Traction

New York Times: Coalition Urges Nations to Decriminalize Drugs and Drug Use

Wall Street Journal: Decriminalize, Regulate Heroin, Cocaine, Commission Says

Gawker: International Commission: Decriminalize Drugs Everywhere

Huffington Post: World Leaders Call For Massive Shift in Global Drug Policy

New York Daily News: Leaders meet to propose changes to drug policy

Daily Beast: World Leaders’ Proposal for Winning the War on Drugs: Legalize It!

ThinkProgress: Former World Leaders Call For Legal, Regulated Drugs

Seattlepi: International leaders plea for end of War on Drugs

CBC: Decriminalize cocaine and psychedelics, global group urges

International Business Times UK: World Leaders to Meet with UN to Discuss Drug Decriminalisation, also Richard Branson: War on Drugs ‘Like a Business Which has Failed for 50 Years’

U.S. News and World Report: Ex-Leaders of 8 Countries Say It’s Time to Try Drug Legalization

Fox News Latino: World Leaders Of All Stripes Call For Drug Legalization In New Report Ahead Of UN General Assembly

… and still more to come.

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31 Responses to Traction

  1. Dave in IL says:

    Excellent! All of this news is going to put me in a good mood as I head out to work…for a change. Thanks for staying on top of this, Pete. Laws and policies won’t change overnight, but news like this will make things increasingly awkward for drug warriors.

  2. It needs to be awkward for “drug warriors”; after all, they have gamed the system.

    These tools don’t care about anyone. Championing this “cause” gives them something to puff up their chests.

    The truth hurts, and the truth is that the only reason that the “War on Drugs” persists is to keep profits up while laundering money. An added benefit to this is that people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens and good neighbors can be criminalized and incarcerated.

  3. Servetus says:

    Seems like every police officer in the country wants to start another Ferguson: [Oregon] “Man Assaulted And Arrested By Police For Filming Military-Style Drug Raid” on his iPad.

    Around 4:00 am on September 2, Fred Marlow was startled from his sleep by the sounds of “multiple bombs blasting and glass breaking,” as his apartment shook from the impact. He ran outside with his iPad and saw “five or more tanks” rolling down the street and a man shouting orders into a megaphone to heavily-armed soldiers in military fatigues.

    Mr. Marlow is attempting to raise $5000 to defend himself on two false charges, one of resisting arrest, and one of interfering with the duties of the proto-Nazi cop who ordered Marlow to stop standing on his own front lawn while recording the drug raid. [video available].

    • allan says:

      thanks for posting! I’ve shared it on the Oregon DPF list and elsewhere, hoping that helps.

      • primus says:

        My friend asked me why I will NOT set foot in that benighted country. This sort of thing is why. This is part of the softening up process; when people peek out their windows and see military style activity, along with loud orders to stay inside, especially when their neighbor does not follow orders and is arrested and put through the ‘justice system’, they are being taught to expect to see military activity in their neighborhoods, and to follow orders from the loudspeakers on the military vehicles. They will be less likely to say anything at all. They will be cowed. That is the intent. This is evil personified. This is a police state.

        • John says:

          I think we should just go ahead and change the name of the country from USA to UPSA – United Police States of America.

        • ezrydn says:

          Primus,

          In 2001, the Dir. of Homeland Security came on TV and stated “All Vietnam Vets are Homegrown Terrorists!” Thirty days later, I moved to Mexico and love it down here. Two/three days at most are all I can stand to go up there now. I’m now a “Permanent Resident.” I often wonder why I didn’t make the move sooner.

    • Windy says:

      LibertyCrier.com reported this story, a couple of the most excellent comments follow.
      istt commented:

      Did you notice how these cops are instructed to repeatedly say “stop resisting” as they handcuff you or beat you, even though there was no resistance? Standard operating procedure. This way they can say in court, “See, we were trying to subdue him but he kept fighting us. We had no alternative.” The two cops who approached him didn’t even know what they were doing. You could tell. They were looking at each other and found courage in numbers. Pathetic. Yeah, this guy was a real threat, standing there, recording them.

      and anarchyst had this to say:

      1. Eliminate both “qualified” and absolute” immunity for ALL public officials. This includes, police and firefighters, all court officials, code enforcement and “child protective service” personnel. Require all public officials and employees who deal with the public to purchase and maintain personal liability (malpractice) insurance at their own expense as a condition of employment. You can bet that insurance companies would be more efficient in rooting out the “bad apples”. No insurance=no job.

