Drug WarRant

Friday, I dropped this item into the Open Thread…

Santa Monica Mirror has a really stupid piece by Steve Stajich: Five Reasons We Won’t Be Legalizing Pot. This may be the five most moronic reasons I’ve heard to date.

“Hello, Governor? Please explain how legalizing marijuana will reduce teen pregnancy. (PAUSE) Our lines our open. (PAUSE) Governor, please call with that answer. (PAUSE) Again that phone number…” Apparently the Spliff-inator has looked at the stats regarding teen sexual behavior and teen pregnancy and concluded, “What’s needed here is more access to marijuana.” Will Bristol Palin bring her baby to Sacramento and explain how life might have been different if only she’d been too (legally) stoned to have sex?

Steve Stajich responds:

Pete… I was delighted to get into [Salon.com], even by way of your critique of last week’s column.
I guess I could accept that my Five Reasons would be “lame” or “soft” because I’ll readily agree that they don’t, any of them, justify a drug “war” or the resources invested in a drug war. And the waste of a drug war seems to be the drive of your page, so I understand your reaction or practical need to harvest content that buoys that angle. I certainly agree that drug war-mentality government efforts are troubling to say the least.
But I think it was inaccurate to call the points I made “stupid.” I don’t think they are empty-headed or so without merit that they meet that criteria. The headline did not suggest that these were the only five reasons or top reasons in any way… just five aspects of legalization that might be considered in the “debate” the governor was proposing. Perhaps you would consider adjusting your posting… although please continue to drive people to the Mirror’s online edition.
Yours, Steve Stajich

I really am grateful for the fact that Steve took the time to respond, and appreciate his acknowledgement that a government drug war mentality is troubling. It’s often surprising to hear from someone I have mentioned, particularly when I have done so in a somewhat unflattering way. It’s slightly disconcerting, because I have been raised to be polite to people, and now that I’ve heard from Steve, I feel like I, in some way, know him, and feel a tiny but guilty for denigrating his work in such an off-hand way.
So instead of the glib reaction I gave Friday, let’s take a moment to analyze Steve’s piece in greater detail.
First, I didn’t say that his points were stupid. I said that the article was stupid and the points were moronic….
…OK, that doesn’t really help.
Let’s try again. Steve admits that the points aren’t the only ones, and that they might be “lame” or “soft” because they don’t, by themselves justify a drug war. But the problem is much deeper.
In the context of having a debate about legalization, the only points brought up in his article are, in fact, false arguments based on dis-proven and exaggerated stereotypes (perhaps intended to be humorous, but falling flat) and other meaningless and incorrect ideas.
They’re really no different than…

• In a discussion about homosexual marriage, a columnist suggests that we’ll need to discuss the impact on health care from the cost of removing all those gerbils from peoples’ asses.
• In a discussion about ending segregation, a columnist suggests that we’ll need to assess the zoning impact of accommodating all of the watermelon patches.

In the example at top, I can’t really even tell from the sarcasm if Steve is calling up the stereotype that marijuana causes increased teen pregnancy or that marijuana causes the inability to have sex (thereby decreasing teen pregnancy), but either way, that has absolutely nothing to do with legalization.
As far as the rest…

While opening up access to intoxicants is not quite the same as realizing revenue gain from state gambling, information on gambling addiction and its destructive impacts is always neatly left out of ads for state lotteries and Native American casinos. Would we do the same with legalized pot? At a certain point, state governments and voters must own-up to the fact that realizing revenue gain on a legalized activity means the people‰s representative government is socializing and endorsing the behavior involved. We‰re already playing a hypocritical game of pretend with state sponsored gambling; now we‰re going to run “Hey Kids, Don‰t Get High at School!” spots on TV with money realized from marijuana sales!?

Don’t we get revenue from alcohol, tobacco, and a million other things that the government taxes, but doesn’t necessarily encourage? Isn’t, in fact, the whole notion of “sin” taxes a kind of recognition that government discourages it? The only way that government would be endorsing pot is if they gave it away for free in schools.

