Drug WarRant

Haven’t we told them enough yet that the Drug Czar is Required by Law to Lie?

Apparently Washington Post staff reporter Ashley Halsey III didn’t get the message. For she he wrote this article titled Feds: Watch out for drivers high on drugs

As you idled at that busy intersection Saturday night, there’s a pretty good chance another driver waiting for the light to change was high on illegal drugs.

About 11 percent of motorists are high on the weekend, and the number creeps up past 16 percent once night falls on Friday and Saturday, according to federal drug czar Gil Kerlikowske and a national roadside survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

You know what would have been interesting? If Ashley Halsey III had actually picked up that roadside survey from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, she might have read:

The reader is cautioned that drug presence does not necessarily imply impairment. For many drug types, drug presence can be detected long after any impairment that might affect driving has passed. For example, traces of marijuana can be detected in blood samples several weeks after chronic users stop ingestion. Also, whereas the impairment effects for various concentration levels of alcohol is well understood, little evidence is available to link concentrations of other drug types to driver performance.

I wonder if they teach you such things in reporter school. You can ask her him (politely) here.

Update: I got a response from Ashley. Not sure what the response means yet — it fails to address the substance of the request for correction and instead focuses on my attributes. I’ve asked for further clarification.

I’ve also asked the NHTSA for reaction to the misrepresentation of their report, and a case file has been assigned to my request.

Commenter Kaptinemo has been saying for some time that states will wake up to drug policy reform through economic realities. Here’s another editorial that reflects that growing awareness.

Brockton, Massachusetts Enterprise:

If there’s a bright side to a financial emergency, it’s the opportunity it presents to stop spending money on things that aren’t working.

Consider substance abuse. Researchers and therapists understand that addiction is an illness, but because of its association with property crime, the political system’s primary response has been through police and prisons.

Massachusetts, like most states, escalated this battle in recent decades. Its prison population grew 368 percent from 1980 to 2008, according to the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Drug Policy Task Force, while the population of county jails jumped by 522 percent.

That comes at a price: Massachusetts last year spent $1.4 billion incarcerating people. That’s more than the Legislature spent on public higher education.

Are we getting our money’s worth? In a word, no.

Our friends at Transform have been using the Freedom of Information Act (the U.K. has one, too), trying to get the Home Office to release their confidential assessment of its anti-drugs strategy.

The Economist has a report on this effort Inconvenient truths: The most creative attempt yet to get around freedom-of-information laws?

The Home Office says that to have two reports about drugs out at the same time might confuse the public, and for this reason it is going to keep its report under wraps.

This is believed to be the first time that a public body has openly refused to release information in order to manage the news better.

You poor simple-minded peasants. Having access to various facts and information would probably confuse your addled brains. Just listen to what we tell you — we’re the best ones to look after your interests.

The Secret to Legal Marijuana? Women by Daniela Perdoma

Why women have signed onto marijuana reform — and why they could be the movement’s game-changers.

Good article.

Nicolas Cage new UNODC ambassador for justice

Mr. Costa said: “Nicolas Cage’s characters have exposed us to some of the darkest aspects of human nature. Now he is championing one of the most noble – the quest for justice. The Lord of War has become a messenger for peace, the Bad Lieutenant has turned into a good cop, and the inmate from Con Air has become a champion of prison reform. His star status and strong conviction on these issues will help us achieve security and justice for all.” […]

As UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for Global Justice, Nicolas Cage will use the performing arts as an engine for global justice and victim support. “I intend to shine the spotlight on the need for global justice, publicize all the good work that UNODC is doing and highlight how we can all make a difference,” said Mr. Cage upon accepting his appointment.

And what about when the injustice comes from the UNODC (as in the entire international drug war)? Will Nick Cage speak up then?

Obama gets the question again (and then some)

“I appreciate the boldness of your question,” Mr. Obama said to laughter after a young man asked him if he would consider legalizing drugs, prostitution, gambling or nonviolent crimes. “That will not be my job strategy.”

“First of all, part of what you’re supposed to do in college is question conventional wisdom,” the president continued. “You’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”

DrugSense Weekly – a weekly review of the most interesting or relevant articles in the press and on the web related to drug policy reform.

Drug War Chronicle – weekly update of drug war news and analysis from Stop the Drug War.org.

Depressing speculation from TickleTheWire.com, via Main Justice [Thanks, Tom]

WASHINGTON — Despite all the speculation and rumor as to who will be the next chief of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, word has it that the acting chief Michele Leonhart is still on track to get the nod from the White House for the top post.

Maybe the DEA is so diseased that it would be cruel to waste the career of someone good administering it, or maybe it’s so messed up that you can’t get someone with a shred of integrity to take the job. But… really? Michele Leonhart?

Michele is a career DEA agent, with a long history. Read my article about her written back in 2003. The part that really stuck with me was her relationship with super-snitch Andrew Chambers, who was paid over $2 million by the DEA to testify (and lie) for the DEA. He was finally discredited and removed.

What did Michele think about his lying to help them get convictions?

“The only criticism (of Chambers) I’ve ever heard is what defense attorneys will characterize as perjury or a lie on the stand.”

She continued by saying that once prosecutors check him out, they’ll agree with his admirers in DEA that he’s “an outstanding testifier.”

