Drug WarRant

Mark Kleiman, in a good post — Bullsh*tting Against Drug Legalization — takes a look at a new publication by the DEA and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (you know nothing good’s going to come from that alliance): Speak Out Against Drug Legalization

Kleiman handily dismantles the absurd claims in this government document that legalization won’t affect criminal activity and that there’s no proof of marijuana’s medical safety and efficacy.

The United States should be embarrassed by this document (of course, our government is way beyond embarrassment). It’s full of absolute nonsense. Check out this one example of a single bullet point:

• If we were to regulate marijuana, we would have to concede that it’s acceptable for society to profit from a person’s addiction. There were approximately 38,000 overdose deaths for illicit drugs and non-medical use of prescription drugs during 2006, according to the Center for Disease Control. How much are those lives worth?

Is there any kind of coherent thought there?

Or check out the coherence of this one:

The “legalization lobby” claims that the “European model” of the drug problem is successful. However, since legalization of marijuana in the Netherlands, heroin addiction levels have tripled. Their “Needle Park” is a poor model for America.

Then there are portions which are absolutely hilarious:

In addition, the idealistic goals of [alcohol] prohibition went beyond what many initial supporters of prohibition thought they were supporting, and lacked flexibility that would allow policy adjustments to changes in the facts surrounding alcohol. In contrast, our nation’s current drug laws are built upon the Controlled Substances Act, which contains a series of increasingly restrictive schedules that allow for the appropriate regulation of various drugs, as well as a mechanism to move substances from one regulatory status to another should new information about the use of a controlled substance be established.

or how about this one (John Adams must be rolling in his grave)

John Adams, who helped draft the Constitution and later became our second president, declared, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to govern of any other.” This means that any and all just laws must be based on moral considerations. Our elected representatives are therefore bound to legislate morality.

I expect the right-wing political preachers to interpret Adams’ statement that way, but not anyone with, oh, an education.

As a separate note in his post, Kleiman asks:

Footnote If the Tea Partiers and their tame politicians were genuinely against nanny-state big government and for states’ rights, wouldn’t they favor repeal of the Controlled Substances Act? Under the theories they espouse, wouldn’t hey regard it as unconstitutional? Just askin’.

Yeah. Now, I realize that Tea Party isn’t really an organized entity, and that there are many people who follow the Tea Party who are strongly opposed to prohibition. Yet it baffles me (and concerns me somewhat) that you hear so little about drug policy as a Tea Party issue. Because Mark’s right. It’s a natural for being a core view for the Tea Party, assuming that the Tea Party truly opposes big government, and not just partisan-selected big government.

Zach Galifianakis on the Bill Maher show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSmR2hfp-I

One more visual that demonstrates the absolute absurdity of marijuana laws.

Via Reason’s Hit and Run

With Prop 19 vote coming up in just a few days, it may seem like everything that can be done has been done, but that’s not true by a long shot.

These last three days make a huge difference. It’s the final impression in voters’ minds. It’s the final decision to actually go and vote. This is the time to turn up the heat.

And our side is doing that. Between Just Say Now, and SSDP and LEAP and the Yes on 19 campaign, there’s a comprehensive effort involving education, marketing, and get out the vote efforts.

On the other side?

On the other side of the campaign, Prop. 19 opponents are running out of steam, having failed to show up for scheduled debates in recent weeks. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, for example, failed to show up for a scheduled debate in front of the L.A. Urban League of Young Professionals against pro-Prop. 19 LAPD deputy chief of police Stephen Downing (Ret.) earlier this month. And on Friday, No On 19 spokesman Roger Salazar failed to appear at a scheduled debate on KPFA against former Superior Court judge Jim Gray and labor union leader Dan Rush. Earlier this week, when No On 19 campaign manager Tim Rosales was asked by a debate moderator for the Commonwealth Club what his idea for a better world is, Rosales simply answered “vacation” – revealing just how ready he is to give up the effort.

If you’re in California, there are tons of ways for you to get involved in these last few days. Here’s a list of rallies, phone banks, literature drops, etc. where you can participate in different communities.

You can contribute. Yes, even at this late date, in political campaigns they can turn the money around that fast. As more money comes in they can contact their media reps and get additional airings of TV ads.

Don’t live in California? Don’t have money to contribute? No problem. You can actually help contact voters in California and the three states with medical marijuana initiatives by phone from anywhere. Just Say Now’s Phone Bank system is ridiculously easy to do. They give you a script and feed you phone numbers to call right on your computer. You don’t even have to leave the sofa.

Finally, do you have friends in California? Give them a call. Make sure they’re going to vote on Tuesday. Make sure they know why pot legalization is the most important issue before voters this election day.

In the Vail Daily, Robert F. Hickey hits one out of the park.

First, from a professional perspective, let me say that in treating thousands of people who have become victims of their use of alcohol and other drugs since 1970, I have never treated a marijuana addict. I have never been called to an emergency room to treat an out-of-control or violent marijuana user. I have never completed a court-ordered evaluation for a defendant who was accused of domestic violence as a result of marijuana use. I have never heard of five or six law enforcement officers being needed to tackle, control or otherwise subdue a crazed marijuana user.

