Drug WarRant

I found this article at The Auto Channel that, at first, would seem to be in support of the ONDCP’s effort to use driving laws as a back door method to criminalizing internal possession of marijuana.

Oct. 13, 2011: The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) announced today that it has strengthened its drugged driving policy during its recent Annual Meeting, held September 25-28 in Cincinnati. The new policy supports elevating drugged driving to a national priority and calls upon states to undertake several strategies to address this emerging highway safety issue.

Yep. Sounds like the Drug Czar has been doing a good job pushing his agenda.

But here’s where it differs. Kerlikowske has been pushing for states to establish per se laws on drugged driving (criminalizing even the slightest amount in the body whether or not impairment was involved).

In fact the priorities are clear at the ONDCP’s site:

• Encouraging states to adopt Per Se drug impairment laws;
• Collecting further data on drugged driving;

Standard ONDCP stuff: pass laws first, then find research to support those laws.

But check out what the GHSA calls for:

Amend statutes to provide separate and distinct sanctions for alcohol and drug-impaired driving;
Develop standard protocols or procedures for drug testing labs to use in identifying drugs that impair driving;…

That doesn’t sound like a throw-them-all-in-jail approach. And then…

In addition, GHSA is calling for much more drugged driving research. Studies are needed to understand the scope of the problem, to improve field testing of drugged drivers and to set impairments standards. According to Harsha, “Any countermeasures for drugged driving must be based on research and data. The highway safety research community should make this a priority.”

Oh no, the Drug Czar isn’t going to like that.

See, I talk about this drugged driving thing a lot, and it’s not that I’m in favor of people driving impaired. I’m not. But I do think it’s critical that any policies that are used are based on actual data, not the irrelevant statistics that the Drug Czar uses as fear tactics.

And I don’t think that reformers should be afraid to challenge the Drug Czar on his fact-free assertions in this area simply because some people lacking the ability of nuance might view this as being pro-impaired-driving.

The fact is that the drugged driving scare has the potential of diverting attention in a way that could make driving more dangerous. And the main purpose of it appears to be part of the multi-pronged attack on marijuana legalization and medical marijuana (don’t let them have guns, cars, jobs, banks, landlords, unemployment insurance, etc.).

An outstanding rant on marijuana legalization and the latest Gallup poll by Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC.

You have to sit through a commercial and MSNBC’s slow loading, but I think it’s worth it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

… but I’ll make an exception in this case.

Remember the licensed medical marijuana user in Denver who ordered pizza and not only did the Papa John’s driver call the police on him, but Papa John’s Pizza supported that action?

Well, here’s a nice twist in the story…

One of its Denver-based rivals, Sexy Pizza, said Thursday that it would give Smith one free pizza monthly until Colorado voters decide a proposed 2012 ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Sexy Pizza says it’ll extend the offer for life if voters pass the initiative.

Classy. (and smart)

I checked out the Sexy Pizza website, and it looks pretty good, with a focus on New York Style pizza and calzones (they even have Cannolis for dessert), an impressive selection of toppings for the pizzas and specialty pizzas like Eggplant Parmigiana and Baked Ziti.

Even better, they support the community. Check out these specialty pizzas:

So if you’re in Denver (or plan on being there soon), be sure to get some Sexy Pizza!

Update: Here’s another one — needs some commenting: Don’t legalize marijuana in the name of medicine by John Redman, executive director of Californians for a Drug-Free Youth.

Unfortunately, legalization groups have convinced CMA and other medical societies that the process doesn’t work. They claim that research is stifled because marijuana is illegal. But the evidence says otherwise. As of 2011, 209 active researchers are registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration to perform bona fide research with marijuana, marijuana extracts and THC, the active component in marijuana. There are 288 studies being conducted by the National Institutes of Health to research the constituents in marijuana, or cannabinoids.

