I hadn’t updated the Drug War Victims page recently (not for lack of victims). But the story of Eugene Mallory hit me hard enough that I felt he needed to be added.
Our own Allan Erickson has an excellent post over at Cannabis Now Magazine: Blue Collar Cannabis Economics. In it, he also brings up the issue of drug war victims.
To know that there will not be another Peter McWilliams, or Patrick Dorismond or Kathryn Johnston or Donald Scott dying because of lies existing as laws. The value of that is inestimable. […]
One thing I do suggest is that when legalization really hits the states, en masse, victims funds be set up and money set aside to pursue prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
This is a conversation which is long overdue – the prohibitionists as not only enemies of any concept of personal freedom, but also criminals who should pay restitution for their crimes against the innocent.
It is a nice reverie, but it may take a while.
gosh… I’m all atwitter, now. Thanks Pete.
As to the victims and the whole issue of government criminality… I’ve vented here long and often that this is where the prohibs won’t go. And because they won’t we sure oughta!
I’m sure Peter McW won’t mind if we use him as the patron saint of drug war victims.
These people have been in my head for over 15 years now, their names a sad litany that literally wrenches my gut and breaks my heart.
I survived what the drug war has done to me and my life. That my friend Danbo (one of those providing medicine to patients before we called it medicine) is incarcerated for gardening. People, our neighbors – our fellow citizens – have lost too much for there not to be an accounting.
It was Zeke’s story that was my introduction to drug war victims. And the list of names grew over the years. Babies, moms, old people, clergy, rich and poor, dogs…
This needs to stop. They won’t. So we must.
Swing away lads and lassies, steady as she goes now…
Allan, thanks for rekindling the memory of the four finger bag, “what we called a lid”. Haven’t heard that description since, well, the ’70’s.
Regarding the issues of revenge/restitution/justice others have commented on, I’m reminded of an article I read a while back that called for an eventual Marijuana Truth and Reconciliation Commission, along the lines of similar commissions that have occurred around the world (most notably in South Africa regarding “healing” the damages of apartheid).
Now, I’m all for the truth part. The reconciliation part — with the notion of amnesty for those guilty of the crimes against humanity for finally admitting to lying and at last telling the truth — is a bit of a sticking point for me. I’m not sure what can be done to/with the guilty. Some form of restitution sounds good. For starters, I’d like a claw back provision for the likes of Michele Leonhart to pay back some of her six figure salary our tax money helped put in her bank account over the years. Should I expect that? Not likely. I do have other repayment plans that are not safe for family viewing, so I have to shelve those as well.
I’m with primus regarding the crime of repressed medical utility being right at the top of the worst cannabis prohibition has robbed from all of us. I think of my friend who died in his early 50’s from colon cancer several years ago. Did he have the option of using CBD in attempt to neutralize ld-1 and stop metasasis of the cancer that killed him? No. I have an uncle who’s on a waiting list for an Alzheimer’s care facility. As described by Dr. Gary Wenk, maybe if he had had the knowledge that merely a “puff” of cannabis a day could have reduced the inflammation in his brain to ward off his terrible disease. That choice was kept form him and his brain is now damaged beyond help. Makes me wish I could strangle somebody, actually a lengthy laundry list of “somebody’s”.
And I also think of two friends of mine who were dragged out of the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida after hitting a sandbar in their “modified” fishing boat loaded with bales of primo Columbian. They went to prison for years. One died last year. The other is largely a recluse after his “rehabilitative” experience. Still a recluse 35 years after his release.
Truth? Yes of course. Reconciliation? Not sure I’ll ever be able to go that far. Strangulation? I haven’t shaken that notion either. A long walk is in order (again).
Makes me think of that Dixie Chicks song, the one they wrote and sang after they were treated badly for remarks about a president. Damn, I cannot recall the title of the song right now, one of those files for which my brain/computer is still searching, I’ll likely waken in the middle of the night remembering it. Anyway, that song’s pretty much how I feel about this aspect of the drug war.
