Drug WarRant

Several readers have passed on the information about Switzerland, and with the holidays, I haven’t gotten around to posting about it until now.
Marijuana Smokers in Switzerland Pin Hopes on Support of Voters

The ‹Hemp InitiativeŠ would free the Swiss to use and grow cannabis for their own use, putting the country on a par with the Netherlands, which has the most liberal drug laws in Europe. Switzerland‰s ruling coalition parties are split over the plan, with opponents including the Swiss People‰s Party fearing such a law would spark cannabis tourism. About half of the country‰s voters oppose the proposal.

Naturally, the opponents are using the fear tactic:

Backed by the Free Democrats and the Social Democrats, two of the ruling parties, the initiative‰s supporters have been handing out free copies of the ‹Hemp JournalŠ on the streets of Zurich and Bern. Opponents are countering with a newspaper campaign featuring a syringe, a joint and a call for voters to keep their ‹hands offŠ drugs.

A syringe?

So far, those tactics are winning out. A minority of the 1,209 voters, 38 percent, surveyed by the Bern-based GfS research institute between Nov. 10-16 back the ‹Hemp Initiative,Š with some 50 percent opposing the proposal.

A reader from Switzerland writes:

This is not the first time the issue of cannabis legalization has been on the table, and it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if it’s rejected once again. Sadly, many people in favor of legalization will not cast their vote, even if they could vote by mail and there is no need to register or similar things. The ballot paper is automatically sent to all Swiss over 18 and in some regions, you even get a pre-paid envelope for sending it back! As everywhere else, the young are lazy and uninterested..

While the marijuana initiative seems likely to fail, another one is expected to pass: giving away heroin for free.
Well, actually, it’s a vote on putting a heroin distribution program on a permanent legal footing.

Patients show up each day to receive their treatment in small doses handed through a small window.
Then they gather around a table to shoot up, part of a pioneering Swiss program to curb drug abuse by providing addicts a clean, safe place to take heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.

This is a powerful program that works, and so naturally the U.S. and U.N. has roundly condemned it.

Crimes committed by heroin addicts have dropped 60 percent since the program began in 1994, according to the Federal Office of Public Health says.
And, Zullino said, patients reduce consumption of other narcotics once they start the heroin program and suffer less from psychiatric disorders.
But, he added, “the idea has never been to liberalize heroin. It’s considered a medicine and used as such.”

Best of luck to Swiss voters today.

Update: Early voting results are showing up as expected. The heroin program is winning easily at 69 percent, and the cannabis initiative is going down to heavy defeat.

The headline got my attention: Outgoing U.S. ambassador to Mexico lashes out on drug war
Ah, I thought, someone ready to speak out about how we need to look elsewhere than the destructive prohibition model.
And there were hopeful indications in the article:

After six sometimes tumultuous years as ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza is speaking out forcefully about U.S. responsibility for Mexico’s widening drug violence. […]
It’s that kind of candor that over the years has won Mr. Garza both kudos and criticism on both sides of the border.

So what is this radical departure that Garza is recommending?

“The U.S. and Mexico must fight these criminal organizations together, or we will fail together.”

Oh.

More than 6,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.
“You bet this is cause for concern,” Mr. Garza said. “The cartels and drug dealers have crossed that line from recklessly endangering civilians in their attacks on law enforcement officials and other criminals to deliberately targeting innocent men, women and children.”
He added: “President Felipe Calderon will not be intimidated. This is not a battle that they — or us, for that matter — can afford to lose. … We’ve got to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.”

So apparently, his maverick approach involves, uh, fighting the war better?

Mr. Garza’s Mexican counterparts applaud his work, though the relationship has had tense periods, such as when Mexico refused to support the U.S.-backed U.N. war resolution against Iraq. And Mexican diplomats objected to Mr. Garza’s vocal criticism about what he believed was Mexico’s slow response to drug violence during the administration of Mr. Calderon’s predecessor, Vicente Fox.

Ah, it’s that the 6,000 deaths haven’t been enough. Apparently, we need more violence. That’s the radical departure from how we are conducting our drug war.
And this is the problem with saying that the drug war has failed. It assumes that there is some other way of conducting the drug war that would be successful. If only we did this, or tweaked this, or added drug courts, or mandated treatment, or gave police tanks, or…
It’s not that the drug war has failed. The war on drugs is in itself an impossible idea.
Its entire premise is based on the notion that we can overturn the laws of economics if we just get bigger guns. But we can’t. The economic laws always win. And so, even attempting to conduct a war on drugs is a mistake that causes more damage than it could ever hope to prevent.
In a free society, criminal prohibition of an easily-produced high-demand commodity cannot work and will always cause greater harm to the society.
So, while I am pleased to hear that 76% of the population believes the war on drugs has failed, the problem is we don’t know what that means.
We need Zogby to do another poll and ask:

“Is a drug war the right way to deal with drug problems?