      2. Require all public officials to maintain a video and audit trail when dealing with the public. Equipment malfunction would NOT be an excuse and would be grounds for immediate and permanent dismissal and loss of pension. Wearable personal equipment would be mandatory–along with dash cams.

      3. Prosecutors must have NO immunity and should be subordinate to the grand jury. As it stands now, grand juries are “rubber stamps” for prosecutors. Grand juries should be able to indict without seeking a prosecutor’s “permission”.

      4. Civilian police review boards should be comprised of citizens with NO police ties. Those with police officers as relatives would automatically be disqualified from serving on civilian police review boards.

      5. Police agencies should be prohibited from investigating themselves. Outside disinterested agencies should investigate charges and accusations of police wrongdoing, preferably at the county sheriff or state police level.

      6. “Asset forfeiture” should be abolished. It is nothing but a corrupting influence (and a good moneymaker). It is legalized robbery at its best. Most communities REDUCE funding for police departments by the amount of “forfeited goods and cash”. This is a perverse “incentive” for “law enforcement”.
      These changes would do much to reign in abuses by all public officials………….

      Here are “police” practices that deserve to be exposed:

      #1. During a traffic stop, the police officer will touch the back of your car. The reason for this “touch” is that, quite often, the police officer will have a small quantity of narcotics (marijuana or cocaine) on him (in his hand) that he will rub on the car in order to help “justify a search”. When the dog is brought in, it will react to the drug on the vehicle and help “justify a search”. This tactic is mostly used against young people. Drugs can also be “planted” on a “suspect”.
      The “touch” used to be a way for police officers to “prove” that they had an interaction with a citizen, but no more . . .

      #2. Most (if not all) cops possess a “throwdown” weapon. This “helper” is obtained from a criminal who is then “let go” without his weapon and is always used to justify a questionable police situation and to “sanitize” a “crime scene to absolve police on the scene of criminal police behavior.

      #3. If you are in the back of a police car, LIE DOWN on the seat. Police use the concept of “screening” to abuse their unwilling “passenger”. This involves, driving at high rates of speed, violent turns and other antics to get the passenger to “hit the screen” separating the front from the back with his face. Hence the act of “screening”.

      #4. If you are being handcuffed, quite often the police officer will wrench your arm behind you, forcing you to “turn around”. The officer will then add a charge of “assault” to whatever other charges they concoct against you (just for being forced to turn around). They “pile on” charges, hoping you will plead guilty to at least one.

      Remember–NEVER CONSENT TO SEARCH . . . You must be polite, but firm in your refusal. You can state that “you NEVER consent to searches” as well as using these “magic” words–“am I free to go?” The police officer MUST answer your question . . . If you are being detained and an illegal search takes place, you have legal recourse.

      Remember–police are not your friends . . .

      That being said, not all “law enforcement” is criminal, but the “thin blue line” that they so jealously guard (and “look the other way” when rogue cops abuse their authority) does much to taint ALL “law enforcement” with having ulterior motives.

  4. thelbert says:

    so, you can’t have a medical cannabis dispensary anywhere near a school or daycare, but you can click off the safety and do a little “recon by fire” if nessesary in a residential neighborhood. in the middle of the night. smells like fascism to me. nowhere in the constitution does it say the police have the right to endanger the people in order to make their job a little safer and easier. something makes me suspect that the gresham police get paid extra for working at night. they never mention the money they make because they are greedy. greed might be one of the reasons they lose the wars…that and the fact that reformers don’t have to resort to lies and half-truths

    • Jean Valjean says:

      One of the primary reasons so many in LE support the wod is the overtime they can rack up through make-work schemes like this “search warrant” in the middle of the night. Plus they get to drive their favorite toys. Is it fair to deprive them of their fun?

