Drug WarRant

Here’s this week’s issue. Vote Hemp’s press release does a nice job of nailing the DEA.

I’ve never really had much interest in American Idol and haven’t followed it at all, but this item caught my attention.
Apparently Akron Watson has been disqualified from the Hollywood Round, and speculation is that it may be for a previous marijuana bust. However, I’m skeptical about that reported reason, given:

1. Watson told Fox about the bust up front
2. Fox stood behind Bo Bice in season 4 (despite previous cocaine and marijuana arrest records)
3. Paula Abdul

Fox has said they will never reveal the reason for Watson’s disqualification.
The controversy did bring back memories for me of the 1998 Winter Olympics when Ross Rebagliati almost lost his snowboarding gold medal for testing positive for trace amounts of marijuana. Or when World Flying Disc Federation decided to start disqualifying ultimate frisbee players for testing positive for marijuana.
I ask you. What kind of a horrible world is this, if snowboarders, ultimate frisbee players and musicians can’t smoke pot?

This is hilarious.
Ryan Grim writes another good, well-researched, well-sourced article at The Politico: Bush Wants Funding Jump for Anti-Drug Ads Rated as Useless.
Check out the editorial sidebar on the story at The Politico:

Ryan Grim, who wrote today’s story on the anti-drug campaign program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), previously worked for the Marijuana Policy Project, which lobbies to legalize marijuana. Grim worked at the project from June 2004 until May 2005, a fact that has been on his official bio since he joined Politico.com. Grim called the ONDCP for comment for his story early Wednesday. Instead of returning Grim’s call, Tom Riley, the agency’s spokesman, called The Politico’s senior publisher and editor, Martin Tolchin, to point out Grim’s previous work with the Marijuana Policy Project. He then threatened to complain to Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz about a conflict of interest. The ONDCP did not return Grim’s call Wednesday.

Ouch. How’s that feel, Tom?
Tom Riley, who has a conflict of interest with the truth, complains about conflict of interest when the press reports the truth, because he doesn’t have any actual… facts. All in an attempt to silence the press, while protecting his propaganda.
And he gets called on it.
Priceless.
[Perhaps one more thing for the Domestic Policy Subcommittee to investigate?]

According to WSBTV in Atlanta:

ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard plans to ask a grand jury to consider murder charges against three Atlanta police officers.
The big news is not only the notice of the indictment itself, but also an FBI [official] indicated to Channel 2‰s Mark Winne that the action by the Fulton County D.A.‰s Office came without any notice to either the FBI or U.S. Attorney‰s Office. The official suggested the FBI investigation has not been completed and the FBI had not been notified of what he indicated was a unilateral action taken by the District Attorney.

I’m not sure what it means that the DA is acting separately from the federal investigation, but ultimately I would expect hope to see these officers tried for felony murder. If the apparent facts hold up and the officers lied to get a warrant, and then broke into Kathryn Johnston’s home based on that warrant and killed her in her home (regardless of her self-defense actions), then what other conclusion can you reach?

“bullet” It’s way too early to obsess about the ’08 Presidential election, but Glenn Greenwald has a fascinating post explaining why those who are quick to dismiss Rudy Giuliani’s chances are mis-reading the dynamics. And he ends it with a description of Giuliani that reminds me why I think Rudy would be just about the worst possible option for us.

Giuliani is an “authoritarian narcissist” — plagued by an unrestrained prosecutor’s mentality — who loves coercive government power (especially when vested in his hands) and hates dissent above all else. He would make George Bush look like an ardent lover of constitutional liberties. He is probably the absolute worst and most dangerous successor to George Bush under the circumstances, but his political talents and prospects for winning are being severely underestimated.

“bullet” Award for understated headline: Afghanistan losing war on drugs, general says. And while the New York Times doesn’t quite have a clue of what to do in Afghanistan, they at least realize that patterning their efforts after what we’ve done in Colombia is stupid: Editorial: Wrong Model for Afghanistan. Related: The Senlis Council will be holding a symposium in London next week: “A Cohesive Strategy for the Future of Afghanistan”
“bullet” Meth crackdown fuels smuggling — not a surprise to any of us. Pat Rogers has more, in Barack Obama, Assassin of Youth
“bullet” Lou Dobbs has always been a moron, but he shows it anew in a segment that includes LEAP member Terry Nelson:

DOBBS: Now, you may think, and certainly I do, that we are in the grips of a mass idiocy when it comes to failure to secure our borders and our ports. The U.S. Border Patrol says drug seizures of cocaine and marijuana are up sharply this year. President Felipe Calderon, of Mexico, continues to target drug cartels, to his credit. But despite the idiocy that surrounds border security, there is another idiocy rising up.
A group of law enforcement agents now say that effort is actually fueling drug trafficking and violence, and they say the answer is to end the war on drugs. [emphasis added]

“bullet” North Dakota Issues First Hemp Permits. Will the DEA blink? And I wonder — will Kucinich put Karen Tandy on the hot seat if the DEA denies permission?
“bullet” And finally, the Marijuana Policy Project will be hosting its annual fundraising party at the Playboy Mansion on May 14. Could be a lot of fun, if you’re got an extra grand to spring for the ticket. Last year, they raised more than $170,000. Not bad.