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With all due respect I think that Jonathan Magbie is the better choice for that honor. While the death of Mr. McWilliams was without doubt a tragedy and just can’t be forgotten, Mr. Magbie was a quadriplegic busted for a joint and letting his friends stash their gun in a place where the cops would never find it. If you had ever been to his family’s home neighborhood you’d have to be a foaming at the mouth gun control freak to say that it was unreasonable to consider the claim that it was a defensive weapon. But any way you slice it it was utterly impossible for him to fire the gun and he wasn’t convicted on a gun charge. Something that I just can’t grant even an iota of credence is the inane claim that a quadriplegic can have “control and dominion” over any thing that if stolen the cops would go out looking for and return in the 1 in a million cases where they actually do their job. WTF is he going to do if someone decides to just take it? Perhaps someone with hired security with everything else being equal could be said to have “control and dominion” but even then it’s arguable.
Of course everyone knows that Santa Claus is the patron Saint of children, prostitutes, seamen, coopers, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters, the falsely accused, repentant thieves, pharmacists, archers and pawnbrokers. If a Saint can be the patron Saint of so many cohorts, why can’t we have more than one patron Saint for a single claus?
The Barr Amendment, a major one of the many reasons I stopped paying my dues to the LP when they nominated that piece of authoritarian trash as their presidential candidate.
For every name we know, there are ten whose names we never heard. Local stories used to stay local before the internet, and often stories in local backwaters still go unnoticed. How many of the bad raids have been covered up with planted evidence? They tried with Kathryn Johnston, but got caught, but that’s the exception, isn’t it?
I left another comment with the latest “White Paper” from ASAM on the previous post. I’d give a look, IIWY.
If you want to stop drug law reforms just as the movement is really picking up steam, then by all means add “war crime” provisions to the reform agenda.The moral high ground reformers have gained these past few years would be lost as reformers will be painted as revenge seekers.
Is it necessary to remind folks that ex post facto laws are unconstitutional? You cannot pass a law and then charge someone for retroactively breaking that law. That is precisely what is being recommended here. Like it or not, drug prohibition laws were enacted via the legislative process and received broad public support until just recently. You are not going to convince the public that there should be punishment for individual government actors whose actions were legal at the time.
Restitution is another matter. A case can certainly be made that restitution is warranted for victims of drug prohibition. The question is whether it would be a politically viable option. Some might object to restitution, citing the fact that what the person did was illegal at the time and therefore restitution isn’t warranted. Then there is the problem of who would be deserving of restitution and in what amounts.
I don’t see either restitution or “war crime” provisions aiding the reform movement. In fact, I see then as harmful to the cause. Bringing an end to drug prohibition is probably all we can really expect, and that is still a whole lot.
In the heat of battle, the cool heads will prevail. Keep cool, guys, don’t let them rattle you into an error. I agree with you, though I understand the anger and frustration which leads to such calls for revenge. As you say, it isn’t helpful.
revenge… justice would closer match my preference.And whether it’s helpful or not is moot. I felt it needed to be said and said it. One voice a movement does not make.
As always this time of year I learn more about MLK and this year for me I’ve heard more about the criticism he received for opposing Vietnam. Sometimes unpopular ideas need an airing.
But then I’m one that trespassed onto a US Gummint AF base with 200 other people heading for missile silos… you shoulda heard what I got called for that.
I would settle for a red “D” lasered on the forehead for every DEA agent that went to college and choomed but went to work busting people for marijuana use,,any involved with propaganda should be removed from government service or pension and be punished according to the damage their lies and false science caused.
Any person involved in the decision to add acetaminophen to codeine to harm abusers should be drawn and quartered on the Congressional floor,,with all legislators forced to pull the ropes.
Similar actions should receive the same treatment by the people that posted them to the job.
Points well made Randy.
But if my single voice can set back reform then we aren’t a 300 mph freight train at all.
I’m ok with my stance.
For every Martin there needs to be a Malcolm.
