Drug WarRant

A pretty big discussion at digg.com on my article Why is Marijuana Illegal? has boosted my traffic about 2,000% today.
Nice.
Welcome to any new visitors that make it to the front page of Drug WarRant.

Harvard sociology professor Orlando Patterson, in the New York Times today:

Preoccupation with Iraq has drawn attention from another unwinnable American war that has been far more destructive of life both at home and abroad and has caused far greater collateral damage in other countries, in addition to spreading contempt for American foreign engagements. This is the failed war on drugs.

This is getting some important visibility, although this article fails to indicate that the problem extends well beyond the Atlanta police force.

ATLANTA — A narcotics team that shot and killed an elderly woman while raiding her home lied to obtain the search warrant, one team member has told federal investigators, according to news reports confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation who requested anonymity.
The officers falsely claimed that a confidential informant had bought $50 worth of crack at the house, the team member, Gregg Junnier, told the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Junnier retired from the Atlanta Police Department last week.
The story backs up statements by Alex White, a police informant, who said that after the shooting the police had asked him to claim, falsely, that he had bought crack at the modest home of the woman, Kathryn Johnston, whose age has been reported as both 88 and 92.
Ms. Johnston, pictured wearing a birthday crown in a widely used photograph, quickly became Exhibit A for complaints of excessive force by the police, prompting packed, angry town-hall-style meetings, accusations of systematic civil rights violations and calls for civilian review of police shootings in Atlanta.
The incident has also demoralized a police force where the number of narcotics officers has dwindled while, some critics say, pressure to make arrests has increased.
“The rest of the world is now hearing from the mouths of the police officers involved what we knew all along,” said the Rev. Markel Hutchins, a spokesman for Ms. Johnston’s relatives, who have maintained that she had nothing to do with illegal drugs and that neither her house nor her basement, which had a separate entrance, was used by dealers.

This story resonates because it really includes so many of the failings of the drug war wrapped up in one incident.

• Reliance on unreliable snitch looking to make a deal
• An overabundant credulity that the resident of the house was a drug dealer
• A lack of respect by police towards citizens (particularly in certain… neighborhoods) resulting in action without proper investigation
• Policy emphasis on showing results through numbers of drug busts
• Police taking short-cuts with the law
• Judge rubber-stamping a warrant
• Bad policy demanding the use of inappropriate force for the type of arrest
• The impossible situation placed on citizens between defending themselves and “trusting” the people who are breaking down their door.
• Increased danger for police officers
• An innocent person dying
• Police cover-up when something goes wrong

Oh! What a Lovely War

Here’s this week’s issue.

According to Lew Rockwell Blog:

Today, incorporation papers were filed in Texas for a Ron Paul 2008 presidential exploratory committee.

This would be some interesting news indeed.
For those who don’t know Ron Paul, he’s the Republican Representative for Texas 14th District to the U.S. House, and was the 1988 Libertarian Party Presidential nominee. He’s definitely one of the few good guys out there when it comes to drug policy reform. He would bring a very interesting debate to the Presidential race.

As we know, former Drug Czars and DEA heads and their compatriots often go into business working in the lucrative drug testing field after they leave government service, so it’s important for them to generate as much business as they can while they’re in office.
And Walters has been really working this one hard, trying to get to the point where he can become the Child Urine Czar and watch all kids pee in a cup.
The Random Student Drug Testing Summit tour has been part of the act for a couple of years now, and there are some upcoming summits:

• January 24, 2007 Charleston, South Carolina
• February 27, 2007 Newark, New Jersey
• March 27, 2007 Honolulu, Hawaii
• April 24, 2007 Las Vegas, Nevada

Fortunately, the ONDCP hasn’t been getting a free ride at these events any more. A number of reform organizations have shown up with useful and factual information and finding an interested audience.

