Drug WarRant

Well, I had an incredible adventure exploring Prague and the Czech Republic, the mountains of Slovakia, Budapest, and Vienna. And I didn’t even have to go through body cavity searches at customs — the very nice customs lady looked at my passport and warmly said: “Welcome home, Peter!”
A lot of people have asked me about the fact that the Czech Republic has very lax laws regarding marijuana. While I don’t know the specifics of the laws, as far as I can tell, it’s somewhat the equivalent of decriminalization — they just don’t bother arresting people for it. And, quite frankly, it was a total non-issue. Nobody cared. I didn’t see any drug dealers or drug problems. Society hadn’t gone crazy. Some people smoked pot. Most didn’t. (Most, in fact, drank beer, which is very big there.)
Anyway, I’ve been wading through all my emails and phone messages and everything since I got back and now I’ll be back to regular posting again. A few posts will be catch-up, but I won’t be able to get to everything that happened while I was gone.
A special thanks to all the regulars who kept Drug WarRant active in the comments and through the community messageboard while I was away!

The headline at CNN online shouts ‘Cali leaders forfeit $2.1 billion‘. In the article, US attorney general Alberto Gonzales noticeably omits any comment on the impact of this event on the overall US cocaine trade, instead offering a meek self-congratulation:

“The brothers’ guilty pleas effectively signals the final, fatal blow to the powerful Cali cartel,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a Washington news conference. “This is a day of pride for the people of Colombia and for international law enforcement.”

With good reason.

The heads of the Medellin cartel, one, Carlos Lehder, was incarcerated in the US in 1992, and two, Pablo Escobar, was killed in a shootout in 1993. The heads of the other big cartel, based in Cali, once responsible for 80% of the cocaine imported into the US, are now behind bars as well. So how has the War on Drugs been going? One corner away from victory? Well, not quite.

According to the UN World Drug Report 2006, these are the figures depicting the recent state of the cocaine trade.

• Production: Potential cocaine production in Colombia in metric tons
• Wholesale: US Wholesale price (per gm; inflation-adjusted)
• Retail: US Retail price (per gm; inflation-adjusted)

Year	Production	Wholesale	Retail
1990:	92	68	275
1991:	88	69	254
1992:	91	67	237
1993:	119	60	199
1994:	201	56	180
1995:	230	50	168
1996:	300	44	157
1997:	350	42	154
1998:	435	38	149
1999:	680	36	138
2000:	695	34	147
2001:	617	24	108
2002:	580	25	93
2003:	550	23	80
2004:	640	23	90
2005:	640	*	104

Just give it five more years. This time..

Plan Colombia and Beyond is a very nice blog to keep up with the WoD and Colombia.

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