Drug WarRant

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a blatant and pathetic effort to justify drug war funding…
From the State of Kentucky (as in the state government) comes this press release:

State police, local law enforcement, sheriff‰s offices, HIDTA and multi-jurisdictional drug task forces throughout the nation collectively conducted undercover investigations, search warrants, consent searches, marijuana eradication efforts, drug interdiction and arrest warrants for a period of one week. This collective effort, Operation Byrne Drugs II, was conducted from April 23-29 to highlight the need and effectiveness of the Byrne grant funding and the impact cuts to this funding could have on local and statewide drug enforcement. [emphasis added]

That’s right. They’re admitting that they put together a week of drug arrests for the sole purpose of making a case for getting money.

Statewide, last week’s operation resulted in 491 arrests, 30 search warrants and the seizure of 287 marijuana plants, approximately 965 pounds of marijuana, approximately 12 pounds of cocaine, 266 hydrocodone tablets, 950 other prescription tablets, 467 grams of methamphetamine, six meth labs, four drug endangered children, 26 guns, 14 vehicles and $148,201 in cash. Cabinet for Health and Family Services also removed 12 children from homes during arrests and a female was charged with Wanton Endangerment First Degree when she and her newborn tested positive for Cocaine.
‹The number of arrests and seizures that each drug task force made is representative of what Kentucky‰s law enforcement can accomplish when resources are pulled together to take illegal drugs off the streets,Š stated Tommy Loving, executive director of the Bowling Green/Warren County Drug Task Force and president of Kentucky Narcotics Officers Association. ‹As a statewide organization, KNOA is hopeful that congress will see the value of intensive drug enforcement efforts like this one, and consider the benefits that could be derived by reinstating previous funding levels in the future.Š

Again, the appeal to Congress: “Look at us! We got some drugs. Give us money.”
Do they really think that that mix of crap they seized and the small-time busts is going to have any real effect? They want us to put more tax payer money into that?

Laurie Dudgeon, the executive director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, said statistics from the one-week sweep ‹is symbolic to the dangers and hard work that these units and agents do all year.Š

Do you have any idea what you’re saying Laurie? Because it doesn’t make a bit of sense — in grammar or content. Perhaps in addition to eliminating the Byrne grant program, we should be eliminating the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, since all you seem to know how to do is beg for money poorly.

Cynthia Tucker in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Futile drug war ignores target: Safety

If Kathryn Johnston’s tragic death is to lead to systemic change at the Atlanta Police Department, then Chief Richard Pennington should reconsider the foolish and costly war on drugs. Forget raising the numbers of narcotics officers Ö a tactic reminiscent of President Bush’s misguided “surge” in Iraq. What Pennington ought to do is decrease the number of officers who waste time and ruin lives going after penny-ante drug dealers.

Rose Rusell in the Toledo Blade: Police no-knock policy affects us all

WHEREVER you live, you should be concerned about the no-knock police policy that the U.S. Supreme Court said in a 5-4 decision last June could help ensure police safety and minimize chances for suspects to destroy evidence.
It must not have occurred to the court that someone could get hurt inside a house where police enter without saying who they are.
Worse than that happened to an elderly Atlanta woman last November […]
Putting ourselves in the place of the poor, minority, elderly, or otherwise vulnerable shows more clearly how a misguided policy affects every one of us.

So everybody in the media is talking about the new studies (including one from Yale) that have conclusively determined that marijuana — gasp — temporarily affects the brain.
Well, yes. That’s kind of the point. So does just about everything you do.
In fact, there were some interesting things that the Yale study seemed to find. One is that THC can temporarily relax the inhibiting part of the brain that controls things like paranoia, meaning that someone on pot can feel more paranoid (and they thought it was just because the government was out to get them), but that CBD in pot reduces anxiety and so provides a calming counter-effect. And part of all of this that needs to be considered is the implications of this information, good and bad, for those who are already, say, paranoid schizophrenics, for example.
I wish we could have reasoned discussions about such studies. There’s a whole lot we could learn, but the science is so politicized that a couple of critical things happen:

1. Every scientific fact that shows some kind of potential negative effect (or even a neutral effect that can be interpreted negatively) is broadcast as a final proof that marijuana is an extremely dangerous and toxic substance and must be kept illegal and denied to patients (even though hundreds of millions of people have used it without any ill effects and even though the supposed danger has no logical connection to keeping it illegal).
2. Every scientist who is investigating marijuana knows that, in order to get more funding and in order to have the results of the study receive publicity, they must frame the results in the most inflammatory way possible, often overstating and exaggerating the results and giving public conclusions that the data do not support. Since the general public does not have the access, the time, nor the vocabulary to read the studies themselves, the hype becomes the “science.” For those of us who are continually forced to react to already stage-managed publicity, we find ourselves increasingly skeptical of every new scientific pronouncement, and tired of having to go in once again and attempt to straighten it out.

