Drug WarRant

I took lots of pictures in Vienna today, but I thought I’d share this one with you.

Group against pot initiative plans lectures

The group opposing Amendment 44, which seeks to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, said Wednesday that a series of lectures will serve as the primary weapon in the campaign.
The lectures by various experts on drugs and addiction will focus on the dangers of marijuana and the effects on the state of legalizing cannabis…
Members of the coalition include… Andrew Barthwell, a Chicago-based doctor and former deputy director for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

I guess she’s hoping people won’t Google her name and find this.

Yep. They’re kicking me out of here in 10 minutes and I haven’t even been able to download all my email yet. Heading for Vienna tomorrow by boat up the Danube River. The riots in Budapest have been relatively well-mannered and have affected us not in the least.

I’m having a very hard time keeping up with all the news while on vacation, so do your stuff!
You guys are the greatest!

This is late coming to you because of my vacation — I had very little internet access on top of the mountain at Lomnicky Stit in Slovakia, and I’m now in the basement of an open-late internet store in Budapest — but please follow through on this action alert from SSDP:

This week, out of nowhere, the House will vote on a bill giving school officials and police much broader authority to search public school students for drugs. Under the bill, groups of dozens of hundreds of students could be searched on the mere suspicion that just one of them has drugs.
This is the same logic that allowed police officers to storm a high school in Goose Creek, SC, in 2003, forcing dozens of students to the ground and pointing guns directly at their faces during a misguided raid in which no drugs were found.
The new bill, the deceptively named “Student and Teacher Safety Act,” wasn’t supposed to go anywhere, but its sponsor, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) is in a tight race this November and has convinced the Republican leadership to bring his bill directly to the floor (completely skipping the committee process) so he can tell his constituents that he’s doing something in Washington.
But, because of the shady legislative tricks, we only need to get 1/3 of the House to vote against the bill to kill it.
We’ve got a real chance to stop this bill, and we would appreciate it if you could point your readers to the action alert that Students for Sensible Drug Policy has set up at:
http://capwiz.com/mobilize/issues/alert/?alertid=8779706&type=CO
More information about the bill, as well as video footage of the 2003 Goose Creek raid, is available on SSDP’s blog at:
http://daregeneration.blogspot.com/2006/09/take-action-now-stop-school-drug.html

Take action now.

“bullet” Scott Morgan has a debate recap.
“bullet” Mirjan notes this article, which implies a shortage of opium-based medicines even in “first-world” countries. And yet we eradicate in Afghanistan, thereby driving the country into the hands of criminals. Stupid.
“bullet” My internet access is extremely limited, so I can only do a short posting right now, although there is a lot I’d like to discuss. Discuss amongst yourselves. I’m having a great time… Left Prague last night and am now in Litomysl, Czech Republic. Saturday morning I’m taking a train into the mountains of Slovakia.

The drug czar’s blog has a really outrageously stupid post:

It’s Just A Little Pot…And Some Guns…And…
Marijuana near schools: Harmless? (With video)

The story is about how some guns were found near a marijuana bust. Well, duh!
It’s prohibition, silly!
If marijuana was legal, there wouldn’t be criminals using guns to protect their marijuana sales. Period.
And that would make children safer.

Somebody give me a good report on this:

WHAT: Screening of “Waiting to Inhale,” followed by debate on medical marijuana
WHO: Clarence Page, David Murray, Andrea Barthwell, Rob Kampia, Ethan Nadlemann
WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 13, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
WHERE: E Street Theater, 555 11th St. NW, Washington, D.C., 202-452-7672

“bullet” Maia Szalavitz asks the Democrats the right question. [thanks, Tom]
“bullet” Latino Leaders Take Position Against Drug War.

Mendoza said, “As Latinos, we are finally waking up to the fact that this war is a waste of money and resources, all of which could help us re-build our communities and families instead of destroying them.”

‘Bout time. [thanks mirjan]
It’s definitely time for Democrats, Latinos, African Americans and a number of other powerful groups to find where they left their balls and stop rolling over and begging to get their values ground into the dust by the drug war.
More reading
“bullet” Jacob Sullum on the utter stupidity of our efforts in Afghanistan:

Costa is demanding that the Afghan government wipe out half of the country’s economy, with conspicuous assistance from U.S. and British forces. Does that sound like a recipe for peace and stability?

I keep seeing this for sale all over Prague (or at least in the tourist areas). It’s made with hemp seeds and there are seeds at the bottom of each bottle.