Perfect choice for head of the DEA. Someone who doesn’t even know that perjury is wrong.

The DEA has way too much power in this world — over doctors, over medicine, over research, over local law enforcement, over public policy — to leave in the hands of someone like Michele Leonhart. If Obama puts her name forward, it seems to me that we should work toward making sure there is a political price to pay. I don’t see any backhanded strategic benefit to keeping here there (if you see one, let me know).

Michele Leonhart also has some detractors in the DEA, although for much different reasons. From hard-liners at DEA-watch:

It is, of course, very distressing that Obaholder is reaffirming the Bush nightmare years by retaining his worst appointees.

When a bad appointee is re-appointed they view their re-hire as a re-affirmation of their bad management and incompetence. They not only continue to do damage but they do more damage because they tell themselves that if they were re-hired then they must have been doing everything right… which in our agency’s case means the drug cartels will be given another three years of enjoying no heat from us and record income.

Leonhart means Christmas is every day to the drug cartels… this agency definitely needs to get back its ‘Jason Bournes’ who can simply eliminate the problem makers in Afghanistan, Colombia and everywhere else they lurk… No Taleban drug leaders means no need for troops to be kept in Afghanistan… no South American Drug cartel bosses means billions spent on drugs by our citizens will go to buy products we grow and make here at home. Its not the enemy ‘soliders’ we need to eliminate, it’s their senior leaders… duuuuuuuh!

Uh, yeah. Sure.

From the Senate Judiciary Committee website report on today’s Executive Business Meeting:

S. 714, National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 (Webb, Graham, Leahy, Hatch, Schumer, Durbin, Cardin, Whitehouse, Franken, Specter)
Held Over

Pennsylvania is having a debate on medical marijuana in the legislature. Good for them.

The heart-wrenching stories came from both sides.

Huh? Both sides?

How is that possible? Was there a pharmaceutical manufacturer who lost income in California due to medical marijuana and wasn’t able to buy a new car?

I don’t get it. How do you have a heart-wrenching story from opponents of medical marijuana?

Sharon Smith of Mechanicsburg lost her 18-year-old daughter to a heroin overdose in 1998. She said the state should not legislate medical policy decisions.

Ah, I see. Let’s pass by the delicious irony of someone who supports continued laws preventing doctors from practicing medicine claiming that the state “should not legislate medical policy decisions.”

It is really offensive to me that drug prohibitionists seem to be able to recruit parents of dead kids to campaign against medical marijuana. (Steve Steiner of DAMMMAD is the prime example, but there are many others.)

The worst was when the DEA sponsored a Vigil for Lost Promise that was held on the grounds of the DEA headquarters.

What possible relevance does the death of an 18-year-old girl to a heroin overdose have with regulated medical marijuana? None at all.

When a parent loses a child to a drug overdose, how do they get from there to opposing marijuana (which has never had a fatal overdose)? It seems to me that somebody must lead them there.

The real discussion they need to have is: “What was the role that prohibition played in this tragedy?” After all, it happened within the context of prohibition. “Would things have been different if drugs had been legal and regulated?”

A new video of Marilyn Monroe has surfaced, smoking pot with some friends (from what you see in the video it could as well be a cigarette, but apparently the person who shot the film verified the pot story).

Of course, it’s not a surprise. Marijuana has always been popular in the creative fields, and Marilyn wasn’t one to worry about whether something was “proper” (or legal).

“Well behaved women rarely make history.”
— Marilyn Monroe (after Laurel Thatcher Ulrich)

I’ve highlighted a couple of rather ignorant OpEds in college newspapers in the past, but it’s good to note that, particularly due to the efforts of SSDP, you’re more likely to get a good piece like this one by Beth Mendenhall in the Kansas State Collegian (I don’t know if Beth is an SSDP member): Consistency Demands Cannabis

Our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are enough to warrant legalization of marijuana. So be a good patriot…

A few random things…

If you’re going to be doing any Christmas shopping at Amazon.com, use the link at the left to get there, and I’ll get a few cents from whatever you buy on that visit. It won’t cost you any more. Also, check out the DWR Amazon Store linked at left, for some great ideas of books, DVDs and other items to give to someone you’d like to educate about drug policy reform (there are also a number of items just for fun).

An off-topic call for help. I have worked with a great group of students at Illinois State University called the Improv Mafia. Over the years, these guys, on their own without a coach, have put together some of the best and most original improv comedy I’ve ever seen. I’ve done some piano playing for them and it’s a blast!

They competed in this year’s College Improv Tournament and did a great job in the Midwest Regional despite losing one of their six performers to food poisoning just before the final round. They came in second by 1.5 points. They still have a chance to compete in the National Tournament — all 6 regional 2nd place finishers compete through online voting for the wild card slot.

Here’s where you come in. Go and vote. Be sure to select The Improv Mafia (Illinois State University). You have to use a valid email address and verify it. Thanks!

There have been some great, involved discussions in comments recently. Be sure to check those out when you have a chance. Thanks to all the regulars who keep this place so exciting, and add additional perspectives to my own.

Gateway drug?

In the study, 40 percent of marijuana users said they have used marijuana to control their alcohol addictions, 66 percent said they used marijuana instead of prescription drugs, and 26 percent said marijuana helped them stay off other illegal drugs. [Via Scott Morgan]

Consider this an open thread.