I disagree with you strongly here:
The enactment and that legislative process is where we need to begin. Laws enacted on lies and racist crap need to be not just overturned but drug out on the carpet and flayed publicly.
And because people believed lies for decades can hardly be called legitimate public support. Slavery moved to Jim Crow because white folk still hated them darkies and racism received “broad public support.”
I can’t compare the drug war crimes with other historic atrocities. This isn’t the diaspora, it’s not the holocaust or Wounded Knee(/etc). But the WOD is what it is.
I’m not big on god and the debil but I do think the drug war is just plain evil. Nothing else in nature has that capacity save us.
That near century of lying, racist anti-drug propaganda is part of the list of crimes. Any who know me know I’m a calm, reasoned and moderate guy. But there are people upon whom a measurable portion of responsibility for this evil rests.
Besides, like I said the other day, this isn’t a fight under the Marcus of Doonesbury rules. This is a bloody street fight. We’re defending ourselves and when the opponent is down is the time for real ass kicking to begin.
Besides, I know I don’t stand alone, tho’ I may be one of the first to utter words many of us have thought.
I made a comment to Pete the other day… back when I was doing the anti-nukular weapons thing one of my favorite buttons was ‘Civil Disobedience is Civil Defense’. And if I had to come up with an updated version? ‘Civil Discourse is Civil Defense.’ Which is what we do here. I seek only to do that.
So well said. “We need to have a national conversation/debate” is one stinkin’ dead horse that satisfies only the appeasers on MSM.
85% of voters recognizing that half the population having access to marijuana under a doctors care with a MMJ dispensary 4 blocks from DEA hdqtrs and 6>7 blocks from Congress is an “accepted medical use” of marijuana and no bureaucrats standard for an acceptable medical use has been legislated,,TMK,,and any politician’s opinion on the efficacy of marijuana is a moot point.
Sensible, Randy. Very sensible.
Prohibition kingpins would not require ex post facto laws for their prosecution under international law. The International Criminal Court (ICC), has existed since 1998 to help counter crimes against humanity. Such human rights crimes apply to a situation in which a nation has used illegal drugs as a shibboleth to impose drug enforcement as a means to harass, oppress and eliminate racial, political, cultural, and religious or non-religious minorities, meaning us.
The following language is from THE ROME STATUTE, which entered into force on 1 July 2002, and can be applied to the government’s conduct in the ongoing drug war:
Article 79 of the Rome Statute covers Allan’s idea of creating a fund for victims of the drug war:
No one in the present government of the United States, or elsewhere, is going to believe themselves vulnerable to the Rome Statute until it happens. Like any political criminal, they think themselves invulnerable. There is no statute of limitations for these crimes, and sovereignty is no longer an out, even if the U.S. hasn’t signed on as a party to the statute. This is how a few NGOs in Europe nailed the last pope.
The drug war has become the greatest human rights catastrophe since the inquisitions and witch hunts. To allow it to go without resolution through prosecution would be another crime against humanity. The same principle was at work at the Nuremberg trials. To prevent this from happening again, there must be accountability. Accountability will only come through the ICC if the U.S. fails to resolve the drug war problem by itself.
here here. A victim’s fund would be appropriate.
A victim’s fund would be appropriate. To be fair I think it would be wise to wait until all the facts are in before we pound the drums too hard for retribution/justice. Don’t get me wrong, tar and feathers and hang em high sound all too good to me. We have come a ways from those days and some sensible public discourse is in order. We are changing the course of an entire way of thinking and acting. In the process I think its inevitable that much reform will occur in the government.
Lets get the prohibitches off of that political stage. Lack of presence on that stage is as good as a hanging right now.
I think a new Nuremberg has to wait. We may even see some surprising apologies.
here here… to all you say TC.
Drug policy reform has been a one-sided affair since Ni-ni-Nixon. But now… now we’ve knocked the air out of these windbags and for the first time, they’re back on their heels wondering if anyone got that truck’s license plate number.
