Drug WarRant

“bullet” I mentioned Jerry Cameron (of LEAP) and his controversial visit to Ireland. Well, that visit has sparked this excellent column in the Irish Independent: The war isn’t working so is it now time to consider the unthinkable and legalise all drugs? by Antonia Leslie. Read the whole thing.

One of the great things about this column is how it shows the whole range of ways the drug war has failed, and is continuing to fail society. It really annoys me when drug warriors claim that the drug war is a success by pointing to some drop in casual marijuana use — as if that’s worth all the continuing deaths, violence, prison, corruption, law enforcement diversion, rights violations and expense of the war.

The Irish Examiner also prints a column by Ryle Dwyer: We are losing the war on drugs and policy should be stood on its head.

Using tried and tested tactics that have failed so dramatically is a cause of, not the answer to, our problems.

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$20 marijuana sale to cost taxpayers half a million dollars. Yep, that’s about what it will cost to put this guy, who was caught selling $20 worth of marijuana, in prison for 30 years. [thanks Mirjan]

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This letter: Medical Field Against Legalized Marijuana from Ted Beam — a United Methodist pastor — just annoys me. In addition to falling for all the reefer madness hype, he fails to note that the United Methodist Church has endorsed the use of medical marijuana. My dad is a retired United Methodist pastor, and I’m pleased to report that they’re not all as ignorant as Ted. [thanks, DdC]

And yes, that is Drug Czar John Walters in the white shirt.

Photo by Craig Kohlruss – Fresno Bee

Canada went Reefer Madness this past week:

A pair of articles in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has resurrected the “reefer madness” argument about marijuana and its links to mental illness.

Cannabis use can trigger schizophrenia in people already vulnerable to the mental illness — and this fact should shape marijuana policy, argue two psychiatric epidemiologists in this month’s journal.

The British press has been agog with this issue for some time now, blathering on about the mental health dangers of pot.

Of course, you can’t expect the press to be responsible with this kind of stuff. They don’t, for the most part, know a thing about the issue they’re reporting nor do they consider that worth their bother. The press will breathlessly report “New study shows eating wheat causes instant death to humans!” while blithely munching on a sandwich, blissfully oblivious to the obvious question of why they don’t know anyone who died from eating wheat.

Surprisingly, there has been very little hype about this here in the states so far. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we were subjected to this hysteria soon.

The problem is that I know very little about schizophrenia. Of course, I’m not alone in this ignorance. Certainly the majority of our public policy leaders know less than I do, and even to psychiatric researchers it’s still a bit of a mystery. The following is necessarily unscientific and meant to give a simple layman’s overview (those with more knowledge please correct me if I’m wildly off).

1. People tend to be pre-disposed to developing schizophrenia, based on genetic factors. This doesn’t mean that full blown schizophrenia will develop if you’re pre-disposed, but it means that it’s very unlikely to develop if you’re not.
2. There may be a long period in youth when a person is developing or has developed schizophrenia but does not yet have overt exterior symptoms.
3. The population of people pre-disposed to schizophrenia is extremely small.
4. Scientists learned that, of the even smaller group who develop schizophrenia, a seemingly high percentage smoked marijuana.
5. After some study, they found a link between smoking marijuana and schizophrenia. That, of course meant nothing in terms of causality. As many people properly pointed out, that could as easily be explained as being self-medication (marijuana eased the symptoms of schizophrenia, so those with the condition sought it out).
6. After further study, scientists learned that people who were pre-disposed to schizophrenia and smoked pot when they were young, were more likely to develop full-blown schizophrenia than those who were pre-disposed to schizophrenia and didn’t smoke pot when they were young. This appeared, in the minds of a few researchers, to nail shut the case that marijuana was a factor in inducing schizophrenia (or at least in worsening the condition or speeding up the onset). Keep in mind that the conclusion comes only from their interpretation of the correlation.
7. Another interpretation of the correlation that makes as much or more sense from the data (but is not reported) is that the pre-conditions of schizophrenia cause people to seek out marijuana.

This last point is discussed in a post by writch over at Stop The Drug War Speakeasy.

…we know that the bodies of schizophrenics are trying to make lots of natural endocannabinoids. Why the body does this is still a mystery, but it makes clear why they would want to smoke pot compulsively.

It also makes pretty clear that compulsive pot smoking is a symptom, not a cause, of schizophrenia.

Unfortunately, the disease is one in which, throughout youth, the afflicted appear ‘normal’. The full force of the disease doesn’t normally appear until after adolescence is complete. This allows for the improper assignment of a ’cause’ to what seems obviously a biological issue to me, and many reputable scientists.

He goes on to note that the results of this study, rather than being a call for restrictions on the use of marijuana in the general population (most of whom are not pre-disposed to the problem), might have a more useful result — understanding that compulsive marijuana use by teens may be a symptom of schizophrenia, and using that as a diagnosis tool.

I’d be very curious to hear more about this particular interpretation.

