Drug WarRant

“bullet” Bizarre column of the week comes from Kyle Klavetter, Staff Writer of The University of Tulsa Collegian. Pot Lacks Purpose

But must the first steps on the road to recovering freedoms from the fount of Constitutional federalism make legalizing marijuana a salient point? […]
America is a purposed nation. America serves God. The practical consequence arising from this belief is that means are not justified by ends. Rights do not exist in a vacuum. Progress measures success only after the method by which it is attained is subjected to the scrutiny of an independent moral code. […]
America prides itself on how many “right to’s” it can accumulate — right to self-expression, right to privacy, right to abortion, right to inhale mind-altering substances. The more “right to’s” there are, the better America supposedly is.
The problem lies in that these type of “rights” do not build up a foundation for the country. These “rights” aren’t meant to further a Godly end. Often these rights are beyond the judgments of good and evil. They are deemed “good” because they foster Man’s own ability to live as he pleases. Their ultimate purpose is the service of Man.
This is a dangerous credo, one that in its fullest meaning resounded ahead of Communist Russia as it marched to perdition in the past century.
Of course legalizing pot wouldn’t make America communist, but it would be one step toward a world where rights are justified not by their adherence to morality but because they further Man’s own ends. This political epistemology is antithetical to the American vision. […]
The legalization of pot would, at best, be self-gratification. This right would not serve the interests of God. The legalization of pot would tempt this country to stray from its moral heritage.

The whole piece is so ridiculous, it’s hardly worth commenting on, but feel free to have fun with it.
“bullet” Scott Morgan has Part II of Why Do Police Really Oppose Marijuana Legalization?
“bullet” A school in Illinois is learning that drug testing may not be the easy solution to all their problems…

“I had to have part of my leg shaved,” said senior Rob Smith. […]
Lauren Banaszak, a senior, thinks once the program’s random testing phase begins, some might take their chances with the roulette wheel. […]
Or find a different way to get high. […]
“I asked them if ( this kind of test ) would just make kids more resourceful about what substance they could get away with using,” Nall said. “The general consensus was yes, it would.” […]
After all, suggests Majkowski, “We can’t be taking urine samples every day to find out if they’ve been drinking.” […]
The $75,000 budgeted for the 2007-08 school year is “a lot of money,” Nall said. “I wonder if this is an easy way out. Could we have invested that in a worthwhile ( substance abuse ) education program instead?”

“bullet” “drcnet”
Update: Some very fine responses to Klavetter in comments.

Powerful video from the PBS Republican Presidential Debates.

Via

Viriginia Senator Jim Webb has been concerned about the prison issue, but he doesn’t serve on the Judiciary Committee. However, he is on the Joint Economic Committee, so…
On Thursday, October 4,

Joint Economic Committee to Examine Economic Costs of Surge in U.S. Prison Population and Possible Solutions
Hearing on Costs of Mass Incarceration Called by VA Sen. Webb in Light of 500 Percent Increase in Prison Populations in Last 30 Years

Basic hearing details (and potential link for watching the hearing).
If you have appropriate letters or statements to submit:

Joint Economic Committee
G01 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-0372

Thanks to Eric Sterling.

Whenever I report on some propaganda that’s so outrageously stupid that no sentient being could possibly credit it, there’s one sure place that it’ll turn up next…
…the Drug Czar’s “blog”:

Marijuana: Harmless?

“CRIMINAL gangs are trafficking hundreds of children into Britain and forcing them to work in cannabis factories,

Could it be that the ONDCP staff is reading Drug WarRant?

“bullet” TChris at TalkLeft on a much needed victory for the Fourth Amendment: Patriot Act Provision Declared Unconstitutional
“bullet” And more Fourth Amendment good news….

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Michigan law that requires pedestrians under 21 to submit to a breath test without a search warrant.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued on behalf of four college students, said the law is the only one of its kind in the country. U.S. District Judge David Lawson in Detroit ruled that it was unconstitutional to force non-drivers to submit to preliminary breath tests without a warrant.

“bullet” Scott Morgan has another exceptional post: Why Do Police Really Oppose Marijuana Legalization?

Why is it drug warriors in Britain seem to lose all capability of reason when it comes to cannabis?
Here’s the latest in sensationalist reporting on cannabis (also reported here)

Child-trafficking gangs force kids to work in cannabis factories
CRIMINAL gangs are trafficking hundreds of children into Britain and forcing them to work in cannabis factories, with at least one child per week being found by police, a report said today.
Campaign group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) said there had been a five-fold increase in the practice in the last year alone.

