Drug WarRant

Scott Morgan does a nice job of disabusing the idiot-enablers of the notion that somehow legalization will be good for the cartels.

Here’s the thing: criminal drug organizations don’t want this “legal platform” you speak of. That’s not how they do business. Their product is grown by day laborers and slaves, not master cultivators. Their business strategy is characterized by assassination and bribery, not Facebook fan pages and free massage Fridays. They have no intention of paying taxes or appearing before local zoning boards, and they can’t compete with American entrepreneurs who are happy to do the paperwork and can explain where their investment capital came from.

Ah, the hunt.

Instead of rifles and stealthily stalking the prey, it’s body armor, pistols and battering rams. Instead of the forest or tundra, this prey is in a fenced yard, closed in a bathroom, or running away in the living room.

It’s a tough sport and the big game hunter must always be vigilant and always shoot first, because who knows what this ferocious beast, who spends his entire day playing with little children, might do to a grown man in body armor.

As always, Radley Balko documents the hunt…

Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force agents, aided by a uniformed Willits police officer, serving a search warrant at 64 Franklin Avenue on July 27, shot and killed a family pet, an 8-year-old half-pit bull mix named Tonka.

When agents searched the home, they found nothing directly linking the residents to the arrest of Craig Anthony Gelber, the target of the search, according to MMCTF Commander Bob Nishiyama. […]

According to resident Anna White, Tonka’s owner, the police shot her pet while it was in a fenced area on her front porch. “We found the shell casing outside by the fence area. Tonka then ran into our house, got onto my bed and died.”

White described her bedroom following the search, claiming Tonka’s body had been dumped from the bed onto the floor and items from her room dropped onto the body and into the dog’s blood. “They destroyed our house and found nothing,” says White. “Tonka lived long enough to die on my bed, which we shared each night.”

Meanwhile, we go to Prince George’s County, location of the slaying of Payton and Chase. In case you’ve forgotten…

Prince George County SWAT, intercepting a package of marijuana addressed to Mayor Cheye Calvo’s wife Trinity, and knowing that criminals were addressing packages to innocents and intercepting them, nonetheless burst into the Mayor’s home without even enough investigation to know he was the Mayor or even notifying local police, shot the two dogs (Chase was running away from them when they killed him), and kept the Mayor and his mother-in-law handcuffed on the floor for hours in their dogs’ blood.

Well, last night, Sheriff Michael Jackson said:

“Quite frankly, we’d do it again. Tonight.”

For more outrage, see Radley’s Federal Cop Shoots Dog at a Dog Park. No Charges.

Had a great time with my friend in Chicago this past weekend, and now have my Dad visiting to see the Shakespeare Festival shows, and my Sister and niece are coming tomorrow for a couple of days, so I still have only a few moments a day to check on news.

I had several hundred spams built up in the comment spam filter and ended up accidentally dumping them all, so I apologize if any of your comments got caught in there and I didn’t rescue them.

And I feel remiss about not having reported about the wonderful Just Say Now campaign put together by FireDogLake and SSDP. Go over there and show them some support.

Not U.S.

MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderon said he would consider a debate on legalizing drugs Tuesday as his government announced that more than 28,000 people have been killed in drug violence since he launched a crackdown against cartels in 2006. […]

Calderon said he has taken note of the idea of legally regulating drugs in the past.
“It’s a fundamental debate in which I think, first of all, you must allow a democratic plurality (of opinions),” he said. “You have to analyze carefully the pros and cons and the key arguments on both sides.”

Three former presidents — Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil — urged Latin American countries last year to consider legalizing marijuana to undermine a major source of income for cartels. And Mexico’s congress also has debated the issue.

But Calderon has long said he is opposed to the idea, and his office issued a statement hours after the meeting saying that while the president was open to debate on the issue, he remains “against the legalization of drugs.”

In proposing the debate Tuesday, analyst and writer Hector Aguilar Camin said, “I’m not talking just about marijuana … rather all drugs in general.”

It’s not a call for legalization by Calderon, but it’s a recognition of basic facts — you have to discuss all the options. You can’t bury your head in the sand, cover your ears and repeatedly scream “Legalization is not in my vocabulary.”

In response to President Calderon’s call for a debate on drug legalization, Norm Stamper, a 34-year veteran police officer who was Seattle’s chief of police and is now a speaker with the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and an adviser to the Just Say Now campaign, called on President Obama to join the debate on legalizing marijuana:

“President Calderon’s call for a debate on legalization is a big step forward in putting an end to the war raging in Mexico and along our borders. More than 28,000 people have been killed by Mexico’s drug cartels since 2006 – including 1,200 in July, the deadliest month yet in this drug war.