I often wander away from the more travelled paths. I’m 62. There’s folks here older (and better looking!) but like the buzzards in the cartoon, I’m tired of waiting.
I’m tired, pissed off and have shit I want to do still. WODbeast is wounded and I’ll be damned if I’ll let it rest.
Besides, now, out there in comments-land, folks can say “I’m not radical! THAT guy wants war crimes trials!”
Just as one sided as the war on marijuana users,,as far as I know no gestapo suited up adrenaline maxed stoned out hippies have kicked a narcs door down shot his dog and I know of only one cop killing marijuana grower,TMK, that received a no bill,,it being in TX where no law enforcement officer dies alone drops my jaw to the floor while I am still standing.
SR 67 but had GED in 66,,took senior trip around the world after eating Thanksgiving dinner with family and leaving for 4 AM flight to SF for a real trip to Australia and back with stop offs in HA,VN,AU,VN,HA return to SF,,,the one week R&R in AU made the weather delay in VN worth the trip.
will turn 65 Bastille Day
Well I’ll be Allan. Same age as me. There are some dusty old characters kicking around in here.
Old farts. I won’t be 62 until August.
aah, primus is the young one!
So, let me guess… class of ’69?
Class of ’69 for me and getting near ready to tip another year over.
Class of ’70.
Class of ’71.
Bunch of young whippersnappers. Class of 65 (unfortunately it was in Kansas, as behind the times then as they are now.)
I think Windy graduated with Teddy Roosevelt…
Looks like we’re lining up for the walker races. 🙂
Class of ’71.
Class of 62. One of the best reunions was the Class of 62 turns 62 picnic on the beach. Believe it or not, I still had a bikini body at that picnic.
We need a list of the “private investors” in the law enforcement grants oprograms to find out who is kicking extra and how much into the drug war and buying support for it from our LE.
http://us-government-grants.net/law-enforcement-grants/
“”While government agencies are eligible for state and federal grant opportunities, often times government agencies are not eligible to apply for corporate and foundation grants. Teaming up with another nonprofit organization, or setting up a “Friends Of the Law Enforcement Agency†increases the number of funding opportunities available to the agency.””
Servetus said:
“No one in the present government of the United States, or elsewhere, is going to believe themselves vulnerable to the Rome Statute until it happens. Like any political criminal, they think themselves invulnerable. There is no statute of limitations for these crimes, and sovereignty is no longer an out, even if the U.S. hasn’t signed on as a party to the statute. This is how a few NGOs in Europe nailed the last pope.
The drug war has become the greatest human rights catastrophe since the inquisitions and witch hunts. To allow it to go without resolution through prosecution would be another crime against humanity. The same principle was at work at the Nuremberg trials. To prevent this from happening again, there must be accountability. Accountability will only come through the ICC if the U.S. fails to resolve the drug war problem by itself.”‘
.
Bravo, sir!
And thank you too, Allan, for writing such a very relevant and powerful article.
I wonder if anyone has researched the pollen produced by the male hemp plant for any medical uses? Pollen is a building block in the bee world and herbal medicines use it,,the most therapeutic plant in nature must have good pollen,,bees don’t seek it so perhaps it isn’t meant for bees.
More importantly since the hash oil producers didn’t know female plants produced more THC than males were they processing hash oil extracted using alcohol on both male and female seeded plants that our hash oil today doesn’t use and may be missing some ingredients they had in theirs,,,some testing using the technology available and the natural tendency for man to use everything available may add too hemp’s remarkable efficacy or prove we have improved today’s hash oil extractions.
Sitting here smiling on my sack of seeds.
The stifling of research into the healing properties of hemp has been the most harmful legacy of prohibition. How many deaths are due to that cause alone? My friend has terminal gleoblastoma (brain cancer) and won’t take me up on my offer of RSO because she thinks I am biased in my view, doesn’t want to get her hopes up because the docs said there is nothing they can do for her. Her reasoning is that RSO is just ‘folk medicine’ and there is nothing to it, because if there was something to it the docs would know. If research would have proceeded, there is no telling where we might be medically, agriculturally, in manufacture, energy use and so on. It would also have more quickly improved how the general public perceives cannabis. My friend could well be taking, and being cured by cannabis based medicines, instead of dying. Talk about crimes against humanity.
