Drug WarRant

It’s not been a good week for the drug warriors, with the Global Commission and LEAP making all the news, and lots of media sources following up.

Yesterday, Leonard Pitts, Jr. hit hard on Obama’s role in not doing something about the drug war..

Dear President Obama:
Right after your election, somebody asked if I thought having a black president meant black people’s concerns would now receive attention at the executive level. I told them I expected the opposite. […]

And the limitations of your presidency where African Americans are concerned have never been more obvious than they are this week.

And he mentions LEAP and the Global Commission.

Frankly, Mr. President, you should take this one personally. As you must know, the War on Drugs has been, in effect, a war on black men. Though whites are the nation’s biggest users and dealers of illicit drugs, blacks are the ones most likely to be jailed for drug crimes and to suffer the disruption of families and communities that comes with it.

You have done little to address these and other racial inequities of the criminal injustice system. […]

Here’s the thing, Mr. Obama: Our last three presidents are known — or in George W. Bush’s case, strongly believed — to have used illicit drugs when they were young. None of you were caught.

But what if you had been? They might have been given a second chance by some judge who saw merit or potential in them. They might still have gone on to become productive men.

Mr. President, what do you think would most likely have happened to you?

You know the answer as well as I do. And what you know should compel you to do something about it. No, that might not be politic, but it would definitely be right.

Very strong words.

Stamper delivers critical drug report to Kerlikowske’s office

They are two former Seattle police chiefs on opposing sides of the debate on legalizing drugs. And on Tuesday, Norm Stamper walked to the office of the nation’s “drug czar” Gil Kerlikowske in Washington, D.C., to deliver a critical report on the Obama administration’s failure to pull the plug on war on drugs.

Stamper appeared at the National Press Club at a news conference of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a national group that favors regulating sales of all illicit drugs, including marijuana, heroin and cocaine. Kerlikowske, who succeeded Stamper as Seattle’s top cop in 2000, opposes legalization.

LEAP members walked four blocks from the Press Club to Kerlikowske’s office at the Office of National Drug Control Policy near the White House. Kerlikowske sent a staffer downstairs to fetch the report.

Couldn’t go downstairs yourself?

Couldn’t meet with a fellow former police chief?

Are you that afraid of us?

Stamper said he was “personally disappointed” that Kerlikowske hasn’t matched his rhetoric two years ago to treat drug abuse less as a matter of law enforcement than as a public health problem. Stamper also said Kerlikowske was wrong to doubt the medical benefits of marijuana.

According to a spokesman for the drug control policy office, the fiscal 2011 federal budget includes more money for drug prevention and treatment ($10.4 billion) than on domestic law enforcement ($10.4 billion).

Here’s the full report from LEAP: Ending the Drug War: a Dream Deferred

President Richard Nixon officially declared a war on drugs on June 17, 1971. Thirty-eight years later, on May 14, 2009, the Obama administration’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, matter-of-factly declared during a newspaper interview that he was ending the analogy of the “war on drugs”. But this wording change and the Obama administration’s many subsequent changes in verbiage have had no corresponding significant change in policy from that of the Bush administration.This report details the ongoing carnage resulting from our failed prohibition policy while the administration has simultaneously tried to score political points by adopting the rhetoric of an evidence-based policy.

It’s a pretty damning report of the Obama administration as a continuing culpable force in drug war destruction, while pointing out that every administration has been at fault.

Most Men Arrested In Atlanta Test Positive For Drugs

ATLANTA — According to a new federal report, most men arrested in Atlanta test positive for illegal drugs at the time of their arrests. […]

National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske: “Drug addiction is too often the root of crime in our communities.”

Feds: Most Indianapolis men arrested were on drugs

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A new federal report has found that more than two-thirds of Indianapolis men arrested last year were under the influence of at least one illegal drug.

White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske (kur-lih-KOW’-skee) says the findings show that “drug addiction is too often the root of crime”

Here’s the actual report. Some of it is interesting, and could provide useful information, such as how arrestees in some cities are more likely to have used heroin than in others.

