Drug WarRant

With New Mexico the latest state to legalize medical marijuana, the response at the drug czar’s “blog” is quite hilarious:

Medical Marijuana in New Mexico: A Triumph of Politics Over Science
Yesterday, New Mexico passed a symbolic law that purportedly legalizes so-called “medical” marijuana. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective under the standards of the FD&C Act. These measures are also against Federal law.
Unfortnately, this new law will frustrate the efforts of parents and anti-drug advocates who now have to deal with the pro-drug messages that medical marijuana laws deliver to the young people of New Mexico.

“…a symbolic law that purportedly legalizes so-called “medical“ marijuana …” Oh, that is rich! How many ways can they attempt to negate the truth?

Via Steve at Transform
This is the White House-produced rock video in the 80’s that finally convinced America to “stop the madness.” With a message this compelling, it took very little effort to finish the job and America was drug-free by 1995. No longer needed, the drug war infrastructure was dismantled, and the soldiers returned home.

… or not.
If you haven’t seen this before, you’ll definitely get a kick out of it. I don’t know if it’s because the video hasn’t aged well, but it sure seems like it was created by people who were on drugs.

In an OpEd promoting a medical marijuana law in Illinois, Montel Williams sticks it to the government:

Here’s what’s shocking: The U.S. government knows marijuana works as a medicine. Our government actually provides medical marijuana each month to five patients in a program that started about 25 years ago but was closed to new patients in 1992. One of the patients in that program, Florida stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld, was a guest on my show two years ago. If federal officials come to town to tell you there’s no evidence marijuana is a safe, effective medicine, know this: They’re lying, and they know it.

Yes, they are.

With the situation in Afghanistan continuing to fail dramatically, more players are coming to the realization that a solution may require something other than pursuing the same old drug war. What an idea!
The British MPs have been pushing for some time now for adopting the Senlis Council’s proposal to buy the opium and turn it into medicine, and now Tony Blair may even be considering it.

The Prime Minister has ordered a review of his counter-narcotics strategy – including the possibility of legalising some poppy production – after an extraordinary meeting with a Tory MP on Wednesday, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

Other stories indicated that NATO is interested as well.
The Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which is doing some great work out there, is not supporting the sudden interest in the Senlis proposal (Why ‘legalising’ Afghan opium for medicine is a non-starter), but misses the point. While I agree that the Senlis proposal is not a silver bullet, it provides a spring board to considering alternatives to the brute force drug war approach. And that’s good.
And now today Glenn Reynolds approvingly links to radical ideas:

MICKEY KAUS ON AFGHANISTAN AND OPIUM:

“A simpler, more promising solution to the poppy harvest would seem to be Christopher Hitchens’: legalize it and tax it. And, presumably, let the Afghans sell it to whomever they want. The price of heroin would fall. There would be more addicts. But fewer American British soldiers would have to die in Afghanistan–and we might actually win the war they’re dying in.”

Prioritizing the Drug War over the actual war seems like a dreadful mistake. When we interviewed Col. David Enyeart of Task Force Phoenix in Afghanistan a few weeks ago, he dodged the question of how much harm our policies there were doing, saying basically that it wasn’t his guys who were involved in the drug-war stuff. But it seems pretty clear that it’s a problem.

Forgotten? OK, sure, the politicians may avoid talking about it (except when they’re passing harsher laws or eradication budgets), but it’s hardly forgotten.
And I don’t have much optimism about the direction this series will take. And unfortunately, they’re probably congratulating themselves on how balanced it is…

The war on drugs has affected people from all walks of life. Listen to the stories of federal drug officials, and the personal experiences of a former drug dealer, a recovering drug addict, a former drug prosecutor and a mother who lost her son to drugs.

All walks of life? Give me a break. These are the worst of the hard-core drug warriors. “Dr.” David Murray, Barry McCaffrey, Ginger Katz, and others. Where are the mothers of those who died from the drug war? The families who were torn apart by prison? The peaceful citizens who have had their lives taken away from them by unfair drug laws? The farmers who are poisoned by our chemicals?
Yep, NPR’s giving us balance…

Part 1 addresses the great debate in the war on drugs: What should take priority Ö controlling the supply of drugs through foreign operations, or controlling demand through prevention programs in the United States?

Right. That great debate which solves nothing… except to prevent discussion of the true great debate: Regulation vs. Black Market
In the entire description and connected pages, I could find no mention of a single drug policy reform organization or individual.
The degree to which the series seems to be overpopulated by ONDCP staff (and former staff) leads me to believe that NPR has joined the FDA and HHS as fully-owned subsidiaries of the drug war political establishment.

