Drug WarRant

If you’re in range of Central Illinois, why don’t you join us this weekend for the midwest regional Students for Sensible Drug Policy conference, hosted by Illinois State University SSDP (of which I am the faculty adviser).
Friday, April 18: Hempfest on the Quad, from 1 pm to 9 pm All day fun with live music, drum circles, tie-dye, hemp jewelry making, cigarette oregano rolling contest, games, prizes and much more! At the same time, another student group I advise (Theatre of Ted) will be continuing their four-square marathon (that starts on Wednesday) at the south end of the quad and having a RockSquare concert in the late afternoon/evening.
Saturday, April 19: Midwest SSDP Conference:

• 10:00 – 10:30 am — Opening Address by SSDP Chapter President Ashley Barys
• 10:30 -11:20 — Mary Price with Familys Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)
• 11:30 – 12:20
  1. Kathleen Kane-Willis with The Institute for Metropolitan Affairs and George Pappas with IDEAL Reform talk about drug policy and cannabis in Illinois
  2. Pete Guither talks about national and international drug policy reform issues with a roundtable discussion
• 12:30-1:30 — Lunch
• 1:30 -2:20
  1. Amber Langston, outreach director of national SSDP presents a workshop on campus activism.
  2. Pete Guither presents a hands-on workshop: “Elevator Arguments: creating a concise targeted, case for reform.”
• 2:30-3:20 — Medical cannabis patient Julie Falco, Dan Linn with Illinois NORML and John Walker with ICAN will be on a panel together about progress in Illinois regarding medical cannabis.
• 3:30-4:20 — Jim Gierach with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
• 4:30-5:20 — Ben Masel on industrial hemp, plus drug policy and elections.

All above events will be in Schroeder Hall.

• Midnight: Theatre of Ted outdoors on the south end of the quad. Open-mic-style performance event (anyone can sign up to perform). This week, with a 4/20 theme.

Sunday, April 20: 4:20 pm — If you’re still around, we’re having a free screening of the new film Super High Me in Schroeder Hall 130. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s apparently very funny (though not necessarily much of an advocacy film).
That’s right, everything is free. (Lunch is on your own.) Stop by and have some fun and learnin’!

“bullet” Matthew Fogg: The War on Drugs is a War on our Youth
“bullet” Kurt L. Schmoke: Drug Sanity

Based on a back and forth discussion about drug policy and the 2008 election between thehim and Pat Rogers, thehim posed this challenge to Pat:

Write up a speech that Obama could make on drug policy that wouldá

1. Win your vote
2. Not wreck his chances in November to beat John McCain

Rogers responded with a very impressive speech here that intellectually, it seems to me, meets that challenge.
Now, on the other hand, there is the vapid, brainless press pack that would rather obsess over Obama’s bowling, Clinton’s tears and Bush’s package than issues of substance, and you can bet that a host of pundits would re-make the speech in exactly the way the speech carefully aims to prevent (surrendering to the drug dealers, abandoning children, etc.)
But if there’s a speech that could work, this might be it (and it would have to work much the way the race speech worked for Obama recently — still opening him up to vapid criticism, but impressing enough people to make a difference).
I’m still pessimistic about even bothering looking to the Presidential candidates (the mainstream party winners, that is) for any kind of sane advocacy for drug policy change. At best, I hope for one that will focus his/her attention elsewhere (sort of benign neglect combined with not standing too firmly in the way of reform efforts).
What do you think?

Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.
Spy satellites trained on us. And not just for scientific and homeland security reasons, but also specifically for law enforcement.
But don’t worry, the administration says that privacy and civil rights concerns will be addressed. How will they be addressed? Well, they can’t tell us that part — it’s classified.

If these weren’t so expensive, I’d recommend getting everyone to put a bunch of them in your back yard.
Then again, it might be enough just to have Japanese Maples or Hibiscus.

In case you missed it in the Open Thread below and comments, please read the story of one of ours.
What Passes for Justice in America Today? by Red no more

Why the burglar alarm went off, Steve Haver still doesn’t know.
Because it did, while Haver and his wife, Karen, were away in the Poconos on the morning of July 8, 2006, Reading police searched the couple’s semidetached three-story home and found five pot plants growing under lights.
Because of that discovery, the Havers were soon caught in a swirl of legal decisions that overturned their lives, prompted questions about the enforcement of marijuana laws, and served as a lesson to homeowners with security services.