A concrete example of this can be found in a product called Sativex, which the FDA and DEA have been involved in (it is in FDA trials). Sativex, a drug approved in Canada, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe for the treatment of multiple sclerosis spasticity and cancer pain, combines THC and another active ingredient in marijuana, CBD, to eliminate the “high” from THC.

Have fun…

State doctors group’s call for cannabis legalization slammed

But critics, like Paul Chabot, president of the Coalition for a Drug Free California, said the CMA recommendation would harm society.

“Research has shown marijuana use has been linked to testicular cancer, schizophrenia, and depression,” Chabot said. “It’s because of so-called medical marijuana, we now have the highest use-rate for kids in America.”

Chabot, who said his group has more than 1,000 members, called on doctors to tear up their CMA membership cards “in light of leadership’s pro drug legalization stance.”

“What an irresponsible and unethical position the CMA has taken,” Chabot said. “This flies in the face of science, public health and common sense. It now appears drug money has reached some of this organization’s more influential leaders.”

Marijuana Is High on Americans’ Issue List

“A lot of people sign petitions online who just want to smoke,” said J.T. Griffin, senior vice president for public policy at MADD. “There is a bigger policy debate that needs to be addressed before lawmakers can make a good decision.”

For the Drug Free America Foundation, legalization is out of the question.

“It is an impairing drug. People have been harmed by it. To say it is a safe drug is just another one of their big fat lies,” Calvina Fay, the group’s executive director, said of the pro-marijuana lobby.

From a press release from SaveOurSociety.org:

“I am thoroughly appalled by the CMA’s decision to release this policy in an attempt to legalize a drug that we know causes so much harm to individuals and families,” said Eric Voth, M.D., F.A.C.P. and Chair of the Institute on Global Drug Policy. “The CMA has managed to single-handedly make a mockery of modern medicine and the ethical practices of physicians. There is nothing scientific about this White Paper – it is total politics.” […]

“The CMA is dead wrong in asserting that the marijuana legalization movement is driven by the public. Instead it is driven by a group of well-financed legalization advocates. The ballot initiative to legalize pot was defeated in California and no other state has approved such an ill-advised policy, despite millions of dollars poured into this effort by ivory-tower elitists unaffected by the impact of drug use, like the rest of us. Even the issue of marijuana as medicine was rejected by two-thirds of the country,” stated Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation and Save Our Society From Drugs.

Richard Feldman, President, Independent Firearm Owners Association, Inc. writes in the Huffington Post: Gun Rights & Marijuana Reform — Issues Joined!

As President of the Independent Firearm Owners Association (IFOA), I believe the time has come for activists across the political spectrum to join forces with marijuana reform campaigns in order to protect our civil liberties. The actions of the Obama administration require that gun activists protect our own 2nd Amendment liberties by helping others protect their rights to be treated like adults, thereby decreasing violence in the country and lessening calls for gun control.

By ending drug prohibition we have a merging of the right and left down the pro-freedom, independent center of the road. What a powerful alliance these two movements could become. Gun rights activists could negate the emotional rhetoric for gun control while marijuana reformers would find powerful political and grass roots support to end the insanity of marijuana prohibition. Our nation is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy; let’s stop digging our financial grave any deeper, let’s learn from our own history for a change: end marijuana prohibition; stop wasting 100’s of billions of dollars every year in policing, prosecuting, and incarcerating our citizens; stop funding drug gangs, ruining civil society and corrupting our law enforcement agencies on both sides of the southern border. This is a clear case where government doing less will mean doing more to lower crime, save money and help protect and preserve our civil liberties.

What do you think? I’d like to know.

While the government shuts down dispensaries and undermines every effort to have legitimate jobs in the medical marijuana industry thereby driving medical marijuana users to criminals for supply, the Drug Czar and Joe Biden travel to Philadelphia to assure police officers that there will be more jobs for them to fight the drug war.

Through the American Jobs Act, $5 billion would support the hiring and retention of public safety personnel. By supporting such jobs, the proposed investments aim to keep communities safe from drugs and crime and able to maintain critical emergency response capabilities.