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      For years and years I’ve found it morbidly amusing that in the District of Columbia the “gun free” zone around schools is 300 feet, while the “drugs free” zone is 1000 feet. How can anyone look at idiocy like that and not believe that these things are implemented and administered by world class morons?
      ———
      thelbert, I’ve never had any problem finding salary schedules for public employees. They can’t keep it secret because they need to hire new recruits. The only caveat is that you’ve got to account for the overtime pay which can be dramatically different between one jurisdiction and the next.

      • Windy says:

        Morons abound; unfortunately, some of them are actually allowed to make decisions, and all too many of them are elected to office by voting morons.

    • Windy says:

      Nowhere in the Constitution is there any granted power or provision for the police at all. In fact the federal government is enjoined from having any law enforcement powers except in the case of treason, counterfeiting, and high seas piracy. Only the elected Sheriff is allowed for within the Constitution, and the Sheriff IS the highest level of law enforcement in his/her county outranking ALL other LEAs regardless the level of government which created those other LEAs. This is why thorough vetting of the candidates for Sheriff is so very important and why the election for this office is so much more important than ANY other elected office. The candidates for Sheriff should know and understand that it is his/her Constitutional duty to protect the residents of his/her county from any and ALL unconstitutional statutes and actions (including the drug war and any other restrictions on any of our unalienable rights) regardless from which level of government these unconstitutional statutes and actions come. If one or more does not or does and refuses to do his/her duty it is the right and duty of the county voters to replace him/her with one who WILL.

  5. claygooding says:

    Now any law enforcement agency that supports prohibition will be talking to fewer listeners,,the war on drugs has failed miserably and there is no clean up for the people that orchestrated the spending of over $5 trillion tax dollars and are still asking for more funding.
    Now any law enforcement that come out in opposition to reform become just as guilty as the bureaucrats of wasting more tax money in an unwinnable war.

  6. DonDig says:

    .
    The list of articles and sources at the top (here) is truly amazing.

    However, my front page of Google news, Yahoo news, and Bing news has no mention of any of this.

    How is that possible?

  7. MJ Verite says:

    Isn’t it ironic that those who malign any sort of altered state have themselves kept the populace in a state of madness? Isn’t it ironic that the prohibitionists who see nothing but addiction and ruin have brought millions to actual run because of their own addiction to money? They have victimized those they have sworn to serve and protect. In their zeal to pursue their vision of utopia, they have damaged not only the institutions of this republic, but also the Constitution itself.

    We are making great progress, but we must never become complacent. We must fight on, for ourselves, our children and our country.

  8. Jean Valjean says:

    OT
    Isis declares its own war on drugs in captured areas. Kevin Sabet and ISIS, the last stand of the drug warriors.
    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/weird-link-between-marijuana-and-radical-islamists-syria

  9. kaptinemo says:

    If something can gain traction, in this zero-sum world, it usually means that something else directly related is losing it. In this case, it’s the DrugWarriors who are losing ‘traction’. And the proof is in their antics.

    Recall that bull about CO going to Hell thanks to re-legalized cannabis? ‘Traffic fatalities’ and various unproven what-not? As you may have guessed, the Sacerdotes of Sobriety at the ONDCP were to thank:

    Drug Warriors Claim Colorado Going to Pot

    From the article:

    “There was no information about the “Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” program (RMHIDRA) in the report other than it was produced by the “Investigative Support Center” in Denver, Colorado. It turns out the program is actually controlled by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, otherwise known as the Drug Czar.”

    This, while Botticelli has been running the show in Kerli’s absence.

    This latest gambit proves it doesn’t matter who runs ONDCP; the bureaucratic culture of mendacity remains. The entire organization needs to be eliminated.

    • Jean Valjean says:

      This was the bit that struck me:
      ‘What this means is that if you increased blood testing to 100 percent in 2012 when you were testing less than 50 percent of cases in prior years that you should expect to find at least a 100 percent increase involving traffic fatalities with some detection of marijuana. This result not only brings into question the reports “reliable data,” it brings into serious question RMHIDRA’s respect for “hard science.”’
      If this is all they have to support their policies they are clearly losing it.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        Wow, earlier today a guy posted comments in the Colorado Springs Gazette quoting that piece of self serving pap-aganda as if it were evidence. It never even crossed my mind that he might not know that the HIDTA program is the bastard progeny of the ONDCP. I guess that’s one of the hazards of being intimately familiar with the arcana of a particular subject. Maybe even more so when that subject has an incredibly large pile of bald faced lies, half truths and hysterical rhetoric published by self anointed experts as if those things were factual.