Marijuana is not a narcotic! That is a law enforcement characterization, not a medical, biological or chemical classification.

Contrary to quotes in Mr. Sims’ letter by Kevin Sabet, special adviser, Office of National Drug Control Policy, marijuana is not a dangerous drug which causes documented health and social problems.

Where is the documentation? The only documentation of social problems are those which arise from the prohibition of marijuana and the 750,000 subsequent arrests for possession of small amounts of the plant each year.

The social problems come as a result of the billions of dollars spent each year by law enforcement agencies across the country.

The social problems come from the inequities of law enforcement against minorities in the country. African-Americans are five to 10 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, yet on a per capita basis, whites use marijuana in greater numbers than all minorities. As Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP said recently, “ … being caught up in the criminal justice system does more harm to young people than marijuana itself.”

And by what authority does Sabet dictate that marijuana “should not be subject to voter approval for its use”?

There’s more. Great job, Mr. Hickey.

Via Just Say Now:

Peter Tosh’s family released the following statement:

Today, as Peter Tosh did back in 1976 with the release of “Legalize It,” the Peter Tosh Estate proudly speaks out for marijuana legalization. They do this in the name of Peter Tosh, his music, and their strong belief in the power of “Yes” on California’s Proposition 19. Join them in the fight for legalization by supporting the Just Say Now campaign.

Here’s the full version of Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It” on iTunes, in case you’d like to add it to your iPod.

Someone shoot me.

Whoopi at least knows something about the subject. Barbara Walters got some things right and some wrong, and Elizabeth Hasselbeck? Dumb as a post. I don’t know who watches these shows, but I felt like I lost 10 IQ points just in the 3 minutes that I watched this video.

Sorry about the Hulu link for those out of the country.

A very powerful OpEd in the Los Angeles Times today by Dan Rush with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5: The California Chamber’s reefer madness: The group says Proposition 19 would prevent employers from punishing workers who show up high. That’s a lie.

This guy doesn’t pull any punches. He comes right out and says it:

Critics of Proposition 19,- which would legalize the private possession of limited quantities of marijuana by adults and allow local governments to regulate its commercial production and retail distribution, will do and say just about anything. Case in point: Radio ads sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce allege that passage of the measure will threaten workplace safety, a campaign The Times reported on in an Oct. 27 article.

The claim is a bald-faced lie.

Boom!

It’s a great OpEd, very well written, and very well timed.

Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times: End the War on Pot

Our nearly century-long experiment in banning marijuana has failed as abysmally as Prohibition did, and California may now be pioneering a saner approach. Sure, there are risks if California legalizes pot. But our present drug policy has three catastrophic consequences.

First, it squanders billions of dollars that might be better used for education. […]

The second big problem with the drug war is that it has exacerbated poverty and devastated the family structure of African-Americans. Partly that’s because drug laws are enforced inequitably. Black and Latino men are much more likely than whites to be stopped and searched and, when drugs are found, prosecuted. […]

The third problem with our drug policy is that it creates crime and empowers gangs. “The only groups that benefit from continuing to keep marijuana illegal are the violent gangs and cartels that control its distribution and reap immense profits from it through the black market,” a group of current and former police officers, judges and prosecutors wrote last month in an open letter to voters in California. […]

One advantage of our federal system is that when we have a failed policy, we can grope for improvements by experimenting at the state level. I hope California will lead the way on Tuesday by legalizing marijuana.

Financial Times Editorial (free registration required): High time to legalise marijuana

Just say no, the slogan says. But on November 2, California has the chance to say yes, at least to marijuana. Proposition 19 would legalise the production, sale and use of cannabis, abolishing an ineffective and socially damaging prohibition on a substance with fewer health risks than alcohol and tobacco. The Golden State should vote to legalise dope. […]

However California votes, marijuana will remain illegal in the US. Nor will Proposition 19 weed out all the social problems caused by narcotics use. But it will make a start at removing a failed policy that exacerbates these ills – an approach which could, if successful, perhaps in time be applied to other drugs. It is time to say yes.

This is an open thread.

LA Times blogger Dennis Romero has demonstrated a bit of a racist sense of humor in the past…

Surprise surprise. Latinos are getting behind the California ballot initiative to legalize pot. You mean the same folks who gave the world Cheech (not Chong), Acapulco gold and the very word marijuana? Orale!

Seems he loves to play with the Latino stereotype…

On Tuesday, he reported some excellent news (with his own special dig at the end)…

The National Latino Officers Association was scheduled to give pot legalization its thumbs up Wednesday morning at the William C. Velasquez Institute in L.A.’s Lincoln Park community.

At the same time, the Yes on 19 folks will release a study showing that Latinos have been disproportionately arrested under current marijuana laws.

According to the study, titled, “Arresting Latinos for Marijuana in California,” “In the City of Los Angeles, where one in ten Californians live, police arrested Latinos for marijuana possession at twice the rate of whites.”

It also states that from 1990 to 2009, “the marijuana possession arrest rate of Latino teenagers in California more than tripled.”

What’s the point? To scare the all-important Latino vote into approving Prop. 19, which would allow the 21-and-older set to possess up to one ounce of cannabis.

Note the picture and caption he came up with for that story:

Really?