops
    It isn’t hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no Sabet too
    Imagine all the people
    Living life in peace…

    You may say I’m a stoner
    But I’m not the only one
    I hope someday you’ll join us
    And the world will be as one

    Imagine no jail terms
    I wonder if you can
    No need for greed or forfeiture
    A brotherhood of man
    Imagine all the people
    Sharing all the weed…

    You may say I’m a stoner
    But I’m not the only one
    I hope someday you’ll join us
    And the world will live as one.

    *With apologies to John Lennon

  4. The Hungriest Hippo says:

    Injustices:

    And if the U.S. holds a patent for cannabis because it can remove tumors and if any states with Medical and legal cannabis are a part of the U.S. and pay taxes to the Feds, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that the CSA portion of Marijuana has been nullified since the Federal Government already accepts its legality by allowing California, Washington etc to remain in the U.S.A. and to keep paying taxes to the Federal Government? So, do we have proof that marijuana is still under the CSA schedule one if we have proof Colorado etc are U.S. states whom pay taxes?

    The DEA get paid a salary and benefits to promote Chinese, Canadian, etc manufacturing and goods by allowing foreign hemp to be sold via denying American hemp. This is a violation of the 1890 Sherman Anti Trust Act. The DEA’s job is not to promote foreign products and revenue via the cause and effect of the law they enforce. If the DEA are the ones whom we must pay to seek an application to grow hemp, then does this not suggest that the DEA are in the business of consumer goods since they allow foreign companies to sell products inside America? The DEA is supposed to be a Drug Enforcement Agency, not a Bio-Diesel Enforcement Agency since they are responsible for keeping American Bio-Diesel from hemp illegal . . . the same goes for shoes, pants, food, plastics etc. The Feds give the DEA free reign over every job that works with or produces/sells clothing, food, plastics, construction material, cosmetics, soaps, lotions, paper, rope etc . . . meaning that the DEA are infused with nearly every American job and worker and consumer and every foreigner who buys American goods . . . the DEA are in charge of British, German, Turkish consumers via denying them the right to buy ‘Made in American’ goods from hemp.

    One is now required to show a photo ID and to sign one’s name for buying cold and allergy medicine and if one buys more than (is it 30grams a.k.a. 3boxes of Pseudo?) the designated amount, then one can and most likely will go to jail. Now, what if I’m a Boy Scout leader and I’m about to take my group of boys to a land infested with cows, grass, wind, horses, earth etc during September during stark allergy season and I decide to buy several boxes of cold medicine. I could be jailed. Same goes for a mother with a large family that likes to go outdoors or who is fixing to take a long trip oversees (like a mission trip) and wants to pack enough meds for seasonal allergies for the whole group?

    The American people are not allowed to have access to physical pain relief, medicine for Neurogeneses from TBI, medicine for tumors, depression, PTSD etc from an alternative source (though big pharma can compete and create new and more meds). And since laws bar the use of medical marijuana, wouldn’t denying medical cannabis to those who suffer from physical wounds, TBI, PTSD, cancer etc be considered cruel and unusual punishment since its denial is administered by the Federal Government and Department of Justice.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      I find it fascinating when people act as if the almost certainly worthless patent #6630507 is the singular patent issued for medicinal cannabis applications. The first time I ran a search of the USPTO data base for the keyword cannabinoid there were 4,917 items returned. As of 30 seconds ago the number is 7,914. That’s an average over 90 per month.

      The pharmaceutical companies are patenting at breakneck speed so let’s just kick 6630507 to the curb, shall we? It’s existence doesn’t prove a thing. Why not pick one of the other 7,913 possibles to bolster your arguments?

      • Rick Steeb says:

        –BUT how many of those 7900+ are *owned by* the The United States Of America As Represented By The Department Of Health And Human Services?

        It is THAT Ownership which makes the “Schedule I Cannabis” hypocrisy so BLATANT. [aside from it being a Damned lie…]

        Just sayin’…

  5. War Vet says:

    Camp Zoe . . . thus denying a hundred or more jobs and tens of thousands of dollars of revenue to an area . . . denying the state taxes from the event, thus denying the Federal Government tax money from said consumer goods and other fees that accompany large masses and such concerts . . . so why is the Federal Government so hell bent on denying the Federal Government tax money?

    • Duncan20903 says:

      Ummm, because it’s a bureaucratic cluster fuck?

