Drug WarRant

I’m heading out to talk to the Golden K Kiwanis in Quincy, Illinois on Monday morning about ending prohibition. On Wednesday evening, I’ll be moderating Tough Trade-Offs: The Drug Legalization Debate in Urbana/Champaign, Illinois, and on Friday, I’ll be off to Washington, DC for the SSDP conference. All this while having a particularly heavy week at work (yes, I also have a real full-time job that I love!) So posting may be a little bit light…
Here’s a couple of things to discuss:
“bullet” Drug Policy Alliance’s Five Point Agenda for the new Democratic Congress.
“bullet” The Drug War Chronicle’s Brief Comment on the Transfer of Power in Congress. Also see Phillip Smith’s rant I’m sick and tired of begging my fellow citizens to not throw me in jail…

Monroe Anderson, in today’s Chicago Sun-Times, has It’s time to legalize marijuana in Illinois.

In the past year, the pot prohibition has produced record devil-weed arrests and a bumper crop of American POWs in our nation’s prisons. In 2005, there 786,545 marijuana arrests — 696,074 just for possession. About 34,000 state and 11,000 federal inmates are incarcerated for marijuana offenses. We’re spending $1 billion a year to put them there and another $8 billion a year to keep them there.
We could regulate, license and tax marijuana. Instead we blow billions on busting and jailing peaceful citizens from whom we could collect millions in tax revenue — much like we do with alcohol.
For our nation’s lawmakers to not grasp such a commonsense approach, you’ve got to wonder what they’ve been smoking.

Nice.

Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer has a good post about the upcoming Congressional hearing on sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine.
Naturally, Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, has a solution: increase the penalties for powder cocaine.
Jamie Spencer properly dismantles Canterbury.

I’ve been asked to be the moderator for “Tough Trade-Offs: The Drug Legalization Debate”
This debate will take place on Wednesday, November 15 at the College of Law Auditorium at 504 E Pennsylvania Ave in Champaign, Illinois and will feature William Otis, JD, Counselor to the Administrator of the DEA and Bryan Brickner, PhD, author and Illinois drug law reform activist.

William Otis, JD, is a graduate of Stanford Law School and former Special Counsel to then- president George H.W. Bush. After law school, he worked in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice for seven years before becoming head of the appellate division of the U.S. Attorney‰s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. He was also an informal advisor on criminal justice issues to President Bush when he was Governor. For the past three years, he has been Counselor to the Administrator of the DEA, the official capacity in which he will speak next Wednesday.
Bryan Brickner, PhD, graduated from University of Illinois in 1988 and was a walk-on for the UIUC basketball team. He was commissioned as an Army officer through the Illinois ROTC program and served in Saudi Arabia in 1991. In 1997, he received his doctorate in political science from Purdue University. In addition to NORML, he co-founded IDEAL Reform, a group that is working to pass a medical cannabis bill in Illinois. He is the author of several books including Article the first of the Bill of Rights.

The debate is sponsored by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Federalist Society and the Coalition of Student-Professionals for Social Change.
I’m really looking forward to this — we so rarely get a chance to see debates on this subject. Of course, as moderator, my job is not to debate (I’ll get that chance some other time), but rather to help both parties get the chance to make their case, so the audience can decide.
If you’re in the area, why not get over to Champaign on Wednesday and check it out. There will be a time for questions from the audience as well. It’ll be a nice intimate setting — the room only seats about 100 people. It’s free and I’m told there will be free food as well.

Link

Rolling Stone magazine began publication in San Francisco, giving away a free marijuana cigarette (roach) clip with the first issue.

Hmmm… Things have changed.
On this day in 2006, Rolling Stone reported

The soon-to-be-former Mr. Spears has taken no time in retaliating against Britney for suddenly filing for divorce earlier this week.

At least that’s what you might think if you were mayor Bill Edner, Hughesville, Pennsylvania.
Here’s what actually happened.
Reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s efforts to get children to inform on their parents, a daughter has turned her parents in to school officials for… That’s right. Smoking pot.
That led to a police search of the house and the discovery of… pot. And pipes.
The girl’s father is Mike Rhodes, Hughesville council member and established local businessman. And apparently, while others in town like to wind down at night with a martini, he and his wife like a bowl of marijuana.
Now here’s the reaction from the mayor:

“Charges of corruptions against so many high level officials. It’s tough to take when it comes down to the local level,” the mayor added.