        I’ve really been able to banish the negative emotions that the prohibitionist parasites used to engender in my mind. I’ve come to believe that the prohibitionist parasites are digging their own proverbial grave when they publish their laughably absurd “reasoning” because the more they lie the easier it is to discredit their canards. I’ve also recently noticed that the people on the other side of the table appear to be congenitally unable to modify their arguments. I think it’s highly accurate to assert that their schtick is for all practical matters identical to the one from “Reefer Madness” with the only thing different being that they’ve done a wonderful job of polishing and sugar coating those particular turds.

      • kaptinemo says:

        “If this is all they have to support their policies they are clearly losing it.”

        Indeed. And it’s becoming clearer every day that is precisely what’s happening. The once-powerful LameStream Media information gatekeepers can no longer dominate the information flow, and it’s getting easier and easier to fact-check.

        But the prohibs still think they can use the old paradigm, as in using the same tired old propaganda (‘dangerous’, ‘not enough studies’, ‘gateway drug’, etc.) handed out to media outlets as well as their own forces and expect continued sheep-nodding on the public’s part.

        That’s not going to work on a public with alternate information outlets…and a desire to use them stemming from having been lied to by Gub’mint before.

        The very fact that the ONDCP thought they could be cute and hide their latest bit of mendacious handiwork through such am embarrassingly tissue-paper thin subterfuge as they did just goes to show how hopelessly naive they are. It’s the same kind of thinking Project SAM’s Big Pharma board members probably engaged in; that their clearly hypocritical ‘conflict of interest’ would not be discovered so quickly as it was.

        They are like troglodytes lecturing technologically advanced citizens on the importance of flint-chipping. Living anachronisms that belong to a different time and culture…and they don’t have the wits to understand that. Hopelessly outclassed.

  10. Hope says:

    Traction is good.

  11. Tony Aroma says:

    Yeah, that’s about the response I expected. Apparently, no one currently uses marijuana in Russia. I’d predict if any other non-retired leader responds at all, it’ll be more of the same.

    Federal body rules out drug legalization in Russia

    A senior spokesman for Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service has said legalizing drugs would inflict non-repairable damage to the nation and wouldn’t happen in current conditions.

    He added that if recreational use of cannabis is legalized it would create very high security threats as people would start operating complicated and dangerous machinery while under the influence. “Someone who works at a nuclear power plant can wreak real havoc after smoking marijuana,” Ivanov said.

    • B. Snow says:

      Nah,
      They are simply just too busy chugging vodka by the bottle to smoke cannabis!

      Much like, US “spring-breakers” in beach-adjacent ‘bars’, with modern plastic variants of “yard-glasses” – filled with the cheapest beer ‘on tap’…

      And, since it’s only beer they can get thoroughly baked as well – before they puke and pass out. Which can lead to a few more *Darwin Awards* = but generally fewer deaths by straight-up alcohol poisoning.

    • kaptinemo says:

      Google Russian driving videos. And realize quite a few of those horrendous accidents were created by sober Russian drivers. How many were caused by alcohol, I would not hazard a guess, but quite a few. While a stoned driver is preternaturally cautious.

      As always, cultural prejudices are the reason for a prohibition, not reason, itself. Cannabis in Russia has always been associated with Muslims, many of whom are at odds with the Russian government for various traditional, historical and current reasons. Needless to say, true to our own cannabis prohibition’s pattern, the drug is associated with a hated group, and off the Russians went to the prohibition tail-chasing race…just like we did with African- and Hispanic-Americans.

      Exact same lesson. Exact same mistake. And only the exact same remedy – applied in WA and CO and soon elsewhere – will end the madness.

  12. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Oh for the love of the pursuit of trivia…sheesh! I just noticed that just this past July FedEx was indicted by a Federal grand jury for carrying and delivering packages from here to there in the normal course of business. Hey, isn’t “Melinda Haag” one of the preferential secret identities assumed by the Wicked Witch of the West?