Radley’s new article at the Wall Street Journal

Criminologist Peter Kraska estimates that the number of SWAT team “call-outs” soared past 40,000 in 2001 (the latest year for which figures are available) from about 3,000 in 1981. The vast majority are employed for routine police work — such as serving drug warrants — not the types of situations for which SWAT teams were originally established. And because drug policing often involves tips from confidential informants — many of whom are drug dealers themselves, or convicts looking for leniency — it’s rife with bad information. As a result, hundreds of innocent families and civilians have been wrongly subjected to violent, forced-entry raids.

Update: (via Allan) Also in MAP’s DrugNews archive: US: OPED: Wrong Door. Send letters to: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com

Jerry Cameron, from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition was over in Ireland spreading the word about the failures of drug prohibition (and adding a little humor at the same time).

So you’d think that maybe they’d welcome hearing about prohibition from a former police chief.

Not everyone.

But he drew the ire of anti-drugs campaigners who called for an investigation into his appearance at a public forum in Dublin. […]

Cameron’s visit has led to a war of words between Merchant’s Quay, Ireland’s largest drug treatment centre which hosted the conference, and anti-drugs campaigners who have called for an official investigation into his appearance.

“It is highly questionable that Merchants Quay a drug treatment centre, should hold such a political forum,” said Grainne Kenny, president of Eurad, the Europe against Drugs group.

That’s right. Even the notion of a respected professional telling the truth is unacceptable and should be investigated, if it in any way questions the prohibitionists’ lies.

It reminds me of a classic moment here in the states back in 1999. This actually happened in a hearing in the U.S. Congress and was brought up by a sitting Congressman:

Suggesting the depth of hostility toward the notion of legal drugs, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., asked whether anti-racketeering laws could be used to prosecute people conspiring to legalize drugs.

He actually suggested finding laws to prosecute people like me for merely telling the truth about prohibition.

(Oddly, Barr in recent years has gone to work with the ACLU on privacy issues, has turned Libertarian, and has, for the most part, stopped talking about drugs.)

Well, let’s see. We spent hundreds of millions of dollars to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan and production increased 40%. Therefore the only possible option is to spend more money doing the same thing.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S.-backed strategy to fight Afghanistan’s massive drug trade has been unsuccessful in stemming opium cultivation, which is expected to hit record levels this year, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

“It’s bad news and we need to improve it,” said Thomas Schweich, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international narcotics. “But we don’t feel it’s a hopeless situation, and we don’t think the overall strategy is the wrong strategy.“

But coach! We’ve lost every game and we’re down 64-0 in this one because all we ever do is run the ball. Can’t we at least talk about passing?

Shut up, kid, and stick with the ground game. We’re going to go with what got us here.

Link

CHAPEL HILL – A Chapel Hill man was accused last week of pedaling while he peddled.

Reginald E. Farrington, 40, of 703 N.C. 54 was charged with maintaining a late-model Next Avalon Comfort Bike for selling crack cocaine. […]

Police took custody of $3.25 in cash, along with Farrington’s two-wheeler, which police estimate to be worth about $20.

“It wasn’t in great shape,” said Officer D.N. Britt of the Chapel Hill police.

Police charged Farrington with obtaining property by false pretenses, resisting arrest and cocaine possession with intent to sell, even though they did not find drugs on his person. Britt said police were acting on a witness statement and declined to comment further, pending investigation.

The charge of maintaining a vehicle for drug sales is commonly applied when a suspect uses a motor vehicle to store or deal drugs. Law enforcement agencies often seize such vehicles and sell them to raise money for local schools, according to James Woodall, district attorney for Orange and Chatham counties.

The police in Chapel Hill must be the laughing stock of the state! They seized $3.25 and a old broken-down bicycle? Actually charged someone for maintaining a bicycle for drug sales? Cocaine possession with intent to sell despite not actually possessing any cocaine? How much cocaine do you suppose he sold to get $3.25?

Did you know America ranks the lowest in education but the highest in drug use? It’s nice to be number one, but we can fix that. All we need to do is start the war on education. If it’s anywhere near as successful as our war on drugs, in no time we’ll all be hooked on phonics. ~Leighann Lord

More quotes at Quote Garden (Thanks, Dave)

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs. ~Salvador Dali

If God dropped acid, would he see people? ~Steven Wright

From the BBC: Mexican drugs ‘grown in US parks’

If they’re grown in US parks, how can they be Mexican drugs?

School’s Fight To Censor Poster Ensures We’ll Never Forget It by Beth Bragg

When it comes to Bong Hits 4 Jesus, here’s some Advice 4 Dummies:

If the phrase poses such a threat to the health and future of any teenager exposed to it, then stop making a federal case out of it.

If the Juneau School Board, in its infinite stubbornness, is so worried that the message waved on a banner four years ago at a nonschool event will lead high school kids down the path to illegal drug use, why does it insist on giving the message such tremendous exposure?

Google “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” and you’ll get 14,100 hits. Included among them is proof positive that the message has become part of the vernacular: It has its own Wikipedia entry.

And all Joe Frederick wanted was to catch the eye of a TV cameraman.