“bullet” In Germany, people are getting poisoned by smoking pot that has been mixed with particles of lead in order to increase its weight and maximize profits. A dangerous and stupid practice that should, and probably will, backfire on those who did it. Just one more reason that marijuana should be legal.
“bullet” This pisses me off. For five plants in their house, this couple will both lose their jobs as arts center managers. Maybe it’s because that’s my field that it hits me so hard, but my God, this is a stupid f-ing war.
“bullet” This week’s Drug War Chronicle has an excellent article by Philip Smith: Beware the Dreaded Skunk: British Press Suffers Contact High, Contracts Bad Case of Reefer Madness
“bullet” The Chronicle also analyzes some of the more visible contenders for the Libertarian Party nomination and their position on the drug war.
“bullet” “drcnet”

Apparently getting a job as a coroner in the UK requires three things:

1. Ears
2. A creative imagination
3. The ability to talk in nonsensical convoluted sentences.

Cannabis Linked to Man’s Suicide

A CORONER has urged MPs to look into the death of a Doncaster supermarket worker before making any decision on the re-classification of cannabis.
Coroner Stanley Hooper entered the controversy about the reclassification of the drug after hearing how a young man committed suicide while suffering from schizophrenia brought on by cannabis use.
Mr Hooper said politicians should reflect on the case of the 21-year-old Stuart Lester when considering whether to upgrade cannabis to a class B drug.

Well, of course, he’s a Coroner, and he heard it, therefore it is the true proclamation of a Coroner.
And he clinched it with this definitive statement:

“It may be thought that this may not have happened had this young man not used cannabis as a child.”

So, was there any other evidence that would lend scientific support to such a conjecture?

Stuart took a number of Ecstasy tablets before leaving his home in Essex Avenue, Intake, in the early hours of February 26 and used a rope to hang himself from the bridge near Danum School. It was not until after 6am that a passing motorist saw it and alerted police.
Stuart had spent various spells in hospital since becoming schizophrenic but was living at home with his mum and younger brother when he decided to take his own life.

Yep. Sure looks like cannabis was to blame.

Via Rob at To the People comes this nice little piece in the Washington Post.

Federal employees used government credit cards to pay for lingerie, gambling, iPods, Internet dating services, and a $13,000 steak-and-liquor dinner, according to a new audit from the Government Accountability Office, which found widespread abuses in a purchasing program meant to improve bureaucratic efficiency.[…]
In another case at the State Department, cardholder spent $360 at the Seduccion Boutique in Ecuador to buy “women’s underwear/lingerie for use during jungle training by trainees of a drug enforcement program.” The report does not include further details, but it says a State Department official “agreed that the charge was questionable.”

Interviewed in Oregon

What would you do as president about the federal government not recognizing Oregon‰s Medical Marijuana Program as legal?
We‰ve got to have a clear understanding of the workings of pain relief and the control of pain. And there needs to be greater research and openness to the research that‰s already been done. I don‰t think it‰s a good use of federal law-enforcement resources to be going after people who are supplying marijuana for medicinal purposes.
So you‰d stop the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency‰s raids on medical marijuana grows?
What we would do is prioritize what the DEA should be doing, and that would not be a high priority. There‰s a lot of other more important work that needs to be done.
Should medical marijuana be covered by insurance?
I don‰t have enough information to know anything about that.

“bullet” Remember when Attorney General Mukasey was screaming that we would shortly be overrun by armies of violent criminals because of the adjustment to crack sentencing? Turns out he was… what’s the word… lying.
Christian Science Monitor:

In an effort to eliminate a legal inequity š one that has hit African-Americans especially hard š federal judges have begun reducing the sentences of thousands of crack-cocaine offenders.
Some police groups and prosecutors, as well as US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, assert that in trying to right a historic wrong, violent criminals are headed en masse back to the streets.
So far, indications are that this is not the case because the release process has safeguards built in. Statistics from the US Sentencing Commission, as well as interviews with federal public defenders and criminal-justice experts, indicate that federal prisoners who are to be released early are predominantly nonviolent and have good conduct records while in prison. Of the 19,500 drug offenders eligible over the next 30 years to apply for early release, 3,417 have had their sentences reduced as of Monday. Of the 1,500 inmates eligible for immediate release, dozens so far have been let go in the past month.
“There has been no release of a flood of violent criminals,” says Michael Nachmanoff, federal public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia. “The people who are being released … overwhelmingly had cases where there was no violence whatsoever and who were given unduly harsh sentences. And now, their sentences are being reduced by a modest amount.”

“bullet” Via Radley Balko, comes this quote about cash seizures

If the drug dealers can write off these kinds of losses as mere incidental costs of doing business, the “War on Drugs” is lost.

“bullet” Speaking of Radley, be sure to read his column on the Byrne Grants and drug task forces.
“bullet” Efficiency in the war on drugs. Officer investigating suspected drug activity accidentally shoots two teenagers. With the same bullet.
“bullet” At Transform: Cannabis making politicians go all weird. Again.
“bullet” Maia Szalavitz: Prosecutors Try to Silence Pain Activist, Don’t Like Fair Play