…
Here’s another example of the failure of failure: U.S. war on drugs has failed, report says
While much of the story is good — it indicts a lot of the law enforcement mentality of the war — it still assumes that the problem is in the mix, rather than with the premise

In addition to disrupting drug-smuggling routes, eradicating crops and prosecuting dealers, the U.S. must confront the public health issue that large-scale consumption poses, he said.

Researches find oldest-ever stash of marijuana

Researchers say they have located the world’s oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.
The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly “cultivated for psychoactive purposes,” rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

I certainly don’t recommend that you smoke any 2,700-year-old pot — it loses some of its freshness.
This is pretty fascinating — we’ve known that cannabis has been around for thousands of years, but to actually find a sample of it is something. The incredible age of that 789 grams is particularly powerful in that it really points out how ephemeral is our war on drugs.
When I die, don’t put it in my grave – just light up and celebrate (hopefully it’ll be legal again by then).

A 79-year-old widow’s cottage is raided for growing tomatoes in the window boxes.

Mrs Matheson told the Daily Mail: “I got a terrible fright and I couldn’t understand what they were doing here because I knew we had nothing more than tomatoes in the window. I don’t know what the neighbours must be thinking.”
Her 47-year-old son Gus, a former driver, was looking out of the window when he saw police cars stop outside.
He said: “I wondered what on earth was going on. I opened the door and they more or less barged past, saying that I was growing cannabis on the windowsills.
“I started laughing because I knew they were tomato plants but it wasn’t so funny when they frisked me and then started tearing the house apart.”
Mr Matheson said he was held in the bedroom while officers searched the furniture and under the mattress. He also said that the police impounded the family’s pet dogs.
“They even ‘arrested’ Zac, our black labrador, and Moby, our Jack Russell, putting them in the back of one of the cop cars,” Mr Matheson added.
“And I just couldn’t believe it when they brought sniffer dogs all the way from Alness, which is about two hours away.”

Apparently the police everywhere now automatically assume that anything that looks like a plant, with stems and leaves, is cannabis.
There do appear to be some differences in the drug raids between the UK and the US. In the former, they apparently arrest the dogs, instead of shooting them. (I guess maybe over there they get a trial, first?) And, in the UK, they barge past you, instead of slamming you to the floor and handcuffing you in your dogs’ blood.
But neither country has the slightest understanding of freedom.

Hope you have a wonderful day, and that you’re one of the lucky ones who get to spend it with family and friends.
Many will not.
Here’s a story for Thanksgiving from five years ago.
Still important today.

Orrin Hatch is one of the top drug warriors around. He’s also apparently the one to know if you get in trouble.
TalkLeft has the bizarre connection with one of the recent Bush pardons. The drug offender knew Carly Simon kid, and Carly Simon had recorded one of Orrin Hatch’s songs, so… voila!
And remember, it was Orrin Hatch who used his influence to spring record producer Dallas Austin from drug charges in the United Arab Emirates.
So… maybe you want to introduce yourself. It couldn’t hurt.

Only in America can two men, who manufactured a fake penis, be charged with… conspiracy to defraud the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which administers federal workplace drug testing programs.
And yes, they face up to 9 years in prison.
The drug war is such a failure that the feds have to go after the Tommy Chongs and Whizzinators (not to mention grandma in her wheelchair), and legislators are constantly outlawing things like glass tubes and plastic bags and cold medicines and false compartments in cars and cash.
The drug warriors should be hiding in abject embarrassment. But apparently, they feel no shame.

Interesting lines in an OpEd by Ronald Fraser

Advertised as an effective drug control policy, America’s harsh drug laws only give the illusion of progress. […]
Perhaps the non-performing drug war programs are not really expected to deliver on their publicly stated goals, but continue because they serve a very different purpose.
They give the politically useful illusion of “controlling” crime and allow morally righteous members of society to impose their values on the actions of others. Instead of ending the drug war, each year Washington drug warriors issue a new round of optimistic forecasts to keep the illusion alive, to justify another round of funding from American taxpayers.

Taking a moment to recover…
“bullet” A very special thanks to those who chipped in to help out with the trip to DC. Every little bit is much appreciated.
“bullet” Must-read. Radley Balko’s response to a pretty ignorant post by Chris Roach, regarding the death of an FBI agent in a military-style drug raid.
“bullet” Police don’t find marijuana, so they take the Xbox.
“bullet” Drawing the line on drug testing.
“bullet” Dutch mayors call for Licensed Marijuana Growers

The remainder of the Sunday sessions have been useful advocacy workshops, including the Elevator Arguments workshop that David Guard and I conducted, and some lunch networking groups (I helped facilitate one on education).
I was too busy being actively involved to do much live-blogging today.
For those in my workshop who stopped by to get a copy of the information, you can download the Elevator Arguments page (pdf).
All in all, a great SSDP conference. Lots of dedicated and enthusiastic students working to make a difference. Go to it, folks!
Update: We made it back safe, despite dealing with about 8 hours of non-stop rain from Maryland to Indiana.