Drug WarRant

Senator Ron Wyden has just introduced the Senate companion bill to H.R. 525, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, today.

The original cosponsors are:

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – Yes, the Senate Republican Minority Leader

Press Release from Senator Wyden

This is actually looking kind of real.

The House version, introduced by Thomas Maassie (R-KY), already has 28 cosponsors:
Amash, Justin [R-MI3]
Benishek, Dan [R-MI1]
Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR3]
Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR1]
Campbell, John [R-CA45]
Clay, Lacy [D-MO1]
Cohen, Steve [D-TN9]
DeFazio, Peter [D-OR4]
Ellison, Keith [D-MN5]
Farr, Sam [D-CA20]
Grijalva, Raúl [D-AZ3]
Hanna, Richard [R-NY22]
Lee, Barbara [D-CA13]
McClintock, Tom [R-CA4]
McDermott, Jim [D-WA7]
Miller, George [D-CA11]
Moran, James “Jim” [D-VA8]
Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY10]
Norton, Eleanor [D-DC0]
Peterson, Collin [D-MN7]
Pingree, Chellie [D-ME1]
Pocan, Mark [D-WI2]
Polis, Jared [D-CO2]
Rohrabacher, Dana [R-CA48]
Schakowsky, Janice “Jan” [D-IL9]
Schrader, Kurt [D-OR5]
Yarmuth, John [D-KY3]
Yoho, Ted [R-FL3]

Some concern has been expressed regarding this ThinkProgress piece

Federal prosecutors will crack down on recreational marijuana dispensaries and growers even in states where they are legal, U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske told a Canadian news magazine this week. The statement appears to be the first from a federal official to state explicitly that the federal government will prosecute dispensaries and producers once they are licensed in Washington and Colorado.

This makes it seem like it’s some kind of official government pronouncement, but I think that’s really reading too much into the statement.

Sure, it’s not hard to imagine our government being so pathetically dysfunctional as to have the President duck the question, the AG unable to discuss it frankly with the Governors of the states involved, and then have Kerlikowske announce it to a Canadian magazine.

But in reality, if you read the actual interview, I don’t think the Drug Czar has any more of a clue than you or I and is just frustrated.

After all, this is the same interview in which he slammed the administration:

“The administration has not done a particularly good job of, one, talking about marijuana as a public health issue, and number two, talking about what can be done and where we should be headed on our drug policy.”

The Drug Czar has very little real power or information. He is primarily a propagandist, there to oppose legalization (as required by law), deflect criticisms of the government’s war on drugs, and wrap up our completely corrupt drug policies in pretty paper by talking about the focus on treatment and our move toward some mythical “third way.”

He has no idea what the U.S. Attorneys will do.

Strong smell of marijuana reported inside Colorado Capitol Wednesday morning

A strong smell of marijuana was reported inside the Colorado Capitol Wednesday morning, 7NEWS Reporter Russell Haythorn confirmed.

The entire Senate chamber smelled like marijuana, said Doug Schepman, Communications Director for the Senate Democrats.

Senate President John Morse cracked up fellow lawmakers during the session by asking: “Do you smell marijuana in here, or is it just me?”

On the recording of the morning’s proceedings, Morse can be heard asking, “If the Sergeants would please douse all the doobies in the area.”

David Bratzer is a LEAP speaker in Canada (and a really nice guy). For some good news today, check out this speaking engagement he had yesterday:

‘Groundbreaking’ conversation as Halifax police chief hosts session with drug law reformer

Canadian president David Bratzer said it’s the first time a Canadian police chief has asked a LEAP representative to address serving officers.

“It shows a police chief who’s open-minded and willing to engage in dialogue about complex issues,” said Bratzer. “It is groundbreaking. In my view, what he did is national police leadership. I can’t say enough about it, I’m so impressed.”

Blais said he invited Bratzer to speak in the interests of being open to a range of new ideas on policing.

“As we continue looking at the sustainability of policing practices here in HRM…overall, what are we doing? Does this make sense?” he said. “We may not agree with his points…but it doesn’t mean we can’t listen and learn from there.”

Bratzer, a police officer in British Columbia, said the presentation seemed well-received.

“These senior officers are very experienced and they asked some good questions,” said Bratzer, adding that his views do not represent those of his employer. “It’s exactly what we need, to be having a national discussion about this issue.”

Blais said Bratzer made some compelling points, and said he’d recommend a LEAP presentation to other police chiefs in Nova Scotia.

Wow! A police chief who really wants to listen and learn. Of course, that’s basic common sense, but it’s so incredibly rare that it’s quite laudable.

Congrats to David and Canadian LEAP for all their hard work that is clearly making a difference.

The federal government would like all companies to drug test all their workers, and so, of course, would the companies who make billions of dollars each year from the drug testing boom.

And yet, what value does suspicion-less drug testing actually serve? In most cases, less than none. Oh, sure, I know some defend the pre-employment drug test as a kind of intelligence screener (if you’re too dumb to figure out how to get clean long enough to pass one planned test…), but really? Do you need to pay a drug testing company for that information?