Corruption?
I’m sorry, Bill, but corruption is accepting bribes. Corruption is dishonest or fraudulent conduct to gain power. Smoking pot may be illegal, but it certainly isn’t corruption.
Try this out, Bill. Walk up to anybody and ask if they’d rather have a council member who is corrupt, or one who smokes pot at home. Go ahead. I’m guessing you’ll find quite a bit of support for the pot smoker.
One more point. The whole business of the daughter snitching on her parents is disturbing, and of course the news reports don’t go into much detail, there. But it got me wondering if there might be a connection to school activities. I noticed that at least one of the elementary schools in the East Lycoming School District was celebrating Red Ribbon Week in October. Hmmm…. I’d really like to know whether the school actually encouraged turning in parents.
Oh, and Bill — while you’re asking people about corruption versus pot smoking, you might want to ask whether it’s better for a young person to be raised in a family (even if their parents sometimes smoke pot or drink cocktails at home), or in foster care while their folks are in prison.
—-
For a story from a slightly different perspective, see this disturbing one about parents informing on their children.

Although the Colorado marijuana legalization initiative lost 60-40, it actually won in some counties:

• Boulder – 53%
• Clear Creak – 54%
• Denver – 56%
• Eagle – 56%
• Gilpin – 61%

On the other hand, the people in Baca county voted 82% against the initiative.
Some major geographic and demographic splits on this issue.
In Nevada, the geographic differences were there, but less pronounced. However, there were some clear demographic differences.
Our least receptive audiences in Nevada?

• African Americans
• Old people
• Rural residents
• Conservative Republicans who support Bush and approve of the war in Iraq

We have the opportunity here to identify some audiences who need to be educated, and start the process.

OK, call me a glass half-full kind of guy. I know a lot of people are really disappointed by the loss of all three major initiatives (legalization in Nevada and Colorado; medical marijuana in South Dakota), and I am disappointed, too. But it’s not the end of the world, and in fact, there’s quite a lot to be pleased with in the results of those initiatives.
Despite the full weight of the federal government using taxpayer money to oppose the initiatives; despite various local and state officials improperly (perhaps illegally) using their offices to campaign against and spread falsehoods; despite the fact that voters knew this would create a conflict with federal law; despite the decades of propaganda…

• Combined, close to one million people voted in favor of these initiatives (in a midterm election in not highly populated states).
• All three initiatives got respectable percentages in the 40’s (unlike drug warrior Earnest Istook, who only got 34% in the Oklahoma governor race).
• The South Dakota medical marijuana initiative lost by only 16,000 votes.
• As daksya notes, the demographics look to be on our side long-term.

Not bad. And in the process, there was even some national coverage and discussion of these issues. Seeds were sown.
Kudos to those who worked so hard on those initiatives. It’s got to be particularly hard for you right now, but be proud of what you did.
And kudos also to those independent candidates around the country tilting at windmills and getting more people to talk about drug policy reform.
Now we’ve got to do our job to continue to educate and motivate people, stripping away the layers and years of lies, softening up the masses for the next round.
Update: See this chart for information on all the marijuana-related initiatives, including a number of smaller ones that we won in Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica (California), Missoula County (Montana), and four districts in Massachusetts.

With the Democrats taking the House, the biggest thing to happen is a shift in committee chairs. The new head of the House Government Reform Committee (which includes Drug Policy) will most certainly be Henry Waxman (CA).
Waxman voted in favor of the Hinchey Amendment to prevent the feds from interfering with medical marijuana states. He also voted to cut funding to Plan Colombia, and voted against increasing Byrne Justice Assistance grant funding.
Representative Waxman has also been an outspoken critic of the Administration’s use of propaganda, raising “concerns about whether Administration officials improperly used taxpayer funds to pay for efforts to influence public opinion.” Hmm… seems like a match made in heaven for investigating the ONDCP’s interference with state initiatives.
I don’t know who will be the Chair of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, but it won’t be Souder any more! (although he did win re-election to the House)
Via Scott at StopTheDrugWar.org, I see that Oklahoma moron first class Earnest Istook, who dropped out of the House to run for Governor, was demolished and will have to give up on his attempts to destroy the constitution in the name of the drug war.

Talk about the results here. CNN’s results page is a start for getting info.