So what did we get this time?
AP

New findings on marijuana’s damaging effect on the brain…

Reuters was a little better in their coverage and actually included some important qualifiers

..in a small number of people, scientists said […] Most users of cannabis still do not have a problem with the drug but a minority, possibly because of genetic factors […] “It seems there are good guys and bad guys within cannabis,” Leweke said.

And of course, the drug czar:

New Yale Study: Marijuana Damages the Brain

Fortunately, Maia Szalavitz is around to put things in perspective at STATS

Breaking News: Marijuana Gets You High!
Totally awesome brain scans freak reporters out. Does sex “damage” the brain too?

While brain scans can contribute a great deal to our understanding of mental illness, addiction and how the brain works ordinarily, their effects on journalists are not so positive. […]

Thanks, Maia. Just the dose of sanity I needed.

I’m up in Chicago today, playing the piano for an agent showcase at Victory Gardens’ Biograph theatre. I know there are lots of interesting things to discuss.
“bullet” thehim’s Drug War Roundup is always wonderful.
“bullet” The White House’s embarrassing screw-up about cocaine and Colombia continues to get growing coverage in the media.
“bullet” Alex DeLuca has collected coverage of the re-trail of Doctor William Hurwitz.
“bullet” Jeralyn does a good job of being unimpressed with the Sentencing Commission and cocaine.
“bullet” Don’t forget Bernie Ellis — and help save his farm.

Mike Gravel:

The United States incarcerates more people and at a higher rate than any other peacetime nation in the world. According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics the number of US residents behind bars has now reached more than 2.3 million.
We are losing an entire generation of young men and women to our prisons. Our nation‰s ineffective and wasteful ‹war on drugsŠ plays a major role in this. We must place a greater emphasis on rehabilitation and prevention. We must de-criminalize minor drug offenses and increase the availability and visibility of substance abuse treatment and prevention in our communities as well as in jails and prisons. […]

Dennis Kucinich

I have studied the issue for decades and recognize that our “War on Drugs” has failed. In fact, because our War on Drugs drives up the price, it encourages violence. Prohibition simply doesn’t work. It only creates thousands and thousands of Al Capones. Prison should be for people who hurt other people, not themselves. We don’t jail people for merely drinking. We jail people when they drink and drive or hurt another human. […]

Ron Paul

1. While recognizing the harm that drug abuse causes society, we also recognize that government drug policy has been ineffective and has led to frightening abuses of the Bill of Rights which could affect the personal freedom of any American. We, therefore, support alternatives to the War on Drugs.
2. Per the tenth amendment to the US Constitution, matters such as drugs should be handled at the state or personal level.
3. All laws which give license to violate the Bill of Rights should be repealed.

[…]

Kind of unusual, wouldn’t you say? Three major-party candidates taking strong positions in opposition to the war on drugs (along with Bill Richardson’s support for medical marijuana). Admittedly, they’re three fringe major-party candidates, but still… it’s pretty impressive. And Gravel and Kucinich even put their positions out boldly right on their candidacy web pages (I’m not sure why Paul hasn’t done that, but he’s certainly been an extremely strong advocate for reform.)
Sure, when it comes to the actual election, we’ll probably have to choose between a drug war cheerleader and a drug war apologist, but let’s enjoy the moment.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which has been doing an excellent job of coverage, has the timeline of the actual events that led to the death of Kathryn Johnston

They fabricated all the right answers to persuade a magistrate to give them a no-knock search warrant.
By 6 p.m., they had the legal document they needed to break into Kathryn Johnston’s house, and within 40 minutes they were prying off the burglar bars and using a ram to burst through the elderly woman’s front door. It took about two minutes to get inside, which gave Johnston time to retrieve her rusty .38 revolver.
Tesler was at the back door when Junnier, Smith and the other narcotics officers crashed through the front.
Johnston got off one shot, the bullet missing her target and hitting a porch roof. The three narcotics officers answered with 39 bullets.
Five or six bullets hit the terrified woman. Authorities never figured out who fired the fatal bullet, the one that hit Johnston in the chest. Some pieces of the other bullets — friendly fire — hit Junnier and two other cops.
The officers handcuffed the mortally wounded woman and searched the house.
There was no Sam.
There were no drugs.
There were no cameras that the officers had claimed was the reason for the no-knock warrant.
Just Johnston, handcuffed and bleeding on her living room floor.
That is when the officers took it to another level. Three baggies of marijuana were retrieved from the trunk of the car and planted in Johnston’s basement. The rest of the pot from the trunk was dropped down a sewage drain and disappeared.
The three began getting their stories straight. […]

Read the whole thing. It’s really quite horrifying.

