Drug WarRant

tonight — I expect that this will be a bit of a hit piece on how the California med-mar distribution has evolved. I’m interested to see how balanced it is (and how much recreational marijuana is demonized by both sides). I’ll be in rehearsal, so if you see it, let us know in comments.

Link

It’s bad enough when government agencies are all lobbying for a chunk of drug war cash. But when you get private companies into the act as well, then the entire power structure has a financial stake in continuing and escalating the destruction.
Lucrative private players have been heavily in the mix for years, from drug testing companies to privately owned prisons — all lobbying for harsher drug laws.
A couple of other instances have been in the news lately.
“bullet” Link

The Defense Department has picked five companies, four of them from the Washington area, for a contract to support the Pentagon’s counter-narcoterrorism activities. The government may spend as much as $15 billion through the five-year contract.
The local companies are Arinc of Annapolis, Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Raytheon Technical Services of Reston and Northrop Grumman Information Technology of McLean. The fifth company is Blackwater USA of Moyock, N.C.

Yes, we’re talking about that Blackwater:

Senior Iraqi officials repeatedly complained to U.S. officials about Blackwater USA’s alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm until 11 Iraqis were shot dead last Sunday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. […]
In the United States, Blackwater is facing a possible federal investigation over allegations that it illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that later might have been sold on the black market.

And we’re also paying them to help fight the drug war. A war that isn’t really a war, but has all the casualties and corruption of war.
“bullet” Closer to home…
Via The Agitator…
A private firm (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation), has been stopping motorists and asking them to submit to tests of their breath, blood and saliva — assisted by sherrif’s deputies.
Declan McCullagh analyzes this fishy enterprise, learning that it receives over $35 million in taxpayer dollars (its only source of revenue appearing to be government grants and contracts.

PIRE seems to specialize in devising new and intrusive ways of
government meddling in personal lives.

And apparently, this kind of work pays well.

Robert Carpenter, PIRE’s CEO, was paid $221,785 in 2005
Ted Langevin, a VP/CFO, was paid $200,760
Joel Grube, a PIRE research director, was paid $237,075
Ted Miller, a PIRE research director, was paid $192,444
Jan van der Eijk, IS director, was paid $194,532
Paul Gruenwald, a science director, was paid $212,437
Robert Saltz, an associate director, was paid $191,527
Genevive Ames, a staff director, was paid $183,770

Isn’t it nice to know that you’re paying for all this?

I bring this up from time to time… partly in the hopes of provoking a response.
No particular bit of news that set this one off — I just happened to be looking up something at the Black Congressional Caucus website.
Given that blacks are disproportionately impacted by the drug war and that the drug war is the largest factor in the massive disenfranchisement of black voters, I was once again completely dumbfounded that I could find almost nothing at all about the war on drugs anywhere on that site. The closest I found was a mention in a past newsletter that one of its members had sponsored a bill making it harder to buy cold medicines since they can be precursors for methamphetamine!
The drug war is not anywhere on their agenda (pdf) or even their blog. No calls for crack/powder disparity sentencing reform. No calls for legislation preventing the next Tulia.
They do, however, have a riveting report on America’s Switch to Digital Television (pdf).
I had hopes for another group — National African American Drug Policy Coalition, but as far as I can tell from their website and Google/News searches, they don’t appear to actually be doing anything.
So where is the African-American leadership?

• Do they secretly believe that blacks are genetically predisposed to commit crime and that the drug war is necessary to “prune” the race?
• Do they simply believe, by massive coincidence, that a larger percentage of blacks “had it coming”?
• Are they so afraid of losing political power that they’d rather see huge numbers of blacks ripped from their families and incarcerated, rather than publicly touch the “drug war issue”?

(And yes, I am purposely asking offensive questions, and I’ll keep doing it until I hear the leadership speak.)
Sometimes when I see the African-American “leadership”, I feel like I’ve stumbled into some kind of twilight zone episode — a town whose children are regularly sacrificed to an unseen monster, and everyone keeps quiet about it for fear of something bad happening to the town — or, perhaps, The Lottery.
I miss Martin Luther King, Jr.

Link

MEXICO CITY Ö A government-run human rights commission accused soldiers of rape and torture today and recommended the army be pulled out of Mexico’s nationwide drug war.

What’s a little rape and torture? After all, isn’t it worth some raping and torture if it means that the Mexican government is able to make it look like they’re making a valiant though unsuccessful effort to make it a little bit harder for Americans to buy Mexican pot?
I mean, it’s just rape and torture. It’s not like they’re killing anybody.

The fourth case already has been widely reported. On the night of June 1, on a deserted highway in the western state of Sinaloa, soldiers opened fire on a pickup truck packed with people, killing two women and three children.

OK, but they’re not killing a lot of people. And nobody important. Just women and children…

A follow-up to yesterday’s post — A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller has confirmed that he will not seek re-election.

The United States Government Accountability Office has prepared a report U.S. Assistance Has Helped Mexican Counternarcotics Efforts, but Tons of Illicit Drugs Continue to Flow into the United States
It starts out by assessing the realities:

According to the U.S. interagency counternarcotics community, hundreds of tons of illicit drugs flow from Mexico into the United States each year, and seizures in Mexico and along the U.S. border have been relatively small. The following illustrates some trends since 2000:

• The estimated amount of cocaine arriving in Mexico for transshipment to the United States averaged about 275 metric tons per year. Reported seizures averaged about 36 metric tons a year.
• The estimated amount of export quality heroin and marijuana produced in Mexico averaged almost 19 metric tons and 9,400 metric tons per year, respectively. Reported heroin seizures averaged less than 1 metric ton and reported marijuana seizures averaged about 2,900 metric tons a year.
• Although an estimate of the amount of methamphetamine manufactured in Mexico has not been prepared, reported seizures along the U.S. border rose from about 500 kilograms in 2000 to highs of almost 2,900 kilograms in 2005 and about 2,700 kilograms in 2006. According to U.S. officials, this more than fivefold increase indicated a dramatic rise in supply.