Theoretically, making it illegal for younger teens to have alcohol prevents any teen drinking problemsá right? Drunk driving and teen drinking statistics seems to show some holes in that. Does the governor wish to publicly address school teachers and say ‹Best of luck with more dope on the streets, you know, because now we‰re selling it at Walgreens.Š Go ahead with any ‹They‰ll get it anyhow if they want itŠ responses; one way they won‰t get it is by having their older brother or sister buy it from the responsible adults of California. Jeeze, Arnoldá we‰re having problems keeping diabetes-inflicting sugar and fat out of schools! Do you hang with school teachers at all?

Does this make any sense at all? Making alcohol illegal for teens didn’t stop teen drinking problems so making pot legal for adults will cause teen pot problems? Steve cancels out his own argument, showing that making pot illegal doesn’t keep it away from teens (which we already know). Sure, maybe we should have a discussion as to whether it’s better for teens to get pot from criminals who don’t card, or from their brother who skirts the law, but there’s certainly no evidence that selling it at Walgreens is going to make it easier for teens to get.

What‰s holding back American manufacturing and productivity? That‰s right: Our workers don‰t have any state-endorsed pot to smoke during lunch breaks. How different the stories of GM and Chrysler if only we‰d had the good sense to make it easier (and revenue producing!) for line workers to smoke a ‹fattyŠ with their morning coffee. Of course it would be against company rules and policy, just like drinking on the job, which has never been a problem.

“Smoke a ‘fatty’ with their morning coffee?” Really? And state-endorsed pot again? Steve’s got a pretty poor view of American workers if he thinks that just because marijuana is legal, all our workers are going to be constantly stoned on the job. Sure, there are some who get drunk or show up hungover or are stoned or tired regardless of the laws, and you know what? Good managers fire those people and hire people who work during work hours and enjoy themselves during other hours.

Destructive behaviors don‰t necessarily fluctuate by substance. A drunk driver or husband can bring the pain, whether it was beer or wine or bottle goods. My local hardware store locks up the spray paint so that kids can‰t just boost a can and go huff it somewhere. So let me say that it‰s not specifically about marijuana. Our nation‰s experiments with legalizing the drugs tobacco and alcohol have been less than successful. Drunk driving deaths and alcohol-fueled violence, disease and death from tobacco; the state realizes revenues from these substances yet no one is arguing we should widen access (for more state funds) to either of those. Sorry, Arnold. It‰s not really a ‹debate.Š It‰s more like, uh, you just talkingá again.

What does any of this have to do with marijuana? These are just nonsense and distractions from the debate. The last two sentences are apparently really about Steve, not the Governor.
Sorry Steve. Happy to send more readers to the Mirror’s online edition, though.

A must read at Huffington Post: My Return to Prison: Views on the Failed Drug War from Inside Sing Sing by Wayne Kramer

The Sing Sing show was a bonus. To say it was memorable would be a massive understatement. As would be understating the importance of reaching out to the people on the receiving end of the greatest failure of social policy in America’s domestic history. […]
Make no mistake, though, this situation is a crime against humanity. Government should be helping, but it’s not. Instead, it has created a self-fulfilling monster that eats humans whose judgment has been, at one time in their lives, critically flawed and then the monster shits out profit and political gain.
What I can do as an artist is the same thing you can do as a friend and neighbor — stand up. Speak out. Get involved.

“bullet” Ending the War on Drugs: The Moment is Now by Arianna Huffington.

I understand that drugs continue to be a political hot potato, fueled by what the Latin American presidents described as “prejudices and fears that sometimes bear little relation to reality.” And I can easily picture some on the president’s team advising him to keep the issue on the backburner lest it turn into his “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
But the cost of the drug war — both human and financial — is far too high to allow politics to dictate the administration’s actions. Indeed, with all the budget cutting going on, how can anyone justify spending tens of billions of dollars a year on an unwinnable war against our own people?
Change won’t be easy. The prison-industrial complex has a deeply vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Which is why we need to keep the pressure on the president and his team to follow through on their drug policy promises.