This study is currently recruiting participants.
Verified May 2013 by Assistance Publique РH̫pitaux de Paris
Sponsor:
Assistance Publique РH̫pitaux de Paris
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Assistance Publique РH̫pitaux de Paris
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
NCT02061020
First received: December 18, 2013
Last updated: February 11, 2014
Last verified: May 2013
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02061020
Raymond Poincare Hospital Recruiting
Garches, France, 92380
Principal Investigator: Sarah Hartley, MD
Study of the effects of smoked cannabis consumption on performance on a driving simulator and reaction time. The study aims to explore the relationship between concentrations of cannabis in the blood, driving performance and reaction time.
Same study that CMCR already did,,must not of liked the results.
http://tinyurl.com/ygs9o43
Malcolm and Piggio are probably calling to sign up now.
“Mark Kleiman continues to insist that I am “talking through [my] hat” on the subject of rescheduling marijuana, but the reason he gives for saying so has changed. At first he claimed I had exaggerated the impact of rescheduling, which was weird, since the post he was criticizing said nothing about the impact of rescheduling, focusing instead on the question of whether the Obama administration has the authority to reclassify marijuana without new legislation from Congress. As Kleiman conceded, the answer to that question is yes, although President Obama suggested otherwise in a CNN interview. In any case, Kleiman was clearly wrong to say that the “practical effect” of moving marijuana out of Schedule I would be “identically zero”—or, as he put it on Twitter, that “rescheduling does nothing.” He has since retreated from that position without acknowledging that he has ceded any ground. Now he says rescheduling marijuana would be “mostly pointless” and/or that its effects would be “mostly symbolic.” These clams are more defensible, although advocates of rescheduling might nevertheless take issue with them (especially the first one).”
http://reason.com/blog/2014/02/16/mark-kleiman-admits-that-rescheduling-ma
We must have been posting this at the same time!
Again, Mark A.R. Kleiman is forced to admit he’s wrong and pretends he was “Always Right”. Fantastic trick, that, being able to retroactively change your position. Think he learned that one at Harvard? http://reason.com/blog/2014/02/16/mark-kleiman-admits-that-rescheduling-ma
That picture the archeologist claim is the first politician needs a touch-up to get the feet in his mouth
http://tinyurl.com/k3ut9hw
Actually, I tend to agree. AT THIS POINT IN TIME, rescheduling will have minimal impact on much of anything. Once states start DESCHEDULING, like CO and WA, a change in federal scheduling doesn’t mean that much with respect to state vs. federal enforcement. And let’s not forget, a controlled substances of any schedule can’t be sold/used recreationally. To the feds, it would still be a controlled substance, to the states it would not, same as now. We’ve gone way past the point where federal rescheduling matters. Until mj is descheduled entirely, the feds vs. states conflict will continue, and just get worse as more and more states legalize.
In the evenings the coyotes and other scavengers come down from the hills to feast on the unprotected leftovers and pets.
Mark Kleiman and his groupies need to go back up into the hills. There is a new day dawning.
now now, no need to insult coyotes
This may be an unpopular opinion here, but the most effective, which is to say, quickest, means of ending the drug war is to drop all thoughts of retribution and focus on moving forward.
I am well aware of the anger in our community, and I harbor more than my share. I know it is real and justified. But at the same time, I recognize that our ideological opponents are also human and just doing what they, for whatever reason, think is best.
To continually call for revenge just makes them entrench deeper to avoid not only the end of the drug war, but also to avoid the threatened punishment. The harder we push in that way, the harder they push back as a yin-yang balancing force.
On the other hand, if/when we soften our position, and signal that we seek no retribution, but only a practical policy moving forward, it will be easier for them to let go of their defensiveness over the drug war.