Winners: police and criminals
Losers: American people

… 50 percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana use. Gallup Poll.

That’s because of us.

A good read at the UKCIA News Blog: Stupid, scared of the Daily Mail or corrupt?

Drug law reform activists have a problem, quite a serious problem. One of the assumptions UKCIA was based on, and more importantly groups such as Transform, is that governments make policy based on fact and evidence. Therefore, the logic went, all we really have to do to end prohibition is to promote a factual examination of the situation, look at the cost-benefits of prohibition compared to other possibilities and the truth would out. […]

What is far, far worse however is that it doesn’t matter which party is in power, the situation is always exactly the same. It’s not just that all governments are sympathetic to and promote the claims of the prohibition lobby – that would be bad enough – but increasingly they are unwilling to listen to anybody who suggests another way. Whatever the evidence presented or who presents it, or no matter what the suggestions for changes may be, the government will carry on doing what it’s doing come hell or high water. […]

This can only be due to one of two things: Either governments are composed of utter idiots, or they are corrupt and following an agenda for some unstated reason. Can it really be that the government is made up of total idiots? Sadly, that’s unlikely.

Of course, they’re talking about the UK government, but the same is surely true here.

The positions of the government defy science, defy logic, and even defy political expediency (if you’re talking about votes). There are already people talking about the number of votes Obama is likely to lose from the latest nonsense, for example. And yet the position is so firm, it’s like a religious belief.

So why? Obviously it’s corruption–money and power. But is it one driving force or many? Is it the pharmaceutical industry, pressure from law enforcement, the lobbying of private prisons and drug testing industries, the need to have a drug war in place to control and infiltrate foreign countries, the desire to marginalize a sector of the population?

I’m not a conspiracy nut–it’s too hard for government to be competent enough to arrange a complex conspiracy. However, you know there have to have been some discussions about drug policy at very high levels, about keeping prohibition in place in order to protect the interests of… X.

I also know that there are a lot of people who work in government who may not be thrilled with what’s going on around them, and are willing to do something about it.

So… who’s got the memo? The audio recording? The smoking gun? Shouldn’t there be one out there?

Remember, exposing corruption in government is not wrong (despite those in government who would love for you to believe that and will try to make your life hell). It is, in fact, a patriotic duty.

Update: Good discussion in comments, as usual. And no, I’m not getting cynical — just exploring ideas. I also agree with Duncan that a perfectly viable option was omitted: corrupt blithering idiots.

California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana

The group acknowledges some health risk associated with marijuana use and proposes that it be regulated along the lines of alcohol and tobacco. But it says the consequences of criminalization outweigh the hazards.

Lyman says current laws have “proven to be a failed public health policy.” He cited increased prison costs, the effect on families when marijuana users are imprisoned and racial inequalities in drug-sentencing cases.

DEA Global Holy Warriors Take On Iran – Jeralyn Merritt takes on the DEA

The DEA has become a menace. Someone needs to rein them in. A good starting point would be for Congress to start cutting their budget. They are supposed to be addressing drug crime in the U.S. not policing the world and creating international crime and terror plots. […]

It’s time someone put the brakes on the DEA’s global holy wars.

Some reactions to the latest multi-pronged crackdown by the feds.

Barack Obama, drug warrior by Debra Saunders at SFGate.

Nadelmann cannot understand why the Obama Justice Department is willing to alienate real estate agents, property owners, gun owners and the Democratic base. “Typically, as an advocate,” he said, “your best opportunities emerge when the other side overreaches.”

Bingo.

I’ve talked to folks in law enforcement who stew over medical marijuana businesses serving as fronts for criminal enterprises. But now the administration is threatening to go after cancer patients who own guns and small businesses that rent to marijuana shops. They are going after people whom they do not consider to be criminals.

That’s why some states decided to pass medical marijuana laws in the first place. They do not want the heavy boot of federal law enforcement stomping on the wrong people.

It’s a good point. This over-reach could very well be a tipping point.