“bullet” Surprise, Surprise, John Walters Lies
“bullet” Does Legalized Marijuana Mean Legalized Heroin and Crack? by Bruce Mirken at Opposing Views.
“bullet” The Council on Hemispheric Affairs has a two-part series on legalizing drugs in Colombia. Part 1. Part 2.
“bullet” Santa Monica Mirror has a really stupid piece by Steve Stajich: Five Reasons We Won‰t Be Legalizing Pot. This may be the five most moronic reasons I’ve heard to date.

‹Hello, Governor? Please explain how legalizing marijuana will reduce teen pregnancy. (PAUSE) Our lines our open. (PAUSE) Governor, please call with that answer. (PAUSE) Again that phone numberአApparently the Spliff-inator has looked at the stats regarding teen sexual behavior and teen pregnancy and concluded, ‹What‰s needed here is more access to marijuana.Š Will Bristol Palin bring her baby to Sacramento and explain how life might have been different if only she‰d been too (legally) stoned to have sex?

“bullet” DEA Agent Indicted for Framing 17 Innocent People. This gets really bad. It’s not just the criminal cop, it’s the complicity of the entire system….

40. Defendant DEA Special Agent Lee Lucas had a well-known record of manufacturing evidence to charge and prosecute persons for crimes with which they could not otherwise be charged or prosecuted. As a result of this history, in 2001 an FBI task force began investigating Lucas and others for making false reports and obstruction of justice. During the course of this investigation, members of the FBI task force met on August 21, 2003, with the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Greg White in order to discuss whether the U.S. Attorney‰s office should continue to prosecute any cases investigated by Agent Lucas. Present at that meeting were several DEA supervisors. During the meeting, U.S. Attorney White referred to Lucas as a ‹rogue agent,Š and as a result of the information provided by the FBI task force during this meeting, U.S. Attorney White issued an order directing that no criminal charges based on an investigation conducted by Agent Lucas be indicted or prosecuted unless the allegations could be corroborated by at least one other witness. The matters discussed at this meeting were documented by both the FBI and DEA, and the documentation was distributed through the chain of command at the DEA, including but not limited to the Defendant DEA supervisors listed in this Complaint, all of whom were familiar with the particulars of the FBI investigation prior to Agent Lucas‰ involvement in ‹Operation Turnaround.Š
41. Despite U.S. Attorney‰s White‰s 2003 order, the DEA assigned Lucas to the Mansfield area for the purpose of overseeing ‹Operation Turnaround.Š Agent Lucas began leading the activity conducted in connection with ‹Operation TurnaroundŠ beginning in the summer of 2005, and continuing at al times throughout the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Plaintiff ….

“bullet” DrugSense Weekly
“bullet” “drcnet”

Get the breakables out of reach…
It’s Bill O’Reilly and Joseph Califano.

The latest scare story about marijuana is that, once again, some pot is apparently more potent than other pot: Marijuana potency surpasses 10 percent, U.S. says.
This causes all the usual suspects to act concerned, as if this was something bad, yet at the same time, none of them would even consider a proposal to label pot by its potency. You’d think that would be the logical reaction. Or even regulating potency. But no, not a word.
Apparently potency is a big deal. Let’s take a quick review of potency:

• Beer: 4-7 percent potency
• Pot: 10 percent potency
• Wine: 11-13 percent potency
• Distilled Spirits: 40 percent potency
• Bacardi 151: 75 percent potency
• Marinol: 100 percent potency

(*Your grandfather’s pot: negative 5 percent potency, apparently, if you believe government officials)
Government officials discovered something else pretty remarkable:

The stronger marijuana is of particular concern because high concentrations of THC have the opposite effect of low concentrations, officials say.

I’m a little confused by this. Are they saying that high concentrations of THC make you no longer like Doritos? Or perhaps that it makes you prefer Debby Boone over Pink Floyd? I have no idea.