On last year’s tour, dedicated drug policy reformers descended on every meeting with sharp questions and literature to counter the ONDCP’s deceptive presentations. Many educators expressed dissatisfaction with the one-sided information provided by the ONDCP, and were grateful to hear what we had to say: that random student drug testing is unsupported by the best available research, and can deter students from extracurricular activities–the very activities that increase students’ connection to their schools and to caring adults. […]
Last year, we forced ONDCP officials to explicitly acknowledge opposition presence at every summit. Our supporters had drug testing proponents stumbling over their responses, admitting they did not know the answers to our critical questions. Our work paid off; after the summits many educators told reporters that they will not consider testing.

If you’re in one of these upcoming summit regions, find out how you can help.

At the Drug Czar’s “blog”:

Medical Marijuana Laws Create Confusion, Problems For Cities
Another news report regarding the confusion created by State-based “medical” marijuana laws. From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

[…]

“What the local agencies are grappling with is this discrepancy between federal and state law,” said Ray Hamada, the planning director in Irwindale, which has a moratorium. The problem, he explained, is that while California voters legalized medical marijuana with Proposition 215 in November 1996, federal law still bans all marijuana use.

Monterey Park’s city manager, Chris Jeffers, said his city had a moratorium for the same reason. The city is leaning toward a ban in order to comply with federal law, but hasn’t finished studying the issue, he said.”

It’s nice of them to realize that they’re the problem, and if the federal government got its nose out of something where it has no business, the states could do a much better job of managing medical marijuana laws (although I doubt they even realize what they’re saying).

One of the challenges of getting good media coverage for drug policy reform is trying to educate the media. That’s made more difficult when they are lazy, incompetent, or just plain stupid.
Check out the writing in this piece at News Channel 6 in Wichita Falls…

The War on Drugs, is a battle fought daily by the Wichita Falls Police Department. Who’s winning that war, the police or the people on the receiving end? and what is the choice of drug– circulating in our town? News channel six’s Ashley Fitzwater takes an inside look and finds out who’s controlling the battle?
When it comes to popularity and quantity, two different drugs take the number one slot, here in the Falls.
“It’s about 50/50 split with crack cocaine and meth,” says Police Sgt. Larry Robinett .
Sgt. Robinette says the W.F.P.D. Put a major dent in the crack cocaine trade recently.
“Guys like Cedric Grey, and Empra Holt, these were major drug dealers here in the Falls. They have all been prosecuted federally.”
Police say the major arrests slow down the process, but someone else is always there to step in and take charge.
But with departments like the Organized Crime Unit in place, police are able to keep drugs from taking over.

The bad grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure almost overwhelm the bad reporting and logic.

Thanks to Kaptinemo, here’s the Asylum Street Spankers with “Winning the War on Drugs”

And here’s a YouTube illustrated reading of the world’s first children’s book about medical marijuana: “Mommy’s Funny Medicine”

The 1986 crime bill set into law the “fact” that America would be drug free by 1995. Later Newt Gingrich wrote that the goal was for America to be drug free by 2001. There is an organization still in existence today called Partnership for a Drug Free America.
People really believed this nonsense. As if drugs were like some finite group of enemy soldiers who would march down a field dressed in red coats and our loyal warriors backed by all the forces of good would fire until they were all destroyed and that would be the end of drugs.
These days you don’t hear so much of that. Most people know that if it was really a war, it’s not even theoretically possible to “win” it. But the drug warriors can’t give up or actually look at alternatives, so they come up with some surreal justifications to continue as they have.
Stephen Colbert described them quite well in his tongue-in-cheek comment last night:

Sir, we have lost the war on drugs when we withdraw from the war on drugs. While we’re still in it, we haven’t lost it.

Funny, but also on the mark. Almost as funny is an actual serious quote by a new sheriff I reported recently:

The drug war is a war we’ll never win and it’s time to attack it on a daily basis and concentrate on drugs.

And then there’s this from Amarillo that really struck me…

The drug war of 2007 is off to a good start as troopers made two separate drug busts along I-40 this weekend.

“The drug war of 2007”? It’s an annually named drug war now and we get to start over fresh each January?
I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.