Drug WarRant

The world is abuzz today with the news:

The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to misleading the public about the drug’s risk of addiction, a federal prosecutor and the company said.
Purdue Pharma L.P., its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

Part of me is thrilled by this news. Finally, one of the all-powerful pharmaceutical companies — part of the industry that has worked to block safe natural medicines like marijuana while pushing their own dangerous high-priced cocktails on massive populations who didn’t know they needed it — is getting a taste of their own medicine.
Another part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Somehow, I fear, the drug warriors will use this case to find a way to make pain medication even less available to those who really need it.
There’s another developing part of this story that is fascinating, involving drug warrior and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani — reported by Brian Ross, Richard Esposito and R. Schwartz at ABC News:

Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting company, Giuliani Partners, have served as key advisors for the last five years to the pharmaceutical company that pled guilty today to charges it misled doctors and patients about the addiction risks of the powerful narcotic painkiller OxyContin. […]
Drug Enforcement Administration officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com Giuliani personally met with the head of the DEA when the DEA’s drug diversion office began a criminal investigation into the company.
According to the book “Painkiller,” by New York Times reporter Barry Meier, both Giuliani and his then-partner Bernard Kerik “were in direct contact with Asa Hutchinson, the administrator of DEA.” […]
Kerik told New York Magazine at the time that Giuliani had raised $15,000 in donations for a “traveling museum operated by the DEA.”

That “traveling museum” would be the the outrageous one I’ve spent so much time protesting. Back to ABC:

Some officials told ABC News there were questions inside the agency of whether the donations were an attempt to influence the DEA.
Meier wrote that “with Giuliani now in the mix, the pace of DEA’s investigation into Purdue’s OxyContin plant in New Jersey slowed as Hutchinson repeatedly summoned division officials to his office to explain themselves and their reasons for continuing the inquiry.”
Giuliani publicly praised the company, Purdue Frederick, when it hired him in May 2002 for an undisclosed amount. “Purdue has demonstrated its commitment to fighting this problem,” he said, referring to the issue of drug addiction.
According to Giuliani Partners, Kerik, a New York City police commissioner under Giuliani, was in charge of helping Purdue improve security at the New Jersey plant.
Kerik left Giuliani Partners after disclosures he was under criminal investigation.
In hiring Giuliani, Purdue said, “Giuliani Partners is uniquely qualified” to address the issue of preventing drug abuse.

There’s just a ton of investigation begging to happen here.
One place to start just might be GVI Security Solutions. They’re listed as one of the contributors to the DEA museum exhibit. They also later named former DEA head Asa Hutchinson to their Board of Directors in 2005. And the Chairman of GVI, Howard Safir, was the former New York Fire Commission and Police Commissioner, with both appointments coming from Giuliani.
Who knows how many other tangled incestuous webs you’ll find in this story.
Update: More from Mark Kleiman.

That’s the title of an excellent post by xxdr zombiexx over at Daily Kos.
It’s a good read on its own, but what makes is particularly nice to see is the extensive recommendations and massive comment section — almost unanimously supportive of the post.
Maybe there’s some hope for those lib’rul types.

“bullet” On her radio show, Diane Rehm fellated drug warrior Joseph Califano, the guy whose so-called statistics have made him the laughing stock of the scientific community. Julian Sanchez discusses the on-air debacle. If you wish, you can listen to the segment here. Favorite moment — when a caller gets Joe’s number and Califano is forced to spout inanities about how marijuana is as dangerous as cocaine and heroin, Rehm goes down on him thusly:

… it sounds as though Mr. Califano, having been in this field for as long as he has, and involved with this issue for as long as he has, probably has the correct information.

Journamalism at its finest.

“bullet” Moving briskly from fellatio to masturbation, we have DEA head Karen Tandy:

“Plan Colombia is working.”

Oh, yeah. Work it, Karen.

For more fantasies, see Drug war keeps stability alive, terror in check.
“bullet” Oops. Turns out medical marijuana doesn’t destroy the fabric of civilization after all.
“bullet” More brilliance! Heroin laced with fentanyl? Outlaw fentanyl precursers. Except that it’s possible that most of the fentany-laced heroin arrived in this country already laced. So nothing is really accomplished, and the real problem (putting drug distribution in the hands of criminals) is left un-addressed.
“bullet” Now that’s a letter to the editor!

With respect to drug testing in the workplace, I suggest that managers or supervisors who can’t evaluate their staff’s performance by observing them or examining their work are far more suitable candidates for drug testing than the employees. -George Kosinski

“bullet” Truth via Venezuela:

Carreöo dismissed any possibility of permitting the intervention of US authorities in Venezuela to fight drug trafficking and accused the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of forming its own ‹drug cartel.Š According to the Carreöo, when Venezuela ended its cooperation with the DEA two years ago, they observed that the US agency was trafficking drugs through the country.
“They were making a large quantity of drug shipments under the pretense of monitoring them, and they didn’t carry out arrests or breakup the cartels,” explained Carreöo. “We were able to determine the presence of a new drug cartel in which the United States Drug Enforcement Agency was monopolizing the shipment of drugs,” he said.

