Drug WarRant

Norm Stamper has an outstanding piece at Alternet: How Legalizing Drugs Will End the Violence

… Virtually every analysis of the Mexican “drug problem” points to the themes raised here: the inducements of big money and wide fame; the crushing poverty of those exploited by drug dealers; the entrepreneurial frenzy of expanding and protecting one’s markets; the large, unquenchable American demand for drugs; and the complicity of many in law enforcement.
But something’s missing from the analysis: the role of prohibition.
Illegal drugs are expensive precisely because they are illegal. The products themselves are worthless weeds — cannabis (marijuana), poppies (heroin), coca (cocaine) — or dirt-cheap pharmaceuticals and “precursors” used, for example, in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Yet today, marijuana is worth as much as gold, heroin more than uranium, cocaine somewhere in between. It is the U.S.’s prohibition of these drugs that has spawned an ever-expanding international industry of torture, murder and corruption. In other words, we are the source of Mexico’s “drug problem.”
The remedy is as obvious as it is urgent: legalization. […]

If you want to read more about the failure of prohibition and its impact on Mexico…
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) last month released a major report by Laurie Freeman: State of Siege: Drug-Related Violence and Corruption in Mexico — Unintended Consequences of the War on Drugs (pdf)

Drug prohibition as enacted and enforced by the United States may be intended to keep drug use low, but there can be no doubt that it also stimulates and nourishes organized crime, both within and beyond U.S. borders. The consequences — richer, more powerful criminal organizations that create mayhem and flout the rule of law — are no less real for being unintended. […]

(I would have used the word “instead” rather than “also.”)

Drug-related violence in Mexico is largely a consequence of the drug trade’s illegality. […]
Like violence, drug-related corruption is a product of the black market.

CDEX is developing a “drug gun” that is expected to be available in March 2007, that uses ultraviolet light to detect trace residue of meth, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana on clothing, skin, cars, houses…
Wow! Pretty smart ultraviolet light, eh? How much you want to bet that there are 10 times as many legal substances that it also detects (as if they were illegal drugs), and that CDEX won’t be advertising that fact to the general public?
Now police won’t have to even bother with the pretense of getting a dog to point at you. Simply get the ultraviolet light excited about the detergent you used and they’ll be able to search to their heart’s content.
Soon, the police will achieve the ability to search anyone they want, anytime, anywhere, for any reason, and that pesky fourth amendment will be finally be dispensed with completely.
Won’t that be fun.

Our DEA museum response site now has its own domain:
DEAtargetsAmerica.com

An incoherent report by Stefanie Hausner in the Washington Times about a half-assed measure in Congress to bring us to a slightly improved situation regarding institutionalized racism by the government… but I guess we should be pleased.

A bipartisan group of four U.S. senators, all former state attorneys general, presented legislation yesterday to reduce the disparity in prison sentences for those caught with crack cocaine and those caught with powdered cocaine. That disparity in federal sentencing guidelines is currently 100-to-1. It would be reduced to 20-to-1 under a measure introduced yesterday by Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ken Salazar of Colorado. The Drug Sentencing Reform Act of 2006 would reduce the disparity by decreasing the amount of crack cocaine necessary to trigger the mandatory minimum sentencing …

[Should read “increasing the amount”]

…and introducing a “modest increase on powders,” said Mr. Sessions, who presented a similar Senate bill in 2001.

[He means a modest decrease of the amount of powder necessary to trigger…]

Currently, possession of 500 grams of powdered cocaine results in a five-year mandatory minimum sentencing. It takes only 5 grams of crack cocaine to warrant a similar sentence.
The senators propose shifting the sentencing amounts to 400 grams of powder and 20 grams of crack cocaine. The bill would bring about “tougher sentences on the worst and most violent drug offenders and less severe sentences on lower-level, nonviolent offenders,” said Mr. Sessions, adding that the measure would shift the emphasis in sentencing from drug quantity to the type of criminal act committed in distributing drugs. “This does not signal that we are going soft on crime,” Mr. Sessions told reporters yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for the effort. Much in the same way that I’d be grateful to learn that my neighbor who beats his wife is considering not beating her on weekends.

Something to brighten up your day at YouTube–
Cab Calloway sings “Reefer Man”

Thanks to everyone who helped out — between the online donations, the poster purchases, and checks in the mail, we’ve got the cost of the flyers completely covered. You guys are the greatest!
If you’re upset about missing out on the opportunity to contribute, and yet you’re not quite up to picking up the MacBook on my wish list, I’ve got another suggestion for you. Regulate Marijuana in Nevada has a ways to go for their July fundraising goal, so you might throw a few bucks their way.
As far as the museum exhibit in Chicago, even though we have the flyers covered, we still need help. Volunteers are needed to pass out flyers, and help out in other ways. The best way to get involved is through the Drug WarRant.net messageboard (where we’re coordinating efforts), or email .