“bullet” The Illinois State University student newspaper reports on Thursday’s panel: Group claims prohibition, war on drugs is a failure, and even includes a picture of us (that’s Greg Francisco speaking, with George Pappas next to him and then me).
“bullet” thehim has the Drug War Roundup (Battling over Medical Marijuana in Washington State). Also check out the Maher video he posted (at the end, he has some good commentary on legal vs. illegal drugs).
“bullet” Nat Hentoff has the first part of what should be an excellent series on Bong Hits for Jesus: Will the Supreme Court hold high the banner ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus,’ or crush free speech?

We are in a time when many Americans are far more knowledgeable about Anna Nicole Smith than about the Bill of RightsÖits contents and its future as the Constitution keeps shrinking.

Scary. Hentoff also reminds us of the words of Justice Robert Jackson in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette:

“No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox politics, nationalism, religion, or any other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

“bullet” The DEA claims that it can’t act quickly enough to allow hemp farming licenses in North Dakota for the 2007 growing season.

Joseph Rannazzisi, a deputy assistant administrator at DEA, told Johnson in a letter this week that “it would be unrealistic ( and unprecedented ) to expect DEA to make a final decision on any application to manufacture any controlled substance within the timeframe you suggest…”

Manufacturing a controlled substance? It’s growing hemp.
“bullet” In Hartford, Dr. Robert L. Painter has some good commentary: Taking The Crime Out Of Drugs.

1. Legal drugs are good for you. Illegal drugs will instantly destroy your life.
2. If you eliminate supply, there will be no demand.
3. There is a finite number of drug dealers. If we can get them all in jail, then there will be no drug sales and we’ll end the drug problem.
4. If police get bigger weapons, the criminals will give up.
5. There is no such thing as smoked medicine.
6. Drug legalizers want your children to use crack.
7. $25,000 a year in prison costs is a reasonable price for taxpayers to pay to keep a pot smoker from getting stoned on his couch.
8. If a young person experiments with drugs, the best way to help them turn around their lives is to keep them out of extracurricular activities and prevent them from attending college.
9. Fumigating fields in Colombia helps us win the hearts and minds of the farmers, saves the rainforests, and brings peace and tranquility to Latin America
10. The reason the Russians failed in Afghanistan is that they didn’t destroy enough crops.
11. Drug-free school zones are an excellent deterrent.
12. DEA agents all receive extensive medical training and are much better qualified than doctors to advise you regarding medication.
13. If you have nothing to hide, you have no reason to worry.
14. Politicians care about the children.

Happy April 1.
Add your own facts in comments.

This gem from a speech by DEA head Karen Tandy back in 2005 has been making the rounds, and it is so true that I had to include it here as the quote of the day:

Our fight against drugs clearly knows no borders, it respects no age, and it respects no jurisdictions. We are all shared partners in the travesty that it wreaks upon our children and the future generations for all our countries.

Yes, Karen, that is a perfect description of your drug war.

You know those horrible, nasty terrorists that they’ve been keeping on Guant½namo? You know how we’ve been giving up all our civil liberties supposedly because we’re in such danger? Well, they finally finished the trial for one of the most “dangerous.”

Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty at the Guant½namo Bay Navy Base yesterday to supporting terrorism in exchange for a nine-month prison sentence under a plea deal that forbids him from claiming he was abused in U.S. custody.
In return, Hicks, 31, will be allowed to leave Guant½namo within 60 days to serve out the sentence in his native Australia. He will be free by New Year’s Eve.

Meanwhile, Richard Paey is still serving 25 years in prison for taking medicine for multiple sclerosis and failed spine surgery.
I am angry on so many levels, I can’t sort through them all right now.

“bullet” Server problems. Sorry for those of you who were having problems accessing the site yesterday. Salonblogs was undergoing emergency server repair and the comments were out (and tended to freeze up the loading of this page).
“bullet” Welcome to WJBC listeners who caught me on the Steve Fast show yesterday. I had a fun time on the show, although it was way too short to really get the points across about the problems with prohibition. If you have any comments, questions, or disagreements, please feel free to post them here.
“bullet” WJBC also has this very short (just a few seconds) audio clip of Greg Francisco from Thursday’s panel. Nice pick.
“bullet” For some light reading, check out this entertaining piece: Bong Hits’ Dude Strikes a Blow for Class Clowns
“bullet” With Passover beginning Monday, there may be some Ashkenazim wishing they were Sephardim.
“bullet” More drug war victims of one kind or another via The Agitator: Botched Drug Raid Kills Ex-Marine (disturbing story with more here); Colorado Makes Way for the Next Peter McWilliams (read the entire Denver Post article — it’s heartwrenching); John Tierney covers the pain doctor re-trial in Opening Salvos at the Hurwitz Trial.