Drug WarRant

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.

This lying scumbag is my Congressman (I have experience with him slandering me in the last election merely because I endorsed his opponent).

The Congressman and the Dictator’s Daughter

Illinois Republican Jerry Weller is one of the most powerful men in Congress when it comes to Latin America. His wife is the most powerful woman in Guatemala’s controversial FRG party. […]

Two months after his marriage Weller, ignoring calls for him to resign, became vice chairman of the western hemisphere subcommittee. […]

“The western hemisphere subcommittee has been one of the only ones overseeing U.S. drug policy, and it has been the main one making U.S. drug policy,” says Adam Isacson of the watchdog group Center for International Policy. “It has huge influence.”

His seat, unfortunately, is not considered competitive in the upcoming race, but I have hopes.

I’ve talked about this case before, but it’s really getting bizarre.

A high-powered Los Angeles law firm on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether Juneau Douglas School District had a right to punish a student who stood off school grounds during the passing of the Olympic torch holding a banner that read, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”

The phrase is so giggle-worthy, so odd, so catchy, that the entire lengthy legal affair is often referred to simply as the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus case.”

Here’s what happened:

The torch passed the school. Some kids had skipped out to make fast food runs. Others cheered. Frederick and some buddies stood across the street and held up their 10-foot banner.

Morse crossed the street, grabbed the sign and ultimately suspended Frederick for 10 days. District officials agreed his banner violated school anti-drug policies.

Well, the 9th Circuit ruled that the student had a right to free speech. Fancy that! So look at the attempt that’s been collected to appeal this to the Supreme Court:

Kirkland & Ellis LLP — a 1,100-attorney law firm with offices around the country and clients around the world — is representing the Juneau School Board and Morse.

Lead counsel on the case includes Kenneth Starr, author of the infamous Starr Report to Congress on the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that led to the impeachment of President Clinton.

In this case, Starr’s team argues the U.S. Supreme Court should review the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case because “the Ninth Circuit’s decision, as a practical matter, renders long-standing school policies against pro-drug messages unenforceable,” according to a press release the law office sent out Monday.

Clearly, this is a free speech issue. And this extremely high-priced legal group, led by the blow-job prosecutor, is stepping up to make sure that Americans will not have the right to talk freely — specifically about drugs or drug policy.

Fascinating. Anybody know who is paying the bill?

StopTheDrugWar.org, long-time publisher of the Drug War Chronicle, has gotten a face-lift and a Speakeasy.

Stop the Drug War Speakeasy is a new blogging platform for drug policy reform, where anyone can get an account and join the discussion.

Check it out.

It’s nice to see the reform community continually expanding and keeping up with technology in ways that the prohibitionists could only dream.

We’ve got established powerful communities like MAPinc, whose efforts have generated over $20 million worth of press value (and has spilled over into the amazing DrugWarRant.net letter-writing team. We’ve got discussion groups all over the net like Cannabis News, and our friends have instigated or responded to drug policy discussions on hundreds of general and specific-themed messageboards. With the advent of newsreaders and an army of interested reformers, there’s hardly an obscure LiveJournal blogger that can spout drug war ignorance without an informed reader coming to the rescue. Student groups like SSDP have MySpace and Facebook groups, and a bunch of law enforcement officers against prohibition have a YouTube video!

What do the prohibitionists have? Taxpayer-funded propaganda websites, and the extremely lame Pushing Back “blog” (which probably gets more hits from us than anyone else).

So the media’s been all over this failure of the ONDCP to be accountable in their advertising. Say Uncle pointed out this amazing quote in USA Today:

The GAO report is “irrelevant to us,” says Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Oh?

The report by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, confirmed the results of a $43 million, government-funded study that found the campaign did not work. That evaluation, by Westat Inc. and the University of Pennsylvania, said parents and youths remembered the ads and their messages. But the study said exposure to the ads did not change kids’ attitudes about drugs and that the reduction in drug use in recent years could be attributed more directly to a range of other factors, such as a decline in high school dropouts.

But of course, to the ONDCP, facts are “irrelevant” in accounting for the failure of massive expenditures of taxpayer dollars.

Tom, over at DARE Generation Diary, noticed a delightful dig by USA Today at the Drug Czar — in the print version, they placed their article exposing the failure of the ONDCP media campaign right next to one of those expensive ads from the drug czar! (check out the scan at Tom’s post)

Michael points out a great editorial at the Las Vegas Review-Journal: This is your ad budget on drugs:

If the ads or programming in question simply familiarize viewers with voting locations, or flood warnings, that’s fine. But the reason America has a free press is that the founders realized the public would be best “served” with a vigorous public debate on issues of the day.

“Public service,” on the other hand, is increasingly a euphemism for “propaganda” — only the official government line need be presented.

Americans — even America’s kids — show an admirable skepticism toward such simple-minded “orders from on high.”

Let’s not waste any more on this folly.

Let’s go back to the Drug Czar’s spokesman…

The GAO report is “irrelevant to us,” says Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Does he even know what he’s saying?

If one of my students said “You know, your failing grade is irrelevant to me,” I’d accept that. After all, he paid for the class, and what he gets out of it is up to him. Of course, that means he isn’t going to be getting a degree, but that’s his choice. But if I go to my boss and say: “Your evaluation of my job is irrelevant to me, I would quickly be unemployed.

It’s time to make the point that if our employees (the Drug Czar and his staff) think evaluations are irrelevant then they might as well start looking for new jobs.

[More fun on this at Cato: Anti-Drug Campaign Failure and Wonkette: This Is Your Brain Wanting To Get High]