In addition, corruption persists within the Mexican government and challenges Mexico‰s efforts to curb drug production and trafficking. Moreover, Mexican drug trafficking organizations operate with relative impunity along the U.S. border and in other parts of Mexico, and have expanded their illicit business to almost every region of the United States.

Now, any sane person, business, or organized entity, when confronted with a picture that dire, would sincerely want options — all options.
But the United States Government isn’t sane, so even a major accountability report is not allowed to consider certain options.
This report goes on for over 40 pages, detailing all the failures of the drug war. The corruption. The waste. The lack of results.
And at the end of all of that, here is the totality of the GAO’s recommendations:

To help counter the increasing threat of illicit drugs reaching the United States from Mexico, we recommend that the Director of ONDCP, as the lead agency for U.S. drug policy, in conjunction with the cognizant departments and agencies in the U.S. counternarcotics interagency community, coordinate with the appropriate Mexican officials before completing the Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy‰s implementation plan to help ensure Mexico‰s cooperation with any efforts that require it and address the cooperation issues we identified. To help maximize ongoing U.S. assistance programs, such efforts should include, but not be limited to (1) promoting greater cooperation and coordination between Defense and the Mexican military services; (2) agreeing to a maritime cooperation agreement; (3) resolving the personnel status issue to allow aerial patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border to resume; and (4) reviewing Mexico‰s overall aviation requirements for interdiction purposes and determining how best the United States can assist.

If only we cooperated better, it would all be fixed. Right.
And of course, not once were the words “legalize” or “regulate” included in the document. Because actually considering real solutions is not allowed.

“bullet” I was planning on writing about New Zealand drug warrior Jaqui Dean, who was completely taken in by the Dihydrogen Monoxide joke and moved to ban water, but Steve R at Transform is all over it. Just go there and read (complete with copies of letters).
“bullet” Read about LEAP’s Howard Woolridge’s short conversation with Congressman Mark Souder. Check out both Howard’s questions and Souder’s complete non-answers.
“bullet” “drcnet”

Incredible news.

TALLAHASSEE — Richard Paey, a victim in the war on drugs, was granted a full, immediate and unexpected pardon by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet Thursday morning, allowing him to get out of prison and be reunited with his family later in the day. […]
”This is not a pleasant case,” said Attorney General Bill McCollum, who noted that he supported mandatory-minimum sentences when he was in Congress. “Our laws are very much to blame.”
But so are the prosecutors in Pasco County, said Paey’s wife, Linda Paey, who said she couldn’t understand why they zealously pursued her husband through three trials despite the widespread acknowledgement that he was a pain victim and not a drug dealer.
”I’ve changed. I no longer trust the police. I don’t trust the justice system,” she said. “Only the media got our case right.”
Crist, too, took a swipe at the prosecutors, saying the war on drugs itself isn’t just to blame in cases such as this. ”If they’re prosecuted appropriately, then justice will be done,” he said. “Obviously, this case cries out for a review of that process.”

This case cries out for a review of a whole lot of things.

This is a small thing for the rest of you, but it’s a great piece of news for me and my little piece of the world.

Rep. Jerry Weller, dogged by ethics questions surrounding his Nicaraguan investments and his wife’s finances, is set to announce his retirement in the near future, Republican sources said Wednesday.
One of the sources said the announcement could come as soon as Thursday. Others said it would be early next month. A spokesman for the Illinois Republican did not return messages seeking comment.

Weller is my Congressman (R-Illinois 11). He has consistently voted in favor of the drug war in pretty much every way, and attacked me personally in 2004.
A little recap for those who weren’t around then…

Speaking of smears, Weller, in the closing days of the campaign, is running a radio ad and sending out a direct mail piece noting that Renner is endorsed on a Web site called “DrugwarRant.com” and implying that Renner is somehow aligned with a group promoting heroin use. — Chicago Sun Times
And the highlight was Renner blowing up over allegations he supports the use of all drugs including heroin. He called the attack scurrilous and said Weller stepped way over the line. Weller says Renner accepted a campaign donation from a website that also has directions on how to inject heroin. — WHOI
Some endorsements are not worth it. Democrat Tari Renner says it shouldn’t be a crime to have a small amount of marijuana but he is rejecting an endorsement from a group that favors the legalization of all drugs. His opponent, republican congressman Jerry Weller, whose engagement to the daughter of a Central American dictator has generated a controversy of its own, says that Renner’s views on drugs endanger families in the district, and so it goes in this hot congressional race. — WLS

(More here)
It sure would be nice to have a Representative that I could write to and talk to about drug policy issues. I’d even be happy with one that disagreed with my views, but wasn’t a total… (fill in your own word)
Update:
Sun Times

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington watchdog group, labeled Weller one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress, accusing him of improperly disclosing land deals in Nicaragua.
Weller also is fighting a subpoena to testify in a bribery trial involving a jailed former California congressman.
Then word spread Wednesday in Republican circles that Weller won’t seek re-election.
But his campaign manager, Steven Shearer, insisted Weller, a seven-term congressman, is running.

We’ll see.
And just for the record, I don’t care if he leaves voluntarily, by indictment, or by the ballot box.