Drug WarRant

Tracer Bullet over at RedState has an exceptionally good post on The many and sizeable benefits of “Drug” Legalization from a conservative viewpoint. This is someone who used to support the drug war, but has come around to viewing a rational common-sense balancing of the benefits versus the costs of the war, and found the costs to be just too high.
If you’re a RedState member, this would be a good diary to recommend. I’d like to see more posts like this on both sides.

Even before the FDA made its widely ridiculed statement about medical marijuana, it was common knowledge outside the agency that the FDA had lost most of its scientific credibility, sacrificed to political and financial interests.
Oddly, some of the staff seemed oblivious, as demonstrated in this remarkably bizarre hymn to the FDA written by a staff member for the FDA’s Centennial celebration. There is video, and the lyrics:

One century past, a people’s hope fulfilled
By an act conceived for safe medicine and food
Protecting rights that our founding fathers willed
To life and liberty, to happiness pursued.

We honor those who carried on before
O’er these hundred years, public safety to secure
For food, vaccines, drugs, devices, blood and more
They strove to see these goods effective, safe, and pure.

In field and lab, in workplace far and near
From both civilian and commissioned corps
A call goes forth in this centennial year
That this rich heritage continue evermore.

Now in this proud hour, a vibrant vision thrives
True to our mission, whate’er the challenge be
With science our guide, we rededicate our lives
To help create a future healthy, safe, and free.

I love the idealism. But the practical reality is much, much different.
A recent survey revealed some pretty distressing facts. The results (released on Thursday) are based on 997 FDA agency scientists who returned the survey (out of almost 6,000 who were approached). The survey found:

• Almost one in five (18 percent) responded, “I have been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or my conclusions in an FDA scientific document.”
• More than three in five (61 percent) knew of cases in which “Department of Health and Human Services or FDA political appointees have inappropriately injected themselves into FDA determinations or actions.”
• Three in five (60 percent) also knew of cases “where commercial interests have inappropriately induced or attempted to induce the reversal, withdrawal or modification of FDA determinations or actions.” […]
• One-fifth (20 percent) say they “have been asked explicitly by FDA decision makers to provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information to the public, regulated industry, media, or elected/senior government officials.” In addition, more than a quarter (26 percent) feel that FDA decision makers implicitly expect them to “provide incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information.”
• Two in five (40 percent) said they could not publicly express “concerns about public health without fear of retaliation.” More than a third (36 percent) did not feel they could do so even inside the confines of the agency.

When science is subverted by politics, it endangers the lives of the citizens, it robs the nation of some of its greatest tools for advancement, and it weakens the country.

It’s estimated that over 17 million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.
That’s more than the combined populations of Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

President Bush today, speaking to the NAACP:

We want to help the addicted. We want to help the homeless. We want to help those who are trying to re-enter society after having been incarcerated. That’s what we want to do. We want to help lives be improved.

Saying it doesn’t make it so.

Comedian John Fugelsang, host of ACLU Freedom Files: Drug Wars, writing over at Daily Kos

Because what I learned from the bible as a child was that Jesus was a radical nonviolent revolutionary; a man who hung around with lepers, hookers and crooks; who never spoke English and wasn’t an American citizen; was anti-death penalty, anti-capitalist, anti public prayer (Matthew 6:5, please remind them) but Never anti gay; and was a long haired, brown skinned (yes, it’s in there), homeless, middle eastern Jew. And all he wants us to do is love people – especially the people we don’t like.
So I have a hard time believing that JC would advocate locking up sick people for smoking pot. Especially when his Father keeps on growing the stuff. […]
The drug war violates civil liberties, privacy rights, rights against search and seizure. It’s led to out of control crime, corrupted law enforcement & business officials, and shown that the wealthy can get away with what the poor cannot – in short, it makes a mockery of any claim to be a free country.
It has diverted resources from fighting other crimes, fostered racial profiling, and led to the imprisonment of millions – while the sick among us are cruelly prevented by illogical unscientific legislation from access to a plant given us by God that might reduce their suffering. I’ve read the bible. Show me anything, ANYTHING within the scriptures that justifies this prohibition.
The war on drugs is a war on Americans. It’s not even about race anymore , but class – and the only color that matters is lack of green.
But we can’t stop. You know why? We as a nation, a people, a tribe, are hooked.
Like Caffeine, Oxycontin, fructose or Vicodin – we are addicted to the drug war.

Link

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization of current and former members of law enforcement who believe the war on drugs has failed, will hold an event, “Law Enforcement Indicts the War of Drugs” on Thursday, July 27 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Drug Policy Alliance’s Los Angeles office, 610 Ardmore Ave. At the event, LEAP will offer a radical alternative to the failed war on drugs. The premier of LEAP’s new 12-minute video will be followed by a panel of law enforcement and drug policy experts.
The event comes on the heels of the recent passage of the West Hollywood Marijuana Resolution to make marijuana enforcement the lowest priority, and a similar measure in Santa Monica which is expected to qualify for the November election. Polling indicates the public is overwhelmingly in favor of both measures.
“The drug war has arguably been the single most devastating, dysfunctional social policy since slavery,” said Norm Stamper, the former Seattle Police Chief and LEAP member.
LEAP, with over 3,000 members, was formed three years ago to give voice to law enforcement officers who believe the war on drugs has failed and who wish to support alternative policies that will lower the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction, by ultimately ending drug prohibition. LEAP is made up of former drug warriors — police, parole, probation and correction officers, judges and prosecutors.
“Over a thousand young people went to jail as a direct result of what I did out there as one undercover agent…something I’m certainly not proud of today,” said Cole, a retired undercover narcotics officer for the New Jersey State.
The event is sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance, LEAP and Common Sense for Drug Policy. For more information, please call 213-201-4785.