If your management can’t tell whether their workers are showing up impaired (whether from alcohol or other drugs, or sleep deprivation, or…) and unable to do their jobs, then you need to fire your management and get some competent people in there.

As I’ve indicated before, I’ve had the luxury of never working for a company that required drug testing. And I never will. Oh, I can understand that not everyone can do that, depending on the job market, and when I was younger, I might have worked temporarily for someone who required testing, but for a career? No way. Why would I want to spend my life in a career where my employer had so little respect for me as a person?

Ellen Comp has a nice piece on this topic focusing on another aspect of the downsides of workplace drug testing: Drug Testing Robs Workforce of Talent and Creativity

Second, by pre-screening away marijuana smokers, we’re weeding out (so to speak) some of our most creative and, I would argue, productive employees. If you doubt that marijuana smokers have contributed to our society, see VeryImportantPotheads.com. In the case of someone using marijuana for medical purposes, it’s downright discrimination to deny them employment for using what a doctor has legally recommended under state law.

Silicon Valley, the brainchild of entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (who both admittedly smoked pot in their youth), notoriously does not drug test its employees, knowing they’d lose much of their talent that way. Yet the region is responsible for much of California’s economic productivity, in one of the few non-military industries the US has. Pot-friendly Hollywood is another shining example of an industry that exports instead of imports to the US, like most of our consumables.

Smart employers know that on-the-job impairment is better handled by proper supervision than suspicion-less drug testing, and that creating a workplace that welcomes and encourages talent and creativity is much more important to their success than tired federal drug-free-workplace slogans.

….

Note: I realize that many companies are required to have a drug free workplace policy if they have contracts with the federal or state government, but in most cases, those policies are not required to include suspicion-less testing, but merely an awareness program with rules against workplace drug use.

Rafael Lemaitre, Communications Director for the Drug Czar’s office, made this post recently: Drug Laws: Why Do We Have them, and Do They Work?

For an office that claims to want to follow science, they go out of their way to bend not only science to fit their ideology, but language as well.

Here’s how it starts:

It’s a question often raised in today’s heated discussion about the efficacy of drug policy in America: Do regulations outlawing certain drugs actually work?

Right off the bat, he tries to bend language to his purpose. Let’s be clear here. If they’re outlawing drugs, then these are laws, not regulations. I know the ONDCP doesn’t like talking about “prohibition,” but that’s what these laws are. One of the major points about drug policy reform is that outlawed drugs are not regulated at all, but turned over to the black market to distribute. We want appropriate regulations. The Drug Czar does not.

Let’s go to the data. Here’s what the Nation’s largest, longest-running, and most comprehensive source on the state of drug use in America shows:

As you can see, the use of legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco far outpaces the use of illegal drugs. It is clear, then, that laws discouraging drug use do have an effect in keeping rates relatively low compared to rates for other drugs that are legal and therefore more available. Even beyond this one-year snapshot, we know that significant progress has been made in the long term. Since 1979, there has been a roughly 30 percent decline in the overall use of illicit drugs in America.

“… laws discouraging drug use…”? Really? So SWAT teams that shoot your dog and your kid are just your way of wagging your finger and saying “tisk, tisk”? Why are you so afraid of the language?

We have done a great job of discouraging tobacco use, through regulation, education, and societal disfavor. That would be an appropriate use of the word “discouraging.”

But of course this chart says absolutely nothing about the effect of laws on the use of different drugs. Science would tell you that there are a host of different factors that can affect usage. And science will also tell you that worldwide, there is very little evidence that increased enforcement of prohibition laws has significant effect on use, and even less evidence that it has a positive effect on abuse (Note, of course, that as part of Lemaitre’s sloppy abuse of language, he seems to see no distinction between use and abuse.)

There is, on the other hand, plenty of scientific evidence to show that increases in drug law enforcement result in an increase in criminal violence, something the Drug Czar’s office isn’t keen to discuss.

So our challenge is not that we’re powerless against the problem of substance use in America.

What problem of substance use? Substance use is not a problem. Or are you claiming that all the people in your chart who drink wine with dinner are a problem to be dealt with? Substance abuse is the problem.

The challenge is that rates of drug use – a behavior that harms too many of our fellow citizens — are still too high.

Again, the rates of drug use are not a problem.

That’s why the President’s National Drug Control Strategy supports innovative and proven programs that aim to reduce drug use and its consequences through a combination of public health and public safety interventions.

And just what are the consequences of responsible drug use?

It boils down to simple arithmetic: The more Americans use drugs, the higher the health, safety, productivity, and criminal justice costs we all have to bear.

That’s not simple arithmetic, it’s not science, and it’s just not true.

And if sensible drug laws (in combination with a wide array of prevention, treatment, and other health interventions, of course) help keep those numbers down, then the answer is yes, they are working.

If we had sensible drug laws, we probably wouldn’t care so much about your dishonesty.

Work and out-of-town visitors have kept me busy, but there’s still a lot going on…

Why Congress Might Legalize Marijuana This Time by Rep. Earl Blumenauer in Salon

“It’s just come to a head,” he told Salon Thursday afternoon. “This is largely going to be resolved in the next five years.”