“Legalizing marijuana is the most sensible approach to stopping this border war. Cartels thrive on marijuana prohibition. Around 70% of the cartels’ profits come from the illegal sale of marijuana, which they turn around to buy guns that have killed thousands of Mexicans and that terrorize police on America’s streets.

“Just Say Now welcomes President Calderon to this debate. We hope that President Obama will join this debate to end the war on marijuana.”

I’ve got a good friend flying in from Seattle to spend a long weekend and we’re going to spend the time in Chicago exploring the city (as we do every year) until Tuesday. And then my Dad is coming to town and we’re going to see all the shows at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival on Tuesday through Thursday. So while I’ll be checking it, posting will probably be a little light.

Keep sending me tips. I apologize that I seldom have time to respond to them and am behind following up on some that really interest me.

Obama administration clueless as to what to do about drug policy. If California legalizes marijuana, not clear what Obama administration would do

I realize that the current administration isn’t going to do anything to actively help reform. The best we can hope for is a kind of negligence. Something that looks like incompetent and inefficient efforts to be tough on drugs. It appears that they’d rather be seen as doing a bad job at being prohibitionists than as leading for change.

A fascinating This Week in History from StopTheDrugWar.org

Excellent overview of what’s going on with Prop 19 in California by Daniela Perdomo at Alternet.

Because it’s been working so well so far… US Congress Approves More Funding for Plan Mexico

A measure passed by Congress to provide emergency funding for the war in Afghanistan is also being used by US lawmakers to pump an additional $175 million into Mexico to support the drug war this year. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a budgetary bill referred to as the 2010 supplemental appropriations act, which along with providing $60 billion to war efforts in Afghanistan also allocates more funds to “international narcotics control and law enforcement” in Mexico.

Odd. What is this feeling? Not sure how to handle it. Today, I read the Drug Czar’s “blog” and… actually mostly agreed with it.

“I applaud the passage in the House today of the Fair Sentencing Act, which will dramatically reduce a 100-to-1 disparity between trafficking offenses for crack and powder cocaine,” said White House Drug Control Policy Director, Gil Kerlikowske. “The Obama Administration is committed to the fair and equal application of our Nation’s laws. The Fair Sentencing Act marks the first time in 40 years that Congress has reduced a mandatory minimum sentence.

Hmmm.

This is an open thread.

My, that certainly is a provocative question. Is Roger Salazar channeling funds to terrorists? Is he, in fact, providing money laundering services for terrorists? These are real questions, based on absolutely nothing, that I feel that I need to put in front of the public, so they can think about it.

Who is Roger Salazar? Well, he’s a Democratic spokesman and media consultant. He is also the spokesperson for California Working Families for Jerry Brown (for the Governor race), which is heavily funded (millions of dollars) by certain unions (which includes public employee unions in California). And he is the spokesperson for Public Safety First, which opposes Proposition 19 (the legalization of marijuana in California) and which is responsible for this new ad on the left.

So, given that, and the fact that those facts do not in any way add up to evidence that Roger Salazar is channeling funds to terrorists, it still is a provocative question that we may feel needs to be asked: Is Roger Salazar funding terrorists? He is dealing with a lot of funds, and there are terrorists out there. Just sayin’.

That’s the relevance of this offensive ad. It’s Salazar going fact-free and negative, and trying to deceive voters by scaring them. I mean, you could just as well put a number of captions there:

— Is My Teacher Drunk?
— Is My Teacher Stupid?
— Is My Teacher Holed Up In The Classroom With A Semi-Automatic?
— Is My Teacher Sleeping With Roger Salazar?

All disturbing questions. All equally unrelated to the passage of Proposition 19.

But we’ll see more of these ads. Why?

These are the questions that morally bankrupt political hacks who don’t have the facts on their side are forced to ask.

…

Oh, and to California voters? You may want to vote Green, not Brown.

Some oppose medical marijuana because patients who aren’t that sick can still get a doctor’s note.

I’ve noticed that people who can walk pretty well still get permits to park in the close spots. Maybe we should outlaw all handicapped parking.

Absolutely brilliant video. Anti-prohibition cartoon by Haik Hoisington.

Visit the artist at Black Mustache.com.