      • War Vet says:

        But then again, Camp Zoe has 370 acres (according to Wiki), so it behooves the Feds to sell it or turn it into a resort and retreat for Federal Workers . . . maybe turn it into training facilities: build towns and cities inside of it for the practice of Urban SWAT and Urban Combat.

  6. allan says:

    “Give a man a bud and he can smoke for a day, teach him to garden and he can smoke for a lifetime.” ©

    My mind is a strange place… there’s shit rattling around in there decades old. The paraphrasing above popped into my head a couple of months ago and then was forgotten until a bit ago. This time I wrote it down.

    I really need a psychic enema. Meander thru the cosmic custard for awhile… take a hike with the little people in hats (funny guys they be).

  7. Rick Steeb says:

    Some of the many poison fruits of the Drug War:

    *Black market price support for bad people, enriching often violent criminals [and their bribe recipients]. Makes growing “gold” in our national parks financially attractive and ecologically destructive.

    *”Illicit” drug supply relegated to amateurs and careless/unscrupulous “chemists” with random and toxic results. They don’t likely check their customers’ ID for adulthood either.

    *Cannabis using patients are being deprived of safe and local access to medicine; our providers are at risk of dire and atrocious consequences.

    Tobacco and especially alcohol users are deprived of the safer legal alternative– and if MMJ states enjoy a 10% reduction in traffic fatalities, [and they do] then you can thank general cannabis prohibition for easily 10% of all traffic fatalities where it’s illegal. [do the math!]

    The drug war promotes contempt for authorities by us [we?] users… and vice-versa. That is not a healthy state.

    • War Vet says:

      Domestic drug policy influences and affects global policy (think Anslinger and the 61 U.N. Convention and the globetrotting DEA) . . . global policy affects the black market . . . the drug black market funds terrorism (something I learned working in a CIA/DoD/Iraqi prison in Baghdad) and drug money terrorism harms our nation as seen in 9/11 and the two wars she’s responsible for . . . the War on Drugs has killed thousands of U.S. soldiers and injured tens of thousands more . . . the War on Drugs has cost well over one trillion dollars in one decade alone (according to the NY Time and Brown University: Cost of 9/11 study) . . . to say the Iraqi conflict wasn’t sponsored by drug money on behalf of the other side, is to say that Iraq doesn’t border Iran and Iran isn’t a member of the Golden Crescent . . . same goes for Afghanistan but even more so with drug money. The War on Drugs is what invented the Patriot Act as you recall since it was the drug money sponsored 9/11 and her War on Terror that gave birth to her.

      I don’t bother as much with looking at the domestic injustices and costs to the War on Drugs . . . too many voices and research doing that already and not enough doing the Global Impact and the Impact on American security and her military . . . the War on Drugs is why our military deploys all the time to war now and why they have been in Africa as of 2012-13 . . . the War on Drugs created the attack of Benghazi and the War on Drugs is a big reason why America seemed bent on Syria due to the nature of wanting to aid drug money funded rebels fighting the Syrian Government. Let us not forget the tens of thousands killed in the Middle East, Africa and various other conflicts in Asia and Europe which utilized drug money for portions of the fight . . . those are people who could have lived had drugs been legal . . . drug money goes a long way in 3rd World Nations . . . poverty and far from source locations don’t meant a lack of coke or heroin, just much cheaper prices so drug dealers can corner the poorer markets.

  8. darkcycle says:

    Here it is laid out in black and white and with some numbers and lovely references to back it up. Prohibition Fails.
    http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/9/e003077.full#ref-32
    Use it well, and spread it far and wide Mi Amigo’s (Courtesy of Dr. Mitch)

    • Rick Steeb says:

      If the benchmark of interdiction success is high market value, then the very idea of prohibition is absurd on its face. You can’t make ANYTHING go away by increasing its value. Anyone with a room temperature IQ knows this intuitively.

  9. thelbert says:

    today i recieved a package that was supposed to have seeds from england. instead i got a notice from customs that they are taking my seeds. should i feel paranoid?

  10. thelbert says:

    i don’t think i have too much to worry about since it was only.2 grams of seed. and i am an mmj patient in cali.

    • Plant Down Babylon says:

      Tell the Hagg bitch you have two beautiful nutts, she can choose which one she wants to fondle.

      Better yet, just move to Hawai’i.

      When is this madness going to end!?

      Nullification! I preach it Daily! I tell people “imagine if it was you, what would you want?”

