Drug WarRant

It’s Sunday morning. Take a moment to enjoy the delightful story of Granny Patricia Tabram…

There’s a heavenly kind of abundance about Patricia Tabram’s kitchen that should earn her a place in the Grandmothers’ Hall of Fame. Chocolate cakes and cooking oils jostle for position on several chaotic work surfaces.
Bacon ( smoked and unsmoked ), plum pudding, heaps of cream cheese ( for use in both cheesecake and omelettes ) and kilogram slabs of Dairy Milk are packed into an chock-full fridge.
And there, half obscured – though certainly not hidden – to the left of the cooker, between the sea salt and the Bisto, is the magic ingredient that has just sealed her reputation as one of the nation’s better-known pensioners.
The finely ground marijuana is kept in an old Bramwells pickle jar by the sink, and it looks almost interchangeable with the nearby jars of mixed herbs when Mrs Tabram reaches for it during a morning’s initiation in the art of cooking with cannabis.

Read the rest

There has been much talk in the UK in recent months about recommending changes in how the government handles drug policy, and there’s very little doubt in my mind that the U.S. is eventually going to be led in this area from overseas.
That doesn’t mean that Britain’s government is lacking the elements of inflexible, politically fearful and greedily opportunistic elements that we have within our prohibitionists in the U.S., but they may be less entrenched.
Well a new expert commission report is out

Britain’s antiquated laws have failed to control the rapid spread of drug use over the past 30 years and should be replaced with a system that treats users as victims rather than offenders, the Government has been told.
A two-year survey of drug use reached the damning conclusion that the current legislation is “not fit for purpose”, failing to recognise that alcohol and tobacco can cause more harm than “demonised” substances such as cannabis and ecstasy. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce Commission on Illegal Drugs said current laws were “driven by a moral panic” and one of its members warned that increasing numbers of primary school children were experimenting with drugs.
The commission, which included academics, community workers and politicians, demanded the abolition of the Misuse of Drugs Act, to be replaced with a broader Misuse of Substances Act.

I haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing (pdf) yet (I hope to this weekend), but for the best analysis, I turn you over to the wonderful folks at Transform Drug Policy Foundation blog, who have been doing excellent work in following all the details. They have a full review RSA drugs report: good, but no cigar [Update: page moved and updated ]
They note the brilliance of passages like this one:

Drugs policy should, like our policy on alcohol and tobacco, seek to regulate use and prevent harm rather than to prohibit use altogether. Illegal drugs should be regulated alongside alcohol, tobacco, prescribed medicines and other legal drugs in a single regulatory framework.

But they also note that ultimately the report falls short:

We are left with what is, in many ways, a brilliant, thoughtful and throrough report, but also one that walks you to the door but isnt quite willing to suggest you walk through…

Via EFSDP and NORML discussions, comes this delightful interactive animation showing how different drugs interact with the brain. I’ll count on some of my readers who know more about neuro activity than I do to vouch for the accuracy of the science, but it seems to be a fun, informative and mostly nonjudgmental (other than the occasional use of the word “abuse”) approach to learning about dopamine receptors and such.

“bullet”

“bullet” Drug Sense Weekly

from Radley Balko at Hit and Run:

In Montreal , it looks as if a “Cory Maye north” situation is shaping up. Basile Parasiris was home with his family when a paramilitary police team broke into the house with a battering ram as part of a larger drug raid. With son on the phone with 911, Parasiris exchanged fire with the raiding cops, believing them to be thieves. He shot two, killing one. Police returned fire, wounding Parasiris’ wife. Police found no drugs in the home. Parasiris’ gun was legal and registered. He’s being charged with first-degree murder for the shooting of the dead officer, and attempted murder for the shooting of the wounded one.

Also read about the woman who got the scare of a lifetime going to the store to buy orange soda and lottery tickets.

From CGinformation.org — “the unofficial U.S. Coast Guard blog of information, news and commentary”:

Today HQ put out a press release congratulating the service for outdoing any previous 1st quarter in the interdiction of Cocaine with 97,635 pounds of the drug between Oct. 1, 2006, and Jan.1, 2007. This is good, but it also begs the question of why was there more Cocaine coming this way? Are we getting ready for yet anther ‹Drug WarŠá Well at least we‰ll have job security!

Drug traffickers treat Coast Guard interdiction much the same way that Wal-Mart expects a certain amount of shoplifting. It’s just budgeted in as a normal (and pretty cheap to them) cost of doing business.
From 1986 to 2006, the DEA seized 2,836,600 pounds of cocaine without having any impact on the availability or price.

Bizarre statement in a marijuana case, from U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert:

“He profited from his greed, at the expense of others. He deserves the life sentence.”

And Gretchen, he didn’t profit off me — if he had, I’d have at least gotten some pot out of the deal. Much better than that financial screwing we’re getting from you.

I finally got a chance to read the ASA lawsuit filing (large pdf file) in U.S. Circuit Court resulting from its years of following through with a Data Quality Act challenge against the Department of Health and Human Services.
They do a nice job recapping the years of delay and illegal non-responsiveness on the part of HHS, and conclude with:

VIII. RELIEF SOUGHT
WHEREFORE, ASA, on behalf of itself, its constituents, and others similarly situated, seeks the following relief:

1. A declaration that the HHS’ denial of ASA’s petition and administrative appeal is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law under the APA;
2. A permanent injunction:
   1. enjoining defendants from continuing to disseminate statements that
      marijuana “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States;” and
   2. requiring HHS to make appropriate corrections to all statements that it has
      disseminated that marijuana “has no currently accepted medical use in
      treatment in the United States;”
3. Costs and attorneys fees incurred in this action; and
4. Such other and further relief as may be just and proper.

We’ll see what happens.

Via TalkLeft comes this delightful quote from Bill Richardson:

“I’m urging very quick, strong action on predatory
lending. I want that cockfighting bill, I want medical marijuana, I want my tax cuts.”

When it comes to predatory lending and cockfighting, I’m not sure if he’s fer it or agin it, nor do I care. I just love the fact that a Governor is speaking out in favor of medical marijuana and that’s not the item that makes people go “Wha???”

Maia Szalavitz was apparently on as a guest.
I may have to wait for the transcripts.