But the overall percentage of arrested men testing positive for drugs figure is mostly meaningless and entirely meaningless in the way the drug czar is touting it — by far the most common drug showing up in the report is marijuana. That’s because it’s popular and easy to obtain and because this population is unlikely to care that it’s illegal.

It has absolutely nothing to do with drug use causing crime.

LINK

A top Republican has rejected the notion that Congress should re-examine the nation’s gun laws after al Qaeda urged Muslims to attack America by exploiting loose firearm rules.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said tightening gun laws to address the threat would be to surrender to terrorists at the expense of Americans’ rights.

“We’ve seen time and again that terrorists will use anything, including our own rights and freedoms, to plot attacks against innocent Americans,” Smith said in an email. “But simply because terrorists abuse our liberties doesn’t mean that we should limit the rights of law-abiding Americans. On the contrary, to limit our rights is to give in to terrorists and the fear they try to spread.”

Such a beautiful statement. But this is the same Lamar Smith who has repeatedly said that we need all of the provisions of the Patriot Act in order to protect ourselves from the terrorists. (He’s also a major drug warrior.)

You know, I think I’ve figured out a way for us to legalize drugs…

OK, it’s a little far-fetched….

All we have to do is to convince the public that not legalizing drugs will lead to the outlawing of abortion and gun possession, and we’ll have legalized drugs tomorrow.

Link

Following a major rise in the number of drug addicts amongst the Israeli population, several members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) have called for the formation of a special anti-drug committee to consider legalizing the possession and use of soft narcotics.

They have described the existing anti-drugs mechanisms in Israel as ineffective and obsolete.

Knesset members argue that the traditional policies employed in the fight against drugs have not only failed to reduce drug consumption but also led to an alarming rise in organized crime.

Of course, here in the United States, neither our academics nor our political leaders are willing to even legitimately discuss options like this.

Lots going on this week, including observances of the 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s declaration of drug war.

‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Has a Counteroffer for Eric Holder

Responding to Attorney General Holder’s expressed wish for another season of The Wire.

The Attorney-General’s kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I’ve spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.

The GOP’s Odd Man Out

Gary Johnson, the popular two-term governor of New Mexico, is running for president. He has a stellar economic record and the most progressive drug policies of any Republican in the race. So why did CNN expel from last night’s debate while showcasing the party’s most rabid stars?

How Cops Turn ‘Stop and Frisk’ Into ‘Stop and Arrest’

Advocates of drug and juvenile-justice reform have launched a campaign against what they contend are the New York Police Department’s illegal “stop and frisks” and the disproportionate number of arrests of black and brown young men for possessing allowable amounts of marijuana.

Educating people about their rights is such an important first step.

Sigh.. Thanks to Steve Clay in comments there.

Drug Policies Must Be Rooted in Science

The drug czar complains that the Global Commission report needs to be rooted in science, and then proceeds to invent his own science.

Our National Drug Control Strategy is science-based. And science shows that illegal drug use is associated with specialty treatment admissions, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness, and emergency room admissions.

True cost of drugs: More than half of inmates currently in U.S. federal prisons were convicted of narcotics offences

More than 50 per cent on inmates in U.S. federal prisons were jailed for drug offences, shocking new figures show.

The statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, reveal that out of a total inmate population of 215,888, 102,391 (that’s 50.8 per cent) were jailed for drug offences.

Newly available: “Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know” by Mark A.R. Kleiman, Jonathan P. Caulkins, and Angel Hawken, in both paperback
and Kindle formats.

With a bold title like that, I just had to check it out.

And to be perfectly honest, the book essentially lives up to its title. Clocking in at a mere 256 pages, and written in a very easy-to-ready style, the book nonetheless contains an extraordinarily comprehensive overview of drugs and drug policy (the authors define “drugs” for the purpose of the book as “abusable psychoactive drugs.”)