For any of my readers at Illinois State University, I’ll be leading a roundtable on current issues in drug policy tonight with the Illinois State University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
Wednesday at 8:00 pm in Stevenson 212.

The drug czar’s “blog” is bragging about the President’s new budget which includes:

an additional $30 million dollars for ONDCP’s award-winning National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and an additional $7.5 million for random student drug testing

… by “award-winning” they must mean “slammed by the GAO for a complete lack of credible evidence of effectiveness.”

This may be the worst mainstream media article in some time.
Rita Rubin vomits a piece in USA TODAY today: CAUTION: Marijuana may not be lesser evil —
‘Gateway drug’ or not, experts say, it’s not a benign path for teens
It’s a big steaming pile of poor journalism, including the standard anecdotal “evidence”

By the time Gardner was a junior, he started skipping high school regularly to smoke pot. “I would always find somebody who wasn’t at school that day and get high with them,” he says. Gardner says he missed 50 days in the first semester of his senior year. His parents discovered his stash of marijuana and sent him to a psychiatrist. His grades plummeted; his college plans evaporated.

or…

Rachel Kinsey says drug addiction runs in her mother’s family, although not in her immediate family. Kinsey, 24, started drinking alcohol at 14 and smoking marijuana at 15 Ö “definitely a predecessor for everything else I used.” She began using Ecstasy and cocaine at 17, then heroin at 18.

But the article headline also promised experts, right?

Adolescents have the greatest rates of marijuana use, and they also have the greatest amount to lose by using marijuana, scientists say.

Ah, good. Scientists. Here we go…

“Adolescence is about risk-taking, experimentation,” says Yasmin Hurd, professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and biological chemistry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York who published a rat study last summer that found early exposure to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, led to a greater sensitivity to heroin in adulthood.

Wait a second. Yasmin Hurd? Rat study? Oh, yeah. That would be this nonsense and as it turns out actually appeared to prove that of those rats who were forced to use heroin, those who hadn’t previously been pre-treated with THC were more likely to become heavily addicted to heroin. (At least to the extent that you can draw any relevant conclusions out of a situation involving THC-pre-treated rats who are due to be decapitated.)
And, of course, the thing we know for certain about the gateway theory:

1. Over 99% of those who never try marijuana will not become addicted to heroin.
2. Over 99% of those who do try marijuana will not become addicted to heroin.

Update: Jacob Sullum has a more charitable description of Rita Rubin’s journalism, claiming that she is trying to undermine her paper’s propaganda. I suppose that’s possible, but it looks more to me like a half-assed attempt to show “balance” in a piece that’s clearly written with an anti-marijuana agenda.

Scott Morgan at Stop the Drug War found this bizarre and freakish opinion piece: A new strategy —
Expert: War on drugs should shift focus
The expert? A former DEA agent.
The plan?

In his book “Fight Back — How to Take Your Own Neighborhood Back From the Drug Dealers,” Levine shifts the focus from the drug dealer to the user, who he calls pejoratively the “druggie.” It’s simple business principles at work, he says. Without demand, there would be no need for more supplies brought in.

That’s right. Get rid of the druggies and you win the drug war.
Hmmm… let’s see. According to 2002 NSDUH, roughly 108 million Americans had used illicit drugs in their lifetimes. So if we just arrest them… Now, where to put them….
Levine also wants new drug education approaches in Hollywood and schools:

Levine says druggies should be depicted “convulsing and vomiting on themselves in detoxification wards; or staring vacant eyed on the benches of intake centers and emergency wards. That is what being a druggie is really all about, and that is what we should want our kids to see and understand.”

The entire piece is a bunch of similar nonsense, complete with a rather strange discussion in comments.
…
For a much more intelligent view of the drug war, check out Terry Nelson’s OpEd in the Hood County News last week: Legalize All Drugs, where he makes a very telling point against those who call for winning the war by increasing penalties:

According to the Associated Press

KUWAIT CITY ( AP ) — A court has convicted a member of Kuwait’s ruling family for drug trafficking and the court has condemned him to death, according to a ruling obtained Monday. It is believed to be the first time that a member of a ruling family in one of the Gulf Arab states received the death sentence for a drug offense.

Even facing the death penalty, being wealthy and having connections to royalty, the allure of additional riches derived from drugs is too strong. So, we can conclude from this and our own prison population, that no matter how severe the penalty there will always be those willing to run the risk for the rewards.
We will never stop trafficking in drugs as long as they are illegal, the market is there and the profit so substantial.
The solution is glaringly obvious.
The solution is to legalize all drugs, regulate and control the manufacturing process and license the marketplace. […]

Nelson’s got Levine beat by a mile, in terms of practicality, the truth… and basic intelligence.

That’s a quote from 5th Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, who also talks about “prosecution run amok”… unfortunately in the dissent.
At Grits for Breakfast.