Crack/Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Reform bill passes House and heads to President’s desk

Today, the House passed legislation reducing the two-decades-old sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Senate passed an identical bill in March and the legislation is now heading to President Obama, who supports the reform effort. […]

Before the changes, a person with just five grams of crack received a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. That same person would have to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine to earn the same punishment. This discrepancy, known as the 100-to-1 ratio, was enacted in the late 1980s and was based on myths about crack cocaine being more dangerous than powder. […]

Advocates pushed to totally eliminate the disparity but ultimately a compromise was struck between Democrats and Republicans to reduce the 100-to-1 disparity to 18-to-1. The compromise also eliminated the five year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of five grams of cocaine (about two sugar packets worth). The repeal of that mandatory minimum is the first repeal of a mandatory minimum drug sentence since the 1970s.

It’s a halfway measure, but it’s still extremely significant. Finally, politicians actually voting to reduce a prohibition measure.

And there’s no outcry… no threats to run “druggie” ads against those who passed it… no riots from concerned voters. It’s almost as though they wouldn’t have had to resort to a halfway measure.

The House also passed the Webb Criminal Justice Commission. Great news, but it still needs to pass the Senate.

An interview with Major Neill Franklin, new Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

A federal-state law inconsistency shouldn’t stop Californians from legalizing marijuana by Hanna Liebman Dershowitz. Excellent piece in the LA Times.

Instead of hewing to a misguided and unworkable federal hegemony in this area, encouraging innovation at the state level would be a more rational federal policy. And to be clear, legal scholars have long disagreed with Kleiman’s conclusion that the feds must and will intervene to try to quell state action in this area.

States need not shrink from countering federal policy on marijuana. California can show leadership in driving needed reforms, as it has before. In other words, the law need not be the law if you’re willing to stick your neck out. Cautious academics and politicized public employees will always embrace the status quo, joined by risk-averse politicians who misconstrue a lack of constituent “noise” on this issue as satisfaction with current law, not fear. But voters know better.

Not only can Californians regulate and tax marijuana, we should.

Here’s a challenge for my loyal readers.

I need an organization.

It doesn’t generally work for bloggers to send out a press release and the title of “blogger” doesn’t work well in trying to get OpEds, etc. If, however, you’re the Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Legislative Reform, then you get some respect even if your entire organization is a web page… or less. It’s stupid, but it’s true.

Take a look at Bishop Ron Allen of the International Faith-Based Coalition or Al Crancer of Crancer and Associates, for that matter. Andrea Barthwell had about a dozen of them.

So come up with an organization name. It could be something complementary to Drug WarRant that shows our focus (probably should avoid the word “rant,” though), or it could be something abstract like RAND that would be further explained. This is not going to replace Drug WarRant, but give us an organization name when we need one.

The one to come up with the final name for the organization will be offered an honorary officer position in it.

Sometimes I just really get tired. Tired of fighting against all the bullshit and lies. Tired of the fact that for years, prohibitionists have come to the conclusion that they have no need to tell the truth at all. Tired of tracking down and reading through yet another “study” to find out that it’s a whole lot of crap wrapped up with a pretty ribbon, so that others can pretend to tell the truth as they peddle their lies to eagerly vapid reporters. Tired.

And yet… and yet.

The lies need to be exposed.

I found out about this Fox News interview video from a tweet from the folks at No on Proposition 19 who were quite excited about it. As soon as I saw the segment’s logo “Going to Pot,” I knew it would be a bad bit of business. But I wasn’t prepared for these two zombie flesh-eaters staring out at me from the video.

This was just after she said (with wide-eyed amazement):

Who would of thunk, that in 2010, we’d be actually having a debate, about legalizing… pot!… to make up and balance a budget?

And then she actually held that look for a couple of seconds.

My thought, however, was who’d have “thunk,” that in 2010, we’d still have idiots like this trying to keep us from legalizing something that should never have been criminalized?

And, not to get off on a rant here, but who are these morons? I guess there’s a reason I never watch television news channels and why in particular I use the parental control feature to lock FOX News (Oh, I’ll DVR Stossel or Napolitano if they’re talking about the drug war, and of course, anytime Balko is on…, but I would absolutely freak if I accidentally flipped through channels in the morning and landed on these two!)

I could understand (not like, but understand) such mindless zombies having an anchor job if they were, well, attractive, but these two are so ugly, their mommas would have to tie a pork chop around their neck to get the dog to play with them.

Anyway, police chief Raney (who’s not at all like those two) lays it on really thick. He’s not an idiot. Just a deceiver. Here’s what he has to say…
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