I say FTP = Forgive The Police.
The police are well aware that their ranks would be decimated without the “War on Drugs” to perpetrate. In addition, they have the cognitive dissonance resulting from realizing they have caused harm professionally via their enthusiastic persecution of victimless “criminals”.
It is difficult to forgive an ongoing crime against humanity. Reparations are in order at the very least.
my strongest disagreement is here:
Where do you hang out? I’ve seen nothing that would qualify as continually calling for revenge. In fact, read above and replace “revenge” with justice.
Yes, we do cry out for justice
No Justice No Peace
Every Day sees another violation of rights in the name of the War on Drugs.
The Tribunal of US Drug War Crimes ecp
Where do I hang out? I’m referring to this forum, or “couch.” I won’t bother picking out quotes, but in general there is a lot of talk of retribution, punishment, fighting, battle, etc. Even slinging insults like variations on the word “prohibitionist”, or calling the opponents evil, wicked, or greedy, are forms of violence. I don’t mean to shame anyone for feeling or expressing anger. That anger is valid and to express it is healthy.
In terms of sheer practicality, I believe that violent means seldom achieve their ends, however noble. Just as I would never answer the injustice of the drug war with acts of physical violence, I also try not to insult or judge the opponent. Doing so may make me feel better temporarily, but I find that the violence I put out always comes back in some form. In my experience, violence is never ended by violence.
What I would like to see is not a fight to end prohibition but a reconciliation or making up.
well then yes, we on the couch do frequently verbally eviscerate our opponents. But here is a very small corner of the interwwwebs.
Do I feel bad about it? Hardly. The arena of public criticism is a harsh place and when one acts the ass publicly one should expect to be treated like an ass, publicly.
I’ve been arrested twice for my belief in non-violent civil disobedience, one a federal… I too believe non-violence is essential. But that some get treated to the virtual blanket party is their own damn fault.
Me personally? I’m halfway between Gandhi and Crazy Horse.
I think of this as a sort of ‘gestational pool’ of ideas, where we can vent in safety, commiserate our mistakes and scheme about how to accomplish our goals. It is very good for exposing others to approaches which work and avoiding errors. It is not meant to be the public face of us freedom fighters, more of a sanctuary from the enemies of freedom. Then when we leave this retreat to hunt prohibitionists, we are able to mount a withering array of different points of view when one shows himself. This approach appears to be very effective, which is the proof of the pudding.
Another alleged space cake OD in Spain.
Hard to ascertain cold hard facts here with all the hype.
Was it just cannabis ? How comatose were they ?
http://news.yahoo.com/spanish-man-enters-comatose-state-pot-cake-191313896.html
Are people who indulge in cannabis edibles, weed eaters?
Marijuana Research: CBD Cannabinoid Have Neuroprotective Effects: Scientist
from the University Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda
New Study Finds Cannabis May Have Neuroprotective Effects
The Ten Best Cannabis Research Studies of 2013
2013 has been a sweet year for cannabinoid-related research, one in which study after study of peer-reviewed investigations have shown marijuana and its cannabinoids to be beneficial for humans; not only for relaxing the masses safely, but also providing new hope in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, PTSD, Cancer, traumatic brain injury and a host of other life altering health issues.
All became comatose, all are veterinary students, ketamine is a veterinary tranquilizer. Makes one wonder.
Ketamine is a horrible drug, according to hubby, they gave it to him in the ER on 1/1/13 when he broke his ankle in 3 places, now it’s on his medical chart to never give it to him as he woke up during surgery, sat up on the operating table and started trying to fight the doctors. His memory of the drug was being suspended between gold colored stalagmites and stalactites and being afraid to move for being stabbed by the sharp points. He doesn’t understand why ANYONE would do that drug recreationally. Personally, I have no knowledge of the drug other than what he said.
You could certainly see your expertise in the article you write.
The world hopes for more passionate writers like
you who are not afraid to say how they believe.
At all times go after your heart.