Sounds like the DEA to me.
“bullet” Marsha Rosenbaum teaches USA Today a little truth about drug testing.

Check out this new Jim Jones video on the 34th anniversary of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, via Drug Policy Alliance

Dr. Bronner (of the Magic Soaps) has come up with an amusing solution regarding what to do with those worthless field drug testing kits that police actually use as proof to lock you up — use them as a test to check for real soap!

What a great way to turn a bad arrest into a marketing gimmick!

The length that politians will go to control our lives and to try to prevent us from even thinking about drugs (which, of course, has the absolute opposite effect) is surreal.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has joined in the fray in the fight to prevent us from drinking an energy drink called “Cocaine.”

“This is a product that glamorizes illegal drug use and it is highly irresponsible and reckless,” Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. “The State of Illinois will not tolerate its sale, especially to children.”
Madigan threatened legal action. She said marketing and sale of the product violates the state’s Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act because it promotes the illegal use of drugs. […]
Madigan said she has successfully stopped similar products from being sold, including, two years ago, Chronic Candy Pops, commonly called “pot suckers.”

Yes, that’s what our Attorney General does. And apparently we pay her a salary.
She also was instrumental in stripping away some of our 4th Amendement rights nationally, by pushing the Caballes case to the Supreme Court (allowing the “word” of a dog to determine sufficient cause for a vehicle search even when there was no suspicion).
Well, it sure is good to know that Lisa Madigan is watching out to make sure we don’t consume a product that has the same name as an illegal substance.
I am puzzled, however. I was just at the store, and Coca-Cola was still on the shelves. Odd.
I do hope that she’ll go after another blatant attempt to glamorize illegal drug use.

As we all know, one of the main street names for smokable methamphetamine is “Ice.” Unfortunately, unscrupulous gas station attendants all over the state have been selling crystalized water under that same name. And they even let children as young as six years old purchase and consume it. They will certainly all grow up to be meth addicts and lose their teeth. And look how blatantly it is marketed to children! Disgusting.

All of this has given me the idea for a great product. Pot Brownies. I’d really like to see if someone could get away with commercial sales of this product…

POT BROWNIES

Made from the best part of the plant*
Ingredients imported from Central America
and lovingly stirred in a pot

*cacao, that is

If you stir the ingredients in a pot, then you can call them Pot Brownies, can’t you?
Lisa? What do you think?
Update: Cocaine, the energy drink, has been pulled from shelves nationwide.

“Of course, we intended for Cocaine energy drink to be a legal alternative the same way that celibacy is an alternative to premarital sex,” [Redux Beverages partner Clegg] Ivey said. “It’s not the same thing and no one thinks it is. Our product doesn’t have any cocaine in it. No one thinks that it does. We think it is most likely legal in the United States to ship our product.” […]
What we would like to do is continue to fight to keep the name because it’s clearly the name that’s the problem,” Ivey said. “What we can’t do is distribute our product when regulators in the states and the FDA are saying that if you do this, you could go to jail.”

This is the absurdity that happens when you declare war on a plant.

Moscow police on Saturday suppressed a rally for the legalization of marijuana, detaining 30 people and beating many more. Participants of the Marijuana March were fined and sentenced to 15 days in jail.
The Marijuana Legalization League attempted to stage a rally in downtown Moscow on Saturday to demand the legalization of marijuana in Russia. Police detained the demonstrators, beating several people with truncheons. […]
City authorities have turned down an application to organize the rally as “propagandizing drug abuse”. The Federal Drug Control Federation earlier urged Moscow to crack down on the possible gathering “as tough as possible”.

Photos: here, here, here, here.

Earlier this week, I noted a blatant and pathetic attempt by the State of Kentucky to use drug enforcement to lobby for more money.
David Borden follows up in this post, noting that this is a common tactic around the country, and may reflect a kind of national coordinated lobbying effort.

“bullet” DrugSense Weekly
“bullet”

“bullet” And don’t forget: today is national no-pants day.

Parts of England and Ireland apparently have an archaic coroner’s inquest system, which seems to involve the use of some kind of local witch doctor who just makes shit up.
Cannabis Can Trigger Fatal Heart Conditions

The inquest was told that Mr Kelly, who was very health-conscious, collapsed and died in front of his girlfriend, Stephanie.
He was an occasional user of cannabis and a post mortem found tiny traces of the drug in his system.
He was rushed to the Mercy University Hospital ( MUH ) but he died despite frantic efforts by doctors to save him.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said David died because the rhythmic electrical pulse in his heart misfired, causing it to stop beating almost immediately. She pointed to a growing body of medical evidence which shows links between the triggering of similar heart conditions and the use of drugs like cannabis and cocaine.

Drugs like cannabis and cocaine?
Witchdoctor Bolster then pointed to a series of scratches on a victim and said that they were from probably caused by animals like chipmunks and elephants.
[Note: A couple of previous coroner’s inquest stories I’ve reported on are here and here.]