Now, from what little I can find about ECPAT and their “reports” from their website, this is likely a total nonsensical interpretation of an unscientifically propagandized report.
But it sure sounds scary, doesn’t it?
No. it just sounds stupid. The notion of gangs smuggling in children to farm cannabis is just too absurd. Why would they do this? What would they have these kids do?

“There is evidence that particular south-east Asian villages are targeted for specific trades, with Vietnam now known to specialise in boys for cannabis factories,” he said.

I repeat. What would they have these kids do? What is this specialized training that boys in certain south-east Asian villages are so noted for? Watering?
I’m guessing that some Vietnamese gang who is smuggling children for sexual purposes is also growing pot and that the operations are kept at the same location. (Of course, legalization would end the value of cannabis to them.) But that’s all it takes for an unscrupulous organization and an empty-headed (or perhaps agenda-driven), sensationalistic press to whip up a frenzy.
But it gets worse. Check out the fuzzy thinking here.

Police believe the problem has emerged after organised crime gangs, many of them Vietnamese, moved to dominate the British cannabis market after the narcotic was downgraded from a Class B to Class C drug in 2004.
Declassification increased the potential rewards of growing and selling cannabis but decreased the risk of punishment. One police officer was quoted as saying cannabis was the “cash machine of organised crime”.

Yes, cannabis is the cash machine. But actually I can’t imagine how decreasing the risk would have any connection to the use of children. And, in fact, declassification would make it harder to dominate the market as more players would get involved with less risk.
Here’s the topper:

“If you remove the risk, people exploit it. If you put the risk back into enforcement, they will adapt and go into another type of business,” [Simon Byrne, an assistant chief constable of Merseyside Police in north-west England and the Association of Chief Police Officers’ spokesman on cannabis] was quoted as saying.

???
Let’s see if I can follow his thinking. If you increase the penalties for marijuana, then the Vietnamese child-sex slave kidnapping gang that also grows marijuana, will be deterred from growing marijuana and forced to do something else.

Some time ago, I wrote about a compelling bit of criminal justice reporting by Scott Christianson related to crime clearance rates — the percentages of violent crimes and property crimes that are solved through arrest or other means.
Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast applies Christianson’s analysis to current dismal clearance rates and the recent news related to the increase in marijuana arrests, and comes to some powerful conclusions (that are certainly of no surprise to us) — that the popularity of the drug war is harming police effectiveness.

“bullet” Canada Backs Call to Step Up Fight Against Afghan Drugs — Some sane voices in this article. Unfortunately, not the ones making the decisions.
“bullet” Obama is So Bad on Drug Policy, He Got Endorsed By Prison Guards – Scott Morgan
“bullet” The Federal War on Medical Marijuana Becomes a War on Children

But that wasn’t the worst of it. County child protective services came along on the raid and took Naulls’ three daughters, aged 1 to 5, and charged him and his wife with child endangerment. They weren’t even accused of breaking any state laws.

Via NORML…

Marijuana Arrests For Year 2006 š 829,625 Tops Record High…Nearly 15
Percent Increase Over 2005
September 24, 2007 – Washington, DC, USA
Washington, DC: Police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana
violations in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. This is the largest total
number of annual arrests for pot ever recorded by the FBI. Marijuana arrests
now comprise nearly 44 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.
“These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor
marijuana offenders,” said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who
noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds
in America. “This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources
that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and
violent crime, including the war on terrorism.”
Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent some
738,915 Americans were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,710
individuals were charged with “sale/manufacture,” a category that includes
all cultivation offenses even those where the marijuana was being grown for
personal or medical use. In past years, roughly 30 percent of those arrested
were age 19 or younger.

Via PoliBlog, comes this unbelievable quote in the Miami Herald:

”Our belief is that if we could eradicate all coca, we could eradicate all cocaine, because it is the basic ingredient for cocaine,” said Christy McCampbell, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement.

That’s your “belief?” No. That’s a fact. It’s also completely meaningless. The eradication of all coca is not even theoretically possible today, nor is it being seriously contemplated by anyone, except Christy McCampbell, apparently.
It’s extremely annoying to consider that we’re actually paying this moron’s salary. (Not to mention the fact that it’s very likely that a deputy assistant secretary for international narcotics and law makes more than I do, even without the use of a brain.)