Of course, that supposes that you’re willing to read it all the way through. Despite its comprehensive factual approach, clear writing, and useful information, the paternalism and bias that permeates the entire book can be quite frustrating.
Continue reading →

Excellent OpEd in the New York Times by Charles M. Blow

Friday marks the 40th anniversary of one of the biggest, most expensive, most destructive social policy experiments in American history: The war on drugs. […]

So began a war that has waxed and waned, sputtered and sprinted, until it became an unmitigated disaster, an abomination of justice and a self-perpetuating, trillion-dollar economy of wasted human capital, ruined lives and decimated communities. […]

An effort meant to save us from a form of moral decay became its own insidious brand of moral perversion — turning people who should have been patients into prisoners, criminalizing victimless behavior, targeting those whose first offense was entering the world wrapped in the wrong skin. It feeds our achingly contradictory tendency toward prudery and our overwhelming thirst for punishment.

He goes on to note the Global Commission Report released last week and then says:

The White House immediately shot back: no dice. The Obama administration presented a collection of statistics that compared current drug use and demand with the peak of the late 1970s, although a direct correlation between those declines and the drug war are highly debatable. In doing so, it completely sidestepped the human, economic and societal toll of the mass incarceration of millions of Americans, many for simple possession.

No need to put a human face on 40 years of folly when you can swaddle its inefficacy in a patchwork quilt of self-serving statistics.

Powerful writing.

Back in a 1999 Congressional hearing on drug policy in Washington, DC, here’s what some of our representatives, sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, had to say:

“Legalization is a surrender to despair,” said Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, Republican of upstate New York. “It cannot and ought not be any topic of serious discussion in our nation’s debate of the challenges of illicit drugs.”

Suggesting the depth of hostility toward the notion of legal drugs, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., asked whether anti-racketeering laws could be used to prosecute people conspiring to legalize drugs.

For decades, drug policy activists have faced this kind of extreme, government-led opposition to the core principles of our country.

It’s no wonder, then, that so many people today are unable to even discern the Grand-Canyon-sized gap between:

1. Doing something illegal – and
2. Advocating changes in the law

The second is not only legal, but part of our responsibility as citizens.

It’s sad to see how often this occurs, particularly in business services such as advertising policy.

Now, private businesses absolutely have the right to set and follow their own policies and choose what advertising they wish to accept. A savvy business sets such policies with care to insure maximum advertising revenue while not alienating large segments of the population.

But too many are unable to distinguish between drug abuse and drug policy.

A recent example occurred again with Facebook.

Chelsea Green Publishing decided to run some ads for the book they published: Marijuana Is Safer: So Why are we Driving People to Drink?. Facebook rejected the ads.

Their reason:

“I took a look at your account and noticed that the content advertised by this ad is prohibited. We reserve the right to determine what advertising we accept, and we may choose to not accept ads containing or relating to certain products or services. We do not allow ads for marijuana and any products related to it, and will not allow the creation of any further Facebook Ads for this product. We appreciate your cooperation with this policy.”

Note the incoherent conflation of ads for selling marijuana with an ad for a book about marijuana policy.

There’s a huge difference, and we can see it, but as a society we have become conditioned to accept that advocating legalization is, in fact, illegal.

I am absolutely certain that an ad for a book titled: “Marijuana: the demon drug that rots your brain” would have been deemed perfectly acceptable to the robots (ie, minimum wage humans) who were staffing the rejection post.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The issue got the attention of someone higher up in Facebook – someone with a brain, and they stepped in to overrule the censors.

”We would like to sincerely apologize for the situation that occurred with your experience with our system yesterday. After further investigation into the ads that were submitted and disapproved, our policy team determined that the ads for your book were acceptable to run on the site…Again, we want to apologize for any frustration this situation has caused. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions regarding this situation and I’ll be happy to help out.”

This is very nice to see. It’s also exceedingly rare.

I had my own run-in recently with the inability to distinguish between illegal drugs and drug policy advocacy.

For awhile I tried using Ad-Brite for banner ads on this site. One of the advantages of Ad-Brite was the fact that, in addition to the standard ad rotation, people could specifically purchase ads to run on DrugWarRant.com — and I wanted to allow that possibility.

After a number of months of running Ad-Brite, I was extremely disappointed with the results – essentially no revenue at all. So I decided to tinker with the placement of the ads and submitted a change of location on the page.