“bullet”

He’s long been both a hateful drug war cheerleader and and embarrassment to Illinois (see this for some examples), and now former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has weighed in on the medical marijuana debate in Illinois with this letter in the Chicago Sun-Times

As a former schoolteacher and coach and father of two, I believe in giving our kids a drug-free future.

He’s being modest. He forgot to mention his role as “Mark Foley enabler.”

Illegal drugs are responsible for the loss of 17,000 American lives annually, and marijuana is by far the most used and abused of these drugs.

Don’t you love it? The joys of juxtaposition. How many of those 17,000 deaths were caused by marijuana? None. Sounds like a good reason to me to get people to use it.

More kids use marijuana than cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and all other illicit drugs combined.

… and you’d prefer the reverse?

Legislation that allows, supports or recognizes marijuana as a medicine is irresponsible, shortsighted and sends the wrong message to our youth.

What message is that? That we care for our sick people? It’s interesting that you care so much about messages to youth (Did I just say “messages to youth”? As in instant messages to youth?)

There is absolutely no sound scientific evidence that marijuana has any medicinal value. The Food and Drug Administration is the only agency that can designate a substance as a medicine and to date has not done so.

No sound scientific evidence, except of course the absolute piles and piles of sound scientific evidence. And the FDA is the lapdog of the pharmaceutical industry, which doesn’t want medical marijuana interfering with profits.
Oh, did we mention that Hastert received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, and that members of his family work as lobbyists for that industry?

Legalization of any kind will also have unintended consequences: each person injured in driving and work-related accidents committed by those under the influence, and unborn babies harmed by abusing mothers.

And what does that have to do with medical marijuana?

urge the General Assembly to think twice about supporting legislation that softens the stance that marijuana is dangerous, addictive and illegal. I would hope that everyone could agree that there is no legitimate place in our society for marijuana use.

No, I think we agreed that there was no legitimate place for a corrupt Speaker of the House, so we got rid of you from that position.

White House letter: U.S. cocaine prices drop despite billions spent on drug war

The street price of cocaine fell in the United States last year as purity rose, the White House drug czar said in a private letter to a key senator, seemingly contradicting U.S. claims that US$4 billion (euro2.9 billion) in aid to Colombia is stemming the flow.
The drug czar, John Walters, wrote that retail cocaine prices fell by 11 percent from February 2005 to October 2006, to about US$135 (euro99) per gram of pure cocaine. That’s way below the US$600 a gram pure cocaine fetched in 1981, when the U.S. government began collecting data, and near the level it has been at since the early 1990s.
During the same period, analysis of data collected by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration showed that after a drop in 2005, levels of purity “have trended somewhat toward former levels,” Walters said.
Walters made the disclosure in a January letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican co-chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. The Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank, obtained the letter and made it available to The Associated Press.

Oops.

… Grassley, in an e-mailed statement, said the letter is “all the proof that anybody needs” that the White House drug office “has gotten quite good at spinning the numbers, but cooking the books doesn’t help our efforts to curb cocaine and heroin production and consumption.”
The numbers cited by Walters contradict upbeat appraisals made by U.S. officials as recently in March _ two months after Walters’ letter.

Wait a second. I think I just heard… Was that the sound of someone calling Walters a liar?

Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, said despite the existence of the new estimates, senior U.S. Embassy officials provided him with older, more upbeat data during a March visit to Bogota.

More lying?
So far, this story has shown up in Taiwan and France. Wonder when it’ll hit here? And what this will do to funding for the Colombian drug war?
Update: Huffington Post has it.

I’m in a Terry Gilliam-drawn heaven.
I have just received a wonderful gift from my Amazon wish list — the complete, 16 DVD megaset of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, with every episode in the series history, plus two bonus discs: Monty Python Live!
Wow!
It’ll be some great fuel, Phil. Thanks so much!