James P. Gray: Going backward in drug war

Not only will this program be as hopeless as its predecessors, it is yet another continuing example of the arrogance, hypocrisy and bullying of the federal government in this area. […]

Thus, calling marijuana a “controlled substance” is the biggest oxymoron of our day. Prohibition leaves governments with no controls whatsoever over things like age restrictions, quality, quantity or place of sale. Those important issues are left in the complete control of Mexican drug cartels, juvenile street gangs and other thugs, which is where most of the customers will go once the dispensaries are closed down.

Here’s a ridiculous reaction from the Christian Science Monitor: Fed crackdown on California medical marijuana: Does Obama mean it?

A year ago, Californians voted against legalizing marijuana, and last week the Obama administration decided to help them mean it. […]

The Obama administration – after appearing soft on marijuana two years ago – is doing what state law enforcement refuses to do. And the Justice Department is being smart about it by going after large-scale growers, landlords who rent to large pot dispensaries, or banks that finance growers. […]

Keeping a lid on marijuana isn’t like Prohibition, as PBS documentary filmmaker Ken Burns points out. Alcohol has long been too widely consumed to ban completely. Pot smokers are a small minority. They are containable…

The big question now is whether President Obama will buckle to political pressure from pro-pot forces and ease up the federal pressure on California’s pot industry. A short-term clampdown won’t dampen the momentum of the pro-legalization crowd that uses almost any ruse on the public.

Marijuana may help PTSD. Why won’t the government find out for sure?

If this were any other drug, the researchers would probably be organizing or conducting trials now. But this isn’t a new chemical compound dreamed up by a pharmaceutical company. It’s marijuana, and the anti-marijuana forces in the federal government are powerful. […]

It is time for government officials to take this nation’s veterans off the medical marijuana battlefield. NIDA should grant the researchers’ request to purchase marijuana and allow the FDA-approved PTSD study of veterans to move forward. These brave men and women don’t have decades to wait for relief.

Once again, lazy press lap up the Drug Czar’s deceitful offerings and present them as scary facts.

Drugged driving report shows high toll among young

But a new report Kerlihowske [sic] pointed to includes a stark and surprising fact: In 2009, 3,952 drivers fatally injured in car crashes tested positive for drugs. That represents 18 percent of all fatally injured drivers.

Stark and surprising, huh? Unless you actually look at the report. No, I don’t mean reading the whole report. I mean unless you actually get as far as the second paragraph of the overview.

It is important to note that drug involvement means only that drugs were found in the driver’s system. Drug involvement does not imply impairment or indicate that drug use was the cause of the crash. Drug presence as recorded in FARS includes both illegal substances as well as
over-the-counter and prescription medications, which may or may not have been misused. Unlike alcohol data in FARS, there is no measure of the amount of drug present.

Hmmm, maybe not so stark and surprising. The surprising thing may be that it’s only 18% of any particular population that would test positive under those parameters.

And David W. Freean and Monica Dybuncio continued to parrot all the tricksy “statistics” of the Drug Czar without once questioning.

And data from 2005 to 2009 show that 42 percent of fatally injured drivers who tested positive for marijuana were under 25, according to the statement.

What does that mean? That is the most meaningless statistic I’ve ever heard (and yet it sounds “scary” as though marijuana was the cause). Is it that people under 25 are more likely to get into crashes? True – check any insurance company’s rates. Or that people under 25 are more likely to use marijuana in general (and thus would be more likely to test positive regardless of when they had used it)? Also true. Is it that marijuana is a contributing factor to a significant number of fatal crashes for young people? Not based on this data, which doesn’t even measure that.

David Freeman and Monica DyBuncio: If you’re reading this, please take a moment to inject some facts into your coverage of this drugged driving thing that the Drug Czar is trying to promote. And be aware that the Drug Czar is Required by Law to Lie.

None of us want impaired people out on the roads, regardless of the method of impairment. But scare stories based on manipulated statistics that divert attention from real problems do none of us any good, and could end up causing real harm.