Blumenauer, along with Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, introduced legislation this week to make the federal government treat cannabis like alcohol and let states decide whether to keep it illegal. And they think they have a real chance of getting somewhere this time. […]

“I think we are in a position now to have a group of members of Congress who are able to spend a little more time and energy in a focused way on this. I think we’ve got a little bit more running room; I think our coalition is broader, and we’ve got people who have not normally been involved in this,” he added, pointing to more conservative members from Colorado who now care about marijuana after the state legalized it in the fall.

On top of his and Polis’ bills (which tax marijuana and end the federal prohibition on it, respectively), he said he anticipates “about a dozen” different pieces of legislation dealing with drug policy reform moving forward. With “a number of folks” already working together in an informal working group, he explained, “We’ve got more people working more systematically.” He declined to elaborate on other members, saying they would be making public statements in the coming months. […]

The long-term goal, however, is to get the federal government to end the prohibition on marijuana and leave it to states to regulate the drug, just as Congress did when the prohibition on alcohol ended, something that two-thirds of Americans seem to support. “I honestly think that in their heart of hearts, most members of Congress would support that,” Blumenauer said.

I’m not going to get carried away with optimism — after all, I’ve been following the attempts by Hinchey et al since 2003, but still, this sounds good.

The slow death of the 4th Amendment at Daily Kos.

A lot of really old news to us, but still good to see progressives getting the message.

U.S. Representative Massie
Introduces Industrial Hemp Bill in Kentucky — with 28 original co-sponsors!

“Industrial hemp is a sustainable crop and could be a great economic opportunity for Kentucky farmers,” said Rep. Massie. “My wife and I are raising our children on the tobacco and cattle farm where my wife grew up. Tobacco is no longer a viable crop for many of us in Kentucky and we understand how hard it is for a family farm to turn a profit. Industrial hemp will give small farmers another opportunity to succeed.”

Who Will Legalize Pot Next? in The Nation.

Increasingly, people realize that the country’s exorbitantly expensive, excessively harsh prison system has been more costly than it has been successful at making us safe. The question is whether Congress and the White House will recognize this and use their powers to expedite, rather than impede, change.

Discovery Channel debuts new prohibition-porn series.

Exclusive: New Discovery Channel series ‘Pot Cops’ chronicles marijuana crackdown”

“Pot Cops” will give audiences an unprecedented look at what it takes to conquer growers who are running a large weed farm in the Redwoods and shooting at local children on a reservation, as well as a bizarre, slow-speed chase of a stoned grower and investigations into parents who may be putting their own children at risk while hiding a huge grow somewhere in the surrounding hills.
But what Musson anticipates viewers will be most surprised to learn more about is the heavily-debated “medical marijuana” issue, and he claims that in his decade-long career as a law enforcement officer, he can “count on one hand the amount of legal growers” he has encountered.

Note the scare quotes around “medical marijuana” and the one-sided perspective.

In the National Conference of State Legislatures online magazine, a detailed article by Suzanne Weiss: The nation is watching closely as Colorado and Washington put new pot laws in place.

It’s a well-written article laying out the background of legalization in Colorado and Washington and essentially preparing the legislatures of other states to start thinking about regulating marijuana.

With two states blazing the trail by legalizing marijuana, and public acceptance of the drug on an upward trajectory, it’s clear state lawmakers will be grappling with the social, economic and political ramifications of cannabis for some time.

…

This reminds me of the fact that it wasn’t so long ago that legalization wasn’t even considered worthy of serious discussion. In 2005, Peter Reuter and David Boyum wrote a detailed analysis of the drug war for the American Enterprise Institute (my article about it here).

At that time, they said:

Nor do we explore the merits and demerits of legalizing drugs, even though legalization is perhaps the most prominent and hotly debated topic in drug policy. Our analysis takes current policy as its starting point, and the idea of repealing the nation’s drug laws has no serious support within either the Democratic or Republican Party.”

They couldn’t even imagine the notion that change would come about despite the Democratic and Republican parties.

Kentucky and industrial hemp. Here’s a video of a hour-long discussion on TV about industrial hemp in Kentucky, including the agriculture commissioner and police commissioner.

And there is significant political support. Mitch McConnell Joins Rand Paul In Supporting Industrial Hemp In Kentucky

“I am convinced that allowing its production will be a positive development for Kentucky’s farm families and economy,” McConnell said in a statement. “The utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to paper is real and if there is a capacity to center a new domestic industry in Kentucky that will create jobs in these difficult economic times that sounds like a good thing to me.”

McConnell joins fellow Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R), half of the state’s six-member congressional delegation and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in supporting the push.

Of course, there’s the usual push-back from law enforcement leadership who seem convinced that their officers are just too stupid to be trained to tell the difference between 10 acres of hemp and a marijuana grow-op.

Kentucky is going to be a battle to watch.

Call them the Pot People

Over in Washington, even local newscasters are coming to grips with the notion that marijuana can be a normal business concern complete with lobbyists, just like everything else.

http://youtu.be/GIjsHR5jYiU

Check out this excellent website with tons of articles about drugs and drug policy, as well as opportunities to share your own stories. Put together by Release.

Talking Drugs