    So does this mean that the USPS is going to be indicted on similar charges? Now that would be a mother lovin’ spectacle. I’ll start popping the popcorn this evening just to be on the safe side. I wouldn’t want to watch a GSE get indicted without some popcorn.

    July 17, 2014: FedEx Indicted for its Role in Distributing Controlled Substances and Prescription Drugs

    /snip/
    SAN FRANCISCO – A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted FedEx Corporation, FedEx Express, Inc., and FedEx Corporate Services, Inc., today, with conspiracies to traffic in controlled substances and misbranded prescription drugs for its role in distributing controlled substances and prescription drugs for illegal Internet pharmacies, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Jay Fitzpatrick, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Director of the Office of Criminal Investigations Philip J. Walsky.
    /snip/

    Well at least we may be able to get some closure now that there’s no doubt that the world has gone stark raving mad.

    The FDA publishes news about our mirror black market, you know, the one with a nexus in the authorized health care industry:
    http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/CriminalInvestigations/ucm406303.htm

    I think that people really might want to re-consider the assertion that the pharmas and the feds are working hand in hand to prevent cannabis law reform. They sure aren’t acting all cozy from my POV. This is a list of the incidence of “big pharmaceuticals” getting bent over and required to name their paternal ancestor within the last 3 years:

    February 21, 2014: Endo Pharmaceuticals and Endo Health Solutions to Pay $192.7 Million to Resolve Criminal and Civil Liability Relating to Marketing of Prescription Drug Lidoderm for Unapproved Uses

    November 4, 2013: Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigations

    November 4, 2013: FDA: Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to Plead Guilty and Pay Over $1.6 Billion to Resolve Allegations of Misbranding and Filing False Claims for its Schizophrenia Drug Risperdal

    July 31, 2013: South Carolina Man Enters Plea to Introducing Stem Cells into Interstate Commerce

    March 29, 2013: UPS Agrees to Forfeit $40 Million in Payments from Illicit Online Pharmacies for Shipping Services

    December 19, 2012: Amgen Inc. Pleads Guilty to Federal Charge in Brooklyn and Pays $762 Million to Resolve Criminal Liability and Civil Fraud Allegations

    December 12, 2012: Pfizer Agrees to Pay $55 Million for Illegally Promoting Protonix for Off-Label Use

    October 2, 2012: Judge Imposes $500 Million Fine and $198.5 Million Forfeiture for Illegal Marketing [Abbott Laboratories Inc]

    July 2, 2012: GlaxoSmithKline to Plead Guilty and Pay $3 Billion to Resolve Fraud Allegations and Failure to Report Safety Data

    June 14, 2012: Internet Pharmacy Owner Charged in $95 Million Fraud Scheme

    May 7, 2012: Abbott Labs to Pay $1.5 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigations of Off-Label Promotion of Depakote

    April 19, 2012: U.S. Pharmaceutical Company Merck Sharp & Dohme Sentenced in Connection with Unlawful Promotion of Vioxx (criminal fine of $321,636,000 in connection with its guilty plea related to its promotion and marketing of the painkiller Vioxx® (rofecoxib).

    April 2, 2012: Equitable Sharing of $500 Million Google Foreiture Approved
    [August 24, 2011: Google Forfeits $500 Million Generated by Online Ads and Prescription Drug Sales by Canadian Online Pharmacies]

    February 10, 2012: Nationwide Supplier of Medical Equipment Sentenced to 37 Months in Federal Prison for Health Care Fraud, Money Laundering and Selling Adulterated and Misbranded Medical Devices

    November 22, 2011: Justice Department Announces Nearly $1 Billion Civil and Criminal Resolution with Merck Sharp and Dohme Over Promotion of Vioxx

    October 5, 2011: Johnson & Johnson Subsidiary, Scios, Pleads Guilty to Misbranding Heart Failure Drug Natrecor
    ———-

    OK, presuming that it’s actually happening, are we certain that the pharmaceutical companies are working against drugs law reform for cannabis and the other popular substances on the naughty lists law reform because of greed? I can sure see a very reasonable argument that such actions are prompted by FDA approved extortion.

    Regardless of any of that I’m thinking that the entire cannabis market is more aptly compared to a pimple on a gnat’s ass from the FDA’s POV.

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