Yes, this is that time when blog readers have to put up with the inevitable annoying recap of a blogging “career.” In a normal job, this wouldn’t happen until someone retired with a gold watch for decades of service, but anniversaries in blogging for some reason seem to be kind of like dog years (which I guess would make this blog 21).
I’ll try to be brief.
When I started, I really was looking for a way to ocassionally get things off my chest that wouldn’t work in a Letter to the Editor. I figured I’d probably post about once a week… (This is post # 1,698 in 1,095 days. You do the math.) I hoped some people might find and read my posts, and a few did (I’m currently approaching my first million mark in page views.)
My first full post was coverage of the Hinchey Amendment (which means I’ve now actually covered that failure in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Sigh.)
Probably my most effective items have been Why is Marijuana Illegal? and Drug War Victims, because they’ve been spread all over the internet inspiring and angering people, followed by this page, which became one of the prime web resources for the Raich v. Ashcroft Supreme Court case.
I’m particularly proud of taking down Andrea Barthwell and her Illinois Marijuana Lectures, and my reports on DEA’s Karen Tandy and Michele Leonhardt. Had some good responses from my 2004 Voting Guide, and I enjoyed covering Irv Rosenfeld at the Illinois Medical Marijuana hearing. And yes, I had some fun along the way. Probably my most humorous entry was the parody Increase in Burger Abuse Seen, which still cracks me up.
With a little help from my friends, we managed to challenge the DEA’s attempt to frame the Vigil for Lost Promise as a pro-prohibition event, and we’ll do the same with their museum exhibit. And this year, we started the building of a vibrant Drug WarRant community, with Drug WarRant.net, complete with an active messageboard, and a wiki to build a new Voting Guide and source for drug policy reform studies.
A big thanks to commenters sukoi, kaptinemo, daksya, sixtyfps, thehim, DdC, kwix, baylen, Brian, Hope, j, runruff, ezrydn, jackl, John, Jon, Raging Bee, yan, William, Adam, me, serial catowner, Trent, Tom, Tim, Terry, Steve, roy, Scott, SayUncle, Rick, muleskinner, rachelrachel, nhop, befuddled, nephalim, M., Klay, Jim, Ben, Jeff, Bill, Casey, Cliff, Ethan, Eric and all the others who have been kind enough to correct me when I was wrong and provide feedback so I know I’m talking to someone.
I also thank all the lurkers — all the wonderful people who may not feel comfortable (or may not enjoy) commenting, but stop by, read, and tell their friends. I know you’re out there, and I keep doing this for you as well.
And, of course, thanks to Libby for being there when I was getting started so I didn’t feel so lonely, and to Jeralyn, who provided me with my first major readership boost.
And to John Walters, and Andrea Barthwell, and Karen Tandy, and Mark Souder, and all the other prohibitionists — as long as you continue to lie, and to declare war on the American people, my friends and I will be there to fight back and tell the truth.

Relax. Take a moment.
No gifts are necessary. Just have a seat next to the plants and grab some espresso. (If George Soros stops by, though, have him take a look at this little item.)

To the People turned one year old this month and is turning it into weeks of partying. Go join them, but be careful — they’re serving PBR, and doing strange things with an intern.
Drug WarRant turns three tomorrow. We’ll have a small tasteful event. Espresso will be served. Stop by.

This is priceless.
A week ago, Donald Rumsfeld was saying that Europe needs to take a stronger role in dealing with the opium problem in Afghanistan.
So…

Senior Conservative MPs are urging David Cameron to push for the licensing of legal opium farming in Afghanistan as he pays a surprise visit to the country today, Guardian Unlimited has learned.
Opposition whip Tobias Ellwood said that the lives of British troops in the south of the country were being endangered because of the coalition’s insistence on eradicating opium crops, which are often the sole means of livelihood for impoverished families in the region.
Six British soldiers have died in Helmand province over the past six weeks, most in the former opium market town of Sangin where they are fighting a fierce insurgency of Taliban warlords who have gained the support of local farmers.
“The poppy crops are the elephant in the room of the Afghan problem. We’re in complete denial of the power that the crops have on the nation as a whole, and the tactics of eradication are simply not working,” Mr Ellwood told Guardian Unlimited.
“Last year we spent 600m on eradication and all that resulted was the biggest-ever export of opium from the country.”
He said that opium farming should be licensed so that the harvest could be sold legally on the open market, bringing in income for Afghan farmers and helping to plug a global shortage of opiate-based medicines.
The plan would also limit the supply of opium to the black market, where it finds its way into Britain as heroin, he said.
Mr Ellwood said the plan had the support of several Conservative MPs and senior military figures in Afghanistan. He will meet international development secretary Hilary Benn to discuss the issue later this week. […]

Why are they so much smarter than Rumsfeld?