I got this notice:

We’ve completed the review of your zone, Right Banner Bottom ( Zone ID #1902676 ), that you’ve submitted. Unfortunately, we are unable to approve it for our marketplace at this time due to the following reasons:

– Illegal Drugs

To view our publisher zone policy, please visit use our searchable FAQs or click here: Publisher Acceptable Use Policy.

If you wish to petition our decision or you have changed your site’s content to meet our standards, please forward this email to support@adbrite.com with a request to have your zone re-reviewed.

Since I was already fed up with their service and found no reason to keep using it, I decided to write them and tell them what I really thought…

Are you kidding me?

Does your staff not know the difference between advocating for an illegal substance and advocating for changing the law?

Drug WarRant.com is a political activism site. It is a site about
stopping the bigoted narrow-mindedness of ignorant people who think talking about fixing the laws is somehow the same as advocating breaking them.

It is because of such short-sighted viewpoints that we have thousands of deaths in Mexico from the drug war, shootouts in our streets, and young children using drugs (because we have no regulation of them). It’s about the way the drug war corrupts law enforcement and our Fourth Amendment rights. It’s about comparisons with failed Prohibition 1 that resulted in Al Capone. It’s about finding ways to make our children safer.

We are facing a crisis in this country, but some idiots see the word “marijuana” and can only giggle and say “drugs are bad, mm-kay?”

This knee-jerk and simplistic reaction to my site is symptomatic of the problem.

The ironic thing is that the site hasn’t changed at all since Ad-Brite approved my ad months ago. I was merely re-configuring the ad in an attempt to see if I could actually get Ad-Brite to perform, since I’ve been extremely disappointed with the results so far.

The loss of Ad-Brite doesn’t affect Drug WarRant at all (unfortunately), but I am protesting the decision on principle because it doesn’t, in fact violate the Publisher Acceptable Use Policy in any way (there are no illegal activities, nor is there promotion of drugs), and because it bothers me when I find people who don’t know the difference between political activism and promoting drugs.

Thank you.

– Pete Guither
Executive Director, Prohibition Isn’t Free Foundation

Hey, at least it made me feel good, right?

Here was their response:

Hi Pete,

Thank you for contacting us.

Unfortunately we are not able to approve sites like yours in our exchange. Advertisers do not want their ads placed on controversial political discussion sites and as a result we are no longer allowing these types of sites in our exchange.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us.

Regards,

Eli S.
Customer Support

Of course, their acceptable-use policy still says absolutely nothing about “controversial political discussion sites.” And they still list such sites as “Glenn Beck is an Idiot,” “Morons with Signs,” “Balloon Juice,” and other obviously controversial political discussion sites as Ad-Brite websites.

No, it’s clear that the problem they had was with political discussion sites as relates to drug policy reform.

Again, it’s important to note that I support these companies’ legal right to refuse to serve me. I do find it extremely stupid, however. And a sad commentary on the range of acceptable political discussion in this country.

We’re doing pretty damn well considering our handicap.

We not only have to make our case, but we have to make a case for our right to attempt to make our case.

Excellent piece on Al Jazeera

Referenced in that piece is an important new documentary: “Breaking the Taboo” — which opened last week in Brazil and was also shown at the Global Commission press conference last week. It was filmed in eight countries and has been getting a lot of publicity in Brazil, but I hope that it’ll make its way here as well.

Here is the official trailer (English version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXWdKsA8EFU

If you can’t control drug use in a maximum security prison, how can you control drugs in a free society? – Anthony Papa

“There are a lot of things that I would have done differently. I think that my opposition to needle exchange and medical Marijuana when I was president, both were wrong.”

“To think of it as society’s war is a little bit misleading, as if there were a military solution. And you know I have experience with this including personal experience I had a brother who was addicted to cocaine, so I know allot about this”

“Well, obviously, if the expected result was that we are have to eliminate serious drug use in America and eliminate the narcotraffic networks, it hasn’t worked” – President Bill Clinton

“There is a clear proof in our country of a racial discrimination in laws that apply to criminalizing the use of narcotics” – President Jimmy Carter