Update: Bill writes to say that the number of LEAP members in this release is probably considerably understated. The LEAP website shows a membership of over 5,000. Impressive. And an impressive organization.

Growing up in Chicago, I have many fond memories of the Museum of Science and Industry. I spent so many hours in that place that I have as much sense memory of parts of it as I do the house I lived in as a kid. I loved science, and the museum encouraged discovery. Sure, some of the exhibits were a little hokey, but you still had fun and learned at the same time.
It is therefore with much concern that I note that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry will be hosting the DEA propaganda device called “Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause”, opening August 11 and running until December.
It’s an exhibit developed in partnership with AFFNA DEA Museum Foundation, The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, The National Guard, The National Institute on Drug Abuse, The Office of National Drug Control Policy, The Partnership for a Drug Free America, and presented by McDonald’s.
Additional sponsors include: Motorola Foundation, The Crown Family, Chicago Blackhawk Hockey Team, Inc., Chicago Sun Times, Richard Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust, The Brunswick Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Aon Corporation, Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, Judd A. & Marjorie Weinberg Family Foundation, LaSalle Bank, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Reyes Holdings, Wintrust Financial, Peter B. Bensinger, Jr., William Blair & Company LLC, The Ryne & Margaret Sandberg Foundation, Steans Family Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. David O. MacKenzie, The Bernard Rinella Family Charitable Fund, J.B. Charitable Trust (Philip D. and Judith S. Block), Margaret & Philip Block Jr. Family Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. Robert W. Crawford, Jr.
Some letters to the Sun Times may be in order…
This is a continuation of the extraordinarily offensive DEA exhibit that uses pieces of wreckage from the World Trade Center with children’s toys mixed in as a means of promoting the DEA!
I wrote to Lisa Miner, the press representative at the Museum over a month ago, but haven’t heard anything back yet. All i wanted to know is whether, as a museum, MSI exerted any curatorial decision-making over their exhibits, or whether they just accepted it as is because it was sponsored.

TARGET AMERICA: OPENING EYES TO THE DAMAGE DRUGS CAUSE
August 11 – December 3, 2006
Most Americans are unaware of the tremendous costs associated with the production, sale and use of illegal drugs. The costs to society (estimated at more than $60 billion a year) are borne by all of us in some way. This exhibit is designed to open eyes to the myriad costs of drugs — to individuals, American society and the world — and to inform people of how those in the illegal drug trade are caught and brought to justice with current science and technology. Target America is an exhibit from the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum that presents both a global and historical overview of the many costs of drugs on society, as well as the drug trade’s connection to terrorism.

I wasn’t even going to dignify this Guy W. Farmer piece of crap with a post. Besides, thehim and others have already ripped it to shreds.
But then comes the drug czar’s “blog” Pushing Back, with this bizarre post…

Nevada Newspaper Clarifies Stance on Legalization, Rejects Myth that Marijuana is “Harmless”
From the Nevada Appeal comes this well-argued editorial against marijuana legalization.
[…]

… followed by an excerpt from Guy W. Farmer’s provably incorrect OpEd (not an editorial).
Anybody who has been following the situation in Nevada would realize that the Drug Czar’s “blog” got an incredibly large number of things wrong in just two lines.
So… who actually writes Pushing Back?

Radley Balko’s long-awaited white paper has been released today.
You can read it for free as a downloadable 1.6 MB pdf at the CATO Institute, or purchase “the slick bound copy” at the bookstore for just $10. (the CATO bookstore seems to be having some problems right now — hopefully that will be fixed shortly. I want copies to give to people.)
This is an extremely well-researched paper, with way too many documented sad examples of overkill, and some well-though-out conclusions about police raids.
This will be a very important document in the fight to restore law enforcement to its proper functions.
Radley also has developed an interactive map showing where the documented raids and deaths have occurred in the United States.

This is just from a little mental goofing-off, but I got to thinking about using fire as an analogy for drug use and the drug war. Like fire, drug use can be very beneficial or it can be harmful, depending on how it’s used, but with a little common sense, it can be quite safe.
In this particular analogy, the establishment has decided that only fire in corporate-sold furnaces is acceptable, and all other use of fire must be extinguished.
Prohibitionists (again, in this analogy) decide that the way to accomplish this is to destroy the fire utterly… by throwing dynamite at it. On occasion, the resulting explosion will temporarily suppress the fire from the lack of oxygen, but more often, it spreads the fire further in an unchecked manner — plus it causes enormous collateral damage.
Most reformers say that fire is our friend, as long as it’s controlled. They like cooking with fire, and even just sitting around and watching a candle or a bonfire (although it’s become much more dangerous to do so now that some crazed prohibitionist might show up and throw dynamite at it).
There are also some people who think fire is bad, but are smart enough to realize that throwing dynamite at it is stupid and ineffective. So they lobby for fire safety instruction and encourage people not to have fires, or if they do, to just have those little tea-light candles. Prohibitionists say that even that is unacceptable.
Conversations with prohibitionists tend to go like this:

Prohibitionist: How can you sit there and actually promote the use of fire? Don’t you know about the little girl that was burned to death in a house fire?
Reformer: Uh, … you threw dynamite at that fire.
Prohibitionist: She was burned to death. Fire caused that, not the dynamite.
Reformer: Uh, no. They were having a cook-out on the grill. You threw dynamite on the charcoal and the explosion spread the fire to the house…
Prohibitionist: See? It was fire. How dare you promote the death of little girls, you pyromaniac!

Meanwhile, the dynamite manufacturers and the dynamite throwers union lobby for increased use of dynamite fire-fighting, and new laws that would allow them to blow up sticks and other items that could be used in making a fire.
Prohibitionists: Saving children by throwing dynamite at fires.
Hey, it makes about as much sense as the drug war.