      Our best way to tell the Gubbmint to shove it…

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        Sheee-eeee-eeee-yit, if that Haag woman was on fire I wouldn’t even produce a urine sample to help put it out.

        thelbert don’t you go worrying about that. Customs has been doing that for a long time. I only recall one guy getting busted and he was in Indiana. The really rotten part was that the seed purchaser was an oncologist who was supplying his patients. But you’ve already suffered the full measure of Federal law enforcement efforts. The doctor mentioned above was busted by State and/or local LE. He also ordered a ridiculously large quantity for a single delivery. Don’t hold me to it but IIRC it was in the neighborhood of 600.

        If you ordered from a reputable vendor you should be able to get your order replaced. Take a picture of the envelope so the vendor can tell that it’s his. They know what that green tape means.

        But why in the world would you buy seeds by mail order if you have a 215 recommendation? Unless you ordered something that you thought was particularly special I think it’s a good idea to stick to the dispensaries.

        I actually saw a news report of a woman in Maryland who was charged with possession with intent to manufacture because she had a jar of seeds on her coffee table. Is suffering like that not a problem to the prohibitionist parasites? Isn’t being forced to smoke seeded cannabis punishment enough? Do these people have not even a speck of human decency in their rotten souls?

        P.S. the Feds wouldn’t weigh the seeds, they would count them, with every single one counting as a kilo when calculating the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment.

    • darkcycle says:

      Don’t worry. Nobody has been busted by the feds for ordered seeds. And then, they would have a hell of a time, since they would have to prove YOU ordered them.
      I gotta agree with Duncan…so many good California seed producers…what strain were you ordering???
      I have been doing some testing for MTG seeds. Top rate gear there, thelbert.

      • thelbert says:

        won’t mention the seed co. because it’s not their fault, but it was a high cbd variety. 10 seeds for 64 bucks. so not a big loss. i don’t think i have too much to fear since the truth of medical utility is on my side.

  11. DdC says:

    POLITICOS TORPEDO PATIENTS
    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n485/a04.html

    Marijuana Policy Project Bootleggers Ball in San Francisco on October 12 ( http://www.mpp.org/events/bootleggers-ball-2013.html ). And the 23rd annual Humboldt Hemp Fest ( http://www.mateel.org/festivals ) in Redway, Calif., is on November 9.

    kade ‏@onekade
    Study: Illegal drugs are now cheaper and purer globally than at any time over the last 20 years http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24342421

  12. DdC says:

    Beckley Foundation ‏@BeckleyDrugs
    Illinois march toward medical marijuana: http://bit.ly/16T2Uqm

    $1.3B medical marijuana free market coming to Canada http://sco.lt/4nFB0z

    The government’s plan to curb drug-driving is a car crash http://sco.lt/968W49

    Russ Belville ‏@RadicalRuss
    How Marijuana Prohibition Wrecks Your Bill of Rights http://wp.me/pdRRB-1gE

  13. DdC says:

    TransformDrugPolicy ‏@TransformDrugs
    BBC: War on illegal drugs failing, medical researchers warn: ICSDP report with Transform quoted http://dlvr.it/43n61N

    Transform’s Steve Rolles features in this video on cannabis regulation from Mexican senator Mario Delgado (@ 2:10) http://dlvr.it/43nL4J

    London Evening Standard: War on illegal drugs is ‘failing’: availability up, potency up, prices down http://dlvr.it/43nL1W

    Baked Food™ ‏@BakedFood
    . pic.twitter.com/yr9BqhXvcO

    Chicago Green, talkin’ ’bout Black Lebanese. A dirty room and a silver coke spoon. Give me my release, come on. Black napalese, it’s got you weak in your knees. Sneeze some dust that you got buzzed on. You know it’s hard to believe. Newcastle Brown, I’m tellin’ you, it can sure smack you down. Take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor. It’s got your head spinnin’ round. If you live on the road, well there’s a new highway code. You take the urban noise with some Durban Poison. It’s gonna lessen your load. Black napalese, it got you weak in your knees. Gonna sneeze some dust that you got busted on. You know it’s so hard to please. Newcastle Brown can sure smack you down. You take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor. You know you’re jailhouse-bound. 30 days in the hole. 30 days in the hole/ 30 days, 30 days in the hole.
    Humble Pie 30 Days In The Hole

  14. allan says:

    On tonight’s PBS Newshour, from the Center for Investigative Reporting:

    VA’s opiate overload feeds veterans’ addictions, leading to overdose deaths

Comments are closed.