Ridicule, yes. But that’s different.
I don’t pretend to know all the details about the situation in Connecticut. Apparently, the head of the Connecticut NORML chapter sent (possibly by accident) an email threatening violence to a state senator. The national organization of NORML has dropped that chapter.
We are not the ones to use violence and threats. We are the ones who face violence and threats every day, from a drug war that treats its citizens like enemies and props up violent criminals.
We have to be better than them. And it can be hard, very hard. The frustration from decades of lies, and seeing our friends jailed or dying can make us want to snap. But to our credit, we don’t. We just continue to be… right. And that’s a very powerful force. As Ethan Nadelmann said “The analogy we have is this is like turning around an ocean liner,” he said. “What’s important is the damn thing is beginning to turn.” And it’s turning despite the lies and the war against we the people.
So no, we don’t need to use threats of violence against individuals who support prohibition. They are not worthy of violence, only scorn. That, however, we gladly do. Sure, I’ve photoshopped John Walters into a clown, and added a new word to the language to describe Mark Souder. And I have no regrets on that score. But even more intimidating to the prohibitionists is that we expose their ideas to the rest of the world, showing that the emperor is, in fact, naked.
That kind of intimidation just a natural consequence of our proper job.
Of course, the Connecticut incident has brought some of these folks out to claim that they have been horribly abused.

Dr. Andrea Barthwell, a prominent treatment professional, recently spoke of her experiences. ‹They are not above using misinformation, intimidation, and retribution to advance their goals. As a long time advocate for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse, I have been harassed and threatened in person and on blogs by people and groups who support the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) agenda,Š said Barthwell.

Of course, Dr. Barthwell is the queen of misinformation herself, having lied about the sponsorship of her Illinois Marijuana Lectures and having spread false information about drunk driving death rates. Both of these things were brought to light by a blog – this one. If that’s intimidation, then I own up to it proudly. If she thinks that’s retribution, then fine, but it’s not. It’s clearing up her misinformation.

Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF) concludes, ‹Advocates for legalizing drugs are known for attempting to silence their critics. We have been subject to all forms of threats and harassment by the pro-drug lobby. Drug legalization is a controversial topic, but we must keep the debate respectful. That the other side is resorting to strong-arm lobbying tactics tells me they don‰t have the facts to back up their assertions. They are desperate to win by any means, legal or otherwise.Š

“Silence their critics”? Au contraire! We relish your attempts to justify prohibition. We revel in the opportunity to shine a light on your words. We’ll whip out our facts any time, any place, and demonstrate just how small yours is. We are the ones who call for the debate. You are the ones who run from debate, who don’t want the open discussion.
I will publicly, and respectfully, debate you anytime, Calvina. Bring it on.
If there are individuals who go too far, and use physical threats, they are not recognized or encouraged by anyone in the drug policy reform movement. This attempt to smear all reformers as thugs is just another in a continuous line of misinformation efforts by Barthwell, Faye, et al

White House Czar Calls for End to ‘War on Drugs’

The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,” a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.
In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation’s drug issues.
“Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he said. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ll be able to dismantle Drug WarRant anytime soon. Kerlikowske isn’t going to even consider ending prohibition.
However, it is extraordinarily refreshing to hear someone in his position acknowledge that the war on drugs is really seen as a war on we the people.

Update: Two views on the Czar’s statement:

• Jacob Sullum calls it more of the same
• Radley Balko says rhetoric matters

Link

According to CNBC ‹The Kudlow ReportŠ host Larry Kudlow, the way current California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to promote [marijuana legalization] isn‰t for the purest of intentions, but just to bring in more revenue for his state‰s beleaguered budget.
‹ á Gov. Schwarzenegger, I mean he basically wants to get everybody stoned and then raise taxes,Š Kudlow said on his May 12 broadcast. ‹Now I have a problem with that. If we raise taxes, we ought to do it in a sober way so people can lash back at it.Š

Let me explain how it works, Larry. Legalizing marijuana doesn’t mean that everyone has to get stoned. We’re not going to put it in the water supply. And clearly you haven’t been paying any attention to the marijuana discussion online. The pro-legalization folks haven’t been showing any evidence of being too stoned to have an informed debate. In fact, their knowledge of the subject far out-shines that of mediocre cable news hosts.
And as far as Schwarzenegger possibly promoting legalization without the purest of intentions, gosh, that’s got to be the first time that ever happened in politics.
And I don’t particularly care about the purity of his intentions if the idea is a good one.
Finally, Kudlow’s seeming concern for people getting their taxes raised is a complete crock of sh*t, since we’re talking about people who could otherwise be facing criminal sanctions if marijuana remains illegal.

Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough co-write a truly bizarre column: Common Sense Says, “No Thanks!”

America doesn’t want its pot…American potheads do!
Sure the debate is raging presently, but it’s as fictional in its need as whether pigs can fly or whether Superman was or was not faster than that bullet.
In the modern trumped up controversy over whether marijuana should be legalized for the masses, the biggest canard of all is the supposed demand that exists.

Does that make any sense? At all?
Or how about the supposed arguments given by legalizers

Marijuana proponents claim that the benefit to society would be enhanced by fewer offenders being sent to prison, tax revenues that would be generated, and the establishment of marijuana farming systems.

Farming systems? Who is talking about farming systems? Sure, we’d like to get it out of the hands of the black market, which certainly means farming it here, but we don’t talk about farming systems. But they debunk it anyway with this stunning argument:

And the farming argument is just dumb.

Speaking of the black market, they apparently think that criminals will still be selling it when it’s legal.

And second, they are convinced that it will give them easy access to the “high” they want, as well as give the pushers a new line of clientele.

Bonus points: Try to make sense of this sentence:

A major untruth that they [marijuana proponents] spread is that for every criminal it would prevent from being sent to prison, dealing with the increasingly prevalent use by underage users would be doubled or even tripled.

Yes, the notion that underage users would double or triple with legalization is a major untruth all right, but it’s not the marijuana proponents that are spreading it.
And to try to parse that sentence will make your head explode… “for every criminal” … “use would be doubled or even tripled.” So, prevent one criminal from going to jail and underage use doubles or triples. Prevent two criminals from going to jail and underage use increases from four times to nine times as high. Prevent three criminals from going to jail and underage use increases from eight times to twenty-seven times as high. By the time we save 15 people from going to jail, all the underage aliens in the Tau Ceti system are going to be smoking pot.
Oh, but wait — they said “dealing with the increasingly prevalent use by underage users would be doubled or even tripled.” So does that mean that society will exponentially spend its time interceding with pot smoking teenagers? I’m so confused.
All I can say is, Thank God for Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough. It sure is nice having them represent the other side.

… and gets lost.
He calls his post Cheech and Chong mathematics. You decide.
It’s an attempt to debunk claims regarding the amount of tax revenue that California might reap from legalization. He then works out his own estimates of how much pot that a pot smoker would smoke in order to generate that amount of revenue, corrects his figures, corrects them again, corrects them a third time, and apparently shows that the amount of tax revenue that some people are claiming would result from legalization couldn’t occur without a significant increase in use.
Fine.
This, however, somehow leads him to a completely, and outrageously, false conclusion:

So the advocates of legalizing cannabis can argue, as they do, that legalization wouldn’t substantially increase the level of drug abuse, or they can argue that it could bring in noticeable amounts of revenue. But not both.

Nonsense. All he “proved” so far in his calculations (assuming they are correct) is that the particular amount of revenue ($1.3 billion) that some people claim could be reached (not a claim that I’ve made), couldn’t happen without a significant increase in the level of drug use.
It’s obvious, even using Mark’s figures, that you can bring in a noticeable amount of revenue without substantially increasing the level of drug abuse.
I mean, come on. This is juvenile stuff here, folks. Logic 101. It’s like the prohibitionists who say that because not every single reduction in the black market that some people have predicted is likely to occur, therefore there will be no reduction in the black market. That’s just ridiculous.
I can, and will, argue that legalizing cannabis won’t substantially increase the level of drug abuse and that it will bring in noticeable amounts of revenue.
It’s true. And, despite the paucity of directly relevant evidence (as a result of not having a proper laboratory (which California could provide)), all appropriate extant evidence supports my view.
So that’s a pretty positive thing and perhaps a good enough reason to legalize all on its own, not even counting the savings from law enforcement, prisons, courts, crime, corruption, etc., etc.
Oh, and yeah, the fact that the government in a free society has absolutely no legitimate right to wield the sledge hammer of punishment — punishing the many for the supposed sins of the few.